Five hundred and thirtieth IX fierce battle Zuo Liangyu
November 17, the eighth year of Chongzhen.
When Zuo Liangyu realized that the situation was not good, he certainly would not stupidly stay where he was, waiting for the three peasant armies to arrive and be attacked from both sides. However, there was no time to escape in a short period of time, so the only option was to find a favorable battlefield.
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Zuo Liangyu did not want to retreat into the city and simply defend the city, because his troops also came from outside the Pass and Beizhili, with more cavalry and chariots, and could easily display their combat effectiveness in the open battlefield. Although it was safer to huddle inside the city,
However, with the obstruction of the city wall, it was not easy to bring out the strengths of Zuo Liangyu's troops. Of course, the most important thing was that Zuo Liangyu had strong confidence in his own troops.
Therefore, Zuo Liangyu found a terrain with a town on his back and a river on his left. First, the peasant army could only attack from two sides. Then he sent 3,000 people in the direction where Zhang Xianzhong came to defend the peasant army. Finally,
, Zuo Liangyu led the main force of 9,000, and formed a formation to prepare for a decisive battle with the coalition forces of Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng. He planned to defeat the coalition forces first, and then return to deal with Zhang Xianzhong's troops.
It can be seen from this battle plan that the Ming army at this time still had strong self-confidence when facing the peasant army. Of course, this can also show Zuo Liangyu's own character. If possible, of course he would
Avoiding battles preserves strength, but once in a desperate situation, Zuo Liangyu will be ruthless.
Therefore, Zuo Liangyu did not choose the weaker Zhang Xianzhong at all, but instead chose the stronger Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng to join forces for the decisive battle, just to decide the outcome in one battle. Of course, as an experienced general, Zuo Liangyu also arranged a retreat
As long as the battle situation is unfavorable, he will immediately lead his troops to retreat to the town defense behind him and wait for the arrival of reinforcements.
But to Zuo Liangyu's expectation, the battle started from Zhang Xianzhong's direction first. But Zuo Liangyu's estimate was also accurate, and his three thousand troops also blocked Zhang Xianzhong's troops.
The reason why Zhang Xianzhong launched the attack in the first place is also very simple. He just wanted to preserve his own strength.
Because the more than 20,000 people Zhang Xianzhong now leads are almost all his elite troops, and there is no cannon fodder to waste, so Zhang Xianzhong first provoked a battle with Zuo Liangyu.
This approach sounds quite contradictory, but Zhang Xianzhong has his own considerations. If Zhang Xianzhong has already taken action, he will force Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng to do the same. Because Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng's coalition forces are stronger, Zuo Liangyu must take action.
If his main force is transferred to the Gao-Li coalition, then Zhang Xianzhong will be under less pressure. This is one reason.
If Zhang Xianzhong takes action and attracts Zuo Liangyu's main force, the Gao-Li coalition is likely to break through Zuo Liangyu's interception. Give Zuo Liangyu a fatal blow from behind and quickly eliminate this Ming army. This is another reason
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No matter what the reason is, the losses of Zhang Xianzhong's troops will not be too great. Of course, there is another situation that can make Zhang Xianzhong's troops unscathed, and that is to sit on the sidelines. But if the Gao and Li coalition forces also come to sit on the sidelines, their troops will be at a disadvantage.
Zuo Liangyu will definitely not take the initiative to attack. But in that case, the peasant army will lose the meaning of surrounding Zuo Liangyu's tribe.
Therefore, Zhang Xianzhong did not wait for his troops to fully deploy their formation. He sent out small troops one after another to attack Zuo Liangyu's 3,000 troops. However, such attacks were only temporary. He retreated as soon as he was blocked, which was completely thunderous.
The sound is loud and the raindrops are small.
The three thousand men and horses sent out by Zuo Liangyu were also equipped with a large number of chariots, which could effectively intercept them, so the entire formation was not threatened.
Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng, who were riding high on horseback, looked at the direction where Zhang Xianzhong and Zuo Liangyu were fighting. After observing for a while, they looked at each other and shook their heads at the same time. Perhaps they found that the other's actions were in good agreement with their own.
So they both couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Although they could not clearly see the progress of the battle, they all understood Zhang Xianzhong's intention. In such a short time, there was no time for tens of thousands of troops to fully deploy, so Zhang Xianzhong's attack must have used a small force.
"Are you going to attack or should I attack?" Gao Yingxiang asked.
"I'll attack!" Li Zicheng replied without hesitation. "Let Zong Min lead my old team first."
Gao Yingxiang nodded and said: "Then I will give Zong Min two thousand more horses! My people will follow Zong Min."
Because Gao Yingxiang suffered successive sneak attacks by Chen Yongfu and Zuo Liangyu's attacks, many of the refugees in the army dispersed. However, Li Zicheng had restrained Hong Chengchou's troops in Shaanxi for such a long time, and there were very few refugees in the army, so these two peasants
The army can't send any more refugees to serve as cannon fodder.
But when these two people discovered Zhang Xianzhong's little tricks, they were still willing to use their old skills to fight Zuo Liangyu's tribe. This can also be seen: the two former and former leaders of the Peasant Army were very grand.
That is a kind of leadership temperament that clearly knows that one is at a disadvantage, but does not care about anyone else. In comparison, Zhang Xianzhong's approach is a bit clever.
Li Zicheng's number one general, Liu Zongmin, led 10,000 troops from Li Zicheng's old camp, plus 2,000 cavalry supported by Gao Yingxiang, and stepped forward to form an array. Zuo Liangyu was also ready for battle at the same time.
There was no nonsense or probing, and the two sides immediately launched an attack. But as soon as the battle began, the strength of Zuo Liangyu's regular army was revealed, and Liu Zongmin was forced to retreat steadily.
Seeing that the situation was not good, Gao Yingxiang's old battalion from behind also quickly stepped forward to provide support. However, with the morale of Zuo Liangyu's troops increasing, it was not so easy to stop. There was no other way, so Li Zicheng also led the remaining old battalion soldiers to immediately step forward to provide support.
After a whole day of fierce fighting, Zuo Liangyu completely gained the upper hand, killing and capturing more than 3,000 peasant soldiers, while his own losses were only more than 1,000.
The reason for this defeat was that the peasant army underestimated the enemy. They believed that they had killed Cao Wenzhao, the most powerful general of the Ming army, and they thought that the combat effectiveness of their troops was on par with the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng did not take advantage of their large numbers. If they wanted to fight on an equal footing with the well-equipped and well-trained Zuo Liangyu tribe, they would of course suffer a loss. Later, when they saw that the battle was not going well, the peasant army began to attack them one after another.
Sending more troops and using additional tactics to save the defeat will only make matters worse.
But although Zuo Liangyu won, he was aware of his own suffering. Zuo Liangyu's understanding of the peasant army was still at the stage when thousands of official troops were chasing hundreds of thousands of peasant troops across the mountains and plains. He never thought that
Only half a year has passed, and the combat effectiveness of the peasant army will have grown to this extent. Otherwise, Zuo Liangyu will never attack the Gao and Li coalition forces.
What's even worse is that there is no way to make up for Zuo Liangyu's losses, and every man will die. If there are a few more such big victories, when the battle loss rate of Zuo Liangyu's troops exceeds 30%, then his troops will be defeated.
Disabled.
So on the next day, both sides unanimously changed their tactics. Zuo Liangyu also stopped dividing his troops. He gathered his troops into a group and completely formed a hedgehog formation. After contacting the three leaders of the peasant army, they also
They all brought out their strongest old battalions and launched an attack at the same time.
The peasant army launched a fierce attack as soon as they came up, but whether it was on the football field or on the battlefield, the dense defense was not easy to break. In addition, the peasant army attacked too fiercely. Zuo Liangyu used the peasant army soldiers to have only bravery.
Due to lack of training and the weakness of cooperation, they used their own cavalry to carry out several counterattacks. The peasant army finally did not dare to let go of the attack, and finally won another small victory. However, Zuo Liangyu's troops also lost another one.
More than a thousand people.
At this time, Zuo Liangyu began to make mistakes. Although he won two victories, he was also frightened by the fierce attack of the peasant army. So in order to reduce losses, Zuo Liangyu withdrew his troops into the towns behind him.
, we must rely on the buildings of the town to resist another attack by the peasant army.
Although Zuo Liangyu's approach seems reasonable, it limits the strengths of his troops. In addition, the defense of towns is not as good as that of cities, and the few refugees in the peasant army can be used as cannon fodder.
It was used to siege towns, so the gap between the two warring parties widened.
So the fighting on the third day became more intense. Although Zuo Liangyu's troops did more damage to the peasant army, they were all refugees who were used as cannon fodder, so they consumed a lot of ammunition, arrows and soldiers' weapons.
physical strength.
Seeing that Zuo Liangyu's soldiers were a little weak, the old camp soldiers and horses of the peasant army following the cannon fodder rushed into the town. However, in the street battles in the towns, it was difficult to use multiple regular troops like Zuo Liangyu's soldiers to cooperate in combat.
came out, causing heavy casualties.
If it weren't for the ferocious firearms of Zuo Liangyu's men, and the vigorous counterattack of Zuo Liangyu's personal troops, maybe the peasant army would have completely ended the entire battle that day. But even so, Zuo Liangyu would have been able to finish the battle within one day.
More than 2,400 people were lost, and the entire army was completely compressed in the town by the peasant army.
That night, Zuo Liangyu counted the casualties in the camp and couldn't help but look up to the sky and sigh: "I wonder when the reinforcements will come!"
But Zuo Liangyu didn't feel good, and so did Gao Yingxiang and the others. Every loss of soldiers in the old camp made Gao Yingxiang and the others bleed. They never expected that after gathering hundreds of thousands of peasant troops, they still couldn't take down this army of tens of thousands.
The Ming army.
The reason why Gao Yingxiang and others want to defeat Zuo Liangyu's tribe is because after eliminating Zuo Liangyu, a vacuum can be created in this area, allowing the peasant army to act wantonly. But if they continue like this, these three peasant armies will also be injured.
The muscles are shaking.
Moreover, the current peasant army cannot retreat. If Zuo Liangyu is let go, whether he is attacked by him or followed and entangled, it will be a very troublesome thing for the peasant army.
What's even more ominous is that the peasant army has also detected that a Ming army is coming to help. And that Ming army is Yu Zilian's Ruzhou Army.
To this end, Li Zicheng sent 15,000 men led by He Yaoqi to intercept the Ming army, and the remaining peasant army had to defeat Zuo Liangyu who was trapped in the town before the Ruzhou army broke through the interception.