The heavy rain on the north bank of the Yellow River has stopped, but there is still a thick layer of mist hanging over the river, making it difficult to see what is happening on the other side.
Gu Kecheng has always been a warrior known for his bravery and daring in the army, but at this critical moment, he also showed his superior caution.
The river defense soldiers who spared the Ming army had shown Gu Kecheng's attentiveness and caution. In order to ensure the safety of the river defense, he recruited a group of boatmen and fishermen who were familiar with the local geography and hydrological conditions from the fleeing ferry refugees.
Under the guidance of these people, the Chuang army controlled the important crossing of the Yellow River from Yucheng County to Dangshan County with only a small number of troops. Gu Kecheng was able to retain a considerable amount of mobile troops in his hands to prevent any danger on the Yellow River.
Various mutations that may occur.
But the layer of fog that rose after the rain stopped made Gu Kecheng extra worried.
Now the Chuang army has a dark eye on the Qing army's movements on the north bank of the Yellow River.
Both Gu Kecheng and Zhang Pili took the risk of sending some detective cavalry across the river for reconnaissance, but until now, the invading army has not been able to obtain any important clues.
Where is Donglu?
According to the time scheduled by Li Laiheng, it seems that the battle has already begun on the Mamuji side. Some of Gu Kecheng's soldiers deployed near Yucheng County quickly brought the specific battle situation on the Mamuji side to the ferry guarded by the intruders on the south bank of the Yellow River.
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Gu Kecheng tucked his iron helmet around his waist, looked at the stagnant mist on the Yellow River, bit his lip and said:
"The commander-in-chief is about to succeed in forcing the surrender of Henan Town. We must keep an eye on the Yellow River and make no mistakes. Otherwise, if we are attacked from both sides at this time, the whole situation may go wrong!"
"General..." Li Weiqun, the head of the pro-military department who was following Gu Kecheng, narrowed his eyes. He pointed at the mist of the Yellow River in the distance and said dubiously, "General Gu... there seems to be a figure in the fog..."
"ah!"
This sentence immediately made all the intruders alert, and the scouts guarding the shore also rushed back to the Second Cavalry, saying that they vaguely saw boats, people, and horses in the fog.
Gu Kecheng did not dare to slack off, and immediately asked the intruders on the edge of the Yellow River to prepare for battle.
It's just that the figures in the fog didn't seem to be a large army of soldiers and horses, but just one or two small boats, which made the entire army feel very strange.
Unexpectedly, Gu Kecheng decided to check it out in person. The Chuang army had already collected dozens of civilian boats at the ferry. Now Gu Kecheng personally boarded the boat with his own soldiers. He found eight of the largest civilian boats and carried the cargo.
Nearly a hundred soldiers prepared dozens of large muskets with the longest range. After being fully prepared, they slowly drove towards the figure in the mist.
After the rain, the waves on the river rarely became calm. It seemed that it was not the Yellow River rolling eastward mixed with countless yellow sands, but just a small, quiet stream.
Eight ships filled with elite soldiers of the breakout army rippled, and the mist hit Gu Kecheng's face. He fanned himself in front of him with the palm of his right hand, and then carefully looked at the ships in the distance, but the opponent
There seemed to be no intention of attacking.
"General Gu, who is that person?"
Li Weiqun couldn't help but ask, but Gu Kecheng didn't say anything. He stretched out his hand to ask other ships to stop first, and only he took a boat and drove towards the ship coming to the north shore.
While everyone was holding their breath, everyone saw a sampan suddenly put down from the boat. There were only two figures on the sampan, approaching the invading army's fleet.
"General, do you want to fight?"
"No..." Gu Kecheng shook his head, "Let's take another look."
The small sampan was getting closer and closer, and everyone could already see the faces of the people on the boat through the heavy fog. There were only two people on the sampan, one of whom had a bun and a square scarf on his head. I didn't know he was a scribe.
He is still a businessman; the other one is powerful, wearing original-color cotton armor and a pointed helmet, and it is hard to tell what his hairstyle is.
"Is it the Donglu? Or the Ming army? What do they want to do here?"
Gu Kecheng was confused. At the critical moment of the Battle of Mamuji, Li Laiheng would definitely not allow any traps to appear on the south bank of the Yellow River, so he had to be extremely careful.
What's more, the Chuang army has very little understanding of Donglu's internal situation, so they must be careful, careful, and careful in their treatment.
"It's Donglu!"
The warrior wearing original-colored cotton armor took off his pointed helmet, revealing a shaved head with a small braid as thin as a boar's tail on the back of his head.
"Suolu..."
Gu Kecheng's heart sank. He had already noticed the possible movement of the Qing army's envoys, so he said to Li Weiqun: "Hurry up and let someone inform the commander... No matter what the Qing army wants, we must guard the Yellow River.
Commander, make preparations to buy some time."
Li Weiqun knew the importance of the situation and immediately replied: "Yes!"
"But the generals of the Ming Dynasty in the west? The great emperor of the Qing Dynasty wrote to you and others, to show that our country has no hostility towards you and other generals, and sent a special envoy to report them!"
Gushan'e Zhen Tan Tai, who led Ao Bai, Li Guohan, Ye Bilong and other troops southward, also, like Abatai, Turge and others, regarded the invading army as a weak and exploitable force.
thief.
The two people sent by Tan Tai, the man dressed as a scribe is called Tang Tong. He is a Han from Jinzhou. Six years ago, he followed a group of Jinzhou cultists Hu Yousheng, Zhang Shaozhen, and Men Shiwen who believed that the Ming Dynasty was about to end and their destiny was to return to the Qing Dynasty.
Qin Yongfu and others planned to surrender the city.
This group of Jinzhou Liao people were well-received by Huang Taiji because they were familiar with the inside story of Guan Ning. Among them, Hu Yousheng played a great role in the later Qing army's invasion of the southern part of Guan. He successively dragged down Jin Shenghuan to death in the Battle of Ganzhou.
and Li Chengdong, causing one of Nanming's ZTE fighters to disappear.
Tan Tai used Tang Tong, a Liao native who was affiliated with the Han army's Xianghuang Banner, as his envoy, and another strong and powerful man, Alateng, as his bodyguard. Alateng was a Sauron wild man who was also extremely brave among the Qing army.
Savage people.
After the two men in this boat approached Gu Kecheng's fleet, they claimed to be the representatives of the Qing Emperor and wanted to "write a letter" to the commanders of the Ming Dynasty in the west. They also arrogantly said that they would confer various official positions on Gu Kecheng and others.
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Due to the foggy weather, Gu Kecheng couldn't figure out what the Donglu's intention was when they suddenly sent people over, and what their troops on the north bank of the Yellow River were doing.
So he had no choice but to give in. He quickly sent Li Weiqun and others back to the main camp of the Chuang Army and reported to Li Laiheng the news of the Donglu envoy's contact. At the same time, he sent ships to surround the Qing envoy's small sampan and did not attack.
But they are not allowed to continue approaching the bank of the Yellow River.
Seeing this, the large ship behind the Qing envoy's sampan, whether feeling danger or lacking confidence, immediately rushed over and tried to take the sampan back. However, Gu Kecheng personally led two small boats to intercept the Qing army in the middle.
When the ships converged, he asked the soldiers of the Chuang army to shoot a letter into the Qing envoy's boat, saying that the Chuang army had sent the "letter" they had sent to the rear and would let them board the ship after the commander made a decision.
Before that, the envoys had to wait in the river for a period of time.
Gu Kecheng's response can be described as cautious. The two envoys Tang Tong and Alateng did not know Tan Tai's true intention, so they waited in the sampan nonchalantly.
Both Qing envoys thought that with the strong combat power of the Qing army, the Chuang army would naturally let them cross the Yellow River after reading the letter, and there was no need to worry at all.
But Tan Tai's idea is different from theirs. To be precise, it should be Obai's idea.
Tan Tai was a very cunning person. Like Abatai and Turge, he had no intention of negotiating with the Chuang army. He only planned to use the Chuang army to consume the strength of the Ming army on the south bank of the Yellow River.
Once the time is right, both the Ming army and the bandits will be eliminated together.
So Obai came up with an idea for him. Their idea was based on the comparison of the strength gap that the Manchus believed: Obai believed that since the Chuang army of 100,000 was equivalent to the Ming army of 10,000, and the Ming and Qing armies had
Based on battle experience, a Ming army of 10,000 is roughly equivalent to a Qing army of 3,000, so the strength of the 5,000 Qing troops under their command is roughly equivalent to 150,000 rogue soldiers.
Oboi felt that although our combat power was higher than that of the bandits, the bandits numbered 100,000 and should not be underestimated. In order to make better use of the bandits to consume the Ming army, and to obtain a more favorable situation in negotiations
, Obai proposed that while sending envoys to contact the bandits, the army should also look for opportunities to cross the river.
"Mr. Hong said that the bandits are all capricious villains. Even if we make an agreement with the bandits, pay them a lot of money, and hire me to fight, these people may not keep their promise. We still need to cross the army to the south bank of the Yellow River.
, Only by frightening the people of the Ming Dynasty with powerful troops can they be obedient... After the Ming Dynasty army is dealt with, it will be a good time to rob the bandits again."
The prudent Li Guohan thought that he could wait to find out the attitude and stance of the bandits before crossing the river to the south bank.
However, Obai insisted that only if the Qing army crossed the river first, could they gain a strong and powerful position in the negotiations. Moreover, the Manchus were affected by Hong Chengchou's outdated intelligence and were full of contempt for the fighting power of the bandits, so they did not think that they would rush south to the very end.
What dangers will there be on the unfamiliar south bank of the Yellow River?
The Qing envoys such as Tang Tong and Alateng were just a cover-up. In order to hide the Chuang army for a while, Obai also obtained the situation of the river section where the Chuang army was fortified through the large number of fishermen captured by the Qing army on the north bank, and then went to the valley.
On the other side of the fortified ferry, Kecheng deliberately left hundreds of Li Guohan's Han troops behind.
After Tang Tong and other envoys came into contact with Gu Kecheng, the Manchurian Han army on the other side took the opportunity to fire cannons and create a great momentum to attract the attention of the intruders.
Gu Kecheng's attitude towards the Qing army was already very cautious and alert, but he was too concerned about the envoys in front of him and the Han troops firing cannons on the other side. He also transferred the few ships and defenders of the Chu army from several other ferries.
, confronting the Qing troops on the other side of the river.
Ao Bai originally planned to cross the Yellow River near Jianchengji in the eastern section of Yucheng County, but Tan Tai was more cautious than him. Even if the opponent was just a vulnerable bandit, Tan Tai did not show an attitude of overestimating the enemy.
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After all, Tan Tai was a famous general who used only 500 elite troops to attack Hong Chengchou's retreat during the Songjin War and captured Governor Hong with his own hands.
He decided to continue to move the crossing point eastward, trying to avoid the location where the main force of the Chuang army was stationed. For this reason, the Qing army spent a little more time and moved the main force to near Dangshan Mountain in preparation for crossing the river.
The area east of Dangshan County has exceeded the reach of Gu Kecheng's defense and is under the control of the Xuzhou Suppression Command. However, the main force of the Xuzhou Suppression Command, Huang Degong Town, is still fighting Zhang Xianzhong in the Anhui-Jiangxi area and is available for deployment near Xuhuai
The main force was only part of Liu Liangzuo's army.
Liu Liangzuo's brother Liu Liangchen surrendered to the Qing army with Zu Dashou as early as the Battle of Daling River. Liu Liangzuo had no courage to resist the Qing army. He was originally responsible for river defense, but when he found out that the Qing army had selected a section of the Dangshan River
When crossing the river, he immediately made an excuse to go to Guide to rescue Chen Yongfu, and jumped dozens of miles south from the vicinity of Dangshan County, far away from the Qing army's front.
As a result, Tan Tai's troops were able to cross the Yellow River calmly without disturbing the intruders...