Northwest of Kaifeng, the Yellow River makes a twist. In the twists and turns, the water is shallow and the river surface is wide. Along the east bank of the river, a ten-foot-high long wall spreads northward, reaching the Heigangkou of the Yellow River. At intervals on the long wall, there are
The fort, with its powerful red cannon, stared at the enemy with its big mouth open.
Where the river is too shallow, gunboats cannot travel. Moreover, after late November, some sections of the river have begun to gradually freeze, so the defense of the long wall will naturally become even tighter.
Some soldiers of the Dashun Army were stationed on the river defense from Kaifeng to Heigangkou of the Yellow River. They took small boats at regular intervals to break up the thin frost and ice floes that were gradually freezing on the Yellow River to prevent the river section from being completely frozen prematurely.
Yuan Zongdi was well aware of the heavy responsibility and did not dare to neglect it. He thought of Zhang Nai who died in the battle near Taiyuan, Tian Jianxiu who was exiled to Wuchang, Niu Jinxing who committed suicide, and Li Guo who was ill in bed.
I can't help but feel a little confused about Dashun's future.
But soon he saw Li Laiheng's guard of honor coming over. It seemed that His Highness King Jin was here to inspect the river defense again today.
Although the Dashun Army still controls a lot of territory in Hebei, in addition to southern Shanxi, the three northern prefectures of Huaiqing, Weihui, and Zhangde in Henan, as well as Daming Prefecture in Hebei, are still under the control of the Dashun Army.
However, none of these four prefectures can be defended. They are isolated on the north bank of the Yellow River. In fact, they are in a situation that is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Li Laiheng knew that once the Qing army went south with all its strength, the Dashun Army could still rely on the four prefectures in Hebei to resist the Qing army.
, if you are not careful, you may still be broken through the Qianli River Defense by Donglu.
If the Yellow River is thousands of miles away, if defenses are set up everywhere and the troops are dispersed, it will be like repeating the historical mistakes of the Northern Expedition of Emperor Wen of Song Dynasty and Yuanjia. Setting up defenses everywhere actually means no defenses everywhere, and hundreds of thousands of troops are scattered over thousands of miles. Then
If the enemy breaks through at one point, the embankment of a thousand miles will be destroyed in one ant nest.
Therefore, in the end, the key points that determine the ownership of the world are still Taiyuan, Kaifeng, Xuzhou, and Tongguan. The Dashun army relies on the pass to guard the river, with Tongguan as the boundary to the west, blocking Wu Sangui's troops in the pass of the Qing army, and Taiyuan and the four prefectures of Hebei as buffers to the north.
, using the thousands of miles of the Yellow River as the depth of the counterattack to fight against the main force of the Qing army in the center, and using Xuzhou as the center in the east to fight against the British King Azig who succeeded Hauge as the commander-in-chief of the Qing Army's East Route Army.
"How is the situation with the Qing army's attack on Taiyuan?"
Li Laiheng and Yuan Zongdi stood side by side on the fort on the bank of the Yellow River. Together they looked towards the Pingchuan in the southwest. The sun was as warm as water, and the Pingchuan extending to the horizon on the other side of the river was so peaceful, with nothing scary at all. The raging waves of the Yellow River were also
As the dry season approaches in autumn and winter, things become peaceful.
In the quietly flowing river, occasionally a big fish jumped out of the water, making a slight "splashing" sound, but then it returned to calm in an instant.
A cool and refreshing breeze blew from the long wall, and General Liu Tichun, who was also standing on the long wall, sneezed unconsciously.
"Commander Quan has ordered us to change the wall!"
After Yuan Zongdi's order was issued, chants came one after another from the long wall, and the soldiers shouted in a long and drawn-out voice:
"Commander Quan has ordered, change the wall!"
The shouts came from far to near, from near to far, from north to south along the long wall over and over again. After each shout, the heads of several soldiers wearing Fanyang hats would poke out from the long wall.
The soldiers who were taking turns to stand guard were quickly put into position, the queues were orderly, and they moved calmly.
Li Laiheng nodded with satisfaction, and a relaxed smile appeared on Qing Jun's face:
"Uncle Yuan manages the army in a very orderly manner."
Yuan Zongdi remained silent. Liu Tichun quickly pulled Yuan Zongdi's sleeve. The newly promoted Ningxia Gongcai from Dashun said slowly:
"The Qing army's offensive against Taiyuan was very strange. It was mainly based on Gushan'erzhen Yechen, who was decorated with a red flag - oh, it is said that the Qing army is now called Dutong -. They gathered 60,000 to 70,000 elite soldiers, and we
The strength in Shandong is similar, but the enthusiasm for action is much lower.
Ye Chen attacked Taiyuan several times, but each time it took him six or seven days to attack the city, and it only took half a month to attack the city. In such a short period of time, he really couldn't see that the Qing army really had to break Taiyuan before returning.
plan."
Fang Yiren, who is now the Great Scholar of Pingzhang Political Affairs and Tianyou Palace, is busy coordinating the affairs of the six governments, and does not have much time to advise Li Laiheng. Gu Junen, who originally helped Li Laiheng to assist in military affairs, also because of
Now I have the responsibilities of Minister of the Military Government and President of the Military Academy, and my work is very busy.
Otherwise, these two people would be able to quickly point out the strategic intentions of the Qing army.
Zhou Chang, a staff officer of the Military Academy who followed Li Laiheng, was very young and looked like a teenager, but he had a quick mind and had many military exploits, but his personality did not appear to be very stable.
Zhou Chang rushed to say:
"The intention of the Qing army in attacking Taiyuan is self-evident. They probably wanted to attract the Dashun army to Taiyuan for a decisive battle with them!"
Li Laiheng snorted lightly with his nose, ordered Zhou Chang to retreat, and then said:
"Although some adjustments have been made to the strategic posture of the Qing army during this period, it is no longer the same as before with two fists separated by thousands of miles, one in Shaanxi and the other in Shandong, with bows drawn from left to right and chests exposed to hit people.
However, their troops in Shanxi and Hebei are still not sufficient. If they had more troops, I think Dorgon would not mind taking Taiyuan, which is in such an important position first.
However, the facts may be close to Zhou Chang's inference. Dorgon still has hope of a decisive battle with the Dashun Army in central Shanxi and central Hebei.
It's just that we are not so stupid as to go to a place that is not conducive to the Dashun Army to exert its advantages in manpower and material resources. In addition to the threat of food shortage, the Qing Army has no other choice but to wait until we take the initiative to attack.
We ventured south to the Yellow River for a decisive battle."
After Liu Tichun yawned and sneezed several times in a row, he also agreed with Li Laiheng's point of view:
"What King Jin said is true, and I also think so. But has King Jin ever thought that if the Qing army goes south to the Yellow River to fight our army, they will definitely wipe out Taiyuan City on the side and rear first, right? Should we remove Jiang Yu and
Where is Chen Yongfu withdrawing from Taiyuan?"
Li Laiheng thought that the situation had changed, and the Dashun Army no longer had the conditions to abandon Taiyuan. He walked to the front of the long wall, pressed his hands on the wall stacks, and looked at the direction where the Yellow River and the Taihang Mountains merged together, looking at the majestic
The mighty mountains and rivers said calmly:
"In the past, Gu once proposed to withdraw the Taiyuan garrison to Lengquankou. That was because of the unfavorable situation of the Qing army being strong and Taiyuan being isolated. But now it seems that from the intelligence brought by Chen Zilong and Zhang Jiayu from Beijing
, the Qing army's food shortage has reached an imminent level.
It is now late November, and the Qing army has not yet organized a large-scale offensive against Taiyuan. This is because Dorgon is unwilling to withdraw completely from Shaanxi, and the Shandong troops still retain to a large extent two
Another factor is that Taiyuan is a majestic city. Even if there are no reinforcements, the Qing army may not be able to break the city in a month.
Once the time delay exceeds two months, the time window for the Yellow River to freeze will probably be one or two months. By then, even if Dorgon captures Taiyuan, he will not be able to continue to break through the Yellow River line, and the Qing army will still
Starved to death."
Only then did Yuan Zongdi agree and said:
"Since Dorgon immediately moved to Shaanxi and returned to Beijing, until now, it seems that Chief Rui was busy integrating the Northern Court and suppressing the ministers who disobeyed him, and had no time to attack Taiyuan. By now he has completed the integration of the Qing army
, but the time has come to a critical point when the Yellow River is frozen, and he dare not give up this window of time."
Li Laiheng laughed loudly and said: "I laugh at Hauge's lack of strategy and Dorgon's lack of wisdom. In fact, even if he said this, the Qing army did not have time to mobilize the main force to attack Taiyuan.
At the very least, if the 60,000 to 70,000 Qing troops that have been mobilized to Taiyuan launch a determined attack as early as possible at any cost, they may be able to capture Taiyuan.
However, Dorgon was hesitant and half-hearted. He was hesitant about taking Taiyuan but could not firm up his determination. Occasionally, he seemed to want to transfer Ye Chen's army to other fronts.
Just when Dorgon was hesitating, the enemy's opportunity to capture the enemy was already fleeting."
Yuan Zongdi and Liu Tichun said together: "This is God's will to protect me."
Li Laiheng just shrugged: "Dorgon is not as good as Huang Taiji, it's far away."