How many troops did the Qing army dispatch? The Military Academy estimated it to be nearly 300,000, and Dorgon claimed it was a full 300,000. Liu Tichun believed that the actual total strength of the enemy, regardless of other front lines, was in Hebei.
It should be slightly more than 100,000.
"Damn Dorgon, this is simply dragging the old, weak, women and children of Donglu with their families and their families."
Liu Tichun thought that when he was in Kaifeng, because most of the main generals of the Dashun Army were in Kaifeng, His Highness the King of Jin spent some time organizing the scholars from the Military Academy to give "classes" to the main generals of the Dashun Fifth Army.
The content of the class was almost all related to the Qing army.
Some introduced the experience of the Dashun Army's three victories in Dangshan, Baigouhe, and Shenzhou, and some introduced the history of Manchu tribes and the organizational structure of the Eight Banners Army to people like Liu Tichun.
Therefore, after several lessons in which he sharpened his skills in battle, Liu Tichun was no longer blind to the darkness of the Manchus, and he had gained a certain preliminary understanding.
Based on the offensives against Cizhou and Daiming, combined with the population situation of the Manchu tribes introduced by the group of scholars at the Military Academy, he realized that Dorgon was really blinded by lard and moved in full force!
Liu Tichun's heart moved and he thought from another optimistic perspective:
"The Manchurians dragged their families and moved south. It is estimated that the army is filled with many old and weak people. I am afraid that the real combat effectiveness will be reduced to more than 100,000 men and horses?
What's more, Dorgon is marching south. If the Manchus are defeated in this battle, they will be completely destroyed in the Central Plains, and I'm afraid they won't even have the strength to withdraw outside the Pass."
When he thought that the battle of Jiahe in front of him was likely to be a complete strategic decisive battle between the Qing army and the Shun army, Liu Tichun's hands trembled slightly, and he could not bear the excitement of fighting in his heart.
"Long live the old man, the two tigers will definitely kill all of Manchuria to avenge you."
Liu Tichun slammed the table, and the messenger soldiers outside the door hurried in at this time and presented the latest military information.
After Yuan Zongdao led his troops to break through, Daming City was defended for another two days. After Liu Tichun's readjustment and deployment, the defenders' strength had been greatly enhanced. Not only were many city walls repaired with ice water by the army and civilians, but Liu Tichun also captured
Many times troops were sent out of the city for short counter-assaults.
The Dashun Army seized the time to control some other forts and launched a counterattack. Some of the forts that had been previously destroyed and occupied by Shang Kexi were either repaired by the Shun Army soldiers who regained their morale, or were recaptured by the Shun Army soldiers who desperately attacked.
The defensive situation is still stable, but the threat from the Qing cavalry operating in the Nanle area is becoming more and more serious. In Kaizhou, Neihuang, Nanle and other places, there are also some local troops under the name of the Dashun Army.
The combat effectiveness of these troops is not as powerful as the Fifth Army Field Army, but as long as they are commanded properly, they can also cause great trouble to the Qing army.
But now it seems that the situation is not optimistic. The latest military information once again brought the news that the Nanle and Neihuang local guards were defeated by the Qing army.
"Where are Li Polu's reinforcements?" Liu Tichun asked.
Although Liu Tichun asked this question, his own hopes were extremely slim. Because Li Polu still needed to defend the two houses of Huaiqing and Weihui. Although these two houses were located behind the overall front, it was impossible not to leave them behind.
The next part of the force is defense.
Even if Li Polu knew the danger of the war situation and promptly mobilized the maximum number of troops to come for reinforcements, whether he could break the blockade of the Qing army in Nanle was still questionable.
Nanle County has not yet been conquered by the enemy, but the military information sent over the past two days has become less and less, and the situation must be very bad.
The loss of Nanle and Neihuang would make the situation even more critical than the loss of Daming City.
"Yuan Zongdao...still no news has come back."
Liu Tichun put down the military information documents and went to visit Yuan Zongdi with a very heavy heart. In this chaotic war, how could Yuan Zongdi have a good peace of mind and recuperate?
He almost went crazy and wanted to jump out of the hospital bed and rush to the front line to direct the war. Ordinary soldiers and doctors could not stop him. Only Liu Tichun, who had been Yuan Zongdi's deputy for many years, could persuade him.
Yuan Zongdi's condition was not serious at first. As long as he had a good rest, he would recover quickly. But because of his anxious and sad mood, his physical condition has worsened a lot. His two eye sockets have sunken deeply, and his skin
It also looks burnt and dull.
Liu Tichun persuaded him: "Han Ju, as long as I am here, there will be no trouble."
Yuan Zongdi murmured to himself: "Where is Zongdao? Where is he? Is he still alive?"
Liu Tichun was worried for himself, for Yuan Zongdao, and for the famous soldiers and civilians.
"Don't think too much. Zongdao broke out and went to Cizhou to deliver a message. The situation is getting better. Don't worry, Liu Rukui will become a cornered force with us. As long as we launch an attack next, the situation will get better."
Due to his illness, Yuan Zongdi's vision in both eyes has declined, and there seems to be a dark halo in his eye sockets, which makes people fascinated.
He seemed to see something in the overlapping circles of light. After hearing what Liu Tichun said, his whole body seemed to pause for a moment and completely paused.
Yuan Zongdi was half leaning on the hospital bed, his expression showing pain. He endured his sorrow and finally said:
"Zongdao is finished. Erhu, don't you understand his temperament? Or do you think I don't know how big a mistake Zongdao made in defending Daming City some time ago?
He made such a big mistake, apart from dying, is there any other way to deal with Dashun?"
Yuan Zongdi's words were filled with tears. For such an experienced and determined battlefield general, he couldn't help but feel heartbroken when he thought that his brother might sacrifice his life for Dashun's cause.
pain.
Liu Tichun was also stunned.
He and Li Guo have always been equally famous. One is "One Tiger" and the other is "Two Tigers". They are known as the "Second Generals Liu and Li". But although Li Guo doesn't talk much, he has the emperor's grasp of people's hearts and his
Understanding is far superior to Liu Tichun.
Therefore, Li Guo is a tiger, and Liu Tichun can only be two tigers.
After Yuan Zongdi's words, Liu Tichun thought that it was indeed very likely that Yuan Zongdao would not return. Yuan Zongdao could only clear his reputation by dying.
But what problem can death solve?
It cannot be said that Liu Tichun is too ruthless, but the current situation of the daimyo makes Liu Erhu have to think like this - if Yuan Zongdao cannot complete the task, even if he dies in battle, will Yu Dashun's career be of half use?
"damn it!"
Liu Tichun cursed fiercely. He was scolding himself, Yuan Zongdao, and even more so the Han soldiers outside the city who were obviously Han Chinese but went crazy to attack Daming City for the sake of Donglu's hegemony.
Regarding Yuan Zongdao’s sacrifice, this was the news that Yuan Zongdi and Liu Tichuncai finally learned from Liu Rukui:
It was relatively simple for Yuan Zongdao to break out of Daming City, because although the Qing army tried to encircle Daming City, the Qing army on the southern front was still far away in the Nanle area. The commander of the Qing army on the southern front, Wang Shuo of Chengze County,
The plan of the fortress was very large. He seemed to want to penetrate the inner and yellow area in one fell swoop and directly destroy all the troops at the front line of Zhangde Prefecture and Daming Prefecture.
Therefore, the enemy's encirclement network was quite loose in the south. Yuan Zongdao led the cavalry team assembled from Daming City to successfully break out of the encirclement without spending much effort.
He quickly headed straight to Cizhou. Since Linzhang County between Cizhou and Daming had fallen, Yuan Zongdao had to take another detour. The many battles that broke out with Qing army cavalry will not be detailed here.
When he arrived at Cizhou, due to Liu Rukui's effective deployment and appropriate command, the defense situation in Cizhou was still relatively optimistic - this of course made Yuan Zongdao feel a hundred times more ashamed.
The arrival of Yuan Zongdao's cavalry also boosted the morale of Cizhou's soldiers and civilians. Under Liu Rukui's call, many Ming Dynasty survivors and gentry who had had bad relations with Dashun in the past were effectively organized in Cizhou City.
With a cavalry force like Yuan Zongdao, Liu Rukui simply opened the city gate, led the defenders in formation and beat drums to demonstrate, and cooperated with the reinforcements inside and outside to launch a highly effective raid against the Qing army attacking the city.
After the enemy abandoned hundreds of corpses in Cizhou and retreated in embarrassment, Yuan Zongdao informed Liu Rukui of all the difficulties faced by the daimyo and persuaded him to cooperate with Liu Tichun's unified dispatch and readjust the Hebei defense line.
In other words, give up on Cizhou.
Cizhou is not the capital of Zhangde Prefecture. The capital of Zhangde Prefecture is Anyang City, which Liu Tichun arranged for Liu Rukui to retreat to in the next step. Considering this, Liu Rukui also believed that taking a step back was not a bad move.
But what he considered was that Cizhou was currently fighting quite well. If it suddenly abandoned its defense, not to mention the negative impact it would have on the morale of the soldiers. Moreover, it would definitely give the Qing army an opportunity to take advantage of it, and the enemy would definitely
If they take the opportunity to attack, they may bite our tail and pursue us desperately.
"We must fight back first!"
Yuan Zongdao and Liu Rukui hit it off immediately, and immediately decided to use Yuan Zongdao's cavalry as the main force to launch a counterattack against the Qing army besieging the city before retreating, to thwart the enemy's possible pursuit momentum.
Before this, in fact, Yuan Zongdao's behavior had been very abnormal in several battles since Yuan Zongdao left Daming City. He was already depressed due to the fact that he was reprimanded by Liu Tichun many times due to his failure in deploying the defense of Daming.
Proudly, in almost every battle in these battles, Yuan Zongdao did not pay attention to the safety of his generals according to Liu Tichun's instructions. Instead, he repeatedly drove the enemy into the battle with a halberd and armor. Even if he was trapped in a heavy siege, he would never break out before the enemy retreated.
come out.
When it came time to assist Liu Rukui to evacuate Cizhou, Yuan Zongdao seemed to feel that his mission had been completed more than half. When the Dashun Army basically completed the preparations for the retreat in the early morning, Yuan Zongdao personally supervised 1,300 cavalry.
Divided into four formations, they galloped into the unexpected Qing army. Their bodies were covered with dozens of wounds, their boots were full of blood, and their horses were red. They beat Nikan, who was responsible for attacking Cizhou, almost out of his mind.
Finally, the cavalry of the army returned through the formation. Yuan Zongdao estimated that Liu Rukui's retreat would be very smooth, so he took seven or eight trusted guards who had lived and died with him for many years and rushed into the Qing army's formation again to prove his ambition.
.
This wave of offensive completely dispelled Nikan's idea of pursuing Cizhou's retreating soldiers and civilians. Although the Qing army used an airtight rain of arrows to kill all Yuan Zong's first men and horses, and in the end even shot Yuan Zongdao through the heart with thousands of arrows.
Become an iron hedgehog.
But in the end, Nikan was frightened by the attack of the "Chuang Ni Liu Bandits" and gave up the most advantageous pursuit opportunity.
Yuan Zongdao died in battle. He died because of his own mistakes. Can he be regarded as a hero of Dashun? I'm afraid it's difficult. His mistakes in the early defense of the name directly caused the Shun army to retreat now.
Passive situation. He did die heroically, but to some extent he also let go irresponsibly.
In addition to the grief of Yuan Zongdi and Liu Tichun, for other Dashun Army soldiers, Yuan Zongdao's death in battle was just a small episode. Everyone must still continue to fight. This massive battle has just begun.
The Yellow River, the Yellow River, remains motionless.