"How could it be such a disastrous defeat? Doesn't it mean that the official army only has a few thousand cavalry? You have more than 10,000 people, fighting in formation, and there are cavalry on both sides of the formation. How could you be overwhelmed so quickly?"
After Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan hurriedly gathered the remnants of Jiao Guangqi's troops who had returned from defeat, they immediately began to doubt their lives.
In order to learn lessons as quickly as possible and understand the situation, Li Dingguo did not bother to personally intervene in the chores of reorganizing the defeated troops, and just left these daily tasks to the pioneer Pan Shirong.
He himself and Bai Wenxuan had an urgent discussion and carefully interrogated the retreating generals of the defeated army.
Because Jiao Guangqi had been shot dead by the army in front of the battle line, among the officers who came back alive, the highest-ranking officers were only a few commanders. Li Dingguo had no choice but to talk to these middle-level officers in person.
(Note: In the armies of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, the commander-in-chief was the commander-in-chief, and the commander-in-chief was the commander-in-chief. The dead Jiao Guangqi was the commander-in-chief, equivalent to the guerrillas of the Ming army, the commander-in-chief was equivalent to the garrison, and the commander-in-chief was equivalent to the commander-in-chief Qian.
)
In order to shirk responsibility, a group of commanders naturally tried their best to describe the sharp equipment of the army: "Second General! It's not that we are waiting to fight to the death, but the army is really well-armed. Even when our fire blunderbuss, bows and arrows were fired, not even a few were killed.
!
However, the official cavalry had a type of mounted fire gun that they had never seen before. The cavalry could charge and fire at the same time, and even fired twice in a row five or six steps before engaging the enemy! It beat our gun array to pieces.
Then he took the opportunity to kill!
Except for some soldiers who were temporarily equipped with large wooden shields, no one could withstand such a bombardment. Even the old battalion brothers in the front row wearing cotton armor, who were originally the backbone of the army, were killed directly!"
Li Dingguo was confused by what he heard, but he quickly summarized a few key points for the officers and soldiers to achieve a complete victory.
He felt that the existence of this kind of "horseback musket" was incredible, so he asked for more details, and then confirmed that "in order to adapt to the use on horseback, the officers and soldiers shortened the barrel of the gun a lot, and there are two pipes." etc.
Several characteristics.
As for the technical feature of "this kind of musket is loaded from the back", Li Dingguo certainly couldn't ask. His troops did not seize the actual object. In the bloody battle on the battlefield, who could see these tricky details clearly from a distance.
Li Dingguo thought to himself: "It seems that Shen Shuren has improved the original three-eyed blunderbuss of the army. It has one less tube, but it is at least longer than the three-eyed blunderbuss.
But the three-eyed gun should have been fired three times and cannot be reloaded on horseback. It seems that the army has other secret methods that can at least ensure reloading on horseback."
However, he still couldn't believe that the officers and soldiers had achieved such a great victory just by relying on sharp firearms, so he asked more questions carefully, mainly about the morale of the officers and soldiers, military discipline, and the performance of the subsequent melee combat.
Asked very carefully.
Several commanders and brigades also talked about it, and quickly pieced together a review of the true situation on the battlefield.
Li Dingguo also had some talent and potential as a famous general. He closed his eyes and thought for a while, and was able to imagine the scene. Then he sighed: "Listen to what you said, these cavalrymen don't seem to be trained by soldiers recruited locally in Huguang."
.
To be able to face a battle without fear, to charge five steps ahead of the spear array and still have time to fire the musket and then switch to the saber to kill, and to still carry out orders and prohibitions after charging into the formation without being too distracting and confusing, I am afraid only Guan Ning's cavalry can do this."
Hearing what he said, a Shaanxi commander who had served in the Ming army more than ten years ago and later became a thief couldn't help but echoed: "What the second general said is absolutely true! The last general didn't think of what you said just now.
, these cavalry are really related to Ning Tieqi’s shadow!
In the second year of Chongzhen, the last general was still in the army, and he also went to the capital to fight Huang Taiji, who was blocking the pass from Jimen, which was the time when Yuan Chonghuan was beheaded. At that time, he saw the cavalry of Guan Ning's army clashing with the Tatars.
That’s the momentum!”
With such confirmation, Li Dingguo's expression became more solemn:
"Why did Guan Ning's army appear in Huguang? Or is Shen Shuren really a genius in military training? Well, now that things have happened, the top priority now is to be careful.
Wenxuan, you immediately ask the soldiers to set up camp and strengthen the siege fortifications, and send more soldiers to cut down trees and build more giant shields.
According to what they said, this new type of musket used by the army should not be able to reach far. It can only have terrifying lethality within twenty or thirty steps or even closer.
Tiezha cotton armor may not have no defensive effect. After all, the proportion of soldiers with cotton armor who came back alive was much higher. Those who still died after wearing cotton armor probably had damaged cotton armor.
Immediately ask the army to find a way to sew with the cloth and silk thread snatched along the way, re-fix and sew the iron ties, and tell the soldiers that if they are sewn, they may be able to save one more life on the battlefield!"
The missing armor pieces will have little impact on the defensive effect of sabers, sabers, and axes, because the attack surface is very wide and the knife marks are very long. Even if some armor pieces are missing, the armor pieces next to them can still be shared.
Attack kinetic energy.
However, to prevent spears and spears from being stabbed, if the arrow misses and the musket is fired, if you are unlucky enough to hit the gap, the missing steel armor piece will be very fatal.
The bandits had traveled long distances to attack before and had no time to rest and replenish supplies. Now all the consequences have been revealed.
Li Dingguo had no choice but to take advantage of the situation and try to plug the leak as quickly as his ability allowed.
After arranging these tactical arrangements, all the brigade-level generals also retired one after another, each busy with his own business. Only Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan were left in the big tent.
Bai Wenxuan also frowned, and waited until no one was around before speaking: "Are we really going to attack Baling? The official and army reinforcements have arrived, and this news has been passed on to everyone in the city. The morale of the official and army is upright.
Sheng, I'm afraid it will be difficult to obtain."
Li Dingguo's face was ashen, but his expression was resolute: "I also know that we can't take it, but we must put on a tough stance and pretend to continue to attack. As long as our siege camp is firmly established, it is impossible for the army to rely on cavalry to attack the camp.
Their short-barreled muskets are probably because they are short, can be loaded quickly, and have a short range, so they are useless when attacking and defending cities and fortresses. Without field battles with the official cavalry, they will not be able to show their full potential! They can drag them up.
Three to five days or even longer!
Now our army cannot retreat. I don't know where my father is now, but counting the days, he should have captured the entire Changde Prefecture, including Wuling County, which is governed by the prefecture. It should not be difficult for him.
Maybe they are leaving Yuanshui and crossing Dongting Lake to attack Changsha. If our army relaxes in Baling now, what will happen? The official army came against the Yangtze River waterway, and the main force of Chen Shuren's rear army must be
There are elite battleships! With the Shenshu people's wealth, maybe there are red barbarian cannons on the battleships!
If my father was intercepted and killed by the army fleet on the lake when he was crossing Dongting Lake, wouldn't it be a disaster considering that our troops were all rafts and small boats temporarily raided from Yuezhou and the upper reaches of Changde, but the army had warships?
!
Therefore, we must block the entrance of Dongting Lake for a few days, and we must not let our father's main force be intercepted by the army on the way across Dongting Lake! No matter how heavy our losses are, we cannot give up!
Of course, I will report the decline here to my father as soon as possible and try to get in touch. If my father is not halfway across Dongting Lake and is willing to go back, that would be the best. If he is already halfway across, going back will only be more dangerous. We
We must hold on!"
Li Dingguo's assessment of the progress of Zhang Xianzhong's main force was quite accurate. Even though he had just reached the edge of Baling City, Zhang Xianzhong's side had most likely captured the entire territory of Changde.
This is not because Zhang Xianzhong has greater combat effectiveness, but because Baling, the capital of Yuezhou Prefecture, is to the east of Dongting Lake and can only be attacked by crossing the mouth of the lake, while Changde Prefecture is in the west of the lake. Zhang Xianzhong does not need to cross the lake and goes directly along the Yuan River.
Can attack the city.
After capturing the entire territory of Changde, entering Dongting Lake from the Yuan River, and then sailing along the south bank of the lake to the entrance of the Xiangjiang River, Zhang Xianzhong can attack Changsha.
Everyone knows that whether it is Yuezhou or Changde, these are small chips that do not have to compete for one city or one place. In the south of Huguang, the real heartland is Changsha.
Taking Changsha would shake the entire southern half of Huguang, and the defenders in the other prefectures and counties of the Ming Army might be frightened and shaken by the news.
…
Li Dingguo was quite smart and did not make strategic decisions. Moreover, in order to deceive the officers and soldiers, he later used some tricks according to the circumstances.
For example, he asked the troops to display their banners in the camp and set up multiple stoves. Even if it was a fake stove, just dig some soil pits and pile the dug soil beside the pits. In fact, it couldn't cook, so it didn't matter.
When it was time to eat, Li Dingguo asked the soldiers who were cutting wood to make shields to separate some wood and set fires in those pits. He also tried to choose wet wood and even burned branches with green leaves directly, which would create more black smoke.
The thicker it is, the more obvious it is when viewed from a distance.
Liu Shunchen, Zhu Wenzhen and Zuo Zixiong, who arrived later that afternoon, were all tricked into this pile of false flags and pretense of increasing the number of stoves.
Looking at this stretching camp, hundreds of smoke pillars from large stoves have been cooking for a long time. At first glance, I really thought there were a hundred thousand soldiers.
In the end, Li Dingguo even did not hesitate to use Zhang Xianzhong's own banner, and went to Baling City to show off his power and attack again, and shouted again, both false and true, to slightly dampen the morale of the defenders that had just been boosted.
Because the information received by the officers and soldiers was also very hasty, they did not know where Zhang Xianzhong's main force was. Everywhere Li Dingguo and Zhang Xianzhong went, they pretended that they were the main force, so as to scare more defenders.
It's just that Li Dingguo didn't go so far as to have people pretend to be Zhang Xianzhong himself in front of the formation to patrol. At most, they just used Zhang Xianzhong's banner.
Bai Wenxuan was also a little afraid of this kind of overstepping operation, and even advised Li Dingguo privately: "Second General, other tactics of suspecting soldiers are easy to say, but this is directly pretending to be the king's move... I am afraid that someone with ulterior motives will instigate it in front of the king in the future.
, which is very detrimental to you!”
Li Dingguo also knew this, but he couldn't help it:
"I am also doing this to protect my father, and I will obey my authority in urgent matters so that he can safely cross Dongting Lake to buy time! If the officers and soldiers know that my father is not here and do not misjudge that our army's main target is Baling, then they
They will definitely speed up their attack and won’t waste time with us!”
Bai Wenxuan sighed: "Second General, we are aware of your loyalty and filial piety to the king. I'm afraid outsiders may not think so. That's all. Now that you've done it, let's fight hard."
…
The first day's battle between the official army and the bandits ended in an eerie silence. The first group of people who arrived before noon were only Zhu Wenzhen's two thousand cavalry, and they arrived one after another at Zuo Zi in the afternoon.
The 12,000 men led by Xiong accounted for about half of the Wuchang camp.
Zuo Zixiong was not known for his IQ, so he couldn't see through these tricks. He saw that Baling City was temporarily relieved of the crisis of being breached, and he also needed to let the troops who had traveled 500 miles by waterway have a good night's rest.
It is impossible to launch an attack in the evening.
After Zhu Wenzhen reported the results of the battle to him, he asked when Shen Futai would arrive, but Zuo Zixiong told him that it would take about two days, or maybe three days if it was slow.
"The order given to us by Lord Futai is to use the vanguard to ensure that Baling is not lost, that the mouth of Dongting Lake is not lost, and to maintain water channels for the rear army.
Mr. Futai had many things to deal with, and the heart of Wuchang could not allocate all the troops at once, so he asked Zhang Futai (Zhang Huangyan) from Huangzhou on the other side to immediately bring some Huangzhou soldiers to Wuchang to take over. During the war, the internal affairs were also temporarily handled by Zhang Futai.
Agent, and then Shen Futai can personally supervise the remaining rear troops of the Wuchang Camp to come for reinforcements."
The departure of tens of thousands of troops is not a game. It is impossible to transfer all 30,000 troops from one place at once, otherwise there will be chaos in one's own base.
Chen Shuren was able to gradually mobilize and mobilize the 30,000 troops to the front line in batches in two or three days, which was a very fast response. It took Sima Yi eight days to go from Wancheng to Shangyong (Nanyang to Yunyang).
As a result, in the next two days, Zuo Zixiong and Li Dingguo also had some small-scale frictions and attacks. The bandits took a defensive position, and the fighting between the two sides became fierce.
But because the bandits could rely on the fortifications of the camp, the short-barreled cavalry of the official army did not find any good opportunities to use fire blunderbuss.
In addition, Li Dingguo's combat effectiveness and commanding ability were far beyond the comparison of Jiao Guangqi, who was a mere captain. Jiao Guangqi's disastrous defeat that day was also related to the fact that his troops marched and camped for a long time, were not allowed to rest and eat after hard work, and had low energy.
Li Dingguo can now sit back and wait for work. He is still on the defensive side and has temporarily adjusted and upgraded his equipment.
Zuo Zixiong didn't want his soldiers to suffer too many casualties. At the same time, his troops were not as powerful as Li Dingguo after all. He was also fooled by the opponent's deception tactics, thinking that the opponent was actually the main force, so he chose to bring in the Hongyi cannon and point it directly at the bandits.
The camp was bombarded, and then the musketeers suppressed the formation.
Li Dingguo gritted his teeth and held on, being bombarded unilaterally for a day and a half. During this period, he only tried to counterattack with a few single-digit Franchise aircraft. The morale of the soldiers in the camp plummeted. Although only a few hundred people were killed directly by the bombing every day, others were seriously injured.
There will be more casualties, but this kind of combat situation of being beaten alive without having to fight back is really damaging to morale——
In fact, this was also what Li Zicheng encountered on the battlefield in Henan and at the foot of Kaifeng City during the same period. As the seat of Henan Province, Kaifeng had a strong city and the defenders had many red cannons. Li Zicheng's army attacked the city because of long-term bombardment with the defenders.
The army was bombed to death too many times and morale was low.
A day and a half later, on the early morning of June 13th, Shen Shuren himself finally arrived at Chenglingji with another 15,000 troops.
At this point, the total number of Shen's troops on the front line of Chenglingji has approached 30,000. Together with Liu Shunchen sent by Fang Kongzhen, the total number has been close to 35,000.
On the opposite side, Li Dingguo lost thousands of men and horses after Jiao Guangqi's disastrous defeat, with heavy casualties. The total strength of his troops was reduced to 25,000. Before Shen Shuren arrived, Li Dingguo could barely manage to have more troops than Zuo Zixiong.
Now it has been completely reversed.
Moreover, during the two days when Zuo Zixiong fought against him and tried to attack the camp, Li Dingguo killed at least one or two thousand more people, and there were many more disabled people. Most of the ordinary soldiers were shocked by the repeated roar of heavy artillery and suffered from neurasthenia and confusion.
Bewildered.
After Chen Shuren arrived at the front line, he immediately summoned the generals to learn about the battle situation.
After learning that Zuo Zixiong had reported that Zhang Xianzhong's main force might be on the other side, when Zhang Ni's entire army prepared to attack Yuezhou Mansion, Shen Shuren immediately showed a look of disbelief.
This is not only because he has a higher IQ than Zuo Zixiong and is more knowledgeable. It is also because as a descendant, his geographical understanding of southern Huguang and the importance of various places are obviously different from those of the Ming Dynasty.
different.
In later generations, Hunan was established as a separate province. Even kindergarten children know that the most important place in Hunan is Changsha. What is Yueyang in comparison?
Zhang Xianzhong spent so much effort to kill Shizhou Guards, kill Yongshun Xuanwei Division, and enter the Hunan Plain just to capture Yueyang? Isn't this nonsense!
"There must be a scam. Let people explore the current situation of the enemy camp again! All the generals went to the Chinese army's tent to participate in the military meeting! Also, have you tried to break through the rebel blockade and go south to contact the state capital further south?
Do you only focus on the enemy's main force when fighting?"