"Lao San's fleet was annihilated by the navy that suddenly appeared? What's going on? Didn't it mean that the government troops were still blocked by Lao Er in Baling! Last night, I received military information from Lao Er, saying that Chen Shu
It will take at least three days for people to come to Baling in person! Where are the officers, soldiers and navy from here!"
Knowing that his own supply lines and troop transport fleets on Dongting Lake had suffered heavy losses in a unilateral massacre, Zhang Xianzhong was stunned for a long time, and finally shouted these questions in an almost furious tone.
General Feng Shuangli, who was responsible for helping him contact scouts and sorting out military information, was also very worried.
But he could only bite the bullet and report the little information he knew about to the king in detail.
"Your Majesty, it seems that we have fallen into Chen Shuren's delaying tactics! It is still unclear who is commanding these naval forces. However, according to the reports of the defeated soldiers, there are about one hundred and eighty sharp ships, men and horses in the army.
Nearly ten thousand.
In terms of numbers alone, this small number of people is nothing, but the key is that their warships are sharp and equipped with many firearms, such as Folang machines. Therefore, we are defeated by the small boats of our army.
The losses have not yet been calculated, but at least five to six thousand people were directly wiped out on the lake. The rest fled and abandoned the ship. It is difficult to estimate for a while. Fortunately, the second general is probably unharmed. I heard from the defeated soldiers who escaped that the second general was
Either it was in Changde, or it had just set sail.
The second general is very clever. After learning that the former army has been intercepted, even if he is still on the lake, he will definitely find a way to escape back to Changde. For this plan, I would like to ask the king to make a decision first. What is the next step for the second general?
Is it better to cut it off?
Our army is now at least divided into two parts, and the head and tail cannot look at each other. If the officers and soldiers find out the true situation and choose one of them to concentrate their forces to defeat them individually, I am afraid it will be extremely dangerous."
After all, Feng Shuangli was a senior general in history who could serve as one of the five military commanders in Zhang Xianzhong's army. Even though he had little education, he had followed Zhang Xianzhong for nearly fifteen years and had a very keen sense of smell on the battlefield.
He was very clear about the basic taboos in the art of war. So after sorting out the information just now, he was able to point out the key contradiction at once: Zhang Xianzhong's army has now been temporarily divided.
Feng Shuangli said that he would save face by splitting it into two parts.
In fact, Zhang Xianzhong, Li Dingguo, and Liu Wenxiu are now fighting on their own, and they are divided into three parts in total.
"Invincibility starts with sacrificing the ancestor"
Zhang Xianzhong is in Changsha, Li Dingguo is in Yueyang, and Liu Wenxiu is in Changde. The three sides exactly form a "pin" shape, forming a military presence around Dongting Lake. One is on the west bank, one is on the northeast corner, and one is on the southeast corner.
Of course, this division is not unsolvable, because at least the troops can be gathered by marching directly around the lake shore without crossing the lake.
It's just that the journey around the lake is definitely much longer than across the lake. The land route between Changde, Yueyang and Changsha is at least more than 300 miles, and it takes three days for the infantry to march on two legs without baggage.
, if we march normally, it will last five days.
When a strong enemy appears, and is at least stronger than any of the three parts of the bandits, three to five days will definitely be fatal, and some of them may be swallowed up by the army.
Zhang Xianzhong had to make a decision immediately and let these three groups of troops consider how to dispatch, maneuver, and assemble. They couldn't stay where they were anyway.
Zhang Xianzhong paced back and forth in the lobby of Prince Ji's Mansion with eyes wide open and anxiously playing with some trophy animals.
Finally, he made up his mind, and naturally tightened his grip on his hand, pinched a Persian cat raised by Prince Ji to death, and commanded:
"That's it. Let the second child look for an opportunity to retreat slowly, and at least come to Hunan to join our army first. Let the third child continue to stay in Changde, bluffing into suspects, and helping us divert the attention of the officers and soldiers.
However, let Lao San be smarter. If the main force of the army really rushes toward him, he will fight if he can. Just defend Wuling County and consume the army.
If you feel you are outmatched, you can abandon the soldiers you captured in Changde and other newly attached troops, take only the brothers from the old camp in Shaanxi and Henan, escape back to Shizhou Guard, and try to find a way to return to the state to join forces with Wang'er.
As long as he retreats to a dangerous place in the mountains, burns everything along the way, and clears the country with strong walls, it will not be easy for the army to catch up and fight. If Chen Shuren wants to enter the mountains, the trouble of transporting food alone will be enough for him to think about for ten days and a half.
, soldiers and horses suitable for a decisive battle in Dongting Lake may not be suitable for traveling in the mountains."
After Zhang Xianzhong finished speaking, he couldn't help but let out a long sigh. At this point, the balance of his inner trust in Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo finally tilted towards Sun Kewang.
It was Sun Kewang who advised him to be cautious before the war! The news that "the main force of Shen Shuren was transferred to the Henan station by Yang Sichang" may be a lie, or it may be Shen Shuren's show of weakness to lure the enemy. Now all of this has come true!
However, Li Dingguo asked him to take the initiative to attack as soon as possible, saying that he could no longer arrest Guizhou. Badong and other limited enemies had gathered, and the people would be killed sooner or later, and they would lose their support sooner or later.
As a result, we have indeed fallen into the pit! If we had known this would happen, what would the hearts of people in one or two state capitals mean? We should kill more people and eat more meat! Continue to wait for a while and wait and see what happens!
Not to mention, Li Dingguo also failed to complete the task of blocking the entrance of Dongting Lake in Baling! Not only did he not block it, he also sent back false news!
Originally, even if there was no blockage, he could give Liu Wenxiu a warning in advance and stop using the lake to transport troops, and there would be no losses in today's battle if he reported back accurately.
Disappointed again and again, coupled with the old score of Ai Nengqi's murder last year, under the combined effects of the three bad influences, Zhang Xianzhong finally decided to deprive Li Dingguo of his status when he returned, and no longer give him the same level as Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu.
military power.
…
After all, the navy of the government army only has 6,000 people, so after the arrogant massacre on the Dongting Lake, it can only stop here for the time being.
It would be impossible for Shen Lian and Li Yu to land directly in Linxiang County, go upstream along the Xiangjiang River, and engage in a land battle with Zhang Xianzhong's main force, even if they had the courage to do so.
In the evening of that day, the most the officers and soldiers could do was to go to the mouth of the Xiangjiang River near Linxiang County and kill all the boats that could be seen on the lake. Then they withdrew their troops and continued to search for the remnants of the enemy in the direction of Changde.
In the next few days, all they could do was to continue patrolling Dongting Lake to cut off Zhang Xianzhong's army's possibility of restoring waterway transportation and see if any fools who were not afraid of death would show up and die again.
If not, it would be difficult for Shen Lian and others to provide effective support to the frontal land battle battlefield.
The focus of the battlefield is also looking back at the land battlefield in the direction of Baling, Yuezhou, at the north entrance of Dongting Lake——
Liu Wenxiu huddled in Changde and put up a defensive position to contain the army and navy. There was absolutely no danger. If the main force of the army really turned around and attacked Liu Wenxiu first, he would just run away.
To say the least, Liu Wenxiu's existence, even if he did nothing, still contained 6,000 officers and soldiers - because the navy of the officers and soldiers must keep an eye on Liu Wenxiu at all times. Once used for other purposes, Liu Wenxiu might be
The remaining ships will also be gathered to continue smuggling to Changsha.
Liu Wenxiu's value in the follow-up period of this battle was roughly equivalent to the German Navy during World War I. As a "presence fleet", although it did not leave the port, it could contain the enemy's forces used to block him.
Zhang Xianzhong's main force is in the south, and Shen Shu's people can't reach it for the time being. They are hundreds of miles away, so the only one who can fight now is Li Dingguo.
Chen Shuren learned the news about Shen Lian and Li Yu's sneak attack and defeated Zhang Xianzhong a little later than Zhang Xianzhong - because the message sent by the sentry boat on the lake was definitely slower than the fast horse messenger on land who spared no effort in horse power.
The speed advantage of the waterway only exists in large-scale marches with heavy loads. In terms of information transmission, it is always slower than the speed of the land route.
Therefore, after Li Dingguo received the bad news from Zhang Xianzhong, it took a few hours for the Shenshu people in the Chenglingji camp to the north of him to learn the same news.
At this moment, the two sides basically knew each other's next move - Shen Shuren knew that Li Dingguo would definitely not spend any more time in Baling, as the official and military fleets had entered the lake on a large scale.
Now, there is no point in guarding the mouth of the lake anymore.
The navy soldiers of the official army will certainly not consume supplies very quickly. The food brought with them on the ship will probably not be eaten in ten days and a half. Therefore, it is hoped that the long-term blockade of Hukou will be used to "cut off the supply of supplies to the official army."
It is also impossible to let them run out of food and collapse."
If the main force of tens of thousands of officers and soldiers ignored the food route and sneaked across Baling by boat, then Li Dingguo might have better consider cutting off the food route. There are too few people in the army who have penetrated into the enemy's rear, and the transport capacity ratio is not at that level at all.
…
Li Dingguo received Zhang Xianzhong's order on the afternoon of June 16th.
When he first received the order, he was still a little surprised, but then he quickly understood his dangerous situation - there was a disconnect between his father and his third brother's troops, and he was the only one who had to face the main force of the official army.
existence. If we evacuate too late and are bitten by the army, we may be in danger.
Therefore, there is no time to think about how to withdraw the troops in order to "retreat without chaos" or "pretend not to retreat if you want to retreat". The most important thing is to leave quickly.
Li Dingguo didn't hesitate for too long, he just sighed for a while, then summoned Bai Wenxuan and Pan Shirong to announce his plan.
"I am afraid that the number of officers and soldiers on the opposite side is no longer inferior to that of our army. Moreover, a successful sneak attack by the army and navy will definitely boost the morale of the officers and soldiers. It will be even more detrimental to our army if we continue to fight.
Although we also have boats, it is no longer possible to evacuate by water, so we can only walk. At the first watch tonight, we will make food and give extra meals to the soldiers. At the second watch, we will set off and be prepared to walk at night.
Pan Shirong, you leave some of the new auxiliary troops that you can give up, stay behind the rear camp, and pretend that we haven't left tonight. I will leave you a thousand cavalry. If the army makes a tentative attack tonight or tomorrow morning, you won't be able to resist it.
You can use the cavalry to abandon the army and flee first to catch up with the main force."
After Li Dingguo gave the order, Pan Shirong heard that he could still bring some cavalry, so he would have a chance to escape even if he was on a post-break mission, so he agreed not to mention the preparations.
Bai Wenxuan on the side thought for a while and added another suggestion: "Second General, I think it is better to let the main force take the boat tonight, as it is difficult for the officers and soldiers to intercept it in the dark.
And now that the troop transport fleet of the three generals has just been intercepted and destroyed, maybe it is dark under the lights here? Let's separate some new auxiliary troops who can be given up. The people are strong and the country is brave, and let them serve as oarsmen and row all night.
.In this way, the main force can sleep a few more times, and when it is almost dawn, they can abandon the ship and go ashore and retreat on foot.
In this way, even if we encounter a search by the army at night, we can avoid being washed away. If we really find a large number of officers and soldiers patrolling the lake, we will have time to abandon the boat immediately and go to the beach - the worst we can do is leave the shore in the first place.
Sail closer and don’t go more than two miles away.”
After hearing this, Li Dingguo felt that what Bai Wenxuan said was reasonable, so he followed Shan Ruliu and adopted these two details.
Li Ding's camp was preparing, but the officers and soldiers had no intention of letting them stop.
He originally planned to leave after dark, but before it got dark, Zuo Zixiong brought the firearms battalion and Hongyi artillery to bombard Li Dingguo's camp.
Zhu Wenzhen's cavalry battalion was also neatly dressed and lined up on both sides. It looked like the official army's firepower was ready to turn into a full-scale attack at any time. When Li Dingguo saw this formation, he knew that Shen Shuren must have obtained the official and military training.
The news came that the division had successfully attacked Liu Wenxiu.
"I don't know how many people will be able to evacuate after today." Li Dingguo felt a chill in his heart.