Chapter 164 You Think You Are Blücher, But You Are Manuel Grouchy
The story was divided into two parts: Gao Yigong was in Yancheng, and while Shangcai was deceived and weakened by Liu Guoneng, Li Zicheng finally arrived in Chen County after two days of preparation, marching, and reconnaissance.
Today is already the fifteenth day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar.
On the opposite side, Shen Shuren has always been concerned about Li Zicheng's movements and made adjustments accordingly.
To be honest, Li Zicheng arrived much slower than Chen Shuren expected, and the size of the army that came was also smaller than expected.
Chen Shuren had originally prepared to rely solely on his own personal guard battalion and the troops led by Jin Shenghuan to withstand the counterattack of the intruders.
In the end, all these preparations were of no use. Before the counterattack of the Chuang army appeared, the Shen army that Zuo Zixiong brought from Ruyang had already arrived in Chen County and was let into the city by the Shen Shu people.
Inside.
But it doesn't matter. You should be lenient if you anticipate the enemy. It's better to be prepared but not to use it than to be in a hurry.
Moreover, Zuo Zixiong also brought news that the navy from Shouxian County would only arrive in a day or two at most. On the way here, he had already encountered the sentinel boat of Shen Lian, who was the pioneer of the waterway.
The main force of the coastal defense commander Zhang Mingzhen was behind in a large ship. It was only because of the slow sailing of the large ship that there was a disconnect. The number of men and horses was about 10,000.
Zhang Mingzhen was originally a direct descendant of Chen Shuren. He was recruited by Chen Shuren as early as the end of the 13th year of Chongzhen. It has been almost two years now.
Moreover, Zhang Mingzhen and Zhang Huangyan got along relatively well in history. During the Southern Ming Dynasty, Shen Tingyang was taken under his command and served as a navy general. Until Shen Tingyang was besieged and killed by the Qing army in Luyuan Port (Zhangjiagang), Zhang Mingzhen followed Zhang Huangyan to break out and led the
The remaining troops continued to fight.
Although history has changed a long time ago, it is difficult to change people's talents and temperaments. Generals who are very compatible with the Shen family's "compatibility" must of course be well cultivated and reused.
At the beginning of the year, after the response from Tashan in Xingshan, Zhang Mingzhen seemed to have returned to Ningshao, but in fact he was still working for the Shen family, mainly helping Shen Tingyang, the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing, to escort the water transport on the sea route. Now that winter is approaching, the northwest wind is starting to pick up, and the south of the Yangtze River is heading south.
Beijing's shipping has also entered the slow season and will not be busy again until spring next year.
Zhang Mingzhen has fewer escort tasks, so he can be on call at any time. Moreover, the additional rewards and military pay for such tasks are paid out of the Shen family's own pocket, so no one in the court will notice, let alone criticize.
The government and army were so well prepared that when Li Zicheng arrived, there were already more than 30,000 elites in the city, waiting to work.
There are still 10,000 naval troops on the Yingchuan River outside the city who can quickly respond. However, Li Zicheng's army lacks large warships and cannot isolate and isolate the official navy.
Shen Shuren didn't have to worry about how much trouble a hundred thousand intruders could cause. He could even send a messenger to contact Huang Degong and Zhu Wenzhen before Chen County was besieged, so that they could respond accordingly without having to rush back.
Chen County, Chen County is absolutely worry-free.
"How dare Shen Gouguan be so willing to spend money? How dare he invest tens of thousands of people in the isolated city of Chen County? Isn't he afraid that he will be captured by my king's counterattack before his footing is stable? There are still so many Li Jiyu who have escaped in Chen County.
If the troops are defeated, he is not afraid that these people in our army will take advantage of the chaos to cause trouble? Quickly order Liu Fangliang and Tian Jianxiu to attack the city for me!"
However, Li Zicheng did not know the existence of Zhang Mingzhen and other naval forces for the time being, so he did not understand Shen Shuren's lone force. In addition, he felt that Shen Shuren had not completely solved the inside of Chen County, and the defense deployment was definitely not tight enough.
Unable to lose, he ordered an immediate attack on the city and a counterattack.
Song Xiance tried hard to persuade him, but was treated coldly by Li Zicheng: "You still have the nerve to offer advice! It was you who said that Shen Shuren didn't dare to go deep alone, so let's beware of the main force in Yancheng! We shouldn't fight in the war.
ask you!"
Song Xiance was speechless for a moment, so he couldn't stop him.
Li Zicheng quickly organized a tentative attack on Chen County. Because he came in a hurry and did not have heavy siege weapons, he relied on flying ladders, trenches, bridges and wood to solve the problem.
What he was betting on was that the Shen Shu people came on a quick march with light armor and lacked heavy firearms to defend the city, so Chen County's defense would definitely be much weaker than that of Shangcai, which had been managed for a long time.
After all, this city was the territory of the intruders a few days ago, and the intruders fought on the move. They never spent manpower and financial resources to repair the city walls, and even demolished the weakened walls and used building materials to do other things.
It's a pity that Li Zicheng was destined to be disappointed again. Shen Shuren just left the Hongyi cannon to Liu Guoneng in Xinyang, and he took those three to four hundred kilograms of light Folang machines with the army.
The Shenshu people even allocated a special group of horses to pull carts and carry guns, just like Frederick the Great of Prussia a hundred years later.
So when the rebel army rushed to the Chenxian city wall with flying ladders and began to attack all wall sections indiscriminately, they were not surprised to encounter the same situation as when they went to Cai——
The Ming army deployed all the Fo Lang machines on the horse faces and the sides of the turrets. At first, they held back their fire and only used bird cannons, fire cannons, bows and crossbows to fire back randomly.
After the intruders had all endured the damage from muskets, bows and crossbows, and the flying ladders had been set up, and even the first batch of soldiers who had climbed up to die had climbed to half the height of the city wall, the city defenders followed the orders given by Chen Shuren in advance.
, one after another ignited the Franco machine and fired the grape bullets with the support tube.
The intruders wailed once again and suffered heavy casualties. Hundreds of people were killed almost instantly on the entire battlefield, which really shocked the momentum of the bandit side.
This time, the officers and soldiers did not need a powerful general like Huang Degong to personally lead the troops in hand-to-hand combat. The Chuang army, which had suffered too much, did not have the chance to rush to the city and gain a foothold. More than a thousand people died in the battle.
, after being injured several times, they retreated again.
Up to now, everyone in the army had talked about Shen Gou Guan's cross-fire bombardment, and it had gotten to the point where whenever they encountered this tactic again, no matter how hard the king ordered to attack the city, the soldiers would just turn around and run away.
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The morale of the siege battle had been reduced to this point, and it was obvious that Li Zicheng had no chance of winning the forcible siege. Everyone in the army was temporarily suffering from "siege phobia".
When Li Zicheng saw this, he could only lament and regret it, withdraw his troops back to the camp, and choose to continue the siege. But he was very confused in his heart: he suffered two more crimes, and ended up continuing the siege in Chen County. What's the difference?
It's just that we failed to go to Caiwei and so many people were killed and injured. How about we continue to die and be injured in another place?
Why is it that Chen Shuren should be the one who is eager to rescue Kaifeng and the feudal kings in Henan? It should be that Chen Shuren is forced to act as the siege party, but when it comes to actual combat, he is always attacking Chen Shuren's city.
?
There must be something very wrong here, but unfortunately Li Zicheng couldn't figure it out for the time being.
…
Li Zicheng moved from attacking one fortified city to another and continued to attack another fortified city, doubting his life at the same time.
Chen Shuren sent out to expand the results of the war to the east, and Huang Degong and Zhu Wenzhen, who continued to steal and deceive, also gained a lot in these two days.
Their original plan was to only go eastward to expand their victory for one day. After that, they should return to Chen County anyway and join the main force.
At the end of the first day of expanding their results eastward, Huang Degong and the others did achieve some small results:
When they attacked from Chen County to the northeast, they made a sneak attack in Zhecheng County, Guide Prefecture, and succeeded in seizing a partial division of Yuan Zongdi's army. They defeated thousands of people and recaptured this small town that Yuan Zongdi had not paid much attention to.
county seat.
That night, they originally planned to have a good night's rest in Zhecheng County. After all, the troops had not slept all day and night and were constantly fighting. After enough rest, they should return to Chen County early the next morning.
But Chen Shuren, after realizing that Li Zicheng arrived too late, successfully sent a second wave of messengers before Chen County was besieged.
The next morning, Huang Degong's troops were fully rested and full of energy. Just when they were about to return to the division, the messenger sent by Shen Shuren got in touch with them and synchronized the battlefield news, so that they could rest assured that they did not have to rush back.
It can only be said that plans cannot keep up with changes, although such changes are a good thing rather than a bad thing.
A cavalry force of about 10,000 people has the advantage of mobility and can support the main battlefield at any time without having to worry about being surrounded and defeated individually. It is indeed more effective to stay on the periphery.
After receiving the latest report from Mr. Futai, Zhu Wenzhen originally wanted to go back. After all, Shen Shuren had saved his life. These Liaodong soldiers were originally wiped out by Huang Taiji in Liaodong after the Battle of Tashan and Xingshan.
He was able to live one more day because Shen Futai sent people to save him.
Compared with Zhu Wenzhen, Huang Degong is more calm on the issue of "protecting the master". After all, he is only convinced by Shen Shu, but he can't say that he regards Shen Shu as his master.
Everyone worked for the Ming Dynasty. It can only be said that Shen Shuren was the one who had the best temperament for Huang Degong and the one who was most willing to entrust his life-long friendship among the many civil servants Huang Degong had ever met.
In addition, perhaps it was also because Huang Degong was more adventurous in the military and wanted to perform more meritorious deeds, so after the two of them combined, Zhu Wenzhen was persuaded by Huang Degong and was willing to contribute more on the peripheral battlefield.
What Huang Degong said roughly means this: "Since we have discovered Yuan Zongdi's troops of the invading army in Guide Mansion, if we return to support the battlefield in Chen County, Yuan Zongdi will definitely receive Li Zicheng's order to return reinforcements.
At that time, Yuan Zongdi's army had tens of thousands of people, but our army only had 10,000 people. Both sides had returned, which also increased the fighting strength of the invading army. Although our army was cavalry, it was the one defending the city. We fought to defend the city.
The medium cavalry cannot play a greater role and can only be used as infantry.
And our army patrolling the periphery and fighting on the move can hold off Yuan Zongdi's troops. Even if they can't wait for opportunities to cause serious damage, they can at least force tens of thousands of intruders to be unable to rush back to the main battlefield.
If Yuan Zongdi's men, who are in need of food, grab the surplus food and ask for it to be given to Li Zicheng, we can still use the advantage of the cavalry to intercept it. Wouldn't our role be greater than returning to Chen County to defend behind closed doors? Shen Futai asked us to go back before.
, we are just worried that Li Zicheng will march quickly and attack Chen County quickly. Now that the enemy has delayed, we don’t have the need."
After Zhu Wenzhen calmed down, he had to admit that this was very correct.
The current situation is like that before the decisive battle of Waterloo in later generations. The Emperor heard that the Prussian coach Blücher was about to join forces with the British commander the Duke of Wellington, so he sent Marshal Emmanuel Grouchy to contain Blücher alone.
Scheer's Prussian army,
We hope to create a situation where "when the decisive battle comes, Grouchy can rush back to the main battlefield, but Blücher cannot, so that our army can concentrate its superior forces to defeat them one by one, destroying the British first and then the common people."
Of course, in history, taking the emperor was self-defeating in the end. During the decisive battle of Waterloo, Blücher's Prussian army arrived, but Grouchy's more than 30,000 French troops who went to contain Blücher did not come back, and he became the emperor himself.
Defeated by the enemy one by one.
However, it is impossible for Huang Degong and Zhu Wenzhen to know the deeds of people one hundred and seventy years later, and the artistic essence of military command is the same.
As long as Huang Degong and Zhu Wenzhen can move faster than Yuan Zongdi and contain them more efficiently, he can be Blücher himself and let Yuan Zongdi be Grouchy.
…
After adjusting their thinking, Huang Degong and Zhu Wenzhen quickly began to discuss specific arrangements to better contain Yuan Zongdi.
After a full night's rest last night, the soldiers were full of energy and high in fighting spirit, and the horses' horsepower was also restored. It was a good time to show off their talents.
Huang Degong analyzed based on the latest intelligence from yesterday's defeat of Zhe City: "I heard from the prisoners captured after yesterday's defeat that Yuan Zongdi's headquarters was in the vicinity of Shangqiu County in Guide Prefecture, and Shangqiu City seemed to be still under the defense of the official army.
Why don't we go to Shangqiu immediately to see if we can relieve the defenders there? If Yuan Zongdi dares to pursue us with his own troops, we will run directly with the speed advantage of the cavalry. If Yuan Zongdi's troops and horses are out of touch, we will return
Fighting alone and defeating each one - what does General Zhu Shen think?"
Zhu Wenzhen thought about it, especially after comparing it with his recent resume, and found that Huang Degong's idea was really good.
So he added with the same view: "Mr. Huang's plan is very serious, and the general has no objections. And since Li Zicheng has gone to Chen County in person, he will definitely send someone to contact Yuan Zongdi and let Yuan Zongdi
Don't worry about a shabby little place like Shangqiu. Go to Chen County for a decisive battle first.
Therefore, as long as we appear outside Shangqiu City and let the defenders in the city know that the imperial reinforcements have arrived, the defenders' morale will naturally be boosted. Even if we don't take action, the defenders can continue to hold on for a while. But Yuan Zongdi cannot bear it.
If he loses his temper, he must withdraw from the encirclement and leave. On his way back to Chen County from Shangqiu, there will be plenty of opportunities for us to expose flaws for us to attack——
To be honest, Mr. Huang’s plan just now is really the same as what Shen Futai thought. The general was under Shen Futai and participated in the Baling rescue battle a few months ago. At that time, he faced Zhang Xianzhong
Li Dingguo under his command.
The order Shen Futai gave me that time was to send cavalry to attack, at least at the foot of Baling City, to boost the morale of the defenders in Baling City and prevent them from being frightened by the bandits' resistance and saying, "If they break the city, they will massacre it."
Intimidation and surrender without a fight.
Mr. Huang, your concern about the Shangqiu garrison today is exactly the same as Shen Futai's concern about the Baling garrison a few months ago."
When Huang Degong heard that an uneducated person like him had the same battlefield sense as Shen Futai who talked about the art of war, he was overjoyed and felt more and more close to him. He introduced the other person as a confidant, including Zhu Wen of course.
Zhen Yin is a close friend.
The two of them had made up their minds, so they set out from Zhecheng and continued to push northeast towards Shangqiu. Along the way, there were many scattered soldiers of Yuan Zongdi who robbed food and rebelled, but they were all defeated by the official army.
One day later, Huang Degong and others were approaching Shangqiu, but they felt that Yuan Zongdi's actions were a bit abnormal. He actually stayed outside Shangqiu City without making any other moves, neither attacking nor withdrawing his troops.
Huang Degong didn't care about the loss, so he asked the troops to make a simple camp on the spot, and sent out scouts to expand the search and confirm the situation.
And on this night, two more chain changes occurred because of the rapid advancement of Huang Degong and Zhu Wenzhen.
First, Huang Degong's scouts captured some of the messengers sent by Song Xiance, Li Zicheng's subordinate, to contact Yuan Zongdi.
Secondly, in the southeast of Zhecheng and Shangqiu, a county called Luyi was originally occupied by the invaders. But when Huang Degong defeated Chen County and Zhecheng and rushed to Shangqiu, the generals of the invaders in Luyi
He actually came to Huang Degong and surrendered. Huang Degong didn't even bother to find him.
The name of the surrendered general was Yuan Shizhong. His coming to surrender was not a trick on Chen Shuren, but it was the case in history - Yuan Shizhong was also a local bandit leader in Henan. After Li Zicheng conquered Luoyang, he joined Luo Rucai and others.
.
Historically, Yuan Shizhong was deployed between Guide Prefecture and Bozhou in Fengyang Prefecture during Li Zicheng's three-pronged siege of Kaifeng. He was responsible for guarding against official and military reinforcements from the south of Zhili. However, he was a little wavering, and was eventually suspected by Li Zicheng and let him
His nephew Li Tai trapped Yuan Shizhong to death in April of the 16th year of Chongzhen.
Of course, none of this has happened yet. It should still be five months before Yuan Shizhong is killed by Li Zicheng. However, Luo Rucai's old subordinates were worried about Li Zicheng's suspicion and did not want to be cannon fodder. Huang Degong's sudden and powerful invasion made him
I was shaken in advance, so it’s not surprising that I came to vote.
It's just that Huang Degong doesn't know all this, and he doesn't dare to completely trust Yuan Shizhong for the time being, and his use will definitely need to be tested.
But no matter what, Yuan Zongdi was besieging Shangqiu to raise food. At this juncture, some friendly troops surrendered directly out of fear. This must have been a huge blow to Yuan Zongdi.
Huang Degong became more confident that he could rescue Shangqiu and even severely damaged Yuan Zongdi, making it impossible for him to return to support the Chen County battlefield.
If Huang Degong defeated Yuan Zongdi, but he could lead the Shen family's cavalry back to Chen County, it would be equivalent to him being Blücher and the other party being Grouchy.