Chapter 173: Fighting Early, Enjoying Early, Discounting Later
On the battlefield around Chen County, Kaifeng Prefecture, with a radius of one or two hundred miles.
If one were to say who among the various military forces was the slowest in responding to unexpected intelligence, it would definitely be the Chenshu people.
After all, he was surrounded, so it's understandable that he was a little slow in getting the news.
However, Chenshu people are not completely isolated from the inside and outside.
When Huang Degong had just rescued King Lu and King Xiaofu and sent them to Xiangcheng, he also wanted to report a message to the Chenshu people. However, they were surrounded on land and could not break through, so he gave up for the time being.
But Huang Degong quickly thought of another way - while retreating, he got in touch with the next wave of Zhang Mingzhen's naval forces who were transporting grain to Chen County along the way.
He handed the letter to Shen Lian, a confidant of the Shen family under Zhang Mingzhen, who had now been promoted to the capital, and asked Shen Lian to deliver it to Shen Futai the next time he accompanied the army to transport food into the city.
In this way, it is just an extra three or five days of work, but it can still be delivered.
Li Zicheng lacked a navy, so no matter how he encircled and intercepted him, he could only block land transportation in Chen County, and the Yingchuan waterway could not be blocked for the time being.
Yingchuan in the late Ming Dynasty diverted part of the main stream of the Yellow River, and its water volume was many times greater than that of Yingchuan in 1855, when the Yellow River was redirected back to the north.
The narrowest part of the river is at least five to sixty feet wide, and the water is three to five feet deep. In such a place, there is very little space for small sampans to use, and cavalry cannot directly ford the river on foot.
…
Three days later, in Chen County.
Counting the days, time has quietly come to the end of October in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen.
There are fully 40,000 to 50,000 troops in Chen County, including the direct troops brought by Shen Shuren from Shangcai, and the troops brought by Zuo Zixiong who were previously stationed in Ruyang.
Even if they were besieged by Li Zicheng, they did not panic at all. Anyway, from Shangcai to Chen County, as long as Li Zicheng dared to attack the city and attack the Shen family's army, he never won.
Chen Shuren's technical superiority in city defense warfare can no longer be compensated by courage and numbers. In this era, it can be said that there is simply no solution——
This is not an exaggeration at all, because when bastions first appeared in the Western world, the advantage of the defenders was suddenly huge. In the time of Constantinople, the siege team relied on solid iron bullets and artillery to gain the advantage.
It will be smoothed out quickly and counterattacked with crushing force.
It was not until the Vauban siege method appeared in the West that sieges could regain some of their disadvantages in terms of the use of artillery and wall breaking.
Although Chen Shuren's city defense is not yet up to the level of bastion tactics, it has more flexible artillery, and with the temporary addition of small triangular forts, it can eliminate the blind spots of side fire to a considerable extent. This kind of semi-finished tactic is difficult to deal with
Li Zicheng's siege force is definitely enough.
It’s not too late to take out the complete bastion when facing the Tatar army with hundreds of heavy red barbarian cannons in the future. Good things must be mastered at a good pace. There is no need to invest too much and expose them in advance.
As a result, Chen County's guards were as safe as Mount Tai, which made Zuo Zixiong and other old men of the Shen family army feel a little unmotivated. Seeing their comrades from other departments making meritorious services, they were also eager to fight.
But following Shen Futai in defending the city, it was only fun for one or two games at first. Then Li Zicheng couldn't afford to lose, so he stopped attacking and just laid siege to the city. How could he get a chance to kill the enemy?
Huang Degong and Zhu Wenzhen outside must have been making meritorious deeds one after another. With the mobility advantage of the cavalry, they could gain a lot of opportunities by simply replicating Peng Yue's tactics and harassing Li Zicheng's food-raising troops.
Although Zhang Mingzhen, Shen Lian and Li Yu were only helping to transport food, they would definitely be intercepted by Li Zicheng, and they would be able to find opportunities to counterattack and make meritorious deeds.
The troops staying in the city are really having a hard time.
Early that morning, Zuo Zixiong spent another half day patrolling the city. He didn't catch any fighter planes at all, and the birds came out of his mouth.
We finally managed to stay up until the afternoon. It was supposed that a fleet of Zhang Mingzhen's grain transport fleet would arrive this evening, but it turned out that it had not arrived at the beginning of the morning. It seemed to be delayed.
Zuo Zixiong became somewhat alert and went to report to Shen Shuren. Shen Shuren asked him to organize a reserve team to be on guard inside the water gate, but not to act rashly.
Until three o'clock in the morning, on the Yingchuan River in the south of the city, there were faint shouts of killing and the sound of gunfire in the distance. The general of the Chen County garrison looked out with binoculars on the gate tower and saw that there was indeed a fight. However, the boat of the bandits should be
There were not many, and they could not stop them. When it was dark, the fleet finally broke through the obstruction and arrived at the gate of Chen County.
There were still troops who wanted to chase the bandits, but Zuo Zixiong had already prepared everything. He opened the water gate and let the reserve team enter the water village at the dock outside the city. They fought a fierce battle with the bandits' pursuers and killed more than a thousand enemies.
, it was dark on both sides.
After three or four days of idleness, Zuo Zixiong finally felt that his muscles and bones were feeling more relaxed after finally having such a small battle.
After the response was completed, he immediately personally found the navy general who came to transport food. It turned out that they were Shen Lian and Li Yu. Zhang Mingzhen did not personally transport the food. He also deployed defenses along the Yingchuan River in the Xiangcheng area behind to prevent
The intruders surrounded the rear.
This is also the proper meaning of the title. Zhang Mingzhen is now the commander-in-chief of the coastal defense and is seconded by the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs to protect the grain roads for the army. It is impossible for him to carry out daily grain transportation tasks himself.
It is enough to leave these small things to military attaches at the Dusi level. Zhang Mingzhen only came on stage during the decisive battle.
"You have brought the food here. If we had not been able to break through just now, I would have asked Lord Futai for instructions to lead troops out of the city to help in the battle."
Zuo Zixiong and Shen Lian did not see each other outside. Even though he was already the commander-in-chief and the other party was just the commander-in-chief, they still seemed very familiar with each other. He also knew that Shen Lian was a servant of Lord Futai and was one of his own.
Shen Lian also handed over his hand and said to make a long story short: "Today, when transporting grain, we were more vigilant than a few days ago when we saw thieves. They also laid a lot of iron cones and wooden stakes at the slow water of Yingchuan, dozens of miles south of the city. It should be for
Block part of the channel to prevent large ships from passing through.
Although this method is not new, we read in the playbook that at the end of the Three Kingdoms period, in order to prevent the Jin general Wang Junlou from sailing to the east, Soochow not only built iron cables across the river, but also built underwater dark cones and dark piles. This is indeed a bit troublesome, but if you have time
If we clean up slowly and move both by water and land, we can still get through.
Today, it was because there was a lack of friendly troops on the shore to help, and we did not dare to get off the boat and land ashore, so we worked slowly and delayed for a while. We were entangled by the invading army boats and the crossbowmen and musketeers on the shore. We fought to the death for a while before we broke through.
However, we were able to break through this time because we have not been in the army for a long time. The hidden piles and cones are not dense, so we can break through quickly. I'm afraid it won't be so easy next time."
After listening to this, Zuo Zixiong's expression became slightly solemn, but also a little expectant. He thought and said: "This is a big deal. You should report it to Futai in person. After the grain shipment arrives in the city, it will take a few months.
No matter how lucky you are, you can actually hold on.
But delaying it for a long time may not be good. If Chen County does not starve to death in another month, the soldiers and civilians in Kaifeng City will probably starve to death. And the longer it delays, the more prepared the army will be to block the river. We should also
It would be better to consider highlighting the special forces and occasionally destroy and harass them, but blindly holding on to them is not an option."
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Zuo Zixiang also vaguely knew some of the combat strategies of "advance on land and water side by side, covering each other". He knew that in such a situation, as long as he sent the main force of infantry to cover along the river, and followed the navy to act together, the river barrage fortifications could be destroyed.
All destroyed.
In history, Soochow Wu was the first to use hidden cones and hidden piles to deal with the Jin army's building ships, but wasn't it also destroyed by the Jin army in the end? It was because the Jin army had an absolute advantage and could advance both by water and land. After controlling both sides of the river, whether it was sweeping with rafts
If the iron cone falls off or the sesame oil cabinet burns the iron chain, you can take time to dismantle it slowly.
Shen Lian was also convinced, so he followed Zuo Zixiong to report to Shen Shuren. He also mentioned that he brought a more important military information, which was conveyed by Huang Degong through Zhang Mingzhen. The content was naturally related to King Lu and King Fu.
related to the rescue.
When Zuo Zixiong heard this, he paid more attention to it and personally took Shen Lian straight to Shen Shuren's study.
…
"Huang Degong rescued King Lu and King Fu? They are actually in Shangqiu?"
When Chen Shuren confirmed the news, his face was full of shock. Of course, his level of shock was already the least among everyone.
Who told him to know history and know that King Lu and King Fu were really good at running, but they just didn't know that after the butterfly effect interfered, the rescue location would be Shangqiu.
Then, Shen Shuren took advantage of the situation and turned his attention to the troubles Shen Lian described later, that is, the intruder army's attempt to intercept the Yingchuan waterway and today's small-scale grain transportation and robbery conflict.
He immediately asked associatively: "So, Li Zicheng suddenly changed his previous pure siege strategy and tried to cut off the Yingchuan grain road. He probably also learned that King Lu and King Fu were rescued, and Yuan Zongdi raised grain.
The army was defeated by Mr. Huang.
Therefore, on the one hand, Li Zicheng became angry, and on the other hand, he knew that he could not last longer. He wanted to force our army to have a final decisive battle in the field, and decide the way out quickly. If our army did not go out to fight, it would take him another month.
He probably left on his own."
When Zuo Zixiong and Shen Lian heard this, they both thought it made sense.
Seeing Master Futai regaining his composure so quickly and responding logically so quickly, they were all filled with admiration: He is indeed a hero who has done great things, and he remained calm despite the collapse of Mount Tai. Such a big thing happened as if nothing happened.
It’s still the same as before!
But regarding Shen Shuren's statement, Zuo Zixiong said with concern: "Your concern is indeed reasonable, but if this continues, the whole city of Kaifeng may starve to death.
Even if our army is now protecting food along the river and is forced to fight the invading army, it is not without a chance. Over the past year, the general has listened to the instructions of the adults and has also studied some military books and war histories.
History books say that during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Liu Yu was commander-in-chief and marched against the Yellow River to capture the two capitals. When the Northern Wei Dynasty harassed the Yellow River fleet, Liu Yu stationed thousands of elite troops on the north bank to defeat the enemy in a back-to-back battle.
Since the last general followed your lord and raised troops in Huangzhou, he has been fighting for three or four years. He has fought many battles with water routes and rivers. The invading army is all from the north and is not used to water warfare. Our army
The total strength of land and water forces exceeds 60,000 to 70,000,
If we agree on a time to act together, even if the intruder army gathers 200,000 people to attack, and has no camp to rely on, and only relies on vehicle formations and ship formations, our army is not without confidence to deal with three or four times the enemy! It is better to consider whether we can do it sooner