Chapter 291: The Corpse Spreads Over the Golden Mountain
Now that we know that three or four counties have been lost, and even if we delay for a while, the territory lost will not exceed five counties, there is a high probability that the Jiangyin front line can be defended to prevent the spread of Tatar violence.
Then, Zhu Shuren didn't have much urgency. He insisted on underestimating the enemy and advancing rashly, and immediately launched an all-out general attack on Duduo.
After all, Duduo still has more than 80,000 soldiers who can fight. Although they are tired, by the time Zhu Shuren arrives at Danyang and Jurong battlefields, the Qing army will have at least two or three days of rest, and their physical strength will be greatly restored.
There won't be much weakness to take advantage of.
In contrast, if the damage is controlled within the scope of five counties, Duduo's supplies are slowly consumed, and he waits until he is full of energy, then weakens and is exhausted, in the end it will be much easier and more stable.
Considering that Duduo had entered the prosperous land in the south of the Yangtze River, Zhu Shuren estimated that it was impossible to consume the enemy until the opponent ran out of food.
If there is really a shortage of food, it is estimated that the people of the five counties in the town will be massacred and plundered. The loss will be too great, and the damage to the continued productivity of the Jiangnan region will be too great.
Therefore, in terms of food supply, as winter deepens, the horses' feed will become worse and worse, which will relatively weaken the Qing army's cavalry's continuous combat endurance. In addition, the Qing army's food quality is also very likely to decline -
Now Duduo has just crossed the river four days ago. By relying on robbery, he can even maintain the troops' life of wine and meat. The reason why he was able to attack Nanjing so harshly is also related to Duduo's willingness to spend money and spend lavishly to reward the troops. Participate
Which of the soldiers attacking the city didn't feast on food and wine for two days to boost their morale?
As for the luxurious life of wine and meat, Duduo could only maintain it for ten days and a half at most. After eating up all the wine and meat accumulated by the rich households in the five counties of Changzhen, no external supplies came in and they were blocked. Although Doduo's army could not
As for being hungry, I will definitely enter a vegetarian state soon.
If the stalemate lasts for nearly a month, there may be a shortage of fresh vegetables and refined grains, and the only options available are pickles or at least whole grain pancakes.
In addition to the decline in the quality of food and grass, Zhu Shuren also hopes to cut off the enemy's supply, which is to slowly weaken Duduo's weapons, ammunition and arrows.
In terms of weapons, the armor rate of the Qing army will weaken rapidly as they continue to launch sieges. In the two days under Nanjing City, less than 3,000 soldiers of the Eight Banners were killed in direct combat, and the rest were all dead.
They were Han and Mongolian armies. But the number of high-quality iron-clad cotton armor left behind by those who died in the Eight Banners alone already exceeded 5,000 pairs.
When the Qing army was attacking fortresses, they often asked their elite soldiers to wear several sets of heavy armor, but they usually did not prepare so many armors and did not use them in field battles. Therefore, they were all temporarily allocated before attacking the city, so that they did not need to board first.
The lightly-armed troops evened out their iron armor and temporarily lent it to the dead soldiers.
These dead soldiers were lost under the city, which means that at least twice their number of iron armors were left behind. A considerable number of the surviving Manchu and Eight Banners soldiers will be converted to light armor, or they will have to strip the high-quality Han and Mongolian soldiers.
armor.
The damage to swords, guns, and weapons was not a big deal, and the Qing army was not lacking in swords and guns. Another shortcoming in the supply of weapons was mainly the loss of firearms, ammunition, and arrows.
During those two days of fierce fighting in Nanjing, the Qing army's artillery force was too fierce. On the first day, four or five artillery guns were damaged by the Ming army. On the second day, the damage was even greater.
Fired with great intensity, the chamber exploded and other damage occurred.
The combat power of Duduo's Hongyi cannons dropped from 46 at the beginning of crossing the river to barely 30. Even if a few can be salvaged through subsequent repairs, the total number will not exceed 35.
Before the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, they began to try to cast cannons in the sixth year of Chongzhen. It was not until the eighth year of Chongzhen that mass production was stabilized. After that, it took ten years to save more than two hundred red Yi cannons. Their annual output also increased from the initial level.
A dozen doors a year, slowly rising to thirty doors a year.
After entering the customs, relying on the inventory of the Ming and Chuang armies that captured half of the country in the north, the total stock of Hongyi artillery of the Qing army once exceeded the peak value of 300. After integrating the military production capacity of North China, the annual casting rate of the Qing-controlled areas
The total number of guns can also be further increased from 30 guns outside the pass to about 50 guns.
Therefore, Duduo lost fifteen or six Hongyi cannons in just a few days. This battle loss is definitely not a small number. It is equivalent to one-third of the Qing's total production capacity next year. As long as Zhu Shuren destroys the Qing's heavy artillery every year in the future
If it exceeds fifty, the Qing's artillery force will be reduced more and more.
The loss of artillery is just a microcosm. Behind it is the rapid depletion of consumables of the Qing army.
Based on the limited intelligence collected by Shi Kefa from the prisoners, Zhu Shuren estimated that if there were one or two more losses like the Battle of Nanjing, all the Qing army's artillery would become misfired due to lack of ammunition.
Without these consumables, musket ammunition and bows and arrows will be exhausted after three or five battles of this intensity. Of course, if the Qing army is willing to use cannons to fire stone balls, they can squeeze some gunpowder from the musketeers for the cannons.
But anyway, the meat is rotten in the pot, and the cannon consumes a lot of ammunition, so the musket must be scrapped in advance.
Of course, Zhu Shuren was always very clear-eyed about the prerequisites for achieving all this: he had to ensure the completeness of the blockade and completely cut off even the last trace of contact between Duduo and the Qing army in Jiangbei.
In the next period of time, even if no field battle breaks out, it does not mean that the Ming army has done nothing. The water warfare patrols on the river must always maintain high intensity, and the troops on the land must not relax to chase and intercept. In the end, under the Qing army's
Find the flaw in mobile combat and hit it with one strike!
…
After deploying this strategy and resolutely implementing it, in the next three or four days, the smoke of the land battle on the Changzhen battlefield did temporarily dissipate.
Duduo was mentally prepared from the beginning, "Waiting for Zhu Shuren to pursue him rashly, he would then turn around and fight back. Before the morale of the Qing army fell to the extreme, he would quickly engage in a decisive field battle to encircle the point and bring reinforcements."
Therefore, after he retreated to Jurong County, he showed weakness and made the rear army look embarrassed. On the way back to Jurong from Nanjing, he even left behind some heavy looted property and old soldiers damaged in the war.
First.
This shows that he has watched too much Romance of the Three Kingdoms and wants to imitate Cao Cao, who left his property to deceive Yuan Shaojun when he retreated.
With Zhu Shuren's IQ, how could he fall for such a trick just for a small profit? So Duduo's acting skills this time were in vain.
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In contrast, Duduo was very concerned about re-obtaining supplies from Jiangbei on his way back to Jurong and Danyang.
After his main force crossed the river some time ago, the rear army fleet was intercepted and killed by uncles and nephews of the Zheng family. The ships and sailors suffered a lot, which also made the rear army dare not cross the river again for reinforcements. However, there were still a small number of warships and small boats at that time.
Duduo stopped his losses in time and took him back to Longtanwei's dock to hide.
With this small boat, it is absolutely impossible to transport the army back to the north of the Yangtze River after the failed attack on Nanjing. Even if there are loopholes in the Ming army's patrol of the river at night, how many people can be transported by this small boat? Duduo can't
Abandon the army and flee?
In addition, Duduo didn't feel that he was dying until now. He didn't want to escape at all. He was just afraid that protracted fighting would lead to insufficient supplies of artillery shells and gunpowder, so he wanted to use these ships to sneak back to Jiangbei to transport some of the most scarce armaments.
Food, arrows, clothes and armor all take up too much space. There is no need to transport them from Jiangbei. The remaining precious transportation capacity cannot be wasted on these heavy items. Duduo thought over and over again and decided to use all the smuggling transportation capacity.
A handful, all used to make gunpowder.
On November 18, two days after Duduo's Battle of Nanjing, Duduo returned to Danyang and ordered the only fleet under his command to be gathered and secretly bypass Jinshan Temple on the river.
Departing from the town's pier, we headed in the dark to Yizheng County, Yangzhou Prefecture in the north of the Yangtze River.
In order to get in touch with the generals of the Qing army who were stranded in Yangzhou, and to transport gunpowder. The Qing army also stationed a large amount of gunpowder in Yangzhou, including those slowly transported from the rear during this period. If the materials in Yangzhou can be used in Jiangnan
As for the battle, Duduo definitely still has to fight.
However, although the scale of this stowaway was many times smaller than the troop transport of the previous few days, and it seemed to be many times more secretive, it still fell into the trap of the Ming army patrolling the Yangtze River.
Zheng Hongkui's navy was stationed at Jinshan Temple. The scout boats were very densely dispersed, and the Ming army also spent a lot of money. After Zhu Shuren learned that Duduo had crossed the river a few days ago, he immediately asked his subordinates to allocate another batch to Zheng Chenggong.
If Zheng Chenggong doesn't use all the telescopes himself, he can give some to his uncle.
Zhu Shuren is not worried at all about the spread of high-power telescopes with higher accuracy than this era. Even the grassroots officers of the Ming army's scout fleet can get them. Even if there is a risk of being captured by the enemy in the war, he doesn't care anymore.
Anyway, telescopes are not too unparalleled equipment in land battles. The main reason is that the navy is very useful, and the Ming army's navy has an absolute advantage. As long as Duduo can be completely killed and sealed this time, the risk is worth taking.
What's more, if during the water battle with Duduo, some officers of the Ming army's scout ship were occasionally captured and captured, as long as Duduo was finally wiped out, wouldn't these captured things return to Zhu Shuren's pocket?
To use a famous saying in the 21st century, that is, "If I kill you, these things are mine, and you don't need to give them to me."
Unless new equipment is captured during contact with the Qing army in Jiangbei, it is possible that it will be completely lost and analyzed and alerted by the enemy.
In addition, in order to better intercept the Qing army's smuggling ships, Zhu Shuren also took out a new piece of equipment during this time to use with the telescope - he equipped the Ming army's scout ships with some reflective cups made of shiny metal.
It's just a concave surface made of some shiny metal and placed behind the torch to focus the light and achieve an original searchlight-like effect.
In fact, this kind of thing is technically worthless. As early as BC, the lighthouse in Alexandria, Egypt, used copper mirror reflectors to reflect the lighthouse flames. It’s just that the ancient reflectors did not have mathematical blessings and could not calculate the reflection curvature. The efficiency was relatively high.
Low, the craftsmanship and precision of this era can be improved a bit, making it easier for the searchlight's fire to reach farther.
The Ming army had so many new weapons for patrolling the river, so Duduo's attempt naturally ended in failure. Most of his last dozens of ships that could cross the river were discovered by Zheng Hongkui's scout ship from Jinshan Temple, and then they
Fireworks similar to flying monkeys were immediately released on the river as a quick warning, attracting a large fleet of warships to intercept and kill them.
Duduo killed hundreds of elite soldiers who participated in the smuggling in vain, and he was so angry that he was so angry. He didn't care that his troops were still clearing Wujin County and wanted to attack Jiangyin. He couldn't help it in Zhenjiang.
To open a new pit, we should divide tens of thousands of troops to attack Jinshan Temple first and remove Zheng Hongkui, who has a bone stuck in his throat.