After being summoned by Duduo for a military meeting, Wanyan Yechen, Zhang Cunren, Geng Zhongming, Sun Zhixian and others certainly did not dare to slack off and immediately rushed to the Chinese army commander's tent.
After Duduo simply raised the question, everyone felt heavy and knew it was time to make some decisions.
Adviser Zhang Cunren also saw Duduo's hesitation and took the opportunity to persuade: "Your Majesty, now that the situation has come to an end, the resentment of the same enemy caused by the hair-cutting order of our army seems to have been temporarily resolved by Zhu Shuren. Zhu Shuren is extremely determined to defend and consume.
At the beginning we fought with Zheng Chenggong. Due to the unfavorable terrain, we had to pay three or four times the casualties to kill one Ming soldier. The losses were all the elites of our Qing Dynasty!
In the past few days, Zheng Chenggong's firepower at the temple has become more fierce. I guess it must be the new muskets assigned to him by Zhu Shuren! If we continue the fight, we may not be able to kill five of us and even one Ming soldier!
At present, our army should try to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army in the field. We must not engage in a war of attrition with the Ming army on a battlefield where the Ming army can grasp the convenience of reinforcements and reinforcements at any time! Otherwise, sooner or later, the remaining 60,000 to 70,000 troops will be defeated.
want……"
He accidentally mentioned a number, "60,000 to 70,000 troops." It can be seen that compared with the Qing army that still had more than 80,000 combatable soldiers at the end of the Battle of Nanjing, in the past ten days, another 10,000 to 20,000 soldiers have been consumed.
Already.
Not all of these 20,000 people died in battle, but a considerable number were injured and lost combat effectiveness, or their physical functions declined during high-intensity combat and fell into serious illness.
Like an angry lion, Duduo angrily rebuked: "Of course I want to fight Zhu Shuren in a field battle, but he refuses to fight and only defends the city and gates everywhere. What can I do? Attacking Jinshan Temple is also trying to break through its blockade!"
Since we can't find a field battle, and we can't attack Jinshan Temple for a long time, we can only find a place where we can break through this blockade without fear that the local defenders will be sent reinforcements by the Zhushu people! Only in this way can our army break through or encircle it.
Click for help!”
In the process of angrily complaining, Duduo's thoughts gradually became clearer:
Under the current circumstances, the reason why it is unwise to visit Jinshan Temple is because this place is directly backed by the Yangtze River, and the dangerous mountain temple is too close to the river! There is no way to go around and block the pier.
Although the territory controlled by the Ming army was not large, as long as there was backup, it would be terrifying if Zhu Shuren used this place as a meat grinder, and it was a meat grinder that the Ming army occupied a favorable location.
If a place cannot be completely besieged without a blockade, it would be meaningless to engage in a battle of attrition.
If they can be surrounded and killed, then a war of attrition is still meaningful. Even if the Ming army wants reinforcements, they will have to be reinforced by land warfare. The Qing army can encircle and reinforce them and seize the opportunity for field battles!
The key reason why we can't surround the site to call for help now is that this "help" can come all the way by water, and even the last mile can be completed by water!
How could the Qing army, which boasted of being invincible in land warfare, seize the opportunity to send reinforcements?
Let alone the Qing Dynasty, during the war between the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Xiangyang was able to hold on for seven years. The key was that the two cities of Xiangyang and Fan were directly backed by the Hanshui pier. When the Song army had an absolute naval advantage, how many Song defenders were consumed by the Yuan army?
The Song army was able to use the Han River to continue bringing in reinforcements. In the end, it was the Yuan army's navy that overtook the Song army and controlled the Han River channel, and the Lu family general in Xiangyang collapsed.
Let’s use an analogy that modern people can understand: Zhu Shuren’s reinforcements were delivered directly to his door by water! He didn’t even have to walk the few hundred steps to “pick it up at the Cainiao Station”! The gangster wanted to take advantage of the owner to go downstairs to the community station.
There is no way to rob the path!
Therefore, Duduo used his blood to summarize a new key point when encircling a point for reinforcements: that place cannot be a place where reinforcements can be delivered to the door through waterways! At least the last kilometer must give you a chance to intercept and kill by land!
There is no need to consider those docks and mountain temples near the river! Where there are waterways, the Ming army is invincible!
After eliminating these options that made the Ming army invincible, Duduo was left with three options:
First, rush forward to fight with Zhu Shuren, go west to return to the area around Nanjing, and even bypass Nanjing and hit the Dasheng Pass, entering the Ma'anshan area of Wuhu.
Secondly, they went south from Jintan County over the Tianmu Mountains, trying to enter the mountainous area of western Zhejiang, and then over the Mogan Mountains to head towards Huzhou and Hangzhou.
Finally, they would go east and cross Jiangyin, plunder Wuxi and Suzhou, expand the Qing army's base in the south of the Yangtze River, and then loot more wealth, shave their heads, and recruit troops.
Anyway, the defeat of Jinshan Temple eliminated the option of "escape to the north" for Duduo. Of course, there are still three options left, east, west, and south. This is very reasonable and strict, and has exhausted all possibilities.
Duduo was not sure of a great victory over Guan Duoduo, because the place was backed upstream, and Zhu Shuren did not know how many reinforcements he could fill up in Huguang. Duduo felt that the remaining troops on hand were not enough.
In the battle against Tianmu Mountain, Zhu Shuren can also transport the Huguang reinforcements from behind, from the direction of Wuhu and Jiangxi, to behind the Tianmu Mountain pass. Therefore, it will eventually become a war of attrition. The Ming army defends the dangerous pass of Tianmu Mountain and has a steady stream of troops. Duduo goes to attack the stronghold. It is purely
court death.
The only option left was Jiangyin, which seemed the most reasonable. Because Jiangyin was in the far east, and the road leading to Jiangyin from the Ming army around Nanjing was divided by Duduo's occupied area.
Therefore, if Duduo attacks Jiangyin, Zhu Shuren will not be able to transport reinforcements from behind the besieged checkpoint. They can only go through Duduo's occupied area to bring reinforcements.
And as long as the Zhu Shu people want to break through Duduo's land occupation area, Duduo will inevitably seize the opportunity to encircle and reinforce the decisive land field battle!
In this way, the aggrieved state of siege warfare that Duduo has endured for more than half a month across the river will be completely reversed!
In his mind, the Qing Dynasty, which was invincible in land warfare, could finally fight an open battle with the cowardly Nanmanzi!
It's not easy. Over the past half month, Duduo sheds tears just thinking about it. He has been forced to tackle tough problems. It's so difficult.
After a brief discussion, Duduo made up his mind and finally consulted his subordinates to check and fill in the gaps:
"I want to move our troops to attack Jiangyin. If we can break through, we can at least destroy Wuxi, Suzhou, Huzhou, Hangzhou and other wealthy places of the pseudo-Ming Dynasty. We can get money, food and materials to facilitate the fight again, and we can also rely on the order to shave ten times more.
The Han people betrayed the false Ming Dynasty, what do you think?"
Zhang Cunren, Sun Zhixian and other counselors all thought that this idea was fine in principle, but Zhang Cunren thought more about the details and found two minor troubles:
"Your Majesty, attacking Jiangyin is indeed a better choice for us at the moment, but there are a few small issues that need to be paid attention to. First of all, although Jiangyin is not as directly backed by the river as Jinshanzhou in Zhenjiang, since its place name is Jiangyin, it can be seen that it is not far away from the river.
Far,
If Zhu Shuren can still send reinforcements to Jiangyin directly from the Yangtze River by water, then all our previous reflections and changes in strategies will be useless! If we want to attack Jiangyin, we must first plan well and how to prevent the Jiangyin defenders from coming from the Yangtze River.
The waterway has been reinforced, so the Ming army coming along the river has to fight with us in the field!"
Duduo is in control of the overall situation. He had not thought much about attacking Jiangyin before. Naturally, he had no idea about Mohu. He was not ashamed to ask: "Have you ever made a detailed plan? What should be paid attention to specifically? Bring me a map!"
Zhang Cunren had thought about this problem in advance. When the guard next to him brought the map, he immediately pointed to the map and analyzed it for Duduo:
"Please see, Your Majesty, our army has actually carried out harassing attacks in the Jiangyin area a few days ago. We want to see if we can quickly expand our army's occupied area without paying any price.
However, the Jiangyin side was tightly guarded, and the penetration and division by light troops and cavalry was ineffective, so it came to a halt. However, if we attack with the main force and heavy troops this time, we probably still have a chance.
The key reason why the Jiangyin area is difficult to penetrate is that the Ming army was divided into three groups there - the middle one is Jiangyin County, which guards the low-lying plain between the two mountains on the south bank of the Yangtze River.
To the north of Jiangyin County, all the way to the Yangtze River, is Huanggong Mountain. Yan Yingyuan, the prefect of Changzhou, divided his troops in advance to set up a stronghold at a dangerous location on Huanggong Mountain. Moreover, Huanggong Mountain extends to the edge of the Yangtze River and has deep water berths, so it is impossible to besiege the Huanggong Mountain Fortress.
Yes, like the Jinshan Temple here, the Ming army's waterway reinforcements were directly transported into the village from the river.
If we want to attack Jiangyin, we can insert part of the siege force into the narrow area between the south of Huanggong Mountain and the north of the north wall of Jiangyin City, divide the two Ming armies, and focus on attacking Jiangyin County alone instead of spending time with the Huanggongshan Ming army.
Tear them apart, just surround Huanggongshan without attacking.
If Jiangyin County is in danger and the Huanggongshan Ming army takes the initiative to go down the mountain to fight with us in the field in order to rescue the defenders in the city, this will play into our army's ambitions and take advantage of our Qing Dynasty's invincibility in field battles to encircle and annihilate the enemies who have come down from the mountain!"
Duduo listened very carefully, and with the help of Zhang Cunren's detailed analysis, he was able to imagine the local terrain using a flat map.
Later generations of readers may not understand the terrain of the Huanggong Mountain area in the north of Jiangyin City, but just one example can help people understand it:
Huanggongshan was a river defense fortress until the Anti-Japanese War. In 1937, the Japanese army basically won the Battle of Songhu at the end of October, but it was not until December that they finally invaded Nanjing and committed inhumane atrocities. The time gap in between,
In fact, the Japanese army was mainly attacking the Jiangyin Fortress on Huanggong Mountain.
It allowed the Japanese army in 1937 to attack the fortress for a long time, which shows the danger of the place.
As for the end of the Anti-Japanese War and when they were crossing the river, there were fierce battles at Jiangyin Fortress, but Chang Kaishen's troops were infiltrated by underground organizations and instigated rebellion in advance, and they were able to capture it in one fell swoop.
The reason why this place is the choke point of the Yangtze River is because the Jiangyin area is the narrowest point on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Looking at the Baidu map of later generations, you will know that where the Jiangyin Bridge was built, the Yangtze River was only about one kilometer wide!
During the Anti-Japanese War, the Japanese Navy actually tried to use the Yangtze River to invade Nanjing in August, but it was blocked by the Huanggongshan Fort in Jiangyin Fortress. It was not until the fall of Jiangyin Fortress in December that the Japanese Navy could pass through (our navy was also in Jiangyin Fortress at that time)
Many boats sank on the river and blocked the channel)
There must be geographical reasons why the Yangtze River is narrow here.
The main reason is that both sides of the river upstream and downstream are plain river beaches. Without landforms to restrict the Yangtze River, the water surface will be wide. To the north of Jiangyin City, Huanggong Mountain reaches the riverside, narrowing the Yangtze River.
Such a mountain that extends all the way into the river can certainly ensure that there is a deep-water dock directly adjacent to the river on the north slope of the mountain, which is absolutely impossible to be blocked by the army.
Although these things have not happened now, the geographical characteristics are consistent in ancient and modern times.
After hearing Zhang Cunren's analysis, Duduo also took a breath of cold air and immediately set the tone of "only blocking the traffic between Huanggongshan Camp and Jiangyin County, but never taking the initiative to attack Huanggongshan Camp".
After solving this note, the next note also became logical. Zhang Cunren continued to analyze: "Similar to Huanggong Mountain, there is another mountain in the south of Jiangyin County, which is Huishan Mountain, the boundary mountain between Jiangyin County and Wuxi County.
.
Although the terrain of Huishan is not as dangerous as Huanggong Mountain, there is a vast hinterland behind it that cannot be controlled by our army. If we attack Huishan by force, the Wuxi Ming Army can reinforce it, and the main force of the Ming Army around Nanjing upstream can also detour behind Tianmu Mountain.
If we cross Taihu Lake and receive continuous reinforcements from Wuxi and Huishan, it will be impossible for us to completely surround the area.
Yan Yingyuan, the pseudo-prefect of Changzhou, seemed to have obtained permission from Shi Kefa before to dig a section of the canal from Taihu Lake to the west of Wuxi County. Taking advantage of the water level of the local canal being slightly lower than that of Taihu Lake and the Yangtze River, he released water and flooded hundreds of thousands of acres of low-lying fields, causing the destruction of Huishan Mountains.
Apart from the high ground, there is no other way around but Zeguo. Therefore, our army can only give up the attack on the south road and can only focus on Jiangyin County."
Duduo didn't quite understand Zhang Cunren's words at first, mainly because he couldn't imagine some of the technical details - why the water level in this section of the Jiangnan Canal connecting Taihu Lake and the Yangtze River was both lower than the Yangtze River and higher than the Taihu Lake at the same time.
So low? So that the Ming army could directly release water to flood low-lying areas as long as they dug canal embankments?
Zhang Cunren had to explain a few more words: It turns out that when the Grand Canal was built in ancient times, they were very good at using the difference in water level to reduce the cost of sailing.
The canal between Taihu Lake in Wuxi and the Yangtze River actually has two independent river channels that are far apart. The canal boat sailing from south to north sails on an easterly river channel, while the canal boat sailing from north to south
The boat sailed to another river farther to the west.
Among these two rivers, the water level point selected for the river that sails from south to north on the east side is that the water level is high on the Taihu Lake side, and the water level is low at the point where it finally flows into the Yangtze River, and it flows further downstream into the Yangtze River. In this way, the canal water naturally
There will be a flow from south to north, from the Taihu Lake to the Yangtze River, and the speed of the water flow will be enough. The watercraft will not need to use poles and paddles, just swim along the current.
As for the river channel that travels from north to south, the point selected to flow into the Yangtze River is further upstream. The water level of the Yangtze River at that point is higher than the water level of Taihu Lake. The canal boats coming from the north follow the water flowing south, that is, from the Yangtze River.
The water flowing towards Taihu Lake can also be waded directly into Taihu Lake.
This dual-channel design of high in the south and low in the north and low in the south and high in the north ensures that each canal channel has a potential energy source with a higher water level than the middle river section. As long as the middle river bank is dug, water can be released immediately to flood the low-lying areas.
.
If the river channel from south to north is dug, water from Taihu Lake will flood in. If the river channel from north to south is dug, water from the Yangtze River will flood in.
Therefore, Yan Yingyuan did not need much construction work before. In the first few days after the Qing army crossed the river, it was completed so quickly that it was too late for the Qing army to rush across with light cavalry.
There were even several teams of Qing cavalry scouts at that time. Because they caught up with the Ming army to break the dikes and release water, when they penetrated into Huishan and Wuxi, they were directly flooded by the "Seventh Army Flooded". Unfortunately, the scale was too small and they were flooded.
There were only a few small groups of scouts.
The cost of Yan Yingyuan's doing this is nothing more than the impact on hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile farmland in Wuxi County and Jiangyin County. But compared with the consequences of allowing the Qing army to infiltrate into Wuxi, Suzhou and other wealthy places, leading to the erosion of Jiangnan, this is
It's totally worth the price.
First of all, the water level was not deep, and the people were evacuated in advance. No one drowned. Yan Yingyuan moved the locals to Jiangyin County and Wuxi County to help fight and defend.
As for the farmland, it happens to be winter now and the crops have been harvested. If Dodo can be eliminated before spring plowing next year, and then the river embankments can be rebuilt to slowly drain water, these fields can still be planted next year. At most, they will not be able to plant high-priced economic products that require less water.
When the crops are ready, we can only plant rice, so we should fully irrigate the crops in advance.
Considering the frequent famines in today's world, it would not be a bad thing to switch to rice cultivation. Wouldn't it be nice to make less money and solve more food problems?
…
Duduo, Zhang Cunren and others, after sorting it out in the middle of the night, finally decided on the strategy for moving to Jiangyin.
Although they haven't fought yet, they initially looked down on unknown people like Yan Yingyuan, but as the military meeting ended, Duduo, who had always been arrogant, rarely calmed down, and even had a premonition of danger.
This Yan Yingyuan, no matter how good his fighting ability is, at least his preparations for the blockade before the war were very sufficient! Without a single soldier, he blocked two of the three possible attack directions of the Qing army!
Huanggongshan cannot be fought, nor Huishan. The only thing that can be fought is to divide and siege Jiangyin County! It also eliminates the possibility of the Qing army's detours and infiltration!
Duduo can completely imagine that since Yan Yingyuan could force the Qing army to attack only the county town, the defense of the county town must be very tight, otherwise no one would force the enemy to attack a key point that he was not sure to defend.
He didn't know exactly how Yan Yingyuan would prepare, but he was definitely fully prepared.
This is a layout of "defending the enemy must attack it".
With this vague uneasiness, in the early morning of the next day, the main force of the Qing army set off one after another, retreating from the front line of Jinshan Temple and shrinking towards Danyang County and Wujin County.
The Qing army was not afraid of the Ming army pursuing them in the field, because if the Ming army was willing to pursue them, Duduo would be extremely happy: after holding back for more than half a month without fighting in the field, the Ming army was finally willing to get out of the turtle shell fortifications!
Why don't you fight back quickly!
Because the Qing army moved relatively covertly in the first place and moved in batches, the Ming army did not immediately notice any clues.
It was only during the day that Zheng Chenggong suddenly discovered that the Qing army's offensive on the Jinshan Temple battlefield had slowed down a lot, and later developed to the point where they only occasionally fired artillery and arrows, and did not actually send people to charge to fill the meat grinder.
After a day of confirmation, the Ming army learned the next day that Duduo's main force had really been transferred, and only some rear troops remained in the direction of Zhenjiang.
Of course, this news was immediately sent back to Nanjing, and also to Jurong County on the front line, and was sent to Zhu Shuren.
Stationed at the forward base in Jurong County was the famous Ming cavalry general Cao Bianjiao. Cao Bianjiao immediately asked Zhu Shuren for instructions to pursue the retreating Qing army.
"Budang! Duduo must be running out of successors. He wants to flee eastward to Jiangyin. Let the last general lead his troops to chase them down! Taking advantage of the Qing army's transfer, there will be chaos and disunity!"
Zhu Shuren has already held the title of Minister of the Ministry of War, so the generals no longer call him Lord Governor, but instead call him Bu Tang.
Hearing this, Zhu Shuren immediately raised his hand to stop Cao Bianjiao's eagerness to fight: "General Cao, don't be impatient. Although Duduo has suffered a setback, his field strength is still sufficient. If we catch up now, we will play into Duduo's plans.
I have also estimated Duduo's supplies. This battle at Jinshan Temple lasted for more than ten days, and the ammunition loss must have been extremely huge, no less than the Battle of Nanjing City. It is estimated that at least 70% of the army's firearm reserves have been used up.
If this happens again, and he is still frustrated at the foot of Jiangyin City, and the trapped beasts are still struggling to break out, I am afraid that his artillery will be completely scrapped, and without ammunition, it will be just a pile of iron lumps.
The Qing army did not pay attention to muskets but only paid attention to cannons, and the muskets would turn into fire sticks. If the arrows are lost, they may not shoot out all the arrows, but the prospects are worrying. We will wait until he is beaten to death under Jiangyin City and the consumables are exhausted.
Finally, annihilate Duduo in one fell swoop!"
Cao Bianjiao was a little unwilling and said worriedly: "What the ministry has seen is that it is certainly prudent. But what the general is worried about is that Jiangyin County may not be able to hold on for long.
If we don't press forward immediately, Jiangyin will soon fall, and Wuxi, Suzhou and other rich places will be massacred and looted by the Qing army!
This Jiangyin County is no better than Jinshan Temple. Although Jinshan Temple is dilapidated, has no city walls, and is only a fortified mountain, but after all, there is a dock along the river, and our army can continue to fight. Even though Jiangyin is stronger than Jinshan Temple, reinforcements cannot be transported into the city by water!
How many cannons of the Qing army can the city walls of small counties withstand?"
Zhu Shuren still looked like he had a pearl of wisdom: "Don't worry, Yan Yingyuan has been with me for many years and has learned the essence of city defense learned by my generals. I estimate that his ability to defend the city is not as good as that of my cousin Zhang Huangyan."
.
Moreover, I sent him to Jiangyin before the war, just in case something unexpected happened. Now it has been nearly twenty days since Duduo crossed the river. Jiangyin was not the main bearer of the pressure. He had so many days to prepare for emergency repairs.
In addition, before the Qing army attacked, I allocated some guns and ammunition to him from the Yangtze River water transport in advance. Even if he is now surrounded, the few supplies he brought in before will be enough for him to defend the city.
We can rest assured and wait for Duduo to suffer another ten days and a half at the foot of Jiangyin City, his energy and supplies will be further depleted, and then we can go to the decisive battle to clean up the battlefield!"
The other generals under his command, seeing how much Zhu Shuren trusted Yan Yingyuan, an old subordinate, and firmly believed that Yan Yingyuan could hold on for a long time, had nothing to say.
The Ming army fought steadily and slowly in this way. The main force of the Ming army around Nanjing looked like they were fighting in a stronghold. Although they wanted to advance, they would only set up a stronghold after walking dozens of miles and would never be cleared.
The army immediately turned back to seize the opportunity for field battle.
Whenever the Qing army turned around, the Ming army would immediately defend the camp and force the Qing army to attack the camp.
This oppression also made Doduo lose his temper. In the process, he sent Wanyan Ye Chen to try to suddenly kill him with a carbine, but the carbine hit the iron plate directly. He did not get any benefits and suffered hundreds of casualties in vain.
Thousands of people.
The two sides just pushed back and forth, allowing the Qing army to arrive at the foot of Jiangyin City and begin to attack the city with all their strength.
This is also the Qing army's last attempt to break out of the encirclement. If they can't break out here, there is no need to break out.
——
PS: I won’t break the chapter if it’s 6,000 words long. It also avoids the trouble of interrogation. The management has been strict recently.