The Ming army's surprise attack on Yangzhou ended in a perfect conclusion with the total annihilation of 4,000 Manchu and Mongolian soldiers and thousands of new troops surrendered by the Han flag and traitors.
The total number of Qing troops on the border of Yangzhou Prefecture is of course far more than this, but the rest are the traitor troops under the former Liu Liangzuo and Xu Dingguo. These troops had been traitors not long ago, and Liu Liangzuo was killed again.
Anyway, ordinary soldiers naturally voted directly and responded to the call of the Ming court.
It can be said that because of the King Fu Rebellion, the Ming army was forced to become traitors. Now only one member of the direct line of Xu Dingguo and one member of Li Chengdong are still insisting on being traitors. The rest were either killed or returned anyway.
The court.
The Ming army was able to fight so smoothly because, on the one hand, Cao Bianjiao and Huang Degong interspersed with each other to encircle and encircle them quickly. They really fought well.
Zheng Chenggong later brought artillery to assist in the siege, which was also indispensable - and Zheng Chenggong's credit did not stop there. Careful observers will definitely find that during the siege of Yangzhou, Zheng Chenggong arrived more than a day later than Huang Degong and Cao Bianjiao.
With this time difference of more than a day, Zheng Chenggong was certainly not idle. He actually led the Ming Navy to intercept and kill Kong Ting's training department on the Yangtze River, which Liu Liang had left to transport supplies and reinforcements to Duduo.
With the intelligence of the time and location of Kong Tingxun crossing the river, there is really not much to say about the follow-up water battle. A generation of navy god generals like Zheng Chenggong took action, waiting for Kong Youde's son to get into it.
, can this still be suspenseful?
The death of Kong Tingxun was naturally extremely tragic, and it could be regarded as helping Kong Youde die in advance. (In the previous chapter, some book friends questioned that Kong Youde had no descendants. To explain, Kong Youde had a son, but historically he and other family members were together.
Guilin was wiped out. Only daughter Kong Sizhen was not in Guilin at the time, so she was not killed by Li Dingguo.)
As for the Yangzhou Qing army sailors and supplies fleet that Kong Tingxun brought, they were naturally killed, and all the supplies that could be captured were seized.
In ancient wars, ships were not easily sunk. Basically, only the gunpowder ships that exploded or self-destructed were almost certain to sink. Therefore, the supplies sent by the Yangzhou Qing army to Duduo, except for those gunpowder ships that suffered greater losses, were basically the same.
They all surrendered or killed all the people and robbed the supplies.
This is equivalent to the fact that in the past half month, the Qing army gathered from the rear and gathered in Yangzhou to prepare military strategic reserves for the conquest of Jiangnan, and directly benefited Zhu Shuren for most of it. It is really a great achievement.
However, all the generals were undoubtedly convinced that the core and first achievement of the Yangzhou Battle should belong to Guo Xingye's strategic planning and wise command.
The trick of repeatedly jumping across the border to play the enemy into the palm of his hand, and the clever trick of using the information cutoff on both sides of the Yangtze River to repeatedly deceive and confuse the enemy's morale and undermine the enemy's will to resist, are the most decisive factors.
When the human heart collapses, no matter how strong the physical combat power is, it cannot be used.
…
The Ming army besieged the city of Yangzhou on the 15th day of the twelfth lunar month, and captured the city on the evening of the 16th. It took several days to clear out the remnants of the enemy and capture enemy troops hiding deserters. On the 18th, sporadic fighting in the city gradually subsided.
Early on the morning of the 19th, Cao Bianjiao's tribe in Yangzhou City began to recross the Yangtze River and retreat southward, preparing to participate in the upcoming final field battle against Duduo.
However, part of Huang Degong's troops was left behind and divided up to help defend Yangzhou City to prevent possible counterattacks by the Qing army.
Part of Zheng Chenggong's navy was also divided and moved from Jinshan Temple on the south bank to Guazhou Ferry on the north bank to help occupy this crucial dock island and coordinate with Huang Degong's garrison in Yangzhou City.
Naturally, most of the generals under his command had no idea about Zhu Shuren's deployment.
Guo Xingye has led everyone to win so many great battles, and his prestige has already reached its peak. It is simply more authoritative than when Jia Sidao defeated Kublai Khan in Ezhou in the late Southern Song Dynasty.
However, Zuo Zixiong, who has followed him the longest, still persuaded him privately because he knew the other old men under Zhu Shuren's command relatively well:
"Master Bu Tang, I, the audience, are all worried that Yan Yingyuan will not last long, so as soon as the battle of Yangzhou is over, we are anxious to have the final battle against Duduo.
But you and I both know what Yan Yingyuan is capable of. He got a lot of firearms supplies before the war. With his ability to defend the city, there is no problem in defending the city for another month. Even if the ministry wants to kill Duoduo within the year, now
There are still more than ten days left.
General Cao's cavalry crossed the river twice, fought for three days, and rested for three to five more days. Maybe they can recover an additional 10% to 20% of their combat strength and make Duduo even more tired, so why not slow down?"
Zhu Shuren usually opposed all opinions and advocated delaying consumption, but at this time he was uncharacteristically:
"From a local military perspective in Jiangnan, it is true that there is no cost in delaying for a few more days. The enemy's and ours' combat strengths can also offset each other, and the state can be restored better.
However, since the Thunder succeeded in Yangzhou, when we look at the problem, we can no longer just look at the south of the Yangtze River. We must learn to look at the whole world - just imagine, before the fall of Yangzhou, even if some people in the Qing army in the north of the Yangtze River suspected that Duduo was in the south of the Yangtze River, the news was cut off for half a month.
If there is enough, whether the progress will be unfavorable, but they will never be bold enough to speculate that there is a risk of Duduo's collapse.
Moreover, people's hearts seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. With the original temperament of Yangzhou Liu Liangzuo, Huai'an Kong Youde and others, even if they temporarily lose contact with Duduo, they will cover the lid first and conceal the true situation from the north. I hope the war situation can take its own course.
If things get better, they can also avoid being punished by the Qing court, which will be beneficial to their official careers."
Zuo Zixiong never thought about the dirty things in officialdom. He was a pure soldier. Even though he had studied hard in the past few years and made some progress in military strategy, he still knew nothing about political strategy.
Zhu Shuren analyzed this from a political point of view, and it suddenly dawned on him that it was indeed Mr. Guo Xing who saw things from a high perspective.
Zhu Shuren continued with a look of wisdom: "Now that Yangzhou has been lost and Liu Liangzuo has been killed, it is absolutely impossible for the Qing army in Huainan to cover the lid. Even if they are afraid of Dorgon, they must do it as soon as possible.
Report worries.
In this way, we must be wary of the Qing government moving further troops from Hebei for reinforcements. If it goes faster, the Azige tribe in Huaixi and Henan will also be transferred.
Now I only leave a small half of Huang Degong's troops, plus Zheng Chenggong, to defend Yangzhou Prefecture. It is more than enough for them to block Fengyang Nikan and Huai'an Kong Youde, but it will be difficult to block the large number of elite reinforcements newly transferred from Hebei and Henan by the Qing army.
Already.
Therefore, we need to get Duduo's head before the main force of the Qing army from Hebei and Henan arrives in Huai'an! Once the Qing reinforcements know that Duduo is dead, their determination to rescue them will be severely damaged, and they will not hesitate to do so.
The price is to risk our lives.
And as long as they know that the Qing army in the south of the Yangtze River has been completely destroyed, the senior officials of the Qing court will naturally calm down and re-evaluate the strength of the enemy and ourselves. Only in this way can we end the war with a war and get time to rest and digest the results of the war."
The last half of this paragraph was not only spoken to Zuo Zixiong by Zhu Shuren, but also to several other generals who had just come in to ask for instructions and deployment. It was half explanation and half war mobilization, making everyone realize
Quickly address the political significance of Dodo.
"Master Bu Tang is indeed a master of calculation. After Bu Tang's analysis, we realized that the quick destruction of Duduo has such great additional significance. Indeed, we have to compete with the Qing court for time!
We can't let them mobilize the army from the rear to rescue Duduo to rush to Jiangbei to launch a general attack! Duduo must be destroyed before then! By the way, it will also destroy the morale of the new Qing army and make their journey in vain!"
After the generals unified their thinking, their fighting spirit naturally became more intense, and all the ministries made intensive preparations. From thoughts to materials, they were fully prepared for the final decisive battle.
…
Zhu Shuren's estimation of the enemy's reaction speed is really very accurate.
As mentioned before, Yangzhou City was destroyed on the 16th, and Liu Liangzuo actually sent a message to Nikan and Kong Youde before the city was besieged.
However, at that time Nikan and Kong Youde did not feel that the situation was serious enough to ask the imperial court for instructions. They still felt that they were capable of solving this problem with the help of the Qing army in the Huaihe and Huaihe regions.
In their eyes, Cao Bianjiao's crossing of the river was still characterized as a tentative sneak attack by the Ming army. Maybe the Ming army just wanted to disturb Jiangbei, make a profit and leave, to engage in piracy warfare.
If they reported a pirate war to Dorgon directly as a major threat, only to find out that it was a mistake, it would be a huge disadvantage to their career advancement. No one wants to make fun of their own future.
However, this contempt was finally completely corrected when Kong Youde's reinforcements arrived in Gaoyou County between Huaiyang two and a half days later.
On the afternoon of the 17th of the twelfth lunar month, Kong Youde's reinforcements marched to the bank of Gaoyou Lake. Seeing that they could not continue to rush to Yangzhou overnight, they wanted to go to Gaoyou County and camp for a night's rest to avoid the hardship of camping in the wild.
As a result, shortly after entering Gaoyou County, news of the fall of Yangzhou came one after another. Kong Youde confirmed that it was correct, and then he knew that the matter was really serious.
Moreover, among the news brought by the defeated soldiers who escaped, there were many rumors flying around that were difficult to distinguish between true and false. For example, Zhu Shuren asked Cao Bianjiao to shout, "The Battle of Jiangnan is over, Duduo has been killed by the Ming army, and the Qing army in Jiangnan has been wiped out."
" and other words were also brought out by the Qing army in Yangzhou.
Faced with the irrefutable evidence of the fall of Yangzhou and the many negative consequences, Kong Youde was frightened and stunned for a moment. He no longer dared to think about his career future. At the moment, he just wanted to save his life and stabilize the situation.
"Quick! Six hundred miles to rush! No, eight hundred miles to rush! Report the emergency to the capital immediately! Wait! Just reporting the emergency to the capital is not enough, send another group of rush to Huaixi and Henan to find Prince Ying! Prince Ying
We are close, maybe we can abandon the attack on Nanyang and divide our troops to rescue him!"
In order to prevent the messenger from having an accident or being intercepted along the way, Kong Youde spared no effort and sent three messengers in each direction. This way, even if one messenger had an accident, the remaining ones could still deliver the message.
The messenger set out overnight, and two days later, on the evening of the 19th of the twelfth lunar month, it was delivered to Azige in the west.
More than a day later, in the early morning of the 21st day of the twelfth lunar month, he was sent to Beijing. At 3:30 a.m. that morning, just as Dorgon got up to prepare for work, he received the critical news of his fifteenth brother.