Chapter 304 Prepared for the final battle against Duduo
Dorgon was naturally shocked when he received the bad news that after his fifteenth brother led his army deep into the south of the Yangtze River, he advanced rashly and helped the navy to be destroyed, and was besieged heavily. His life or death was unknown.
He was having breakfast at the time and was so shocked that he almost dropped to the floor.
"What? This is impossible. The fifteenth brother brought the main force of the three banners, as well as the Han and Mongolian troops to assist in the battle. The troops and horses he had on hand accounted for 30% of the entire military force of the imperial court!"
Dorgon simply could not imagine that the Qing Dynasty, which had always been invincible in battles, could actually have such a large army and be besieged by those cowardly and weak Southern barbarians and find it difficult to escape.
At this moment, the person who came to help Dorgon with military aircraft was the surrender minister Hong Chengchou. Hong Chengchou said with concern:
"Your Majesty, Kong Youde and Nikanbeile really don't know the current situation of Prince Yu, but the Ming army can fight Prince Yu in the south of the Yangtze River and at the same time split their forces to attack the north of the Yangtze River. It's obvious how serious the situation is!
Perhaps Prince Yu is indeed brave and invincible. Even without the help of the navy, his tens of thousands of cavalry can still cause chaos in the south of the Yangtze River. However, it is true that he has not been able to break through the Jiang defense and send back the news.
It shows that the Ming army was at least very successful in consolidating the walls and clearing the country. Even if a county was captured by our heavenly soldiers, they could evacuate the warships before the city was broken, or burn the warships. This allowed Prince Yu to temporarily gain a lot of land.
Unable to raise a warship to cross north to communicate."
Hong Chengchou tried his best to think in the best light of his words, and he was also trying to put gold on Duduo's face and give Dorgon some steps to step down. As we all know, Duoduo has the best relationship between Dorgon and his brothers.
, this point still needs to be glossed over.
If this were not the case, Dorgon would not have handed over the largest army to Dodo.
Fortunately, Dorgon also knew the importance. He quickly recovered and realized that losing face was not important at the moment. The key was to immediately send troops for reinforcements.
"How many troops and horses are there in North Zhili and Shandong that can be dispatched now? Let the troops from Zuoming go to Huaiyang immediately. Even if there is a shortage of ships to cross the river, at least recover Yangzhou first and completely crush the Ming army who dares to return to the north of the Yangtze River! How much can this do?
Attract and consume some Ming army troops to buy time for the fifteenth brother to break out.
Then, let all the ministries try to risk their lives to cross the south with a small group of fast boats as soon as possible to get in touch with the fifteenth brother. He is the same person. Even if he cannot defeat the Ming Navy for the time being, he can try to send a small boat back to the south of the Yangtze River to contact him. Is it really possible?
The siege is so tight that not even a small boat can be stolen across hundreds of miles of river?"
Hong Chengchou agreed one by one, wrote down the regent's guiding ideology, and then slowly refined the plan and reported back:
"The soldiers and horses of the Northern Zhili are marching south, fearing that they will be delayed for a long time. I sincerely ask the prince to allow all the ministries to change their defenses, so that the Shandong imperial court can send all its soldiers and horses, including the Han and Mongolian flags, south to Huainan to reinforce Prince Yu.
We can gain more than ten days of preparation and marching time by attacking Zhili troops and horses in the north, and then gradually take over the empty defense area after Shandong troops and horses move south.
The Shandong garrison was originally to clear out the remaining enemy bandits along the canal and to be on guard against Liu Zeqing's arrival. Come to think of it, Liu Zeqing was unable to make any progress in the dead of winter. This guy just wanted to be a warlord and loot the place. It would be okay if he left it alone for the time being. If he dared to advance,
, when the Beizhi army arrives, they will be destroyed!
In addition, if you are worried that Shandong's troops and horses are insufficient, Prince Wenying's troops need to relax their offensive on Nanyang and Xiangyang as appropriate, and instead reinforce Huainan, or move to nearby Xinyang and Hefei to divide the Ming army's power in the north of the Yangtze River."
Dorgon played accurately one by one, and also calculated the size of the troops and horses in each place, and felt a slight sense of embarrassment in his heart.
He couldn't help but ask Hong Chengchou: "If our main force in the Qing Dynasty really suffered any damage this time, besides recruiting regular members from each banner and each household to join the army, I'm afraid we would have to think of other ways to supplement our military strength."
Sir, do you have any clever ideas?"
Historically, after several years of fighting in the south of the Yangtze River, the Qing army gradually discovered that as the war continued, the Eight Banners and the Han Army Flags alone were not enough. So starting from the third year of Shunzhi, the Green Camp was prepared to distinguish them from the original Han Army Flags.
, giving more Han people who want to join the army a new upward path.
Now, due to Duduo's early crisis, Dorgon had to think about this imminent issue in advance by chance.
Many officials in later generations mistakenly believed that before the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, there were only 60,000 to 70,000 Manchu troops as the main force. This is actually a misunderstanding——
The reason why the number "60,000" is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people mainly comes from the original definition of the Eight Banners: three hundred households have one Niulu, five Niulu have one Jiala, and five Jiala have one flag, so one flag is twenty-five Niulu.
There are 7,500 households, and each household has one soldier as a standing army. One banner is naturally 7,500 cavalry, multiplied by eight, which is 60,000.
But in fact, the 60,000 people were only the result of the initial census of the people during the Nuerhachi period. It is like the census of the population at the beginning of any dynasty. If no census is conducted for decades, the increase will not be known at all.
What's going on? After years of growth, the Eight Banners' first-line regular standing army has already exceeded the 10,000-man strength per banner.
The civil affairs in the early Qing Dynasty were naturally poor, so Nuerhachi and Huangtaiji did not approve household registration for a long time. In order to reduce the number of soldiers, the Manchus naturally would not divide households.
Therefore, no matter how large the population becomes, often until Shunzhi enters the customs, the same family when the Eight Banners were organized decades ago is still one family today. In fact, parents and even grandparents have all died in the war, and the brothers and even cousins below have
You can still live in one house.
Now Dorgon also knows about this situation, and he has always turned a blind eye and has no intention of forcing changes rashly. His only request for these banner people who are not divided into households is that "a certain household's principal battle
If a person dies or is too old to serve in the army, he must be replaced by someone from among the non-regular members of the household."
Therefore, before the incident in Duduo this year, the Manchu Eight Banners actually had more than 80,000 regular cavalry, and at least two non-regular "reserves" per household, which is about 150,000 people.
Counting all the young and healthy men of the clan, regular army and reserve forces, the Manchus can recruit more than 200,000 men for military service. If the old, weak, sick and disabled are also included, the total male population of the clan can be more than 400,000, plus
The entire Manchu clan, including women and children, numbered between eighty and one million people.
From this point of view, even if Duduo loses tens of thousands of elite regular troops, Dorgon can still draw people from the reserves to make up for it. But if it happens one or two more times, the Manchu rule will definitely collapse, and Dorgon has to start thinking in advance.
Things about Green Camp.
But no matter what, water from afar cannot quench the thirst of the nearer.
Dorgon issued the order on the 22nd of the twelfth lunar month, and the Hebei Qing army could not directly go to the south to provide assistance. The Shandong Qing army received the order on the 24th and had to prepare to leave, at least by the end of the twelfth lunar month.
The dispatch of the army is not as fast as the 800-mile rush messenger, and the assembly and march are very slow. From Shandong to the south, traveling 80 miles or even a hundred miles a day, the total distance of 1,200 miles will take half a month to Yangzhou.
The situation is similar in Azige. It is estimated that a large number of reinforcements will rush to Yangzhou at least on the tenth day of the first lunar month next year. There is also a new year in the middle, which will definitely make countless soldiers complain.
Duduo obviously couldn't wait that long.
…
To put it in perspective, on the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, Cao Bianjiao's cavalry again crossed the Yangtze River south. After maneuvering in place, they took another three or four days of rest and recuperation, and almost returned to at least 80% of their peak combat status.
The reinforcement order from Dorgon in the north has just been sent to the generals of the Qing army in Shandong. On the Jiangyin battlefield, Duduo is finally about to usher in a full-scale attack by the Ming army.
There is no doubt that in the past ten days, Duduo was still wasting his time around Jiangyin and was stuck in the quagmire.
Zhu Shuren had previously assessed that the Battle of Nanjing consumed at least 30% of Duduo's arms and ammunition. Later, the Battle of Jinshan Temple in Zhenjiang, although not intense, lasted longer and was once consumed by mincing meat.
The battle of Jiangyin lasted for half a month, and a lot of materials and energy were spent on destroying the outer triangular fortifications set up by Yan Yingyuan. Just a few blasts, each time at least thousands of kilograms of black gunpowder were buried, or even
More.
Therefore, even if the Duduo Army transferred all the gunpowder reserves from the musketry unit to the artillery unit, it would still not be enough. Before the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, the Duduo Army's gunpowder was completely exhausted.
Perhaps Duduo also had a premonition of the upcoming field battle, but perhaps what he was thinking was: gunpowder is used to attack fortresses, and it doesn't matter if there is no gunpowder in the field. Since there is only a little bit left, if Jiangyin cannot be captured, it will be impossible to go elsewhere in the future.
When it comes to fighting a tough battle, it's better to go all-in. If you don't succeed, you'll have to flee and fight.
After the gunpowder was exhausted, although the artillery shells of the Qing army were almost exhausted and not much wasted, the lead bullets, iron sand and other bullets reserved by the musketeers were completely wasted and turned into decorations.
Gunpowder has been misappropriated, muskets have become fire sticks, and small lead bullets can only be thrown away and played with, or hope that there will be a few "Zhang Qing without feathers" type throwing expert in the army.
In addition to the scrapped firearms troops, the Qing army's arrow loss and crossbow loss were also very serious. Although the arrows were not completely lost, there were already a large number of second-hand arrows mixed with the recycled arrows from the battlefield——
During the past few days of the Jiangyin offensive and defensive battle, every day was raining down. The reflection of the Ming army in the city was equally sharp. A lot of the ground outside the city was like reeds. When the battle just ended, it was white and covered with tail feathers. The Qing army came out of the mud.
Draw second-hand arrows or even third-hand arrows and shoot back.
The missing iron clusters of these arrows are not easily damaged. They can be pulled out and shot even when the ground is muddy. However, the feathers at the tail are damaged the fastest, which will seriously affect the shooting accuracy, so they can only be used as cover for projectiles.
If you want to use it for accurate shooting by shooters with excellent shooting skills, it will definitely cause trouble.
For those who don’t understand this, you can imagine that even if you play badminton a few times in later generations, the hair will explode and fly around.
The speed of an arrow when it misses is countless times faster than playing badminton, and the feather loss speed is at least equal to the square of the multiple of the flight speed.
And in this environment, which can be said to be almost out of ammunition and food, Zhu Shuren brought the heads of Yangzhou guard Liu Liangzuo and others. He was also planning to take these heads and destroy them in the line of fire before the decisive battle.
Dodo’s morale.
That evening, Duduo's army scouts in the Jiangyin camp reported to Duoduo the latest changes in the Ming army:
"Your Majesty, I found out this afternoon that the main force of the Ming army suddenly used unknown means to cause civil strife and mutiny among the defenders of Danyang County, and then the Ming army captured Danyang County!
Then the Ming army went non-stop, surrounded Wujin County on three sides, and continued eastward around the county. They were already approaching our army. They are still sixty or seventy miles away from our camp, and they will definitely join my army tomorrow!"
Duduo, who was depressed after three consecutive failed battles, had a rare gambler's light in his eyes: "Did Zhu Shuren take the wrong medicine? Did he finally dare to fight Gu Ye?
The whole army will have a extra meal tonight! Let the soldiers recharge their batteries! Let the cavalry from the Wujin County garrison break out and join our army! Lure the Nanmanzi over! It would be best if the people from Zhu Shu are willing to chase! Let’s make food at the fourth watch tomorrow.
The whole army is well fed and marches out of camp to meet the enemy!"