Chapter 342 Restoration of the Central Capital (6,000-character chapter)
"Please forgive me, Your Majesty, for your incompetence! The army arrived in Huaiyuan County, but was unable to break the city for several days. It is really shameful. The Tatars defended very resolutely, and our cavalry artillery blasted a small gap in the city wall, but they still let people
Fight to the death with mouth shut, and fight to the death without retreating.
Our army has been fighting for many days, but not all the rear troops have arrived yet. We are temporarily weak, so we have to divide our troops to besiege and build additional traditional siege equipment, so we are temporarily blocked."
On September 22nd, Zhu Shuren personally led his troops to the front line of Huaiyuan County to inspect the progress of the attack. Huang Degong, who had been unable to break through the city for several days, immediately came to report in person and apologized a little embarrassedly.
Zhu Shuren, however, seemed very relaxed, and just patted Huang Degong's shoulder in a friendly manner: "Victory and defeat are common matters for military strategists, not to mention that our army was not defeated, but the progress was slow for a while. In the final analysis, the battle was too fast and too smooth before. The soldiers and horses
It also needs repairs, and the heavy artillery team also needs time to be slowly transported to the front line, so there is no need to rush."
Huang Degong arrived at Huaiyuan City on September 17th. It was now the fifth day. However, it was not until September 19th that the first batch of light cavalry artillery arrived at the front line. Otherwise, Huang Degong could only rely on the improvised traditional siege.
It's normal to be unable to take down the weapon temporarily if you attack it forcefully.
Even the cavalry artillery is specially designed for mobile deployment in the field. It is too difficult to blow up the city wall with a cannonball that only weighs three or four kilograms. It would be great if it can blast some small gaps and cause the rammed earth to collapse to form a slope.
It cannot be completely destroyed.
The transportation of heavy engineering heavy artillery is very clumsy. Before the Battle of Feishui, the Ming army did not carry professional siege heavy artillery with the army. They usually stocked it in Hefei City.
A decisive field battle is needed to determine the winner and ensure that the Ming army can control the situation on the Feihuai battlefield. Only then can the heavy siege artillery be shipped north from Hefei. It will not take more than ten days to be deployed in place——
After all, before the outcome of a field battle is determined, if heavy artillery with limited mobility is rashly deployed and deployed, let alone whether it can be deployed quickly to help the frontal battlefield.
Even if the deployment is in place, who can guarantee that they will win in the field without retreating even a step? If there is a mistake on the battlefield and it is necessary to turn in, then the heavy artillery that is inconvenient to retreat is likely to be captured by the enemy. This is the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Both sides knew the military common sense, so no one did that.
Zhu Shuren is very aware of these situations and naturally does not have excessive expectations and requirements for his subordinates.
After comforting Huang Degong, he casually asked about the current defensive deployment of the Qing army and the strength of the troops at various nodes. Regarding these, Huang Degong had already figured out very clearly, and he said:
"It is said that the Tatars still have 70,000 to 80,000 troops, but in the past few days, the siege of the city has been exhausted, and there are probably a lot of battle losses. The general originally thought that the Tatars would shrink their troops and defend Fengyang with all their strength.
But now it seems that the general made a miscalculation. The new Tatar coach Bolo may have thought that Fengyang City would be crowded with so many defenders, and it would be easy to be encircled and consumed for a long time. The army would not have enough food to starve to death, so he was determined not to be trapped in the isolated city.
,
And they need to divide their troops into Huaiyuan and Linhuai, and the three cities form a corner to support each other. In this way, the Tatars can also ensure that the two small waterways flowing in from Huaibei between Huaiyuan and Fengyang, Linhuai and Fengyang can be used from the rear.
Bring supplies. If they are really trapped in the isolated city and surrounded by our army from all sides, they will have no logistical channels."
According to what Huang Degong said, Zhu Shuren deduced it on the combat map and quickly understood the enemy's concerns.
In the past three years, the Qing army's savings were not very large. After all, the north was so poor and they were losing more than a million people every year, including hundreds of thousands who died of starvation.
In addition, before the war began, the Qing army did not expect to engage in a city defense battle in Fengyang. Naturally, it was impossible to transport the main military ration stocks in the Lianghuai War Zone to Fengyang City in advance and store them in advance.
Therefore, when Abatai died in the battle, the food stored in Fengyang City was probably enough to last the original permanent troops for a year and a half. If the armies from other places also shrink into Fengyang City, but other counties
However, the food was not concentrated in Fengyang so quickly.
In a short period of time, the number of people in the city expanded several times, reaching 70,000 to 80,000 people. It would be possible for the army to run out of food after three to four months or even less.
In that case, the Ming army would not have to attack by force, but just lay siege to the city. If the siege lasted for three months, in the spring of next year, the 70,000 to 80,000 people in the city would be so hungry that they had no energy left. Wouldn't it be wonderful to annihilate them all with one blow?
The siege of the city for several months seems to be protracted and the Ming army spent a lot of money. However, if such a large Qing army can be wiped out, or at least its combat effectiveness is seriously weakened, it will be absolutely cost-effective for the Ming Dynasty! Today's
The Ming Dynasty can afford this national power!
If the Qing army only defends the isolated city, one of the biggest problems is that they will completely lose control of the entire Huaihe River channel - Huaiyuan, Fengyang, and Linhuai, these three counties are close to the Huaihe River, and they are located where the river is narrow.
, at a location convenient for crossing the river, the forts and defense facilities at the head of the city can also cut off the river.
Controlling any county means that enemy ships can be prevented from passing through the corresponding section of the Huaihe River. For example, the Qing army still controls three counties, so the warships of the Ming army coming from the lower reaches will not be able to reach the section above the Huaihe River.
, ships coming from the upper reaches cannot reach the lower reaches of Huaiyuan.
The naval power of the Ming army can be limited to a certain extent. The tributaries flowing into the Huaihe River from Huaibei among these counties can also be used by the Qing army. The Ming army cannot truly encircle Fengyang from all sides.
Because the Huaihe River section just north of Fengyang was still under the control of the Qing army, the Ming army could at most surround the other three directions.
After sorting out the enemy's situation and the enemy's thoughts and intentions, Zhu Shuren followed the trend and asked: "Have you found out how the various Tatar tribes are specifically distributed? For example, how many of the remaining 70,000 people are in these three cities?"
Huang Degong: "The details are still unclear, but there are at least more than 10,000 people in Huaiyuan and Linhuai each, and if there are more, there may be 20,000. The rest are all in Fengyang City, and they should be between 30,000 and 50,000."
Zhu Shuren nodded: "Then let's take an average and say there are 40,000 people in Fengyang City - have you figured out where Geng Zhongming's troops withdrew to? Did they withdraw to Huaiyuan City or all the way to Fengyang?
Already?"
Huang Degong's eyes lit up when he heard this question, and he also reacted: "Does the prince want to develop those traitors as internal agents? Please forgive me for my incompetence. I haven't been able to figure this out yet. However, the attack on the city in the past few days has indeed been successful.
I have never seen the Geng flag at the top of Huaiyuan City..."
Zhu Shuren stroked his beard and thought to himself: Geng Zhongming withdrew from the west. If he had not stopped in Huaiyuan, he would have probably withdrawn to Fengyang. He would not have to continue to go downstream after arriving in Fengyang.
In any case, if you have Geng Jimao who is afraid of death and begs for surrender, you are already in an invincible position, and you can definitely hit the target with or without dates.
At worst, the situation was exposed that "Geng Zhongming's son had surrendered to the enemy and had personally killed Raoyu Commandery King Abatai", which led to internal strife in the Qing army, and Boluo just killed Geng Zhongming.
If it works well, the Qing army will be completely in civil strife, which will be convenient for the Ming army to counterattack and capture Fengyang.
Anyway, Zhu Shuren didn't care at all about the life of an old traitor like Geng Zhongming. He didn't even care whether the value of the old traitor's death could be maximized or whether the old traitor's death could take away a few more Tatars.
As long as it does not appear to the outside world that Zhu Shuren deliberately betrayed Geng Zhongming, and does not appear that Zhu Shuren was jealous and cruel to the surrendered ministers, damaging his reputation for recruiting surrenders and rebels, that would be fine.
Therefore, if Geng Zhongming really died tragically, Zhu Shuren would definitely give Geng Jimao a large sum of gold, silver and jewels, and he would give it in a high-profile manner to clear himself of suspicion and continue to establish the person who wanted to surrender and rebel.
After thoroughly thinking about the countermeasures, he gave Huang Degong detailed instructions, asking him to continue to hold off the front of the battlefield in Huaiyuan County, and to show a real fight, a big fight, but he cared about the lives of the soldiers and was unwilling to pay for them with human lives.
The Qing troops in Huaiyuan and other places were so easy to deceive that they first misjudged the urgency of the war situation and then used other deceptive tactics.
…
Zhu Shuren stood at the strategic level and gave personal instructions. The siege warfare pattern on the front line of Huaiyuan County also underwent some changes.
Huang Degong no longer pursued the speed of breaking the city, but he did not relax the determination of the attack at all. He just waited for the heavy siege artillery to be in place, and then slowly bombarded it step by step. He would not let the soldiers charge until a certain wall was completely destroyed.
In a nutshell, it means cherishing the lives of soldiers, but allowing more ammunition to be wasted, which is a bit like the combat style of later generations of the US military in attacking difficult situations - although there is no such professional term as "Van Fleet ammunition" in this era.
Of course, the Qing army on the opposite side will also feel this change immediately. The fear of shelling among the frontline soldiers is getting more and more serious. After all, this is a unilateral tactics that can only be beaten without a chance to fight back, although the direct casualties are not many.
, but the blow to morale was too great.
Since the Huaihe River waterway from Huaiyuan to Fengyang was not cut off by the Ming army, the Qing army could naturally continue to send sentry ships to the rear to report the battle situation, ask for help, and state the urgency of the front line.
Boluo in Fengyang City could not do much. He could only add troops one after another to encourage the Huaiyuan defenders to persist, and use the Huaihe River waterway to transport some seriously wounded soldiers to the rear each time the troops were added. There was nothing else they could do.
However, in the process, the Qing army was gradually paralyzed, and the new combat form developed a mental inertia. It felt that the Ming army was going to attack steadily and encroach step by step. It was very eager to completely dredge the Huaihe River channel and break the Qing army's control.
Only then will the next step be taken.
Unfortunately, just as the Qing army became more and more determined in this idea, the Ming army was already secretly carrying out other vicious operations.
…
September 26, the fourth day after the Ming army changed their tactics,
Another group of fresh Qing troops who went to Huaiyuan to change defenses took warships from Fengyang and took the Huaihe River waterway to the front line for reinforcements. At the same time, a group of seriously wounded soldiers who had been transported back from the Huaiyuan battlefield were sent to Fengyang City for treatment.
To send the wounded back to the city, of course it is impossible for the entire fleet to be filled with wounded, and there must be soldiers and sailors to take care of them, otherwise who would be driving the ship.
At this time, the people responsible for guarding and driving the boats were often some of the sons of the Huaiyuan Qing army with strong connections who wanted to be deserters and temporarily serve in relatively safe areas in the rear.
This kind of thing is inevitable in any era, just like what was shown in the movie "Wreaths Under the Mountain". Especially after the Qing army has been in control of the Central Plains for several years, there are also many corrupt and degenerate people inside.
, has developed the mentality of being able to hide and hide when encountering war.
It is impossible for the Qing army to strictly inspect every soldier who returns to the city. Even if there are deserters from the front who return to the army, they can easily sneak in as long as the opponent's background is strong enough and their identity is clear.
The time soon reached late at night. Except for the soldiers who were on night patrol, most of the other defenders had returned to camp to rest.
Geng Zhongming, who had been stationed in Fengyang City for seven or eight days, was no exception. He lit a lamp in his study and read the military manual for a while before planning to take a rest.
Geng Zhongming is a veteran traitor who defected to the Tartars five years after Chongzhen. Now he is old, almost sixty years old, and his body is not very responsive due to years of battle injuries and strains.
Historically, he only had two more years to live before dying of illness, and his current health condition can only be said to be barely adequate.
His current identity is King Huaishun, the leader of the Zhenghuang Banner of the Han Army. Among the Han generals of the Qing Army, he can be regarded as the highest-ranking group.
If we go back three or four years, his confidence in the Qing Dynasty would have been extremely firm. At that time, the Qing Dynasty was prospering day by day, and it was becoming stronger and stronger as it expanded its territory. But since three years ago, even die-hard veteran traitors like Geng Zhongming began to
I felt weak inside.
The Qing Dynasty suffered successive defeats, lost troops and generals, and was forced to regain the land of Huainan by the daimyo who supported the wise new emperor, which made Geng Zhongming involuntarily doubt his life.
He once thought: Could it be that the Ming Dynasty was not good at the beginning because of Chongzhen's stubbornness, unkindness, and scattered people? It wasn't that the Ming Dynasty was not good, but that the emperor was not good. So after changing to an emperor who was willing to delegate power, the Ming Dynasty immediately became stronger?
Once this kind of thought takes root in the heart, it becomes more and more frightening. But Geng Zhongming also knows that he is among the die-hards who are least likely to be pardoned by the Ming Dynasty, so he does not dare to have any objections.
Geng Zhongming read for a while and felt tired. He was about to put out the oil lamp with a eucalyptus tip. Suddenly, he received a report from his confidant, saying that one of the Major General's confidants had escaped from the front line and was eager to see him.
Geng Zhongming was startled and quickly ordered him to be brought secretly, and also warned to make sure that no one had discovered him.
Geng Zhongming was quite sad these days, thinking that his son had been captured in the Battle of Feishui, or even killed. The Ming army wiped out the last remaining Qing infantry rear troops in Feixi.
None of them escaped, so no one could provide any accurate information.
Now that it has been more than half a month since the decisive battle ended, Geng Zhongming no longer had much hope. He just hoped that his son could remain anonymous in the prisoner of war camp, but unexpectedly he suddenly had hope.
Soon, a close officer of the Geng family was brought up, and Geng Zhongming also knew him. He was an old brother of his for many years, and he personally arranged to be with his son to protect him.
"Geng Liu? Did you escape? How is Mao'er? Was he captured alive? Has his identity been discovered by the Ming army?" Geng Zhongming immediately grabbed the old subordinate and asked.
"My lord! I am incompetent. The little prince...in order to survive, he did something without a king and a father, and there is nothing I can do to stop him!" Geng Liuyi was embarrassed to speak for a moment.
Geng Zhongming didn't care much about those details, he just murmured a few times: "It's good to be alive, it's good to be alive... The green mountains are left without worries about no firewood, and many prisoners were taken in the Battle of Feishui.
The imperial court will not be particularly harsh on you."
Geng Liu looked embarrassed and sighed: "If it is just surrender, that's it. In order to be exempted from guilt, the young prince actually drew swords against Prince Rao's personal guards at the last moment, killing each other in order to sell favors to the Ming army.
.
In the end, he even pretended to take credit, saying that he was the one who killed Prince Rao, and asked the people of Zhushu to forgive him and reward him with official titles and titles."
Geng Zhongming's head suddenly buzzed, and he almost fainted on the spot.
Isn’t this a lie? Your father is still clearing the camp. How dare you make such a big fuss? If he is exposed by other escaped prisoners, how can he, Geng Zhongming, still survive?
He was dizzy for a while. His fingers were like skinny chicken feet and he grabbed Geng Liu tightly. After holding steady for a while, he let out a sigh of relief:
"It's been almost half a month, and it hasn't been leaked yet. This traitor has really tricked me to death! As long as the last confidant of Prince Rao can escape and witness the final death of Prince Rao, what can I do?
I am destined! I can’t wait until Boluo Yuele organizes a banquet at Hongmen!"
Geng Liu also felt quite sad for his old lord, but he had a mission and had to finish the subsequent words that were more difficult to accept:
"Prince... Zhu Shuren has already thought of everything you can think of. This time he detained the young prince, and also detained other surviving Abatai guards who knew that the young prince was rebellious, and then asked his subordinates to come back and report the news.
Tomorrow night, the Ming army will bypass Huaiyuan and attack Fengyang with light and sharp men. Zhu Shuren said that he wants the prince to try to cooperate with the inside and outside to open the south or east gate of Fengyang and let the Ming army enter the city.
Anyway, regardless of whether the prince agrees or not, Zhu Shuren will release some of the surviving confidants of Abatai... He said that when the time comes, Boluo Yuele will settle the score with the prince. He said... The Han will kill the Manchu prince,
This sin cannot be forgiven under any circumstances."
Before Geng Zhongming finished listening, he fell down on the couch, his heart was filled with despair.
This is the son who boarded a pirate ship and tricked his father to death.
Geng Zhongming was so angry at the news that he couldn't sleep in the middle of the night, and he almost got angry out loud.
However, after calming down for several hours, he suddenly realized a problem: Originally, his family could not be forgiven by the Ming Dynasty. If the Qing Dynasty was finished, it would be wiped out...
But what his son is doing now, although he is despicable and betrays his father, is hedging his bets. His son is not guilty of much crime. As long as he makes contributions to the Ming Dynasty, he may still get stability and wealth. The Geng family can still
Having both sides...
Geng Zhongming touched his gray braids and beard. He was almost sixty years old, so he was cheated.
Finally, he made up his mind.
…
Everything that followed was even more tragic than Geng Zhongming expected.
Of course Zhu Shuren would not place all his expectations on the consciousness of an old traitor like Geng Zhongming!
Therefore, when the Ming army's surprise attack force detoured from Huaiyuan and rushed to Fengyang at night the next day, the Ming army used the right time to release several of Abate's surviving personal guards.
Regardless of whether Geng Zhongming resists or not, Fengyang City is destined to be in chaos that night! If Geng Zhongming doesn't take action, Boluo, who learns the truth, will try to hold a Hongmen Banquet as soon as possible, kill Geng Zhongming's family, and then try to lift the Han Army Banner Zhenghuang Banner.
The military power of the general!
In the end, both sides were almost driven to take action at the same time. Geng Zhongming was still in the final hesitation period of sharpening his guns before the battle, but suddenly he heard that Bolo had something to ask him. He realized what had happened like a frightened bird.
Geng Zhongming was very decisive and directly killed the messenger sent by Boluo to treat him with a knife, and then directly defended the camp in the city. When Boluo learned about it, he was shocked and angry, and quickly ordered his troops to fight with the same room in Fengyang City. The Qing army and the green camp, and the Han army flag
A fire broke out between Zhenghuang Banner's troops.
Huang Degong's 20,000 Ming army cavalry, as well as dozens of the lightest cavalry artillery, arrived at Fengyang just in time when the civil war between the Manchus and the Han banners was in full swing, and immediately bombarded and deceived them. Some of Geng Zhongming's subordinates spontaneously
They had no choice but to unite inside and outside, and stormed into Fengyang City.
What follows is a street battle with cavalry artillery blocking the road!
The bloody killings in Fengyang City lasted for a whole night. Tens of thousands of people died on both sides, but most of them were caused by the civil war between the Manchu Eight Banners, the Mongols and the Han Army Banners.
Countless Fengyang people were also killed by the red-eyed Manchu cavalry who did not know how to distinguish between friends and foes. They killed them wildly and basically killed anyone who looked like a Han. Later, those Han people who were originally cowardly and resigned
The common people also had to try to protect themselves. When they saw groups of people who looked like Manchus approaching, they picked up kitchen knives and even farm tools to try to fight.
At dawn, Boluo and Yue Le fled Fengyang in embarrassment with their remaining 20,000 soldiers and horses, their faces smoky and bloodstained, and fled north in panic.
Because Geng Zhongming was forced to launch his attack in advance, he took most of the damage from the Qing army. More than half of his troops were killed, and Geng Zhongming himself was also killed among the rebels.
Except for the Ming and Jiang troops, there were almost no living people in Fengyang City. The locals who were fellow villagers with the Zhu Yuanzhang family hundreds of years ago were almost slaughtered to death again.
But the Ming Dynasty's Zhongdu was finally recovered quickly.