Chapter 344 Baimen Tower: In ancient times, there was Lu Fengxian, but now there is Kong Youde
The news that Huang Degong took advantage of his victory and marched northward to deeply encircle Bozhou and Luyi was quickly sent to other Qing army governors in the north and the imperial court in Beijing.
After all, Luyi is already in Henan, and the distance between the battlefield and Beijing has been shortened by a full third compared to the beginning of this year's war. The delivery time required for the Qing court's urgent military intelligence reports to go back and forth has also been greatly shortened - only
It's a pity that no one in the upper echelons of the Qing court wants this kind of "convenience". After all, this is all a result of the shrinking of the country's territory.
Just two months ago, the military information of both warring parties had to be sent back from the front line in Hefei, but now it only needs to be sent back from Shangqiu! How much has it shrunk!
On October 15th, Dorgon in Beijing was so anxious that he convened a military meeting and asked the kings, Baylor, to discuss how to bring reinforcements back, the front line, and where to deploy troops.
Jierhalang, whose status was only under Dorgon, certainly had the right to speak first. He did not hesitate to point out: "At present, the imperial court has sent four armies to attack the enemy Puppet Ming respectively, with Bolo and Yue Le closest to them, and
The one who has the energy to spare is obviously the Prince of England.
Prince Ying still has over 100,000 troops under his command. In Huaixi and Runan, there is a tug-of-war with Zhang Huangyan, the puppet Ming governor of Henan. Since we want to mobilize troops for reinforcements, of course we have to recruit people from Prince Ying."
When Dorgon heard this opinion, his decree marks couldn't help but twitch. Mobilizing troops from Azig was indeed the most stable, but it could also easily lead to a fueling tactic.
So far, it has been nearly two months since Azige has maintained an offensive against Zhang Huangyan and successfully cut off the main roads in Tongbai Mountain.
Zhang Huangyan's route was not the main direction of the Ming army's attack. The Ming Dynasty adopted delaying tactics, relying on strong fortresses to wait for Azige to attack, hoping to bleed Azige's blood.
The Qing army also knew very well that it could not fight to the death with the Ming army. It had already suffered enough losses in this area three years ago, so it could only block the dangerous mountain passes, cut off the Ming army's supplies, and make the Ming army consume too much ammunition without replenishing it.
, so as to eliminate the Ming army from each stronghold.
As for this method of cutting off supplies, once the military strength is weakened and loopholes appear in the encirclement and road blocking troops, the Ming army will be resupplied, and the previous efforts will be in vain.
Azig is already the only remaining force among the armies sent by Dorgon that is likely to achieve pioneering achievements, and can provide a political fig leaf for Dorgon to resume his southern expedition this year.
Dorgon knew very well that Bolo and Yue Le had once again ruined most of their combat power with their two white flags. The soldiers simply stopped three times and lost two, and the Green Battalion suffered a lot of losses.
His military strength in the DPRK has become extremely weak. If his political prestige is severely damaged again, how can he sustain this situation?
Until the last moment, Dorgon was unwilling to take this step if there were other possible solutions.
After the scene was awkward and quiet for a while, Dorgon actually said in a kind and consultative tone:
"It is true that Prince Ying's troops and horses are strong, but the siege of Xinyang must not fall short. Zhang Huangyan's troops and horses north of Tongbai Mountain have been isolated and consumed for two months. Now that there is a loophole, the hardships of the previous two months have been in vain.
It was also mentioned in Gukan Boluo's military report that when he withdrew his troops and returned to Bozhou, more than 200 miles along the way were massacred and burned into nothingness. If the Ming Dynasty came to pursue them, they must have poor logistics. At present, Huang Degong's banner is only seen in Bozhou, which shows that the Ming army
The number of pursuing troops was only twenty or thirty thousand. Even if we include Cao Bianjiao's banner in Luyi, another twenty thousand would be added.
Our army only needs to detach 20,000 to 30,000 people, and at most 30,000 to 50,000, and we can stabilize our position. With this number of people, we don’t need the Prince of Labor. We can just send troops from the rear who have not yet participated in the war. You can speak freely, what do you think?
Where are the troops available?"
A group of Manchu Beile who were already dissatisfied with Dorgon did not make any suggestions after hearing this, but just protested silently.
Obviously, they all wanted to support Jilharang, and felt that Dorgon was "leaving the hard work to outsiders and handing over the only battlefield where he had a chance to make meritorious service to his brothers from the same mother."
Dorgon was very embarrassed and glanced at the whole audience with encouraging eyes. In the end, he had to look at the few Han officials who were qualified to participate in the meeting. He looked at Hong Chengchou, the Minister of the Ministry of War of the Han Dynasty and the censor of the right capital of the Imperial Palace.
Hong Chengchou also saw the command in Dorgon's eyes, and had no choice but to sigh and pretend to be this villain: "If we want to mobilize troops from the rear, the closest ones are naturally Luck Dehunbeile's troops in Shandong and Manchu in Xuzhou.
Dahaibeile's department.
However, although these two places are close, there are also hidden dangers. After all, Luck Dehun was responsible for purifying the prince, and after Prince Raoyu was transferred, the chaos in Shandong was suppressed. Although the Manjiadong rebellion has subsided, it is said that there are still some remnants.
Fleeing to the mountains of Ludong, there were also a few Denglai harbor cities controlled by the Ming army.
Mandahai needs to be the link between Haizhou Kong Youde and Guibo battlefield. Although there is no war at the moment, it also shoulders the important task of coordinating the left and right sides. Many soldiers and horses have been mobilized around Xuzhou before. Although
The Ming Dynasty still can’t see the intentions and preparations of heading north from Huai’an, but it can’t be completely unprepared..."
Hong Chengchou said some words to Xini, but in fact he didn't have to bear any responsibility. He helped Dorgon find the two fastest options, and then added some risks of shirk responsibility. To put it bluntly, if something happens in the future,
The final decision-making responsibility rests with Dorgon himself.
What Hong Chengchou did was not to say that he was hiding from trouble. The main reason was that Huang Taiji died within a year after he entered the Qing Dynasty. In the years since Dorgon was in power, although Hong Chengchou often had to do things, his salary was not very high -
- Geng Zhongming, Kong Youde and others can be crowned kings, but Hong Chengchou's title is only that of Captain of Light Vehicles.
To put it bluntly, Hong Chengchou still had to do a lot of work, but his treatment was poor. When he was in the Ming Dynasty, he served as the governor of five provinces and was fully responsible for suppressing bandits and military affairs. This was only given after he was surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.
A few hundred dollars a month is not enough for you! So he made up his mind that he could come up with ideas, but he would never take the blame.
One of the important reasons why he betrayed Chongzhen back then was that he was resentful that Chongzhen liked to let ministers take the blame! If he had to take the blame after becoming a traitor, wouldn't the traitor be in vain?
Dorgon was also helpless. He had already figured out Hong Chengchou's temperament, so he didn't think much about it. He just assumed that Hong Chengchou was shirk instinctively and there shouldn't be much risk in this matter.
Besides, he didn't have time to slowly reorganize the troops from the rear and move south. Nowadays, the Qing Dynasty is also stretched thin, and it can't be mobilized so quickly. He has to let the first-line troops support each other, and then the second-line troops will slowly fill in the first-line defenses and newly exposed.
of weakness.
…
Under Dorgon's anxious latest decision, Luck Dehun in Shandong and Manda Haibu in the direction of Xuzhou naturally could not disobey. They were seduced by the Ming army and prepared to separate their camps and move closer to Yuele.
, went to the Bozhou battlefield to fight each other, trying to rescue.
However, when it came time to actually send out troops, only Mandahai successfully dispatched troops.
Luck Dehun in Shandong had a little problem - it turned out that just when he was preparing to send troops, the Ming army Liu Zeqing's troops, which had been entrenched in the mountains of eastern Shandong and on the coast, suddenly made some changes.
And the "Manjiadong" rebel army, which had been nominally wiped out by the Qing army last year, actually resurfaced and reappeared! Luck Dehun was of course caught off guard, and made hunting down the local bandits in Shandong his first priority.
Living.
All of this is actually part of Zhu Shuren's counterattack plan.
Before the main force of the Qing army was restrained in the middle, the Ming army had already allocated a large sum of money for food, gold and silver, as well as a number of weapons and equipment, and asked Zhang Mingzhen, who was in charge of the Yellow Sea Navy, to go deep into the enemy's rear by sea and contact Liu Zeqing who came aboard.
Through Liu Zeqing's underground channels, he also met some of the remaining leaders of the "Manjiadong" rebel army who had been wiped out by Hauge and Abatay a few years ago and then fled to Denglai.
The Ming court originally would never cooperate with "rogue thieves" or peasant armies.
But now that these peasant armies have become "rogue thieves" on the Tatar territory, in line with the mentality that enemies of enemies can unite, the rulers of the Ming Dynasty still chose to fight with Shandong despite Zhu Shuren's foresight and attitude of disregarding past suspicions.
The rebels join forces.
Zhu Shuren asked people to provide some high-value military rations such as dried fish and dried meat, as well as some gold and silver, plus weapons and equipment that had been eliminated by the Ming army in previous years, to fund the old peasant army in Shandong that had gone underground, and also promised
Official position, land.
Gong Wencai, the leader of Manjiadong who finally escaped to Deng, chose to cooperate with the court. He suddenly had the identity of "General Soldier of Luxi" given by the Ming Dynasty court. With the weapons funded by the Ming Dynasty, he went back to mobilize the peasant army to hold back Shandong.
The footsteps of the Qing army heading south.
(Note: Historically, Gong Wencai was supposed to have been killed by Hauge two years ago for resisting the Qing Dynasty. This is a butterfly effect. Because the Ming army still had some mountainous territories owned by Liu Zeqing in Shandong, Gong Wencai and other peasant army remnants were set up to break out.
He fled to the area under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty to survive, and the court allocated him a certain amount of food and salary.)
Gong Wencai was an illiterate miner, and his ambitions were not very high, not to mention that he had been forced to a dead end by the Tatars. He heard that he could serve as a general soldier for the orthodox Ming Dynasty, and the official position was guaranteed to be valuable, so he was very satisfied.
Luck Dehun could not protect himself, and Mandahai was afraid that his own reinforcements would not be strong enough, so he had to use Xuzhou's troops. As a result, the Qing army in the northern Jiangsu area was weakened to the extent that only Kong Youde's troops and some second-line green battalion troops were left.
All have been transferred.
Huang Degong, who was on the opposite side, could be considered a lone soldier. Of course, he would not risk his life with Yue Le and Mandahai. Instead, he retreated and ran away according to Zhu Shuren's instructions. He continued to shoot a feint to the west, confusing the Qing army's judgment and running for their lives.
.
And under this situation, the east battlefield, which had been silent since the beginning of the war, finally suddenly started to move.
…
On October 24, the third year of Longwu, the East Route Ming Army Li Fuming led more than 40,000 well-equipped elite Ming troops to cross the Huaihe River from Huai'an County to the north, and finally launched an attack on the Qing army's defense area in the northern part of Huai'an Prefecture.
Fight across the river and strive to regain the entire territory of Huai'an Prefecture.
(Note: The jurisdiction of Huai'an Prefecture spans the estuary of the Huai River. Previously, only the half south of the Huai River was recovered by the Ming army, and the half north of the Huai River was still in the hands of the Qing army.)
Faced with the Ming army's sudden northward crossing of the Huaihe River, Kong Youde was caught off guard and could only watch several small counties in Linhuai fall one after another. And he himself could only lead troops from Haizhou, Pizhou and other places to Suqian.
Stop the leak.
After a small-scale encounter between Li Fuming and Kong Youde, Kong Youde immediately failed.
Fortunately, the loss was not very big. Then Kong Youde learned his lesson and immediately switched to a defensive position. He did not dare to fight with the Ming army in the field anymore. He just wanted to call for help and let Mandahai, who was reinforcing Yue Le, quickly return to the defense.
Being clumsy on the left and right, Kong Youde even had to use part of the navy soldiers as land combat troops to defend various cities.
However, Li Fuming's attack was far from the most fatal.
Because as early as five days before Li Fuming took action, the Ming Dynasty Jiangning Marquis and Zhenhai General Zhang Mingzhen took 20,000 landing troops and supporting naval forces, a total of more than 30,000 people, and set out to sea from the Yangtze River Estuary. After a slight detour, they arrived at
On the route about a hundred miles offshore, we took a detour back to Huaibei.
Because the distance from the coastline was far enough when sailing, and before the battle began, the Ming army also adopted a "regular attack on pirates and Tatar sea trade" posture in advance, clearing the Qing ships on the Yellow Sea in advance.
Therefore, the Qing army had no sea control in the southern part of the Yellow Sea and no timely sources of information. It was like being deaf and blind.
Zhang Mingzhen just takes a long time to sail on the sea, so he will "come first, arrive later".
Just two days after Li Fuming and Kong Youde started fighting on the front line in Suqian, Zhang Mingzhen's troops detoured from the sea and finally launched a surprise landing attack in Haizhou, Kong Youde's original home base.
Because Kong Youde's main force had already filled Suqian and Pizhou in the front, the port city of Haizhou was very empty at that time. In just two days of bloody fighting, Zhang Mingzhen captured this only good port in northern Jiangsu in later generations!
As we all know, most of the coastlines in Jiangsu in later generations did not have good harbors, because the huge amount of sediment brought by the Huanghuai River into the sea had long ago silted up the coastline in Yancheng into shoals, which could only be used to form salt fields for drying.
Salt, so the place name Yancheng is called Yancheng.
The only good port in northern Jiangsu was Haizhou, where Lianyungang was later located. After Zhang Mingzhen's surprise attack, it was equivalent to cutting off all maritime communication channels for the Qing army along the Huaibei coast. On the contrary, the Ming army was able to make full use of this waterway.
The deep water port can quickly transport the follow-up troops and supplies from the south to the front line.
When Zhang Mingzhen launched the landing campaign, the Qing army originally had another force that might hinder him, and that was the Qing's Shandong garrison.
However, before the Ming army launched, they had already made full preparations and took full advantage of the intelligence transmission advantage of the sea route in the hands of the Ming army.
Under the control of Liu Zeqing and Gong Wencai, the actions of Lek Dehun's Shandong Qing army were greatly delayed. Zhang Mingzhen succeeded in a sneak attack on Haizhou, and immediately advanced along the Shu River, attacking with Li Fuming from north to south, and defeated Kong Youde's troops in Pizhou and Suqian.
Divided and surrounded.
Under Kong Youde's command, there were still more than 30,000 regular troops assembled, including the Green Battalion. Their combat power was actually not weak. However, the Ming army did not intend to fight him head-on. They just outflanked him and cut off his retreat. The Ming army immediately quickly
Pushing forward, Li Fuming surged along Surabaya to expand his results and captured Xuzhou, which was empty because Kong Youde was surrounded.
Mandahai in the direction of Bozhou also had no time to return reinforcements.
At this point, although Kong Youde still had fighting strength, he was already trapped in a lonely city. The other directions of the Qing army were too busy to take care of themselves, and no one came to rescue him.
Even if they are willing to rescue, the Ming army is eager to surround the point and rescue them. With the remaining combat power of the Qing army, it is impossible to save them.
Just like some people are still alive, but they are already dead.
Kong Youde sat guarding Pizhou City and climbed up to the White Gate Tower every day to personally inspect the defenses and supervise the battle to repel the Ming army's offensive. He hoped that the Manchu masters of the Qing Dynasty would come to rescue him and that Mandahai would return east again and cooperate with the inside and outside.
However, Man Dahai obviously felt that he was unable to deal with Li Fuming and Zhang Mingzhen who had already established a foothold, and did not appear for a long time.
Kong Youde's heart couldn't help but become heavier and heavier, and a feeling of sadness arose.
He didn't read much, but he also knew that fifteen hundred years ago, Lu Bu was supervising the battle and defending Xiapi City from the White Gate Tower, but no one came to rescue him in the end.
"I, Kong Youde, am a master of martial arts, but I will end up like Lu Bu in the end!"