Chapter 355 The decisive battle in Hebei, 500,000 vs. 300,000, the advantage is mine
Hauge knew that the ownership of Hebei would ultimately be decided by a decisive battle.
So at this point, of course he could understand that the most important thing was to concentrate superior forces and make a desperate move.
And we must no longer care about the gains and losses of one city or one place. We want to hold on to every fertile and fertile land. This will only scatter our troops and give the Ming army the opportunity to divide and surround them and defeat them one by one.
Moreover, except for Beijing, other cities on the Hebei Plain are not considered to be solid. During the rule of the Qing army, they did not pay attention to city defense construction.
After all, the Qing Dynasty conquered the world with bows and horses, and the money and food were very difficult. Who would have the patience to imitate the Han people and spend a lot of money to build city walls.
Under Hauge's shrinking force, the southernmost prefecture in Beizhili, Daming Prefecture, became a redundant because it was too far south geographically, and most of it was abandoned by the Qing army.
Starting from Daming County, the seat of Daming Prefecture, and the adjacent Wei County, going south from this line, six major counties, including Qingfeng County, Neihuang County, Junxian, Huaxian, Puyang, and Dongming, were all abandoned.
All the troops were reduced to the vicinity of Daming and Wei County. The troops originally deployed along the Taihang Mountains in the north also moved south to gather at Daming, Wei County and Handan. The northernmost flank cover deployment did not go beyond Shahe and Xingtai.
This is tantamount to giving up the blockade of the Taihang Mountains and allowing the Ming army to enter and exit the southern few of the eight Taihang mountains and enter the Hebei Plain - because Hauge knew very well that if the Ming army wanted to enter the Hebei Plain for a decisive battle, there was no need to look far away from Weihui.
-Isn’t it better for the Daimyo Line to advance directly along the plains? Why does it have to go around Shanxi, which is a rugged terrain, and it would be troublesome to transport food?
As a result, the Qing army's core strength of more than 200,000 troops was gathered in a small predetermined war zone within three to five counties, spanning the three state capitals of Damingfu, Guangpingfu and Dongchangfu in Shandong Province.
The joint part.
Hauge had already made a plan and had a premonition in his heart. He knew that the final decisive battle of national destiny between the Ming and Qing Dynasties would happen here. At this point, the territory was no longer important.
Wei County, Daming County, Handan and other places have been in the heart of Hebei since ancient times. During the Warring States Period, Jicheng, the capital of Yan, became Beijing in later generations and was also the seat of Youzhou later. Wei County, Daming County and Handan area were around the capital of Zhao State during the Warring States Period.
, was also the location of Yecheng, the later seat of Jizhou. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the area around Yecheng became the capital of the Northern Dynasties many times.
It can be said that in the Hebei region, apart from the city of Beijing, this area is the most worthy of a decisive battle. Whoever owns this area will own the entire fertile and flat Zhao land.
For the Qing army, a decisive battle in this season is not unacceptable. After all, Jiang Guan did not raise the flag until half of September because he was afraid of a shortage of food. Anyway, the reason was that Shanxi's autumn grain could just be harvested and put into storage.
But everything has its advantages and disadvantages, and nothing is perfect. Jiang Yu got the convenience of storing autumn grain in the warehouse, and the Qing army could also get it.
At the beginning of the war between the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the autumn grains in Hebei had already been harvested and stored in warehouses, but the tax collection work in various places had not yet begun, let alone the transportation.
Now that the Qing army knows that it is unable to defend everywhere, it must shrink and concentrate its forces. With the brutality of the Qing army, of course they will not be polite to the people -
In Hauge's view, the people in Neihuang, Huaxian, Dongming, Puyang and other places are no longer his people in the Qing Dynasty. As this land is lost to the Ming Dynasty, the people above will certainly become his people in the Qing Dynasty.
enemy!
Why does it matter if you haven't had time to collect taxes slowly and carefully? Just grab them! It's much faster than collecting taxes!
Therefore, when the Qing army retreated, in order to meet the needs of gathering hundreds of thousands of troops, Hauge inhumanely directly ordered the abandonment of the above-mentioned six counties, especially the two or three in the southernmost section that would definitely not be saved.
The county carried out thorough burning, killing and looting!
Originally, the tax collected might only be a few percent, but if they were directly robbed, they could all be robbed. There would be no need to leave a grain of food for the people, and they could take away as much as they could find.
Dongming County and Huaxian County, during the retreat of the Qing army, even suffered the brutal treatment of not being sealed for three days. They robbed everything they could as quickly as possible, and then hurriedly transported them away and escaped.
In the remaining counties slightly to the north, there was no direct massacre, but it was definitely necessary to snatch away the folk autumn grains that could be snatched. When encountering people who did not want to be robbed of their living grains and came out to resist, they would be met with the butcher's knife without mercy.
Floor cleaning.
The brutality of the Qing army was certainly not without its sequelae. First of all, even some of the green battalions of the Qing army mutinied. After all, some of the soldiers in the green battalion were originally from Damingfu. When the Qing army gathered their forces, they burned and killed their hometowns.
Being robbed will inevitably arouse resistance.
Therefore, although food was raised for hundreds of thousands of troops, the Qing army also lost at least several thousand troops due to internal friction—
About 2,000 green soldiers from famous places rebelled one after another and merged with the Qing army. If they could not be defeated, they fled and went south to join the Ming Dynasty. In order to suppress these sporadic mutinies, the Qing army also killed about hundreds of people.
.The total number of positive and negative losses totaled 3,000 troops.
And the mutinous green camp soldiers who rebelled in the south would immediately inform the Ming army of the Qing army's movements.
The conscience of heaven and earth, Zhu Shuren was supervising the war remotely in Kaifeng, and did not directly sit on the front line to command. After all, he was already the governor and the prince, so he should do less risky things. And he, who was in Kaifeng, did not expect Hauge at first.
It's so perverted that it directly implements scorched earth search and resistance.
Therefore, the Ming army was relatively cautious in its initial advance, fearing that the Qing army's large retreat was to pull the Ming army out of control, and then carry out a large-scale detour and outflank trick on the Hebei plain.
Until this moment, I heard that the Qing army was so strong that it was impossible to set up an ambush along the way, and the people of Hebei rose up in response to the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Shucai ordered Cao Bianjiao, Huang Degong and Liu Guoneng to rush northward.
At the same time, without asking the imperial court for instructions, he asked Zhang Huangyan to go north from Kaifeng and take charge of the front-line supervision. He privately stated that he would slowly go through the procedures with the Nanjing cabinet and temporarily grant Zhang Huangyan the title of Governor of Northern Zhili and the title of Minister of the Ministry of War, which is equivalent to
At the same time, he also served as the governor of Henan and Hebei.
As for Zhu Shuren himself, he would definitely take the risk and cross the Yellow River to the north only after the decisive battle has been decided. It's not that he is a coward, but that he is now responsible for the safety of the world. If he makes a mistake, the Chinese civilized Han people may suffer.
The rule once again fell into civil strife, so we had to be cautious.
He knew very well that his life now was more valuable than the life of the emperor in peacetime. If the emperor died, at least the prince could succeed to the throne smoothly and would not threaten the survival of the world.
He, Zhu Shuren, must live longer than his father-in-law. His father-in-law, Longwu Emperor Zhu Changzi, must die first and the emperor's grandson can successfully ascend the throne, so that no one will cause trouble. Otherwise, if he has an accident, there may be a branch of the Ming Dynasty clan.
If you find a way to be Zhu Changzi's godson, as time goes by, anything will be possible.
As for the civil governors, the Ming Dynasty did not originally have a permanent governor of the North Zhili region. After all, it was the capital of the capital. That is to say, Beijing is still in the occupied area, and the imperial court is in Nanjing, so it can be temporarily set up. Therefore, this position is naturally very valuable.
, Zhu Shuren couldn’t trust others to go.
After all, Zhang Huangyan is a loyal person who will go down in history. Later generations will be ranked alongside Yue Fei and Yu Qian, and he is also his cousin. He was the governor of Henan for many years before, and his military exploits in repelling the Tatars were high enough. He can suppress this situation without worrying about changes.
So this decision was quickly implemented. As expected, the generals below were not dissatisfied. To be honest, just because Zhang Huangyan commanded Zhu Wenzhen, Li Yu and others two years ago to attack and kill Azig, everyone felt that this was
He deserves it.
Zhang Huangyan did not live up to his mission, and quickly gathered all the armies, marched northward, and organized a decisive battle. At the same time, he also ordered the Shandong Ming army to take the opportunity to go northward, maintain oppression, and prepare to take over the territory that was about to be abandoned by the Qing army.
Zhang Huangyan knew very well: If Hauge gathers troops like this, not only the six counties in the southern part of Daming Prefecture will give up, but there will also be changes in some corners of Shandong.
And even if Hauge doesn't give up voluntarily, with the Qing army's current attitude of depleting the land for the decisive battle and striving for a lasting grain harvest, the people in Shandong who don't watch the looting will rise up and cause trouble on their own.
Let the Ming army along the border be ready at any time. Once trouble occurs on the Puppet Qing territory on the opposite side, they can attack immediately to take over the territory and save the people from disaster.
His operation turned out to be in vain, as the Ming army captured several formerly occupied prefectures and counties in the Taishan and Mengshan Mountains of Shandong without a single blow.
…
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, both sides gathered together and hoarded grain and grass. After more than half a month of back and forth, they finally gathered the main forces of both sides in the middle of Daming Prefecture and deployed for confrontation along the Zhang River.
The Qing army was stationed in Handan, Wei County and Daming in the north of Zhangzhou. The Ming army was stationed in Neihuang and Puyang in the south of Zhangnan.
The troops of both sides stretched over several counties, with hundreds of miles of company camps, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers each. It was the largest main force decisive battle since the beginning of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
When the Ming and Qing Dynasties faced each other across the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers, although the total force used was twice as much as it is now, they were still divided into three or four groups on the Thousand Miles of Defense Line, and each war zone fought independently.
Now that the Qing army has shrunk and concentrated in Hebei, where can it be divided into war zones? The remaining main forces are all desperate for one war zone.
After Zhang Huangyan arrived in Puyang, he also continuously inspected various armies and inspected defenses. He asked Cao Bianjiao to station in Puyang in the middle, Liu Guoneng to station in Neihuang on the left, and Huang Degong to station in Qingfeng on the right.
On the opposite side, the main force of the Qing army, led by Prince Su Hauge from Beijing, was stationed in Wei County.
Mandahai, who had just succeeded Prince Li, led his old subordinates who had withdrawn from Shandong and were stationed in Daming County on the east side of the battlefield to confront their old rival Huang Degong.
Yuele, the king of Raoyu County, and Boluo, the king of Duanzhong County, led the remaining Qing troops from the original west route and stationed themselves in Linzhang, west of Wei County, to confront Liu Guoneng.
Zhang Huangyan patrolled for several days and saw that the battle line was stable and entered the stage of stalemate and testing, so he had no choice but to take a long-term approach.
One day in mid-October, he held a military meeting with generals in Puyang City. The meeting couldn't help but sigh:
"I didn't expect that the Tatars were defeated in battles one after another and finally exhausted their fishing power, yet they could still muster so many soldiers and horses. Although our army had the upper hand in terms of strength and ordnance in this battle, after all, the food and logistics were relatively unfavorable from afar, so we should not underestimate the enemy.
The Tatars abandoned several prefectures in Yanbian, Shandong, and their remaining possessions in the southern part of the name. They retreated with strong force to clear the country, until the Zhang River stopped. They also collected all the ships along the way and burned those that could not be taken away. The Zhang River flows from the Yellow River.
Since the route was changed to the south, it is no longer connected to the southern water system, but is connected to the Haihe River in the north.
Our army's grain and grass had to be disembarked from Caozhou (today's Cao County, Heze) and transported by land to the front of the army by carriage and horse. Or after crossing the Yellow River from Kaifeng to the north, it was transported by land to Jixian in Yanjin, and then collected by the Zhangshui inland river fleet for transshipment.
.If the stalemate continues for a long time, it will be extremely detrimental to our Ming Dynasty."
The generals had some understanding of the overall situation, and when Zhang Huangyan broke it, they further unified their views. The most reckless among them, Huang Degong, couldn't help but admonish:
"My Lord Governor, since the Tatars have fortified the wall and cleared the country, which has caused our army to spend a lot of money raising food, then our army should fight quickly. Taking advantage of our army's heavy artillery, we should choose an opportunity to cross the Zhang River today and find a decisive battle with the Tatars!
If the Tatars avoid fighting, we will surround Wei County or the daimyo, and then lure the Tatar reinforcements from the other two places to rescue them, and then we will fight a decisive battle with the enemy under the city!"
Zhang Huangyan did not dampen Huang Degong's fighting spirit, but smiled and shook his head gently: "I am well aware of General Huang's bravery, and I will naturally give you a chance when the time comes.
However, what we have to worry about is not only defeating Haug, but also how to make Hauge unable to swallow and reluctant to vomit, so that we can bleed the Tatars as much as possible by the Zhang River, paving the way for the subsequent victory of the Ming Dynasty.
"
As soon as Zhang Huangyan said this, most of the generals were still a little confused and didn't know how far he thought. Cao Bianjiao was the most daring thinker. He thought that Zhang Huangyan was referring to the subsequent offensive and defensive battle of Beijing City, so he tested it.
ask:
"Your Majesty, the Governor thinks that the city of Beijing is strong, so I hope that when the Ming Dynasty regains Beijing in the future, the Tatar defenders can be as weak as possible? So we want to strive to annihilate as many enemy troops as possible on this Zhangshui battlefield today?"
Zhang Huangyan nodded: "General Cao understands clearly, but he still doesn't go far enough. Before I came here to supervise the division with full power, the governor once told me that in the future, I will not only regain Hebei, but also capture the old capital, along the way.
Fighting back to Shanhaiguan, we must completely conquer Liao Di and eradicate the Qing Gou!
Therefore, Tatars come and go like the wind. The final decisive battle in the pass now can bring more Tatars to our eyes for us to kill. If we don't take the opportunity to kill more, wouldn't it be a gift from God? In the future, we will have to kill more Tatars.
Isn’t it much more difficult to chase them out of the Liaoxi Corridor and thousands of miles outside the Pass than it is now?
Therefore, in this battle, we should not blindly seek speed and defeat the enemy. If we fail to encircle and annihilate the enemy, it will be a waste of a God-given opportunity. Therefore, we should show weakness and stick to the enemy, and slowly look for more favorable opportunities, even if we pay a little more cost.
Spending more money and food is all I can do."
When the generals heard this, they became silent. However, there were hundreds of thousands of enemies, and they were desperate. It was impossible to encircle and annihilate them. Everyone had no idea, so they had to remain silent.
Zhang Huangyan glanced at the generals and asked: "After these few days of stalemate, have you found out the actual strength of the enemy's troops? How many actual troops are there in each department?"
When asked about such operational-level questions, the generals became enthusiastic again, summarizing the intelligence they had detected, and roughly sorting out the enemy's strength.
As early as two years ago, when Azig and Abatai died, the Manchu Eight Banners were encircled and annihilated after the last round of large-scale siege. Four banners had been rebuilt once, and two of the white flags had been rebuilt twice.
Calculated based on the original size of the Manchu Eight Banners' 80,000 regular troops and 200,000 rear-age men, plus the population added in recent years. Before the internal strife in Hauge, the Manchu Eight Banners totaled only 223,000 and over 15 years old.
Male population.
During the internal strife in Hauge, the two sides who died were all Manchus. Twenty thousand people died, including about five or six thousand male soldiers.
Later, Jiang Quan anyway, Jiang Quan also killed a small number of Manchu soldiers and non-active Manchu men stationed in Shanxi. In this part, the loss of the Manchu regular army was only a few thousand, but the key is that the massacre of the non-active population was more serious.
It also reached more than 10,000 people.
When the Ming army responded to Jiang Quan and went north to conquer Huaiqing, Weihui, Luzhou, and Zezhou, it also annihilated more than ten thousand Qing troops and killed thousands of family members of the right age. Finally, Hauge settled the Ming army in Taiyuan in the south.
Before, they tried to counterattack the Taihang Mountain defense line, but failed in several critical battles and lost thousands of soldiers and people.
Therefore, after the internal strife in Hauge Dorgon and a series of changes in Jiang Quan, the Qing population further dropped from 2.233 million men two years ago to 178,000.
This number is already the number of people over the age of fifteen, with no age limit. Compared with their peak period, the male population has dropped by more than 40%.
Moreover, considering that the majority of the more than 40% decline is among the able-bodied population between the ages of 20 and 40, the proportion of the elderly, weak, sick and disabled among the remaining 178,000 people has further increased.
According to the Ming army's strict investigation, comparison, and historical data, it is estimated that among the 178,000 people, only 78,000 are between the ages of 20 and 40, and the remaining 100,000 are all between 15 and 20 years old.
time, or even over forty years old.
Among them, the number of people who have experienced actual combat and served for a long time is only 50,000 or 60,000. The rest are old people who have been retired from the reserve force and then come back, or young people who have just grown up. Even if they are drawn into the battlefield, their combat effectiveness is worrying.
Not to mention, a considerable number of Manchu teenagers who grew up in Beijing have long been corrupted and degenerated because they have a better life and do not have to work hard. How can those who have lived in cages and cages since they were young have the will to fight with their lives?
After rigorous intelligence integration and combing, Zhang Huangyan finally came to a conclusion:
"It seems that Hauge has assembled all the troops of at least six of the Eight Banners on the front, because at various stations in Daming, Wei County and Linzhang, scouts have discovered all the flags of the above-mentioned six banners. It is estimated that the remaining two
One should be deployed on the side and rear facing the Taihang Mountains, or in the city of Beijing.
After Dorgon's death, Hauge also expanded the active service of the Eight Banners. I heard that one Jia La now has 2,500 people, and one banner has 12,500 people. The six banners also have 75,000 people.
The number of regular Manchu troops remaining in the rear should be 25,000, and there are still 70,000 to 80,000 non-active men.
As for the Mongolian army, five banners have been discovered so far, but the number should not be large. The Mongolian Eight Banners did not support Hauge's expansion, especially the tense relationship between Hauge and the traitor Bumbutai.
If a war breaks out, he might even take action against Bumbutai.
Bumbutai was born in Horqin Mongolia, and now the Horqin tribes must be watching. As for the Harqin Mongolia, it was only after the death of Lin Dan Khan that his son Ezhe was unable to surrender, and Mongolia fell. Now the Manchu Tatars can't survive.
Well, the Mongols definitely don't want to die together on the same boat, so they have backup forces. It is estimated that the total strength of these five flags will not exceed 40,000.
Therefore, the Tatars finally relied on the traitor troops to provide the main force. The Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty were mostly composed of Han people from outside the Pass, especially Han people from the Liao area, as well as Baoyi who had been raised to carry the flag. The fighting spirit of the Tatars was still good, and they were estimated to have 30,000 to 50,000 people.
Participated in today's battle.
The last green camp can be fought for. They are mainly Han people in the pass, and their flags have not been raised. Now that most of their homeland has been recovered by the Ming Dynasty, they should wake up in time. Dorgon planned the first batch of 200,000 green camps.
400,000 reserves. But most of Dorgon's original 200,000 have been used up in years of bloody battles, or were lost to Jiang Yu and others.
It was later claimed that there were 400,000, but in fact, more than half of them had already been taken over by our Ming Dynasty. When Henan, Huaibei, Shanxi and other places were restored, the Tatars did not have time to remove the reserve population, so the current green camp population of the Tatars was only 200,000 at most.
Less than 100,000 people can be pulled to the front line at most, and the rest can only rely on temporary recruitment of strong men.
Therefore, we have to face 78,000 or 80,000 Manchu cavalry, 40,000 Mongolian soldiers, 30,000 to 40,000 Han Eight Banners, and more than 100,000 Green Battalions. The total Tatar troop strength should be more than 250,000, less than 300,000, and then
No matter how precise the figure is, it is impossible to estimate it at the moment.
Our Ming Dynasty has 300,000 main troops of the Northern Expedition on the front, and their number is no less than that of the Tatars.
There is Wu Sangui in the west and Jiang Quan has not rushed to the main battlefield to maintain pressure on the flanks. In the east there is Li Fuming from Shandong and Zhang Mingzhen from Hailu, who can also deal with harassment.
The total number of these four supporting troops is no less than 150,000, and there are also reserves available at the rear. Our Ming Dynasty has a total of 500,000 troops available to destroy the Qing Dynasty, so in terms of confidence, everyone does not need to worry, the imperial court will fully support it.