Chapter 357 The Great Qing Survival, Let's Fight Here
After Hong Chengchou was convinced that Hauge had listened to the suggestions of Mandahai and Bolo, he fell silent. In the next few days, he never gave Hauge any advice.
He knew that once the Qing Dynasty had reached this point, the hope of making a comeback was very slim.
Even if Hauge listened to him, he would just be more cautious and conserve a little more strength. Even if he was defeated in the future, the losses could be controlled as much as possible, but it would not increase the chance of winning much.
In the face of absolute strength, strategy cannot fundamentally change strength.
And Hauge chose the route of Mandahai and Bolo, which means that he has to bet bigger and fight harder. The winning rate may be higher than Hong Chengchou's cautious approach, but if he doesn't win the bet, the loss will be higher. many.
There is no absolute right or wrong between these two routes. If you buy it and leave it, just go to the dark side.
After Hong Chengchou figured it out, he began to pack his luggage secretly in confusion, so that he could run faster if something unexpected happened - he didn't know whether he was imitating Ju Shuo before the Battle of Guandu, or Yang Xiu during the Battle of Hanzhong.
Time passed quickly. Hauge and his party had to wait for snow and Zhangshui to freeze before looking for an opportunity to fight the Ming army. As the time approached the twelfth lunar month, such weather was coming soon. While waiting for the heavy snow, Wu Sangui, Jiang Yu and Li Fuming's advance was also steady and they had maneuvered to the rear of the main force of the Qing army.
On this day, probably the third day of the twelfth lunar month, the entire Daming Prefecture was covered by a heavy snowfall. The heavy snowfall was very widespread, and it continued to fall in several prefectures around Hebei Province and even in Dongchang Prefecture in neighboring Shandong Province.
When Hong Chengchou saw the heavy snow, he couldn't help but feel a little solemn. Early the next morning, he rode out to the camp to observe. Sure enough, he saw that Zhangshui had been covered with a layer of ice, and the ice was also covered with snow. From a distance, it was so white that it was difficult to distinguish the mud. Land and river.
Hong Chengchou could only use the height of the terrain to estimate the position of the river, and asked his attendants to dig out a few medium-sized stones from under the snow along the river.
He held the stone in his hand, assessed the distance, and then threw it where it was probably on the river surface.
The slight sound of "puff katong" passing through the snow was mixed with the sound of the ice cracking, and the stone finally fell into the Zhang River.
Hong Chengchou looked up at the sky absentmindedly and sighed: "It's not freezing enough, but looking at the weather, the decisive battle will begin within a day or two at most."
Back at the temporary government office in Linzhang County, Hong Chengchou was thinking about how his life might end, when suddenly an old acquaintance came to visit him - not a fellow Manchu, but the kind of old traitor who had surrendered to him together.
For such an old friend, Hong Chengchou, who felt increasingly lonely now, naturally wanted to see him as soon as possible, so his attendants quickly let him in.
Hong Chengchou was shocked when he saw this: "Brother Fuyu, why are you here? Didn't Prince Su ask you to lead troops to help Tun Qi defend Xingtai? Could it be that Xingtai has been lost?"
It turned out that the person who came was Zu Dashou. Speaking of it, it could be regarded as the trigger of the Songjin War that put Hong Chengchou into a tight siege and finally destroyed him and surrendered to the enemy.
During the Songjin War, Hong Chengchou was forced to advance rashly because Chongzhen forced him to rescue Zu Dashou who was besieged in Jinzhou. In the end, Hong Chengchou was finished and Zu Dashou also surrendered. They were brothers in distress.
Zu Dashou also had a very complicated mood: "Xingtai was indeed lost, but it was not captured by the Ming army. After several fierce battles, Tunqi Beizi took the initiative to abandon the defense. Prince Su also agreed and asked him to retreat to Shahe. Frontline defense.
Anyway, Prince Su feels that time has dragged on enough and there is no need to waste the lives of the Eight Banners. The Ming army, which has just advanced to Shahe in the past few days, will not be able to catch up with the decisive battle on the frontal battlefield."
Hauge had already made a plan before the war. He did not care about the gains and losses of one city or one place, and held the western flank in order to prevent the part of the Ming army that had detoured from Shanxi to Hebei from arriving on the battlefield to help in the decisive battle.
Now it's snowing heavily and the temperature has dropped sharply. Hauge feels that the decisive battle is only within a day or two. Therefore, Xingtai was attacked too hard and the casualties of holding on will be too great. It's time to give up. The sluggish Qing army on the western front retreated to Shahe.
, we can still delay it for several more days, so it’s enough time.
If the decisive battle is won, the land given up now will be regained; if the decisive battle is lost, the land not lost now will be lost in the future, which is meaningless.
Of course Hong Chengchou could understand all this, but he still couldn't understand why Zu Dashou was arranged to come here.
He thought for a while and couldn't help but continue to ask: "But even if Xingtai abandons the defense and withdraws from Shahe, shouldn't your troops continue to defend Shahe? Why is this happening? Brother Fuyu, with all due respect, before
The prince is not confident that your troops will directly participate in the decisive battle..."
After Zu Dashou entered the Qing Dynasty, he still had a certain status in the Han military banner, and his trilogy was also included. Among the eight banners of the Han Dynasty, the Zhenghuang Banner and the two white banners all had people from the Zu family.
It's just that Zu Dashou himself has always been on guard, and he is not allowed to lead troops directly, mainly because he is too capable of surrendering on both sides. Even if Zu's family wants to lead troops, the Qing government will detain all family members, such as letting his son Zu Zepu
Or when his nephew Zu Zeyuan was leading the army, he detained Zu Dashou himself in Beijing.
This time Hauge was still wary of him and did not let him come to the battlefield for a direct battle. He was obviously worried that he would cause trouble and damage the morale of his friendly troops.
Faced with Hong Chengchou's confusion, Zu Dashou just smiled bitterly: "Prince Su, this time, asked me, an old man, to just stay in Linzhang and watch the show. As for where the whole tune went, I don't know.
Ministry, please think about it, who is attacking Xingtai and then advancing on Shahe? It is Sangui! Can the prince still rest assured that I can help Tunqi to guard Shahe?"
Hong Chengchou suddenly realized that Zu Dashou was Wu Sangui's uncle. Now that Wu Sangui had attacked Xingtai, it was really impossible for Hauge to ask his uncle to help defend his nephew. It would be too dangerous. The only option was to detain all the generals of the Zu family and then only shoot the others.
troops, taking the generals as hostages, forcing them to serve as cannon fodder under the nose of the main force of the Qing army.
In addition, Hong Chengchou had just observed the weather and knew that a decisive battle was imminent. At this time, it was clear what the purpose of Zu Dashou's transfer was.
He couldn't help but have a sense of fate that things were wrong and people were wrong, and that the agencies had done all the calculations but gained nothing: "Hahahaha...Brother Fuyu, you have repeated this many times in your life, just to protect your ancestral army and the interests of your Liaoxi generals.
, in the end, it will inevitably come to nothing.
You and I are really unworthy of being villains - now that things have happened, Hong is no longer afraid of being disrespectful. If you want to show off to Prince Su, you can go and say Hong is disrespectful at any time.
At that time, I was completely disheartened. I felt that there were headstrong masters like the late emperor in the world, and that the Ming Dynasty had no mercy. It was loyal to a person who was destined to perish. The history of future generations was in the hands of the person who destroyed me, and he might not be able to give it to me.
Write something good.
If the Qing is defeated, at least my colleagues will compile the "History of the Ming Dynasty" in the future. There may be a good bird to choose a tree to roost in, and a good minister to choose the master to do his work. Zigong said, "Zhou's bad deeds are not as good as this. That's why."
If a gentleman lives in the lower class, the whole world will be slandered.
The people of the Spring and Autumn Period knew that although the evil deeds of Shang Zhou existed, they were never spread as much as those of the various schools of thought. It was just that the Shang Dynasty had been destroyed for a long time, and in order to sell their own ideas, the various schools of thought tried to teach them about the evil deeds of the country's subjugation.
For example, it must be called Shang Zhou, which was accumulated over the past dynasties.
Those who die for the losers, even if they get a good reputation for a while, will inevitably be tarnished by the literati of the New Dynasty who wrote history a hundred years later. Since the death of Taishi of Qi, Dong Hu of Jin, and Duke Taishi, there has been no one in the world who is not afraid of death for eighteen hundred years.
Historian, dare to usurp the dynasty with straight writing. Hong is very clear about the character of today's literati. If I died in Songshan at that time, future generations may not think that I am vigorous...
Who would have thought that Zhu Shuren would appear in the end and bring the Ming Dynasty back! We are really unworthy of being a villain... I am already fifty-six years old, why would I regret dying? It is impossible to surrender to the Ming Dynasty again, and I will suffer.
I won’t suffer repeated humiliation. If I could die like this, it would be great if the history books in the future say that I died for my country while I was in Songshan and my whereabouts are unknown..."
Zu Dashou was also silenced and had to apologize a few times, saying that he was the one who caused Hong Chengchou to fall into a tight siege and was finally defeated and surrendered. The two of them only drank to get drunk, and they did not know what they were plotting.
…
Another day and a half passed quickly, and in a blink of an eye it was midnight on the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month.
It has been snowing heavily for two days, and although the snow seems to be getting lighter, anyone with a little life experience knows that in the cold winter, the temperature will only be colder than when it snows when the snow melts after the heavy snow clears.
Therefore, the remaining water in Zhangshui has been completely frozen. Even if heavy armored cavalry gallops on horseback, or even horse-drawn carriages pull Hongyi heavy artillery across the river, there will be no problem.
Hauge himself has also moved from Wei County to Linzhang County in the west in the past few days, so that he can attack the Ming army's grain camp in Neihuang at any time.
At this moment, everything was fully prepared, and the arrow had to be fired. Hauge ordered the troops to catch up on sleep during the day, prepare meals at the second watch, and complete the assembly and march out of the camp at the third watch. In this way, after two not too urgent marches, it was almost the fifth watch.
We can get to Huilong Town in the west of Neihuang County, which is the wharf and grain farming town on the south bank of Zhang River.
With hundreds of thousands of troops attacking, it is impossible to carry out a sneak attack, and fighting at night will lead to chaos for one's own side. Therefore, the most extreme method of fighting can only be "march at night and fight at dawn."
Everything seemed to be going well. After several hours of hard work, half way through the fifth watch, hundreds of thousands of Qing troops had already appeared on the battlefield with a frontal width of dozens of miles, spreading out along the Zhang River.
Before this battle, Hauge's total frontal force was only 2.78 million. Due to the harassment and small-scale battles in the previous period, the cumulative losses were only 10,000 to 20,000.
Therefore, the number of troops currently available is at most 260,000, stationed in three counties along Zhangzhou, covering a battlefield 1,560 miles wide.
For today's battle, Hauge selected 160,000 people and placed them separately on the western front battlefield between Linzhang County and Neihuang County. The remaining Wei County, Daming and other middle and east battlefields totaled only 100,000 people.
Thousands of people.
It's not that Hauge doesn't want to concentrate more troops, but if he concentrates more, he won't be able to deploy his troops, and he won't be able to quickly enter the battle. Fortunately, the troops remaining in the middle and east roads will not be idle, and they will also launch sheep attacks at the right time.
, to contain the enemy on the opposite side, making it impossible for the Ming army to concentrate all its forces on the west side for rescue.
The role they played was equivalent to when Cao Cao went to Wuchao to burn grain. He also needed someone to stand up to Zhang Hegao in the Guandu camp. Cao Bianjiao and Huang Degong in Puyang, Qingfeng and other places looked like Zhang Hegao to Hauge.
View.
In addition, despite the fact that Hauge only assembled 160,000 of the 260,000 people and put them on the main offensive line, the strength of the army is never measured by the number of people, but also depends on the quality and composition.
The 160,000 Haogra who arrived at the Linzhang-Neihuang battlefield included at least five and a half of the six Manchu banners on the front line and 70,000 Manchu cavalry. There were also almost all the Mongolian banners, a total of 40,000 Mongolian cavalry.
.
A total of 110,000 cavalry, plus 50,000 Han flags, green battalion infantry, and artillery. Judging from the composition, this is definitely the strongest attack he has gathered since the founding of the Qing Dynasty.
Whether it was the Saarhu War or the Songshan War, even if the Eight Banners came out, the mobilization rate was not that high at that time, and it was impossible to enable all Manchu men over the age of fifteen to serve as soldiers.
Today, Hauge devoted two-thirds of the cavalry power that the entire Qing Dynasty, including Mongolia, could control to this place with all his might.
In addition to the cavalry, in order to ensure that the Ming army's fortifications could be broken through as soon as possible, Hauge also brought in the largest artillery unit since the founding of the Qing Dynasty!
When Dorgon tried to break through Shanhaiguan with the Eight Banners, he only concentrated 70 or 80 cannons in a desperate attempt.
Later, Duduo led an army of 150,000 to conquer the south of the Yangtze River. When he sent out his troops, he only brought 60 red barbarian cannons. When they finally reached the gates of Nanjing and launched a desperate attack, there were only 46 red barbarian cannons left for bombardment.
Nanjing City Wall.
In contrast, today Hauge gathered as many Hongyi cannons as he could get, and the total number reached an astonishing one hundred and thirty!
About 20 of them are used goods before the Qing army entered the customs. The remaining 110 gates were slowly rebuilt and improved in the past six years after entering the customs.
After all, the three previous collapses of Duduo, Azige, and Abatai had already squandered at least 70% to 80% of the inventory accumulated before the Qing army entered the customs. Of course, the cannons that Hauge brought out mainly relied on these six years.
Newly made through thrift.
According to the original industrial base of the northern region and the Tatar production capacity outside the customs, when Dorgon was still alive, he once thought that he could increase the Qing's heavy artillery production capacity to 50 pieces per year. Unfortunately, it backfired and the front line was defeated one after another.
There are frequent thieves inside, and productivity is greatly damaged.
In fact, in the past six years, the Qing Dynasty's artillery industry production capacity has more than halved from the theoretical value. After so many years of savings, it has not saved up to 200 guns. Today, giving Hauge so much is already trying its best. If you want more,
If there are more, then the cannons on the city walls of Beijing are also brought here.
…
Seeing that all the cavalry and artillery were in place, Haug finally gave the order for a general attack.
For a time, in the darkness before dawn, hundreds of artillery fire were fired from the positions on the north bank of this section of Zhangshui River, bombing the Neihuang City and Huilong Town Wharf camps on the south bank indiscriminately.
The Qing army had suffered enough from the Ming army's cavalry artillery tactics in the past few years. They gradually came around to it and tried to learn from it, hoping that their heavy artillery would have the ability to advance rapidly with the cavalry troops.
Unfortunately, the Qing army's scientific and technological engineering capabilities were always weak, so even if they learned hard, they only learned a superficial look at tactics, even using a newly built heavy horse-drawn artillery cart to drag the heavy artillery and march quickly with the cavalry troops.
However, the Qing army could not learn from the rapid deployment and rapid advancement of the Ming army's cavalry artillery. Therefore, after their artillery positions were quickly transferred over long distances, once they were deployed into combat status, it would be difficult to maneuver and advance.
In other words, it may take several hours to switch from the cannon firing state back to the loading state, then push forward, and redeploy and deploy. You can only push forward two or three times a day at most.
In contrast, the most important thing about the Ming army's cavalry artillery is not the speed of maneuver, but the flexibility of deployment. After the enemy retreats and the range is out of reach, it can be reloaded and towed in a few minutes. After maneuvering to a new position, it can be towed in a few minutes.
They can redeploy and fire again, and they may be able to move forward two or three times in an hour.
However, these differences were not obvious at the beginning of the war. Anyway, the Qing army only wanted to bomb the outer fortifications of the Ming army's camp, and these were fixed targets.
All of a sudden, the Ming army's grain camp in Huilong Town was ablaze with fires everywhere, and tents and warehouses collapsed. The walls built with rammed earth dug out of the trenches were hit by solid iron bullets, and the wood on them was broken everywhere.
The fence posts collapsed and broken, and pieces of wood flew everywhere.
Seeing that the initial firepower preparation was effective, Hauge immediately asked his general Ye Bilong to lead several Manchu cavalry with armors, and immediately launched a tentative charge towards the gap in the Ming army's camp wall.
However, he also had a foresight and knew that the Ming army would not be defeated so easily. Before the attack, he also told Yi Bilong not to advance rashly. If the Ming army organized a counterattack, he would quickly retreat.
Ye Bilong took the order and left. Thousands of Manchus rode on horseback with anti-slip straw ropes tied to their horses' hooves. They stepped on the ice of Zhangshui, which was frozen to the bottom, and charged.
"No retreat! No shouting to disturb the morale of the troops! The rifle team is ready! Fire!"
The Ming army generals on the opposite side did not include Hu. After the fortification camp wall was blown to pieces, they had all the night patrol musketeers occupy the commanding heights behind the wreckage and pointed the loaded black holes of their guns at Zhang.
Water river surface.
Following the firing order, thousands of Wuchang-made rifles spit out tongues of fire, causing the Manchu cavalry under Ye Bilong to scream and fall down from time to time.
The Qing cavalry also fired back with bows and arrows, shooting randomly and blindly. Suddenly, they were like raindrops. Various guns and artillery shells burst into the air with the sound of breaking wind, and the strange screams brought about bursts of death.
On the other hand, Ye Bilong was not interested in fighting. He found that the Ming Army's rifle team did not reveal any flaws due to the sudden attack at the beginning, so he immediately retreated, leaving only hundreds of casualties.
As Erbilong retreated, Haug saw that a direct sneak attack through breaches was ineffective, so he poured all his resources into more adequate preparations for artillery firepower.
Fortunately, the Ming army on the opposite side was not idle either. Even though the Qing artillery position in the distance could not be seen at first in the darkness, after the Qing army fired five or six rounds, the Ming army's artillery also relied on the firelight to push back, and it was roughly accurate.
In one direction, a fierce counterattack began. Most of the artillery in this era mainly fired directly, and there was no need for range measurement. They could fire in good left and right directions.
Only those artillery pieces that use explosive bullets, or mortars, need precise impact points to ensure the blasting power. Now that we are in the dark, we have to learn how the Qing army fired solid iron bullets.
"The Southern Barbarians actually have so many heavy artillery in this camp? How strong is their national power now?"
Seeing the artillery blasting several cups of tea, Hauge observed with Hongyi's original old-fashioned telescope, feeling secretly frightened in his heart.
He didn't know how many cannons the Ming army had on the opposite side, but at least the Ming army's artillery must be stronger than him, probably at least two hundred. This was just in Neihuang County. If battlefields in Puyang and other places were included,
I don't know how many cannons the Ming army can have.
Fortunately, the Qing army had no fortifications to destroy. As long as the men, horses and artillery were not directly hit by the iron balls, there was nothing to lose. It was just an exchange of lives.
Now that things have happened, the Qing army can no longer refuse to trade lives and expenses with the Ming army safely.
After seeing the darkness for more than a quarter of an hour, the sky finally gradually lightened up, and we could see the enemy on the opposite side more clearly.
Under the morning light, Hauge saw from a distance that the camp opposite was in ruins. The wall and trench system close to the bank of the Zhangshui River were almost completely destroyed. The cavalry could break through wherever they wanted along the entire front.
Where to break through.
The Ming army's artillery, however, hid quite far away. Judging from the position of the fire when it was fired, it was at least a mile away behind the camp wall. No wonder they were not afraid of the Qing army's artillery - the Ming army was counterattacking outside the Qing army's range.
The Qing army's artillery could only hit the Ming army's fortifications and the infantry filling the defense line.
As the sky gradually turned brighter, the Ming army's artillery accuracy also began to improve, and explosive shells also began to be used. The Qing army's heavy artillery was soon blasted by the Ming army, and the surrounding Qing artillery was also killed or injured for a while.
Hauge knew that he could not delay any longer, so he issued the order for a general offensive across the entire front.
"We can't delay any longer, otherwise the Nanmanzi artillery has a longer range than our army, and they will only be wasted by them. All the concession cavalry will press forward, forcing the Ming army to not dare to hide behind to avoid the artillery!"
Mandahai, you attack from the left wing, let Ao Bai be your vanguard! Buluo, you attack from the right side, let Ye Bilong be your vanguard! The Qing Dynasty will survive. In this battle, we must do our best and fight to the death!"