Dashun Yongchang

On the afternoon of April 4, Azige and Duoduo led 30 cavalry to supervise Wu Sangui's 1 cavalry, and followed the official road to pursue Li Zicheng's main force.In Shaheyi they found traces of Li Zicheng's part of the army, but Azige only cared about the whereabouts of Li Zicheng's main force, while Duoduo and Wu Sangui thought it was a desperate situation for the intruders to go south to Tianjin. Only one or two hundred cavalry were sent south to check the whereabouts of this army, and the main force of the headquarters was still moving forward with all its strength.

The cavalry of the Qing army had at least three horses per person, and most of them had four. Wu Sangui's cavalry also had two or three horses per person. On the evening of May 4st, the Qing army had arrived in Fengrun, less than 2 miles away from Li Zicheng's rear guard and less than 3 miles away from Li Zicheng's middle army.

The guard troops saw the Qing army rangers appearing behind them, and left to pass the news to the Chinese army.So Li Zicheng, who was stationed in Huangtuzhuang, summoned the generals around him and Song Xiance, and held a military discussion on the pursuit of the Qing cavalry.

Liu Zongmin said disapprovingly: "Counting from the 26th, we have already gone for five days. When Li Guo withdrew on the 29th, the Qing army hadn't noticed our retreat. Therefore, counting from the 30th, the Qing army would at most They chased us for two days.

It can be seen from this that the main force of the Qing army must not be coming, but only the vanguard cavalry of the Qing army.Since it is a cavalry assault, there will not be many troops catching up, and the cavalry's full-scale assault will only take three to five days at most, and the horsepower will not be able to keep up after a long time.

The cavalry of the Qing army will surely be able to catch up with the main force of our army tomorrow, but they only have one charge left, and it is impossible to fight us.That being the case, it would be better to form an formation here, defeat the cavalry who came rashly, and then slowly return to Beijing. "

Liu Xiyao also said: "I observed around Jizhou, but this place is the most suitable place to resist the cavalry assault. To the north is the Lingshan Mountain, to the south is the Lihe River, and in the middle is Huangtuzhuang Village. The whole front is less than 10 miles away, which is suitable for riding on foot. The only place that can The worry is that the river is shallow, and the cavalry of the Qing army may go around the river and hit me on the back."

Song Xiance said: "The soldiers have been marching continuously for the past few days. Although the soldiers are exhausted, their morale is still good. Because they believe that your majesty wants to meet the coalition forces against the Wu and Qing forces here in Jizhou, plus Liu and Ma. The general set up a camp near Huangtuzhuang, and the armies were ready to fight against the Wu Qing coalition forces at this time.

Even if the anti-Wu and Qing army cavalry looked at our camp and did not dare to attack, His Majesty has fulfilled his promise to the soldiers.Therefore, His Majesty is in a posture of attacking here, that is, he can respond to the withdrawal of the rearguard troops, or he can repair the tired troops, and then slowly retreat to Tongzhou, seventy miles away, without worrying about the coalition cavalry attacking my back. , leading to the collapse of the army. "

Almost all the generals around him supported the fight against Wu Sangui and the allied forces of the Qing army in Huangtuzhuang, and retreated after defeating the opponent's spirit.Although a certain person still hesitated in his heart, he finally accepted the opinions of the generals, because he knew that without the protection of the army, he would not be able to run far.If you lose the army and run away by yourself, then you will end up with Li Zicheng in history.

However, although Li Zicheng accepted the battle with the chasing coalition forces in Huangtuzhuang, he did not agree with Liu Zongmin and others' idea of ​​keeping all the main force and setting up an array to fight the coalition forces.

He said to the crowd: "Although we are going to form an array here to fight Wu Sangui and the Jiannu coalition army, everyone just said that the cavalry who catch up can only be elite cavalry from the coalition army, and there will not be too many of them, so If our 6 to [-] people lined up here, they would definitely not dare to rush into the formation, but would only contain us nearby, not allowing us to evacuate, and waiting for the main force from the rear to come and fight me.

Therefore, we should divide the army into three parts, one part is the supply unit, and a supply camp is set up on the way from here to Tongzhou to facilitate the rest and food of the combat troops; The enemy, let them cover each other and retreat.In this way, even if the coalition forces want to pursue us, they cannot shake the morale of our army. "

The generals who participated in the military discussion quickly agreed with Li Zicheng's proposition, and decided that the Chinese army would form a part, and the other battalions would form a part. Stand up; Liu Zongmin, Li Guo, Zhang Neng, Niu Wancai, etc. led one; Song Xiance led the supply troops and set up supply camps along the way.

Although this Dashun Army has 1 cavalry, there are only more than 6 veterans who are really skilled in cavalry combat. The nearly 7 cavalrymen under the army can only be regarded as soldiers who can fight on horseback.

Liu Zongmin took half of the 6 or 7 elite cavalry in the Chinese army, Li Zicheng took 2, and the rest were the guards around the generals.The cavalry of the Shun army was similar to the elite of the Ming army. In addition to a war horse, they also had one or two pack horses or mules. They rode mules when traveling, and only rode war horses when fighting.

The horses of the Dashun Army all came from the northwest. Although they were better than the horses used by the Ming Army's frontier army, they were still difficult to compare with the war horses of the Mongolian tribes outside the Guanwai and the Qing Dynasty.So on the way back from Shanhaiguan, after Li Zicheng reorganized his guard cavalry, he finally compiled two cavalry regiments of 1140 cavalry regiments.

These 1140 cavalry refer to combat soldiers, not including heavy soldiers.As for the remaining cavalry of the Chinese army, Liu Zongmin led 3000 and Ma Shiyao led 1500.The cavalry led by Liu Zongmin was arranged in the area south of the Lai River. On the one hand, it was used as a flank protection force after the battalions withdrew from the Lai River. soldier.

The infantry of the Chinese army has 234 teams, about 18000 people.Like someone's opinion on the cavalry organization, the current infantry organization of the Dashun Army is still too trivial.But the war is imminent, someone will not make major changes, just want to make this army easier to command and fight independently.

During the march of the past few days, someone has already understood some disadvantages of the Shun army formation, that is, although the formation of the troops is conducive to the transfer of middle-level officers during wartime, but because the scale of the troops is too small, roughly 50 Between 100 people, it is difficult to manage in daily life.

In the process of changing the formation of the cavalry, someone also found that the 50-100 infantry team is actually difficult to resist the impact of a 50-man cavalry team.The cavalry formation of the Shun army was gradually established in the battle against the Ming army. A cavalry team of 50 people can just restrain the Ming army, that is, a team of about [-] infantry.

The infantry of the Shun Army was modeled on the infantry of the Ming Army. Because the Ming Army did not have many cavalry, no changes have been made.To resist the impact of a 50-man cavalry team, at least 2-3 infantry [-]-man formations are required to form a square formation.This reminded someone of the Napoleon movie they had seen. In the famous Battle of Waterloo, the French cavalry failed to attack the British hollow phalanx, and were finally shot into a sieve by the British infantry.

The situation that Shun Jun is now facing is very similar to that scene, except that Shun Jun doesn't have a smoothbore rifle with a bayonet.But someone didn't want to fight the cavalry of the Qing army, but just wanted to prevent the cavalry from smashing their own infantry formation.

Therefore, someone quickly adjusted the infantry team of the Chinese army. In fact, it was to combine several infantry teams into a fixed formation and establish a more distinct command system in the infantry team.The results of the previous battalion competitions were put to good use, and those soldiers who won the small competitions in the team were promoted to become grassroots non-commissioned officers below official officers and above ordinary soldiers.

Chapter 36 is here

On May [-], before the Qing army arrived, thousands of Shunjun troops who had withdrawn from Zunhua arrived at Huangtuzhuang.At the same time, Li Zicheng set up three formations on the left, middle and right between Lingshan, Huangtuzhuang and Zhuhe.

The terrain between Lingshan and Huangtuzhuang was relatively flat and the distance was relatively long, so Li Zicheng ordered Liu Xiyao's troops and the infantry of the Chinese Army to form 12 regiments as his left wing.Li Zicheng fixed the infantry team at 2 people and renamed it company. There were 4 platoons under the company and [-] teams under the platoon. Then, two companies formed a battalion, and three battalions formed a regiment.

In the first-level unit of the battalion, 4 rows of firearms soldiers were deployed, with 30 people in each row, and each battalion also had 2 tiger squatting guns.When facing the enemy in formation, the battalion is an independent combat unit. Two companies of spearmen line up in a line of 20-25 people, 8 rows of spear phalanxes meet the enemy, and 4 rows of firearms soldiers line up on both sides of the spear phalanx. With 3-5 people, the low spear phalanx is arranged in three formations, and then shoots one by one. As for the tiger squatting gun, it is in the middle of the two spear phalanxes, and bombards the enemy who rushes nearby according to the situation.

Every three battalions form a regiment, and the finished product or one word confronts the enemy. The three battalions protect each other's flanks, and more square formations can be formed between the regiments.In short, after such a phalanx was set up, the spear infantry became a defensive force, reaching the impact of the cavalry and protecting the firearm soldiers around them, and the offensive task was completely handed over to the firearm soldiers.

For the Dashun Army, the difficulty of combat command has not increased, but has decreased.As unit functions become more specialized, offense and defense are no longer the task of the same unit.Therefore, although Li Zicheng temporarily changed the military system, it did not cause chaos among the soldiers in the camp.

Due to the small adjustment and the establishment of the garrison positions, on May 23, the central army of the Dashun Army and part of the left battalion, plus some troops from the Ming army and logistics troops who surrendered Some personnel were transferred to supplement, and they were quickly mixed into 12 regiments of infantry. In addition to the 5 regiments in the left-wing position, there were 6 regiments in the Huangtuzhuang Central Army position and 21919 regiments in the right-wing position; a total of [-] troops were formed.

In addition, Li Zicheng's cavalry brigade was on the position of the Chinese army, and the rear army was led by Ma Shiyao's 1500 fine cavalry and thousands of unorganized infantry.The right-wing position was handed over by Li Zi to Ren Jirong, the infantry of the Chinese army was handed over to Zuo Guangxian, and Li Zicheng himself commanded the cavalry of the Chinese army.Originally, the Chinese army was supposed to be for Li You, but he hadn't returned from Beijing yet, so Li Zicheng had no choice but to promote Zuo Guangxian, the former Ming general who surrendered to him.

On the other side, the second combat unit led by Liu Zongmin had more than 7 infantry in addition to 18000 fine cavalry. These units were still organized according to the old system, but one third of them were retreating towards Huangtuzhuang.The remaining supply troops, about 2, led by Song Xiance, began to move towards Tongzhou on the afternoon of May [-].

On the afternoon of May [-], Li Guo sent news to Huangtuzhuang that Wu Sangui's troops and the Qing army had caught up with the rear guard, and he would buy time for the rear guard to retreat.This made Li Zicheng very sad, worried that his most loyal nephew would not come back.Li Laiheng pleaded with Li Zicheng, hoping to lead the team to the front to meet his foster father Li Guo.

But after Li Zicheng thought about it, he still refused him and said: "It's getting dark now, if you go to meet Li Guo at this moment, you may not be able to find him. If you miss Li Guo's team and bump into the main force of the coalition army, But it was nothing more than losing the lives of himself and his subordinates.

I know your father's character, he will not fight uncertain battles, if he really can't hold back the coalition forces of Wu Sangui and the Qing army, then he will definitely retreat in the dark.We just need to wait here, and then send some more sentries to scout around, and wait until we find your father's location, and then go to meet him..."

But apart from this bad news, there is also good news. Li You, who was sent by Li Zicheng to the capital to fetch the wire, finally arrived at dusk that day, and he brought nearly 4000 catties of barbed wire.Li You pleaded guilty to Li Zicheng, saying that time was too tight. He raised the reward so that the craftsmen in the capital made a batch of barbed wire, but there was still no 5000 catties, so he had to bring these finished products first.

Li Zicheng was already very happy to see more than ten carts of iron wire being delivered. Such cheap goods in later generations are really luxury goods in this era.He didn't blame Li You, but immediately summoned several generals of the Chinese army to ask where the wires should be placed.

After looking at the finished wires, everyone thought that if they were placed in front of the formation, the number of wires would be too small, and they would be easily discovered by the coalition forces and avoided. It is better to simply use them at the rear of the right-wing position, on the side of the Yi River.If the coalition cavalry wanted to make a surprise attack, they could give them a hard time.

Li Zicheng accepted everyone's opinions and decided to lay a criss-cross barbed wire in a nearly 300-meter-long sorghum field north of the embankment.The height is no higher than a person's knee, but they are arranged at intervals of about one meter. Once they break into this sorghum field, horses and people must not be able to rush out easily.

Then the remaining firearms in the battalion were concentrated on the north side of the sorghum field. One was to attract the coalition cavalry to attack the firearms soldiers, and the other was to let the firearms soldiers fire into the sorghum field when the coalition cavalry fell into it.Li Zicheng then ordered Li You to lead these firearms troops.

On May 10rd, around [-] or [-] o'clock in the morning, the sentries arranged by the Dashun Army came back and reported that Li Guo's flag was seen [-] miles away, and they were fighting with the Wu-Qing coalition forces.

Li Zicheng who was stationed in Huangtu Village immediately called Ma Bao and Li Laiheng, and said to them, "The scouts have reported that the guard troops led by Li Guo are being entangled by the forwards of the Wu-Qing coalition forces. Now I order you two to separate. Take a cavalry regiment, Ma Bao, you go to meet General Li's troops to withdraw, Li Laiheng, you go to resist the pursuers, and come back as soon as you receive people, and you are not allowed to fight."

Both Ma Bao and Li Laiheng agreed excitedly, then accepted Li Zicheng's order and walked out of the hall.Li Zicheng's current large tent is being set up in the best compound in Huangtuzhuang. The main house is built of blue bricks and black tiles. Residents have all migrated to Tongzhou.

After seeing Ma Bao and Li Laiheng leave, he couldn't help getting up and going out, and inspected the village's position again.After the Qing army entered the customs many times and local civil uprisings, the villages in the north began to be fortified.Not only the compound where Li Zicheng lived was built with a tall brick wall, but also an earth wall more than ten feet long was built outside Huangtuzhuang Village, and there was a shallow moat outside the wall.It is enough to resist refugees or ordinary local thieves.

The reason why Liu Xiyao chose to stand here was because he liked Huangtuzhuang, a village with basic defense facilities.Huangtuzhuang, which is located between Lingshan and Lihe, has become the core of the left and right wings. As long as this stronghold is not occupied by the enemy, even if the left and right wings lose, they can move closer to Huangtuzhuang to regroup and not collapse immediately. escape.Similarly, with two wings as guards, Huangtuzhuang only needs to face the enemy head-on, without worrying about being besieged from several sides, and the difficulty of defense is greatly reduced.

After Liu Xiyao's transformation, Huangtuzhuang was originally a village with a radius of 2 miles, but now the east facing the enemy has expanded into a defense line consisting of fences, earth walls, and trenches for about one and a half miles. Each simple camp of 2-300 meters is to dig a trench in front of the formation, and then raise the soil in the trench to the side of the defender.

This line of defense was divided into four regiments for defense, with one regiment in reserve.In addition, the Guards Cavalry Brigade, as a mobile unit, attacked from the left and right passages at the right time to counter-kill the attacking enemy troops.Looking at this tightly guarded line of defense, and the soldiers behind the line of defense who looked more relaxed than himself, someone had to admit that he was the one who should be encouraged.

When Li Zicheng inspected the defense line of the Chinese army, and then picked up the brass monocular telescope and stood on the earth wall to look into the distance, this was the treasure he found from the palace.Of course, it was a treasure obtained by the real Li Zicheng. The toys that Chongzhen used to play with were military equipment in Li Zicheng's view.

And someone recognized it from the European-style badge engraved on the telescope. It must be something that European missionaries presented to Emperor Ming. Naturally, he would not let go of those missionaries from Europe. Europe has gradually formed a system in natural science, but Ming's natural science is still the self-entertainment of a few geniuses.

Compared with this telescope, he cared more about these missionaries who came from Europe. Maybe they could use them to establish China's natural science system to fight against the Confucian literati who ate the Four Books and Five Classics.In Duke Kaishen's diary, he did not speak highly of these traditional literati, especially Mr. Hu Shi, who was simply sent to the United States in order to fear that he would surrender to the Japanese.

But it's too early to say these things now, at least he has to wait until he finishes this battle alive, and then finds a place to settle down, before he has time to wrestle with such a traditional literati.The field of view of the monocular telescope of this era is indeed narrower, and the multiple is not high.For someone, using this observation is only a little better than seeing with the naked eye.

After Li Zicheng observed with a telescope for most of the day, the monotonous and unchanging scenery in the camera finally changed. The dust on the official road began to fly up, and soon a group of infantry appeared from the dust. Looking at the clothes on these soldiers, Li Zicheng confirmed that it was his own.He ordered to the guards behind him: "Send a team of cavalry to lead these troops from the left side of the formation to the rear camp, and they are not allowed to stay in the formation. In addition, send people to the rear camp, let them cook and boil water, The withdrawn troops will be given food and drink, but they must be assembled first and then given to..."

Li Zicheng's order was quickly conveyed, and the last rearguard troops withdrawn from the front passed through the formation of the Dashun Army and went to the rear camp under the guidance.Half an hour later, groups of cavalry began to appear in the distance. These were also cavalry from the Dashun Army. Behind them were a few Guanning cavalry wearing Ming army armor and Qing army cavalry wearing red tasseled caps.

Chapter 37 Brothers may not be on the same page

Seeing the dusty Li Guo walking up the earthen wall, Li Zicheng threw over the skin bag containing light wine that Li Zicheng had asked for from the soldiers, and said to him, "Take a couple of sips to relieve fatigue."

The skin bag is used to hold water, which is easy to smell, but it is different when used to hold wine. The smell of wine will minimize the smell of the skin bag.The most popular mung bean wine in the capital is the most popular mung bean wine in Li Zicheng's soldier's skin. The wine is blue in color and has a strong taste.

Li Guo was not too polite, took the skin bag and gulped down half of the wine. After putting down the skin bag, he became more energetic, and then he said to Li Zicheng: "I didn't expect Jianu to react so quickly. If it weren't for Your Majesty Make a quick decision, this time we may suffer heavy losses in Shanhaiguan."

Li Zicheng looked at him and asked curiously: "You have fought against Guan Ningjun and Jiannu, how do you feel about their fighting power?"

Li Guo thought for a while and said: "The current Guan Ning army is still inferior to the lunatic ancestor, but the cavalry of Jiannu is worse than the lunatic ancestor. This is their performance after a long journey. If they let them After a good rest for a few days, I am afraid that we will be stronger. If the cavalry is fighting head-on, our army may be invincible."

Li Zicheng turned his head and glanced outside the earthen wall. Those coalition cavalry were staying in the distance to observe his position. He couldn't help cursing inwardly. Those who didn't dare to go so close to the formation for reconnaissance, obviously, after receiving the support of the Qing army, the morale of the Guan Ning army was also rising.

From this point of view, these Guan Ning troops probably didn't really regard the Manchus as outsiders in their hearts, otherwise they wouldn't act like they were in tune with these Manchus cavalry.Generally speaking, even if the two armies that have been hostile for so long are really united, the two sides should be vigilant against each other, not so close.Unless there are people in the Qing army who they knew in the past and are still quite close.

Thinking of this, Li Zicheng couldn't help but said to Li Guo: "Go to the back camp to rest, and then take them across the river to set up camp, and prepare to meet our army's retreat. No matter whether these cavalry teams will collide, our army will at most defend Three days. We won’t wait until the main force of the coalition forces catch up and give them a chance to entangle us.”

From yesterday afternoon to this morning, Li Guo and the vanguard of the Wu Qing coalition fought no less than seven or eight times. Although their respective personnel losses were not large, the team he led was indeed a bit exhausted.Therefore, Li Guo did not hesitate, and after paying a military salute to Li Zicheng, he said, "Okay, then if Your Majesty has any orders, you can give them to me at any time..."

It took about an hour for Li Guo's troops to arrive at the formation, and the sun was also in the sky. Clouds of smoke and dust appeared again on the official road covered by the forest in the distance. .After nearly 2 cavalry formed, in the distance it looked like a black tide with no end in sight, much more imposing than the infantry phalanx.

Although Azig, Duoduo, and Wu Sangui are the three leading the army in name, Wu Sangui also knows that only Azige and Duoduo can really make decisions in this army.But what surprised him was that Dorgon asked Azig and Duoduo to lead [-] cavalry each. They really each led an army, not two people leading an army.

In the past three days, after Wu Sangui got in touch with these two brothers, he realized that although these two brothers were blood brothers, they didn't seem to be so harmonious.In terms of the order of seniority, Azig should be above Duduo, but Duduo is the owner of the white flag, and Azig is below it.It's just that Doduo doesn't respect this elder brother very much, and Azig doesn't respect his banner owner very much either.

It was Wu Sangui's confidant Hu Xinshui who spent some wine and meat to get some news from the two brothers' subordinates.It turned out that Azig was co-leading the inlaid white flag with the Nine Kings, and the Nine Kings were the banner owners of Azig.But last year when the Great Khan passed away and the Nine Kings became regent queens, the first thing they did was to change the flag with their younger brother Doduo, so that the Nine Kings became the banner owner of the Zhengbai Banner alone, and Doduo became the leader of the Zhengbai Banner. Zige co-leads the banner owner of the inlaid white flag. This incident has dealt a big blow to Duduo.

Azig is still not used to his banner owner being replaced by Duduo, and Duduo has always had a weak relationship with this eldest brother, so the two of them have shown that they are not in conflict with each other.In fact, all the people under Azig's command were still with the old white flag, and they were closer to the old banner owner Dorgon, and they didn't have deep feelings for Duduo.Duoduo's subordinates were transferred from the Zhengbai Banner, and they were also dissatisfied with these old inlaid white flags, thinking that the Nine Kings had used tricks to steal Duduo's position as the leader of the Zhengbai Banner.

The two yellow flags and the Zhengbai flag belong to the upper three banners, but the Xiangbai flag is after the Zhenglan flag, and these Duoduo's subordinates were earlier the Zhenghuang flag in the Nurhachi period.In other words, they didn't fall from third to fifth, but from first to third, and then to fifth again, which made Duduo and his subordinates not very pleasing to anyone now.

In fact, if it wasn't because Li Zicheng ran too fast, Dorgon didn't want Azig and Duoduo to send troops together.But Li Zicheng came to Shanhaiguan aggressively with the army, and said that he would join hands with him to destroy Wu Sangui and the Gaodi tribe, making Dorgon think that Li Zicheng was now riding a tiger, so he had to compromise with himself, trying to eliminate Wu Sangui and then find an excuse withdraw troops.

That's why Dorgon had the patience to deal with Wu Sangui, trying to force Wu Sangui to fight the Dashun Army first.However, Li Zicheng, who seemed to be riding a tiger, didn't want to lose face at all, and ran away as soon as he said it, completely acting like a rogue.

But this made it difficult for Dorgon to ride a tiger. He was the one who advocated sending troops to the south to seize the great tomorrow, and he was the one who stood still outside Shanhaiguan and wanted to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight.If Li Zicheng were let go, wouldn't everyone in the world know that he was played by Li Zicheng?

Dorgon, who had just become the regent, was of course unwilling to lose such a big face, so he could only chase after him in the concentration camp.However, his prestige as queen regent has not yet been established, and the battle with Hauge for the position of Khan has put the two white flags into a state of being hostile to each other. Azig and Duoduo sent troops with fine cavalry. They could represent themselves and restrain each other, so that they would not lead the army to do stupid things.

Of the more than 2 cavalry, except for the [-] fine cavalry led by Azig and Duoduo, and the [-] Guanning Army fine cavalry led by Wu Sangui, the rest are servants.Just like raising children in the cavalry of the Dashun Army, the servant cavalry is to share the physical work outside the battlefield for the soldiers, such as feeding horses and cooking, etc. Although they can also go into battle when necessary, they are generally used for pursuit when.

Azige, Duoduo, and Wu Sangui are all generals who have led the army for many years, and their subordinates are all elite soldiers who have been selected after a long period of combat. Therefore, they sent people to test the camp of the Dashun Army for a while, and the three of them realized that what was ahead I am afraid that this front line cannot be broken easily.

The three quickly ordered to stop the attack, and then gathered together to discuss the next battle.A few matzas were placed in the woods by the roadside, and the guards circled around the perimeter, turning it into a meeting place that was both ventilated and shaded.

Although Duduo should be the leader among the three, Azig rushed to speak before Duduo after sitting down: "Our army's forwards have fought against the Shun army several times, and these bandits are more courageous than the Daming army. There are too many, dare to fight against our Manchurian Jingqi in the field, the thief general is also quite cunning, not only dare to stay and fight with our army, but also fight and retreat at the same time, it can be seen that the Shun army is not an ordinary army.

The regent also said when he ordered us to pursue it: This soldier should not be attacked lightly, and everyone must work hard. If you break this, you will achieve great success.It can be seen that the regent asked us to catch up with and eliminate the main force of the Shun army, and not allow them to escape back to Beijing, leaving a hidden danger for our army to seize Beijing.Therefore, we should take a short rest to recover our horsepower, and then break through the formation with all our strength, then the Shun army will be defeated and our army will be able to chase after it. "

Looking at Azig very dissatisfied, Duoduo looked at Wu Sangui and said strangely: "General Wu, how long will you have to rest before you can break through the enemy's formation in one go?"

Wu Sangui felt aggrieved for a while, if he hadn't found out about the conflict between the three Azig brothers, he would really think that the Azige and Duoduo brothers were forcing him to send troops so as to consume himself and the Shun army strength.But now, he can still feel that Duduo's words are more aimed at Azig, and he is just a tool for Duduo to mock Azig.

But even so, Wu Sangui didn't dare to complain, because he was really beaten by the Manchus.Don't look at his father who once rushed into the Manchurian army to save his father when he was young, but after that, he failed again and again in the face of the Manchus, and his vigor had long been worn away.

During the Battle of Songjin, surrounded by Manchurian soldiers, he simply put down his arms and didn't want to resist. If someone hadn't tried his best to tear a hole for him, Wu Sangui would have surrendered at that time.And when others broke the encirclement for the Ming army regardless of life and death, Wu Sangui not only did not join the battle to defend the opening, but fled directly with his family members. hands.

This kind of psychological fear of the Manchus made Wu Sangui not have the courage to resist to the end when facing the Qing army approaching the city.Just like now, the army he led accounted for one-third of the coalition army, but under Duduo's ridicule, he flattered him like a little daughter-in-law and said: "With the Manchurian soldiers as our army's backing, break down the barracks of the intruders. It's not difficult.

However, this place is not far from Beijing. If we just defeat the intruders without leaving most of the intruders behind, our army may not be able to prevent these intruders from fleeing back to Beijing.Rather than fighting these intruders in Beijing, it would be more appropriate to wipe them out in the wild.

Before dispatching troops, didn't the Nine Kings also say that if we encounter the main force of the Shun army, we only need to contain it so that it is difficult to retreat, and then wait for the main force to catch up and encircle them together..."

Duoduo interrupted Wu Sangui's words, and asked coldly: "Are you using the regent's words to suppress me?"

Azig said unhappily: "Looking at the opposite camp, there are only tens of thousands of soldiers, and we have more than ten thousand elite cavalry. Wouldn't it be too cowardly and incompetent to wait for the regent to come up to start the fight?"

Wu Sangui raised his head and glanced at the two brothers. He didn't understand why the two joined forces again, so he could only say awkwardly: "The general is stupid, why don't you ask the two county kings to show you the strategy."

Chapter 38 The Eve of the Battle

Azig was deeply influenced by Nurhachi, and he had an inexplicable hatred for the Han people. He felt that any dispute between himself and Duoduo was an internal problem among the Manchus. What qualifications did the Han people have to point fingers at them.

Doduo also despised the Han people, mainly because Han officials like Fan Wencheng supported Huang Taiji in dealing with their Manchu relatives. He couldn't get angry at Huang Taiji directly, so he could only vent his dissatisfaction with these Han officials.

Although the two brothers are in charge of the forward coalition with Wu Sangui, they don't think Wu Sangui is qualified to express any opinions, as long as they do things according to their orders.The two brothers believed that they sent troops together with Wu Sangui to supervise Wu Sangui and the Dashun army's desperate efforts, so as to prevent Wu Sangui from continuing to lead the way at both ends, or to maintain strength.

Nurhachi’s policy of establishing the country during his lifetime was to turn Manchuria into a Manchurian Manchuria. Therefore, he adopted a policy of continuous elimination of the Han and Mongols other than the Jurchen clan. Therefore, the two yellow flags he personally led were also the most united Manchurians.

When Huang Taiji took over as the Great Khan, Manchuria's economy was already on the verge of collapse. After both Mongolian and Han people left Liaodong, Manchuria's production began to decline rapidly.If it hadn't been for a mouthful of blood from North Korea and opening up the looting path to enter the customs by taking risks, it would be difficult for Houjin to sustain itself.Huang Taiji relied on the population looted from North Korea and the Ming Dynasty to re-develop the economy of Manchuria, and it was only then that the Manchu Qing established a base that could supply the army.

Only in this way, the Manchu supremacy during the Nurhachi period became a republic of the Eight Banners during the Huangtaiji period.The Eight Banners, which were originally the exclusive force of the Manchu tribes, became a military republic of Manchuria, Mongolia, and Han people.

It should be said that before the Battle of Songjin, the Han people in the Eight Banners were not very powerful. In the second year of Chongde, there were only 20 cattle records in two banners, and in the fourth year of Chongde, there were only four banners. But in the eighth year of Chongde, they became Han Chinese. The 167 cattle records of the Eight Banners of the Army not only exceeded the number of cattle records of the Eight Banners of Mongolia, but also reached more than half of the number of cattle records of the Eight Banners of Manchuria.

And after Wu Sangui and the remaining Liaodong Ming army continued to surrender, the number of Han army flags would rise sharply again, which made the Manchurians among the Manchus panic.They wanted to seize the empire of Ming Dynasty and plunder the wealth and population of the Han people so that they could live a better life. They did not want the Han people to become the masters of the Qing Dynasty and make themselves vassals of the Han people.

Huang Taiji was able to suppress the Manchurians among the Manchus. After all, it was his initiative to use the power of the Han people to contain the Mongols and the different political forces in Manchuria.The Two Yellow Banners he led were also more open-minded. As long as the Han people did not want to be above them, the soldiers of the Two Yellow Banners believed that there should be a place for Mongolians and Han people in the country.

But Dorgon himself is a representative of the Manchurians. It was the Manchurians who relied on the two white flags to withstand Huang Taiji's suppression, and he firmly grasped the military power of the two white flags before Huang Taiji's sudden death.

As a representative of the Manchurians, Dorgon naturally respected and supported the Manchu forces and ensured that their power would not be divided between the Han and Mongols; The power of the Han people distributed their interests to the Manchus, and the country must be divided.

The purpose of conquering Daming or Dashun in the south is to open up new territories to satisfy the desires of the Manchus who followed him, and also to use up the political power against him in the country through war.This also made Dorgon willing to recruit Wu Sangui and Gaodi, but he also wanted to consume the power of these Ming troops in the war against Dashun, because his southern expedition was not to expand the power of the Han army banner.

Although Azige and Duoduo were dissatisfied with some of Dorgon's political strategies, they still agreed on the idea of ​​weakening the power of the Han people.Wu Sangui's suggestion is actually solid, they are here to entangle the main force of the Dashun Army, and then wait until the main force of the army arrives, then the Dashun Army will naturally be defeated.

But this suggestion is not in the interests of the Manchus, so that Wu Sangui's tribe will not suffer much loss, and instead become a new force of the Han Army Banner after the war, allowing the Han Army Banner to win more benefits in this war.Next, the Manchu and Han forces in the Qing Dynasty became even more out of balance.Therefore, the two unanimously opposed Wu Sangui's safe suggestion, and both advocated that they should fight first before talking.

Although Azige and Duoduo both tried to consume the strength of Wu Sangui's troops with the help of the Dashun Army, they were also experienced generals, so naturally they would not blindly ask Wu Sangui to charge the Dashun Army's position just like this.

Without cannons and chariots, cavalry charging the infantry already in formation is almost betting that the opponent is a group of recruits.Because only recruits would drop their weapons and flee before the charge of the cavalry, the veterans knew very well that they could not run away from the horses.If there is no feasible strategy to defeat the enemy's formation, these Guan Ning troops will probably rebel soon, because this is to let them die.

Azige and Duoduo first sent out some subordinates, and Wu Sangui also pulled out hundreds of people to launch a tentative attack on the Dashun Army's position.These cavalry were divided into several teams and approached the positions of the Shun Army in batches to see how the Shun Army infantry responded and counterattacked, so as to understand where the defense was weaker and the soldiers were more timid.

Some cavalrymen of the Qing army even dismounted less than 10 paces before the formation of the Dashun army, and then shot the soldiers of the Shun army with their infantry bows.Then it triggered the counterattack of the Shun army's firearms, bows and arrows, so as to measure the long-range attack capability of the Dashun army.This tentative attack lasted for nearly an afternoon, and it stopped when the sky began to darken.Afterwards, the Wu-Qing coalition forces began to retreat, camped and rested about [-] miles away from the Dashun Army's position, and ended today's fighting between the two armies.

At night, the coalition forces also had a rough idea of ​​the situation in the front camp of the Dashun Army.In the center of the Qing army camp, Azig and Duoduo sat in front of a bonfire, above which was a sheep roasting. While waiting for the sheep to be roasted, the two also discussed the battle tomorrow. discuss.

Azige looked at the mutton that was gradually changing color, and said to Duduo: "The middle formation of the Shun army is guarding the village, and the walls and trenches are complete. It is difficult for our army to detect the truth. But to identify its flag, it seems to be Li Zicheng's main formation. , I am afraid that some siege equipment must be used to attack this place.

The north formation of the Shun army is located between the mountain and the middle formation. Although the front is broad, the number of the Shun army here seems to be extremely strong, and the flags on the mountain are densely covered, and there may be ambushes.If our army attacks from here, I am afraid it will be attacked from three sides.

On the other hand, the southern formation of the Shun army is between the center formation and the river. Although the front is narrow, the Shun army does not have many troops. It is nothing more than relying on the river in the south to block our way to attack from the side.In my opinion, if we want to defeat the Shun army's position, we must start from here. "

Duoduo was playing with a bonfire with a branch, and said casually: "I asked the nearby villagers to ask that this river only surges during the flood season, and it is still possible to travel on foot.

I asked E Shuo to find several places to cross the river. It was almost the same as what the villagers said. The depth of the river was mostly below the knees of the horses, but some places had a muddy bottom and some places had a hard bottom.It is not difficult for us to go around the river from the lower reaches of the river, and then attack the rear of the Shun army.The question is whether to attack the bridge where the Shun Army crosses the river, or go upstream and cross the river to attack the flanks of the Shun Army position?In addition, Shunjun revealed such a flaw to us, could it be a trap? "