Dashun Yongchang

The Spanish officer obviously didn't mean to be opportunistic. After he realized that the Shun army had taken advantage of the favorable terrain, he just hesitated for a moment, organized his team, and launched an attack on the Shun army on the high ground.

In the eyes of the Spaniards, the Chinese on the high ground did not form a solid phalanx, but only formed two thin line arrays. The soldiers had no armor or cold weapons, and all of them were armed with firearms.Although such a front line occupies the entire high ground, it does not seem to be defensive at all. As long as you let your phalanx get close, you can quickly break through the thin Chinese front line, so what is the detour to attack?

The Spaniards put 40 infantry in full body armor in front, halberd soldiers and two-handed sword soldiers in the middle, and finally 20 arquebus soldiers.The Spaniard's plan was as follows: the phalanx marched towards the gentle slope, stopped about [-] steps away from the enemy, and let the arquebus soldiers behind the team run to the two sides and shoot at the opposite Shun army musketeers, which attracted the Shun army musketeers to open fire. After shooting, the phalanx moved forward quickly, blocking the remaining Shunjun musketeers from firing, and then entered into hand-to-hand combat.

This set of tactics has been fought from the Americas to Asia, and the Spaniards have not undergone major changes, because the colonial wars are enough.But today it is clear that they are going to hit the iron plate.When the Spanish arquebus gunners ran out from the phalanx to shoot at our side, Yu Boxiang didn't pay attention at all. He just walked in front of the formation and stared at his subordinates sternly, not allowing them to shoot without authorization.

He held a horsewhip in his right hand and tapped the palm of his left hand. He walked in front of the subordinates holding guns and shouted loudly: "I'm afraid, they only have 20 gunmen in total. Even if we shoot one by one, we will be defeated." Man, also drive 5 rounds. How many times can they preload?

Your Majesty said well, when the two armies meet, the brave will win, and the dead will rise to the sky, and they will not die for thousands of years.We take a round of fire from them, and when they charge up, we knock them down in one shot.But if you fire the guns first, you will be chased and hacked in a while.Think about it for yourself, should you patiently wait for the opportunity to kill them, or let them go indiscriminately, and then everyone will be driven into the sea to act as water ghosts..."

When Yu Boxiang encouraged his subordinates loudly, the Spaniard's arquebus finally fired. The bullets swished past Yu Boxiang, knocking down the soldiers who were looking at him, but did not hit him who was walking.Under Yu Boxiang's calm performance, the sailors finally suppressed the idea of ​​pulling the trigger.

Unlike the Spaniards, the Shun Army's muskets have all been changed to flintlock muskets. Of course, this is a special care for this naval force, because arquebuses are really not suitable for sea combat.

The Spanish colonists did not degenerate in war skills. Although they failed to create new ways of fighting, it was only because the colonies did not need new things at all.In terms of the original combat skills, the Spanish colonists still maintained very well, so they knocked down seven Shun soldiers in the first shot. Of course, this also has something to do with the relatively dense arrangement of the Shun soldiers.The gap in the queue is smaller, which means that the target of shooting becomes larger.

However, this was also the only bright spot for the Spaniards in this battle. With the sound of shooting, the Spanish phalanx began to move again. Soldiers of the Shun Army approaching the front.

However, even if the infantry in full-body iron armor charges with all their strength, they will be as fast as a fast-paced person, but they are still as slow as a snail in the aiming of the soldiers of the Shun army.Yu Boxiang was already standing on the far left of the team at this time. He estimated the Spaniard's pace until he could clearly see the eyes in the armor mask on the opposite side, then he waved his hand and ordered: "Fire."

As this order was issued, the two company commanders immediately conveyed the order to the platoon leaders of each platoon. The musketeers in the first row started the first round of salvo, and turned around without looking at the results after firing. Passed through the gap in the back row, retreated to the second row and began to load ammunition, followed by another round of salvo, the original second row of soldiers retreated to become the second row, this is the latest tactic of the Shun army - retreat Serial shooting method.

Chapter 594 Liberation of the Cagayan Valley

When the two rows of Musketeers fired a volley, the Spaniard's phalanx had been flattened by nearly half. At this time, the sound of artillery firing sounded from the side, and the Spaniard's phalanx was completely finished.

When the phalanx of nearly a hundred people fled towards the river, there were only three or forty people left, and the remaining five or sixty people were lying on a piece of muddy grass. The wild grass that did not touch the insteps of the feet is now lying everywhere. The blood of the wounded and corpses had stained the grass at least ten paces wide.

Gu Jiu, who was ambushing behind the gentle slope in the southwest, led the company to launch a pursuit of the fugitives. The muskets of this Shun army company all had a triangular thorn as long as the forearm. The new invention, using the method of adding a bayonet, gave musketeers a certain melee capability.However, this way of fighting is only suitable for flintlock muskets, because arquebuses are too heavy and inconvenient for fighting.

If a Spaniard in armor was engaged in hand-to-hand combat, then a soldier with a triangular thorn on his musket would definitely not be able to win, but if he stabbed at the back of a fleeing Spanish soldier, then the soldier would be impossible will lose.

Seeing that Gu Jiu had already caught up, Yu Boxiang issued a new order. He asked a company to stay and clean up the battlefield. After the company assembled, he rushed down the gentle slope with him, ready to meet Gu Jiu.

The so-called clean-up of the battlefield is actually a way to send those who are seriously injured, and those who are slightly injured will decide whether they are honest or not before they are captured and treated, and those who are dishonest will be sent away together.However, the soldiers of the Shun Army directly made up for the Spanish in full body armor, because they were afraid that these people would pretend to be dead and attack them.In this way, there were only 11 Spaniards captured on the gentle slope.

At this time, the Spaniards were much more honest. The captives who survived and were wounded and unable to run would just kneel there, make the sign of the cross and chant scriptures, without the slightest ferocity of the foul language they had just killed.

Some of the Shunjun soldiers guarding the captives asked their companions curiously, "What are these ghosts thinking?"

Among them, the older soldiers of the Shun Army had already sat on the ground beside them, took out the pipes and pipes and lit them, and said nonchalantly: "Look at this posture, it is similar to our worshiping Bodhisattva at home, it should be worshiping a foreign country. God. But we are under the control of the Jade Emperor, he obviously worshiped the wrong god, no wonder they lost today."

A soldier quietly asked: "Brother Yang, what god do you worship? I saw that those standing on your left and right were hit by lead, but you are fine. It can be seen that you are You have worshiped the true god, that's why the bullets go around you."

The soldier surnamed Yang took a puff of dry cigarette beautifully, looked at his companions who were all around, and then said triumphantly: "Of course people at sea want to worship the Empress Dowager..."

Zheng Sen, who came to inspect the results of the battle, heard the nonsense of these soldiers, so he could only pretend not to hear.It is not difficult to train Musketeers, but it is not something that can be trained in a year or so to stick to the face-to-face distance before shooting.Appropriate faith can enhance the morale of soldiers, and even His Majesty Yongchang has nothing to do about it.Because whether it is going to sea or on the battlefield, what soldiers really need is luck and confidence. No matter how much you oppose superstition, you can't get rid of this shallow believer.

Facing the end of the battle on the river beach, the Spaniards knelt down and begged for mercy almost before the ambushes of the Shun Army rushed forward, because they knew that they had no time to get on the boat and leave. It took a long time to row, and they were only a living target for muskets when they boarded the boat.

Captured nearly 40 captives and killed more than 50 people. Such a big victory in the first battle immediately boosted the morale of the Shun army.And just after the battle here, it started to rain, and it was not light.All of a sudden, Shunjun thought it was God's blessing, if he got off a few minutes earlier, the unlucky one would be Shunjun with all the firearms.

However, Zheng Sen didn't really believe in this kind of luck. He found a translator and questioned the captives carefully, only to know that the rainy season here is from May to October. It will rain from time to time in the morning, noon and dusk, and then it will enter the dry season. up.It just so happened that the rainy season was about to pass, so they didn't encounter continuous rainy weather.

After knowing the climate here, Zheng Sen is not in a hurry to attack the market behind the castle. He is afraid that it will rain again in the middle of the battle, so he finds craftsmen and asks them to weave coir raincoats and bamboo hats. The materials are nearby there is.

However, the actions of the Shun army to defeat the Spaniards on the right bank of the river caught the attention of the natives in the market. That night, the natives rioted in the market. After dawn, the natives in the market elected representatives and crossed the river. Invite the Shun army to enter the market, and they are willing to assist the Shun army to attack the Spanish castle at the mouth of the river.

Of course Zheng Sen would not refuse this proposal, he immediately led his soldiers across the Cagayan River, stationed in the market, and cut off Aparri's backup.With the support of the natives, the Shun army quickly got to know the situation of the Spaniards in the Cagayan Valley.

Since the Spaniards discovered the Cagayan Valley, they sent many missionaries along the valley to the south to preach, and then discovered the rich native villages in the middle of the valley. The Spaniards called the largest village Tuguegarao.

Almost 40 years ago, the Spaniards started the urbanization movement, which forced the natives to live together, and then paid taxes to the Spaniards regularly, and began to expel the Chinese, Japanese and Muslim businessmen who came here to trade, which directly led to The great uprising of the natives.But in the end they failed to stop the Spanish colonists who had superior weapons, and some had to abandon their homes and flee deeper into the valley.

After communicating with the locals, Zheng Sen said to Zheng Zhibao who came ashore: "The situation is very clear now. There will not be more than 100 soldiers in Aparri Castle, and there will be fifty or sixty Spanish civilian men at most. The food here They can only be transported from the upper reaches during the dry season. We just need to stay here and wait for the city to run out of food and surrender.

There are six Spanish towns along the river from here. Except for Tuguegarao, which has nearly 1000 Spaniards, the other towns have between 100 and 300. The total number should be less than 2000.

However, there are more than 6000 natives living in these towns, and there are more than 1 natives under the control of the Spaniards around the towns.We have to wait for the arrival of the grain ship, and sail north to uproot these Spanish towns one by one, then the Cagayan Valley will no longer belong to the Spaniards.If we wait for them to react and mobilize the natives to go south, we will be in trouble. "

Zheng Zhibao was a little hesitant. On the one hand, he was worried that Zheng Sen would go deep into the river valley. If he left the family's future hope here, his elder brother would have to skin him. After all, Zheng Sen had established a deep relationship with His Majesty Yongchang. This is the guarantee for the future of the Zheng family; on the other hand, he really doesn't want to stay here for a few months, overseas expeditions are not as interesting as reciting poems with friends in Fuzhou with a little girl in his arms.

So he shirked a bit and said: "The soldiers that can be dispatched from our seven ships are at most five or six hundred. If there are more soldiers, we will not be able to protect the ships. Here we have to keep people to besiege the castle. I think it is better to wait for the grain ship to arrive. Set the market on fire, and if the people in the castle don't surrender, we'll go west and attack the villages along the coast, anyway, except for Manila, no one here will be our opponent."

Zheng Sen refused to give in and said: "What's the use of burning down his villages? After we leave, they will be able to rebuild soon. We need to take root here, and there is a more suitable place than the Cagayan Valley Is it? The Spaniards have sorted out the land here for us. We just drove the Spaniards away, and then distributed some land to the natives, and the rest is our navy land. My first time The purpose of sailing is not to burn a few villages and go back..."

After all, Zheng Zhibao still failed to persuade the nephew, thinking that this life was his own after all, so he gave up continuing to persuade.In the next ten days, Zheng Sen divided 100 soldiers into five teams, and then followed the militia organized by the natives to the surrounding villages to attack the Spanish manors and liberate the native slaves there.

On November 11th, all the manors 7 miles away from Hekou were cleaned up, and a large amount of food and property were sent to Hekou, thus replenishing supplies for the Shun Army fleet.The number of natives who swore allegiance to Dashun has grown to over 30, and the number of prisoners in the hands of the Shun army has exceeded 3000. In addition to men, there are also some women and children of mixed race.

On November 11, Zheng Sen formed an expeditionary force of 9 soldiers and 350 natives. On November 800th, the Spanish grain ship finally arrived. Although the Spaniards in the castle tried to warn the grain ship with flags and gunshots, the grain ship ignored it and slowly leaned against the pier of the market. superior.

Before the boat was stable, Gu Jiu jumped from the boat. It turned out that the Shun army had already gone upstream and occupied a small town closest to the mouth of the river, where they waited for a grain transport ship and took it down before sailing back.The Spanish defenders in the castle at the mouth of the river cast a wink to the blind man. Seeing the people on the grain ship get off the pier and embrace the Chinese, the Spanish defenders stopped warning.

Zheng Sen sent people to persuade him to surrender again, but the defenders still ignored him, so he headed south the next day with the empty grain fleet.Arranged from the mouth of the river to the south, Tuguegarao ranks fourth among the six towns, not even 4 kilometers away from the mouth of the river. The Shun Army arrived at Tuguegarao on the fourth day. The number of soldiers has exceeded 100.

The Spaniards in Tuguegarao had no idea what had happened. Most of them were enjoying the cool season in their manors in the outskirts. The natives suddenly launched a rebellion here, preventing the guards from closing the city gate.

When Zheng Sen entered the city of Tuguegarao, he was a little unbelievable. He almost didn't do anything, and the Spanish master was caught by the angry native slaves, and then he was hanged on the street.This war was actually a battle between natives and white slave owners.

Chapter 595 The Battle of Shandong Part One

When Zheng Sen entered Tuguegarao City, a brigade of infantry led by Zhao Yingyuan had just landed on Zhifu Island. There were only a few hundred old and weak guards stationed here. Seeing the densely packed ships on the sea, they quickly disarmed and surrendered. .

Soon after Zhao Yingyuan landed, he ordered the first battalion to attack the nearby Fushan County.Then began to build a forward base on Zhifu Island. The location of Zhifu Island is really good. It is surrounded by mountains on three sides and faces the sea. It is very difficult to attack here from land, but it is quite convenient to land from sea. The mansion is only more than a hundred miles away, and controlling this place is equivalent to winning half of the Dengzhou mansion.

In the past few years, although Shunming had no record of large-scale battles in the Shandong Peninsula, small-scale battles never stopped.It's just that Yang Yufan, Gao Jie, and Jin Shengheng were in charge of each other, which prevented the spontaneous struggle between the Shandong militia and the Qing army from forming a comprehensive and universally linked combat operation behind the enemy lines.

However, after the Shun Army landed in Zhifu, the nearby anti-Qing militia quickly defected to help the Shun Army organize the people and open up Fushan County, and sent the Shun Army information about the surrounding Qing Army.

In the past few years, Terengganu Prefecture has also been the focus of competition between the two armies of the Shun and Qing Dynasties.Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming, two veteran generals, knew that Dengzhou Prefecture was in their hands, so the navy of the Shun Army could not detour around the Bohai Bay to attack their rear, otherwise there would be no safe place from Dengzhou to Jinan Linhai.

On the Shunjun side, although there are people who know this way, because Yang Yufan, Gao Jie, and Jin Shengheng are unwilling to join forces, Dengzhou Prefecture is unable to hold the city even if the militia takes it, because of lack of support.Although the Qing army was able to take down Dengzhou City, Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming no longer had naval divisions, and they could not hoard heavy troops in Dengzhou Prefecture outside the front line. This gave the Shun army the opportunity to attack Qingzhou and Laizhou.

So it turned out that the main force of the Qing army withdrew from Dengzhou City, and the militia tried their best to open Dengzhou City and put the banner of belonging to Dashun.When their banner was set up, the Qing army came back again, and the militia had to run into the mountains again.

In such a tug-of-war, the Qing army was still unable to establish a stable rule in Dengzhou Prefecture. Therefore, after the Shun army landed and captured Fushan County, the nearby militia groups Qixia Yuqi, Kunlun Mountain Zhang Zhengang, Aoshan Duan Zhongzhen, Zhao Xu Haimen and other ministries of Hushan came to join him one after another.

Zhao Yingyuan did not refuse anyone who came, and while reorganizing these militia groups, he directed them to seize nearby Wendeng, Ninghai and other counties, and regained most of Dengzhou Prefecture in a short time. The messenger asked Geng Zhongming of Laizhou for help.

Geng Zhongming, who was in Laizhou Prefecture, was also in a dilemma when he heard the news. He said to his right and left hands Xu Degong and Lian Decheng: "Since the Shun Army launched an attack on Dengzhou from the sea, there is no reason why they will not move on land. I am worried that we will Going to break the siege of Dengzhou, the Shun army attacked from Jiaozhou again, General Kong may not be able to support it alone."

Lian Decheng immediately said: "You can leave Dengzhou alone, and the Shun army may not be able to stop if they capture Dengzhou. We must always send people to defend Dengzhou City. As long as Dengzhou City is in our hands, at least we will be able to protect it." There is a way out."

Xu Degong also nodded in agreement and said: "In the current situation, the Qing Dynasty seems to be not doing well. Why should the general continue to fight with the Shun army? Those who died are all loyal to the general. If all these soldiers die, the general Qing will not give the general much compensation, he will only feel that the general will disappear in the future, and Shang Kexi is not like that."

Hearing what the two subordinates said to each other, Geng Zhongming knew that neither of them wanted to be buried with the Qing Dynasty, not only the two, but most of the people below should also think so. After all, the current Manchus seem to be less kind than in the past up.After all, they turned to the Manchus for a bite of food, not for the Manchus to die.

However, Geng Zhongming still said: "Although the Qing Dynasty is weak at the moment, the elite soldiers of the Eight Banners are still there. Whether the world will definitely belong to the Shun Dynasty is still unknown. We have voted for the Manchu for more than ten years. How can we just ignore it like this?" Go away with kindness? Wouldn’t that make people laugh. Besides, even if we can leave, why don’t we go back to Liaodong where there is nothing?”

Although the two generals didn't think anyone dared to laugh at them, only the soldiers without their subordinates were really laughable.But anyway, having been with Geng Zhongming for so many years, they had to give their old boss face, so they could only say to him: "We always listen to the general, everyone is great, so let's die together."

Although he didn't like the frustrating words of the two subordinates, Geng Zhongming also knew that it was a kind of loyal words, if he didn't want to die with you, it would be troublesome.He quickly cleared his throat and said: "Actually, there is no need to be so nervous, I want to contribute to Daqing, but I never thought of dying with Daqing.

In this way, Lian Decheng, you take 5 battalions to support Dengzhou City, as long as you keep the city and don't lose it, you don't need to worry about other places.If we repel the Shun army's attack here, then the Shun army in Dengzhou will also retreat.If our side loses, Dengzhou will definitely not be able to keep it. "

Hearing that Geng Zhongming's attitude had softened, the two subordinates immediately agreed seriously, saying that they would definitely advance and retreat with the general. On the third day of December, Lian Decheng led a team from Laizhou to Dengzhou.

On the fifth day of December, the Shun army launched a three-way northern expedition on the Jiaodong Peninsula. The west route went north along the Wen River to attack Changle County, the middle route went north along the Jiao River to attack Changyi County, and the east route attacked Pingdu through Laixi.

After inquiring about the route of the Shun Army, Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming certainly knew the pros and cons.Once the two counties are captured, not only will the Jiaodong Peninsula be divided into two, but even their soldiers and horses will be separated.Kong Youde then sent someone to send a message to Geng Zhongming, saying that he would concentrate his forces on Anqiu, trying to conquer the west road of the Shun army first, and then return to the division to deal with the middle road with Geng Zhongming. The two Shunjun troops in Zhouzhou had no choice but to retreat.

Although Geng Zhongming knew that in this way, he would have to bear the pressure of several attacks, but he still agreed.Because if the Shun Army is not broken first, he and Kong Youde may have an army of 2 to [-] combined, but there will be less than [-] people with real combat effectiveness. By then, they will be surrounded by the Shun Army, and a total collapse may occur. situation.

Kong Youde didn't wait for Geng Zhongming's reply, so he mobilized nearly 2 capable people from Qingzhou, Weifang and other places and rushed directly to Anqiu.There were 6 communes in 174 townships in Anqiu at the time of Wanli, but by this time there were only less than 60 communes left in the county, and the population had been reduced by at least half. This was of course a good thing done by the Qing army.

The southwest of Anqiu is Yimeng Mountain, the northeast is the plain, and the southeast is Baimai Lake, the largest lake in central Shandong. Therefore, Kong Youde chose to intercept the Shun army here, which can be regarded as occupying the geography.It is impossible to bypass here if the West Road Shunjun goes north.

The West Road Shun Army is a brigade led by Guo Sheng with 7000 people plus 5000 direct descendants of Yang Yufan, adding up to 3 people, and carrying [-] artillery companies.Li Guo himself followed Gao Jie's headquarters from the middle road to the north, which is the route east of Baimai Lake.Jin Shengheng went out of Yanshen Town to attack Zichuan City, almost marching inside Mount Tai.

Although Guo Sheng was with Yang Yufan, they did not join forces with each other. The two led their respective troops. Yang Yufan's troops marched from Gaomi Shuangyang Town to Shidui Town to Anqiu City. Jinzhongzi Town marched towards Anqiu City.

The reason why the two armies could not march together was because Guo Sheng felt that Yang Yufan's military discipline was too poor, and his marching lacked discipline. Joining forces would only drag him down.Although both were former Ming generals, Guo Sheng and Yang Yufan's leadership styles were different in the past. After the reorganization of the Shun Army was completed, Guo Sheng, as the main person in charge of training the army, looked down on Yang Yufan's family-style troops even more .

Guo Sheng once declared that the reorganized Shun army could defeat the triple Shun army that had not been reorganized, and advocated the abolition of all miscellaneous soldiers.Because of this argument, Guo Sheng immediately won the appreciation of Liu Zongmin, Li Guo and others.In fact, these generals from the rebel army felt that with the new army, those miscellaneous armed forces that had surrendered could be disbanded, so as not to compete with the new army for military expenses, and there was a hidden danger of ineffective command.

At this time, the upper echelons of the Shun Army began to make decisions about the generals from the Old Eighth Regiment, the generals from the Anti-Ming Dynasty, the generals who surrendered before the first year, the generals who surrendered before March of the second year, and the generals who surrendered after March of the second year. distinguish.The first three types of characters are the core of the army, and the latter two types are the marginal part of the army. If possible, the latter two types should be retired as much as possible.

Guo Sheng belongs to the third category, and Yang Yufan is in the dangerous fourth category. Naturally, it is difficult for the two parties to get together.And this war will also determine whether it is necessary for Yang Yufan's troops to continue to exist. Guo Sheng naturally wants to create opportunities for this.

In fact, after Li Guo was ordered to lead troops into Shandong, Yang Yufan also felt a sense of crisis.Because in the past few years, the General Staff has taken good care of the troops in Shandong, and will try to satisfy almost any ordnance supplement.But this time Li Guo led a division into Jiaozhou, and he had some opinions on the training and personnel treatment of the Shandong army. He believed that the general staff gave so much, but the soldiers did not get so much.

Although Li Guo did not say that he would conduct an audit of the expenditures of the Shandong armies, Yang Yufan also felt the danger. If the Shandong army did not fight well in this battle, it is estimated that the General Staff will settle the new accounts with the old ones.Of course Yang Yufan himself can stand the investigation, but he knows that his family and subordinates may not be able to withstand the investigation, so he has to be cautious and tell his subordinates to fight this battle well and not provoke the court to be angry.

In the fourth year of Yongchang, the soldiers and civilians in Shandong really regarded Dashun as the imperial court, because the Shandong army's large expenditures were all allocated by the imperial court, and if they ate their food, they naturally had to be taken care of by them.The armies in Shandong have not degenerated to the level of Liaodong Town at this time, and they cannot become Liaodong Town, because all the land in Shandong is owned, it is impossible for the army to rely on the land they own to support themselves, and they can only rely on the government to support them.

Don't say that Yang Yufan is honest, Gao Jie, who has always troubled him in the past few years, also calmed down when facing Li Guo's arrival, and did not put on a posture of a local snake, asking Li Guo to respect his own emperor style.From this point of view, Gao Jie is also very clear about those people who can be provoked and those who cannot.

Chapter 596 The Battle of Shandong II

After arriving in Anqiu, Kong Youde ordered to investigate the movements of the Shun army. On December 12, the investigative sentry reported that the Shun army had divided into two groups and came to Anqiu, one with the Yang flag and the other with the red flag.

Kong Youde then said to the generals beside him: "The one under the banner of Yang must be Yang Yufan's troops. We have fought against him many times in the past two years, and we know his troops well. When we come to Anqiu in this weather I can't get there in three or four days. The one with the red flag should be the so-called Dashun new army. It is said that Li Zicheng annexed the Ming Dynasty and made the military flag of the Ming army who admired fire morality. This person is really a mess Don't hesitate."

Line Guoan also said: "There was a light snowfall just two days ago. Although Anqiu has no history of blizzards, it is really cold at night. In such weather, they have to camp for half a day to cut firewood for warmth. The commander said What's more, they couldn't reach the city of Anqiu in less than three or four days, otherwise the soldiers couldn't maintain their strength at all, and they would be sent to die.

However, the south has always been the land of wealth for Daming, and now that it is under the control of the bandits, the bandits have no shortage of winter clothes and rations.Therefore, if we really want them to walk to Anqiu City in such a step-by-step manner, the morale of these Shunjun troops will not decrease too much. Then we will fight a tough battle. Shun Jun also became terrified. "

Lin Guoan's proposal was approved by many generals, and Chen Youde said: "Although our army has 2 troops, Anqiu is a small city, and neither food nor firewood can be fully supplied. If the Heshun army confronts here for a long time, We really can't afford to go on. What's more, Geng Shuai's side can't last long. Once Geng Shuai's side loses, we will suffer here. Therefore, our army is good for quick decisions, not good for long-term delays."

Cao Dexian also said: "If the Shun army came all the way, then we should be more cautious. But now that the Shun army is divided into two groups, if our army does not take the initiative to attack and destroy one of them, it is a gift from heaven and not taken away." , there must be disaster."

After hearing the opinions of these generals, Kong Youde was also a little moved, so he asked: "Then which road should we attack first?"

Line Guoan immediately said: "Of course it is Yang Yufan's subordinate. We have fought him so many times. Naturally, we should fight him well."

However, Ma Jiaolin objected: "We are familiar with Yang Yufan, isn't he familiar with us? With Yang Yufan's cautious temperament, it is impossible for us to overwhelm his troops at once. After rushing all the way, we can still eat people like Yang Yufan?

If you want me to say, you should fight another route. The other Lu Shun army has never fought against us and is not familiar with our tactics. It is very likely that it will be defeated in one go under a sudden attack.With Yang Yufan's temperament, he will definitely defend himself first, and then consider rescuing friendly troops, which will leave us a lot of time to fight. "

There were not a few voices supporting Ma Jiaolin, because everyone was afraid of getting entangled with Yang Yufan, a local. This guy did have a group of servants who were more capable of fighting.If the two sides really wanted to fight, even if Yang Yufan's troops were eaten, their own losses would not be small.In the current world, if the strength in hand can be stronger, it should be stronger, and the bare commander can't live long.

Kong Youde finally decided to take the risk and followed Ma Jiaolin's advice.After making a decision, he quickly laid out a battle plan, that is, let Ma Jiaolin lead 2000 cavalry to raid the other Lu Shun army, and Rong Guoan led 7 horse infantry to Shidui Town to intercept Yang Yufan's troops. After returning to the division, Lin joined forces to attack Yang Yufan.

After Ma Jiaolin accepted the order, he left Anqiu City on December 12. Although the army of Kong Youde and others had expanded, their source of war horses was much less than that of the Manchurians, so Kong Youde's army also made up for it. Of the more than 27 cavalry, Ma Jiaolin took away two-thirds at once, which shows that Kong Youde also spent his money this time.

After leaving Anqiu City, there is a chilling winter atmosphere outside the city. Now only Maicha is left in the fields on the plain, the trees on the side of the road have lost all their leaves, and there is no smoke in the distant villages. Appears to have lost the ability to hold fire.

But Ma Jiaolin didn't care about these. He divided the cavalry into three parts. The first 3 cavalry went to sentry, and the middle 300 cavalry went to conscript the villagers in the villages along the road, asking them to provide food, grass, hot water and houses for the army. Walk behind with the rest of the cavalry.

With the news sent back by the sentry, Ma Jiaolin finally decided to surprise the Shun army at the place between Fenghuang Mountain and Ganquanling, 40 miles away from Anqiu.At noon, the main force of Ma Jiaolin's tribe arrived at Gucheng Village, three or four miles north of Ganquanling.After eating and drinking here, the sentry in front finally sent a definite news that the Shun army had passed Phoenix Mountain, but the cavalry of the Shun army also spotted them, and there was a slight contact war between the two sides.

After hearing this, Ma Jiaolin summoned his subordinates without hesitation and said: "Since the Shun army has discovered us, let's change the surprise attack to a surprise attack. Most of the Shun army along the way are infantry. When it comes to us, they have no place to run if they want to run..."

Ma Jiaolin ordered Hei Chenggong to lead [-] cavalry as the vanguard, Zhang Guozhu led [-] cavalry to follow, and he took [-] cavalry as backup.The remaining [-] cavalry were used as sentries and to settle the rear.

At such a short distance, it would not take half an hour for the cavalry to charge past. Ma Jiaolin felt that the main general of the Shun Army would not be able to react in such a short time, so what is the point of forming an array?

His judgment was obviously wrong. The new army of Dashun formulated more regulations for marching than for fighting, because the Shun army has mainly studied how to march in the past few years.After all, when the Manchu cavalry went south to Henan, Li Zicheng definitely didn't want to see the situation where the defense line of the Shun army was torn apart.

Therefore, after the Lushun army led by Guo Sheng encountered the sentry of the Qing army during the march, it did not need Guo Sheng's order to stop marching and set up formation.According to the marching regulations, the Shun army, which had been marching in three routes, immediately stopped advancing after receiving the warning.

Divide into multiple single-row or double-row troops to march during the march, which can not only give the troops the greatest vision, but also control the safety of the marching area as much as possible. Most importantly, it can prevent the enemy from finding the core of the troops at once. and destroy.This can even be verified from the marching methods of the Eight Banners Army.

Therefore, Ma Jiaolin believed that when his cavalry rushed to the battlefield, they should face a chaotic group of Shunjun soldiers who were in formation.But the reality is that when Hei successfully attacked Shunjun, the opponent had already set up three hollow phalanxes.Although there were no more than one-third of the musketeers and archers of the Shun Army, each regiment had two cannons in the phalanx, both of which were barreled cannons that fired six-pound heavy shells.

The vanguard cavalry led by Hei Chenggong could not rush into the hollow phalanx at all. Under the fire of artillery and matchlock guns in the phalanx, the cavalry quickly broke into several pieces, and the spearmen outside the phalanx made the horses dodge. So the cavalry became a situation where they ran around the perimeter of the phalanx and were then aimed and shot by the arquebus gunners on the side.

So when Ma Jiaolin arrived with the last troop of cavalry, what he saw was that the Shun army was arrayed against the hill, while Hei Chenggong and Zhang Guozhu's cavalry circled outside the Shun army's phalanx, and were beaten by them from time to time. Shun Jun's guns fell off the horse.Another part of the cavalry simply stayed away from the Shunjun phalanx and ran to the farmland on one side.

Judging from the current scene, not only did the raids by the two groups of cavalry in front fail to achieve anything, but they fell into the strangulation of the Shunjun infantry phalanx. Seeing the Shunjun infantry even push out the vans, Ma Jiaolin knew that this battle could not be fought.The Shun army used the most orthodox chariot formation method to deal with cavalry. Once the chariot formation was formed, not to mention his two thousand cavalry, even cavalry with twice the number of infantry would not be effective against this kind of chariot. We can only use cannons to open the gap.

Ma Jiaolin's judgment was still correct, without waiting for him to give the order to retreat, the soldiers of the Shun army hiding behind the van had already started throwing landmines at the cavalry who lost their speed, which directly caused the collapse of the cavalry of the Qing army.

Ma Jiaolin could only send his troops to gather up the fleeing cavalry, while he took his headquarters to monitor the Shunjun phalanx to prevent the Shunjun from pursuing them.As the cavalry of the Qing army retreated slowly, Guo Sheng, who was standing on the hill directing the battle, also put down his binoculars and said to the adjutant beside him: "We will camp here tonight, and we will continue to advance tomorrow. Send someone to get in touch with Yang Yufan and see See where they go."

After the adjutant left, Guo Sheng still felt a little regretful. The disadvantage of the infantry against the cavalry lies in this. The cavalry can run away if they can't fight, but the infantry has difficulty intercepting and chasing, and cannot expand the victory into a victory.He only has 300 cavalry in his hands, mainly for scouting, and naturally he will not use them to hedge against the Qing cavalry.

The battle at the foot of Ganquan Ridge reduced the Qing army's cavalry by a quarter. Although Ma Jiaolin wanted to spy on the movements of the Shun army, he saw that the Shun army was not in a hurry to continue advancing, so he gave up. The idea of ​​playing another game.

But in this way, the plan to defeat Shunjun all the way in the wild went bankrupt.Ma Jiaolin's retreat made Rong Guoan lose the courage to intercept Yang Yufan in Shidui Town. 2000 cavalry attacking a marching infantry in the field, even a large team of 2 or [-] people will suffer, and they will all fail.

Lin Guoan was very worried that if he got entangled with Yang Yufan and arrived along the other way, then he might not have to go back.In addition, Ma Jiaolin was also afraid that he would be the only one who failed, and it would be difficult to explain when he went back, so he wanted to drag Guoan to run away with him.Under his persuasion and intimidation, Lin Guoan finally led the army back to Anqiu without firing a single shot.

On December 12, Guo Sheng and Yang Yufan met in Shidui Town. After resting here for a day, they continued to advance to Anqiu on December 28.on the other hand.Kong Youde was quite dissatisfied with the failure of Ma Jiaolin and Line Guoan, but he had no choice but to readjust his strategy and decided to teach Shunjun a lesson under the city of Anqiu.