Lu Ming

Chapter 719
It was night, and the fire in Qianxi County was so bright that it could be heard hundreds of miles away.

Man Qi, who realized that he had been tricked, fled outside the city immediately.At this time, I don't care about any ambushes, and all of them get on their horses and open the four doors and rush out. After a few minutes of dawdling, without an ambush, they will become desert barbecue.

The cavalry who left the city in a panic were immediately greeted by bullets.

Bright flares provide good visibility for the blockers.The fugitives, whose clothes were disheveled and whose skin was dripping with blood from the flames, had been falling to death since the moment they left the city.

At the moment of life and death, the desperadoes, regardless of their companions, bowed their heads and beat their horses desperately, trying to disrupt the opponent's formation and break out a way out for themselves.

At this moment, the gunpowder buried under the city wall in advance was finally detonated.The city wall with rammed earth and bricks made a rumbling sound of collapsing.The strange sound was like a galloping giant beast, which made the desperate people frightened.

Not long after, Qianxi, a stronghold that could have been garrisoned by soldiers, was deliberately bombed into a dilapidated ruin.

In the end, under the attack of raging fire and bullets, and in a night attack, Ebo Yangguli escaped with only [-] cavalry.

The unimaginable dismounting of the horse greatly surprised Azige, the king of Duoluowuying County who was still sitting in Santunying.

The loss of more than 1000 elite cavalry, the opponent Azig, who wore a blue jacket and used a sharp musket, learned the details, and a long-lost, strange feeling of deja vu came to his heart.

After feeling this way last time, Mingren's capital city has become a capital.

Azig, who was so vigilant, immediately began to adjust his strategy.

A total of tens of thousands of Mongolian Eight Banners cavalry were transferred to the east end of the Yanshan Corridor.Immediately afterwards, Azig ordered that the infantry who entered the customs later all also head east from the Santun Camp, with a total of no less than [-].

Contrary to imagination, the Manchus who thrived in the white mountains and black waters are not nomads, but fishermen and hunters.After being unified by Nurhachi into the Houjin regime, the control area was expanded, and the bannermen had slaves and coats, and the Manchus were transformed into a half-farming, half-fishing and hunting nation.

For a long time, Hou Jin's combat mode has not actually been dominated by cavalry.Most of its troops are infantry, or in other words, mounted infantry.

As for the pure cavalry gap in the military composition, it will be filled by the Mongolian Eight Banners.

Take the 12 people who entered the customs this time as an example.Among them, the Mongolian Eight Banners sent 1 cavalry, while the Manchu cavalry only had [-].The remaining [-] are all flag soldiers.

Under normal circumstances, if you fight against the fortress of the Guanning Army outside the pass, there will not be such a high proportion of cavalry at all, and there will also be a large number of auxiliary soldiers who are only responsible for logistics among the infantry.

But the team that entered the customs and robbed was different.Not only the proportion of cavalry has increased, but the infantry are all banner men who can go into battle, and there are no auxiliary soldiers.

As for the lack of logistics. Before entering the customs, everyone pushed empty carts. After entering the customs, the transportation task will be handed over to the looting people of the Ming Dynasty.

It can be seen from the ratio that Azig is determined to play high-end games this time.On the basis of the originally agreed [-] troops and horses, he dispatched an additional [-] Mongolian Eight Banners cavalry.This is extremely important.

You must know that every time one more soldier is transferred to the east end of the corridor, the next big robbery operation around Beijing at the west end of the corridor will be one less soldier and [-] cavalry will be deployed, which means that many villages, wealth and population will be robbed less.

However, what happened to Erfu Yangguli made Azig feel the danger.He now pays as much attention to the defensive back as he does to offense.

Yang Guli was still in charge of the soldiers and horses drawn out to advance eastward.Because the other county king, Abatai, is like a fire, he has more offense than defense, so if he presides over the back road, there may be problems.

Two days after Qianxi Yehuo, cavalry soldiers like dark clouds surged out from the east end of the Yanshan Corridor again.This time, the tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalry did not stop. After appearing, they were divided into several groups and scattered in several directions.

After leaving the mountain pass, the [-] infantry led by Yang Guli did not advance rashly. They just camped on the spot and waited for the scouts to report.

This time, since the Mongol Tartars only explored the way and ignored the rest, the information was finally updated and spread to the rear continuously.

First of all, a group of scouts headed to the east covered more than a hundred miles in just one day.On the second day, this group of cavalry saw the sea and approached Shanhaiguan.

In this position, as expected, the Mongols were attacked by cavalry belonging to the Guanning Army.The Mongols who explored the road didn't have much fighting spirit, so they turned around and left after understanding the situation.

The scout brigade headed southwest had roughly the same experience as the former.However, this group of people passed by several cities.

To the surprise of the Mongols, the four cities along the way, including Yongpingfu City, Lulong County City, Luanzhou City, and Leting County City, have all been turned into ruins.Like Qianxi County, these cities have been burned, and even the city walls have been burned, and they can no longer be used as defensive support points.

In addition, the villages along the way have been reduced to ashes, and the villagers have disappeared.The wheat fields in the surrounding suburbs that can be used as horse feed, whether ripe or not, have all turned into coke.

The Mongols, who had never seen such a cruel scene, felt terrified and hurried back to report.

It was the two groups of people who went south to investigate who had gained a lot in terms of intelligence.

One of them saw a castle with strange lines at the bend of the Luan River, south of Qianxi and west of Lulong.The banner on it is Yongping Lieutenant General Li Chunleiying.

The Mongols who approached the investigation were immediately driven away by the cavalry.The Mongols who were shot immediately retreated in all directions according to the plan in advance.The few Manchu cavalry who were mixed in the team immediately recognized the opponent's identity from the blue jacket and gunshots: the previous night raider.

The name of Li Jichun, deputy general of Yongping, reported to the rear as quickly as possible.

The last group of Mongolian Eight Banners, about [-] in number, has been going south since its departure without stopping along the way.Finally, this group of Mongolian Tartars encountered imaginary enemies in the territory of Guye (Tangshan), southwest of Luanzhou: regular officers and soldiers of Feihuying.

At that time, the first thing the Mongols saw was a large group of Ming people who were escorted south by hundreds of cavalry.When the Mongols made a tentative attack, they were quickly fired from a distance.

Considering the burden of the opponent, the leader of Mongolia Zuoling did not retreat this time, but divided his troops, planning to attack the immigration team in turn to find the opponent's flaws.Unexpectedly, as soon as the idea was made, after only one stick of incense, the left and right flanks simultaneously discovered the cavalry reinforcements from the other side.

This was the first time that the Mongols had seen the regular cavalry of the Great Yan Kingdom: no one was wearing armor, and they all wore yellow double-breasted military uniforms, knee-high riding boots, and thin-edged sabers.

At a glance, not to mention the combat effectiveness, in terms of equipment alone, the Mongols wearing a piece of broken leather armor and carrying a broken knife are undoubtedly the beggars' version. Their opponents are not only equipped with two horses, but each horse is equipped with Two cavalry guns were inserted upside down.

Seeing the arrival of reinforcements, Mongolian Zuoling immediately led his team to retreat.

Yan Qi didn't chase here either, as if there was a tacit understanding, the two sides broke up instantly.

After that, the Mongols turned around and returned, while the Feihu Battalion cavalry continued to evacuate the people along the Tangshan line.

That night, Azig, who came to the camp of Yanguli on purpose, finally marked all the collected information on the map with his own hands.

At the moment when he dropped his pen, Azig, who was 31 years old at the time and at the peak of his military prowess, suddenly had an urge to bring the army back to Shengjing now.However, this idea only remained in his mind for a short moment, and Azig shook his head and laughed.

Walk?How to go?Pushing the empty cart, gnawing on the bark to go back?
For the robbery gang of Houjin, the entry of its large army seems to be majestic, but all the prestige is based on sufficient harvest.

The last time I entered the customs, although I lost the lives of many direct descendants, I robbed enough wealth to appease the tribe and the Mongols, and this time there was a repetition.

Once this entry fails to achieve the expected results, the previously assembled entrepreneurial team will fall apart in an instant.

If the benefits are lost, the prestige will no longer exist.Among other things, the Mongols, who have milk and are mothers, will abandon the newly established Qing regime in minutes.

The Mongolian Lindan Khan, the King of Korea, and the Guanning warlords, who were finally suppressed, will definitely be ready to move.The strategic situation around the Qing Dynasty will return to sinister.

Finally, there is a practical issue: entry and robbery are costly. 10,000+ large soldiers eat horse chews, and these initial investments must be made up from the rich Ming Dynasty.

Let's go now and get nothing, not to mention the disapproval of the tribe and the family, I am afraid that Qi Ding will starve to death halfway.Even if he, Azig, was ordered to go back, Emperor Chongde would definitely chop off his head under pressure to appease the public.

Taking a deep breath, Azig suppressed the instinct of the moment just now, stretched out his finger and drew a horizontal line in Tangshan: "I don't want to fight a fight, it's a desperate effort and we won't get anything! "

"Yes." Forefather Yangguli had one arm wrapped in a bandage, and with the other hand he twisted the knob on the kerosene lamp to make the light more intense.Afterwards, his finger also slowly crossed the line: "The surname Cao is fast, and we can't catch up with the emigration here."

Azige let out a long sigh: "The Third East Mansion has evacuated its people and burned down the city. This means that Chongzhen is no longer taken seriously!"

Burning the city and relocating people, the practice of surnamed Cao is actually no different from that of the Azigs.It's just that the one surnamed Cao did even better, destroying even a city suitable for defense.

In this way, it is clear that the surname Cao and Chongzhen have turned against each other.Yang Guli and his group are all high-level figures, so they naturally know that from now on, they will no longer be able to provoke and use Chongzhen to suppress the Cao family.

However, up to now, those follow-up matters are no longer what the Azigs need to consider now.

Now there are more imminent things.

The next moment, Yangguli also took a deep breath and asked with a headache: "How about I lead troops to tie up the mountain pass?"

Azig shook his head resolutely: "No."

As of now, after all the information has been collected, the top leaders of the two entry armies have discovered that the situation they are facing is extremely dangerous.

The whole situation in Hebei is like a dumbbell.

The plain with the capital as the center is to the left of the dumbbell.Now, the Qing soldiers entering the customs are attacking Zunhua with all their strength.If you take Zunhua, you can break into the capital.

And the plain on the right side of the dumbbell has now been fortified and cleared by the people sent by a certain Cao.This led to the bankruptcy of Yangguli's original strategy before it was implemented: without villages and Ming people, there would be no free labor, and there would be no wealth and food.Even, there are no crops that can be used as horse feed.

Secondly, after all the cities north of Tangshan were burned, the Qing army's original garrison points and the strategy of retreating layer by layer were over.

This is why Yanguli intends to stick to the east entrance of the corridor: he does not have the confidence to delay Cao's troops on the plain.

But coach Azig immediately rejected this shrinking strategy.

The reason is simple: the warning time is not enough, and the strategic depth is lacking.

The mountain pass at the east end of the Yanshan Corridor is only [-] miles away from Santun Camp in the middle of the dumbbell.If the opponent's army suddenly appeared on the mountain pass and launched an assault, the Yangguli camp, which also had no natural danger to defend, would most likely be pierced by the opponent with a single blow.

At that time, the opponent will be able to reach the main force of the army at the foot of Santunying who is still at the other end of the dumbbell in half a day, which means that all of them will be dumped.

"Death, it is worthwhile to die."

Azige stretched out his hand and drew a circle north of Tangshan: "Forehead, you have to stay in this area no matter what, and give me more than five days. Otherwise, the army at Xitou will not be able to withdraw."

Of course Yanguli knew this truth, but he really didn't know how to defend for more than five days in the current situation.

As for sending out the cavalry as eyes and ears, both are high-level executives who have mastered all the information, and they are very clear about the scene they will face next: the shielding of the battlefield.

Two hundred miles to the south of Tangshan is Tianjin, Cao's hometown.At the current speed of Cao's relocation, at most ten days later, all the people from Tianjin to the east entrance of the corridor will be completely relocated.

At that time, the Flying Tiger Battalion, which has freed up its hands, will definitely fight the Mongolian cavalry scattered all over the ground.Because the opponent's muskets are too sharp, the Mongols will definitely be beaten to death in scouting battles.

The two Azigs have fought for a long time, and they have already calculated what will definitely happen in the future.So they didn't consider relying on cavalry to provide early warning at all.

Saying a thousand, saying ten thousand, in short, the lack of defensive fortresses that can be used by the army as a strategic support point was never expected by the two of them before entering the customs.

What they planned before was to capture several cities and set up a defensive network.

The ghost knows that these cities have been burned to peach cakes by Cao thief who doesn't talk about martial arts!

After a long time, Azig, who had considered everything carefully, made a decision and punched the map: "You attack this city tomorrow."

Looking at a newly entered box labeled "Spring" on the map, Yang Guli was silent for a long time, and then said in a shy voice: "My lord, Cao's muskets are used in this castle, and they are hard bones. I'm afraid it's not easy to fight." .”

"It's nothing more than a heap of human lives." Azig had already thought clearly: "The location is good, and you will be stationed as soon as you are shot down, so there will be no worries."

The castle that dared to stay at this time used Cao’s muskets again. Yang Gu could guess that it’s not easy to hit him with his buttocks: “My lord, think twice? This fight will kill all the flagmen!”

"I will order tonight that all the Ming people's food and fodder captured in Xitou will be sent here for you to order."

Azig has obviously figured everything out.He now has a clear enough understanding of the huge strategic danger of his own rear: "You have been trying to attack the city for the past two days. I wrote the memorial overnight, please make a plan."

"It's only a few days left. If the emperor wants us to withdraw, then I will fight to get rid of the hat of the county king, and I will withdraw my troops and take everyone back."

"What if the emperor is also afraid of withdrawing troops and can't explain it?"

"Then you attack the city yourself." Azig stared at the map and said calmly, "If you can't attack, you can go to Tianjin Gate to watch the sentry."

In the early morning of the second day, a black cloud composed of [-] pacers slowly pressed towards the bastion occupied by Li Jichun, the deputy general of Yongping.

Li Jichun, who had been prepared for a long time, ordered the peripheral scouts to shrink, and at the same time sent an emergency report to the rear.

"What, overwhelmed? Comrade Azig has finally come to his senses!"

In the military camp ten miles southeast of Xingang, Tianjin, Zhang Zhongqi, the chief officer of the Feihu Camp, who temporarily presided over the northern war, was accompanied by a group of Dongjiang rebels, inspecting the Dongjiang Army who had just arrived at the camp.

Due to the proximity, the generals of Dongjiang Town have been in place one after another in the past few days.Not counting the auxiliary soldiers, Dongjiang Town also sent out all the elite this time, and several generals just made up a total of [-] armored elites.

At the moment of receiving the telegram, General Zhang had wandered to the last auxiliary barracks.

Dongjiang Town has been doing business with Bangzi all year round, so there are many Korean cooks and auxiliary soldiers in the army.After arriving in Tianjin, the Korean chef quickly collected the remaining ingredients in the Feihu camp kitchen, and cooked a delicious army pot for the auxiliary soldiers to eat.

Seeing that everyone was eating well, Zhang Zhongqi, who had originally planned to say a few words impromptuly, turned around immediately after reading the telegram, and gave an order while returning: "Send the order, let Feihuying send people to drive back all the horses. Let Li Jichun concentrate on defending the city. The horses Too tasty."

"Yes."

"My lord, the final general is willing to bring someone to meet him."

"My lord, the final general is willing to go with me."

"Okay, okay." Zhang Zhongqi waved impatiently: "If you want to scout the terrain, go there. You are not allowed to bring troops, and you are not allowed to have contact with the Mongolian cavalry. You are only allowed to bring your own soldiers."

On the morning of the second day, tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalry surrounded Chunlei Fort.

At the same time, tens of thousands of bannermen pushing small carts began to cover the soil and cut off the flow. The location of Chunlei Fort was very tricky, surrounded by water on three sides, and surrounded by a natural bend in the Luan River.

If the banner soldiers want to take advantage of their numbers to attack the city on all sides, they must divert the Luan River water.

However, in this asymmetrical offensive and defensive battle, the bannermen suffered a disadvantage from the very beginning: the bullets fired from the top of the city forced the bannermen to dig farther away, which increased the amount of unnecessary work.

August 1636, 8, another day worth remembering.

On this day, the [-] banner soldiers led by Erfu Yang Guli began to formally attack the Chunlei Camp.

On this day, the gate of Zunhua, which had been defending for several days, was broken, and more than [-] Manchurian banner soldiers flooded into Gyeonggi like a tide.

On this day, the emperor gave Fang Fang a sword, acted cheaply, added the title of Minister of the Ministry of War, and Lu Xiangsheng, the prime minister of the seven provinces, led a large army to store at the foot of Luoyang Xiongcheng.

(End of this chapter)