Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 259 Two-front battle

"Drive! Drive!"

At the southeastern end of the North China Plain, Tang Qi, who was carrying military intelligence, was chasing along the official road. After running for about an hour, Tang Qi finally saw the dense group in front of him.

"800-mile expedited! 800-mile expedited!!"

Na Tangqi shouted and charged forward, the horses carrying him charging continuously.

He marched forward along the corner of the official road. The five-foot-wide official road had only a three-foot wide road for him to move forward.

Many soldiers gave way voluntarily, and he was able to run forward for several miles before being stopped at the center position.

"Eight hundred miles is urgent. Please submit it to Duke Cao."

Na Tangqi handed the information on his back to the Qianhu official who stopped him.

Seeing this, the Qianhu officials got on an ordinary draft horse and rode towards the front of the Chinese army generals.

Not long after, Officer Qianhu presented the urgent document. Li Jinglong, who was riding on horseback and wearing only a breastplate, took it and opened it. He frowned and raised his hand: "Stop the march."

"Beep--"

A long whistle sounded, followed by thousands of officials, spreading the whistle throughout the team that stretched for more than ten miles.

After more than half a year of training, many soldiers already knew what this meant, so the 110,000-strong army stopped marching after hearing the whistle.

Such a move naturally attracted the attention of the generals responsible for covering the two wings of the entire army. They left one person to continue leading the team, while they rode back to the main formation of the Chinese army.

They arrived one after another, all looking at Li Jinglong, waiting for him to speak.

It wasn't until Ping An, Yu Tongyuan and others arrived that Li Jinglong rode out of the team. Obviously, the urgency was not light.

The generals followed the horses out and walked to the rural road before Li Jinglong said:

"The common people of Yan confused Xu Kai with suspicious soldiers. The two generals Chen Hui and Teng Ju who rushed to the aid of Dong'an County in Cangzhou were defeated by Yang Qingshuiyi, and thousands of Ganliang cavalry were all captured."

As soon as Li Jinglong said his words, all the generals felt nervous.

That was the Ganliang Jingqi, one of the few Jingqi in the Ming Dynasty. Even before the Yan Mansion and Bohai rebelled, there were only 50,000 cavalry in the entire Ming Dynasty.

After the rebellion of Bohai and Yanfu, the number of cavalry available to the imperial court was only 40,000.

Pansong Panjing's riding equipment had already been damaged by nearly a quarter when he was captured and killed before, and another third was damaged this time.

It can be said that among the 300,000 Southern troops, only Yu Tongyuan and Pingan's troops are left in Beijing to listen to the drills and ride well.

The remaining tens of thousands of elite cavalry are either following the rebellion in Xichuan and Yunnan, or preparing borders in Ganliang and Shaanxi. Even if they want to gather, it is very difficult.

Without the cavalry of the 200,000 troops in the north, the food route would be easily cut off by Zhu Di.

"Things are getting difficult..."

For a moment, these words were all in the minds of the generals. It was very difficult for them to deal with Zhu Gaoxu, but now Zhu Di was involved.

If others only find it difficult, then Li Jinglong feels that he is quite in a dilemma.

There are currently 200,000 Southern troops, led by Wu Gao, Xu Kai, and Wu Jie.

Li Jinglong on Wu Gao's side is not worried. Although Wu Gao does not have the ability to lead hundreds of thousands of troops, relying on the Taihang Mountains, Wu Gao can definitely defend Zhuozhou City.

On Xu Kai and Wu Jie's side, although they are capable, it is still a bit difficult for them to control tens of thousands of troops to deal with Zhu Di.

"Three hundred miles urgent!"

At this moment, before the generals could think too much, the urgent sound of Tangqi sounded again. Fortunately, this time the sound came from the east.

At Li Jinglong's signal, the urgent information was quickly delivered to him.

After a brief reading, Li Jinglong's face actually showed a bit of anger, but he quickly suppressed it.

"My lord, what's going on in the east?"

As a veteran, Yu Tongyuan was the first to ask.

Facing the inquiry, Li Jinglong also said calmly: "The Bohai pirate army was divided into four groups, each surrounded Yidu, the seat of Qingzhou Prefecture, and separately captured Linqu, Anqiu, Zhucheng and other places, as if they were on the verge of taking Qingzhou in one fell swoop. "

"The number of soldiers and horses that captured the three counties of Linqu was about 10,000. There was also a visitor from Dengzhou who reported that there were 10,000 soldiers and horses in Bohai waiting for the horses there. The total number is 40,000."

"Based on the news from Yidu, the number of soldiers and horses Zhu Gaoxu surrounded Yidu should be around 6,000 to 9,000, of which at least 5,000 are cavalry."

Li Jinglong roughly judged the strength of Zhu Gaoxu's troops surrounding Qingzhou Prefecture and Zhiyi Capital, but his judgment was obviously in vain, because before he could finish his words, letters after letters were rushed from Qingzhou Prefecture to his hands.

Bohai divided three thousand troops to capture Guangling Town and approached Shouguang County again.

In addition, seeing that he could not capture Yidu, Zhu Gaoxu actually changed direction, crossed the Beiyang River, and marched northwest.

"Northwest, isn't that our side?"

Ping An suddenly spoke and immediately asked for orders: "My lord, the general is willing to send out cavalry to defeat the common people of Bohai."

"The last general is also willing to go." Yu Tongyuan followed him and bowed, and his second son Yu Jing, who was standing behind him, also bowed after hearing this.

The three men were tall, and they rode large horses given by Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Yunwen. Needless to say, they were brave and powerful. The cavalry they led were also the most elite Ming Dynasty cavalry left by Zhu Yuanzhang to listen to the drills in Beijing.

Li Jinglong has not made up his mind yet on whether to use them to encircle and suppress Zhu Gaoxu, because his opponent is not only Zhu Gaoxu, but also Zhu Di.

"The army crossed the Daqing River first and rested in Qingcheng County, Henan."

Li Jinglong needed a quiet environment to consider how to deal with Zhu Di and his son, so there was no military order issued for the time being, but only where the army would camp today.

Following his order, the 110,000-strong army continued to advance, crossed the Xiaoqing River in the afternoon, and camped in the plains north of Qingcheng County.

At dusk, news came again from the southeast.

"Zihe Diantang Cavalry found traces of Bohai Cavalry, and Bohai common people were in the formation."

"The Linzi defenders sent out Tang cavalry, and traces of the Bohai cavalry were found on the Zhengnan Post Road in Linzi. The Bohai common people were in the formation."

"The defenders of Xincheng sent out Tang cavalry, and traces of Bohai cavalry were found in the southeast of Xincheng. Bohai commoners were in the formation."

"The defenders of the new city have reported back that the common people of Bohai are camped in Xiaofu Henan. Judging from the trends, they seem to be preparing to cross the river tomorrow..."

When each piece of intelligence arrived, the commander's tent at the Southern Army camp outside Qingcheng County was filled with silence.

Zhu Gaoxu's posture seemed to be really aimed at the 110,000 of them.

"A mere 6,000 cavalrymen came to stop our 110,000 people. Don't the common people of Bohai underestimate the enemy too much?"

"Hahahahaha..."

I don't know which general spoke, causing the tent to burst into laughter.

"Regardless of whether he underestimates the enemy or not, our army must not be arrogant. Don't forget that arrogance will lead to defeat. What's more, the horses and infantry of the common people in Bohai are extremely fast. If he deliberately drives them, it won't take five days to gather the four separate troops and horses. .”

Li Jinglong spoke up to stop the generals from underestimating the enemy. He knew very well that he could not underestimate the enemy when facing Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu.

Zhu Di is a master of tactics and deception, but Zhu Gaoxu is better at this aspect.

Originally, the number of cavalry in the Southern Army was small, but now Chen Hui and Tengju were severely injured and captured by Zhu Di. It is foreseeable that even if Zhu Di fails to achieve success in the hands of Xu Kai and Wu Gao, the number of cavalry available to him will inevitably increase.

The father and son teamed up and had nearly 120,000 horse, infantry and cavalry in their hands. It seemed that they should not march at this time.

Li Jinglong remained sober. Although he didn't understand why Zhu Gaoxu wanted to lead 6,000 men in a decisive battle with his 110,000 men, he knew that there must be a deceit in it.

"My lord, when will we break camp and set off tomorrow?"

Prince Consort Li Jian opened his mouth to bow, and the generals also turned their attention to Li Jinglong.

However, under such public scrutiny, Li Jinglong made a shocking statement: "If we don't advance tomorrow, we will withdraw our troops and return to the Qing Dynasty and Hebei."

"Not marching?" After hearing Li Jinglong's words, everyone was in an uproar.

A group of them rushed here from Datong to help, and traveled a thousand miles, but now they are about to withdraw without even having a fight?

"Withdraw troops, but not to be afraid of the enemy, but to change the target!"

Li Jinglong's eyes were calm, and he raised his head and glanced at the generals: "The common people of Yan played a trick to confuse the enemy, and we can do the same."

"My military order is to impose martial law in all cities in Beiping and Shandong from now on. No matter whether it is a city or a town, no one is allowed to leave their jurisdiction."

"In addition, the prince-in-law Li Jian led 3 rear troops to stay here to confuse the common people of Bohai. The remaining troops withdrew at Yinshi ( o'clock) and returned to Hebei of the Qing Dynasty. The whole army went north to Hejian and took the rural roads. Don’t go through official channels!”

Li Jinglong was keenly aware of one thing, that is, whether it was Zhu Di or Zhu Gaoxu, their information on the Southern Army was frighteningly accurate, at least more accurate than the Southern Army's intelligence on them.

This situation can only explain two things, either the two of them have an intermediary team that is not inferior to Jin Yiwei, or Jin Yiwei has been adulterated.

Of the two, Li Jinglong believed in the latter more.

As a person who presided over the most important national project "Xifan Tea Horse Trade" during the Hongwu period, he was also a person who followed Feng Sheng in the expedition against Nahachu and followed Lan Yu in the expedition against Beiyuan.

Li Jinglong knew very well what the Jinyiwei situation was like during the Hongwu period. Not to mention the densely populated Central Plains, even in the desolate Mobei, Modong, Qinghai and other places, the Jinyiwei also had ways to obtain information.

The Ming army can always pursue the enemy. In addition to its own strength, the more important thing is that it can grasp the enemy's general trends in almost every battle.

But right now, Jin Yiwei seems to be blind and deaf. All the information cannot be said to be useless, but it has a serious lag.

Take Zhu Di's annihilation of Chen Hui and Teng Ju's more than 10,000 cavalry troops, and Zhu Gaoxu's ability to divide his troops in advance to show the enemy's weakness. These all demonstrate the lagging nature of the Southern Army's intelligence.

There were many counties and towns on Zhu Di's detour from Dong'an to raid Yang Qingshui Station, but they did not send out any information.

The same goes for Zhu Gaoxu's division of troops. He was less than a hundred miles away from Zhu Gaoxu, so this information came slowly. For the Confederate army, which was infantry and had difficulty wearing armor on the march, the lag in intelligence was undoubtedly fatal.

Although there are 110,000 troops, if Zhu Gaoxu also attacks him like Zhu Di, the 110,000 unarmored soldiers will be much easier to kill for the 6,000 cavalry than to kill 110,000 chickens.

"We can't take the initiative to attack the father and son. We have to let them come to me."

Li Jinglong's thoughts were sorted out, so when faced with the generals' doubts, he glanced around and said calmly:

"What our army has to do now is to build a defense line relying on the canal and Huaihe River!"

"But..." After hearing Li Jinglong's words, Li Jian, the consort sent by Zhu Yunwen, immediately frowned and said:

"But the imperial court has a decree that our army must drive the Bohai people back to Liaodong within four months and restore the situation to the situation at the end of last year."

"Four months is enough!" Li Jinglong said, not eager to fight because of Zhu Yunwen's urging.

"Order Xu Kai to retreat to Sujiaqiao and Wu Gao to Heyang. The two armies will each rely on Baigou River, Wugongdian, Sanjiaodian and Weihe to wait for my army to move north."

"On the way to the south, all soldiers must be in armor. Even if the retreat is slower, don't give Yan Ni an opportunity to take advantage of him!"

Li Jinglong had already made a decision. Wu Gao and Xu Kai retreated south. Li Jian led 40,000 people to stay here and doubted Zhu Gaoxu. He led 60,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry northward to garrison at Baigou River.

After gathering the 40,000 baggage carriages of the rear army and giving them to the 60,000 infantry of the front and center armies, they will be able to move faster than before. Although they cannot reach the level of horse infantry, they can at least march every day. About eighty miles.

From here to Xiong County, it is almost 650 miles, and it can be reached in eight days at most.

Thinking of this, Li Jinglong glanced at the generals, and he could feel the dissatisfaction of the generals from their faces.

I am afraid that not only the generals, but even the soldiers at the grassroots level will be dissatisfied with his actions, but what can he do.

The southern army was trapped in a two-front battle. The Yan army in the north numbered no less than 150,000, and the Bohai army in the east had no less than 40,000 troops.

Although the ratio of 290,000 to 190,000 was too great, the Confederate army's shortcomings were too serious and could not be made up by numbers.

Withdrew to Xiong County, first concentrated its forces on Baigou River to deal with Zhu Di, and then went south to deal with Zhu Gaoxu.

If Zhu Di learned that he was concentrating his forces to deal with Zhu Gaoxu, then the number of troops dispatched by Zhu Di might not be 50,000 or 60,000.

Li Jinglong calmed down, and the generals accepted the order unconvinced, ordering the army who would have to get up late tomorrow to rest early.

Time passed little by little, and Li Jinglong stayed up all night and kept observing the map, trying to figure out how Zhu Gaoxu dared to use 6,000 people to fight against his 110,000 people.

From Xushi 20:3 (:) to Yinshi (:), he watched it all night before roughly inferring what Zhu Gaoxu wanted to do.

Although the number of 6,000 cavalry in Xincheng was large, they were not the main force in defeating the enemy. The real main force was the 3,000 firearms battalion that had besieged Shouguang previously.

Judging from the speed of the Bohai Navy's horse and infantry, even the firearms battalion has the ability to forcibly march 120 miles day and night.

It is only a hundred and fifty miles from Shouguang to Xincheng. In other words, if this firearms and horse infantry rushed from Shouguang to Xincheng since noon yesterday, they would be able to reach Xincheng around dusk today.

If his 110,000-strong army wanted to go south to the new city, it would take seventy miles, exactly one day.

When he arrived at the new city, Zhu Gaoxu's six thousand cavalry were waiting for work. Although the firearms battalion was exhausted, they only needed to use artillery to disrupt their formation for the Bohai cavalry to attack.

"Good boy..."

After analyzing Zhu Gaoxu's thoughts, Li Jinglong felt relieved and even had a smile on his face.

Although he has ordered the entire army to retreat and decided to deal with Zhu Di first, once Zhu Gaoxu succeeds, although it will not completely wipe out his 110,000 troops, it will at least make his troops unable to move north.

"Do you want to stop me from going north?"

Li Jinglong wiped the sweat from his forehead, smiled and shook his head: "The boy's intention is still too obvious, but it is an improvement compared to Liaodong."

He has a good relationship with Zhu Gaoxu, and he personally does not support Zhu Yunzhen's use of force to reduce the vassal state.

But he is the Duke of Cao in the imperial court after all. As long as there is a chance to win, he will not sit back and watch the father and son expand the war.

"Okay, let's withdraw our troops."

Throwing the dogma in his hand onto the sand table, Li Jinglong greeted the soldiers who had been worried about him all night.

Not long after, the dark Southern Army camp began to become lively. At 4:00 Yin hour, 70,000 troops began to leave the camp and cross the Daqing River north.

They relaxed, and Li Jian, who was in charge of staying behind, also heard Zhu Gaoxu's plan from Li Jinglong before Li Jinglong left.

After hearing this, he looked solemn and couldn't help but sigh that Li Jinglong made the right choice.

With the power of the Bohai Navy's artillery, there is no problem in destroying their spear array. Without the spear array, the infantry on the plain is no easier for the cavalry than catching pigs.

"Please rest assured, Lord, the general will definitely defend the camp and not be able to get out."

Li Jian bowed to Li Jinglong, who was about to cross north, but Li Jinglong shook his head: "It's not that we can't leave, but that we can wait and leave."

"The artillery of the Bohai Navy is so sharp that it is difficult for ordinary camps to withstand it. What you have to do is to confuse them and make them believe that my army is here. If they don't believe it and start to launch a strong attack, you can retreat to the north of the Daqing River and cut off the crossing bridge. Wait for my army to defeat Yan Ni and move south, and then clean up the mess in Shandong."

"General, take your orders!" Li Jian bowed in agreement. Seeing this, Li Jinglong felt relieved and led Yu Tongyuan, Ping'an and others to start crossing north.

It has to be said that the military orders he ordered the people in cities in North China and Shandong not to obey did cover the army's retreat northward. But the problem was that Zhu Gaoxu never thought of defeating his 110,000 army head-on with 6,000 men.

"Calculate the time, it should be almost..."

In the wilderness in the north of Xincheng County, when Zhu Gaoxu stood in the sun wearing a military uniform and looked towards the north, Xu Sheng also walked up behind him.

"Your Highness, if Li Jinglong doesn't appear here before dusk, can we take the next step?"

"Yes." Zhu Gaoxu responded, but Xu Sheng said: "What should we do next?"

"Instruct all armies to assemble in Zhucheng under the cover of darkness tomorrow!"

Zhu Gaoxu's squinted eyes suddenly opened, and a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Xu Sheng bowed in agreement and turned around to arrange for Tangqi to deliver messages to the armies. However, after doing all this, Xu Sheng said in confusion:

"Your Highness, I don't understand, with this situation, why doesn't Li Jinglong dare to bring people to attack us?"

"Although six thousand cavalry is a lot, aren't they also ten thousand?"

Not only Xu Sheng was confused, but also the generals of the Southern Army yesterday. Even Li Jinglong needed a night to understand.

"This game is meant for smart people to watch."

Zhu Gaoxu did not shy away from Xu Sheng and said with a smile: "If an ordinary general sees that our army only has 6,000 people, he will naturally pounce on him. But as the commander of the 300,000-strong Southern Army, Li Jinglong needs to exercise restraint and look at things from different angles. It also has to be viewed from the perspective of the entire battle situation.”

"Our 3,000 troops and artillery in Shouguang will deter him. If there are no other changes, I estimate that he will camp in Qingcheng for at least three days, waiting for Tangqi to explore all the information before heading south. By then we will have arrived in Zhucheng .”

"Even if Li Jinglong reacts, except for the 10,000 cavalry in Beijing, the rest of his troops will be hard-pressed to catch up with us."

"Our trip south this time is almost coming to an end."

Although Zhu Gaoxu cannot be said to be absolutely confident, he believes that it will only take a few months to end the Jingnan Campaign. If it is faster, even one month will be enough.

"That's it..." Xu Sheng suddenly realized, and then his face showed embarrassment:

"I thought you really wanted to take 6,000 people to fight 110,000 people."

"Six thousand versus 110,000?" Zhu Gaoxu chuckled and said, "I'm not Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty or Guangwu of the Han Dynasty. How can I have such ability?"

After that, he turned around and returned to the team, waiting for dusk to arrive with the six thousand soldiers.

However, he did not wait until dusk, but waited for better news.

At noon, a group of Tang cavalry galloped from the east, and then passed through the camp of 6,000 cavalry and arrived in front of Zhu Gaoxu.

"Your Highness, there is urgent news in Peiping. His Highness King Yan and Yang Qingshuiyi defeated Chen Hui and Teng Ju. The two generals were killed in the battle. More than 3,000 of the remaining troops were killed and more than 6,000 were captured."

"His Royal Highness King Yan wanted to take advantage of the victory and pursue Xu Kai and Wu Gao, but these two men were cautious and did not leave the camp."

Tang Qi brought good news, Xu Sheng immediately looked at Zhu Gaoxu, but Zhu Gaoxu glanced at Tianshi after hearing this.

"It seems that not only will Li Jinglong not go south, but he will withdraw his troops."

"Withdraw troops?" Xu Sheng was puzzled. Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu signaled the soldiers to spread out the map, then pointed to the situation on the map and said:

"The North China Plain is a vast area. In addition to the water network that can be used for garrisoning, whenever you want to march, you are vulnerable to cavalry raids."

"If you want to defend the North China Plain, you can only rely on Baigou River, Wugongdian, and Sanjiaodian, three places with developed water networks, to garrison Yanyun."

"The prerequisite for garrisoning is that there must be a strong cavalry that can calmly support each city. However, this cavalry has been destroyed by my father."

"If Li Jinglong learns the news, he will definitely withdraw to Hejian and go north to Xiong County to garrison according to the situation."

"In this way, our army will have an even greater advantage going south. My father has done us a big favor this time!"

The smile on Zhu Gaoxu's face could not be concealed. He finally reaped the benefits of the two-line attack.

He pointed his finger towards Zhucheng and then slid all the way to the Huaihe River in Huai'an Prefecture.

"Right now, the only thing that can stop our army is the Huaihe River in Huai'an Prefecture."

"Who is stationed here?" Zhu Gaoxu asked Xu Sheng, and Xu Sheng said without hesitation: "It is Sheng Yong, the governor of the Chinese Army. He should lead the left and right guards of Yulin and the Jiangbei garrison for training in Huai'an Mansion."

"Sheng Yong..." Zhu Gaoxu didn't expect that the battle situation had changed so much, and that he could still see him on the battlefield.

"I know Sheng Yong. He used to be my superior officer."

Zhu Gaoxu chuckled, but he didn't take Sheng Yong seriously.

He stood up slowly, holding the riding crop in his hand and looking towards the south:

"Before Li Jinglong doesn't react, my whole army will take advantage of the night to march east of Zhucheng!"

(End of this chapter)