Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 450 The Mountain Rain Is Coming (Part [-])

January 1645 (the twelfth month of the 1th year of Chongzhen) was bleak for Li Zicheng.First, more than 17 elite Qing troops led by Azige bypassed the heavy army group of the Shun Army from Ordos in northern Serbia, and then raided Yulin.Gao Yigong, a general of the Shun Army, had a tight defense, and the Qing army was eager to get out, so he ordered the Liuming and Shunjiang troops to besiege Yulin, and personally led the main force to attack Suide in the south.Li Guo hurriedly led his army back to help, first fought against the Qing army in Suide, lost, and retreated to Yan'an.

Li Zicheng heard that northern Shaanxi was in danger and his hometown had been slaughtered, so he hurriedly led his army to help northern Shaanxi, but halfway through the journey, he heard that the forward of the Qing army of Duoduo had appeared on the front line of Shanzhou and Tongguan, so he stopped again.At this time, the report of the defeat of the West Route Army came, and tens of thousands of Hui people's cavalry army marched eastward. Faced with such a severe situation, the Shun Army, which had been fighting vigorously in Qinghai and Gansu, was forced to shrink its front and abandon Gansu. Back to Shaanxi.Not long after, Li Dingguo led an army in the south to march into Hanzhong. Seeing the strength of the Qing army, the Ming army in Henan did not dare to face it head-on.

But in Shandong at this time, the situation was not very favorable for the Qing court.Although Jinan has received some reinforcements, Qingshan Governor Fang Dayou claimed that the Qing Dynasty increased its troops by "30", but all fools know that there are not so many.According to some vague and specious information obtained by Mo Ming and others, it is very possible for the Qing army to increase its troops by 5000 to 4 or even 1 to 5000.Among them, there may be [-] to [-] Manchurian soldiers, and the rest should be the Ming army who was enrobed, followed up, and surrendered, and occasionally mixed with a small number of Han Eight Banners soldiers who were more capable of fighting.In general, the strength of the Qing army has probably increased to [-] to [-], of which the number of soldiers is likely to be between [-] and [-].I just don’t know if there are red-clothed cannons, but most likely there are none, because the Qing army in Jinan has not yet entered Qingzhou eastward, and is still destroying some small groups of local anti-Qing armed forces in Jinan and Yanzhou.

A few days ago, Luo Guoshi sent some news in secret, saying that Huaiqing Mansion was captured by Dashun at the beginning of November (lunar calendar). The grain, grass and supplies accumulated in the city were destroyed once.After the Shun army retreated, the main force of the Duduo Qing army stopped here for a long time, except for sending a few elite cavalry to continue westward. On the one hand, they were waiting for the red-clothed artillery army, and on the other hand, they were collecting food and grass on the spot.The envoys of Jinan Hetuo traveled back and forth between the capital and Huaiqing Mansion, and finally got some military support.However, the red-clothed cannon that Hetuo wanted could not be counted on Duoduo, and he had to take it to Tongguan to attack the city himself.Then Hetuo can only see if there are any surplus in Beijing and the local area, and try to get some cannons out.Without red cannons, small-caliber ones can make do, it's better than nothing.

Today is mid-February 1645, and the main force of the Duoduo Department of the Qing Army has just left Huaiqing Mansion and headed for Tongguan, which is more than half a month later than in history.It is a pity that Li Zicheng did not seize the favorable opportunity of more than half a month to concentrate high-speed mobile forces to solve the difficulties in one direction first. He still stationed troops in Luochuan, and kept sending people to inquire about the military situation in various places and wait and see the situation, hesitating.During this period, he only sent a small number of reinforcements to the south to support Han Wen, the general of Dashun Hanzhong who had retreated to Xixiang.Han Wen had just been defeated by Li Dingguo's 2-strong army, and currently only has more than [-] soldiers and horses on hand, and the situation in Hanzhong is critical.

Although the people on the east bank had just made a big commotion in Shandong and wiped out a large number of Qing troops, the main attention of the Qing court was still focused on Li Zicheng's Dashun Group in the Shanshan area.In order to successfully wipe out the Dashun army, the Qing government not only repeatedly emphasized not to shave their hair and change their clothes, but even ignored the dignity of the new dynasty and announced that it recognized the fame of the previous dynasty and all the policies of the previous dynasty that favored gentry. , and make an appointment with them to attack smooth and clear together.As for the Nanming troops operating in Henan, they turned a blind eye to them, and even recruited them to surrender, in order to concentrate on destroying Li Chuang, the only Han military group in China that could pose a major threat to the Manchu Qing at this time.

Under such circumstances, as people from the east coast who had major interests in China (population gathering), they naturally could not sit back and watch the increasingly powerful Manchu Qing quickly defeat Li Chuang.Even if they couldn't stop the Man Qing from defeating Li Chuang, they had to find a way to delay their progress.However, as the Manchu Qing gathered more and more soldiers and horses in Shandong, the pressure on the people on the east bank also increased. It is not as easy as before to do anything now.For example, those gentry who are like weeds on the wall, after seeing the Qing government’s large-scale increase of troops in Jinan, their arrogance gradually began to become arrogant again, and the village warriors also became more active in the countryside.

Facing the severe situation again, Mo Ming, Mao Desheng, Li Wenchang and others judged that the Qing court's large-scale eastward advance to Qingzhou was imminent.At present, they have expelled or eliminated some anti-Qing armed forces in the three prefectures of Jinan, Yanzhou, and Dongchang. At the same time, they have also hoarded some food and grass, waiting for the red artillery army to come-in this era, there is nothing to fight without artillery fighting.After the Qing army's large-scale eastward advance, Zhao Yingyuan's department (which included many anti-Qing armed forces who escaped from Jinan, Yanzhou and other places) must not be able to support the expanded power in Qingzhou City. Under pressure, Qingzhou City has almost no resistance.Now that Qingzhou has fallen, Laizhou must not be defended, and the local gentry have long been looking forward to the arrival of the Qing army.At that time, the whole of Shandong may not have fallen in Penglai and Yantai, and it is not even possible to say whether Penglai County (Dengzhou City) will surrender.

For this reason, the people on the east coast also began to make sufficient preparations.First of all, they selected a total of 1000 relatively strong people from the refugees who had lived for more than half a year, and organized them into the No. 15-18 Squadrons (No. 11-14 Squadrons are located in Dabo and Heishui for training) .These four squadrons are all spearmen, equipped with captured leather armor from the Ming and Qing armies, and together with Zhai Cong'er (monk Zhai Wu) received training from military instructors on the east coast. It can be said to be so-so.

Monk Zhai Wu's troops originally consisted of more than 2000 people, and the military instructors on the east coast who were in charge of training his troops eliminated some of the soldiers who were too old or too young, who were malnourished, or who were too accustomed to endure the arduous training. Then he refined his subordinates into 2000 people.These 1 people are all infantry, and the clothing and weapons they are equipped with are brought by themselves. Generally speaking, both in terms of appearance and actual combat effectiveness, they are inferior to the 2000st Brigade, which has many veterans.According to the evaluation of the East Coast military officers who participated in the Battle of Anqiu, Zhai Cong'e's [-] men were more powerful than the Landlord's Xiangyong Armed Forces. There is still a lot of difference, not to mention the full eight banners and the black eight banners.

"Such troops can't fight tough battles for the time being. They can't fight against the elite Green Battalion Army and Eight Banners soldiers, but they can still deal with the weak North Korean army. With sufficient logistics and thorough planning, we can defeat the thousands of troops on Jeju Island." Li Chao's army is not a big problem. But we'd better send a small number of troops to accompany them in the battle, and if the situation is unfavorable, we will step forward to turn the tide of the battle. After all, if they attack the stick of Jeju Island and return in defeat, it will be a joke." Xiao Xiao Standing on the pier trestle of Yantai Port, which had been initially thawed, Xi said to Mo Ming.

At this time, Mo Ming came to welcome several naval sailing ships entering the port.Although there are still some ice floes in the harbor, they are relatively small, and the number is not very large, and they are no longer hindering the navigation of ships.The six ships that had avoided the cold winter in Rishiri Island for nearly two months immediately sailed into Yantai Port following the strong northeasterly wind after confirming that the ice situation had eased.All six ships have been maintained in Yuanbo Port. The plankton on the bottom of the ship has been cleaned up, the leaky plank has been replaced, and the damaged canvas has been repaired. After such a rectification, even the ship The oldest armed transport ship "Galicia Flying Fish" also has a new look and is capable of sailing to sea.

But of course Mo Ming didn't plan to send everyone on a long voyage.The naval ships only need to sail to Jeju Island not far from here, and then hit the North Korean navy ships that may appear nearby by the way. He will be responsible for exterminating thousands of soldiers stationed on the island by Li Chao.

"The main combat force for the landing operations is set to be 2000 people from Zhai Cong'e's Department. Sixty gunners newly trained in Yantai Fort carry six artillery pieces to assist in the battle. The newly formed 2nd Battalion, 15-18 Squadron, and 1000 people are also sent to join the battle. Let them feel the atmosphere of the battlefield. Last time, more than 102 people from the 700nd Company of the Army and the 500rd Battalion of the Eight Banners New Army who stayed at Yantai Fort will serve as the reserve team to supervise the battle; in addition, 600 people from the newly formed military team will be transferred there In this way, the total force is close to [-], and you will be the commander in chief. You must wipe out the entire army of the Lee Dynasty on Jeju Island in the first battle, and then find a way to gradually control the entire island. I think there should be no special difficulties " Mo Ming put his hand on Xiao Xi's left shoulder, patted and said: "In the future, Jeju Island will be the last refuge for these anti-Qing armed forces. I am very pessimistic about the situation in the mainland, and I think it is better to find a place for them to settle in advance. It's more appropriate."

"Li Chao is weak, and their army is even more vulnerable. If more than 6000 people can't defeat them, I think we should all wipe our necks. There are more than 3000 soldiers left on the island. Even if Li Chao increases his troops, what can we do?" How much? With 600 of us, even if we face 2000 troops of the Li Dynasty, we can destroy it!" Xiao Xi shook his right fist with a smile, and said relaxedly: "This is probably an armed march. It’s not difficult for them, but the difficult thing is how Zhai Cong’e can control the situation on the whole island after we withdraw. There are enemies everywhere, and [-] people can only occupy Jeju Prefecture and its surrounding areas. To really control the whole island, this person is not enough."

"There will be follow-up troops, don't worry about that." Mo Ming said with certainty.

(End of this chapter)