Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 484 Stalemate and Breakthrough ([-])

The first few months of 1645 were a mixed blessing for the Manchus, who had just entered the customs for just a year.

On the northwest battlefield, the Qing army conquered Tongguan with the help of the red-clothed cannons. Duoduo ordered the massacre of 7000 soldiers from Ma Shiyao's troops who surrendered, and sent troops to Xi'an.At the same time, although Azig on the North Road repeatedly defeated the Northern Shaanxi Army of Li Guo, Gao Yigong and others, his progress was severely blocked.It was only after Gao and Li led their troops back to Ningxia that Azig's more than [-] troops were able to go south smoothly.At this time, Li Zicheng was ready to retreat.

Shaanxi (including Ningxia, Gansu) is now more like a prison for Li Zicheng. Whether it is west, north or east, the situation is not optimistic.Therefore, although He Zhen defeated Li Dingguo three times in Hanzhong and stabilized the situation in the south, Li Zicheng decided to retreat.As for the retreat destination, Li Zicheng originally planned to be Runan, but after being dissuaded by Gu Junen, he decided to go to Xiangyang.

In mid-February, Li Zicheng led a main force of 13 and a larger number of women, children, old and weak entered Dengzhou via Shangzhou.According to historical records, he "drove southward with a strong force, leaving 13 soldiers to guard the city and plug the wells and stoves." Niu Jinxing and others who had already gone to Xiangyang in advance led troops to respond, and Li Zicheng's main force entered Hubei.So far, with the 20 elite soldiers he brought from Shaanxi and Gansu and the more than [-] former Shaanxi and Henan veterans who stayed near Xiangyang, the total force on hand still exceeds [-].Coupled with his outstanding performance in defeating the Qing army twice in Chenzhou and Dengzhou on the way to retreat, Li Zicheng is still the number one enemy of the Qing army.

After Li Zicheng's main force withdrew from Shaanxi-Gansu, Duoduo and Azige joined forces in Xi'an, and then began to recruit and surrender the Shun army's miscellaneous armed forces and second- and third-line troops left behind.Things went relatively smoothly, and Duoduo played: "The land of Qin conquered four cities and surrendered 38 counties."However, the Southern Ming army such as Xu Dingguo, the commander-in-chief in Henan who had been very active in attacking the Shun army, surrendered to the Qing army instead of Shi Kefa's order.After Zhang Jinyan, the governor of Henan Province appointed by Nanming, went to the court, the Nanming monarchs and ministers remained unmoved, and tried their best to urge the Ming army in the Huguang area to attack Jingzhou under the control of the Shun army, which almost made people angry.After hearing the news, Li Zicheng personally led the main force to Jingzhou, and Jingzhou was besieged.

The battle in the northwest went smoothly. Although the two armies of Duoduo and Azig had put in a lot of effort, they finally flattened the land of Qin and surrendered nearly 10 second- and third-line armed forces from Li Zicheng's troops. The results can even be said to be brilliant.But in comparison, the current situation in Shandong is simply a pile of shit.The nobles of the Eight Banners in Beijing can’t figure out why a small Yantai Fort with only 1 people garrisoned (the Man Qing exaggerated the facts) is still standing still under the siege of more than 5 troops, and they even have spare energy to attack everywhere , Greatly shaken the prestige of "My Great Qing" in the north.

In the past month or so, Jinan Prefecture in Shandong fell into Wuding Prefecture and other five prefectures and counties, Yongping Prefecture in North Zhili Province fell into Leting County, and Wei Dagukou in Tianjin was bombarded; Liaodong was even more exaggerated, Jinzhou, Lushunkou, Pidao, Zhenjiang, etc. The land fell for the second time, and the Eight Banners cavalry left outside Jinzhou City suffered even more defeats, with more than a hundred casualties.In the end, he watched the yellow-clothed bandit army float away into the sea. He had no choice but to escape the virtues of the hundreds of thousands of Ming troops who "sent off" the thousands of Qing troops who had plundered back.

Faced with the dilemma of wars everywhere in Liaohai, the Qing army had to adjust the focus of operations.Dorgon, the Regent who was far away in Beijing, ordered that 2 soldiers be drawn from each of the two Qing armies of Azige and Duoduo, supplemented by more than 3 newly recruited Shaanxi Shunjiang Army and Henan Mingjiang Army. [-] soldiers were transferred eastward to Shandong and North Zhili.At the same time, Dorgon also planned to draw thousands of elite cavalry from Beijing, Jinzhou and Tianjin to garrison the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia, choose a general to lead the south, and command the total of nearly [-] Qing troops in order to stabilize the precarious Northern Zhili , Shandong situation, and took the opportunity to spy on the Jianghuai line.

As for Liaodong, the Qing army had no good solution.Most of the able-bodied men over the age of 14 and under the age of 60 went to the pass or western Liaoning. There were only a few old, young, women and children outside the pass, and there were not many young and middle-aged men. .It can be said that it is really powerless to defend such a large area with such a small force.In desperation, the Qing government could only order the weak coastal villages and forts to move to the inland areas, and at the same time implement the policy of "gathering villages and villages together", that is, to gather the residents of these villages and forts that moved inland to some places that are convenient for defense. within the gist.At the same time, mobile troops were stationed at various key points. If something happened, a large horse team was immediately assembled to rescue, hoping to curb the endless harassment of the yellow-clothed thieves in the coastal area.

The Qing army was mobilizing its troops and adjusting its deployment, while the people on the east bank were in a rare truce period. On May 5, all the east coast fleet gathered in the wintering place of Rishiri Island, including 25 gunboats, 2 armed transport ships, 2 transport ships, and 2 steam engine sailboats (the paddle steamer "Breaking Waves" has been dispatched to Australia) and 6 medium-sized fishing boats with a total tonnage of more than 4 tons, which can be described as a huge scale.

After fighting continuously for one and a half months, the troops on the east bank lost only 40 people in combat (mainly volunteers and soldiers), and only 500 people in non-combat, but killed, wounded and captured more than 7000 Qing troops. excellent record.In addition, they also broke through Liuzhou County in Guannei, Jinzhou in Liaodong and other important places, Tieshan County in North Korea and other places, and seized more than [-] stones of grain and beans, more than [-] heads of livestock (only), and more than [-] horses.Not only that, they also sank more than [-] small boats of the Qingshui Division in Dagukou, Pidao, and Zhenjiang, and almost wiped out all the few remaining water forces (Kong, Shang and others have officially converted to the army).

All in all, as part of the Battle of Yantai, the more than one-month raid on the enemy's rear effectively dealt a blow to the arrogance of the Qing army and greatly shaken its prestige in Shandong and Kinki.In the later period, the raid in Liaodong dealt a heavy psychological blow to the Qing court.How many years, how many years have these rear areas not been attacked?The last time someone carried out such a large-scale raid on the enemy's rear probably dates back to Mao Wenlong's time, right?But Mao Wenlong can only attack some small villages, and the threat is actually limited.But the thieves in yellow are different. They have sharp guns and cannons, but they can even take down Jinzhou and Zhenjiang, which are the strong cities in the impression of Qing court officials.

This kind of understanding caused the Qing court to have a headache for the yellow-clothed pirates, because this was not an equal combat method at all. The yellow-clothed pirates came and went freely at sea, and they could often attack the weak with the strong.The Qing court's defensive strength was very weak, and it was completely unclear what the enemy's next attack target would be, which kept them in a passive state.On the other hand, the people on the east bank firmly held the initiative on the battlefield, making the Qing army exhausted, but they still lost everywhere.It can be foreseen that if the Qing government fails to come up with good countermeasures, the Liaohai sea area will have to be abandoned.

Nearly [-] soldiers boarded the small Yuanbo Port, which immediately overcrowded the place.To be honest, the urban area of ​​Yuanbo Port is very small, and the people on the east coast only cleared out a small piece of forest along the coast, and then opened up a winter base for ships.The whole city is almost a collection of docks and warehouses, and a large number of messy wooden houses are attached to these warehouses for a long distance—these are temporary resettlement wooden houses for immigrants.

More than 2000 soldiers removed a large number of captured livestock from the boats and released them directly into the wild.Rishiri Island and the adjacent Rebun Island are in the warm current of Japan, with a mild climate and sea water that is not frozen all year round.The vegetation on the island is also very lush, and there are no large carnivores, which is very suitable for raising these livestock.These two islands are very small in size, and they are almost natural prisons for free-ranging animals. When their populations multiply one day, they can organize people to come and hunt them.It can not only train the team, but also save a lot of manpower to take care of these livestock. It can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

They had already been to Libun Island once before, and they raised five or six hundred cattle and sheep on the island.So far, the people on the east coast have stocked more than [-] heads of various livestock on the island in multiple batches in the past two years.Among them, the number of sheep accounts for half, the number of cattle is about a quarter, and the rest are roe deer, reindeer, moose and so on.According to observations made by forest rangers on Rebun Island two months ago, the population of [-] livestock that were released last year basically did not decrease in winter.This is mainly due to the not very cold climate here and the relatively abundant food sources, and after the beginning of spring, many small animals are born, and the population is still obviously expanding.It seems that after another two or three years, a certain amount of meat can be produced stably here almost every year.

Similar to Rebun Island, cattle and sheep captured from the mainland by people on the east coast are also treated in the same way on Rishiri Island.Together with a batch of livestock donated by Zhai Cong'e and others in Jeju Island, a total of [-] heads were released into the wild for free-range breeding.After the population has multiplied, organize manpower to hunt and train the team by the way.

Speaking of Jeju Island, now Zhai Cong'e, Wang Jiazhong, and Qin Shangxing have joined forces with more than 1000 people to control the three cities of Jeju Prefecture, Jingyi County, and Dajing County, which can be regarded as completely occupying the island.Recently, the people on the east bank selected a general Zhou Zuoding who was born in Dashun county magistrate (the Taian county magistrate who was unwilling to surrender to the Qing Dynasty before, but sneaked to Yantai after failing), and brought a newly formed team of 19 people (the 22th- [-] Squadron) went to the island and directly occupied the racecourse in the Halla Mountain area in the center of the island, which was regarded as the territory directly administered by the people of the east coast.

For this reason, Mo Mingte ordered some stallions bred in Yantai and Dabo to be transferred, including [-] Andalusian horses, [-] Turkmen horses, [-] Finnish draft horses, and most of the others were selected. The Mongolian horses that come out (or relatively tall, or have great endurance) are going to improve the bloodline of the large number of Korean pony on the island.In time, try to cultivate a hybrid horse breed with both endurance and size, so as to be able to provide suitable riding tools for the cavalry.

After resting in Yuanbo Port for a few days, the soldiers assembled on board again and headed for Yantai Port.At present, the Hauge Division of the Qing Army is still building fortifications and besieging outside Yantai, and the two sides seem to be in a stalemate for a long time.In this way, it is obvious that the people on the east coast will not be able to accept any immigrants in the vicinity.But it doesn't matter, two thousand soldiers with mixed cold and hot weapons are enough to defend Yantai, but the number of Qing troops restrained is tens of thousands, and this is not counting the huge amount of supplies they consumed.

Yantai is at a stalemate, so the main force of the people on the east coast can go to other places to seek a breakthrough.Moreover, as [-] or [-] refugees were transported away in the last transportation season, it is also time to collect some people to supplement them this year.

(End of this chapter)