I

  Chapter 543 540 [Army Confrontation]

  In order to avoid refueling tactics, the army led by Fei Ruhe did not arrive in Tianjin until a full month later.

  During the period, they have been gathering troops in Bazhou.

  The four divisions of Fei Ruhe, Huang Shun, Wan Sitong, and Li Dingguo joined forces, plus some peasant and soldier troops, and there were 50,000 people capable of fighting. There are also a large number of civilians and boats, which come here continuously from the Huitong River and the Grand Canal.

  The Huitong River in the late Ming Dynasty had to flow into Triangle Lake first, and then connect with the Grand Canal.

  In addition to civilian husbands, more than 100,000 people camped between the Triangle Lake and the Grand Canal, where Li Zicheng camped before.

  There is the Triangle Lake in the north, the Grand Canal in the south, and the small river connecting the Triangle Lake and the Grand Canal in the east.

  If Li Zicheng and Hauge wanted to fight over, they had to attack from Sanjiaodian Lake or the Grand Canal. Crossing the small river to the east was the easiest way to attack.

   The war is completely deadlocked!

   Due to the terrain, whoever attacks will suffer. Li Zicheng and Hauge could only keep filling the river with soil and bombarding the city wall. Moreover, before the Weihe River and the Haihe River were filled, they had to shell from the outside. The distance was too far, and whether they could hit the city wall depended on God's will.

"Your Majesty, we can't continue fighting like this," Dashun General Dang Shousu said. "The military rations of the Puppet Tong can be easily transported from the south along the Grand Canal. We don't have much food in Hebei, and the military rations have to be transported from Shanxi." Come on. If we keep stalemate for a few months, we will run out of food."

  Zhang Nai said: "Your Majesty, why don't you lead the cavalry secretly and go around Bazhou and Baoding County (northwest of Wen'an). If all the puppet troops in Hebei go out together, Bazhou must be empty!"

  Yuan Zongdi said: "No matter how empty Bazhou is, there are still thousands of defenders. How can your cavalry be defeated?"

  Zhang Nai said: "If Bazhou can't be defeated, we will attack Yuanjiakou between Bazhou and Baoding County. It is extremely important. If you occupy Yuanjiakou, you can cut off the connection between Bazhou, Baoding and Tianjin."

  Yuanjiakou was originally called Jiakou Village, which was built by Chai Rong to defend against Khitan.

  Yang Yanlang, inspector of the Song Dynasty, sent school Wei Yuangui to garrison Jiakou Village, and built hidden piles in the water to train soldiers. Jiakou Village was renamed Yuanjiakou after that.

  In the story of Yang Jiajiang, Xiyingpan, where Yang Liulang stationed troops, is not far to the west of Yuanjiakou.

  This kind of battleground, as long as the brain is not confused, how could it be possible not to send troops to garrison it?

Li Zicheng shook his head and said, "Yuankou Pass is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the waterway is convenient. It is not far or near. It is probably a place where the puppet army hoards food and grass. If you take cavalry to attack, even if you can take Bazhou, you will not be able to take Yuanjiakou." .”

   "To win in danger, you have to try." Zhang Nai said.

Li Zicheng had no other solution, so he had to say: "If you want to go, you can take two thousand horses. If you have too many horses, you will easily expose your whereabouts. If you can capture Yuankou Pass and burn all the food there, you will have won half of the battle." .”

   Afraid of being discovered by the Datong navy in Sanjiaodian, Zhang Nai led two thousand cavalry and retreated to the vicinity of Yangcun before crossing the Feng River westward.

  Zhang Nai supplied food and grass in Dong'an County, and then crossed the Hun River to Yongqing.

  Yongqing also belongs to Li Zicheng's territory. After a little supply, he went south to Xin'an Town. He planned to cross the Huitong River quietly at night, and then rushed to Yuanjiakou by surprise.

   "Woooooooooooo!"

  Not far from Xin'an Town, Zhang Nai's face turned ugly. He collided with the Datong Dragoons, and the Dragoons directly blew their warning horns.

   "Eat it!"

   Zhang Nai gave an order and rushed forward with the Dashun cavalry. He has two thousand cavalry under his command, but the dragoons in front of him only have a few dozen cavalry.

  The dragoons turned around and ran, unwilling to meet the enemy at all, and blowing their horns while running.

   After chasing two miles to the south, the dragoons suddenly increased.

  In order to protect the army rations, Fei Ruhe left a dragoon here, which would be sent out every day to investigate the enemy's situation.

  The general who commanded the cavalry was Jiang Yu, who surrendered first to Li Zicheng and then to Dorgon. During the Battle of Henan, he took his family cavalry and voluntarily surrendered to the Datong Army. In order to cover the Datong Army, he forced Wu Sangui's cavalry to charge, and even his own brother was killed on the spot.

  Now, Jiang Yu is already the commander of the cavalry, shouldering the important task of protecting the army rations.

  Zhang Nai blew the order to signal the whole army to stop the pursuit.

  Jiang Yu took the initiative to ride forward, and shouted with a smile: "Which old man is on the other side? Why don't you submit to my Datong court?"

  The distance is too far, Zhang Nai can't hear clearly.

  At this moment, these Datong dragoons only gathered more than 800 cavalry, but they actively approached 2000 Dashun cavalry.

   "Withdraw to Yongqing!"

  Zhang Nai clearly had the advantage in troops, but he directly ordered to retreat.

  Because the Datong Dragoons kept blowing their horns, who knows how many are nearby.

  The two sides chased and fled, Zhang Nai retreated into Yongqing City smoothly, and Jiang Yan had to rest and go back to Bazhou.

   There is still a confrontation in Tianjin.

  Zhang Nai returned to the Dingzigu camp, and said with a gloomy face, "Your Majesty, the boy has not completed the military order. Just after passing through Xin'an Town, he encountered pseudo cavalry. Bazhou and Yuanjiakou must be heavily guarded."

"It's reasonable, I don't blame you," Li Zicheng frowned, "I received Liu Zongmin's report in the morning, and he led people to attack Xin'an and failed. The Puppet Tong's defense line in Hebei is very particular. A few days ago, some scholars said, The front line of defense is the Great Wall of Water in the Song Dynasty."

   "Water Great Wall?" Zhang Nai heard it for the first time.

  Li Zicheng nodded and said, "It's the Water Great Wall, which is used to defend Khitan."

  The so-called Great Wall of Water is to dig river embankments and divert river water to connect Hebei swamps into a line. They also set up hidden stakes in the water to block the passage of ships, preventing the Khitan army from going south.

  When the Manchu Qing withdrew to Liaodong, Zhao Han did not send cavalry to attack and seize Beijing, because Beijing was not easy to defend.

  The Hebei defense line of the Datong Army today roughly coincides with the Water Great Wall of the Northern Song Dynasty. It's just that some terrain has changed, swamps have become farmland, rivers and lakes, and some rivers have fully formed.

  Basically, along the rivers everywhere, garrison troops at critical positions for defense.

  If Li Zicheng wanted to send his army southward, he had to fight hard one by one, and he had to pay a price for wherever he went. Or, like now, join forces with the Eight Banners of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties to annihilate the main force of the Datong Army!

  The confrontation continued for a month and a half, Li Zicheng tried all kinds of temptations, even pretended to be defeated, but Fei Ruhe didn't order to pursue him.

  Why do you want to chase?

  In Fei Ruhe's eyes, the battlefield situation is very clear.

  The enemy has many soldiers, but your own soldiers are few. But the enemy's food road is longer and has to be transported from Shanxi and Liaodong. And I am backed by two big rivers, and I can use ships to transport military rations at any time, and the consumption on the way of transporting rations is far less than that of the enemy.

   Then consume it slowly, whoever can't hold on to the military rations will definitely show his flaws first.

  Anyway, I have a lake in the north, a canal in the south, and a small river in the east. If the enemy wants to die, he crosses the river and fights. How comfortable it is to hit halfway every time.

   "Captain, there is a change in the Tartars!"

  Fei Ruhe said: "Raise the hot air balloon to observe the enemy's situation."

  A hot air balloon slowly lifted into the sky, pulled by a rope, and floated over the battlefield.

  Each hot air balloon can last up to 25 minutes. Several hot air balloons come in rotation, one is about to fall, and the other will rise, as long as the fuel is enough, it can last a whole day.

   "It's that kind of ascension ball again, I don't know how it flew up." Hauge rode his horse and looked up at the sky ahead.

   After confronting for so many days, the hot air balloon has been launched many times.

  Although it is only used to observe the battlefield, every time it takes off, it will bring a morale blow to the enemy. Some Dashun and Manchu soldiers felt that the thing was a god, and the Datong Emperor must have been blessed by the gods.

  After more than 20 minutes, the first hot air balloon landed, and the observer came to report: "Captain, the Tartars have returned to the south again, and they seem to want to confront our army across the river."

   "Running around, they don't feel tired." Fei Ruhe laughed.

  The Manchu Qing army returned to the original camping point. In order to prevent themselves from being made dumplings, they had to send thousands of cavalry to scout south and west for more than ten miles.

  Haoge is also helpless, if he doesn't come back, let alone a war, he won't even be able to see the face of the Datong Army.

   Only when you come back, you may be able to attack Li Zicheng on both sides.

  Besieging the city and fighting for aid, for this kind of sake, it is already a complete failure.

   Datong reinforcements came, but they were not in a hurry at all. They camped seven or eight miles away from Tianjin, and there was no intention of rescue at all. Because there is no need to rescue, Tianjin is not in danger at all, this city is too difficult to fight.

  Since the day when the Datong navy took control of Sanjiadiandian, Li Zicheng and Haoge have fallen into a passive situation, and all the favorable terrain has been occupied by the Datong army. They didn't even dare to take the initiative to attack, and intercepted Fei Ruhe's reinforcements halfway, that was their only chance to win.

  On both sides of the canal, shelling continued every day, and sentry cavalry ran back and forth every day.

   Both sides are guarding against the enemy crossing the river, and they are always planning to send a small group of troops to cross the river for a sneak attack.

   Another half a month has passed.

Man Dahai said to Haoge: "Let's withdraw the troops. If Tianjin can't be defeated, then Fei Ruhe belongs to the tortoise. The more the camp is built, the stronger it will be, and the more ditches and earth walls will be dug. If this continues, even if we can cross the river safely, Attacking a camp is the same as attacking a fortress. If it continues to drag on, the rainy season in western Liaoning will come, and it will be more difficult to transport the army food, and it will definitely be defeated due to lack of food."

   "It costs so much money and food, this time it's just a waste of time?" Hauge was very unwilling.

  Man Dahai asked back: "Otherwise, what else can you do? Can you defeat Tianjin City, or destroy the Nanmanzi on the other side of the river?"

  Haug said: "Do you want to attack Jinghai County first?"

  Man Dahai asked: "How much do you divide to fight? If you divide too little, you won't be able to fight. If you divide too much, there are few soldiers here, so Fei Ruhe will definitely attack."

  Haug said: "Set up many empty battalions, divide the troops quietly and leave, at least you can deceive the opponent for several days."

  Man Dahai said: "Nanmanzi has a flying celestial sphere. Standing in the sky and looking through a binoculars, can you see that you are all empty camps? Even if you can't tell, can you guarantee to capture Jinghai County in a few days?"

  Fei Ruhe's use of soldiers is quite like Xu Da's.

  At that time, Wang Baobao had 100,000 soldiers and was stationed in Taiyuan. Xu Da captured two strongholds and was busy building camps all the time. There was no sign of a decisive battle at all.

   It has always been a waste of time and rations, which made Wang Baobao unable to sit still.

  Wang Baobao then pretended to go to Dadu to lure Xu Da to send troops to rescue him, intending to fight Xu Da halfway. As a result, Xu Da did not go to rescue Dadu at all, but went to attack Taiyuan where Wang Baobao had just left.

  Wang Baobao's siege and aid became Xu Da's siege and aid.

  Wang Baobao hurried back with his troops, wanting to fight Xu Da decisively. Xu Da didn't move again, and devoted himself to strengthening the camp.

  Wang Baobao was very arrogant and impetuous, wanting to fight but not being able to win, so he let down his vigilance because of this, thinking that Xu Da would still stay in the camp all the time.

  Xu Da moved and sent troops to attack at night. Wang Baobao's tens of thousands of troops were wiped out overnight.

   As for the timing, Fei Ruhe is still hard to say, but his patience is definitely comparable to Xu Da. Do you want to fight? Hey, if I don't move, I won't move, I'm sick of you!

  Fei Ruhe didn't move, but the Datong Army in Henan moved, and the direction of the troops was like a broken bamboo!

  (end of this chapter)