Faced with the Qing army's continuous forcible crossing of the Yang River, the Qi army did not hold on for long. After using artillery and muskets to kill a large number of Qing troops, Niuhu ordered the troops to retreat to Fengshui River (today's Fenghe River in Huangdao District, Qingdao) that night.

) South Bank. Here, a simple defense line was built to block the Qing army.

Compared with the Yang River, the terrain of the Fengshui River appears to be more dangerous. Although the river originating from the Tiezhu Mountains has a length of less than seventy miles, the river has many bends and many tributaries, and the tributaries all have short sources and fast flows.

It was difficult for people and horses to pass. And the section of the river defended by the Qi army happened to be the gentlest and the water level was shallow.

Of course, the Qing army commander Tu Lai could also choose to detour through the northern mountainous area, pass through the shallow water in the upper reaches of the river, and then attack Lingshan Guard, and then pass through Rizhao County and retreat to Huaibei. However, in this case, the Qing army will inevitably

They had to make a detour of more than a hundred miles, and they had to walk on mountainous trails. Not to mention that there were not many supplies left, so they couldn't waste too much time. Even how to return through the mountainous areas for more than a thousand cavalry was also a problem.

Tu Lai now has a headache. When he first attacked, the journey was smooth, crossing the state and counties, and the momentum was overwhelming. How come it is so difficult to retreat back now? If there is regret medicine, Tu Lai will definitely try his best to get it.

The last one. If I had known this, when I attacked Denglai, I should have taken a step-by-step approach and stationed the army in the important area of ​​food and grass.

Now, the way back is cut off, and there are faint signs of instability in the morale of the army, especially those surrendered troops on both sides. Tu Lai coldly looked at the cowering surrendered troops in the front line, and could not help but feel a strong murderous intention in his heart.

"Go and urge them to cross the river immediately." Tu Lai ordered an Eight Banners leader: "If they continue to cower, the officers will be killed immediately!"

"Hey!" the Eight Banners leader responded loudly, and immediately galloped forward on his horse.

Lieutenant General Zhang Siyi watched the stern leader of the Eight Banners loudly announce Tu Lai's attack order, and his heart was full of bitterness. Although the black army on the other side of the river was small in number, only about two thousand, the opponent had seven or eight artillery pieces. Our side had seven or eight artillery pieces.

often

Before they even rushed to the river, they had to face intensive artillery bombardment. In previous battles, we had never encountered such a battle. Not to mention, the opponent also had a strict array of firecrackers, and the soldiers under his command had not even waded across the river.

Countless people were killed by volley fire from the other side.

However, he looked at the nearly three thousand Manchurian Eight Banners behind him, staring at them with murderous intent, especially the more than a thousand cavalry, with their swords and guns unsheathed, ready to charge at any time. If they didn't obey, if they charged, the three of them would be killed.

Most of the more than a thousand soldiers were probably driven into the river and drowned.

I thought that following Liu Zeqing, the uncle of Dongping, who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, he would be able to enjoy all the glory and prosperity, but unexpectedly, he was forced by the Eight Banners Army to attack Denglai northward. In the first ten days, their offensive was like a tide, and they had a favorable wind.

They followed the river to Jiaozhou, during which they also plundered a lot of money.

However, when the opponent counterattacked, he was cut off and his supply was cut off. He had to follow Tu Lai back in a hurry to open up the supply line. But the black army was too difficult to fight and couldn't get close at all.

, was repulsed by artillery and firecrackers. By the way, when did this firecracker become so powerful?

"The whole army attacks!" Zhang Siyi drew out his long sword, pointed towards the river bank, and loudly ordered: "In this battle, there will be no advance or retreat. Anyone who retreats without my order will be killed!"

Immediately, he led more than a hundred servants and drove the soldiers towards the Fengshui River bank again.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..." When the Qing army rushed to the river bank, which was still more than 200 meters away, the artillery of the black-clad army on the other side immediately began to roar, and projectiles were fired at high speed into the charging crowd of the Qing army.

, plowing out bloody passages, causing chaos in the formation.

Zhang Siyi led his servants behind the formation and chopped down several soldiers who had fled back, and shouted loudly for the soldiers to continue charging. However, he couldn't help but feel frightened as he looked at the bullets that kept hitting him.

As expected, when the troops rushed to the river bank, they were quickly defeated after being intensively fired by firecrackers from the other side.

Zhang Siyi came to Tulai and was about to defend himself when he saw the opponent suddenly raised his arm and slashed hard with a long knife. Before many surrendering generals could react, a huge head flew away.

Got up.

"Those who are passive and lazy in fighting will be killed!" Tu Lai stepped forward, grabbed Zhang Siyi's head as he rolled to the ground, and shouted sternly at the dozen or so surrendering generals in front of him: "This river must be crossed by force before noon today. Keling Mountain

Guards, return to Rizhao. Otherwise, we will all be trapped here and wait for death! The number of black-clothed thieves on the other side is only two thousand, which is less than 20% of our army. As long as we move forward with all our strength, we will be able to defeat this thieves.

military!"

When all the surrendering generals saw this, Nono did not dare to say anything.

Subsequently, Tu Lai gave an order, and the entire army marched along the river bank for several miles to cross the Fengshui River.

Niu Hu, the commander-in-chief of the Qi Marine Corps, also responded tit-for-tat. He dispersed seven marine companies along the river and deployed three rows of musket arrays. The artillery continuously bombarded the Qing army's assembled military formation, making the charge formation even more chaotic.

The muddy tidal flats and waist-deep river made the Qing army's march across the Fengshui River very slow. The muskets fired constantly from the shore, shooting the slow-moving human-shaped "targets" one by one into the river.

In the midst of it, the blood turned the originally clear river water into a deep red. The corpses of countless Qing soldiers floated downstream under the wash of the river water, and finally merged into the sea.

However, to Tu Lai's extreme disappointment, this huge army charge was ruthlessly smashed into pieces in the river under the ferocious firearms fire of the black-clad troops on the opposite bank. As many as 20% of the casualties were suffered by the entire army.

It collapsed immediately. The surrendering troops swarmed back uncontrollably, and the Eight Banners soldiers who rolled back the general's formation also retreated in defeat.

Seeing this situation, Tu Lai could only lead more than a thousand Eight Banners cavalry to gather the defeated army and temporarily stationed on a hillside. The morale of the army was lost and it might be difficult to fight again today. However, being blocked by the enemy in the Fengshui River meant that

Their own limited supplies will be consumed for another day. The danger of running out of food is imminent.

On the evening of August 8, after receiving the information from the Tu Lai, more than 4,000 people from Li Benshen's army who had urgently evacuated rushed to the Fengshui River to join the Tu Lai army.

Before noon on August 9, more than 8,000 troops from Liu Zeqing's army also rushed to the Fengshui River. At this point, the more than 20,000 troops of the Qing army that had attacked the Denglai area in the early stage had all retreated to the Fengshui River, preparing to counterattack the enemy's blockade and return to Huaibei.

Although the number of troops increased, it only made Tu Lai's worries more serious.

Because the army is out of food!

Li Benzhen and Liu Zeqing encountered firm resistance from the defenders in Gaomi and Jimo. They were so anxious that they found it difficult to conquer. They originally thought of leaving some people to monitor the city, and they would lead troops and horses to loot the place and get some supplies. However, they failed to get there.

The officials and defenders in the Lai area responded quickly. Before the Qing army attacked, they made certain efforts to fortify the walls and clear the country. As a result, the Qing army was surrounded by four fields and gained very little.

After receiving Tu Lai's order to withdraw, he immediately returned with his troops in a hurry, carrying very little food and grass. When they arrived at the foot of Jiaozhou City, they saw that the army led by Tu Lai was nowhere to be seen, and heard that the Eight Banners who were staying here were not there.

The ranger said that the retreat was cut off by a Denglai army, and the army was counterattacking. In a panic, they rushed to the Benling Mountain Guard one after another, discarding a lot of baggage and supplies along the way.

Therefore, although the army is gathered here now, and it appears to be huge on the surface, in fact several major generals seem a little panicked, and they can't help but worry about the safe retreat of the army.

Tu Lai was even more anxious about this. Boluo ordered him to lead a group of surrender troops to attack Denglai, which was obviously not good-hearted. The surrender army was newly attached soon, so the main force of the Eight Banners should be used to suppress it and be led to the south of the Yangtze River to mop up the weak areas of Nanming.

In areas of influence, morale will slowly be restored and loyalty will be fostered.

Now, he is supervising more than 20,000 surrendered troops with less than 3,000 Manchurian Eight Banner troops to attack the Denglai area where our Qing army was once defeated. If the war goes well, it will be fine. These surrendered troops can continue to plunder places.

, maintain it, they don’t

High morale. But if the war is unfavorable, it will be difficult to control these Ming Dynasty troops who have little moral integrity. What is even more frightening is that if Tu Lai is defeated because of this, Dorgon in Beijing will definitely use this to repair them.

The remnants of the two yellow flags.

After the death of Huang Taiji that year, the senior generals of the Two Yellow Banners, represented by Sony, Turai, Turge, Baiyintu, He Luohui, Tan Tai, and Leng Sengji, firmly supported Hauge and proclaimed himself emperor.

With the support of the two yellow flags, he also holds the Zhenglan flag. In terms of strength, he is on par with Dorgon, who is supported by the two white flags.

Gu Li

In addition, Prince Li Daishan, who held the two red flags, and Prince Zheng Jierhalang, who held the blue flag, also chose to support Hauge, which gave Hauge the absolute initiative.

However, Hauge's somewhat modest words caused the throne he had almost obtained to pass him by in an instant.

"How can I be worthy of this position if I have little fortune and little virtue?"

Damn it, do you need to show some humility when competing for the emperor?

If Sony and Obai hadn't stood up first and said something resounding, "If you don't establish the emperor's son, you would rather die and follow the emperor underground!".

It can be said that it was these words that were almost a threat of force that put tremendous pressure on everyone present. Otherwise, Dorgon would have climbed onto the throne of the emperor.

Later, the Qing Dynasty established Fulin, the ninth son of the emperor, as the emperor, and Dorgon also became the regent. Since then, Dorgon, relying on his status as regent, has continued to suppress the forces that had previously supported Hauge.

He Luohui, Tan Tai, and Leng Sengji also defected to Dorgon one after another, and actively reported and exposed other generals and courtiers of the Two Yellow Banners, which caused the internal disintegration of the Two Yellow Banners by Dorgon and greatly weakened their strength.

.

Dorgon made excuses for Sony to depose all titles and positions, and sent him to Shengjing to guard Zhaoling. As for Aobai, he was suppressed by Dorgon several times. Not only did his achievements were directly

Obliterated, even his life was almost lost

Saved. He followed Azig in thirteen battles in Dengzhou, Henan, Chengtian, De'an, Wuchang, Hubei and other places, severely damaging the Dashun Army. However, after returning to Beijing, he was implicated because Azig disobeyed orders and returned without an edict.

, not to mention that the reward was gone, he was demoted again and demoted.

Hauge was also demoted by Dorgon because of his defeat at Denglai last year, ordered to sequester his family and reflect, and was relieved of all military duties.

If he hadn't been thinking about the identity and achievements of the son of the "Five Founding Ministers" Fei Yingdong, Dorgon would have saved some "face" and not have to deal with Tulai for the time being.

So, if he was defeated by Denglai here, and even lost his troops and territory, and destroyed a large number of Eight Banner troops, it is conceivable that Dorgon would definitely not be lenient in punishing him.

However, fortunately, their army has a large number of people, more than ten times that of the black army on the other side of the river. Tomorrow morning, the army will attack all along the river. As long as they can break through a little, they will definitely be able to use their superior strength to defeat all the black army.

Surround and annihilate.

With this in mind, Tulai led his men to inspect the camp, and then ordered the Eight Banners to have a good night's rest, recharge their batteries, and command the army to defeat the enemy in one fell swoop tomorrow.

On the right side of the Eight Banners camp in Manchuria is the camp of more than 10,000 people under Liu Zeqing, the former Dongping Bo of the Ming Dynasty. In a large tent, brightly lit, Liu Zeqing's generals gathered here, each with a solemn expression.

Sitting on both sides, his eyes were looking straight at his general, Liu Zeqing.

"The guns and cannons of the black-clad army are sharp and cannot be defeated by our physical bodies. What's more, the river is more than ten feet wide, the current is fast, and the tidal flats on both sides are muddy. A forced charge is tantamount to committing suicide in front of the enemy's lines." Staff General.

Gao Zhongzhou said in a low voice with lingering fear: "Uncle Dongping, tomorrow morning, the plan depends on my troops to continue...

We continued to be the vanguard and opened the way for the army to charge. This would definitely cause the army to suffer heavy losses. I thought that thousands of our troops could hardly rush to the river. Instead, we lost 20% in an instant under the fierce artillery and musket fire of the opponent.

The deputy commander-in-chief Zhang Siyi was also executed by the Tu Lai Military Justice Department... We cannot fight this battle!"

Liu Zeqing listened expressionlessly, not commenting on what Gao Zhongzhou said, but he was constantly calculating in his heart. He vaguely knew that there was not much food and grass left in the army. Tomorrow, he would take his troops as the leader to forcefully cross the Fengshui River, and he was also a little worried.

Opinion. We are both surrendering the army. Why shouldn’t this Tu Lai let Li Benshen be the vanguard?

Could it be that because he surrendered too late, he was suppressed by a general officer under Gao Jie for no reason?

"Uncle Dongping, in the 15th year of Chongzhen's reign, Abatai entered the Pass and raided the border. Liu Yuanqing (Liu Zeqing's younger brother) died in his hands. When Boluo recruited us, he had already heard about it...So, they are still somewhat wary of us.
To be continued...