Chapter 201 Xuanzhen Zhang Cheng, you can train more elite soldiers
In the Forbidden City in Beijing, in the East Nuan Pavilion of the Qianqing Palace, Emperor Chongzhen was discussing with his cabinet minister Yang Sichang how to train more elite soldiers.
Just listen to Yang Sichang continue to say: "Nowadays, our officers and soldiers in the Ming Dynasty are not small, but in fact they are not good. Since the slaves joined the invaders, all the ministers and workers in the court have asked for more training as frontier soldiers.
I also think that the idea of military training is feasible, and we can allocate frontier soldiers from each town for training. For example, the three towns of Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi have a total of more than 178,800 soldiers. Each of the three towns' total soldiers can be trained with 10,000 soldiers. The governor trained 30,000.
With 20,000 stationed in Huaihe and 10,000 stationed in Yanghe, we can ensure that Xuanda is not lost by coordinating the east and west. The rest will be appointed as town supervisors and divided into training at the governor level and below. In the three towns of Xuanda alone, tens of thousands of elite soldiers can be obtained."
Emperor Chongzhen was deeply satisfied with Yang Sichang's rapid response. He said: "Not only the three towns of Xuanda must train troops and horses, but also the border towns of Liaodong, Jizhen, Yansui, Ningxia, and Guyuan must train more elite troops.
I will entrust Yang Qing to take charge of the training of troops. When the slaves retreat, we will start immediately, especially the Xuanzanzhen Zhangcheng, so that they can train more elite troops and don't have to stick to regulations."
Yang Sichang quickly knelt down to thank him. He was deeply grateful to the emperor for his trust and love.
However, Yang Sichang knew very well the principle of "enough food and then enough soldiers". If you want to train good soldiers, you must first eat enough. To eat enough, you need food and money, which will increase taxes and increase the burden on the people of the world. , but Yang Sichang was sensible enough not to mention this issue at this time.
Emperor Chongzhen then asked about the situation of Sun Chuanting, Liu Yuliang, Chen Xinjia and other troops rescuing Shandong.
Yang Sichang respectfully replied: "After Sun Chuanting and Chen Xinjia received the order, they led King Qin's army to Shandong on a starry and night journey. Liu Yuliang will also raise troops from Tianjin to rush to Shandong."
Emperor Chongzhen heard that Liu Yuliang had not yet raised his troops, and he said "hum" with a cold face.
The monarch and his ministers chatted some more about court affairs, and Yang Sichang withdrew.
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After Sun Chuanting arrived in Dacheng County, he ordered the army to temporarily station in Dacheng to wait for Liu Yuliang's arrival.
Since he led troops into the defense, there were always soldiers under each general's command fleeing. Although the generals suppressed them vigorously and even beheaded a number of deserters, the morale of the army was finally at ease.
However, the generals in the towns were still fearful and timid towards the captive cavalry, and were unwilling to fight with them. When Sun Chuanting led the army to Baoding, he discovered that Guan Ning and Xuanda's generals were generally afraid of the captive cavalry.
After setting up camp in Dacheng County, he informed the imperial court and Emperor Chongzhen about the battle with the captive cavalry. The memorial mentioned this situation, and he said it very directly:
"...the soldiers in each town are frightened by the wind and cannot be driven to fight. Those who talk about fighting are either ignorant or deceitful..."
"...About the military situation in various places, the enemy in the north has no color at all, and he is able to drive him to fight..."
Moreover, Sun Chuanting also believed that the idea of relying on large numbers to defeat the Qing army was unrealistic:
"Even if the increase is tenfold immediately, the reserve is still shrinking. Those who say that the army is outnumbered are just talking about it."
The memorial was submitted to the imperial court. After reading it, Emperor Chongzhen specifically instructed the cabinet and the Ministry of War to not let Sun Chuanting fight in vain and not to make the same mistake as the giant deer.
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On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, Sun Chuanting could not wait for Liu Yuliang, so he led his troops south towards Cangzhou, followed by Chen Xinjia's army.
On the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, Liu Yuliang, the chief minister of the cabinet who was supervising the armies, led his troops to Dacheng. When he heard that Sun Chuanting and Chen Xinjia had marched into Cangzhou, he hurriedly pursued them.
Because he felt that his march was too slow and he was afraid that Sun Chuanting and others would join him, he went to the imperial court to impeach Sun Chuanting, saying that he was "dodging in vain, without any control, and shouldering a heavy responsibility." He also said that he had been urging Sun Chuanting to send troops, but Sun Chuanting was afraid of the strong power of his slaves.
, timid and unable to advance.
Fortunately, Sun Chuan Shu defended himself in court, and Yang Sichang, Chen Xinjia and others testified, so Emperor Chongzhen did not believe it.
On the same day, the imperial decree was sent to Xingji County, and Sun Chuanting was appointed governor of Baoding, responsible for various military affairs in Baoding, Shandong, Hebei and other places.
On the 21st of the first lunar month, Sun Chuanting, Liu Yuliang, and Chen Xinjia finally gathered their troops in Cangzhou. However, all the generals were afraid of the Qing army's captive cavalry and were unwilling to continue moving forward. The army camped from Cangzhou toward Yanshan County and Banbidian.
The army of more than 100,000 people chose a suitable place to camp, and the camp was dozens of miles away. The view was extremely shocking. The Ming Dynasty had not seen such a spectacular scene for a long time.
Sun Chuanting's troops were further forward and were grouped together in the north of Yanshan County. Chen Xinjia's troops were all gathered in the wilderness east of Banbidian. Only Liu Yuliang did not dare to move forward and led the army to camp south of Cangzhou City.
Sun Chuanting, Liu Yuliang, Chen Xinjia and the commanders of the various towns held discussions for days, but they failed to come up with a specific plan to invade Shandong, and the army stalled.
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Sun Chuanting's army was stationed in Cangzhou and Yanshan for several days. During this period, the Qing army retreated from Shandong through ambushes and night attacks, and occasionally achieved small victories.
He knew that all the generals in the towns were average and fearful of the captives and cavalry. Now, he could only use the slaves' arrogance to rely on ambushes and night attacks to accumulate small victories to boost the morale of the soldiers in each town.
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After a series of small victories, more than 70 heads of the Qing army were captured in total. The soldiers in each town lost their fear of the Tartars, and then they received military reports that the Qing army group was returning from the northeast of Shandong.
On the 28th of the first lunar month, a group of more than 20,000 Qing soldiers returned from northeastern Shandong. Tens of thousands of Shandong civilians were captured, and more than 100 carts were escorted out of Shandong by the Qing army.
Sun Chuanting had a premonition that the Qing army's looting in Shandong was coming to an end and was about to return north. He advocated setting up ambushes along the way. However, Liu Yuliang proposed that most of the Qing army would go north again and should return to protect the capital. It was not appropriate to waste the Qing army here.
military strength.
Everyone had different opinions and could not reach an agreement. During this period, Sun Chuanting and Chen Xinjia jointly ambushed the Qing army for a while, but did not gain much. The army had to follow the Qing army and look for opportunities to fight again.
On the 29th of the first lunar month, Sun Chuanting sent out generals such as Yang Guozhu, He Renlong, and guerrilla Zhang Cheng to attack the Qing army at night in Dacheng, beheading fifty-seven people.
On the first day of February, it was reported that the front of the Qing army was rushing to Tongzhou. Sun Chuanting wanted to leave fire troops to set up defenses along the way to hinder the Qing army. He first sent his elite cavalry to rush to the Qing army to block and set up an ambush. However, Inspector Liu Yuliang was
If he refused, Sun Chuanting and Chen Xinjia went together.
On the second day of February, an ambush was finally launched against the Qing army in Xin'an Town, Yongqing County. Zhang Cheng and Cao Bianjiao even broke into the Qing army's formation, but the Qing army stationed in Tongzhou came to respond. Zhang Cheng and others
He had no choice but to retreat.
After the war, Liu Yuliang's troops retreated to Tianjin again, huddled in the city and did not dare to leave lightly. Sun Chuanting and Chen Xinjia had no choice but to lead their troops to Wuqing County to garrison.
On the fifth day of February, Abatai led 20,000 Qing troops and escorted tens of thousands of Shandong plundered people and more than a hundred carts of property. They arrived in Tongzhou safely, and the Ming army was unable to attack.
On February 11th, General Yang Wu of the Qing Army, Yue Tuo, led Du Du and other Qing generals, and led most of the Qing army to escort more than 100,000 Shandong people and hundreds of carts of property withdrew from Shandong and camped in Xianghe.
On February 15, generals Dorgon and Hauge were ordered to lead all the troops to withdraw from Shandong, escort the captured Ming people and looted goods back to the north of Miao County to camp.