Xuanhua is the most important military town among the nine important towns in the Ming Dynasty. Juyongguan and Zijingguan here are the throats of Beijing and North China. Generally speaking, Xuanhua and Datong are mutually exclusive and exist as one body. The Ming Dynasty established separate facilities in Xuanhua and Datong. A General Military Mansion was established, and the Xuanda Governor-General's Mansion, which basically existed for a long time, was also established.
How important is Xuanda? Datong is Yunzhong County, and the so-called Sixteen Youyun Prefectures are the Xuanda Governor-General District of the Ming Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, because there were no Sixteen Youyun Prefectures, the grassland regime was frequently penetrated into the hinterland. In the Ming Dynasty, because there were Youyun Sixteen states, the hinterland has not been affected by war for more than two hundred years.
Li Zicheng's Northern Expedition ended up taking the Great Wall route. The reason why he took this route to break into the camp was that it was the fastest way to advance troops. As long as a few passes were broken, the rest of the road was very easy to travel.
After leaving Datong City, the Chuang camp was divided again. Liu Zongmin led the team to attack Zijingguan, and Li Zicheng personally led the team to attack Juyongguan. At this point, the three armies of the Chuang army were at Guguan, Zijingguan, and Juyongguan. There is a sign of aspiration to conquer the world and change the world.
The three divisions had faced off against an army of 300,000 people, and their strength was a little too stretched. In other words, there were border gates and cities in these places, otherwise they would have been able to swamp these 30,000 people just by relying on their own strength.
Liu Yuanbin was based in Xuanhua City and was responsible for the overall command of the Zijing Pass, Juyong Pass, Gu Pass and other operations against the Chuang camp. When he first came into contact with the Chuang camp, he was shocked by the overwhelming number of troops on the other side.
Before joining the New Army, he had fought against the bandits, but at that time, the bandits were generally not too concentrated. It was not like hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the small Taihang aperture like now, forcing them to squeeze in. .
At the same time, due to the control of the Shanxi Valley, Chuangying received a large amount of material supplements, and their military appearance and equipment were greatly improved. The current army of nearly 400,000 people has even achieved half-mules and horses. Looking from a distance, their formation Not much worse than the Qing army.
"Commander-in-Chief, with the joint investigation of Jin Yiwei and our investigators, we have a rough understanding of the enemy situation in the three passes. The one who went to Gu Pass was the intruder Hao Yaoqi. He claimed that he had 150,000 troops, but in reality, his troops There are at most 80,000. The enemy general at Zijingguan is Liu Zongmin and his troops should have more than 100,000. The ones who came to Juyongguan are the intruders themselves, with as many as 200,000." The staff officer informed Liu Yuanbin of the latest information in the battle command room. Enemy situation.
Judging from the current investigation situation, the three groups of troops who invaded the army were not evenly distributed. The group coming to Juyongguan should be the main force. They were not evenly distributed, but here one division guarded one pass, except for Juyongguan. Except for Guan's first division, which may have slightly stronger combat power, the rest of the arrangement looks like it is evenly distributing power.
The staff team formally notified Liu Yuanbin of the news, and actually asked Liu Yuanbin to make a decision to see whether the defensive strength of these three levels should be adjusted according to the actual enemy situation.
"What is your staff group's battle plan?"
"The commander-in-chief and the staff group have two sets of plans. The first plan is to leave only one infantry brigade, one cavalry regiment, and one artillery regiment in Guguan Pass, and to leave two infantry brigades and one artillery regiment in Zijin Pass, and all the remaining personnel will Concentrate on the front line of Juyongguan to resist the main force of the invading army. The staff committee believes that this plan is the safest." Chief of Staff Xiang Chengrong explained their first plan to Liu Yuanbin! This is also their main plan, if the emperor did not stipulate that the staff group would When planning a combat plan, there must be alternatives with relatively different paths, so they will not prepare any second plan.
Liu Yuanbin was not very satisfied after hearing the first plan formulated by the staff group. Logically speaking, this plan was the best plan based on the priority of the incoming enemy, but he always felt that this plan was a bit too rigid, so he said:
"Tell me about your second plan! I always feel that your first plan is too war-for-war and conservative about the general."
"Our second plan is to keep the current basic layout unchanged and send a brigade of infantry and a regiment of cavalry from the direction of Zijingguan to Guguan. The purpose is to rely on the existing forces to open up the situation from the direction of Guguan."
After Liu Yuanbin listened to the second plan reported by the chief of staff, he kept looking at the operational map in the command room and pacing back and forth. He understood that the plan given by the staff group still left some room, and he really wanted to open the situation from Guguan first, and then start with one division.
Adding a brigade and a regiment may not be successful. The best situation is to send another main battle brigade and a cavalry regiment from the direction of Juyongguan. In this way, there will be more than 20,000 horses and more than 3,000 cavalry in the direction of Guyongguan. If done properly,
, the certainty of defeating Hao Yaoqi's troops first is quite high.
However, doing so would make the Juyongguan defense line too strategically risky. With more than 8,000 people, it would be too difficult to resist the main force of more than 200,000 invading troops.
Juyongguan is really too important. Once it is lost, the intruders can attack the capital in an instant. But Liu Yuanbin is really excited about the battle plan to defeat the enemy as soon as possible. Liu Yuanbin, who is full of contradictions in his heart, insists on taking command.
I walked around the room late into the night.
"Order the cavalry regiment of the third division and the first brigade to immediately go to the Guanguan defense area of the fourth division, and order the cavalry assault regiment to go to the Guanguan defense area of the fourth division. They will fully assist the investigators and members of the Jinyiwei of the fourth division and try every means to find out.
Please give me a detailed report on the enemy's combat strength from the Guguan direction as soon as possible."
Let them come in any way, I will only go all the way, concentrate the superior forces, and defeat the weakest part of the enemy's army first. This is the tactical principle that Zhu Youjian has mentioned many times in his lectures in the general school hall. In order to deepen this tactical principle
In the minds of the generals of the New Army, Zhu Youjian even cited the starting point of the Ming and Qing wars, the Battle of Saarhu, as the most typical example of the war.
That's why Liu Yuanbin became very excited when he heard the second plan of the staff group. He believed that evenly distributing troops like now violated the taboo of military strategists. Even the first plan given by the staff group was only more than
It is just a pudding based on an even distribution of troops, and does not use a positive attitude to solve the war situation.
Easier said than done. When Zhu Youjian explained the tactical principles, he spoke clearly and logically, but when he was asked to make specific arrangements, he still adopted a conservative strategy of evenly distributing troops. It's not like he didn't know that if he concentrated 40,000 to 50,000 troops
, the possibility of defeating the intruders all the way is very high. But he is reluctant to let go of these bottles and jars in Beizhili. If he can prevent people from entering Beizhili, it is best not to let people in.
Save the land and lose the people, both the people and the land are lost, save the people and lose the land, and both the people and the land survive. Before traveling through time, he would have felt that this tactical concept was not problematic at all. But now, Zhu Youjian discovered that this concept was correct against the shifting forces.
, for a serious legal regime, by doing this he is playing tricks on the entire world! Land and people are tied together, how can it be possible to save people and lose land? The so-called saving people and losing land is just running away with their own capital.