Just as the Merchant Army welcomed the second batch of fleets to the shore, in the Western Army's formation, Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo almost had a quarrel.
It turned out that after Li Dingguo led his army back to the position, he was still worried about his failure because of his failure, so he scolded Sun Kewang for a few words. He said that he should let the frontal attack continue for a while, so that the merchant army would be flawless.
Taking into account the defense line on the left, his roundabout attack will be successful, and now he may be able to break through the Merchant Army's defense line.
Sun Kewang was also very angry. After listening to Li Dingguo's words, he became even more angry. Of course, he would not admit that he had not done a good job, so he immediately refuted Li Dingguo. He ran away just now and did not help him supervise the battle from the front, forcing the soldiers to attack.
As a result, the troops were dispersed, and it was difficult for him to fight alone. Otherwise, he would have been able to break through the Merchant Army's defense line from the front.
Li Dingguo originally just made a few grumbling words, but Sun Kewang made strong arguments and blamed all the faults for the unfavorable attack in the middle on himself. Naturally, he felt dissatisfied, so he started arguing with Sun Kewang. As a result, the two of them each had different opinions.
They refused to give in to each other, and the words became more and more intense, and they almost started fighting.
In fact, if the two people continued to quarrel, they would have to fight. The reason why the two did not fight was because the series of gunshots were more violent and shocking than the previous volley of gunfire, and it was also a huge roar.
It was the Merchant Army's artillery that opened fire.
The artillery of the three regiments were all loaded on the first few ships to dock. Although the heavy artillery was inconvenient to transport, the medium and light artillery was still very convenient. One soldier could carry the Tiger Crouching Cannon, and the No. 3 Franco machine gun only needed
It can be lifted by two people. Therefore, the first to be carried off the ship were six No. 3 Folan cannons and six Crouching Tiger cannons.
Cheng Jin didn't care about waiting for other artillery, and first deployed the twelve cannons in the formation. The distance of two hundred paces and five right was still a bit far for the tiger cannon. But it happened to be at the No. 3 Buddha.
The Lang machine gun was within the firing range, but it was a solid bullet, and it was a little far away to fire shotshells. Therefore, in order to achieve the best strike effect, Cheng Jin gave the order to push the artillery through the trench and advance forward.
After forty or fifty steps, with the protection of the musketeers anyway, we were not afraid of the Western Army attacking, and then we started loading the ammunition and igniting it.
In the Western Army, Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo were arguing, so no one noticed the merchant army's artillery approaching.
"Boom-boom-boom-boom-"
After the distance was shortened, not only the No. 3 Franco machine gun could fire shotgun shells, but even the Tiger Crouching Cannon could fire solid shells. Therefore, after the roar of the artillery, the Western Army was immediately in a state of chaos.
’s death, the whole team was in chaos.
At this time, Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo were also shocked. They did not expect that the Ming army had even brought artillery, so they stopped arguing and hurriedly gathered their Long troops. But at this time, the troops became chaotic. After a while,
The dragons can be accommodated there, and the merchant army will not give them this opportunity.
The artillery continued to bombard the Western Army with shotgun shells and solid bullets hitting the heads of the Western Army. It only caused countless casualties and screams to the sky. However, other Western Army dared to stay here any longer and turned around and ran away.
Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo were also frightened by the beatings of the merchant army, and they did not dare to hold on anymore. They immediately followed the defeated army, retreated together, and fled back to Hanyangfu City to defend themselves.
At this time, Cheng Jin ordered the pursuit. However, he did not pursue it very far. He just confirmed that the Western Army had really retreated, so he withdrew his troops and returned to the river bank to continue the defense.
At this time, all the troops of the three regiments had reached the south bank of the Han River. Cheng Jin rearranged the defensive line and, in accordance with Shang Yi's order, sent a musket battalion and two pike companies to seize Caidian Town.
It serves as the foothold of the Merchant Army on the south bank of the Han River.
At dusk, the ships began to sail away one after another. Most of the merchant army's troops and food and supplies had crossed the Han River. Shang Yi also arrived at the south bank of the Han River with the ship, leaving only Luo Yuanbin and some troops to stay.
On the north bank of the Han River, they are waiting to continue crossing the river tomorrow. Caidian Town has already been successfully captured by Chenggang. The merchant army has successively transferred supplies to Caixun Town.
Fortunately, Caidian Town is right on the edge of the Han River, only two or three miles away from the place where the Merchant Army crossed the river. Therefore, not long after the sky darkened, the Merchant Army's cross-river troops settled in Caidian Town.
Caixun Town was originally a small town close to Hanyang Prefecture. Although it was not large in scale, it was close to the Han River, so there were many merchants coming and going, and it was also very prosperous. However, at this time, it was empty, and most of the houses were empty.
It was completely looted, and the entire town was almost completely ruined. The situation was quite similar to that of Xiaogan, Yingcheng, and Yunmeng counties that the merchant army captured on the north bank of the Han River.
The place captured by Zhang Xianzhong was completely different from the place captured by Li Zicheng, because by this time, Li Zicheng began to have the ambition to dominate the world. Not only did he begin to defend the captured place, but he also paid more attention to winning over the people and maintaining local stability, so his military discipline was quite good.
Yan, as long as there is no serious resistance, he will no longer kill innocent people indiscriminately. For example, in Guangzhou, Xinyang, Suizhou, De'an Prefecture and other places attacked by Li Zicheng, the residents, houses, countryside, etc. have been maintained relatively well, basically
No damage was suffered.
However, Zhang Xianzhong still behaves like a rogue bandit. He does not intend to defend the places he has captured. He has stationed troops in a few places such as Hanyang and Wuchang, but only temporarily. For those places where he has not stationed troops at all, he is completely plundering and massacring cities.
Wealth is commonplace. Therefore, the places occupied by Zhang Xianzhong were basically full of dozens of corpses, and the property, food, and even the male and female population were all plundered and searched.
Therefore, when Shang Yi saw the state of Caidian Town, and then thought about the situation in Xiaogan, Yingcheng, and Yunmeng counties, he felt quite angry. He still had some respect for Li Zicheng and Shang Yi. No matter how you say it,
Li Zicheng can be regarded as a hero. Zhang Xianzhong can only be regarded as a troubled hero at best, and Shang Yi basically has no good impression of him.
Judging from historical records, the evaluation of Zhang Xianzhong is best described as "killing people like hemp". Some people even say that Zhang Xianzhong is the reincarnation of the Heavenly Killer. And there are many historical records.
Judging from the records, Zhang Xianzhong regarded killing as a performance art. There are different opinions on the number of people Zhang Xianzhong killed. Many people in later generations have made statistics, but they range from one million to ten million.
In the history of the Ming Dynasty, it was even said that 600 million people were killed. In fact, the population of China at that time was only about 150 million. However, killing 500,000 and 5 million people is just a numerical difference, and their nature is the same. It is by no means equivalent to killing one person.
A crime of one million is less serious than killing ten million.
Although the historical records are often exaggerated, and in some places, Zhang Xianzhong still took the blame for the atrocities committed by the Manchus after they entered the customs. Compared with Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong was undoubtedly much more bloodthirsty and cruel.
Therefore, for Li Zicheng, Shang Yi might let him go and try to keep his hands where he could, but if there was a chance to kill Zhang Xianzhong, Shang Yi would never let him go.
At this time, Cheng Jin, Cheng Gang and Zhao Yingjie also came to see Shang Yi and reported to him the results of the battle on the river bank during the day. In the battle during the day, the merchant army only killed fourteen soldiers, and another thirty-one suffered injuries.
He was slightly injured, but 2,757 Westerners were killed and 246 captured. It was considered a great victory.
However, when Cheng Jin reported the entire war process to Shang Yi, Shang Yi was still a little surprised. He didn't expect that the Western Army would actually use such a tactic of attacking from the east to the west, and it almost succeeded in the end. If Cheng Jin hadn't been greedy for credit,
They advanced rashly and retained a certain reserve force, and the Western Army was too weak in combat, so the outcome of this battle was still difficult to predict. Although the position would not be lost, at least it would have to go through a hard battle.
The loss of men and horses will definitely increase a lot.
Shang Yi also nodded and said: "Cheng Jin, you did a good job, but you must pay attention next time. You are commanding a complete battlefield, not a certain position. It doesn't matter if you make a mistake, but you must remember it.
Learn this lesson and don’t make the same mistake next time.”
Cheng Jin nodded and said: "Don't worry, sir, I will definitely remember it."
Shang Yi smiled slightly and said: "But who came up with this tactic? Are there any such generals in the Western Army?" His heart moved and he suddenly asked: "Cheng Jin, have you found out clearly about the traitor army?
Who is the general?"
Cheng Jin said: "We asked the prisoners and found out that the leaders of the rebel army are Zhang Xianzhong's two adopted sons, named Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo."
Shang Yi laughed and said: "It turns out that it is Li Dingguo, and he is the only one who can come up with this method."
Li Dingguo is another famous figure in history. After the Qing army entered the Pass, many heroes emerged in the Han nationality's fight against the Qing army. However, most of them were known for their loyalty, and they were not truly famous generals.
Not too many, strictly speaking, only Li Dingguo. Including Zheng Chenggong at the end of the stage. Although he can be called a national hero, he is still far from a famous general.
In the late Southern Ming Dynasty, Li Dingguo and Zheng Chenggong were regarded as the twin pillars of the sky; one in the west and the other in the east, supporting the Nanming regime for twenty years. In terms of military exploits, Zheng Chenggong mainly focused on naval battles. Among all the generals in the late Ming Dynasty, only
Li Dingguo was able to command the army, organize large-scale mobile warfare and annihilation wars, and dared to fight the Eight Banners powerful forces. Li Dingguo once defeated famous Qing kings twice, which shocked the world and made the Qing government ready to abandon seven provinces in the southwest. If the traitor hadn't leaked the secret, Wu Sangui would have even been killed.
The entire army was destroyed. But now Li Dingguo is far from famous, he is just a general under Zhang Xianzhong.
Cheng Jin couldn't help but be very surprised and said: "My dear, how can you conclude that it was Li Dingguo and not Sun Kewang who came up with the side attack plan?"
Shang Yi smiled and said: "This is the only place where Zhang Xianzhong is better than Li Zicheng, because he has Li Dingguo under him."