"What? Master Junmen ordered us to abandon Qingzhou? Are you telling the truth?" Zhou Shaohuan asked the messenger in front of him with an unbelievable expression on his face.
The messenger nodded and said: "Report to Commander Zhou, there is an order from the military sect. It is absolutely correct. Please act according to the order."
Zhou Shaohuan took the copy of the military order with Shang Yi's seal on it. It was indeed Shang Yi's order. So he couldn't help but smiled bitterly and said: "Okay, I understand. You go back and tell the army that I
Hui Ma will arrange the troops to evacuate Qingzhou."
The messenger paid another military salute to Zhou Shaohuan before turning and leaving. Zhou Shaohuan couldn't help but fell into deep thought. Why did Shang Yi give up Qingzhou on his own?
After Abatai's attack was frustrated on the first day, he did not resort to the first strong attack on the second day. Instead, he used the Ming Dynasty's surrendered troops as cannon fodder. On the one hand, it consumed the strength of the merchant army, and on the other hand, it also adapted to this situation.
A kind of remote command operation.
After two more days of attacking like this, although the Qing army lost nearly 4,000 troops, they were basically surrendered troops from the Ming Dynasty. The Qing army's own strength was not affected much, and Abatai gradually mastered
This method of commanding operations from a distance that was invisible to oneself, therefore, it was only on the third day that the official attack was launched on the merchant army's positions outside the city. At the same time, a diversionary attack was also launched in the north city, so that the merchant army had to divide its troops and garrison them.
Thanks to the previous experiences, the Qing army's attack went very smoothly this time. The coordination and connection between various arms and echelons were in place, and the attack was extremely fierce. Although the merchant army's resistance was also very tenacious,
But it could not withstand the Qing army's non-stop attacks, and the strength of both sides was also high.
The difference was too great, so after a day of fierce fighting, the merchant army's position outside Nancheng was finally broken through by the Qing army. Zhou Shaohuan had no choice but to give the order to abandon the position outside the city and return to the city to garrison. This battle
The merchant army lost nearly a thousand people in the battle, while the Qing army suffered losses of more than 2,500 people.
On the next day, the positions outside Beicheng were also abandoned, and all the merchant troops retreated into the city.
After capturing the position outside the city, Abatai continued to attack Qingzhou without stopping. He also transferred eight more Hongyi artillery pieces from Linqu County to concentrate firepower and bombard the city head to cover the Qing army.
Launch an attack on the city head.
After losing the position outside the city, although there is still a city wall to defend, compared with the positions outside the city, the artillery can only be deployed in a row on the city wall, unable to form superimposed firepower from far and near, while the Qing army can concentrate the artillery.
They came to attack a certain section of the city wall. Therefore, although the Merchant Army had an excellent number of artillery, it was still very passive. The Qing Army's concentrated firepower could often gain a lot of local advantages.
At the same time, after several days of fighting, the Qing army's infantry and artillery became more and more skilled in the coordination. Once the artillery opened a gap, they immediately concentrated their forces and attacked the gap. Fortunately, the merchant army's resistance was also very tenacious.
After the city wall was blown open, they used rifles, grenades and even hand-to-hand combat to firmly hold the city wall without giving the Qing army the slightest chance to win. However, it caused a large increase in its own casualties.
After another day of fierce fighting between the two sides, although the Qing army paid the price of nearly 3,000 casualties and failed to invade Qingzhou City, it successfully opened four or five gaps in the wall of Qingzhou City. The merchant army also did the same.
More than a thousand soldiers were killed.
So far in this battle, the Qing army has suffered losses of about 12,000, but a considerable part of them are surrendered troops of the Ming Dynasty, Han troops and retinues, and Baoyi also account for a lot. The real number of Eight Banners soldiers is
There were only more than 2,000 people. The loss of the merchant army was close to 3,000 people, and basically
They are all elite soldiers, and the consumption of ammunition and firearms has exceeded 70%. Zhou Shaohuan estimated that if the intensity of the fight continues, the artillery shells and bullets can last for two battles, while the grenades and thunderbolt rockets will only be enough at most.
Used for fighting another battle.
This result was completely different from what Zhou Shaohuan had thought before the war. Only then did he fully understand that he was still far away from becoming a famous general. And now the reinforcements at Muling Pass were also blocked by the Qing army and could not come to support them.
So whether Qingzhou City can be defended or not, to be honest, even Zhou Shaohuan himself has no idea.
That night, Zhou Shaohuan received an order from Shang Yi and learned that Shang Yi had led reinforcements to Shandong. At the same time, he also ordered him to abandon Qingzhou immediately and retreat toward Laizhou. He would lead the army in Wei County in the northwest of Laizhou.
The army responded to him and warned Zhou Shaohuan that he must organize the order of the retreat of the troops, especially carrying heavy weapons, and not panic and escape, turning the retreat into a rout.
Zhou Shaohuan originally planned to stick to Qingzhou, but after receiving Shang Yi's order, he changed his mind and immediately began to prepare for the withdrawal.
The most difficult thing to do in a war is to retreat. If you continue to hold on to the city before it is completely undefendable, the soldiers can still gather enough breath. But once the order is given to retreat, they feel relieved.
If not done well, the army will be defeated like a mountain. This is also what Shang Yi usually emphasizes to Zhou Shaohuan and the others. Retreating means doing two things well. One is order and when to start.
When retreating, which group of troops retreats first, which group of troops retreats, what route each retreating group of troops and horses takes, and where they meet all need to be carefully considered and designed. The second issue is the issue of cover. How many troops should be reserved for cover?
, setting up cover positions there, how to retreat the covering troops after completing the cover mission, etc. If these problems are not solved well, a retreat will easily fail.
There are currently about 7,000 Merchant Army soldiers in Qingzhou City, including more than 2,600 soldiers in one regiment. Therefore, Zhou Shaohuan also decided that the first regiment will take charge of the rear, while the second regiment and the 15th regiment will have new regiments.
Take the lead in retreating from Qingzhou, in
A blocking position was set up by Juyang Waterfront, waiting for a regiment to evacuate from Qingzhou and join them. Zhou Shaohuan stayed in Qingzhou City and retreated with the first regiment. The first batch of retreating troops was led by Teng Yinyu, the commander of the second regiment.
lead.
In terms of weapons, all the grenades and thunderbolt rockets were left behind, and they were planned to be used up in Qingzhou. Among the artillery, the medium-sized artillery was taken away first by the retreating troops, and only eight three-inch and six-point caliber bronze guns were left among the heavy artillery.
The rest of the artillery and artillery were taken away first and set up in blocking positions by the Juyang River. Most of the people in Qingzhou City had already evacuated before the war started, and the people who stayed in the city were unwilling to leave.
, so don’t worry about them.
After everything was arranged, at the fifth watch of the day, before it was dark, the first batch of retreating troops quietly left the city and headed east. Zhou Shaohuan and his regiment of soldiers left the city, taking the remaining troops with them.
Forty thunderbolt rocket boxes were sneaked into the Qing army
In front of the position, they were preparing to give the Qing army a sudden attack. Although they were discovered by patrols from the Qing army's outpost camp far away from the Qing army's main camp, the merchant army defeated all the patrols in time.
Thunderbolt rockets were launched.
Because this time the thunderbolt rocket box is all launched with a forty -five degree angle, so that the flight distance of the rocket is the highest, and it can generally reach the distance of 5600 steps. Therefore
Many of them flew to the main business of the Qing army. Most of the Perak rockets exploded in the air, and the oil also fell with the explosion. As a result, the camp was full.
The entire front camp was immediately chaotic. And there were many places in the main business. There were flames.
Aba Thai is a man who has played a hundred battles. Although he was attacked, he remained calm and thought about the intention of the Ming Army seriously, because this was the first time that the Ming Army took the initiative to attack the Qing army. It was only an accidental military operation.
, Or deliberately arranged. If it was only accidental, there was nothing yet? But if the Ming Army deliberately arranged, then it can only be explained that there are two possibilities: one is that the Ming army came to reinforcement and the strength was enhanced.
The other possibility is that the Ming army is preparing to retreat. This attack is just preparing for retreat.
However, during this time, the Qing army has not found that any reinforcement enters Qingzhou or arrives near Qingzhou. Therefore, the possibility of attacking the Qing Army is not high, so it is likely that the Ming Army intends to give up Qingzhou.
However, Aba Tai still doesn't understand. Why did the Ming Army give up Qingzhou so soon, because from the current situation, despite the advantages of the Qing army, Qingzhou is far from being unable to keep it, but Aba Tai is still
In order to order, Liming Bolo led the army to meet the attacking Ming army. If the Ming army was defeated, then they directly pursued to attack Qingzhou City.
The movement of the Ming Army's evacuation. Yue Le, Er Mengge, Li Sutai and others stayed in the camp.
Sure enough, under the arrangement of Aba Tai's arrangement, the Qing army camp immediately calmed down, because the merchant army did not launch an attack on the Junjun camp, and the fire was not large.
The order was restored, and the fire was extinguished one by one.
At this time, Bolo also sent someone to report back. After he led his soldiers to kill the camp, the merchant army had long been unknown, and Bolo Zheng led to attack Qingzhou. Therefore, Aba Thai also determined that the Ming Army did plan to withdraw from the withdrawal.
Qingzhou was in Qingzhou. So he ordered Yue Le to lead a man to reinforce Bolo. The other generals also rectified the arms and prepared to attack at any time.
However, for half an hour, Aba Thai received the return of Bolo again. The Qing Army had entered the Qingzhou City, and the merchant army had indeed retired all of Qingzhou City at this time.
After Aba Tai received the letter, he was also very happy, and immediately ordered that the entire army entered Qingzhou City, and at the same time, Meng Ge led a thousand cavalry to meet Ke Yongsheng and chase the merchant army.