Cheng Jin received a report from the scouts in Gaochun County. The Qing army had divided its troops and rushed to support the outside line. One route was led by the Manchuria Melee Zhenzhu Mala, with a force of 15,000.
Lishui County came to support Jueluo Bahana, with a total force of about 42,300; the other route was led by Meile Ezhenzhuoluo, Zhengbai Banner, with a force of 20,000, and was stationed in Dangtu. The Qing army is now attacking.
The total force is about 65,000.
Lishui and Dangtu are both in the northern part of Gaochun, one is easterly and the other is westerly, and the distance between them is about the same. The three places form an equilateral triangle, and in the middle of this triangle is Shijiu Lake.
Yesterday afternoon, Cheng Jin received an order from Shang Yi, asking him to take the initiative to find fighter jets and attack the Qing army. Therefore, he immediately recruited military headquarters and divisions, brigade divisions and brigade officers to discuss the next attack target of the merchant army.
.
Now the merchant army stationed in Gaochun County is the first, fifth division, first and fifth brigade. There are two other cavalry regiments, with a total force of about 42,000, and the ammunition consumed in the first battle has also been replenished.
Among the other two members of the military headquarters, only Chief of Staff You Hongliang was in Gaochun, and Deputy Commander Zhao Yingjie led the Ninth Division to station in Ningguo Mansion.
After all the officers arrived, Cheng Jin said: "You are now stationed in two places, which gives us the opportunity to defeat one by one. Judging from the forces garrisoned by Lishui and Dangtu, Lishui has significantly more troops than Dangtu.
, Therefore, I think we should first attack Dangtu, and then concentrate our troops to attack Lishui. Do you think there is any problem with this plan? Please express your opinions even if you want to express your opinions."
Su Jianlin, the commander of the First Division, spoke first: "Commander, I also think that we should fight Dangtu first, because the Chief of the Supervisor has always taught us to fight the weak enemy first, and then concentrate our troops to fight the powerful enemy, and Qing
The troops in Dangtu and Lishui are very different in size. With our current Gaochun troops, we can attack Dangtu in one fell swoop."
As soon as he finished speaking, Huang Shengwu, the commander of the First Brigade, also spoke: "I agree with Commander Su's opinion, but when we attacked Dangtu, the Qing army in Lishui would not sit idly by, so we must not be careful.
, it should be necessary to draw some troops to block the reinforcements of the Qing army. The siege of the city and attack the reinforcements should be carried out at the same time."
Cheng Peijing, the commander of the Fifth Division, shook his head and said, "It is different now that the Qing army has more troops than us. If the siege of the city and aid are carried out at the same time, it will definitely cause our troops to be dispersed, which is not in line with the generals of the General Administration.
The principle of concentrating troops is therefore I think our main purpose of attacking Dangtu this time is to attack Dangtu, rather than attacking reinforcements. For reinforcements from Lishui, we only use a small number of troops to block and drag them along their speed, just to buy time for attack Dangtu.
So, I think that the maximum number of troops to block reinforcements cannot exceed one division, and the rest of the troops should be used to attack Dangtu. We strive to defeat Dangtu's Qing army in a short period of time, attack Dangtu, and then turn around and then
Fight reinforcements.”
Hu Xu, the commander of the Fifth Brigade, frowned and said, "Have you ever thought about it? What if the Qing army does not come to rescue Dangtu and attacks Gaochun instead? What should we do? Are we going to stay in Gaochun at least
The next brigade, in this way, the troops that attack Dangtu are left with one division and one brigade, plus two cavalry regiments. In the siege, the cavalry regiments cannot play any role, so we actually use it for
The troops attacking Dangtu are not as strong as the defenders. Can such troops be captured in a short period of time?”
His words also made everyone think, Cheng Peijing said: "Then should we use two brigades to block and guard Gaochun respectively, and the cavalry regiment will mobilize and concentrate the two divisions to attack Dangtu?"
Hu Xu said: "It won't be much better. The two divisions can only have more than 20,000 troops at most. If it is a field battle, it is certainly not a problem to encounter battles, but there may be some shortcomings in the siege battle."
When others heard this, they felt a little embarrassed.
At this time, the Chief of Staff of the First Army You Hongliang said: "Everyone think about it, let's think about it. Is it difficult for us to defend Gaochun? Didn't the General Secretary often say it? Don't worry about the gains and losses of a city and a place, we will do it this time
The army attacked, and no one soldier left in Gaochun. If the Qing army wanted to occupy Gaochun, they would take it. Once we captured Dangtu, the Qing army would naturally give up Gaochun. We can still turn Gaochun back.
Take it back.”
Su Jianlin said: "What if the Qing army did not give up Gaochun? Wouldn't our retreat be dangerous?"
Cheng Jin said: "That's better. We can even ignore Ningguo Mansion. Let the Ninth Division retreat to Guangdezhou. Just guard the Qing army's road to Zhejiang. For us, we can take advantage of the opportunity of the Qing army's division of troops.
, if I attack Lishui again, I don’t believe that the Qing army dared to ignore Lishui. If that were the case, we would not even care about Gaochun and directly attack the Qing army in Nanjing. We cooperated with the governor and annihilated the Qing army in Nanjing in one fell swoop.
”
After hearing this, the others thought that this plan was feasible, so everyone quickly unified their opinions. Cheng Jin immediately dispatched troops, with the First, Fifth Division and the Fifth Brigade responsible for attacking Dangtu, the First Brigade and
One cavalry regiment was responsible for blocking the attack. Another cavalry regiment was for mobile forces. At the same time, it also ordered Zhao Yingjie, who was stationed in Ningguo Mansion, to return to the army to guard Guangdezhou immediately. Then all the troops set off immediately.
Meile Ezhen Zhuoluo, the Zhengbai Banner stationed in Dangtu, set off from Nanjing on the afternoon of the second day of the lunar month and arrived in Dangtu for the fourth day of the lunar month. He knew that a day had just passed and he was still breathing, and he received a report that the merchant army had gathered.
Nearly 30,000 troops came to attack Dangtu.
After receiving this news, Zhuo Luo was also shocked. He had participated in the Nanjing battle and left a deep impression on the fierce firepower of the merchant army. It was not something that could be stopped by flesh and blood.
Dangtu has a lot of troops now, with a total of about 22,000, and includes four Manzhou Jiala, with a total of more than 5,000 people. There are also seven Han army Jiala, with about 10,000 people, and the quality is also
It is more reliable, but there are very few firearms. When sending troops, it is time to force Ajige to get a thousand musket soldiers and a thousand thunders made by the Qing court. There are twenty small cannons, and
Zhuo Luo wanted no red cannon most. First, Ajige would keep all of them in Nanjing for use, and second, that thing was too heavy. If he set out with the red cannon, Zhuo Luo would probably be still on the way now.
.
With such a force, it would be more than enough to deal with other Ming troops. But now he is facing the merchant army, and Zhuo Luo is not sure at all. However, since he has come to Dangtu, he cannot retreat without fighting, so Zhuo
While Luo ordered to prepare to defend the city, he asked Jueluo Bahana in Lishui for help.
Although Dangtu is located in the inner land, the capital of Taiping Prefecture was set up here because it was a tour in Nanjing. The Ming Dynasty set up Jianyang Guard to guard it, which is equivalent to a local military region. Therefore, the city defense facilities are also better than other prefectures. Moreover,
Huang Degong had been stationed in Dangtu for six or seven months. Not only did he defeat Zuo Liangyu's eastward army here, but he also blocked the Qing army and rebuilt many fortifications. It can be said that in the outside area of Nanjing, Dangtu is considered a city defense.
One of the best facilities in cities.
It is precisely because of this that Zhuo Luo has a little confidence in his heart. Although he can't defeat the merchant army, it is still no problem to defend for two or three days. During this period, Jueluo Bahara's reinforcements should have arrived.
.
The attack of the merchant army was launched at noon on the fifth day of the lunar month. First, it concentrated more than 200 artillery pieces of the two divisions, launched a fierce bombardment at the eastern city wall of Dangtu, and also launched more than 500 thunderbolt rockets.
The momentum was earth-shaking. Although Zhuo Luo also saw the firepower of the merchant army during the Nanjing attack on the Qinhuai River, he mainly used rifles to form a dense firepower net, but this time he used artillery as the main one, with dense and ferocious
The firepower covered the Qing army defending the city, causing much greater momentum than when he was in Nanjing.
Although Dangtu's city wall was quite solid, although it did not explode a few gaps, it was not blown up. However, the Qing army was injured and killed by this violent bombing in the city wall, and could not stand at all.
The feet could only retreat one after another, and the twenty small cannons of the Qing army had no effect because of insufficient range. Zhuo Luo had no other way, and he could not let the soldiers get bombed like a target on the city wall, so he also
He had no choice but to order the Qing army to retreat to the city to guard the city. At the same time, he thought that he could not defend the city wall, so he retreated to the city and waited for the merchant army to attack the city, and then fought street battles with the merchant army.
Just like the merchant army stationed in Nanjing.
When Cheng Jin saw that the Qing army had withdrawn from the city wall in the formation, he immediately ordered the firepower to extend fifty steps forward, and at the same time ordered the infantry to attack and immediately occupy the city wall.
The soldiers of the two infantry regiments of the First Division were waiting for the order to attack. As Cheng Jin gave the order, they immediately carried wooden ladders and approached Dangtu's city walls with the smoke that had not yet dissipated.
Each artillery has also adjusted its angles and allowed the shells to hit farther.
Since there were basically no Qing soldiers defending the city wall at this time, the two infantry regiments of the First Division rushed to the side of the city wall very smoothly, set up wooden ladders, and stepped on Dangtu's wall. They also performed a game that was close to the
Perfectly, the artillery step is first suppressed with artillery fire, and then the infantry attacks, occupying the position, combined with tactics.
Cheng Jin was also very satisfied with this result. This recruitment army has become more skillful. However, with the experience of attacking Gaochun, Cheng Jin also knew that it was impossible to just capture the city wall. He entered the city.
There was still an arduous street battle to fight. Therefore, it was immediately ordered to order the artillery regiment of the First Division and the Fourth Division to follow up immediately, break into Dangtu City, and quickly launch troops into the city to attack the Qing army and expand the results of the battle.
Strive to capture Dangtu in a short time. The Fifth Brigade serves as a reserve force and waits for orders. At the same time, it also sends scouts to the other three sides of Dangtu to reconnaissance the movements of the Qing army. Once the Qing army withdrew from Dangtu, it immediately dispatched cavalry