After Li Yan and others set off, the Qing army in Nanjing was still holding its troops on the battlefield in Jiangnan, but at the same time, good news came from the battlefield in Jiangbei. Luo Yuanbin, who was stationed in Yangzhou, sent troops to capture Yizhen County.
Yizhen County is only more than 40 miles west of Yangzhou. Now it is stationed by Wu Sangui's left-behind troops in Jiangbei. It is like a nail nailed into Yangzhou Prefecture, which is a great danger to Yangzhou. If the merchant army wants to open up the situation in the Jiangbei battlefield, it must first relieve the side danger of Yangzhou. Therefore, on February 12, 1646, the third year of Shunzhi, Luo Yuanbin also sent troops from Yangzhou to attack Yizhen.
At this time, Shang Yi planned to defeat the Second Army's two new brigades, and the soldiers lost some time ago have been supplemented. Now the Second Army has three divisions and three brigades The total force exceeded 50,000. Moreover, this time the merchant army was determined to attack Yizhen. Luo Yuanbin dispatched two infantry divisions and an infantry brigade, with a total of more than 27,000 troops. The defenders of Yizhen County There are only more than 3,000 people.
The strength of the two sides was very different, so the Merchant Army easily captured Yizhen County with its overwhelming superior force, while Luo Yuanbin continued to march, and then recovered Guanqiao and Tianchang County, which completely stabilized the siege of Yangzhou.
After winning, Luo Yuanbin immediately sent a report to Hangzhou Prefecture, suggesting a Huai'an campaign aimed at regaining Huai'an Prefecture. First, concentrate troops to attack Xuyi and Sizhou, cut off the connection between Huai'an Prefecture and Huaibei Qingjun, and then recover Huai'an The prefecture once again opened up the connection between northern Jiangsu and southern Shandong, and restored the Jiangbei War Zone to the situation before the Battle of Nanjing.
In fact, Shang Yi had long planned to recapture Huai'an Prefecture, so after Luo Yuanbin's report was sent to Nanjing, Shang Yi also recruited personnel from the United Front Work Department to discuss Luo Yuanbin's plan. Others also believed that the plan was very feasible. , because after the main force of Wu Sangui's army crossed south, the strength of the Qing army in Jiangbei had been greatly weakened, the danger in the west of Yangzhou had been lifted, and there was no worries about sending troops. And now only the Duoduo army is free to support Jiangbei The overall situation is, but the front line is lengthened and the troops are dispersed, so there is still a great confidence in the victory of this battle. If Huai'an Prefecture can be recovered, it will not only reopen the connection with the Shandong war zone, but also gain a new place in the Huaihe River Basin It is of great benefit to reversing the situation in Jiangbei.
Moreover, now that Li Dingguo has entered Hubei, the Qing army will soon know the news. Therefore, launching an attack in Jiangbei can also distract the Qing army and restrain the Qing army's forces, and win the development of Li Dingguo in Hubei. There was enough time. So after everyone's discussion, Luo Yuanbin's suggestion was approved and the Huai'an Battle was launched.
At the same time, the United Front Work Department ordered the Fourth Army stationed in Yizhou, Shandong to launch troops to attack Haizhou. On the one hand, it was to restrain the Qing army's forces, and on the other hand, it was immediately after the Second Army recovered Huai'an Prefecture. Attack from north to south, attacked two times, opening up the connection between southern Shandong and northern Jiangsu.
At this time, Luo Yuanbin had already prepared to attack Xuyi in Yangzhou. Therefore, after obtaining the approval of the Hangzhou United Front Work Department, Luo Yuanbin also immediately sent troops. This time, the Second Army dispatched two infantry divisions and two infantry brigades. A total of 35,000 troops were sent to Baoying County, north of Yangzhou Prefecture, to restrain the troops of Huai'an Prefecture. Once the merchant army captured Xuyi, it immediately joined the army to attack Huai'an Prefecture, and only in Yangzhou Leave a brigade to garrison.
Guan Jian of this Huai'an Battle is whether the merchant army can attack Xuyi and Sizhou as soon as possible. Even if it only captures Xuyi on the south bank of the Huai River, it can cut off the connection between Huai'an and Huaibei and create a good idea for the next attack on Huai'an Prefecture.
Time. However, Luo Yuanbin was full of confidence in attacking Xuyi, because the Qing army did not have many troops stationed on the front line of Xuyi and Sizhou, with only more than 10,000 people, and they had to be divided into two places. With his own troops, he could be quickly
Capture Xuyi.
However, the subsequent siege battle was beyond Luo Yuanbin's expectations. Xuyi's defensive power was actually very strong, and there were a considerable number of firearm troops and dozens of artillery guns.
It turned out that after the end of the Jianghuai Battle, the Qing court had been stepping up the manufacturing of firearms and training firearm troops to fight against the merchant army. Before the second southern expedition, all the firearms made in Beijing were assembled to the Ajige tribe.
After receiving the news that Ajige conquered Nanjing, Door was happy and did not forget the battlefield in Jiangbei. Therefore, after sending envoys to Nanjing, he drove a batch of them to build during this period.
The firearms were sent to the Duoduo army, and it would be best to cooperate with the victory in capturing Nanjing and completely wipe out the merchant army in Jiangbei.
Among this batch of firearms, there are sixty cannons and more than five thousand muskets, and twenty red-clothed cannons among the cannons, which are divided into ten 3,200 kilograms and ten 2,700 kilograms;
There are also thirty latest thunderbolt cannons; and there are two thousand of the muskets, all of which are fired guns, and more than 5,000 thunders, as well as more than 1,000 thunders and more than 1,000 thunders from the Qing court's mountain village.
The firearms owned by Jiaduoduo's troops now have more than 180 artillery pieces and nearly 8,000 muskets.
However, Duoduo is on the front line and of course he knows the current situation. This time the Qing army captured Nanjing, he was already very strong. Thinking of sweeping Jiangbei, he could not do it at all with his current strength. What he is doing now is to try his best to do it.
Maintain the current situation and start again slowly. However, he was also very clear that the merchant army would definitely come and capture Huai'an Prefecture, open up connections with Shandong again, and the Guanjian that captured Huai'an Prefecture was in Xuyi.
Therefore, Duozin also focused on defense on the front line of Xuyi and Sizhou, guarding Xuyi and Sizhou. The head general of the front line of the army was Meilezhangjing Ajigenican, the Zhengbai Banner of Manzhou. This time, the reinforcement firearm was sent to Guide Mansion.
Afterwards, Duoduo assigned most of them to the front line of Xuyi and Sizhou, including all the cannons sent, and also drew 3,000 musket soldiers, 3,000 thunders and 500 thunder rockets.
Although Xuyi is only a county town, the merchant army has been stationed here for more than half a year and has built a large number of fortifications, which is very conducive to the defense of the firearms troops. Therefore, although the Qing army did not have many troops to guard Xuyi, its strength was slight.
Not bad either.
In these situations, the merchant army basically knew nothing about it, and their estimates of the Qing army were still based on their previous strength. On the other hand, they also looked a little bit contemptuous, so they did not investigate the strength of the Qing army, or the usual siege of the city
Routinely, set up artillery outside the city and fired at the city walls of Xuyi.
However, the Qing army is now familiar with the siege tactics of the Merchant Army and is ready for it. Although the number of artillery in the Qing army is not as large as that in the Merchant Army, it has twenty red cannons, and the range is even greater than that of the Merchant Army.
The vast majority of the artillery of the Merchant Army, so the Merchant Army could only rely on more than 40 heavy artillery of the entire army to fight against the Qing army, and its firepower was naturally weakened a lot. Therefore, the Qing army and the Merchant Army launched a bombing, and also
Don't fall at a disadvantage.
Generally, when bombing the city wall, the flowering bullets have little effect. The main purpose is to use solid bullets, which use the impact of the shells to smash the city walls. However, the lethality of solid bullets is relatively small, and most of the Qing army's artillery are They are all placed on the forts. These forts were built by the merchant army when they were guarding the city of Xuyi. They are very strong, so they are not afraid of being smashed by shells. At the same time, they also have tall and thick marches, which can be very good for artillery artillery. Protective effect.
On the contrary, the artillery of the Merchant Army was directly arranged in the open space outside the city without any cover and protection. In this way, the Merchant Army was obviously at a much loss. Therefore, after the two sides fought each other for a while, the Merchant Army was first company by the Qing army. Four artillery pieces were knocked down and nearly a hundred soldiers were killed, but only one of the Qing dynasties was killed.
Seeing this, Luo Yuanbin knew that it would be unfavorable for him to continue like this, so he immediately ordered that more than 80 medium-sized artillery pieces of the entire army be advanced and artillery positions on the front line be arranged near the Xuyi city wall. In this way, although these artillery pieces were They are all within the range of the Qing army, but they can take advantage of their numerical advantages to suppress the Qing army's firepower and destroy the Qing army's city wall defense line.
Nazhi's artillery advanced to about 350 steps away from the Xuyi city wall and stopped after entering his fire range. But before he could re-arrange his position, he saw several flights from Xuyi city A hundred rockets that were spitting fire at the tail brought out thick smoke and fell to the artillery positions of the merchant army.
This is the first batch of Thunderbolt rockets imitated by the Qing court. The general structure is the same as that of the merchant army, but each is a simple set of Jiuzhi as a simple set, with a closer range than that of the merchant army, about 300 to 400. This is because the Qing court was completely imitating, but the principles of the Pili Rockets are not clear, and the ratio of propulsion gunpowder and explosive gunpowder of the Pili Rockets is different, so when the artillery between the two sides was bombarded at the beginning , the Qing army did not use it.
When the merchant army's artillery advanced to about 300 steps, Azignikan saw that the distance was almost the same, and then immediately ordered to use one hundred thunder rockets to launch the artillery positions of the merchant army. Hundreds of Thunderbolt rockets were launched, and a total of one hundred Thunderbolt rockets were launched.
However, the accuracy of the Thunder Rockets made by Qingting is much worse than that of the merchant army. This is because the craftsmen of the Qing court are not clear about the technical principles of the fixed tail wing, so when they are manufactured, they basically follow the examples. As for doing something, the effect is of course much worse. Therefore, almost half of the nine hundred thunder rockets flew to where they were. Some of them exploded in the air and landed on the merchant's position There are less than three hundred of them.