Just as the merchant army was launching a fierce attack on the fortress, the Qing army's reinforcements finally arrived at the battlefield.
In fact, since the second expedition of the merchant army in Hubei, the Qing army has always hoped to find an opportunity to fight the main force of the merchant army. Although the Qing army also knew that the merchant army had strong firepower and strong combat power, it was in Hubei. There are not many troops, and there is also difficulty in replenishing ammunition. Therefore, if you can find the main force of the merchant army and concentrate your troops to attack, you will still have a great confidence in winning. Even if you are both successful and losers, what is failure? It is also worth consuming a large amount of strength and ammunition of the merchant army. Because the Qing army can quickly gather troops again and launch a continuous attack.
However, in the previous few expeditions and suppression, including this expedition and suppression battle, the Merchant Army did not give the Qing army such an opportunity. At this time, because the Merchant Army took the initiative to attack the Qing army's fortress group, the Qing army The opportunity for a frontal decisive battle that had been waiting for finally came. Therefore, when Luke Dehun learned that the Merchant Army launched an attack on the Qing army's fortress position, he immediately gathered 30,000 troops and divided his troops into two groups to attack the Merchant Army.
At this time, the merchant army had already attacked a large fortress of the Qing army, but still did not eliminate all the Qing army and completely occupied the fortress. However, the reinforcements led by Luke Dehun had arrived at the battlefield, and Li Dingguo had no choice but to order the attack to be suspended. The fortress first faces the reinforcements of the Qing army. At the same time, it also ordered the Third Brigade, which acted as a reserve team, to join the battle.
The two sides started a fierce battle in the Qing army's fortress group. This was also the battle with the largest number of troops between the Qing army and the merchant army after the Hubei battlefield was evaded. The merchant army participated in the battle with about 25,000 troops. The Qing army invested a total of more than 32,000 people. The fierce battle also started with the large fortress as the core and spread to more than ten small fortresses around.
However, the focus of the competition between the two sides was still this big fortress. At this time, the merchant army had completely occupied the gap and penetrated into the fortress. However, the Qing army's reinforcements came in from other gates, slightly larger than the modern football field. A fierce battle started in the fortress.
Although the merchant army relied on the advantages of weapons and firepower to cause considerable losses to the Qing army, the Qing army's reinforcements continued to pour into the fortress, and Luke Dehun also knew that the competition for this fortress was It will affect the success or failure of this battle, because they also personally entered the fortress to command the battle, so the Qing army also fought one after another and refused to retreat. It was very difficult for the merchant army to advance further. In many local positions, both sides would Repeated competitions, and the positions changed hands several times.
And now both sides are conducting hand-to-hand combat after all. Although the merchant army has a certain advantage in weapons, a large number of casualties inevitably occurred in such a fierce battle. The ground in the fortress was already full of soldiers on both sides. The corpse, blood flowed into a channel.
The fierce battle continued until around 4:00 pm. Although the merchant army still had a certain advantage on the battlefield at this time, it was still a long way to completely defeat the Qing army and occupy the big fortress. There were no reinforcements, and the ammunition carried in this battle was almost exhausted, and the Qing army still had reinforcements to rush to the battlefield. If we continue to fight, it would not be beneficial to the merchant army.
Under such circumstances, Li Dingguo had no choice but to order the withdrawal of his troops, withdraw from the Qing army's fortress group, and return to Datong Town to guard.
In this battle, the merchant army killed a total of 3,157 people and injured 1,061 people. The number of people killed by the Qing army was 5,793, and injured 2,564.
People, and eight fortresses were once captured by the merchant army. In terms of casualties and results, the merchant army was still the one who took the initiative to attack, so the merchant army undoubtedly won.
However, the final result of the battle did not meet the combat goals set by Li Dingguo before the war, and the loss of troops did not have much impact on the Qing army, but the merchant army could not afford such losses. In addition, this
During the war, the merchant army also consumed a large amount of ammunition, so Li Dingguo did not dare to launch a full-scale attack easily. Although the eight fortresses that were broken by the merchant army were basically restored to their original appearance after two or three days of emergency repair, Qing Dynasty
The army's fortress group was still not broken by the merchant army.
Just two days later, Hong Chengchou led 10,000 troops and a large number of firearms to the eastern front to support Luke Dehun, and Li Dingguo was forced to switch to the defense in Datong Town.
After Hong Chengchou arrived at the Eastern Front, he first praised the Qing army for resisting the attack of the merchant army, defending the fortress group and not being broken by the merchant army, and commending and promoting the meritorious soldiers to encourage the morale of the entire army.
. However, the soldiers who gave up the fortress and fled in the battle were merciless and executed them all, killing a total of 247 soldiers, including 43 full-flag soldiers, including one inlaid white flag.
There are also sixty-two Han flag soldiers in front of military orders, regardless of Manchu and Han soldiers, who are determined to be the same crime.
This time, the military law once again shocked the entire army. Both Manchu and Han soldiers were full of awe for Hong Chengchou's orders. Hong Chengchou and Luke Dehun gathered another 45,000 troops to launch a campaign towards Datong Town.
Attack.
Datong Town did not have a city wall to garrison. Fortunately, Li Dingguo was prepared for it. A few days ago, a large number of defensive fortifications were built outside Datong Town to resist the Qing army's attack.
However, defensive battles have always been the best of the merchant army. The Qing army attacked for two days in a row, which did not pose much threat to Datong Town.
However, the Qing army's offense also improved a lot, and began to learn to fully disperse the troops and conduct a scattered attack. Although we cannot regret the position of the merchant army for the time being, it greatly reduced our losses. In previous battles,
Generally speaking, the merchant army can hit about three times in ten shots, but now it has actually dropped to only hit more than once. Of course, this is also the Qing army is still trying to experiment with this new scattered offensive tactic, so
The intensity of the attack was not very strong. During the attack in the past two days, the Qing army lost no more than one thousand troops. In contrast, the merchant army consumed a large amount of ammunition, and the time was delayed, which would definitely be unfavorable to the merchant army.
It was not until this time that Li Dingguo really realized that the situation in the Hubei War Zone this time was indeed very dangerous. It seems that the current war should be re-estimated.
Moreover, at this time, the Qing army launched another attack on the western front. It turned out that after Geng Zhongming was defeated, he retreated to Huangpi County to station. Han Dai, who was stationed in Hunan, sent him another 10,000 troops to reinforce him. At the same time, Geng Zhongming also received Hong Chengchou's order.
Afterwards, he began to build fortresses honestly and slowly approached Huang'an County.
In order to strengthen the guards of Huang'an County, Li Yan sent a regiment from the 22nd Brigade stationed in Macheng to Huang'an County. However, at this time, Macheng County was also empty, with only a few guards and local militias stationed. Therefore, Li Yan also I wrote to Li Dingguo and asked him if he could withdraw a regiment of troops from Datong Town and come back to garrison Macheng. In the end, Li Dingguo could go back to Macheng in person, so that everyone could gather together to discuss the next countermeasures.
Li Dingguo had this plan, so after receiving Li Yan's letter, he immediately decided to leave the 18th Division, the artillery regiments of the Third Brigade and the Ninth Division in Datong Town, and he took the other two regiments of the Ninth Division back to Macheng. Stop. and leave all ammunition in Datong Town.
Because in the previous stage of the battle, the Ninth Division had always been the main force of the battle. The soldiers were not only tired, but also suffered great losses from the two main infantry regiments. As the Fourteenth Regiment, the loss of almost half of the troops. It also takes some time to repair and replenish. In fact, the front line of Datong Town is not large. As long as it can ensure sufficient ammunition supply, the scrapped merchant army can still defend Datong Town and bring the other two regiments of the Ninth Division back to Macheng. , it will not have much impact on Datong Town. At the same time, the Ninth Division can also be replenished as soon as possible and restored its strength.
After returning to Macheng County, Li Yan, Li Dingguo, Li Mou and others decided to jointly send a document like the Hangzhou United Front Work Department, detailing the current situation facing the Hubei battlefield, and also bluntly stated that it was not contrary to the situation. , Because the Qing army was too powerful this time and the tactic of fortress attack was used, it made it difficult for the merchant army to reap the power of mobile warfare as before, so if we rely solely on the current forces in Hubei, it would be almost certain that we would not be able to defeat again. The Qing army must receive assistance from Zhejiang or Yangzhou to continue to fight with the Qing army.
After the official documents were sent away, Li Yan, Li Dingguo and others were waiting for the reply from the Hangzhou United Front Work Department, while also stepping up preparations for the war.
At this time, the Qing army was slowly building fortresses on the western front and gradually advancing, but it had not yet threatened the edge of Huang'an County. Therefore, Li Dingguo also ordered Li Benshen, the commander of the 22nd Brigade stationed in Huang'an County, to continue to send troops to attack. The Qing army's fortification construction was to delay the progress of the Qing army.
On the Eastern Front, after the early tentative attack, the Qing army began to gradually exert force, and the attack on Datong Town was also strengthened a lot. However, the merchant army was obviously prepared for the Qing army's scattered attack. When defending, we do not pursue the use of dense firepower networks to block the Qing army and to defend the enemy from the position, but pursue hit rate, strive to make the right shot, and save ammunition. We wait for the Qing army to approach the position 30 to 40 points. The distance between ten steps began to shrink and concentrate, and then suddenly strengthened the firepower and gave a fierce blow to the Qing army. It also deliberately exposed a gap in the position to attract the Qing army to attack, and then attack the Qing army in the front. When fighting, the Qing army's support troops were cut off with fierce firepower. With superior forces, the Qing army that attacked the position of the Shangjia Army was eliminated.
In this way, the battle was getting back and forth against the constraints and counter-restrictions.