Li Dingguo hoped that Huang'an and Luotian counties could hold on for ten days, but the process of the battlefield was not what he imagined. Huang'an County only lasted for five days and was captured by the Qing army. The defensive plan formulated by Li Dingguo.
It turned out that after the Qing army captured Datong Town, it immediately began to attack Huang'an and Luotian counties. However, at this time, the Qing army's fortress group was still a distance from Luotian County, and the merchant army also began to use short-term assault tactics. , to deal with the Qing army's fortress encirclement tactics.
The short-term assault tactic is indeed very effective. Because the merchant army's single combat capability, especially the long-range combat capability is stronger than that of the Qing army, it greatly delayed the advancement speed of the Qing army. In the past, the Qing army could have built seven times a day. At eight fortresses, there can be more than ten, but under the attack of short attacks by the merchant army, it has been reduced to only two or three fortresses every day, which sometimes makes one fortress not well built. At the same time, although the merchant army attacked. The Qing army retreated to the nearest fortress to defend, but it still lost a certain amount of troops.
In this case, Hong Chengchou decided to change the direction of the attack and adopted a restraining tactic on the eastern front of the fortress group, which was far from Luotian County, and focused the attack on Huang'an County, because on this line, the Qing army's fortress group was the first to be held. It's almost approaching the county town.
So Hong Chengchou gathered another 15,000 troops and joined the Western Front, increasing the Qing army's troops on the Western Front to 50,000. Then, while besieging Huang'an County, he stepped up the construction of fortresses. Although the merchants guarding Huang'an County attacked many times , but it still could not stop the Qing army's advancement. On October 3, the Qing army's fortress group had basically advanced to the periphery of Huang'an County, and the Qing army also launched a series of fierce attacks on Huang'an County, until October 4th At noon, the outer positions of Huang'an County were first broken through, and the Qing army continued to attack the county town. At dusk, the county town was finally broken.
Although the two regiments of the 22nd Brigade broke through the siege and retreated into the Dabie Mountains, the losses were extremely heavy. One regiment suffered more than 50%, and there were only more than 1,600 people left in the regiment. And the other one. Although the regiment was a little better, there were only more than 2,000 people left. Moreover, the brigade commander Li Benshen and the brigade chief of staff Jiang Hua were not in the breakout force. Some people said that they were killed in battle, while others said that they were captured by the Qing army. Now only Deputy Brigade Commander Huang Xiangdong has highlighted Huang'an County and is temporarily acting brigade commander.
Of course, there are many reasons for the rapid fall of Huang'an County. The Qing army's key attack was only one of them. In the Sixth Army, the combat effectiveness of the 22nd Brigade was also the weakest, because the 22nd Brigade was still in charge. In less than a month, I have not experienced any major battles, and even the 18th Division cannot compare with this. Although the 18th Division and the 22nd Brigade were organized at the same time, the three regiments under the 18th Division were already in place. It was established and participated in the third expedition and suppression war of the Qing army against the Hubei War Zone, and had certain practical experience.
Although some veterans were drawn from other troops to supplement them when they were organizing the 22nd Brigade, the proportion of veterans was not high, because to ensure the basic combat effectiveness of other troops, it was impossible to draw a large number of veterans, so in the 22nd There are only twenty veterans in a company in the brigade. This ratio is not even as good as the 18th Division, so the veterans can play a great role in combat. Moreover, horses on the battlefield encounter such a decisive battle. It is natural that it cannot stand the moment of building.
Another important deep reason is that the morale of the merchant army has begun to shake. Although the senior officers of the Sixth Army all understand that the current task of the Hubei War Zone is to delay the Qing army's forces in order to recover Nanjing.
Create favorable conditions, at most two months, the current situation will change, and grassroots officers and soldiers are mobilized and encouraged.
But for grassroots officers and soldiers, they may not be able to understand and obey the overall strategic arrangements. After all, the so-called dragging the Qing army's forces is actually done with life, such as the 9th Division and the Third Brigade Merchant Army
Of course, the old troops and soldiers can understand the arrangements of the United Front Work Department and have made the worst decision. The new recruits from the 18th Division are basically recruited by the merchant army when they first arrived in Hubei, and they have had a militia experience.
, ideological education work is relatively long, and there are more veterans, so there are fewer other ideas.
But there are only the 22nd Brigade, most of the recruits have just become soldiers, most of them rely on a sense of excitement or being mobilized, and a considerable number of them are directly transformed from the surrendered soldiers.
Come, let them sacrifice themselves to help others, and most people do not have such a high level of thinking. It would be fine if the war goes well, but when the war is in an emergency, they complain, complain, shake, and are dissatisfied with the decision of the United Front Work Department.
All kinds of negative emotions will arise. Some middle and high-level officers who have not firm positions are also a little shaken. Some of the transformed surrendered soldiers have made old problems and started to complain, speak sarcastic words, etc.
, which also weakened the combat effectiveness of the merchant army.
But regardless of the objective situation, it is a fact that Huang'an County has fallen, and Huang'an County is one of the core areas of the merchant army in Hubei. Although it paid a price of more than 8,000 casualties, after seizing Huang'an County,
The Qing army was indeed a major victory. Therefore, the morale of the Qing army was greatly boosted, and Hong Chengchou also decided to take advantage of the attack, concentrate about 100,000 troops, and start to attack Macheng and Luotian counties. However, this time the Qing army was
The focus of the offensive is Luotian, and Macheng is restraining.
After receiving the news that Huang An had lost, Li Dingguo and Li Yan also realized that the situation was much more serious than they expected, and it was not easy to persevere in the past two months. So several people conducted emergency discussions and decided to send a deputy.
The commander Huang Qingwen went to command the 22nd Brigade, and drew a battalion from the 3rd Brigade to supplement it to the 22nd Brigade. Together with the remaining troops of the 22nd Brigade, he adapted it into six battalions and formed a regiment with three battalions.
He was stationed in Jinsha Pass and Baisha Pass areas and continued to prepare for battle with the Qing army.
The aftermath of the 22nd Brigade is easy to deal with, but the situation of the shaking of the army cannot be ignored. Although the situation of the 9th Division, the 18th Division and the 3rd Brigade are better than that of the 22nd Brigade, if it is not stopped, now
No one can guarantee whether it will continue to shake. Therefore, it is urgent to boost the morale of the army and let the soldiers know that the situation is not uncontrollable and that there is still hope in the Hubei war zone. The best way is to fight one or two
A victory is more effective than any preaching, even if it is a small victory.
Therefore, Li Dingguo also decided to take the initiative to attack while the Qing army's fortress group had not yet advanced to the periphery of Macheng County, and concentrate its forces to strike the Qing army's arrogance. Even if it consumes some ammunition and troops for this, it will not be possible.
In the past, Li Yan absolutely supported Li Dingguo's decision.
During this attack, Li Dingguo led two infantry regiments of the Ninth Division and an artillery battalion, and then transferred a regiment from the Third Brigade, with a total of nearly 10,000 troops.
At this time, the fortress group built by the Qing army was about forty miles away from Macheng County. Li Dingguo ordered four battalions of the 14th Regiment to attack separately, each battalion with ten artillery, each attacking a Qing army's fortress.
The Qing army's reinforcements arrived and immediately retreated to the designated area. Li Dingguo and two other regiments had already been ambushed. Just when the Qing army chased them out, they would launch a sudden attack on the Qing army.
The essence of this combat method is actually a short-term assault tactic, but Li Dingguo changed to attack at multiple points at the same time, with the goal of defeating the Qing army and trying to lead the Qing army out of the fortress group and annihilate it.
Sure enough, after the merchant army launched at the same time at four o'clock, the Qing army was indeed a little busy, but they still sent reinforcements all the way to rescue. However, as soon as the Qing army's reinforcements arrived, the merchant army immediately retreated, and when the Qing army went to rescue another fortress,
The merchant army killed the horses again, which made the Qing army lose their minds and make them feel dilemma. As a result, several fortresses were broken by the merchant army.
Once, the Qing army finally couldn't bear it and chased out of the fortress group. However, before chasing ten miles away, they were ambushed by the merchant army and fled back in a crushing defeat. After Hong Chengchou learned of this result, he immediately ordered the
Each army, without its own order, is never allowed to chase out the fortress group. If anyone violates the order, he will be killed even if he wins. Therefore, no matter how the merchant army lures, the Qing army will no longer chase out. He can only hide in the fortress group.
Inside, play this cat and mouse game with the merchant army.
As a result, the battle lasted for six days. The merchant army captured 23 fortresses of the Qing army and annihilated more than 8,000 Qing army, and the casualties were less than 1,000. Of course, this was also the same as the Qing army invested in the front line of Macheng.
The number of troops killed by the merchant army was not large, but it consumed a lot of ammunition, because it was artillery shells, because the loss of troops was reduced, attacking fortresses was bombarded with fierce artillery fire, and the consumption of artillery shells was
More than 70% of the battle reached a position of a ring boundary. This also led to the inability of this round of attack by the merchant army to maintain. However, the purpose of this battle was achieved, so Li Dingguo also withdrew his troops and returned to Macheng County to guard.
Although this battle did achieve great success, there was no big change in the overall situation. On October 12, the 18th Division guarding Luotian County used up all its ammunition.
After obtaining the consent of the military headquarters, he evacuated from Luotian County and retreated to Songzi Pass and Changling Pass.
However, although the Qing army captured Luotian County, it also paid the price of more than 12,000 casualties. After evacuating Luotian County, the 18th Division still had about 8,000 troops, and still had a certain combat power.
However, when retreating, the division commander Li Chengdong was hit by a stray bullet and killed. This is also the highest general who has already formed a military army and has been killed.