The first order Liu Chengzong issued for the Battle of Ganzhou was to send troops north.
Mo Yujing, the commander of the middle brigade in the field, led more than 4,000 Mongolian soldiers from the Second Battalion of Heshuote and Chahar to the north. They set up camp at Yanchiyi, only fifty miles away from the residence of thousands of households in Zhenyi, and successively captured Balidun and Sanyi in the Gobi. Shilitun, all the Ming army strongholds in the northwest of Heishui were eradicated.
Then the cavalrymen of the Heshuote Battalion dismounted, took out the tools they carried, and began to dismantle the side wall.
This scene was witnessed by the Zhenyi Banner Army who ventured across the black water to explore for intelligence. The news was quickly sent to Zhenyi Qianhu Station, and then drifted southeast along the black water and entered the defensive position carefully built by Li Hongsi.
Why are they tearing down the border wall?
A terrible thought lingered in Li Hongsi's mind: Could it be that the Marshal's Army planned to enter the desolate Gobi Desert again and make a long-distance attack to bypass him?
Liu Chengzong was good at running thousands of miles, and this was no secret to anyone.
After all, running is a common skill of rogues in the late Ming Dynasty. Those who are capable are called running, and those who are incompetent are called running. Anyway, no one with a pair of iron legs can live less than seven years of Chongzhen.
But Li Hongsi felt that this was wrong. They were all foreigners. Why did he not know the way, but Liu Chengzong dared to wander around the Gobi desert with his head covered?
Li Hongsi did not know the road, but his subordinates and the friendly generals around him did. Zhenyi Guerrilla Tang Mingshi was a road recognizer. He scorned the report of the Zhenyi Banner Army: "Even if they have good foot strength, they will die in the desert." Walking thirty miles a day and detouring five hundred miles to the north of Ganzhou, Suzhou would be gone in half a month."
Tang Mingshi shook his head decisively and said: "Don't worry, Deputy Commander. The traitors will never take a detour through the desert. We should be careful of them blocking the river and building dams on the upper reaches of the Black Water."
Li Hongsi nodded doubtfully, not quite agreeing with Tang Mingshi's idea.
It's not that he has any opinion about Tang Mingshi. In fact, he is very aware of the Tang general's extraordinary talent in loyalty and bravery. It's just that he is a hereditary military attaché at the grassroots level of Liangzhou Guard. His merits are the same as Li Hongsi's, all of them are in Got it from Shaanxi.
Since taking up the post of Zhenyi Guerrilla, Tang Mingshi, like many generals in Gansu, has rich combat experience in Ningxia, Yansui and other places, but he has never fought in Gansu.
He raised his hand and ordered to the servant: "Invite General Lin Shen."
Ganzhou Road Counselor Lin Chengdong was the most experienced person around Li Hongsi. On the one hand, he was a martial arts scholar in Xi'an Prefecture. On the other hand, Lin Chengdong had participated in the battle to intercept the Chahar tribe and had indeed fought in Gansu.
Different regions have different environments, and there are always some geographical advantages that cannot be known to the generals until after the war. Therefore, Li Hongsi paid more attention to Lin Chengdong's military suggestions.
In recent days, Lin Chengdong has been staying in a frontline camp surrounded by canals and trenches for food and accommodation. He is busy testing the firearms and equipment of this regiment. The situation is not very good.
The rockets are old and ineffective, the heavy artillery and vehicles are aging, the light artillery is shoddy, the gunpowder is unevenly distributed, and the shells are of different sizes... the armaments are almost exhausted.
Eighteen of the division officers of the three battalions were hacked by Lin Chengdong. Their headless bodies were pushed outside the camp, and their heads were hung on the camp gate, all bloody.
The division officer is a team-level soldier officer, just like the flag and trumpet officer, each team has one who is responsible for the ordnance.
Lin Chengdong knew that the lack of armament was a problem for the entire Ming army. The general environment was like this. Although the military officers had many responsibilities, they were helpless. They should be killed according to the law, but they could be forgiven and their crimes would not lead to death.
However, the military discipline of this legion recruited from three places was lax, and the soldiers and officers generally had a feeling of arrogance and fierce generals. It was really impossible to kill the leading officers, so Lin Chengdong used the military officers as a way to clean up military discipline.
What it means to be a proud soldier is to seek quick victory. People are eager to go to the front line to charge and kill the enemy, but the source of the desire is not victory, but that these people have never fought in a war and cannot bear the hardship of waiting for war.
I don't want to dig trenches and build forts day after day, and I don't want to do all the tiring and repetitive preparations for victory. I just want to simply rush forward and fight.
Lin Chengdong knew this situation, and if he really asked them to rush in and fight, it would be a meal. If they encountered a slight setback, there would be a big rout... What's more, the army they put together had different affiliations at the general level.
Li Hongsi is the guard general on Suzhou Road, and the Zhenyi guerrilla Tang Mingshi is the guerrilla on Suzhou Road. The two are in the same defense area but have never met before; Lin Chengdong is the general on Ganzhou Road, and his coach Yang Jiamo is coordinating in Zhangye Various military supplies and preparations for the front line.
With this kind of configuration, even if they are all elite troops, ten of them will probably only be able to perform 80% of their effectiveness when working together, not to mention that the vast majority of the soldiers have no combat experience.
When he received the news that Li Hongsi was looking for him, Lin Chengdong was receiving a batch of artillery shipped from Ganzhou Guards. He replaced the unusable cannon with three newly cast generals and twenty-two small captive cannons. Two large Franchise machines and twelve Pearl Cannons.
After completing the replacement of old and new artillery, and sending his cronies to follow the civilian team from Ganzhou back to Ganzhou, Lin Chengdong got on his horse and went to the Chinese military camp to find Li Hongsi and others.
When he arrived at the Zhongjun Camp and listened to the Zhenyi Suo Banner Army's explanation of the situation, Lin Chengdong didn't even think about it. He clasped his fists at Li Hongsi and Tang Mingshi and said, "Commander, General Tang, I'm sorry to be frank. Although the two armies are not fighting head-on, our army The three Tangqi troops have been fighting with the enemy Tangqi troops in the desert for several days. The commander-in-chief and the general must know the specific situation of the battle."
Lin Chengdong clapped his hands, opened the door to the two of them, and said: "Our army's Tang horses are weak, but the enemy's Tang horses are fat. Our Tang soldiers have half a piece of wheat flour cake for two meals a day, and the enemy's Tang soldiers have both fried noodles and fried noodles on their horses." There is dried meat, when you are tired you can eat sweets and when you are tired you can drink tea, even three-eyed blunderbuss, my blunderbuss is one foot long, and the enemy's blunderbuss is one foot and three long."
Speaking of this, Lin Chengdong was too angry. The official horses were not as good as the thief horses, the official armor was not as good as the thief armor, the official food was not as good as the thief grain, and even the officers and soldiers were not as good as the thief soldiers. They would definitely suffer losses in a fight. His Tang soldiers hit the enemy. When the enemy rides an arrow, the enemy's horse will jump and even dare to laugh; when the enemy's horse gallops over and shoots an arrow, his soldiers will fall off their horses.
On average, they had to pay three times the number of casualties to kill an enemy Tangqi. As for capturing one alive, it was completely out of proportion. Since the confrontation, seventy-six of them had been injured, killed, or captured before they could capture even one alive.
This one enemy cavalry couldn't get anything out of him when he was tortured. He couldn't bear the torture at first. He said that he was an officer in the past and surrendered after being given a meal. He said whatever he asked.
It turned out that I didn't know which tendon was wrong. I was eating the bubble cakes well and got a few pieces of information, but suddenly I threw the bowl and wiped my neck while no one was paying attention.
This happened two days ago. Lin Chengdong was puzzled at first, until yesterday he saw a Tang soldier who had done meritorious service burning a simple small iron stove that he had never seen before outside the tent. The iron kettle heats tea.
The small furnace was quite simple to make. It consisted of three iron bars that were thin at the top and thick at the bottom, and a hollow round iron plate with three eyes. It got stuck as soon as it was put up. Lin Chengdong saw it in novelty and thought that this thing would be very useful on the battlefield. , just dig a hole and put it on the shelf, so he said more.
When I asked where it came from, I was told that it was from the enemy's Tangqi commander. He had seized it but did not report it.
There were dozens of small straw paper bags in the cowhide hip pouch, containing tea leaves, brown sugar or white sugar cubes, and salt cubes divided into small portions. Lin Chengdong was stunned when he saw this stuff, but didn't take it seriously. He also wondered how greedy the enemy knight was. enjoy.
Then I saw twelve small thin iron cups stacked on top of each other, and I almost had a cerebral hemorrhage.
The fucking Marshal's Mansion standard equipment?
He had even imagined in his mind that after a day's confrontation, the enemy's Tang soldiers had made gains. After taking turns to withdraw their troops, they happily rode to the back of the small sand dune away from the front line. They set up a small pot, sat around the fire, drank tea, and poured some water into their mouths. The picture of stuffed fried noodles and dried meat.
The comparison of supplies and materials was so bad that both sides were still considered border soldiers, so it was obvious which one was stronger and which one was weaker.
But he didn't know that the captured Marshal Futang soldier was a postman from Yan'an. He had been fighting in the northwest with Liu Chengzong for six years and had not made any achievements. This time he was captured and tortured first. When he couldn't stand it, he made up his mind to surrender.
Unfortunately, what I was served during the meal was dry biscuits that were so hard that they could cut people. The side dish was actually water, cold water.
Looking back on these years, Marshal Liu never fed him this stuff when he was most embarrassed. He had mixed feelings in his heart. He really couldn't figure out why he couldn't give someone something hot to drink, so he killed it himself because he couldn't think of it.
As for Lin Chengdong, he only believed in a dead end. Without the advantage of Tang Bing, there would be no real intelligence, so he regarded all the news reported from the outside as false news, saying: "Everything we have discovered is false. The idiot wanted me to wait and see."
"In my humble opinion, instead of just listening to the rumors and believing in the rumors, it is better not to believe anything, just block the high platform and do our best to defend ourselves."
Lin Chengdong spread his hands and said: "He comes as he comes and leaves as he goes. As long as we don't move, they have few artillery and the majestic formation cannot win. It's great to ask him to go around Ganzhou. As long as he leaves, the brigade of Tang soldiers will also follow. Wait Our Tang soldiers have the upper hand, so it won’t be too late to talk about war.”
He said a lot, but Li Hongsi remembered one word: "Master Pao?"
Marshal Li thought to himself, "What nonsense are you talking about?" He knew nothing about Liu Chengzong, but Li Hongsi was an expert on this artillery piece.
Then the thieves in northern Shaanxi can pull out a 300-pound Western cannon at every turn. What's the name of that cannon? It's called the Lion Cannon, made by Liu Chengzong! You said that Northwest Green Forest, who was born in artillery manufacturing, has few cannons?
Li Hongsi could now ask his servants to pull out ten lion cannons and crush them in Lin Chengdong's face. He captured one in Shaanxi two years ago. Later, he used it himself and felt good about it. He also copied twenty more lion cannons and continued to fight over the years. Ten doors were blown up, and there were still ten left.
Of course, this thing was not called a lion cannon in his hands. He gave it a majestic name, the Three Hundred Jin Pingthief Little General.
The earliest lion cannon in his hand was made by a fellow Shen Yikui after he occupied the security camp. At present, in Shaanxi, the most imitated lion cannons are this kind of early lion cannon.
This kind of cannon was first made by Gao Yingxiang and Shi Chengwo in Shanxi. Later, Liu Chengzong was not satisfied with the delivery. He wanted a 200-jin gun, and asked Gao Yingxiang to also use a 200-jin gun.
Gao Yingxiang listened to others' advice, so he also used the 200-jin regulation. The 300-jin cannon was later given away. Many leaders who were not so close believed that big means good and heavy means ruthless, so Shaanxi's There are basically two regulations for making red barbarian cannons: bronze cannons weigh 300 kilograms and iron cannons weigh 400 kilograms.
With the gun cart attached, it weighs six to seven hundred kilograms.
It's strange to say that Liu Chengzong's main consideration in design was transportation capacity. A 200-kilogram artillery cart weighed 400 kilograms. Using mules and horses was considered heavy labor. One mule could pull it on a good road, but two mules could pull it on a bad road.
But at the weight of six to seven hundred kilograms, two mules are enough to defeat them. However, this problem does not matter to other bandits.
Because others are not like him and dare to lead troops to roam the ground during the day. Other bandits hide during the day and go out at night, so they use oxen to pull cannons. One is enough.
Cows are particularly afraid of heat and will not walk during the hottest time of the day. Most bandits are also afraid of broad daylight, so using cows to fire cannons is just fine, but they just walk slower.
Shen Yikui is a special case. He is not afraid of daylight, but he is also not afraid of the army. He is not in a hurry when marching, and using oxen to pull cannons is not a problem.
As a result, the 300-pound lion cannon was particularly good for rogue bandits. It was not until the lion cannon was captured by the army that experienced generals felt that the design of the cannon was a bit stupid and its positioning was very embarrassing.
With its size, it can theoretically be used as small war guns such as Yongzhu, Huquan, Jiuweiyuan, and Jiu Mielu. It is responsible for a distance of 100 to 200 steps, and it can hit people without armor or wearing armor. The lethality brought by the weight gain and caliber is completely overflowing and is meaningless.
Large war guns such as General, Franji, Xinweiyuan, and Xinmieru are stronger than it in terms of power.
And bombarding fortifications and carrying out city defense are the tasks of attacking and defending guns, and it can't do it.
However, despite the discovery of such problems, in Li Hongsi's eyes, the Little General Ping Thief is still a very good artillery due to its excellent workmanship, solid materials, and reasonable design.
As for the disadvantages, they don't exist for him.
Because his method of using this gun is different from Liu Chengzong's. The normal method is to fire three pounds of ammunition, lay it flat for 190 steps, and it is very durable. It can be reloaded quickly seven or eight times for round fire.
Li Hongsi double-loaded, loading solid bullets first and then loose lead. The cavalry took a roundabout route and the infantry went in front. The position of the small battle gun was the same as that of the three-eyed gun and the bird gun. It was like a submachine gun.
A dozen cannons across the width of the front were used as cover in several batches to assist the infantry in advancing. When they got close, they fired only once, sweeping away scattered particles and crushing them with solid shells. The infantry advanced to twenty or thirty steps, with three-eyed blunderbuss and bird blunderbuss. The two lines of muskets formed were fired in turns, and the formation was basically broken in one round.
Artillery fire? It doesn't exist. The officers and soldiers of the Suppression of Thieves War also don't have a baggage team, so they can't carry so many artillery shells.
This experience made Li Hongsi very proud and said to Lin Chengdong and others: "Although the rebels have few artillery, their artillery is very good."
And Lin Chengdong said: "Commander, the information I got is that the enemy's General Qian has a thousand-jin cannon, and President Bai has a two-hundred-jin small cannon, and we, General Qian, also have a thousand-jin cannon, and the management team has a hundred-jin cannon. As long as they are fired close." , one cannon cannot suppress two."
Both of them had their own sources of intelligence, and they made inferences based on the information they had. Only Zhenyi Guerrilla Tang Mingshi didn't have any sources of intelligence, so he couldn't speak at all and could only stand aside and listen.
However, Tang Mingshi had a good grasp of the ordnance situation in the Marshal's Mansion. He finally found a place where his side had an advantage. The rebel army had only one cannon per hundred corps, while the official army had two cannons per hundred corps. Although these two The cannon is slightly less powerful, but it can suppress enemy artillery when placed close.
He remembered.
At this moment, some Tang soldiers rushed over in a hurry and reported to Li Hongsi: "Commander, the Tang soldiers on the front line have raised their flags. There are more than a thousand enemy troops riding nearly fifty miles away. They have not built a camp and are digging toilets." Pit, many toilet pits!”
The three generals knew immediately upon hearing this that the intelligence seemed to mean that the enemy was preparing to launch a surprise attack.
Excavation of toilet pits on a large scale, like eating in advance, is a necessary preparation for a raid. The soldiers solved their personal problems first and will not delay the subsequent battle.
Lin Chengdong said: "It's fake, don't worry about him."
Li Hongsi was not so sure, and frowned: "Even if it is fake, we have to be on guard. What if they come around from the foot of the southern mountain to behind our army and cut off the food road? You can leave the north side alone, but you can't ignore the south side. .”
Tang Mingshi thought for a moment and then said: "Commander, then I will stop them, fight them in a place full of ditches, and put their artillery closer before hitting them."
Lin Chengdong felt something was wrong when he heard it, but he and Tang Mingshi neither had a subordinate relationship nor were they in the same defense area. However, Li Hongsi was still worried about the south, so he could only persuade him: "General Tang, all we see are them What you want us to see...if you must go, bring more troops and horses, the enemy may not only have a thousand cavalry."
Li Hongsi also warned: "General Lin is right, you need to bring more troops and horses. If the enemy is outnumbered and we are outnumbered, we should retreat quickly and think of other ways."
Tang Mingshi clasped his fists heavily: "General, don't worry, I know what I'm doing!"
