I left on Sunday, feeling very satisfied.
Liu Chengzong's troops went all the way east to the Gaotai Oasis, and a siege of Che Ying Boring began.
The tactics of Gansu Deputy Commander-in-Chief Li Hongsi were not complicated. He was a veteran. Except that he had never fought in Gansu, his military experience was impeccable. When he saw Tang Mingshi asking for help, he knew that he had made a mistake and should not allow Tang Mingshi to fight. .
But the mistake had been made, and all Li Hongsi could do was make up for it. Since it was difficult for him to defeat Tang Tong quickly and Gao Ying was still on his side, he had to find a way to pull Tang Mingshi out.
But this seemed to be too much of a disadvantage. Just as Gansu General Yang Jiamo led his troops from Ganzhou, Li Hongsi decided to have a big event. Regardless of whether there were reinforcements behind Gao Yingdeng, he would prepare as if there were reinforcements. , used a car camp to stop them, sent troops from Gaotai to the south, and quickly swallowed up Gao Yingdeng.
The general of the car camp he sent out was Lin Chengdong, the Ganzhou Road Counselor. This was a military officer whose hometown was in Xi'an Prefecture. He was also experienced and had led the car camp to participate in the battle against Chahar.
In Li Hongsi's design, Lin Chengdong's mission was the top priority for whether the plan could be achieved. Lin Chengdong himself knew very well that his car camp was pulled out to carry the front line.
The main military thought of Cheying is to defend first and then fight. First, make yourself in an invincible position and then wait for opportunities.
Even though Gansu's camp is not as good as Liaodong in terms of supplies, a full camp there has nearly 7,000 people, while Lin Chengdong's camp has only 4,000 people. However, the ratio of food and grass is the same, and they are all prepared according to the forty days without supplies. .
The vehicle camp is just a piece of equipment. The army is still based on infantry and cavalry, which has poor mobility and is very expensive. This is because a large number of vehicles bring extraordinary transportation capabilities, allowing them to carry a large number of artillery under the same troop strength. , rockets and grain quantity.
Lin Chengdong is not confident in this action, but he is not afraid either.
After the defeat in the first battle, their understanding of the Marshal's Army was updated. The lack of heavy artillery was still a weakness, but they were strong in building forts and light firearms.
Lin Chengdong's combat purpose was to hold back the Marshal's army and create opportunities for the main force to annihilate Gao Yingdeng's troops.
Therefore, there is nothing much to say about the situation when the two armies meet. The responses of both sides are very routine and formulaic operations.
Lin Chengdong's carriage camp received a report from Tangqi during the march. Two horse battalions of the Marshal's Army swept in from west to east and immediately stopped. The cavalry in the camp moved forward to delay time. The carriage camp was deployed on the spot, trenches were dug and artillery positions were set up.
Liu Chengzong's four battalions were at the vanguard. The first to engage with the carriage battalion was Zhang Tianlin's cavalry. The two sides clashed for a while.
Zhang Tianlin ran the fastest because his mission was to assist Gao Yingdeng. When he was two miles away from the carriage camp, he took a look at the carriage camp and realized that the carriage camp was not his target. He immediately led his troops to leave and replaced Feng Yu and Wei in the rear. Qian'er's two battalions came to fight.
Lin Chengdong's carriage camp set up a position and immediately fired artillery fire at the marshal's troops who entered one mile away from the carriage camp to cover the cavalry's return to camp. Wei Qian'er and Feng Rui decided to use artillery to fight back and tried to approach the formation. After failure, they changed tactics. Dig trenches and build walls on the spot to surround them.
Lin Chengdong was also happy to see this. If the enemy built a wall, the camp would be safe in a short period of time. He could also achieve the strategic goal of holding back the enemy's main force and wait for the army behind to gather.
Li Hongsi's idea was very good. His army would cover the battlefields in the west and south, and build a large number of high fortifications so that they could safely wait until Yang Jiamo arrived.
It's just that he ignored a small problem. Liu Chengzong's army to lure the enemy was not just Gao Yingdeng, but Gao Yingdeng and Mo Yujing.
On the battlefield at this time, Mo Yujing was leading the army to move south.
Mo Yujing was originally a staff general of the Lutang Battalion. He was promoted to the deputy commander-in-chief of Xining in Gansu due to the counter-insurgency war in Shaanxi. The soldiers were seriously war-weary and were transferred to Hehuang just in time to catch up with the peasant uprising in Hehuang. Then the Marshal's Office sent troops and he had no soldiers. There were no generals, but a group of chieftains who had been weakened by the Ming Dynasty surrendered before the Hehuang War started.
After the surrender, Mo Yujing did not work hard at the Marshal's Mansion. He did not give lectures to the officers in the academy and did not interfere with the military affairs of Huben Camp. But other than that, he had no other choice, because Mo Yujing The situation is similar to Wang Chengen. They are both from Xining.
The dust of the Hehuang War was settled, and the entire Hehuang became the territory of the Marshal's Mansion. They were all loyal ministers from generation to generation, and they couldn't bear to do things for Liu Chengzong neatly. They rebelled, and the Marshal's Mansion's policies in Hehuang were very popular, so they just I can cooperate passively to alleviate my own embarrassment.
Later, Mo Yujing was given the official position of Brigade Commander of the Tunmu Brigade, and he began to let himself go. He simply squatted in Delingha and led the Chahar and Heshuote battalions to herd horses and sheep, and did not interfere with the affairs of the Marshal's Mansion. .
However, although Mo Yujing did not interfere with the affairs of the commander-in-chief, he did a good job in controlling the military and political affairs in the Gobi.
He built the brigade commander's office in Delingha, with the office as the center to manage the pasture and cultivated land of the two battalions, and cooperated with several chieftains to recruit Fuyi and Fuyi people between Delingha, Golmud, Dulan Mountain and Wulan Mountain. Roads and bridges were built, fields were dug, canals were dug, and salt fields were mined. The work was done very impressively.
This also suited Liu Shishi's wishes. Mo Yujing, the brigade commander who originally asked Mo Yujing to lead the Tuntian Middle Brigade, did not expect him to do anything. The main purpose was to contain each other.
Mo and Jing are in charge of the Mongols. If the Mongols want to rebel, Mo and Jing will do it. If Mo and Beijing want to rebel, the Mongols will do it. The interest demands of the two sides are fundamentally different, and no one can want to rebel.
This expedition originally had nothing to do with Mo Yujing. It was the Chahar Battalion's staff generals and the Heshuote battalion's staff generals Dorji Taiji who had accomplished their studies at the Xincheng Academy. They wanted to go to war, so they sent the brigade to Take Shuai Mo and Jing with you.
It is said to be a brigade, but in fact there are only more than 4,000 people, 90% of whom are Keshote and Chahar. It is basically a Mongolian reinforced battalion.
By this time, Mo Yujing was the one who most hoped that the Marshal's Mansion would win, because this expedition severely damaged the vitality of the Mongolian camp from Golmud to Wulan Mountain. If he could not win, everything he had done before would be almost lost.
The Heshuote Battalion of the Marshal's Mansion was an elite group selected from the Oirat's southern invading army, but its personnel composition determined that they were not a tribe, but the herdsmen and combat soldiers of the Heshuote Department of the Tianshan Mountains.
This is true for the six Mongolian battalions under the Marshal's Mansion. Even if all of them are on horseback, the lack of support personnel means that some of these cavalrymen need to spend time walking, brushing, drinking, and serving horses every day.
At best, they said that all the people were in the army, but in fact the price of all the war was that production was stagnant. No one herded sheep, no one herded horses, and no one farmed the land.
At first, Mo Yujing received an order to occupy the upper reaches of the Heihe River and build a dam. Later, he received an order from Liu Chengzong to lead his army south to attack Gaotai.
It was quite frightening to lead such an army and execute the order to attack the Ming army's fortress.
However, Mo Yujing, who thought there would be a fierce battle, ran to the high platform in a hurry, only to find a scene that made him happy - hey, no one!
Forget that Liu Chengzong's main force had not arrived, there was no one in the Qianhu Station on Gaotai, and there was no one in the fortifications of Luotuo City. Only the camp and fortress with crisscrossed ravines was left. Encounter a decent enemy.
Of course, Mo Yujing did see the small group of Ming troops. They were on the piers of the Great Wall forts along the Heihe River. From the Eighth Dam Fort to the Fourth Dam Fort, there were dozens of scattered defenders in each fort. , firing off beacon cannons endlessly.
But Mo Yujing didn't care. Anyway, they were already discovered when the beacon went off, so it didn't matter if they fired two more times.
He ignored the beacon forts that had been transferred to garrison, and rushed into the Gaotai Qianhu Station. He did three things that day. The first was to tell Liu Chengzong that the Gaotai had been captured; and then he immediately left the Gaotai and led his troops to Li Hong. Later, he built a defensive position in Luotuo City; finally he ordered the reconstruction of the defensive position.
Mo Yujing knew very well that with his reinforced Mongolian battalion, which didn't even have a few cannons, it was okay to fight and move quickly with its horse power, but it was wishful thinking to use positional warfare to defend Qianhusuo on the high platform.
So he only asked Ruitu Taiji to plant a flag on the high platform, then turned around and asked people to clean up the rags left by the Ming army and come out. The gunpowder, winter clothes, horse grass, tools and even iron pots in the city were all swept away. Sitting in the defensive position carefully built by Li Hongsi outside Luotuo City.
Li Hongsi's position is good, but it is not suitable for Mo Yujing.
The Ming army's position consisted of a camp on the inside, a low wall in the middle, and two trenches on the outside. One layer blocked horses and iron caltrops, which was suitable and strong for the Ming army.
The two trenches were covered with large barbs, leaving only a few empty spaces for people to stand. These empty spaces were not for soldiers to defend the trenches, but as observation posts for the artillery.
There is a reason why the Ming army often called cannons blunderbuss, because they used the cannons as blunderbuss. Sometimes they even installed more cannons than blunderbuss. Loading gunpowder, stuffing projectiles, aiming and shooting in rows were blunderbuss. That's right.
Only artillery cannot be fired in trenches, so this kind of trench position will appear. Several people observe the enemy's situation in the trench bunker and direct the artillery team to aim.
Mo Yujing didn't have a cannon. He was a general of the Ming army and was familiar with the Ming army's tactics.
There was a trend in the Marshal's Mansion that the Mongolian soldiers were weak and the Han soldiers were strong, but in his eyes this was not the case. How much difference could there be between people? People cannot be separated from the environment, just as warfare cannot be separated from weapons and equipment.
This method of trench defense is meaningless to his Mongolian soldiers. Even if they hide in the camp, they will be suppressed to death by artillery fire when the Ming army attacks, because they have no artillery.
So he had people pull out all the wooden thorns in the inner trench and bury them directly on the flat ground between the two trenches. He selected nearly half of the soldiers without armor to get into the trench as a bunker to release arrows.
In fact, the most confused person on the battlefield was Yang Jiamo, the commander-in-chief of Gansu Province who led the newly recruited Ganzhou Army in the east. He wondered why the beacon kept sounding?
In fact, at this point in the war, the method of conveying military information, such as beacon cannons and beacon fire, was meaningless.
This is an early warning device. It beeps endlessly, and the rear cannot distinguish the information. Yang Jiamo only knows where an enemy army must be stationed, but no one knows where exactly it is stationed, so his marching speed is very slow. , for fear that someone would steal the army.
In fact, the soldiers of these two newly recruited Ganzhou battalions are from the Ganzhou Five Guards. Although in addition to the banner army, there are also young people of appropriate age from all walks of life, it is difficult to find idle people in Gansu who have nothing to do with the military.
After all, this is not a province, but a military region.
But this is a good thing and a bad thing for Yang Jiamo. The good thing is that recruiting soldiers in Gansu is very simple. There are many young people of the right age who are not physically disabled and have certain military knowledge, so they are good candidates for military service.
The bad part is that Yang Jiamo must ensure that they survive as much as possible.
As the saying goes, the poor are rich in literature and rich in martial arts, and practicing martial arts costs money, but the money is not spent on explicit expenses such as food and drink. During the Wanli period, the income of a long-term worker was enough to support a young martial artist to eat a chicken for three days, or half a day. A pound of beef costs only four silver coins a month.
The real cost of being poor in literature and rich in martial arts is that this young man needs to get out of work, practice in the summer and practice in the winter, and practice a skill that will only be used a few times in his life.
In the peaceful years like the Wanli Dynasty, when there were only one or two border conflicts a year, practicing such a skill would be too stressful for ordinary people's families... mainly because it was useless.
People of normal age will be soldiers all their lives, and there are many people who have never fought in a war.
In the final analysis, the promotion channel for martial arts is very narrow in normal times, but it is different for literature. Even if you cannot be an official, you can still engage in other professions and earn a good income and social status. It is a good tool for making a living, and martial arts is more Like a hobby.
For ordinary people, making a living is practical, while hobbies are luxurious.
These young soldiers were not soldiers no matter how close they were to the battlefield before this. They would eventually become more like soldiers after fighting one or two battles.
What Yang Jiamo fears most now is that an enemy army will appear on the way and step on their faces with horse hooves, frightening them on the spot and running into the desert to become bandits.
Yang Jiamo has no veterans at the moment, and the general military battalion is in Zhuanglanghe. He has no intention of using these two battalions as the main force. He just wants to use these two battalions as reserve troops. However, something happened at this juncture - Gaotai Qianhu Station. Why was a Tartar spear inserted?
He did not wonder for too long, and soon the soldiers boarded the empty Qianhu Station on the high platform and took down the Chahar Black Paper that Ruitu Taiji had placed on the city. Then the news of the Tang soldiers from all walks of life reached Yang Jiamo in the ears.
The whole battlefield is like a race.
Tang Mingshi reunited with Li Hongsi, and the two chased Gao Yingdeng and ran eastward. Behind them, Zhang Tianlin pursued him like crazy. Four thousand Tatars under the Camel City seized the fortifications, and there was a full car camp. The big man was surrounded in the middle of the battlefield.
Yang Jiamo quickly realized the danger, not only because his plan to block the Marshal's Mansion rebels to the west of Zhangye failed tremendously and was completely ruined.
The key is that Gansu's official and military forces were torn out of shape in the first conflict, and the east and west were disconnected, while the main enemy force had not yet appeared on the battlefield.
Standing at the top of Qianhusuo City on Gaotai, Yang Jiamo heard Wang Xingshan, the deputy commander-in-chief of Ganzhou's newly recruited Zuoying, ask: "Commander, can you save General Lin?"
Should we save Lin Chengdong?
To be honest, Yang Jiamo wanted to save him. Even if he didn't talk about his subordinates or the four thousand troops, a car battalion could play the role of a battlefield fulcrum in the upcoming decisive battle.
But he still shook his head slowly: "If the energy consumption of the car camp can be sustained, let's look at him first."
Yang Jiamo was talking about Liu Chengzong: "Let's see if he can save the two camps to the east."
good afternoon!
(End of chapter)
