Chapter 171: Li Hongzhang’s sudden attack (2)
The Huai army relied on the river to guard the line. Ding Baozhen, the governor of Shandong, was very annoyed and urgently told Li Hongzhang: The idea of opening up the Jiao Lai River was initiated by the people of the Yuan Dynasty, and it was over within a few years. It was tried many times during the Ming Dynasty, but it was not navigable in the end. Why? The water is very shallow! On the northern edge of the Jiao Lai River, near the mouth of the sea, there are shallow sand dunes, and it is impossible to build a wall. If the thieves break through here, cross the Wei River and march westward to Wei County, Master Li's river defense strategy will be in vain in an instant!
Li Hongzhang received a letter from Ding Baozhen, urgently ordering Pan Dingxin's troops to move south and fortify themselves; Pan's troops at the Weihe River were left to be defended by Wang Xin'an's troops of the Lu army.
Lai Wenguang and Ren Zhudu led the Eastern Nian Army across the canal and marched eastward across Qilu. In late June, they crossed the Jiao Lai River and divided their troops into several groups to besiege Zhaoyuan, Qixia, Huangxian and Penglai. Lai Wenguang led an army by himself. Arrive directly at the outskirts of Yantai.
Taoist priest Pan Fei, deputy general Deng Qiyuan, county magistrate Wu Enrong and other governors led Jinyong, Fuyong, Lianyong and more than a hundred British and French troops, each holding foreign guns and relying on the forts in the mountain passes and Shiwei, to fight to the death.
Not long after, Ding Baozhen led 10,000 troops, crossed the Jiao Lai River, and joined the battle group.
The army city of Dongnian was not conquered, so they came back to support the enemy. They blocked the enemy from the front and resisted from the back, but they were unable to catch up. Lai Wenguang saw that the situation was not good, so he summoned the kings to discuss where to go.
Li Yuntai, king of Wei, said: "This corner is surrounded by the sea on three sides, so it is difficult to get around. To the west of the Jiao Lai River, the Huai demons are densely populated. We cannot stay here for a long time."
King Lu Renzhu said: "What's so difficult about this!" The army marched westward, chose shallow water, crossed over with horses, and left the Qingyao behind.
Lai Wenguang said: According to reports, the southern section of the Jiao Lai River, north of Mawankou, and near the mouth of the sea, is difficult to remove sand. When the tide comes, the sand remains as before. When the tide recedes, it can be crossed by wading; Laiyang and Jimo are also fertile areas. Place. The army marched south, collected food and supplies, and crossed the river to attack westward.
Ren Zhu said: "The land of Penglai in Dengzhou has thousands of flags at sunrise and thousands of lanterns at sunset. It is an excellent place, but it is a pity." The entrance to the sea in the north of the Jiao Lai River should also be crossable.
Lai Wenguang said: "Ding Baozhen and Pan Fei are very powerful demons. We will use them to our advantage. As the stalemate lasts for a long time, the Huai demons will cross eastward and they will never be able to stop them." The shape of the army is impermanent, and the power of the water is impermanent. The army moves south to chase away the tired demons, seizes the opportunity to encircle and annihilate them, and crosses the river to the west.
Li Yuntai said: To the west of the Jiao Lai River, the clear demons gather. After swimming across it, where will I go?
Lai Wenguang said: Move quickly south, enter Shelu and attack the Soviet Union, attack from the south and attack the north, choose the opportunity to cross the canal, march all the way west, enter Shaanxi and join forces with the king of Liang.
On August 1, 1867, Lai Wenguang and Ren Zhu led their troops south to Laiyang and Jimo, but failed to forcibly cross the Jiao Lai River. They quickly went north and forcibly crossed the Jiao Lai River at the beach outside the Temple of the Sea. They marched westward and then crossed the Wei River, breaking through the Jiao Lai River in one fell swoop. Laihe Line of Defense.
An army of 40,000 men guarded the Jiao Lai River west, and tried every means to manage it, but it turned out to be a piece of cake. Li Hongzhang was full of resentment and angrily accused Ding Baozhen of ignoring the river defense, advancing alone and acting wantonly. The king of the Lu army was at peace with his troops. The embankment wall was not completed, causing thieves to overflow. If he did not kill him, it would not be enough to serve as a warning to others.
Ding Baozhen was also angry and accused Li Hongzhang of guarding the river defense instead of making progress. He changed defenses before the battle, which delayed the military aircraft.
Commander-in-Chief Wang Xin'an hurriedly said: Master Ding, please calm down. The bandits first moved to transport the defense, and then crossed the Wei defense. They are all delinquent duties. Master Ding, please do not delay the military event by killing someone in our district.
Ding Baozhen said: "The thousand-mile canal is defenseless. Is it your fault alone? The place where your army is currently guarding was originally the floodplain area of Pan Ding. Changing defenses in the face of battle is difficult to do in a hurry." I am not a brother of the Zeng family, so I blindly favored and pushed the blame and allowed Li Hongzhang to do whatever he wanted. How can we allow thieves to ravage the sacred land of Eastern Shandong? I will go to the Emperor Shu and the Empress Dowager. It is difficult to block Jiaolai for three hundred miles, and there is no guarantee of transportation for more than a thousand miles. Please order us to withdraw the transportation defense immediately and drive the province. outside.
Ding Baozhen wanted to withdraw the defense, but Li Hongzhang was angry and tried again: withdrawing the defense to show weakness, abandoning danger to aid the enemy, and even ordering to confuse the army's morale. These are all taboos for military strategists. Moreover, once the twist is restored to the west, it will cause endless poison in several provinces. Now that the envoy has stopped and there is another way to control the thief, I must stop quickly. If there is no way to control the thief, it seems that it is better to defend and defend if you can, fight if you can, and use all your strength to wait for the opportunity.
After Hongzhang finished, he urgently ordered Liu Bingzhang's troops to swim across the canal from Taierzhuang and join the Zhejiang army to defend Qingjiang.
Li and Ding slandered each other. Cixi was displeased and told Prince Gong Yixin: "Who caused the delay in the battle of Yinlong River? Can the Military Aircraft Department find out?"
Prince Gong Yixin said: "I reported to the Empress Dowager and checked the correspondence between the Ting and Ming armies. It turned out that Liu Mingchuan was eager to seize the victory and took the lead in attacking."
Empress Dowager Ci'an said: In the battle of Yinlong River, Li Hongzhang did not care about right and wrong, and protected and connived; now he blindly defended the river and allowed thieves to interfere with the incident.
Empress Dowager Cixi said: If we withdraw our defenses, the wind will overflow to the west. If we join forces with the Shaanxi-Gansu rebel bandits again, we will be in serious trouble again. Li Hongzhang's river defense policy cannot be changed. However, Li Hongzhang had a taboo intention, asked for personal blame, and reversed right and wrong; not punishing him was not enough to correct his ministers' principles. Ding Baozhen did not abide by military orders and acted arbitrarily, which is also hateful. Ding Baozhen resigned from his post immediately, and Li Hongzhang handed it over to the ministry for discussion. Both of them stayed temporarily to suppress bandits to see the aftermath.
Yi Xin said: According to the Empress Dowager, Zuo Zongtang's troops entered Shaanxi, and the Qin city of Xi'an was safe for the time being. However, Zhang Ni's bandits fled north to the Fuping area and spread again.
Empress Dowager Cixi said: The land of Fuping is bordered by the Wei River in the south, Luoshui River and Yellow River in the east, Jing River in the west, and mountains in the north. Quickly tell Zuo Zongtang to immediately dispatch good generals and heavy troops to surround the traitor in a small corner of Fuping and look for opportunities to encircle and annihilate him.
Zeng Guofan heard about Li and Ding's discord and wrote a letter to urge them: if the brothers are fighting against each other, the overall situation will be in trouble; to make up for it, think about changes as soon as possible.
Li Hongzhang also knew that the suppression of Ni was a serious matter, so he ordered all troops from Lai to defend themselves. He also ordered Liu Mingchuan, Pan Dingxin, Li Zhaoqing and other five traveling divisions to gather 50,000 troops to secretly pursue the suppression. He also sent a petition to the Governor of Zhili. Liu Changyou and Minister of Commerce Chonghou of Sankou assisted in guarding the Yellow River, while Governor Zhang Zhiwan of Water Transport guarded the Liutang River in northern Jiangsu.
After Li Hongzhang finished his orders and comments, he wrote another urgent letter to examine his own mistakes. He rushed six hundred miles away and sent it to Ding Baozhen.
Ding Baozhen received Hongzhang's good news and borrowed donkeys from the slope to guard the Jiaolai River defense with 10 battalions of troops. The 20 battalions of troops pursued and suppressed the rebel bandits. This was indeed the purpose of driving the rebels out of Lu, and the original intention was selfish. After that, the bandits were suppressed. When things happen, Mr. Li must take the lead.
After the Eastern Nian Army swam across the Wei River, Lai Wenguang divided a part of his army to advance westward, pretending to attack and defend. Lai Wenguang marched south from the leader's army, passing through Weixian, Anqiu, Zhucheng, Juxian, and Rizhao, and entered Jiangsu. He crossed the canal to the west at Pizhou, Suqian, Shuyang and other places. He was first stubbornly resisted by the river defense armies of Yao Guangwu and Cheng Wenbing. It was intercepted by the pursuing troops of Liu Mingchuan and Pan Dingxin. Lai Wenguang had no choice but to return to Shandong, passed Linyi, and entered Yanzhou. He failed to cross the canal to the west, and then went north to swim across the Yellow River, which also failed. It was early autumn, with continuous rain, rivers swollen, food shortages, and military morale in chaos.
King Zun Lai Wenguang was unable to return to heaven, and he was worried and confused.
King Renzhu of Lu said: "Qi Zundian, this corner is in embarrassment, we must find another place to go!"
Lai Wenguang said: There are rivers in the west and north, and the Huai demon occupies the south; follow the old path, go east and tire the enemy, return to the horse and shoot, choose the opportunity to encircle and annihilate Liu Mingchuan's demon army, and then break into the luck defense; enter Shaanxi and Gansu in the west, join the Liang King, and then pursue a great cause.
After Lai Wen's words, he wrote several letters in blood and sent them to Shaanxi.
When Lai Wenguang wrote a blood letter asking for help, Liang Wang Zhang Zongyu, Youwo Wang Zhang Yujue, Huai Wang Qiu Yuancai and others were wandering around a corner of Fuping, Shaanxi.
Zhang Yujue said: His Royal Highness, King Liang, entered Shaanxi last year. He first fought in Huazhou and set up an ambush to attack. In the second battle at Baqiao, he made a sound to the east and attacked in the west. He showed that he was invincible from the north to the south. Fuping is surrounded by mountains and rivers, with criss-crossing roads, so there must be a place to suppress monsters.
Zhang Zongyu said: The way to use troops is to show them with softness and meet them with hardness. Show them with weakness and take advantage of them with strength. However, there are no more than three things. If you go beyond three, it will be clear. The three demons Liu Songshan, Guo Baochang, and Huang Ding gathered and dispersed freely, advancing day and night, and their troops were fierce, making it difficult to stop them. Zuo demon Zongtang came again with ten thousand troops, and came fiercely. If we are not careful, we will be completely destroyed.
Zhang Yujue said: "We have exhausted the enemy and destroyed powerful monsters many times. Why not repeat this method now and suppress the monster offensive?"
Zhang Zongyu said: "Mountains and rivers block the way, making walking difficult." To the north of Fuping, there are barren mountains and wild ridges, which are desolate and uninhabited, and it is impossible to raise food and supplies; the autumn flood is coming, and the Jing River surges, making it difficult to cross the west. Liu Dian's demon troops are stationed in Lintong, and Gao Liansheng's demon troops are stationed in Xianyang and strangle the Wei River, making it difficult to cross the south. The two demon tribes Liu Songshan and Guo Baochang moved to Pucheng, cut off the Luoshui River and choked the Yellow River, making it difficult to move eastward.
Zhang Yujue said: "The Jingshui River meanders for thousands of miles, and there are many gentle places on the river bed. There must be a crossing."
Qiu Yuancai said: "Liu Xiaozhong's demon tribe is stationed on the west bank of the Jingshui River and is waiting for us to enter the urn."
Zhang Zongyu said: "The only plan for now is to go west. What can Liu Yao's mere three thousand soldiers do to me?" After passing on my military order, the army crossed the Jing River to the west, turned and ran south, and then went to Hubei and Henan at an opportunity to join King Zun and plan for a great cause.
