On the south bank of the Dawen River, in the Guishan Highlands, early morning on November 24th.
The sound of cannons still sounded sporadicly, never stopping. The name Guishan is actually a small mound. Below the Guishan Highlands, there is a lively scene of the army spreading out and preparing for battle. Hundreds of sidecars formed a square military formation around Guishan. All the sidecars were pushed to their sides, and the large shields originally mounted on the cars were removed and placed side by side with the overturned cars. Some grain trucks were also pulled over to make up the numbers, and they were also rolled over. Come here and place them with the chariot and shield.
The body and the shield are fixed with buckles, and a triangular support pole is placed behind it. Ultra-long spears that were more than eight feet long were also mounted on the car body and shield, with their sharp spear points pointed forward, turning the vehicle formation into a hedgehog formation.
The soldiers in the car camp each had a shovel in their hands at this time, and everyone was sweating profusely as they dug and piled earth.
Under the bombardment of enemy artillery, the wooden body and shield were vulnerable. It must be filled with soil and reinforced!
Unfortunately, it's freezing cold right now! Not only was the surface of the Dawen River frozen solid, but the land around Guishan was also frozen. The shovel was pushed in hard and could only scoop up a very small amount of soil.
But the Ming army was still working like crazy. No matter whether it was chariots, infantry, cavalry or artillery, no one had a rest from yesterday day to now.
Not to mention how useful their efforts were, but this kind of energy could not be compared to the Ming army in the past - well, it can't be said that, more than two hundred years ago, there were still such hard-working Ming armies.
At the end of the day and night, the eyes of Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu, Zuo Maodi and Huang Degong were all red. The four people were sitting in the tent of the main camp on the hillside of Guishan Mountain, listening to the army staff reporting on the losses of the rearguard units.
"Superintendent, we have already counted, at least 1,200 people have not returned..."
Shi Kefa sighed: "Have you written down the list?"
"Remember everything!"
"It's time to collect the list," Shi Kefa said. "They all fought for justice to protect Confucius. These are Confucian saints, and they will all be worthy of enjoying the Confucius Temple in the future... If we can find their family members, We will also give them a piece of land in Shandong and protect Confucius from generation to generation!"
Shi Kefa is a handsome scholar!
Of course we have to use Confucian principles to inspire people! The Qufu Training Army was established to protect Confucius. Now they have fought bloody battles with the Qing Emperor Ama's army for the tomb of Confucius. This is martyrdom for defending religion. They are all great Confucians! It is appropriate to be canonized as a saint and to have a Confucius Temple - after this war is over, the Confucius Temple will probably become a Martyrs' Shrine soon. How many tablets of saints and great Confucians will be placed in it?
There are so many saints and great Confucians like this, it is obvious that Confucianism is flourishing! How happy Confucius would be!
"Supervisor, the ground is frozen, and the brothers below have been digging all night in vain." Then another soldier reported the construction status of the fortifications.
Shi Kefa glanced at Huang Degong, and Huang Degong said: "Then stop digging, rest for a while, and have a good meal!"
Shi Kefa nodded: "That's it...have a good meal, white flour pancakes rolled with salted pork, and one or two drinks per person."
"Here."
Immediately, a staff member in charge of food for the three armies responded and went down to make arrangements.
Shi Kefa then asked: "When will the emperor arrive?"
"We can arrive as soon as tonight."
"As long as the emperor's soldiers arrive, we will win for sure!"
"That's right, the Donglu are worth at most fifty thousand, and we have more than forty thousand on hand. The emperor can also recruit more than thirty thousand, and the total number is at least eighty thousand. How can we win?"
"If we win, we will have made a great contribution!"
Shi Kefa nodded and looked at the sky again. It was still early morning. It seemed that there would be a hard battle during the day!
.......
A watchtower truck set up a watchtower outside Baijiazhuang, seven or eight miles away from Guishan Highland. Since the Ming army occupied the high ground first, Dorgon's Qing army had to form an array on the flat ground. In order to get a better line of sight to observe the opponent's formation and dispatch, he had several watchtower trucks modified from grain trucks.
Under the white Zhengbai flag, Dorgon held a monocular and scanned the Guishan battlefield.
The terrain of the Guishan battlefield consists of mountains, water, villages, and woods. The mountain is the Guishan highland, which is right in the center of the battlefield. It is not very high, but you can look down at the battlefield from a high position. The water is the Dawen River, which has been frozen, just like nothing else.
As for the villages, there are three or four, but they have all been abandoned, leaving only ruins - this area has been a battlefield during the Ming and Qing Dynasties in the past two or three years, so naturally there are no ordinary people living there.
The woods are concentrated on the east side of the battlefield. Behind Lizhuang and Niujiazhuang is a large forest.
Now the Ming army is guarding the mountain with its back to the water, while the Qing army has occupied four villages, including Xiaowangzhuang, Baijiacun, Lizhuang, and Niujiacun, and has spread out a front of about twenty miles opposite Guishan.
The reason for opening such a large front is that Dorgon's army is mainly based on cavalry and mounted infantry, which requires a large space for movement. It does not need and cannot form too dense a formation.
On the other hand, in order to control the two strongholds of Lizhuang and Niujia Village, and at the same time control the large woods behind the two villages - Dorgon hid part of his troops in and behind the woods to serve as Strange soldiers.
This time he brought a total of 139 Old Eight Banners Niulu (including the Eight Banners Han Army and the Eight Banners Mongolia) and 105 Zhenglv Banner Niulu. Together with the coated minions of Lao Eight Banners Niulu, the total force reached more than 78,000 people (excluding Bao Bao). There are still more than 67,000 people in Yiyi). But he hid one-third of them, nearly 26,000 people, in and behind the woods. Only more than 50,000 people were shown to the Ming army.
The Ming army that formed the chariot formation numbered approximately 40,000 people. They used vehicles and shields to form a large square formation, which looked like a castle from a distance. The height of the "castle" is very low, less than one person tall. There are countless spears sticking out from the top of the "castle". The tips of the spears glow coldly in the sun, which is a bit scary.
"King Pingnan, you have been on the front lines of Shandong and Henan in the past two years and have fought many battles with the Qufu army. What do you think of their car formation?"
After Dorgon finished speaking, he greeted Shang Kexi, King of Pingnan, who was riding a horse and standing under the watchtower carriage.
Shang Kexi is now one of the three banner lords of Zhengluqing, and he has also been granted the title of King Pingnan. The palace is not in Shandong, but in Shangqiu, Henan. However, Henan has been relatively quiet in the past two years, so Shang Kexi has frequently sent troops to Shandong, and is an old rival with Qufu Lianjun.
Shang Kexi, who was wearing a green helmet and green armor, climbed up to the observation tower and stood hunkered down next to Dorgon - he was a big man, more than a circle bigger than Dorgon, so he had to shrink a little to appear humble and polite.
"Huang Ama," Shang Kexi also took out the telescope and looked at it, and then said, "The car formation is just like that. The cavalry can't rush through it, and it's difficult to attack with infantry, but it can't help but bombard it unless it can be filled up. Soil. But it's cold today and the ground is frozen. It has to be burned before digging. They don't have time to burn the soil, so they can only resist our cannons.
However, the army training in Qufu is very fierce, and Huang Degong's Huaibei soldiers are not easy to fight. We must be careful. "
Dorgon nodded: "I have also heard of Qufu's reputation for military training...it is invulnerable! But between yesterday morning and this morning, didn't we still kill more than a thousand people? We just How much was the loss? Less than 300 people."
The combat effectiveness of the Lao Eight Banners is still very strong, and Qufu's military training is no match. Moreover, Dorgon also used cannons!
"That's it," Shang Kexi immediately complimented, "How can they be Huang Ama's opponents? Once Huang Ama takes action, any army training in Qufu or any new army to overcome difficulties will be completely wiped out!"
Dorgon laughed loudly, laughed a few times, and waved his hand: "Let's start! Beat them hard, and let them know how powerful our Qing artillery team is!"
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