There is a small castle on the bank of the Hara River, a tributary of the Liao River, called Hara Fort, which happens to be stuck on the official road leading to Shengjing. The wide official road passes through the castle, and there is a sea of golden wheat on both sides that makes people anxious to look at it.
Now is the time for the busy autumn harvest, but only less than a quarter of the ripe wheat in the fields has been harvested. It seems that most of this season's wheat will rot in the ground and be used as fertilizer... This It's because most of the strong laborers in the farms on both sides of the Liao River followed Doni to join the army and fight!
At this time, the low-slung Harabao Castle has raised a high and fluttering white banner - this is the banner of the Qing Regent Prince Doni of Yu, and it is also the highest symbol of strength of the three-pronged Qing Dynasty.
There is only one street in the small castle. At this time, there are large groups of Qing army infantry in white clothes and white armor, as well as bronze cannons imported from Spain or imitated from the arsenal in Vladivostok, drawn by mules and horses, rumbling from the Hara Fort. pass through. From officers to ordinary soldiers, everyone was sweating profusely, but they had no intention of stopping.
The white team stretched from the end of the great plain south of Hara Fort to the end of the plain north of the castle, as if there was no end.
It seemed like they were the only ones left on the entire plain around Hala Fort. There was no working farmer in the wheat fields that had only been harvested a quarter, and there was no sound of smoke from the villages near the fortress. It seemed as if Dhoni's army was passing through an abandoned land.
Prince Regent Donny himself was also wearing a white arrow jacket with narrow sleeves. He stood on the top of Hara Fort, looking around with a telescope, his face getting greener and greener.
The reason why he turned blue was that the bannermen around Harabao (actually most of them were Han farmers from the Pass) had fled in groups to Shengjing a few days ago because of the appearance of a small group of Ming army cavalry. They didn't even harvest wheat... They stopped eating when they went to Shengjing? What are these people afraid of?
And why did the Ming army cavalry drive away the people here? Aren't they the imperial court? Not an officer? By driving the people away like this, aren't you afraid of being impeached by the censor?
Oh, the current censor doesn't care about this.
Donny remembered that the current imperial censor only arrests corrupt officials... but he can't just watch the officials and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty torture the people like this!
Just when Duni was devastated by the corruption of military discipline in the Ming army, a leader of the white-armored soldiers received the latest information, rushed to the city, and loudly reported to Duni: "Your Majesty, Niu Lu, who stayed at Liangfangkou Pass, reported Two days ago, about two to three hundred large ships sailed into the mouth of the Liaohe River and carried out a landing operation less than thirty miles away from Liangfangkou Pass... At least 10,000 troops disembarked from the mouth of the Liaohe River. We The army was outnumbered, so after inflicting certain casualties on the Ming army and killing a hundred or dozens of people, they took the initiative to retreat to Niuyayi to wait for reinforcements!"
"Nonsense!" After listening to the white-armored soldier's report, Donnie couldn't help but cursed, "He killed and injured a hundred and dozens of people... We only have 250 people, so how can we still be in the Ming army?" A hundred and dozens of people were killed among the tens of thousands of soldiers? Shouldn’t they be killed or injured?”
"My lord, I am so happy!"
As soon as Donnie finished speaking, someone was already congratulating him. Doni turned around and saw that it was Tu Hai who had just ran from Dalinghe Fort.
As soon as Tuhai and Ebilong arrived at Dalinghe Fort, they realized something was wrong... The Ming army didn't pursue them at all! And there is no sign of outflanking Jinzhou, which means that they are likely to go to Shengjing!
This is a big deal!
Fifty thousand Ming troops went straight to Shengjing! If Shengjing is captured, it will really be over... So Tuhai and Yibilong did not dare to stay in Dalinghe Fort any longer, and immediately led their troops to Shengjing. When they arrived at the Hara River, they encountered an army of 70,000 men led by Doni.
Donnie turned back and glanced at him, "What are you so happy about? Are you killing more than a hundred Ming troops, or were you killed and wounded more than a hundred?"
"Your Majesty," Tuhai said, "the Ming army that landed at the mouth of the Liaohe River can only be over 10,000 people at most, and there won't be many cannons and cavalry... We have 73,000 here, which is five times more than the enemy!"
Doni was startled, right! Troops landing by sea generally do not carry many war horses and artillery - unless there is a good port available, it is difficult to load and unload war horses and artillery.
And isn’t the advantage of the Ming army cavalry and artillery? Thinking of this, Donnie was a little discouraged again. Horse arching should have been a specialty of the tribes outside the Great Wall. Although the Manchus were not a grassland tribe, their skills on horseback were not weak. The Horqin Grassland also supplied good horses, so they would definitely have the upper hand against the Ming army's cavalry.
However, the Ming Dynasty introduced a large number of Tianzhu fold-eared horses and Arabian horses through overseas trade... Compared with those Oceanic horses, the Mongolian horses ridden by the Manchu warriors were almost the same as small donkeys. Although the "little donkey" also has advantages, it is hardworking and capable of running long distances using up horsepower.
But the Ming army also recruited black gun and mule soldiers...using flexible on- and off-mountain tactics to deal with the Qing army's ranger sentry horses, putting the Qing army in an extremely disadvantageous position in the attrition war of the light cavalry—— There is not much left in Old Manchuria, how can we compete with the almost unlimited Ming army?
At the same time, after a large number of New Manchurians who were actually Han farmers joined the Qing army, the Qing army became an army dominated by Spanish infantry phalanxes. The mobility has been greatly reduced, and the ability of large corps to conduct long-distance attacks has basically been lost...
Tuhai saw Doni's brows furrowed again, thinking that he was worried about Shengjing, so he persuaded him: "With Obai leading a 10,000 forward battalion to aid Shengjing, Shengjing will not be lost in any case. Now The problem is that the fertile soil around Shengjing may be ravaged by the Ming army... Our soldiers are all dependent on the land. Once the surrounding areas of Shengjing are destroyed, they will lose Shenyang, Liaoyang, Guangning and other places. The officers and soldiers of Liao Town are equally poor!"
What the army rooted in the land fears most is losing land income!
Don't think that after the land is divided, the soldiers can scream and fight to protect the land... After the land is distributed, the soldiers are a business entity that is responsible for its own profits and losses!
If the land cannot be profitable and soldiers have to bear the expenses of military service, they will soon die of poverty.
Historically, the prosperity of the Ming Army in Liaodong during Li Chengliang's period was actually due to the fact that Li Chengliang coincided with Zhang Juzheng's reforms when he was the commander-in-chief, so he was able to seize the opportunity to clear the fields and cultivate the fields. According to Xiong Tingbi's "Repairing the Fields in Liaodong": The more than 100,000 horse infantry troops have no annual support and rely entirely on the harvest from the fields.
In other words, before the Ming army in Liaodong lost Liaoyang, Shenyang, and Guangning, they did not need the court to spend money to support them and could support themselves by farming.
After losing the interests of the Liaodong camp, with the tax collection ability of the Ming Dynasty, it was impossible to collect enough from all over the country to make up for the economic losses of Liao Town... And the increase in Liao's salary and Liaodong's military expenditure The occupation of military expenditures by other parties became a heavy burden that crushed the Ming Dynasty.
Now, the same situation is about to happen to Dhoni!
"Your Majesty," Tuhai said, "the fifty thousand Ming army can completely gather food around Shengjing... As long as they collect enough food, they can then dig deep trenches and raise forts to make the war around Shengjing protracted. Our people are not allowed to farm, and the fertile soil on both sides of the Liao River is turned into white land. In a year or two at most, we will be impoverished!
The only plan for now is to seize the opportunity and launch a Saarhu. First, ignore the Ming army that is approaching Shengjing, and instead concentrate on annihilating the Ming army at the mouth of the Liao River. Then wait for an opportunity to attack the enemy advancing from Xiaoling River to Jinzhou, and then turn around to fight to the death with the enemy coming from Lushun... As long as all the enemies are defeated, the main force of the Ming army approaching Shengjing will feel isolated. will retreat. "
Doni nodded heavily, "Yes! This battle is my Salhu... If we win, I will be Emperor Taizu. If we fail to win... we will become the Liao Dynasty of the past." The army is suppressed!"
Tuhai said: "Your Majesty, I have a plan, and I will definitely be able to annihilate the landing enemies on your behalf!"
