"The Qing army is staying in Gaoyang. It seems they are going to fight our army in Anping!"
"Is it possible to wait for the Northern Expeditionary Corps to join forces before moving forward?"
"No! No, if this is the case, the Qing court will not fight. No one will fight a losing battle!"
"Does our army have enough rations?"
"There are only three days left after arriving in Gaoyang. If we want to fight in Anyang, the pressure on military rations will be great!"
"How long will it take to transport food from the nearest food war?"
"If there is no war to hinder it, it will take two days."
"It is recommended to stay for a few days before heading towards Gaoyang."
"The fighter plane is fleeting, and the Qing army may flee at any time when the situation is bad!"
"You can just feed the enemy! The Qing army's hundreds of thousands of troops also need to rely on food wars to function!"
"I don't think so, the risk is too great!"
"The enemy is definitely coming towards our food route. Once the food route is cut off, our army will be in danger!"
"With the combat power of our army, the enemy cannot surround our army. Our army can use the food road as bait to lure the enemy to fight in the field!"
After Qianlong established a posture of garrisoning troops in Gaoyang.
The staff of the Guards Corps was in a commotion.
The young staff officers who graduated from the Ming Army Officer Academy expressed their opinions.
There are some brave warriors who believe that this opportunity cannot be missed and they should immediately rush to engage the enemy and defeat them.
There are also conservative factions who believe that the Qing army must have premeditatedly lengthened our army's food routes and attacked our army's food routes with superior force. To be on the safe side, they should suspend their advance and wait to join forces with the Northern Expedition to ensure that the food routes are safe before continuing forward. .
There was endless debate on both sides.
Military strategist Tao Biquan and Emperor Zhu Daohua did not stop the staff from arguing, but stared at the map.
"Your Majesty, the Tatars must be disturbing the food route and forcing our army to pay attention because it is short of food. It would indeed be risky to attack now."
Tao Biquan said.
"The military advisor thinks it's prudent?" Zhu Daohua asked.
he knows.
If he follows the plan, he and Zhao Si's Northern Expeditionary Army will kill again in a mighty manner.
Then Qianlong must have run away.
And this is not the situation Zhu Daohua wants to see, because even if Qianlong wants to run away.
He would not allow him to run away with hundreds of thousands of cavalry.
He would not let Qianlong's capital be so rich.
Otherwise, it would be a big trouble if he went to the Western Regions and colluded with Tsarist Russia.
Therefore, we must defeat the opponent as much as possible on the Central Plains battlefield, and if possible, wipe out all his hundreds of thousands of cavalry - but Zhu Daohua also knows this. The difficulty of annihilating hundreds of thousands of cavalry is as high as the sky.
Being able to destroy as many opponents as possible while defeating them is considered very good.
"No, I think this is an opportunity, but of course we can't be too aggressive."
Tao Biquan was also staring at the map.
"Your Majesty, Qianlong now has six of the eight banners on hand. Each banner has infantry, cavalry, artillery and other establishments. It includes eight infantry towns, each with 10,000 people, and five alliances under each banner. There are two thousand people in this association, and the degree of integration is very high!"
That's right.
Now the Eastern battlefield also pays attention to the degree of synthesis.
The so-called synthetic reading refers to the synthesis of musketeers, artillery, cavalry, baggage troops, and engineers.
Due to insufficient firepower density, the Qing army did not combine it into a brigade of 5,000 people like the Ming army did. Instead, they combined it into a town, with 10,000 people in each town. There were two infantry corps and two cavalry corps under them. The artillerymen joined the leadership to form another association.
It can be said that the organization has made considerable progress.
Qianlong had eight such "high-synthetic army towns" on hand!
Among them, there were two yellow flags he brought out, and one each of the other five flags.
besides.
There are 90,000 Mongolian soldiers.
Among them, 50,000 Mongolian soldiers also underwent "mule transformation."
Just give up the scimitar, bow and arrow.
Equip instead with a flintlock musket.
Comprehensively learn the fighting methods of the Ming Army's mule soldiers.
There are 50,000 Mongolians who have undergone "mule transformation" in this way.
It’s not that the remaining 40,000 Mongolians don’t want to reform and seek progress.
mainly.
Not enough guns.
Although the Qing Dynasty was supported by British craftsmen, it made great progress in the production capacity of flintlocks and artillery.
But no matter how great the progress is, it is still a government-run handicraft industry stuck in the handicraft industry era.
In terms of production efficiency, it cannot be compared with the Ming Dynasty, which has entered the industrial era.
So there is no way.
Of the 50,000 Mongolians, 10,000 were used as reconnaissance cavalry and the other 40,000
Transformed into a shock cavalry.
This was the advice provided by the British advisers in the Qing army.
The Qing Dynasty has now advanced to the point where it has Western advisors.
It’s really progressed by almost two hundred years.
It's really amazing.
On the advice of Britain's military advisors.
These Mongolian cavalry abandoned the light cavalry tactics of using bows to harass.
Instead, he pursued shock cavalry who specialized in melee combat and rushing into battle.
Greatly Europeanized.
Being so European, it was normal for Emperor Qianlong to feel that his luck had returned.
No breastplate though.
But the lance and scimitar are enough.
Although it is difficult to train to the level of the Ming Army's cuirassier brigade.
But Mongolians are naturally good at riding horses, so it is still possible to form a dense riding formation that almost looks like that.
Eight infantry towns.
Four dragoon towns.
Four storm the cavalry town.
There is also a hussar town.
Such strength.
It has also undergone such a big transformation.
It is understandable that Qianlong wanted to have another encounter with the Ming army.
"They are really powerful," Zhu Daohua said, "so we can't let him escape with so many soldiers and horses!"
"Your Majesty, our recent food war is in Jingzhou, Hejian Prefecture. We can ask Song Guogong to send people to guard the grain road and store food in Suning, Hejian Prefecture! In this way, our army only needs to withdraw from the battlefield to reach Suning, I think there is a way out!"
Tao Biquan pointed at Suningxing on the map and said.
The handover between Suning in Hejian Prefecture and Baoding Prefecture is only a hundred miles away from Gaoyang.
And if the Ming Army Guards wanted to leave, the distance of a hundred miles could easily be overcome.
"Don't miss this opportunity!" Zhu Daohua saw that his retreat was arranged and he no longer hesitated.
Immediately ordered the army to attack Gaoyang quickly!
Two days later.
March 12, 1794 AD.
The armies of both sides were already facing each other on the plain south of Gaoyang.
Qianlong held up a telescope to observe his enemies.
Since Ganzhou's defeat two years ago.
He never personally led troops to fight the Ming army head-on.
And these two years.
Qianlong was not idle.
It's a bit too much to say that it's hard work.
But he must have put a lot of thought into it.
At this time, after two years of exploration and transformation.
Coupled with the assistance of British allies.
His "Great Eight Banners" military power was far more powerful than it was two years ago.
At this time it is on the front.
It's three infantrymen holding 30,000 people.
It is divided into three wings: left, center and right. Each town also has its own infantry, cavalry and artillery deployed separately. The three wings have the ability to fight independently, as if there are three fists placed in front.
In addition, he has five towns as reserves.
At that time, it depends on the situation and then try to press on.
At this time, next to Qianlong, Fukang'an and other senior generals of the Qing army, several foreign advisers who also wore Qing dynasties on their heads were also observing the Ming army's formation with binoculars.
"Very calm and brave, but there are too few of them!"
"They have a lot of artillery, and they have rockets."
"We also have rockets here! We can use them to harass them."
"Is that a barbed wire fence? What was going on in the mind of the Ming Emperor? How could he be able to think of anything?"
These foreign advisers didn't learn the rules very well. They dared to stand upright when standing next to the emperor. Before the emperor could speak, they started shouting.
It's really a barbarian style, and they don't know anything about the elegance and etiquette of the Celestial Empire.
But Qianlong didn't care either.
He is not his grandson Daoguang.
It's not like you really have to cover your eyes - the Mongolian Han people can do this. It's not a big fool to cover your own eyes too.
But Qianlong really never expected it.
His grandson Daoguang was the one who was deceived and became lame. He took the initiative to blindfold his eyes with the Han people, so that the British people came to the door and didn't know where the British country was. This is a big joke.
"Your Majesty the Emperor, I think you should order an attack immediately, because the Ming army has few troops now, but they have reinforcements. We must complete the encirclement of them before their reinforcements arrive!"
Britain's Ambassador to the East, George Staunton, suggested.
Since there was no way to get any benefits from the Ming Dynasty, and Britain's Eastern Fleet was completely annihilated by the Ming Dynasty.
George Standong had only one mission left in the East: to help the Qing Empire resist the Ming Empire's offensive.
But now it seems.
George Staunton did his job poorly.
In just over a year.
The Qing Empire first lost the "ancestral land" in the northeast.
Then there are Huainan, Huaibei, Henan, and Shandong.
Defeated all the way.
It can be said that the situation is quite bad.
But now, the opportunity has finally come.
The Ming Emperor was a general who liked to personally lead his troops into battle.
This gave the Qing Empire a God-given opportunity - the opportunity to surround the Ming Emperor on the battlefield!
As long as the siege of the Ming Emperor is completed.
Then the Qing Empire and Britain could take the opportunity to negotiate with the Ming Empire.
Get what you want at the negotiation table.
at this time.
Just on the plain south of Gaoyang.
The 27,000-strong army led by Emperor Zhu Daohua of the Ming Dynasty immediately built a military stronghold upon arrival.
The position consisting of barbed wire fences and trenches is scary to look at.
"You can first use artillery to bombard their positions and clear their barbed wire fences, and then send infantry to press up and fight against them."
George Staunton obviously knows how to fight.
This set of tactics is also commonly used by Europeans.
It just changed the artillery that fired solid projectiles into mortars and Congreve rockets that fired exploding projectiles.
"Then let's fire the rockets first! Let Ni Ming see the power of my Qing Dynasty's rockets!"
It is different from organizing rockets into each brigade and artillery brigade and using them according to needs.
Qianlong chose to concentrate all the rockets.
A rocket army was formed.
When I hear this name, I feel majestic.
(End of chapter)
