This time to encircle and suppress the Mengshan White Lotus Sect, the new army was mobilized, with a total strength of 30,000.
Such a large-scale military operation could only be directed by Zuo Menggeng personally.
After returning to Mengyin County, he established a headquarters here.
After all the military officers above the battalion level arrived, a huge military meeting was held here.
"This will be a protracted battle, which may last several months or a year. I hope you all will be mentally prepared and make it clear to the soldiers below when you return."
In fact, in terms of area, Mengshan Mountain is not large among the entire Yimeng Mountains. Just like a caterpillar, it lies in the middle of the Yimeng Mountains.
What is really difficult to defeat is the Nishan Mountains south of Mengshan Mountain.
In the previous battle in Qufu, the New Army only fought at the westernmost end of the Nishan Mountains.
In fact, the real Nishan Mountains range from Qufu in the west to Yizhou (Linyi) in the east. The southern foothills extend to Teng County (Tengzhou) and Yi County (Zaozhuang), and the northern line extends to Sishui County, Pingyi County, and Fei County. It covers an area of thousands of square kilometers and has countless peaks.
Regular troops alone cannot complete a complete blockade of such a large area.
Therefore, in addition to the eight regiments of the New Army, there were more than 15,000 militiamen participating in the battle this time.
These militiamen include 11,000 people mobilized from Linqing, Dongchang and Anshan Lake, as well as a newly established militia force of more than 1,000 people near Mengyin.
Just in the past month, Dang Huanchun, Qi Biaojia and others began administrative management.
In view of the serious destruction and population loss in Mengyin County, Dang Huanchun and others implemented Zuo Menggeng's idea, which was to merge villages and merge towns.
Villagers with a small population and poor land in the mountains will be relocated to larger town-level resettlement sites nearby.
The county government came forward to build new houses for these people and at the same time divided the land for farming.
Dang Huanchun also learned from the practices of the Linqing Agricultural Reclamation Group and brought together people from various towns to discuss the establishment of several forestry companies.
The land in the mountains is barren and certainly not suitable for farming. However, the rich natural environment in the mountainous area is perfect for cultivating tree species, fruit forests, and mountain treasures.
People generally don't understand the county government's measures.
Fortunately, after more than a month, the surviving people were not only assigned new homes, but also received enough food to survive, and were allocated land, which gave them great trust in the government.
If you don’t understand, then just listen to the government.
Nowadays, Mengyin County has begun exploration in mountainous areas and at the same time absorbs population from nearby areas.
By the spring of next year, operations in mountainous areas will begin one after another.
After establishing a foothold in the county government, people from the training department also moved in to recruit militiamen.
Knowing that being a soldier will not only provide food, but also earn a lot of money, the young people in Mengyin County are very motivated.
After screening and selection, a militia force of more than 1,100 people was finally established.
Different from the regular army, the militiamen train during leisure time. But the training subjects are almost the same as those of regular troops.
Their weapons are some flintlocks, broadswords, spears, etc.
As for cap guns and artillery, they certainly cannot be assigned to militia forces.
Even so, the flintlock guns used by these militiamen far surpassed the matchlock guns used by the Ming Army and the Later Jin Army.
"Next, we will establish a tight blockade network around Mengshan and Nishan. Traffic arteries, cities, and important towns will be set up by regular troops, and villages and trails will be controlled by militia. Once again, we emphasize discipline, whether it is regular troops or militia Troops must not disturb the people. If anyone dares to forget the three major disciplines and the eight points of attention, he must not regret it when enforcing military law."
Liu Yiyuan announced the battle plan and also gave a murderous warning.
One problem caused by the rapid expansion of the new army is that many soldiers have not completed thorough tempering and transformation, and still retain their original habits.
At this time, only strict military law can prevent the deterioration of military discipline.
After fighting several battles, new recruits become veterans, and ideological work and education work can keep up, these current problems will naturally be eliminated.
If there are still soldiers committing crimes, it will be a big wave.
As the battle plan was formulated, all ministries immediately took action. It only took ten days to complete the siege network.
The entire Yimeng Mountain clearing plan is divided into two steps, the first step is Mengshan, and the second step is Nishan.
Therefore, in terms of troop deployment, the troops besieging Nishan mainly consisted of a few backbone regiments and a large number of militiamen. Most of those who besieged Mengshan were new troops.
The purpose is to train new recruits and make them grow quickly.
The Third Regiment of the First Division and the Fourth Regiment of the Second Division formed the Western Group, commanded by Zuo Rong, and responsible for attacking from the west.
The Fourth Regiment of the First Division, the First Regiment of the Third Division and some militiamen formed the East Group, commanded by Mao Yuanyi, responsible for attacking from the east.
The 4th Regiment of the 1st Division, the 3rd Regiment of the 2nd Division, and the 2nd Regiment of the 3rd Division formed the North Group. Zuo Menggeng was personally in charge and commanded by Bai Xiaoqi. They were responsible for clearing the northern foot of Mengshan Mountain from Mengyin County as a base.
The 2nd Regiment of the 1st Division, the 2nd Regiment of the 2nd Division, the 3rd Regiment of the 3rd Division plus some militia troops formed the South Group, jointly commanded by Liu Yiyuan and Zuo Yong, responsible for clearing the southern foothills of Mengshan Mountain and establishing a blockade on Ni. Blockade on the northern side of the mountain range.
This time's battle is completely different from the past, it is to completely eliminate the White Lotus Sect.
Therefore, Zuo Mengeng's order was to attack slowly but advance steadily. Every slope, every ditch, and even every tree must not be spared and must be cleaned repeatedly.
It is expected that it will take two to three months to complete the Mengshan encirclement and suppression operation.
…………………………………………
In early September, Zhang Chun, who was impatient to wait, finally waited for reinforcements from other places in Gyeonggi and Shandong and began the second rescue operation.
And their actions had just begun when they were detected by Hou Jin.
Huang Taiji personally led the army to fight.
He was cunning and cunning, and Duduo led only a small number of troops in front. The Ming army knew nothing about this, and Huang Taiji saw the huge army with billowing smoke and smoke from a long distance away.
Huang Taiji was brave and careful, and led his army to walk close to the short mountain, gradually approaching the Ming army.
Zhang Chun was not an incompetent person. He sent scouts everywhere and also discovered Huang Taiji's traces. So six thousand troops came to cover up the enemy, while Huang Taiji only had two hundred soldiers by his side.
With such a huge disparity in military strength, is the outcome determined?
I'm sorry to disappoint all viewers.
Huang Taiji personally led two hundred soldiers to attack. More than 6,000 Ming troops were overwhelmed and defeated, and their foothold was unstable. By the time Hou Jin's army arrived, it was already a massacre.
The Ming army was defeated and fled, losing as much as one-third.
After defeating the Ming army's reinforcements for the second time, Huang Taiji simply took advantage of the situation and launched a fake reinforcement to Daling River City.
Later, the soldiers of the Jin Army put on the armor of the Ming Army, and under the banner of the Ming Army, they rushed towards the Jin Army camp with overwhelming shouts of killing.
Zu Dashou saw it at the top of the city. He was overjoyed and immediately led his troops out of the city, planning to cooperate with the inside and outside.
Of course, Zu Dashou was defeated miserably.
Had it not been for the bravery of his generals, he himself would have been captured alive.
From then on, the generals in Dalinghe City no longer thought of leaving the city to fight.
They can no longer distinguish between friend and foe.
Unless the Ming army on the periphery can defeat Hou Jin, they will not even have the thought of supporting their friendly forces.
…………………………
In September of the fourth year of Chongzhen's reign in Shaanxi, the sky was still dry and the earth was cracked.
Looking around, the sky is filled with yellow sand and there is no green for thousands of miles. Only the white bones are vaguely exposed in the wilderness, declaring that this is a lifeless land.
In Ningsai County, there was a banquet, singing and dancing, which seemed to have nothing to do with the barbarism outside.
Everyone here is already very drunk, showing all kinds of ugly behaviors.
Only a bearded general sitting in the main seat was always sober. Seeing that the banquet was almost over, he said: "From now on, you are all officials of the imperial court. You must know that the emperor's kindness is great and loyalty is the most important thing. After I go back today, I will warn the people below, Don’t take any more desperate risks, or risk your death and annihilation of your clan.”
A group of drunken men fell to their knees one after another, mumbling nonsense.
"We all listen to the guards."
"He Renlong, from now on, you are my brother from Sanshan. Later...we will drink later."
That general was guarding He Renlong. On the orders of Hong Chengchou, governor of Yansui, a banquet was held in honor of the rebel leaders who surrendered and were appeased.
A group of rebel leaders came out, and many of them were already unconscious. There was even one person who couldn't hold it in any longer and didn't even bother to say hello to others, so he turned back and went into the alley next to him to calm down for a while.
When he came out again, his friends had already disappeared.
This guy was so drunk that he couldn't distinguish things, so he had to try his best to remember the route and walk blindly.
I don’t know how long I’ve been walking, when suddenly fire burst into the sky in front of me, accompanied by endless shouts of killing.
This time, half of his three souls and seven souls were frightened, and he also woke up from the wine.
When I was wondering what was going on, a large group of people came towards me, and everyone was in a very embarrassed state.
Taking a closer look, he saw that he was not standing by, but under the command of each leader.
Those people also saw him and rushed over like swarms of swarms.
The leader is Zhang Mengjin, who is his general.
"Brother, the dog official has not kept his word and wants to drive us all away!"
The man's face was pale and his mind was a little exhausted.
"How...how is it possible?"
Zhang Mengjin was so anxious that he shouted: "All the leaders were killed. We brothers saw it with our own eyes. The dog officer ambushed the officers and soldiers and slaughtered the camp. Many brothers were killed. Brother, what should we do?"
The man was so dizzy that he couldn't think of anything for a moment.
Zhang Mengjin was anxious, with a fierce look in his eyes.
"Brother, you won't take the dog officer's money and sell all our brothers, right?"
At the critical moment of life and death, this guy finally came to his senses and said hurriedly: "You are talking nonsense, my eldest brother was beheaded by the government, and I and the imperial court are at odds with each other."
Zhang Mengjin was overjoyed.
"Brother, if the dog officer won't let us live, let's continue to rebel and kill him."
At this point, this guy knew there was no way out, so he could only nod his head.
"Yes, yes, yes, if you go against it, you will forget it!"
In September of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Shen Yikui, the leader of the northern Shaanxi rebel army who originally surrendered, raised his troops again and captured Ningsai County.
The peasant uprising in Shaanxi, which had finally been suppressed, happened again.
Immediately afterwards, Tan Xiong raised troops to capture Ansai County; Yi Cheng, Yi Duo Yun, and Xue Hongqi captured Anding; Huntian Monkey captured Ganquan County and Jiazhou; Huang Youcai, Liu Wu, Hao Lin'an, and Ke Tianfei besieged Huan County.
Hong Chengchou's original plan to move to Shanxi was completely stranded, and he had to mobilize troops again to encircle and suppress the northern Shaanxi rebels.
On the land of China, war broke out simultaneously in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Liaodong, and Shandong.
The vigorous war curtain has now completely begun.
