Tianjin Wei was a city built during the Yongle period and was used as a military city from the beginning.
The purpose is to erect the Jinmen screen and lock the Jingshui channel.
To the east of Tianjin, there is direct access to the Yellow Sea from the Zhigu River, and now... the navy of the Dachu Empire has controlled the Yellow Sea relying on the eight islands of Changshan. If necessary, warships can be sent directly to Dagukou and pass inland through this place. Transport supplies.
To the south of Tianjin is the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.
To the northwest of Tianjin, towards Youzhou City, is the northern section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. In addition, there are many rivers that can go to the northwest.
This place is a water transportation artery!
If the Chu thieves want to march into Youzhou City, whether they use canals or sea transportation for logistics transportation, and want to transport materials to Youzhou City, then Tianjin is a strategic place that cannot be bypassed.
He, Hong Chengchou, built a defense line here and could intercept the Chu thieves while waiting. If possible, it would be best to completely defeat the Chu thieves army heading north in one battle, so as to reverse the disadvantage for the Ming Dynasty and himself.
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At the same time, when General Li Chengtong, the Northern Zhili garrison commander of the Great Chu Empire and the commander of the Third Army, saw the Ming army gathering troops in Tianjin, he simply led his troops to kill them.
Li Chengtong's idea is simpler...
Tianjin cannot be bypassed. Since it cannot be bypassed, then let’s fight!
It's just the right time for a decisive battle to avoid the back-and-forth fighting and accidents that may occur after the war drags on for a long time.
For example, the East captives entered the customs!
The Military Intelligence Department has reported that Dongduo is gathering troops. It seems that they also want to get out of the customs to take advantage of the chaos, or even directly invade the customs to invade China.
If possible, Li Chengyong wanted to win a quick victory and quickly advance to the front line of Shanhaiguan. By then, no matter what the Liaodong border army thought, and whether Dongjiao entered the customs or not, he would be able to block Shanhaiguan first.
As long as Shanhaiguan is blocked, even if Dongniu can bypass Mongolia and break through the Great Wall to enter the customs, it will not affect the overall situation.
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Because of Tianjin's special geographical location and the fact that the top leaders of both sides wanted to fight in Tianjin, the armies of both sides began to gather towards Tianjin.
Not to mention the Ming army, the Jiliao and Xuanda frontier troops came, with a total strength of about 80,000, known as 200,000.
As for the Chu army, not only the third army, but also the second army that originally went to Zhending Mansion, after learning that Hong Chengchou had hoarded "200,000" troops in Tianjin Guard, was frightened and headed directly towards Tianjin Wei rushed to prepare to reinforce the Third Army.
The total force thus assembled will probably be five main divisions, three cavalry brigades, and several independent artillery units, with a total strength of about 80,000 people.
However, there is also the 1st Guards Division of the 1st Army as a reserve force in the rear.
Adding the two together, there are about 100,000 people.
When the forces of both sides gathered in the direction of Tianjin, almost the entire nearby area and even people in the surrounding areas focused their attention on Tianjin and the commanders of both sides.
In this battle, the commander-in-chief of the Ming army was Hong Chengchou, the Minister of the Ministry of War and the censor of Youdu, and the governor of Jiliao.
The commander-in-chief of the Chu army was De'an Hou and Army General Li Chengtong. He was the garrison commander of North Zhili and the commander of the Third Army. He was fully responsible for the front-line war in North Zhili.
Regardless of victory or defeat in this battle, these two people will definitely leave a strong mark in the history books.
The winner becomes a famous general.
Loser, become synonymous with loser!
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The first to arrive in the outer areas of Tianjin were the 1st Cavalry Brigade and the 10th Division under the Third Army.
They went all the way north along the canal, and finally arrived at Qingxian County on June 28, and captured this city that had obviously been abandoned by Hong Chengchou.
Immediately, more Third Army troops arrived in Qing County.
On July 2, General Li Chengtong, commander of the Third Army, led a group of artillery and baggage troops to Qingxian County.
At this time, the Chu army had gathered about 60,000 troops inside and outside Qing County.
However, Li Chengtong did not continue to rush north to Tianjin City. Instead, he continued to stay in Qingxian City in order to allow his subordinates to rest and replenish themselves.
The more important thing is to wait for more ammunition and food to arrive from the rear.
In the past few days, cavalry units from various front lines have been attacking Tianjin and surrounding areas one after another.
During the investigation, the Chu army's cavalry troops also continued to engage in battles with the Ming army's cavalry. The scale was not large, but it was very fierce.
The 1st Cavalry Brigade, the 2nd Cavalry Brigade and the three divisional cavalry regiments basically fought against the Ming Army cavalry on the opposite side, with victories and losses.
The combat effectiveness of the cavalry on both sides is actually about the same. The Chu army has no advantage, nor does the opposite Ming army.
The Chu army has a smaller number of cavalry in cavalry and shooting, and its combat effectiveness is also inferior to the Liaodong cavalry represented by the elite Guan Ning cavalry on the opposite side.
However, the three cavalry divisions of the Chu army were already equipped with Suifa cavalry rifles and pistols. In mixed combat, they were quite reliable against the slightly worse cavalry of the Ming army.
When the cavalry of both sides frequently engage in small and medium-sized battles, the intelligence of both sides is inevitably known to the other side.
Hong Chengchou soon learned that the Chu thieves heading north were their third army, and there was also a Guards Division in it.
He also knew something about the Guards Division. He knew that it was the Guards unit of the Puppet Chu Emperor Luo Zhixue. He heard that its combat effectiveness was very good.
But in addition to these, Hong Chengchou also learned some very strange information through the reconnaissance cavalry, that is, the infantry of the Chu bandits heading north were all musketeers, not to mention the traditional sword and shield bearers. , not even a few spearmen...
"Where are the spearmen among the Chu thieves?" Hong Chengchou was puzzled by this.
Hong Chengchou also knew the army model of the Chu thieves. After all, many governors in the Ming Dynasty had been copying it for several years to build a new standard army.
Even though Hong Chengchou did not create any New Standard Army, he actually followed the New Standard Army's tactics and tactics, expanded the equipment of the Musketeers, and replaced many sword and shield bearers with spearmen. .
To a certain extent, the more than 20,000 people directly under Hong Chengchou are similar to the New Standard Army in terms of troop configuration and weapons and equipment, except that they still retain a large number of archers and heavy armored sword and shield bearers.
Therefore, Hong Chengchou knew very well that regardless of whether it was his own Qin army, the new standard army under other governors, or the Chu thieves themselves, infantry battles were fought with musketeers or archers and spearmen.
Without the protection of the spearmen's formation, both the musketeers and the archers would be killed.
However, there are actually no spearmen in the army of Chu thieves opposite.
Such an unusual thing immediately aroused Hong Chengchou's vigilance. On the one hand, he continued to send more reconnaissance cavalry to try to figure out the strength of these Chu bandits. On the other hand, he also collected intelligence everywhere.
Unfortunately, at this moment Hong Chengchou couldn't figure out why the Chu thieves did this. He just knew that the Chu thieves seemed to be equipped with a kind of musket that did not require a match rope, that is, a self-generated fire gun.
But Hong Chengchou also knew that self-generating fire guns were very troublesome and expensive. The most important thing was that the ignition rate was very low. He didn't know why the Chu thieves installed so many self-generating fire guns.
And more importantly, even if it is a self-generated fire gun, its rate of fire and accuracy are just that, and it is not much better than a matchlock gun.
If it really started to fight, it would probably be about the same as a matchlock gun. And in this case, without the cover of the spearman, wouldn't it collapse at the first charge?
The Ming army had tried the musketeers to fight alone in formation several times, and every time it was a great tragedy...
Except for the strange infantry among the Chu thieves, the others were pretty much what Hong Chengchou expected, such as having a large number of mules, horses and artillery.
These Chu thieves seemed to have endless money and food. Even the infantry units in the army often had a large number of mules and horses, not to mention artillery and baggage.
Therefore, the Chu army had many mules and horses, and the mules and horses were of poor quality and in a mess. This was also one of their characteristics.
Not to mention artillery, Chu thieves relied on artillery to conquer the world, so he was not surprised at all when the tens of thousands of Chu thieves in front brought hundreds of artillery.
Not even much fear!
For this battle, he, Hong Chengchou or Ming Ting, spent a lot of money and took out the last of their wealth.
There are more than fifty new two-and-a-half-pound, five-pound, nine-pound and other bandit-killing cannons. In addition, there are more than twenty old Hongyi cannons that have been modified with new two-wheel gun mounts.
There are more than seventy long-barreled artillery pieces, which can be said to be Hong Chengchou's greatest confidence!
For these artillery, he almost plundered a lot of artillery from Jiliao and Xuanda. He even asked for several Hongyi cannons on the top of Youzhou City.
In addition to these long-barreled artillery, there are hundreds of various small short-barreled artillery pieces, such as Folang machines, general cannons, squatting tiger cannons, assault cannons, anything that can be pulled up. Pulled up.
The number of artillery assembled by Hong Chengchou's troops in Tianjin was second to none in the history of war in the Ming Dynasty.
Whether it was the previous fight with Dongdu or the previous fight with the Chu army, the Ming army had never assembled so many long-barreled artillery.
This is the first time, and it will most likely be the last time.
In addition to artillery, Hong Chengchou also had more than 6,000 elite cavalry under his command. At the same time, he also improvised more than 3,000 cavalry who could ride horses, which could barely be said to be 10,000 cavalry.
Among the 10,000 cavalry, the most powerful one was the Guan Ning Cavalry under Zu Dashou. There were more than 4,000 cavalry subordinates, including Wu Xiang's 1,000 cavalry.
Guanning Iron Cavalry, this title is not an army with a fixed establishment, nor is it a designation similar to the Jiangbei New Standard Army. It is more like a general name, just like the previous Liaodong Iron Cavalry, it generally refers to those fighting in the Liaodong region. Border troops.
Now, in addition to cavalry, the Guan Ning cavalry headed by Zu Dashou also has infantry and artillery, with a total strength of more than 100,000.
It doesn't mean that the 100,000 Guanning Iron Cavalry are all cavalry... Even the cavalry among them are not all elite armored cavalry. The armored elite cavalry are also among the very few elites among the Guanning Iron Cavalry.
At this time, the four thousand cavalry led by Zu Dashou belonged to this small group of armored elite cavalry.
They are also the most powerful Ming army among the more than 80,000 Ming troops inside and outside Tianjin Acropolis!
With the help of this cavalry, Hong Chengchou asked himself that although he had a disadvantage in artillery, he was not without the power to resist. As long as the artillery could support and cover the infantry to maintain their formation, then this battle would be possible.
As long as our own cavalry can defeat the Chu thieves cavalry first and then take the initiative on the battlefield, the next battle will be much simpler.
If we fight well, we can not only stop the Chu thieves from going north, but they may also be able to severely damage the Chu thieves.
