On the night of March 14th, Sun Chuanting sent people to rush back to Chang'an overnight, and asked the troops who stayed in Chang'an to protect Emperor Longxing, and quickly evacuated to Sichuan with all gold and silver materials, craftsmen and others.
The premise is that Hanzhong Mansion has not been captured by Chu thieves!
If Hanzhong Mansion is captured by Chu thieves, then fleeing westward directly to Longxi, and then going to the Western Regions is also a way to survive.
But if he could still enter Sichuan, Sun Chuanting still hoped to do so.
Sichuan is not only easy to defend but difficult to attack, but the Sichuan Basin is fertile and has the Yangtze River running through it. It is a land of plenty.
Although it is difficult to enter Sichuan and difficult to leave Sichuan, once you enter Sichuan, you will basically have to give up the fight for the Central Plains and even the Shaanxi-Gansu region. In the future, the Longxing regime will only be able to hide in Sichuan and control Yunnan and Guizhou until it dies. .
But it’s better to still have some territory than to lose it!
In order to buy time for Emperor Longxing to move, he planned to continue to lead his army to fight against the Chu bandits in Tongguan.
Emperor Longxing's transfer actually didn't take much time. The key point was that it was useless to go to Sichuan with just a few people. Sun Chuanting also wanted to use the large amount of gold, silver, grain, and more importantly, the manufacturing of guns and cannons in Chang'an City. The craftsmen were also taken away.
Only with money, food and guns can we have an army and maintain the Longxing regime.
Otherwise, if you run away to Sichuan or the Western Regions with nothing, you will easily be chopped into pieces by the local chieftains or barbarians.
Even if they are not dealt with by the local troops, after losing a large number of craftsmen and a large number of guns during the retreat, especially the new artillery, it will be difficult to produce a large number of guns in a short period of time, and it is basically impossible to expect without guns. It can block the Chu army's attack.
Therefore, he needed to stay in Tongguan to continue fighting against the Chu thieves, and buy time for the transfer of personnel and materials such as Emperor Longxing and craftsmen in the rear.
Just do it!
At this time, Sun Chuanting didn't know that Hanzhong Mansion had completely fallen into the hands of the 17th Division of the Chu Army five days ago!
Otherwise, they will directly let the rear retreat westward.
Sun Chuanting knew that the Chu army had captured Jinzhou and launched an attack on Hanzhong. He also knew that Hanzhong Mansion could not block the Chu army's attack alone, but he did not think that the Chu army could defeat the Chu army in just half a month. The entire Hanzhong Mansion was captured in a matter of seconds.
At the same time, he has dispatched tens of thousands of troops to urgently assist Hanzhong Mansion. They are already on the way, and his reinforcements should be able to catch up.
With such a short time, the Chu thieves could barely use it to march, let alone fight all the way.
However, Sun Chuanting did not know that the 17th Division of the Chu Army did not fight much along the way...
They spent almost all their time marching, and they were marching lightly!
In order to fight in the mountains, several infantry regiments of the 17th Division adopted a lightly armed attack mode. They did not carry a large number of heavy artillery and baggage that slowed down the speed. Only the infantry advanced lightly in the front. As for the large number of artillery and baggage, they were still there. What about the slow shipping behind?
What Sun Chuanting didn't expect was that in order to protect themselves, the local officials of Hanzhong Prefecture immediately changed their flags. As a result, the 17th Division almost took down the most important thing in Hanzhong Prefecture without even using a single soldier. Hanzhong Plain area.
There wasn't even time for Sun Chuanting to rescue him!
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Why did the Chu army launch the Battle of Hanzhong first? The purpose was to cut off the connection between Sichuan and Shaanxi and Gansu before the full-scale battle on the Western Front broke out.
From Shaanxi to Sichuan, one word has been inseparable since ancient times: Hanzhong!
From ancient times to the present, the five famous passages from Shaanxi to Sichuan all pass through Hanzhong Prefecture.
The Chu army occupied Hanzhong Prefecture, especially after controlling the three cities of Xixiang, Hanzhong, and Mian County, which was enough to completely block the passage between Shaanxi and Sichuan.
If Sun Chuanting wants to lead Emperor Longxing into Sichuan, he must first defeat the 17th Division.
On March 15, the fighting in the Tongguan defense line paused slightly. The Chu army's frontal force, the 16th Division, was not in a hurry to attack Tongguan City, but continued to clean up the various fortress defenses outside Tongguan City. fortifications.
The 25th Division surrounded the No. 3 Passage, sending the 98th Regiment to continue the assault and detour to the north, while the 99th Regiment consolidated the hilltop position south of Tongguan City.
The 100th Infantry Regiment continued to launch small and medium-sized fortifications to contain the thousands of Ming troops south of Passage 3.
The busiest troops became the engineering troops of the Chu Army.
The loudest place was in Channel 3, where the Chu army's engineering troops blasted to clear the way.
Relying on no-cost blasting and a large number of civilians, the Chu army successfully widened the original Yangchang Trail to a road large enough for carriages in two days. Some sections that were too steep were also reopened. .
In the afternoon of March 17, a Wujin field artillery battalion belonging to the 25th Division of the Chu Army began to enter Channel 3 to reinforce the 98th Regiment in front, preparing to detour to the rear of Tongguan City.
At the same time, a five-pound field artillery battalion and twelve eighteen-pound light howitzers were pushed by the Mara people and forcibly carried to the two hills south of Tongguan for deployment, and the deployment was successful overnight.
When Sun Chuanting discovered that Chu army artillery began to be deployed on the southern hilltop, he no longer hesitated and began an emergency retreat that night.
That night, the Chu army discovered the Ming army's intention to retreat and launched an emergency attack. The 98th Infantry Regiment also began an emergency detour in an attempt to intercept the enemy.
That night, a large-scale melee broke out between the two sides.
Because of the darkness, not only the Chu army on the attacking side was in chaos, but the Ming army, which had been preparing to retreat overnight, was also in chaos.
When Sun Chuanting gathered his troops seven or eight miles west of Tongguan City the next morning, he only gathered more than 8,000 troops.
You know, in the entire Tongguan defense line, the Ming army deployed more than 30,000 main troops and more than 10,000 county brave men.
Out of more than 40,000 people, aside from the thousands lost in previous battles, only 8,000 succeeded in breaking through in the end, and the remaining 30,000-odd were either separated, surrendered, or died in battle.
Looking at Tongguan in front again, Sun Chuanting turned his head and immediately led his army away.
Withdrawing 8,000 men was much better than annihilating the entire army, and when retreating, Sun Chuanting gave priority to evacuating with the elite of the New Qin Army under his command, many of whom were cavalry.
These eight thousand people were enough to escort Emperor Longxing to Sichuan.
According to the news reported earlier, Chang'an has begun an emergency retreat. What Sun Chuanting has to do now is to follow with eight thousand remaining soldiers.
However, the Chu army in the rear has been chasing closely, especially the two cavalry brigades hanging directly behind Sun Chuanting's troops. However, there are also many cavalry withdrawn from the New Qin army under Sun Chuanting. At the same time, on the Weinan side Thousands more cavalry responded.
The two cavalry brigades of the Chu army will not be able to catch up for a while, and even if they catch up, they will not be able to take much advantage.
So, after chasing and escaping, they headed towards Chang'an.
When Sun Chuanting of the Ming Army fled westward with the remaining defeated generals, Huang Dingquan immediately led his troops to pursue him, with the cavalry in front and the 16th and 24th Divisions behind.
As for the 25th Division, it was one unit behind and needed to cooperate with the 103rd Division to clear out the local remnants and accept prisoners of war.
In the melee on the night of the 17th, 30,000 Ming troops may have voluntarily surrendered one after another. They were forced to surrender and eventually became prisoners. Because there were many prisoners, they could not be taken lightly. Troops needed to be arranged to guard them.
At the same time, because many of these prisoners of war were soldiers of the New Qin Army, as well as a large number of cavalry, artillery and other technical arms, the Chu Army still hoped to reorganize these soldiers and then integrate them into the second-class division.
After all, after the Chu army entered Shaanxi, the main force needed to conduct mobile operations, and many tasks such as guarding and even clearing the rear and important cities, suppressing bandits, etc., all required second-class divisions.
As for the second-class division that has entered Shaanxi with the army, there is currently only one 103rd Division. This division alone can garrison Tongguan and cannot detain prisoners of war. Not to mention that there is still a large area of Guanzhong that needs the second-class division to guard. .
The military and political officials accompanying the army will select elites from these prisoners of war, especially the elites of the New Qin Army, select new recruits on a voluntary basis, and then transfer key soldiers and officers to reorganize and establish the 122nd Division on the spot. .
After this division is reorganized and established on the spot, it will be stationed in the Guanzhong area and undertake some auxiliary military tasks.
As for other prisoners of war after selection, they will naturally be put into prisoner of war camps to await follow-up arrangements.
But for the Ming troops surrendering in these prisoner-of-war camps, the war is over!
In the future, they may be arranged to enter various settlement camps, construction camps, and transportation camps. The hard work is a bit hard, but at least they don't have to go to the battlefield. When the situation stabilizes a little, the Chu army will gradually disband these surrendered soldiers. , let them go home.
Chu Jun has done this whole process many times, and it has been perfected to various degrees.
Under this set of procedures, the prisoners of war in the early two years were mainly early prisoners of war in Huguang, Jiangxi, Jiangnan and other places. Most of them have been released home, and a few of them have been released for various reasons. If they are homeless or unwilling to go home, then they can arrange wasteland on the spot for them to make a living by farming, or arrange for them to work in many construction sites provided by the work-for-relief program.
In short, do everything possible to allow these prisoners of war to flow into the civilian population without restraint, and then turn into various bandits and break out, thereby harming the local area.
The Battle of Tongguan ended with Sun Chuanting's active breakout and retreat. The entire battle process had a feeling of anticlimactic, but the process was not important, what was important was the result.
The Chu Empire pried open the Tongguan pass and gained a flat road from the Central Plains to the Guanzhong area!
On the day Tongguan was captured, a large number of artillery pieces and four-wheeled or two-wheeled carriages loaded with supplies had already headed west along the avenue.
Their next strategic target is Chang'an.
However, before the Chu army arrived, Chang'an had been directly abandoned by the Ming army. Officials and family members of the Longxing regime rushed towards Sichuan in a hurry, taking the food, gold, silver and other materials in the city as well as a large number of craftsmen.
Sun Chuanting personally led about 10,000 remaining soldiers to cut off the rear.
Within a few days, Sun Chuanting received news: Chu thieves had captured Hanzhong Mansion. The more than 10,000 troops previously sent to reinforce Hanzhong Mansion were ambushed by Chu thieves and suffered heavy losses. Only four to five thousand people fled back in embarrassment.
Seeing this, Sun Chuanting gritted his teeth and took Emperor Longxing and some of the officials and family records of the Longxing regime. Under the protection of more than 20,000 remaining defeated soldiers, he turned around and headed west, heading straight for Longxi.
But on the way to escape, Sun Chuanting became increasingly pessimistic about the future: Even if they fled to Longxi, how long could they resist the Chu army's attack?
After losing Longxi, where can they escape?
Do you really want to flee to the Western Regions?
Even after escaping to the Western Regions, how will they face the local barbarians?
Moreover, the Ming Dynasty who fled to the Western Regions, is it still the Ming Dynasty?
