The Dongjiu people ran away again!
General Zuo Yingzhe, commander of the Third Group Army, looked at the deserted Ningyuan City with a terrifyingly dark expression on his face!
Lieutenant General Qian Tai, the Deputy Chief of Operations of the Guards on the side, also looked unhappy: "Aren't these damn barbarians capable of fighting? Why are they still running away like the former Ming army!"
"I ran away before in the former camp, and now I'm running away in Ningyuan!"
"Damn it, it's not over yet, why can't you muster up the courage to fight us head-on!"
General Zuo Yingzhe withdrew his gaze from the empty Ningyuan City: "It is human nature to be greedy for life and afraid of death, and the kidnapping of people from the East is no exception!"
"Since they abandoned the city to avoid fighting, they probably want to fight us in Jinzhou!"
"Jinzhou has their strategic reserve, and they can mobilize more troops from the rear. Plus the tens of thousands of people who have retreated from Ningyuan, there will probably be more than 100,000 by then. They should have the courage to fight us by then. It’s time!”
Lieutenant General Qian Tai said: "The best thing is this. If they flee without fighting, then we will cross the Liao River and go directly to Shenyang. We will see where they can escape."
The Dongji people abandoned the city many times and fled on the battlefield in western Liaoning. On the surface, it seemed that the Chu army had won a huge victory and could regain a large area of the western Liaoning Corridor without much effort. However, in fact, the Chu army marched along the western Liaoning corridor. Moving eastward through the corridor, it failed to kill as many enemy troops as planned.
According to the plan of the Third Army, they want to have a big fight with the Dongjiu people in the Western Liaoning Corridor. It is best to kill their hundreds of thousands of troops in one battle and strive to determine the power in one battle.
This large-scale battle is also more conducive to the Chu army's artillery power and flintlock line tactics.
Most of the Chu army's series of tactics were designed for large-scale outdoor battles.
However, they have fought against the Dongji people many times, whether it was the Liaodong Peninsula battlefield, Monan Mongolia battlefield, or the previous battle of Zhongqiansuo in Guangning. In fact, the core tactics of the Chu army, that is, the infantry line tactics, failed. type it out……
Because the Dongjiu people had never fought a serious field infantry battle with the Chu army.
The only large-scale field battle was the cavalry battle in the northern suburbs of Nakazensho, but this battle was a very pure cavalry battle, with no infantry involved at all.
In addition to not fighting large-scale outdoor battles with the Chu army, the Dongji people also did not play the same tactics of defending the city like the Ming army in the past.
In the past, when the Ming army faced the Chu army's attack, the tactics adopted were mainly containment. By defending strategic locations, such as Jiujiang, Anqing, Yangzhou, Huaiyang, Xuzhou, Tianjin, Tongguan and other places, the Ming army dispatched The heavy troops resisted and defended to the death, forcing the Chu army to continuously develop siege tactics.
But to be honest...the current Dongjiu people are not as good as the former Ming army in terms of defending the city.
Although the guardsmen in the Ming army were not very good, the New Standard Army compiled and trained by the local governors was relatively reliable. They used the New Standard Army as the core and relied on various complete anti-artillery facilities to build themselves up. Turning into turtle shells, it was very troublesome for the Chu army to attack these turtle shells.
As for the Dongji people, they didn't have any new champions... Although they also learned from the Chu army and imitated various field guns and matchlock guns, their tactical application of these new weapons was Hong Chengchou's. A way of combining hot and cold weapons.
You can't say that this tactic is not suitable, in fact it is quite easy to use.
It's just that... facing the Chu army's sharp guns and artillery, this tactic, which was still stuck in the alternating era of hot and cold, couldn't cope with it.
They were given the complete artillery defense fortifications of the former Ming Army, but they did not have the corresponding infantry tactics for garrisoning.
The Dongji people didn't know this at first, or they knew some of the situation but didn't care about it until they were taught how to behave by the Chu army's artillery in the tactics of Zhongqian Station...
After truly witnessing the sharp artillery fire of the Chu army, they went from one extreme to another, that is, they simply stopped fighting to defend the city...
Before, they directly gave up the garrison in Guangning, and then successively abandoned many fortresses and cities. When the battle of Ningyuan came, they would rather go out of the city and fight a beachhead counterattack than sit back and watch the Chu army cross the river and defend the city.
Because they understand very well that they can still fight in the wild. If they can't fight, they can retreat or escape, but huddled in the city is basically waiting to die.
Once the city is strategically surrounded by the Chu army, there is basically no second possibility except that the entire army is destroyed or the entire army is destroyed.
After the Eastern Capture generals made this choice, the Chu army wanted to pass a series of battles through the Western Liaoning Corridor and annihilate a large number of the Eastern Capture's effective forces. Most of their hopes of determining Quankun in one battle were lost!
In the Northeastern Campaign launched by the Chu Army, actually conquering cities and territories was not the focus, and occupying some city areas from the air was useless. The core strategic goal of the Chu Army was to directly annihilate the main force of the Eastern Captives.
There are only so many Dongji people. Even if the Manchu Banners plus the Han Banners and the Mongolian Banners are included, the total population will only be that small.
If a battle in the Western Liaoning Corridor could kill hundreds of thousands of them, it would basically be equivalent to killing more than half of their young men.
Even if they don't fight in the future, they won't be able to calm down for more than ten years.
But now, the Chu army has annihilated more than 40,000 enemy troops in the battle of Zhongqiansuo in Guangning, and there are basically no major gains in subsequent battles.
The battle of Ningyuan, which the Chu army had been preparing for a long time, killed and wounded no more than two or three thousand people in the East.
This is far from the planned strategic goal of killing more than 100,000 enemy troops.
And these Dong captives who could not be killed fled eastward, and they will definitely regroup and continue to pose a threat to the Chu army.
Now Zuo Yingzhe can only hope that the Dongbiao people will be more determined and strong-minded, and stay in Jinzhou to fight a life-and-death battle with the Chu army.
Otherwise, if the Dongjiu people continue to flee eastward, the Chu army will be passive!
Once the Dongji people continue to flee eastward, it is not impossible to abandon Shenyang directly.
Then the two sides could only continue to fight on the vast northeastern plains...and this unexpectedly meant that the logistics line became extremely long and dangerous.
At the same time, the number of our own cavalry is relatively limited, so it will be more troublesome to fight.
At the same time, it is difficult for our main infantry and artillery to exert their absolute advantage.
As a result, the Northeastern Campaign may become longer, and it may take many years to completely eliminate the Eastern Diaspora.
This is not a good thing for the Chu Empire.
First of all, there is too much pressure on military expenditures. Although the Chu Empire has money, it is impossible to maintain an army of 200,000 to 300,000 people to perform combat missions in the Northeast for a long time.
The cost of maintaining an army in a combat state is much higher than usual.
The military expenditures of the Dachu Empire will not be reduced by then, and as a senior general of the empire, Zuo Yingzhe has also been exposed. It is impossible for the empire to maintain such high military expenditures all the time.
In the six years since Chengshun, the empire's cumulative military expenditures have probably reached more than 45 million taels of silver, and the empire's finances only amount to tens of millions a year.
Now within the Great Chu Empire, various expenditures are suppressed to meet military expenses. At the same time, there are various confiscations and seizures during the Unification War, so that it can maintain its existence.
But as time goes by, after the seizures during the Unification War are almost spent, even the empire's military expenditure will inevitably drop significantly.
This is no longer a question of whether the military is willing or not, but a matter of not having so much money.
Due to military expenditure issues, the military hopes to bring down the Dongjia people within one year, or at the latest two years.
Only in this way can military expenditures be reduced significantly in the following years, and various military expenditures can be compressed to overcome the difficulties.
There is not much time left for the military, especially the Army.
Zuo Yingzhe knew this very well, so he was very dissatisfied when he saw the Dongji people running away again and again.
Qian Tai on the side, as a senior member of the Guards, also knew some of the situation, and was also as unhappy as Zuo Yingzhe.
On the other hand, the other middle and lower-level officers and soldiers were very happy to see the Dongjiu people running away again and again.
Because the Dongji people escaped again, Zuo Yingzhe was not even in the mood to enter Ningyuan City. He directly convened a meeting with the senior generals of the army and navy at the temporary headquarters near the coast.
The theme of the meeting was simple: "How can we effectively annihilate the enemy's effective strength?"
Zuo Yingzhe set the tone from the beginning: "It is expected that at least 100,000 enemy troops will gather in the direction of Jinzhou in the future, and our core goal is to keep them. This time, we must not let them run away again, let alone let them Go all the way back into the deep mountains and old forests!"
"So, this time we have to change our thinking and we can't just advance with great fanfare like before!"
Speaking of this, Zuo Yingzhe said in a heavy tone: "This will put too much psychological pressure on the enemy, and eventually cause them to flee without fighting again!"
"Therefore, we must be cautious when advancing to avoid overly stimulating the enemy's passive war-avoidance mentality!"
"We want them to see the hope of defending Jinzhou and the hope of defeating us, so that they can strengthen their confidence and stay, and then we can completely surround them and annihilate them in one fell swoop!"
Hearing what Zuo Yingzhe said, many people attending the meeting felt strange.
In the past, when we were fighting, we wished that the enemy would run away without fighting. Now, we hope that the enemy will hold on to the end. Alas, the world has changed...
At this time, Qian Tai said: "If we advance head-on, even if we take various measures to show weakness to the enemy, the other side will know anyway that our main army has a large number of people and artillery...and these troops and artillery will arrive at Jinzhou City sooner or later. of!"
"Unless we don't move eastward, if we do, they will be wary once we move eastward. Once they think they can't resist, they will run away again!"
"Therefore, if you want to keep the enemy, you still have to force them to escape!"
"I suggest that troops can be sent to land directly to the east of Jinzhou. After landing, they can capture the area west of Jinzhou and directly block the retreat route of the Jinzhou defenders."
"No matter whether they escape or not, they will not be able to escape from our grasp!"
Lieutenant General Song Qilin, Chief of Staff of the Third Group Army, said: "Crossing the sea and landing east of Jinzhou is an option. If necessary, we still have three divisions of strategic reserves in Tianjin, and we can also deploy two more divisions in Shandong. strategic reserve force."
"However, these strategic reserves are all infantry divisions and do not have large-scale independent cavalry units. There is no big problem with landing. However, if you want to attack the city inland later, it will be easy to be attacked by the main force of the enemy's cavalry. The landing force Even our land logistics lines cannot be guaranteed!”
"Unless we adopt a larger-scale strategic encirclement, carry out landings along the Daling River, and rely on the Liao River to provide supplies, this can effectively solve the logistical problems of the landing troops and capture the Daling River Fort. However, the scope of the strategic encirclement is too large. If so, I'm afraid it will be difficult to intercept the enemy's retreat. After the enemy notices our army's strategic encirclement intention, they can go north..."
Lieutenant General Song Qilin pointed at the map as he spoke: "Flee from the direction of Liushuibao and Kaizhoutun, and then continue north to flee to Yizhou and Guangningwei. The terrain here is flat, vast and sparsely populated. They can completely retreat there." Liaohetao area!"
"Therefore, if we want to strategically encircle the enemy, we must not only send landing troops to block the eastward escape route of the captives, but also block their northward escape route!"
"Although we also have cavalry units that can perform this task, once our army uses cavalry on a large scale to go around and go north, they will not remain indifferent!"
"Nowadays, the captives in the East have become frightened birds. Any large-scale movement by our army may cause them to flee on a large scale, which is not conducive to our subsequent operations in the Northeast!"
"To completely annihilate them in Jinzhou, the best way is to gradually escalate the war and boil frogs in warm water. By the time they find out that they are under a large-scale attack by our army, it will be too late to escape!"
"The suggestion of our group army staff is that we can use Xingshan and Songshan, the two outer defensive cities of Jinzhou, to increase the Dongji people's determination to participate in the war!"
"Through small-scale attacks, surround some enemies and attract enemy troops to rescue them. Then gradually expand the scale of the battle, and finally pull down all the enemy troops in the entire Jinzhou direction!"
"At that time, they can't leave even if they want to. If they insist on retreating, then we can reenact the Battle of Nakazensho's northern suburbs, conduct a large-scale pursuit operation, and completely defeat the enemy!"
Zuo Yingzhe, commander of the Third Group Army, listened to the suggestions of many generals under his command. Some said that they would directly send troops to the west of Jinzhou, while others said that they should gradually escalate the war and try to boil the frog in warm water.
Some people say that they directly use long-distance attacks to quickly penetrate the Dongjiu people before they can react, and capture Dasheng Fort, Liushui Fort, and Xiaolinghe Fort, which are located in the northern and eastern areas of Jinzhou, and forcibly cut off the enemy's line of defense. retreat.
As Zuo Yingzhe listened, he looked at the military map on the table for a long time, and finally said: "For a landing operation, it would be too risky to go directly into the inland. The cavalry of the Eastern Captives are not for a living, and they have to raise a large amount of troops." It takes too long to log in, maybe two or three months, and we can't wait that long to get through."
"However, a small-scale landing is feasible. If necessary, a mixed regiment or a small-scale mixed brigade can be sent to march along the Daling River in an effort to capture the Daling River Fort."
"It is inappropriate to send large-scale troops to go around and attack. The risk is too great. If you are not careful, you can easily fall into a crisis. Our army now has a comprehensive strategic advantage, and there is no need to take risks!"
In the battles of the Chu Empire Army, apart from often engaging in various long-distance raids and adventurous surprise attacks in the early stages when its strength was insufficient, it basically did not do this in the middle and later stages.
I can obviously crush you head-on and fight a safe and risk-free battle, so why should I have to run long distances and carry out surprise attacks...
If this is not done well, tens of thousands of troops may be put in danger or even the entire army will be wiped out. That is not necessary.
"What is feasible now is to gradually upgrade the scale of the campaign and bring the enemy in by boiling frogs in warm water!"
General Zuo Yingzhe is also a very decisive person. Now that he has made a decision, he quickly made some arrangements.
He asked the navy to cooperate vigorously and asked the navy to prepare warships suitable for inland river operations in advance so that they could enter the Xiaoling River and Daling River to cover the army operations. At the same time, he prepared to cover some troops to go deep into the Daling River to capture the Daling River Fort and cut off the enemy. The army fled eastward.
The landing force will also be handled by the Navy. The Navy will dispatch the First Marine Regiment and part of the Navy's sailors to form a mixed regiment of about 5,000 people for marching into the Daling River.
This kind of landing operations is what the navy is professional at.
As for the army, Zuo Yingzhe ordered the Seventh Army in the direction of the Liaodong Peninsula to step up its counterattack. Once the enemy forces make a large-scale withdrawal to the north, they will decisively launch a large-scale offensive northward until Gaizhou is captured. Go north and cooperate with the main force of the group army to cut off the retreat route of the Dongji people in the direction of the Liaoxi Corridor.
As for the troops at the headquarters of the Third Army, they implemented the policy of boiling frogs in warm water and began to send troops to attack Tashan in a small scale, and they wanted to encircle but not attack!
After all, if the beating was too severe and the entire Dongji garrison in a city could be wiped out at every turn, Zuo Yingzhe was really worried that Jinzhou's Dongji people would run away with oil on their soles.
If it is just a siege, on the one hand, it can reduce the Dongji people's accurate judgment on the strength of the Chu army's siege. How can I put it, many people have not seen the Chu army's siege with their own eyes, and it is actually difficult to imagine Chu. The power of the army's millions of artillery salvos.
The people who know the most about the Chu army’s siege strength are the former defenders of Guangning Zhongqian Fortress. Some of the more than 20,000 defenders died in the battle, and the rest became prisoners of war of the Chu army...
As for other Dongji people, a few people may have seen it, but most Dongji people have only heard about it, and the possibility of being dubious cannot be ruled out.
As long as the Dongji people feel that the Chu army's siege ability is not as powerful as rumored in the early stage, if they can defend Jinzhou, then they will be able to strengthen their determination to resist.
Then come up with a fueling tactic and continue to infiltrate and encircle...
As long as the Dongji people didn't run away in advance and gave the Chu army a few days to maneuver around, then when the Dongji people found that they were outnumbered and wanted to run away, they probably wouldn't be able to escape.
After Zuo Yingzhe finalized the strategic plan, the Third Army Staff Headquarters quickly formulated a detailed combat plan, and each unit began to act according to the plan.
The troops responsible for lowering the enemy's vigilance were handed over to the 108th Division directly under the Third Army Headquarters.
You can tell by looking at the serial number that this is a second-class division, and it is a former Ming Jiliao border army unit that was recruited two years ago.
Although the equipment has been replaced by standard weapons such as matchlock guns and spears of the Dachu Empire Army, the combat effectiveness is incomparable to that of the main first-class division...
And although this division was incorporated into the Third Army, it had always been responsible for maintaining the logistics line...
Since the start of the Liaoxi Campaign, this division has never been to the front line and has been maintaining the logistics line at the back.
However... on May 22nd of the seventh year of Chengshun, this second-class division received the mission to advance to Tashan...
Brigadier General Bian Limin, the commander of the 108th Division, read the combat order for a long time, and finally asked Zuo Yingzhe's adjutant with doubts: "Am I right? Are we going to be the vanguard of the entire army to attack Tashan?"
"Is there fire support? Is there cavalry support?"
The ordering adjutant said: "The superiors have reinforced six two-and-a-half-pound field guns for you, and there is a regiment of cavalry."
Bian Liming said: "Are you sure it's not the sixty main artillery pieces?"
The adjutant who ordered the order: "I am very sure that there are six two-and-a-half-pound field guns, not one more."
"How can we fight like this... My division only has a total of eight fucking artillery pieces, and these six are only fourteen, and they are all two and a half kilograms of field artillery. What the heck!"
You know why Zuo Yingzhe's adjutant is... He is just a minor adjutant of a major, and he is not even qualified to participate in a strategic meeting!
He was here to deliver the order, and when the order was delivered, he was ready to leave.
Brigadier General Bian Liming was left in a daze: "You are all crazy..."
"No, I have to go to the commander, and you have to give me an explanation if he wants me to die!"
