Chapter 422 420 [Chasing, Chasing, Chasing]
Dorgon's order to Zu Dashou was to do everything possible to hold back the Datong Army in the middle battlefield and prevent the Datong Army from rushing to reinforce Shangqiu.
Therefore, either Xihua County or Fugou County will be stuck.
Compared with hundreds of years later, the rivers in Henan Province during the Ming Dynasty had undergone tremendous changes, mainly due to the diversion of the Yellow River. Blocking the two counties of Xihua and Fugou, the Datong Army's Sixth and Seventh Divisions would not be able to march quickly along the river, and could only slowly take the overland route, and would have to cross rivers several times along the way.
Zu Dashou could not retreat. The most he could do was retreat to Fugou. If he retreated to Xuzhou, he would be disobeying the military order.
A soldier came over to report: "Du Tong, Yuan Shizhong has led his troops to Fugou, but he is unwilling to continue coming to join the army."
Although Zu Dashou was not awarded any title, he was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Han army of Zhenghuang Banner. In other words, the Zhenghuang Banner and the Han Army were all under his control, and he was one of the highest military positions of the Eight Banners of the Han Army.
Zu Dashou frowned and said, "This person may defect!"
Wu Sangui said: "He is a Henan bandit who was granted the title of Marquis of Shunyi by the Qing Dynasty. What else can he turn to? Can Emperor Zhao of Nanjing grant him the title of Marquis of Shunyi?"
"Well, who can say for sure?" Zu Dashou shook his head and sighed.
In history, there are many stories about Yuan Shizhong. For example, Li Zicheng married his adopted daughter, but Yuan Shizhong abducted Li Zicheng's daughter. Some historical materials also record that Yuan Shizhong's troops did not kill civilians, but also provided relief to them, and they were called "Buddhist soldiers". He even defeated a small group of Eight Banners troops who entered the pass to plunder, killed 50 Tatars, and even took away the Tatars' belongings without acknowledging the debt.
It is also said that Li Zicheng was afraid of Yuan Shizhong, so he first excluded him, then attacked from a flank, and finally killed Yuan Shizhong and annexed his tribe.
In fact, it was not that exciting. Yuan Shizhong's troops did have good military discipline. It once expanded to 300,000 people, but suffered successive defeats and was helped out by Li Zicheng. Yuan Shizhong therefore obeyed Li Zicheng, but maintained his independence and used Li Zicheng's prestige to develop his power.
The imperial court sent people to appease him, and Li Zicheng also sent people to appease him.
Yuan Shizhong chose the imperial court and killed Li Zicheng's envoy. Li Zicheng was furious and led his troops to kill Yuan Shizhong!
Previously, Yuan Shizhong was ordered to guard against the Seventh Division. When the Seventh Division of the Datong Army moved, he was recruited by Zu Dashou to join forces. As a result, when this guy walked to Fugou County, he suddenly stopped moving and even recruited refugees as soldiers along the way. By this time, the army had expanded to more than 30,000 people.
Once Yuan Shizhong chose to defect, it would be equivalent to blocking Zu Dashou's retreat.
Zu Dashou was so frightened that he sent a scholar named Gong Yijie to Fugou County to appease Yuan Shizhong.
After seeing Yuan Shizhong, Gong Yijie asked: "Why did the Marquis stop advancing?"
Yuan Shizhong explained: "The soldiers in the army are prone to diseases. If they go to Xihua County to join forces with Zudu, they may also be infected with the plague."
Gong Yijie said: "The enemy's army is about to arrive, and it's time to use troops. A little plague is nothing to worry about. Please lead the troops there immediately."
"Alas, many of my generals are infected with the epidemic." Yuan Shizhong sighed.
Gong Yijie tried his best to persuade: "Master Marquis, the North-South War is the time to serve the country. If the Marquis stops the army, he will be held accountable after the war. This is the worst policy. Does the Marquis think that the soldiers of the hypocrisy have won our great victory?" Clear the Eight Banners?"
"Hey, it's hard to say this." Yuan Shizhong suddenly laughed.
Gong Yijie said in horror: "Why did the Marquis say this?"
Yuan Shizhong did not explain, and sneered: "I wanted to continue to wait and see, but you reminded me. Since the Tatars will definitely be held accountable, why not rebel now and prevent Dorgon from coming back alive? Someone is coming!"
"Here!" Several soldiers came in.
Yuan Shizhong said: "Behead this man and send him to the Datong Army. Tell him that I have raised troops to fight against the Qing Dynasty, occupy Fugou, and cut off Zu Dashou's retreat!"
"Master Hou, think twice...Master Hou, think twice..." Gong Yijie shouted and was dragged out.
Yuan Shizhong was born in a small landowner family. He also read books when he was a child. He was physically strong and had excellent arm strength. He had practiced some martial arts since he was a child.
In Henan in the late Ming Dynasty, even small landowners would not be able to survive if they encountered corrupt officials.
Yuan Shizhong's family first became owner-cultivators, and gradually they also farmed land as tenants. Being constantly pressed by the government, his family members starved to death one after another, so he had no choice but to flee to Kaizhou to become a beggar.
Historically, this person rose up. Due to his good military discipline, the people enthusiastically joined him and quickly stood out among the many rebels. In his heyday, he was treated like the imperial court encircling and suppressing Li Zicheng.
Yuan Shizhong's thinking mode is biased toward scholars. He does not want to be a rebel, and always wants to be recruited into a regular position.
After surrendering to the Manchus, Yuan Shizhong always felt uncomfortable.
Because the Manchu Qing Dynasty exploited the people very much, no less than the Ming Dynasty officials. Although he was granted the title of Marquis, the Manchu Qing Dynasty did not allocate military pay or even a salary, relying entirely on Yuan Shizhong to raise it himself.
This seems to be no different from being a rebel before, right?
Yuan Shizhong cherished feathers and took into account his reputation, so he always relied on asking landlords for food. Moreover, he doesn't like shaving his hair and hates the braid on the back of his head!
When Dorgon was around, Yuan Shizhong did not dare to rebel.
As soon as Dorgon left and there were no Eight Banners soldiers nearby, Yuan Shizhong immediately thought of defecting. Even if they are defeated, they can retreat with the Datong Army and go to the Han territory where they don't need to shave their hair and leave braids.
…
Xihua County.
Zu Dashou asked: "How far away is the puppet army?"
"The enemy cavalry has arrived several miles away, and the enemy's main force is estimated to be dozens of miles away." Wu Sangui said.
"The entire army withdraws to Fugou," Zu Dashou said. "If the thief Yuan Shizhong dares to kill, we will annihilate him in the wild. If the thief Yuan defends the city, he must capture Fugou County in a bloody battle! The thief Yuan If we don’t get rid of it, we will be attacked from both sides.”
Wu Sangui suggested: "It is better to lead troops to Taikang. In this way, we will not be attacked from both front and rear, but we can also block the enemy and prevent them from rushing to reinforce Shangqiu."
Zu Dashou hesitated.
Wu Sangui's strategy is indeed feasible, but a large amount of baggage must be discarded because the army cannot march by water. Once all the supplies are taken on the road, tens of thousands of civilians must be used, and there will be pursuers behind them.
Yuan Shizhong's sudden reaction disrupted all Zu Dashou's plans!
Before that, Zu Dashou could choose to defend the city, go out to fight, or retreat to Fugou. Now he had no choice, either to return to the army and kill Yuan Shizhong, or to abandon the baggage and go to Taikang County.
The occurrence of this situation is purely the evil consequences planted by the Manqing itself.
The Manchu Qing Dynasty expanded too fast, taking over four provinces within half a year, and everyone was willing to take in the mess. What's even more frightening is that there is simply not enough food to truly control the troops coming from all directions. During the war, they even robbed the territory where the soldiers and generals had surrendered.
With this approach, there will definitely be no problem in advancing vigorously all the way, but conflicts will break out when the Datong Army blocks it.
There is no need to even wait for the Manchus to be defeated. If the war situation remains in a stalemate for a little longer, some of the troops and generals will defect again.
And Zhao Han's reputation for kindness finally showed his appeal.
The people greeted him warmly wherever he passed along the way. Even the hungry people knew that if they followed Emperor Zhao, they would definitely have food to eat. Even some landowners and gentry were dissatisfied with the tyranny of the Qing Dynasty and spent all their wealth to support Zhao Han in the war.
After entering the territory of Guide Mansion, gentry came every day with self-recruited village warriors.
There are nearly 20,000 local brave troops, and the rebel army composed of hungry people is close to 100,000. Some brave people and hungry people from the countryside even came from Kaifeng Prefecture and traveled across prefectures and counties to seek refuge with Emperor Zhao.
Well, Emperor Zhao's military rations were consumed very quickly, and a good appetite could make people poor.
…
All the cavalry in Xihua County were assigned to Wu Sangui.
Wu Sangui gathered more than 4,000 cavalry and patrolled near Yingqikou, preventing the Datong army from crossing the river and covering Zu Dashou's retreat with his infantry.
There was a fire in the city, but it was Zu Dashou who burned all the extra supplies, including a lot of stolen food and grass.
The Henan bandits who surrendered to the Manchus all had a look of intolerance on their faces. When these thieves rebelled, they just didn't have enough food to eat. Seeing Zu Dashou burning the food and grass, they felt so uncomfortable that they were bleeding.
"The enemy has escaped!"
Cao Bianjiao rode his horse to the bank of the Shah River and met Wu Sangui, who was also carrying cavalry, across the river.
There was no way to go over, so we could only watch and send people back to report the news, because the main force of the Datong Army was still thirty miles away.
Jiang Dashan and Huang Shun received the news and immediately ordered to speed up the march.
The civilians and soldiers all took action to dock more than a dozen grain ships to unload their cargo. Then, some soldiers advanced by boat, and the remaining soldiers followed along the coast, taking away all the rations and artillery in no hurry.
The soldiers on the boat arrived at Yingqikou first and stood on the boat to shoot Wu Sangui's cavalry on the shore.
Wu Sangui did not dare to shoot with the fire gun soldiers, so he could only get out of the way of the dock at Yingqikou.
The fire gun soldiers took the opportunity to land ashore and cover Cao Bianjiao's cavalry as they crossed the river by boat. After all the cavalry crossed the river, the remaining infantry also came and continued to cross the river by boat.
"Pursue the whole army!" Jiang Dashan and Huang Shun jointly ordered.
The infantry of the two divisions were all trotting on the road with light equipment, and the armor could only be left on the ship. The grenadiers could not carry ten thousand enemies, and they only had one waist knife.
More than 10,000 Datong Army infantry who took off their armor marched towards Taikang County in a hurry.
Two cavalry generals, Cao Bianjiao and Wei Guoxiang, each led 2,500 dragoons to drive away Wu Sangui's cavalry.
Guan Ning's cavalry has long been disabled and was divided into three. Some were transferred to the customs to suppress the northwest bandits; some were assigned to Zu Dashou; some were assigned to Wu Sangui.
All battles have been fought, and there has been constant consumption.
Although Zu Dashou and Wu Sangui still have cavalry under their command, they are no longer the real Guan Ning cavalry, but more similar to the servant cavalry of the Ming Dynasty border generals.
At this moment, Wu Sangui commanded more than 4,000 cavalry. About 2,000 cavalry were considered elite, and the rest were miscellaneous under the command of various generals.
Facing five thousand dragon cavalry, Wu Sangui dispersed the attack and kept throwing bows and arrows.
After shooting a few arrows, he stopped shooting.
If you're too far away, you can't shoot; if you're too close, you'll get shot.
Wu Sangui wanted to go around and attack the Datong soldiers who were taking off their armor and marching quickly. The dragoons also quickly followed up to protect the safety of friendly troops and prevent enemy cavalry from approaching.
Although Jiang Dashan had a mount, he was running with his soldiers at the moment. He shouted: "Don't worry about the enemy cavalry, just run forward!"
There were more than 10,000 large synchronous soldiers, but they really ignored Wu Sangui, as if they couldn't see the enemy cavalry, and trotted forward in the direction of Taikang with their weapons in hand.
The two armies were dozens of miles apart, and the Datong Army actually planned to pursue them on foot.