MTL - Han’s Son is Not a Slave-Chapter 1122 5 main forces

Most of the Qing army in Xuzhou was severely damaged by the Taiping army in the first battle of Yangzhou, and the coach Belle Tuntai was almost killed by the Taiping army. In addition, Li Yongfang's son, Xuanfu commander Gang Atai, Kangxi's uncle Tong Guowei, Dorobele Chang Adai and others also encountered stubborn resistance from the fifth town of the Taiping Army in Daijiazhuang. Henan commander Meng Xiongbi He was killed by gunfire in that battle. Although the fifth town was almost completely wiped out in this battle, it almost collapsed after the face-to-face Qing army.

The Battle of Daijiazhuang was the first time since the Taiping Army was formed that it fought a frontal battle with the Qing army's superior and heavy troops without the favorable geographical conditions. In this battle, Shizhong will be killed in the fifth town. In the end, less than a thousand people survived in the fifth town, but nearly ten thousand Qing troops were killed. In this battle, the prestige of the fifth town was played, and it also left an indelible mark on the hearts of the Qing troops who participated in this battle.

It is ridiculous to say that the soldiers of Manchuria, who claimed to be descendants of the Jurchens, actually gave birth to the impression that "Tai Ping is dissatisfied with ten thousand, and Man is invincible".

Now the Qing army in Xuzhou, whether it is the leader of the Eight Banners of Manchu and Mongolia, or the general of the green battalion of the Han army, as long as the Taiping army is mentioned, the three words "can't beat" will always come to mind subconsciously.

As the fifth town that killed the most Qing troops, the banner with the character "Qi" stained red with blood has become the most unwilling flag of the Qing army. Even for a long time after the war, it participated in Daijiazhuang The fighting Qing troops would always be awakened by the blood-stained Qi-character banner in their dreams.

Fortunately for the Qing army in Xuzhou, the terrifying Fifth Town was not in their presence, but returned to Zhenjiang to receive supplements after the war.

Based on the intelligence of the Ministry of Military Intelligence, the Ministry of the Army estimated that the total strength of the Qing army in Xuzhou is now less than 20,000. Among them, the Eight Banners are mainly the Manchu inlaid yellow flag and the Zhenglan flag, there are about six to eight Niu Lu, the other is the Mongolian army with two white and two red Niu Lu, plus about 3,000 Han army flags. The rest are the northern green camp soldiers who ran out of Yangzhou.

In terms of morale and combat effectiveness, the Qing army of less than 20,000 people assembled in Xuzhou could not be compared with the Taiping army, but after the battle of Yangzhou, the Taiping army suffered great losses, and the elite fifth town was almost wiped out. The rest of the towns participating in the war also suffered more casualties, and the reduction of the original No. 1 and No. 2 towns reached one-third. The generals were below Shizhong, and more than 50 generals were killed in battle. Some of the battalions and guards below some towns were beaten to a few people, and they lost their establishment. Therefore, after the capture of Yangzhou, facing the general collapse of the Qing army, Fulin fled in embarrassment. However, Zhou Shixiang had to order the entire army to stop the pursuit, because at that time the Taiping army was not much better than the Qing army, and it was simply unable to take advantage of the victory to advance north and conquer Xuzhou in one fell swoop.

Zhou Shixiang said helplessly to a group of generals who asked for battle: "The steps are too big, and it's easy to pull eggs."

The Qing army who had withdrawn to Xuzhou finally got a chance to breathe. Beiletuntai was ordered in a critical situation and was placed in high hopes by Fulin. He gathered the defeated soldiers in Xuzhou to form a defense line, and formed a confrontation with the Taiping army, which was unable to advance north. After that, Zhou Shixiang reorganized the towns in Jiangbei and formed the Jiangbei Army, with Ge Yi as the military envoy of Jianghuai Jing and Jiangbei Army.

After the formation of the Jiangbei Army, a large number of Qing troops surrendered to expand the towns, resulting in a sharp decline in combat effectiveness. Both the Ming and Qing Dynasties needed time to reorganize and train their armies, so Zhou Shixiang's initiative to propose "peace talks" got Fulin's "response". For eight months, the Jiangbei Army and the Qing Army in Xuzhou could be said to be at peace with each other, and both sides were licking their wounds.

However, unlike Tun Tai, who was barely supported in Xuzhou and was sometimes involved in the war in Henan, Jiangbei Army has been rested in recent months, and the placement and training of the surrendered army has also been on track, with initial results. Jiangbei Army commanded Ge Yi every day now is gearing up, waiting for the next war with the Qing army.

The auxiliary minister, Sony, also knew that there was a certain danger in dispatching troops from Xuzhou to Shandong to quell the chaos, but if the chaos in Shandong could not be pacified, it would directly threaten the connection between the capital and Xuzhou, as well as the transportation of food and grass. If the chaos spreads from Denglai to the hinterland of Shandong, the canal will be cut off sooner or later. A fire in the rear was a disaster for Tuntai, who was alone in Xuzhou.

Tun Tai also knew that it was dangerous to go to Shandong to pacify the chaos. It was not the danger that the rioters in Shandong would bring him, but the Taiping army in front of him. Therefore, his secrecy work was well done, and the Taiping army in Xuzhou did not notice it at all. It was just that Tun Tai never dreamed that the Confucian family in Qufu would sell him.

After hearing that the commander had made a strategic plan to go north to Liaodong in Fujian, Ge Yi was in a hurry, because his Jiangbei Army was now the main force facing the Qing army in the north, and he was also on the front line of the war against the Qing. If the commander went north to Liaodong, it would mean that Jiangbei Army would not be able to go north as the main force and lose the opportunity to continue to make contributions.

Not only was Ge Yi dissatisfied with his current status and title, all the generals in the Jiangbei Army hoped to obtain military exploits in the Northern Expedition. As a result, the Jiangbei Army and government system headed by Ge Yi began to build momentum in the south of the Yangtze River.

Ge Yi personally lobbied the staff of the Prince Qi's mansion and the military, hoping to influence the plan of going north to Liaodong. However, because this plan was made by Zhou Shixiang himself, and the people below couldn't change it, Ge Yi's efforts became meaningless. Fortunately, a riot broke out in Jiangnan, and the plan to go north to Liaodong was temporarily shelved, which gave Ge Yi hope. Of course, in addition to trying to persuade Xiucai to give up going north to Liaodong and directly expedition north from Xuzhou, Ge Yi has another purpose in Zhenjiang this time, that is to win the title of "five main forces" for the four towns under the Jiangbei Army

After the Battle of Yangzhou, Zhou Shixiang had already started to fully integrate his army, because with the continuous victories and surrenders in the war, the Taiping army was now very large and chaotic. Even Zhou Shixiang didn't know how many troops he had brought out.

The major groups of the Taiping Army are the newly built Jiangbei Army, Southwest Army, Central South Army, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang garrison troops.

The four towns of Jiangbei Army are the first town of Qihao, the second town of Zhu Qinglai, the third town of Shang Keyuan, and the second town of Shao Chengguo's cavalry. These four towns were adapted from the original first, second, and third towns, the thirteenth and fifteenth towns, and the first cavalry town, with a total strength of 41,250 people. The commander of the legion is Ge Yi.

The Southwest Army is also composed of four towns, namely the fourth town of Wang Youxi, the second town of the expeditionary army brought back by Lu Guangzu from Annan, the tenth town of Wang Xing, and the third town of the newly built Langbing in Guangxi. The total force is 39,500 people, and the commander of the legion is Shao Jiugong.

The Central South Army is now the Hunan Field Army under the control of Hunan Governor Zhao Sihai. Originally, the main force of the Hunan Field Army was the second town of Tie Yi, but the second town was later transferred to the lower reaches of the river to participate in the Battle of Jiangbei, so the combat effectiveness of the five towns of the Hunan Field Army was the lowest among the three corps. Fortunately, there has been no war pressure on Hunan for the past two years. With Guizhou being occupied by the Southwest Army, Hunan is even more peaceful.

In addition to these three heavy military groups, Zhou Shixiang also has the sixth town of Suna, two towns adapted from the original Zhejiang Qing Army and Ma Fengzhi's Ministry, the fifth town after restoration and supplementation, the second town of Tie Yi, Anhui Governor Jiang He built two new towns, Zhu Tong's eighth town, Hu Qili's seventh town, Wang Fuchen's first cavalry town, Niu Gensheng's twelve towns, Geng Zhongde's fourteen towns, Gan Hui's sixteen towns, Seventeen towns of Han Dynasty. In addition, there were the surrendered troops that the Southwest Field Army had recruited in Guizhou, such as Ta Xince, Lu Sangui, Tan Yi, and others, as well as the original Daxi Army, such as Yusanpin, who had left Qingyang and Feng Shuangli, who led his troops to Guiyang to accept the adaptation.

On the Annan side, there are still three towns of the expeditionary army, and Song Xianggong, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, also has local troops in two towns. The military department has now approved a total of 37 towns. According to the military system of the Taiping Army, excluding the naval division, the Taiping Army has more than 350,000 soldiers and horses.

In fact, these 37 towns have a lot of water, and many towns have more or less the problem of reporting empty rates and eating empty rates.

For example, Zhu Tong's eighth town, Guo Dengdi's ninth town, and Wang Xing's tenth town, these three towns have the meaning of "cooperation" allies from the beginning of their establishment, so Zhou Shixiang cannot directly intervene in these towns. specific business. And these towns themselves were also formed by the integration of various anti-Qing forces at that time. In some towns, there were several princes who were only awarded the title of Yongli.

It is more appropriate to describe these people as a piece of loose sand. In order to unite them and form a united front against the Qing Dynasty, Zhou Shixiang gave them the establishment of several towns with a stroke of his pen in Zhaoqing, and promised that the land that he would conquer in the future could be "divided up". Give them, this is the successful organization of the West Expedition. However, compared to the towns of the Taiping Army, the actual number of soldiers in these three towns is less than half of the quota, so that a marquis may only be a general banner with dozens of soldiers in the army.

After the official establishment of the Dingwu court, Zhou Shixiang had already started to rectify these messed-up lords, either cutting them down, or demoting them. For this reason, those original "allies" were very dissatisfied with the increasingly "domineering" Zhou Shixiang. If they really don't have the strength to make trouble, I'm afraid it will be another storm.

However, the tense situation and the constant war prevented Zhou Shixiang from clearing these towns, and more and more Qing troops and Wu troops surrendered later. Not only could the army not be able to rectify the towns, on the contrary, they had to keep approving places for new towns. Going out to buy people's hearts~www.novelbuddy.com~ For example, Li Zhiting from Guizhou has gold in his hand and a Manchu lady in the other. He abruptly disintegrated the Wu army's defense line in Guizhou, and brought dozens of Wu army generals. In order to settle them, he reached a thousand gold The role of buying horse bones in order to receive miraculous effects in the future war with Wu Sangui, Zhou Shixiang could only incorporate them against his will and give them a weave. As a result, there are as many as 37 townships hanging in the military department, but in fact half of them are made up, there is no combat effectiveness, and the phenomenon of empty quotas is serious.

In order to get more benefits from the Taiping Army, the surrendered generals often have only a few hundred people under them, but he dares to report it several times, and in order to appease them and stabilize them, from the army to the army, every layer is turning a blind eye. If you close your eyes, the end result is to raise a lot of waste and consume a lot of money.

This situation is just like when Li Zicheng entered Beijing. The army of tens of thousands of people recruited hundreds of thousands of descendants of the Ming Dynasty along the way, growing like a snowball, and finally collapsed in an instant.

The situation that Zhou Shixiang faced was changing from "fighting the country" to how to "sit in the country" now.

Reorganizing the army is the same as cleaning up the court and thoroughly cleaning up the opposition forces, which has become Zhou Shixiang's top priority now.

Building the "five main forces" is the first step in Zhou Shixiang's plan to reorganize his army.