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On the surface of the river at the mouth of Jiujiang River, thousands of sails gathered and the walls and oars were as high as mountains; on the south bank of the river, there were camps stretching for ten miles, with flags flying and soldiers and horses marching noisily.
Qin Mu's eastern expedition brought together more than 20 civil officials and advisers, including Sima An, Li Yuan, He Liang, Yu Dayou, Gu Junen, Wu Jinxi, Song Xiance, Shao Hua and others.
As for military generals, there are a large number of generals including Meng Ke, Liu Meng, Su Jin, Yuan Zongde, Huo Sheng, Cui Feng, Xiang Liancheng, Hui Dengxiang, Jin Shenghuan, Hao Yaoqi, Han Xiu, Di Zhongxing, Zheng Sihai, Hu Shouliang, Guo Yunlong, and Hou Chang.
Including the 60,000 troops that Hui Dengxiang and Jin Kuahuan had just surrendered, the total number of troops mobilized this time reached an unprecedented 220,000, and it was claimed to be 500,000 to the outside world.
At present, the number of troops left to garrison in the entire Jiangxi and Huguang hinterland is less than 50,000. It can be said that this battle has almost drained all the troops.
Fortunately, the target of this war was Jiangnan, where there was a convenient waterway called the Yangtze River, and logistical support was very convenient, without the need to recruit hundreds of thousands of civilians to transport food and fodder.
Hong Chengchou's military strength was roughly the same, also over 200,000, no more and no less.
History has surprising similarities, which reminds us of the great war between Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, Chen Youliang also marched eastward from Wuchang to attack the Jinling area occupied by Zhu Yuanzhang.
In terms of military strength, Chen Youliang had more troops than Zhu Yuanzhang, and in terms of warships and weapons and equipment, Zhu Yuanzhang was even more difficult to match Chen Youliang, but Chen Youliang was defeated in the end.
Learning from past mistakes, dozens of civil and military officials gathered in the big tent on the shore. The first thing they did was to summarize the lessons learned from Chen Youliang's failure in order to avoid making the same mistake.
Yu Dayou spoke eloquently: "... ... ... Chen Youliang had the best geographical advantages from top to bottom, and his military force was more than twice that of Zhu Yuanzhang. The reason for his failure was that in the intercalary fifth month of the 20th year of the reign of Emperor Zhizheng, Chen Youliang made his first eastern expedition, using his powerful navy to head straight for Nanjing. There was no problem with the strategy, but he was too reckless. Zhu Yuanzhang asked Chen Youliang's old friend Kang Maocai to write a letter to Chen Youliang pretending to surrender, but Chen Youliang actually believed it and sailed his huge ships from the Yangtze River into the narrower Xinhe River, abandoning his boats and landing, giving up his strengths and using his weaknesses, which led to his great defeat in this battle."
Qin Mu listened carefully and secretly wrote down several key words: rash, feigned surrender, sacrificing one's strengths to make use of one's weaknesses, and ambush.
Then He Liang said: "In February of the 23rd year of Zhizheng, Zhang Shicheng sent troops to besiege Anfeng, the last stronghold of the Little Ming King. The Little Ming King urgently asked Zhu Yuanzhang for help. Anfeng is the barrier of Nanjing. Saving Anfeng is to protect Nanjing. In March, Zhu Yuanzhang led his troops across the river to rescue Anfeng. In April, Chen Youliang took advantage of the fact that Zhu Yuanzhang's main force was rescuing Anfeng and Jiangnan was empty, and on the 11th day, he besieged Hongdu, which is today's Nanchang Prefecture, with a land and sea army of 600,000.
At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang was in Anfeng, Xu Da was attacking Luzhou, and Nanjing was empty. Chen Youliang's army did not go down the river to attack Nanjing, but turned to Poyang Lake to besiege Nanchang Prefecture, which was a major strategic mistake.
If Chen Youliang's main force went eastward and attacked Nanjing directly, Zhu Yuanzhang would be in an unfavorable situation of being attacked by Chen and Zhang, and unable to advance or retreat. However, Chen Youliang's main force turned to attack the solid Nanchang City, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of troops being confined to a small area. It was difficult to deploy;
Moreover, he did not send troops to guard the key points of Jianghu, leaving the retreat unattended. The troops were stationed in a strong city, fighting hard for three months, and the army was tired and the morale was low. At the same time, it gave Zhu Yuanzhang time to repel Zhang Shicheng and calmly transfer Xu Da back from Luzhou, which eventually led to Chen Youliang's defeat. "
In fact, he is just an ordinary person. Afterwards, he is similar to Zhuge Liang. But as a person involved, in a complex battlefield, often a very small factor will affect the commander's decision;
For example, afterwards you may think that Chen Youliang was stupid, why did he turn to attack Nanchang instead of going straight to Nanjing? But at that time, Chen Youliang may have made such a decision due to certain factors.
For example, no one expected that Nanchang could hold out for three months under the onslaught of hundreds of thousands of troops, and no one expected that Zhang Zhicheng would be defeated so quickly.
From Chen Youliang's perspective, wouldn't it be better for him to first take over the strategic Nanchang, let Zhang Shicheng and Zhu Yuanzhang fight to a standstill, and then go straight to Nanjing
As the commander of a large army, one must have the ability to see through the details and make correct adjustments according to every subtle change on the battlefield in order to achieve victory. This is by no means as simple as analyzing from a detached perspective after the event.
In retrospect, each factor is inevitable and clear.
Beforehand, even in a local war involving dozens of people, the outcome is unknown;
However, this local battle involving dozens of people may affect the outcome of the entire battle.
Therefore, it is never too much to constantly summarize the experiences and lessons of predecessors. Qin Mu and the generals took the trouble to analyze the gains and losses of Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang, including the details of the Battle of Poyang Lake, and objectively analyzed them one by one to see what experiences were worth learning and which lessons should be learned.
The Qin army will also be facing a major battle that will determine its fate, so they must have enough patience and not act rashly.
After discussing the battle between Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang, everyone turned to the current battle deployment. Sima An explained the current strategic situation to everyone using the sand table:
"According to intelligence, Hong Chengchou has urgently ordered Kong Youde to defend Anqing, and ordered Liu Kongzhao and the commander of the guards Shuonadai to lead a navy consisting of hundreds of large and small ships to guard the Yangtze River waterway to assist Kong Youde by land and water.
In addition, Zuo Menggeng's 20,000 troops were urgently recalled, led by Xu Ensheng, to help Anqing. Tulai led his 40,000 troops to retreat to Huangshiji, across the river from Anqing.
Hong Chengchou also ordered people to set up wooden fences and water forts on both sides of the Yangtze River, put large boats and rafts in the river, and use red-haired cannons as shore artillery on both sides of the river for extremely tight defense.
Now the total strength of the Qing army on both sides of Anqing has reached 100,000. This is only Hong Chengchou's first line of defense. In Caishiji, Taiping Prefecture, Hong Chengchou also ordered the Qing general Wu Lachan to prepare a second line of defense, in an attempt to block our army along the river. "
"Hong Chengchou is indeed not an easy opponent. His reaction is so quick and his defense is so thorough. It looks like we are going to have a tough battle!"
"King Qin, it's not just that. Hong Chengchou knows that his warships are inferior to ours, so he took a defensive position in Anqing, but he is constantly increasing his troops on the southern front. Is he trying to break through our Huizhou defense line and break into the heart of Jiangxi
At present, the commander of the imperial guards, Yierduqi, has led another 10,000 troops to Ningguo Prefecture to reinforce Durde who is attacking Huizhou. Once Yierduqi arrives, the Qing army in Huizhou will reach 30,000. Huo Sheng only has 10,000 troops in Huizhou, which puts him under a lot of pressure.
In addition, Hong Chengchou ordered Bolo in Hangzhou to divide 7,000 troops, led by Fei Yanggu, to attack Fuyang and Tonglu in western Zhejiang. The intention was self-evident, that is, to attack Quzhou Prefecture.
If Quzhou is captured, Fei Yanggu can attack Huizhou from the north with Yierduqi and Durde, and attack Shangrao, which is poorly defended, from the west to threaten Nanchang.
Qin Mu walked to the sand table. From the enemy and friendly situation map marked on the sand table, it can be clearly seen that in Anqing, Kong Youde and Tulai's 100,000 heavy troops were on the defensive, while in Huizhou (Huangshan City) in the south, Durde was on the offensive.
Fei Guyang took another approach and attacked Quzhou from the west of Hangzhou, attempting to form a fierce right hook with Durde of Huizhou and hit the Qin army hard on its soft spot.
Hong Chengchou's combination of offense and defense is indeed extraordinary. If Quzhou is captured, the southern defense line will collapse, and the entire empty belly of Jiangxi will be exposed to the Qing army.
Qin Mu asked: "How do you think we should deal with this?"
Meng Ke replied: "It is necessary to transfer 10,000 troops to the south to strengthen defense, but the southern line is not conducive to the deployment of the army. It is impossible for our army to attack the southern line. At present, we can only defend the southern line and then attack Anqing by land and sea. This strategic direction does not need to be changed. We only need to make some targeted tactical adjustments. The key is speed. Only by taking Anqing as soon as possible can we disrupt Hong Chengchou's overall deployment."
Sima An thought for a moment and said, "King of Qin, in fact, our army can also open up a third front. Since Duoduo went north to the Central Plains, the Huaiyang area has been relatively empty. I think we can order Su Jin and Yuan Zongdi to split their troops into two groups, each with 10,000 cavalry to quickly bypass Chaohu Lake, abandon Luzhou, and attack in a combined manner, and directly penetrate Chuzhou north of Jinling.
Either threaten Jinling or Yangzhou, or even find an opportunity to cross the river and open up a new battlefield in Jiangyin or elsewhere. Either way, it can disrupt Hong Chengchou's existing deployment and pose a serious threat to his rear."
*****(To be continued...)
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