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Compared with the attack on Anqing City by Liu Meng, the attack on Huangshiji on the east coast by Meng Ke was more urgent.
Because they could not capture Huangshifan, the enemy's artillery array always blocked the Changshui waterway, and the supply could not be transported eastward in the later period, and the leapfrog tactics formulated by Qin Mu could not be implemented;
Tulai was a skilled general. He had learned from his mistakes and ordered his men to dig earth pits on the artillery array, which was like a low wall in front. Even if Di Zhongxing's warships ventured closer to the east coast to fire, the threat to the Qing army's gunners, whether it was solid bullets or buckshot, was greatly reduced, and they could do nothing for a while.
Now the only way to destroy this artillery array and restore the Yangtze River waterway to normal is to capture Huangshiji on the shore.
Huangshiji is only more than 20 feet high, but it is adjacent to the Yangtze River in the west and the lake in the east. Tulai had 40,000 soldiers, although most of them were Green Camp soldiers, but they defended the dangerous place. Mengke's 60,000 troops attacked fiercely for two days, and both sides suffered heavy casualties. There was no hope of capturing Huangshiji for a while.
When the Qing army marched south, they obtained a large number of artillery from cities such as Nanjing and Yangzhou. In order to defend the strategic town of Anqing, Hong Chengchou spent a lot of money this time and transferred a large number of artillery to Anqing, which were distributed to Kong Youde and Tulaib on both sides of the river.
There were rumbling sounds of artillery and smoke all over Huangshiji. Both sides fired artillery at each other. The Qing army had the advantage of terrain. Even though the Qin army had the jump-eye ranging method and had a relatively high shooting accuracy, it still fell into a disadvantage.
When the infantry attacked from above, the Qing army loaded with shotgun shells, which caused huge casualties to the Qin army.
The ground at the foot of Huangshiji was stained red with blood. Wen Cunxiao, the lieutenant general in charge of the attack, retreated with injuries. He gasped and said to Meng Ke, "General Meng, more than half of my men have been killed or wounded. Please give me another 2,000 troops and I will go up to avenge my brothers who died."
Meng Ke looked at the battlefield filled with gunpowder and smoke, his facial lines as hard as stone sculptures. He saw the casualties of the front army, and he was anxious. However, as the commander of the army, he remained calm and resolute: "Commander Wen, go and bandage the wounds first."
"The governor..."
"This is a military order."
"Yes!" Wen Cunxiao retreated reluctantly.
Looking down from the high slope where Meng Ke's flag was, the Qin army camped for ten miles, soldiers and horses were roaring, weapons were like a forest, the river wind blew, the black flags fluttered, and the black armor of the soldiers made the ground look like a huge black cloud, full of a cold and hard atmosphere.
Xiang Liancheng tightly gripped the hilt of his knife and said, "General Meng, the Qing army has the advantage of the terrain, and Tulai even knew to dig trenches to avoid artillery fire. I'm afraid it won't work if we continue to attack with such a strong force. We must think of another way."
Meng Ke glanced at Lian Cheng, Jin Shenghuan, Hao Yaoqi, Han Xiu, Hou Chang, Hui Dengxiang and other generals, and asked in a deep voice: "Do you have any good ideas?"
Xiang Liancheng spoke first: "For the Green Camp soldiers, we should attack their hearts first, move them with emotions, lure them with benefits, frighten them with power, and alienate them. When the King of Qin was in Fanshang Village, he mainly alienated the Guanning Army. That's how he won the great victory in Fanshang Village.
As far as I know, half of the Green Camp soldiers in Lai Tu’s army were originally Huang Degong’s men. If we try to alienate them in a targeted way, it may not be a problem.”
Jin Shenghuan had a fresh memory of the time when Ma Yongzhen's "Four Sides of the Chu Song" caused great chaos in the army under the city of Yuezhou, so he used this trick with a targeted purpose. It was tried and tested, and it also met Gao Liancheng's "appeal to the emotions" point. After he said it, he was immediately recognized by Meng Ke.
Hui Deng said, "Money can make people happy. I agree with the strategy of tempting the general with benefits. Instead of wasting food and grass here, it is better to take out more money. Lure him with huge profits."
The generals offered their suggestions one after another, and after listening carefully, Meng Ke felt that there was always something missing, that is, intimidation. If the enemy could not suffer a little, all the strategies of tempting them with benefits and appealing to their emotions would be greatly reduced.
Meng Ke pondered for a long time, looking at the flags blown by the wind, and suddenly something came to his mind.
Soon, Meng Ke ordered more than a dozen boxes of silver to be carried to the front of the battle, and had people shout to the Green Camp soldiers on the reef: "Brothers of the Green Camp, we know that you are unwilling to shave your heads and change clothes to become the running dogs of the Tartars. Our Governor Meng has ordered that any brother who comes down the mountain will immediately receive a reward of three taels of silver. In addition, whoever brings down a Tartar head will be rewarded with ten taels of silver, a hundred taels for a guard, and a thousand taels for a military official. Whoever gets the head of the Tartar commander will be rewarded with ten thousand gold and be made a marquis..."
The Qin army had just obtained 69 million taels of wealth from Li Zicheng, which made them very wealthy. When they carried the white silver to the front of the battle, it was so dazzling that people were dazzled.
There are many ways to persuade people to surrender. For the Green Camp soldiers who were oppressed by the Tartars, the most tempting thing is to get three taels of silver when they go down the mountain.
After all, it is not easy to kill a Tartar and take his head down the mountain, but if you escape down the mountain at night, the success rate is still very high.
The biggest concern now is whether he can really get the silver after escaping down the mountain and joining the Qin army. Such a good thing has never been heard of, and it is really not easy to get the Green Camp soldiers on Jishan to believe it.
After the luring offensive came to an end, when night fell, tens of thousands of Qin soldiers held wet firewood and crawled two hundred steps below Huangshiji before stopping. The firewood was piled into a small hill and then set on fire everywhere. Soon, thick smoke billowed.
During the day, Meng Ke looked at the fluttering flags and found that it was the east wind that was blowing, so he began to prepare for the grand drama of using the east wind to attack with smoke. At this time, the thick smoke was blown by the southeast wind and all rolled up to Huangshiji.
The Qing troops on the mountain were so choked that they burst into tears and coughed incessantly, and some were even almost suffocated.
Because the piles were all wet firewood, there was mostly thick smoke but no big fire. Tulai saw that if the smoke continued like this for a long time, Huangshiji would be in danger, so he ordered 3,000 men to rush down the mountain with wet cloth covering their mouths and noses, in an attempt to scatter the firewood and put out the smoke.
Meng Ke had anticipated this and had deployed more than 20 cannons on the other side of the fire, all loaded with buckshot, and 3,000 musketeers were waiting in the dark.
As the Qing army rushed down, more than 20 artillery pieces roared, tongues of fire spewed out, and pieces of terrifying barrages intertwined like rain;
The approaching Qing troops were like paper dummies, being torn into pieces, blood rained everywhere, dead and wounded were everywhere, those who were lucky enough to survive were terrified, crying and screaming for their parents, and the musketeers who had been prepared fired in rows, the bullets whizzed away, chasing the fleeing Qing troops;
Tulai suffered hundreds of casualties, but had nowhere to escape. He had to leave a small number of troops to defend in the trenches and withdraw most of the troops to the other side of Huangshiji to avoid the smoke.
At this time, the Qin army's assistant officers composed many songs to persuade the soldiers to surrender, and asked the soldiers to sing loudly to persuade Tulai's Green Camp soldiers to surrender. The Qing army was smoked all night, and some soldiers who were unwilling to fight for the Qing army really fled down the mountain in the dark and surrendered to the Qin army. Although there were only a few dozen people, this was definitely a good opportunity to change the overall situation.
The next day, when the fireworks died down, Meng Ke brought the dozens of Green Camp soldiers who had surrendered down the mountain to the front of the battle line and distributed silver to them. The Green Camp soldiers on the mountain saw this, and many of them became shaken.
Tulai saw the same thing and couldn't help but feel worried. He didn't have many banner troops under his command, and most of them were Green Camp soldiers who surrendered when he went south of the Yangtze River. In the past one or two months, coupled with Ajige's defeat and the Qin army's aggressiveness, many Green Camp soldiers became restless and felt that following the Qing army might not lead to a good outcome.
In this season, the wind is mostly from the southeast. The Qin army was able to use smoke last night, but not tonight? If they continue to be smoked for two more nights without any countermeasures, I am afraid that all the Green Camp soldiers will run away.
Tulai thought about it for a long time but could not come up with a plan. He got angry and decided to lead 20,000 troops down the mountain to fight Mengke. If the situation was favorable, his deputy general Dehamutai would lead the remaining 20,000 troops to engage in a decisive battle.
After making up his mind, Tulai immediately assembled 20,000 troops and brazenly captured Huangshiji.
The terrain near Huangshiji was narrow, and Meng Ke had 60,000 troops, but in reality he could only deploy about 20,000 at a time.
Hao Yaoqi was originally the flag bearer in Li Zicheng's army, hence the name Yaoqi. The commander's flag is crucial in war, and the flag bearer is often the enemy's first target of attack. When the two armies fight, once the commander's flag falls, the army will be defeated. Therefore, the flag bearer must be an extremely brave person, and Hao Yaoqi is no exception.
He was of strong physique and extremely brave in battle. He started as a flag bearer and eventually became an important general under Li Zicheng. He could be said to have been through many battles.
Seeing that Tulai was personally leading 20,000 troops to attack, Hao Yaoqi volunteered to fight, and Meng Ke made a prompt decision and ordered him to go into battle.
The two armies rushed towards each other from a distance of several miles, the war drums were deafening, the shouts of killing were shaking the earth, and the mountains and rivers had already changed color before the battle even started.
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