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Duoduo ordered Aobai to lead 10,000 troops to continue besieging Chuzhou, while he himself led 20,000 troops south to meet Liu Meng.
Chuzhou is about 100 miles away from the north bank of the Yangtze River. The terrain is very flat. Duoduo's 20,000 troops are all cavalry, and such terrain is very advantageous to him.
Most of Liu Meng's 50,000 troops heading north were infantry. Under normal circumstances, in a battle on the plain, 50,000 infantry against 20,000 cavalry, the chances of winning are extremely slim. If the cavalry's attack was frustrated, they could retreat and adopt harassment tactics to wear down the infantry.
If the infantry were defeated, they would not even have a chance to escape.
Moreover, Duoduo's 20,000 cavalrymen were elite soldiers selected from the 80,000 Qing troops. According to the comparison of the combat power between the Qing army and the Liaodong Ming army, in a field battle on the plain, Duoduo was fully confident of winning even if it was 10,000 against 50,000 infantry, let alone 20,000 cavalrymen against 50,000 infantrymen.
He led an army of 20,000 southwards, which showed that he had a high opinion of Liu Meng.
On the other hand, this was also because the Qing army had limited gains from looting and was running out of food and fodder, so Duoduo had to attack with all his might, striving to defeat Liu Meng as quickly as possible, seize food and fodder supplies, and reverse the entire situation of the war.
Twenty thousand cavalrymen spread out nearly five miles wide, like black clouds galloping along the ground. The wind and snow had been intermittent for the past few days, and the snow on the ground was already two inches thick. This had a certain impact on the speed of the horses, but as long as it did not freeze, the impact would not be great.
When the vanguard Tong Tulai reached Wuyi Town in the south, he received a report from scouts saying that the only 3,000 cavalrymen out of Liu Meng's 50,000-strong army had arrived at the south bank of the Chu River first and controlled the pontoon bridge over the river.
The so-called Chuhe River is the Qingliu River in Chuzhou and the Xianghe River in Quanjiao County to the west. They meet ten miles south of Wuyi Town. The river is about twenty feet wide and the water is deep enough for two people to drown.
After the two rivers meet, they flow eastward to ** County and merge into the Yangtze River near **.
This place is only about thirty miles away from the Yangtze River, so it is not surprising that the Qin cavalry arrived first.
Seeing that the Qin cavalry controlled the pontoon bridge instead of destroying it, Tong Tulai believed that Liu Meng probably didn't know that the Qing army was moving south, and that he controlled the pontoon bridge to facilitate the subsequent infantry to cross the river.
Tong Tulai immediately sent out a large number of cavalry to hunt down Qin army scouts and prevent Liu Meng from obtaining the movements of the Qing army.
At the same time, he sent someone to report to Duoduo, asking him to slow down and wait until Liu Meng's army crossed the Chu River to the north before launching the attack.
Liu Meng's 50,000 troops quickly arrived at the south bank of Chu River. However, to the surprise of Duoduo and others, Liu Meng was not in a hurry to cross the river.
After the 50,000-strong army arrived at the south bank of the Chu River and took a look around, they split up into groups of ten thousand and set up a large camp every ten miles on the south bank.
They had no intention of crossing the river to reinforce Chuzhou. On the contrary, they piled firewood on the only floating bridge and poured kerosene on it. The meaning was obvious: if the Qing army tried to seize the floating bridge, they would set fire to it.
What was he doing? Didn't Liu Meng rush over to rescue Qin Mu? Why didn't he cross the river? Was it because he discovered an ambush on the north bank
The Qing army hiding in Wuyi Town on the north bank of Chuhe River had a good time. Ning Wanwo was the first to realize that something was wrong. He found Duoduo and said, "Your Majesty, the Qin army's actions are different. Something seems to be wrong."
Duoduo raised his eyebrows and asked, "What's wrong?"
“Your Majesty, to the north of Chuzhou is Qingliu Pass, a strategically located pass where one man can hold the pass against ten thousand. To the east is Lai’an River, and to the west is Xiang River. Although these two rivers are only a dozen feet wide, in this cold winter, if the Qin army sends troops to patrol and prevent our army from building a bridge, it will be very difficult for our army to cross the river.
Your Majesty, it seems that our army has actually been trapped in the area of dozens of miles between Lai'an River and Xiang River. There has been something wrong with the defenders of Chuzhou in the past two or three days. Think about it, when we were in Sizhou, Yan Yingyuan only had 10,000 troops to defend the city. Our army of 70,000 has been attacking fiercely for several days but has not gained any advantage.
Chuzhou's military strength is comparable to Sizhou's, and they also have the elite troops brought by Qin Mu, but their defense is much weaker. Now it seems that Qin Mu is very likely to deliberately show weakness to attract us to the city of Chuzhou and buy time for the Qin army to encircle our army..."
Before Ning Wan finished speaking, Tulai, who had been looked down upon for a long time, immediately sneered and retorted: "Master Ning, have you forgotten that there are 10,000 troops of Xihan on the east bank of the Lai'an River? With Xihan on the east bank, how could the Qin army rely on the Lai'an River to trap our army? Master Ning, are you deliberately trying to disrupt our army's morale by making such alarmist remarks?"
Tulai was originally a minister of the Plain Yellow Banner. When Huang Taiji died, he formed an alliance with eight people including Aobai, Xihan, and Heluohui at the Sanguan Temple and vowed to support Huang Taiji's son to succeed to the throne. Hauge was Huang Taiji's eldest son and was the candidate they strongly recommended for the throne.
However, later on, He Luohui, Xihan and others defected to Dorgon for power. Before entering the Pass, He Luohui even stood up to expose Hauge, causing Hauge to almost lose his life. In the end, although he saved his life, he lost his title.
Of the eight people who had sworn an oath in the Sanguan Temple, only Aobai, Tulai and a few others had not yet rebelled, and they still ignored the three Dorgon brothers.
Like Aobai, he was a very capable general, but he was defeated and captured at Huangshiji a few months ago. He was exchanged with Han Gang and was able to come back. This humiliating experience made him suffer countless contempts from Dorgon's people.
Although Duoduo brought him with him on the southward expedition this time, he almost never let him lead the army alone. His contempt was evident in his words. Ning Wanwo was a loyal dog of Dorgon's faction, and if there was a chance to strike him, Tulai would naturally not let him go easily.
Tulai directly pinned the crime of disrupting the morale of the army on Ning Wanwo, and his argument was well-founded. Even Duoduo felt that Ning Wanwo was exaggerating.
As Tu Lai said, with Xihan and Li Guohan's 10,000 troops on the east bank of the Lai'an River, the Qin army could not even think of encircling them, let alone stopping their tens of thousands of troops from leaving.
Ning Wanwo was about to argue again, but Duoduo glanced at him coldly and ordered loudly: "Send a message to Aobai to attack Chuzhou with all his strength. I want to see if Liu Meng can save Xuzhou."
After delivering this order, Duoduo ordered Zu Dale again: "Zu Dale, you must immediately find a small boat and build a floating bridge. After dark, order the soldiers to carry the floating bridge to the Chu River for our troops to cross the river."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
It has to be said that Duoduo's method was extremely creative. After Zu Dale received the order, he sent troops to collect everywhere. As a result, thousands of troops were dispatched, and it took half a day to finally find twenty or thirty dilapidated small boats.
It's okay if it's broken, don't be picky, it's good enough if it can be used.
Zu Dale had people connect these small boats together with wood first, and then lay door panels on them. Fortunately, the Chu River was only about ten to twenty feet wide, and after connecting all the small boats together, they would be wide enough to reach the other side.
By the time everything was ready, it was already dark. Zu Dale reported it to Duoduo and ordered hundreds of soldiers to carry the floating bridge to the Chu River like a giant centipede.
The two thousand troops following behind were ready to cross the river and set up camp as soon as the pontoon bridge was built, guard the bridgehead, and welcome the passage of the subsequent army.
No one dared to light torches, but fortunately the ground was covered with snow, so the visibility was good and we could just see the road. The pontoon bridge was smoothly lifted to the river.
Very good, the other side is very quiet. Apart from the howling cold wind, it is pitch dark and nothing can be seen.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry, be gentle in front, slowly put the front into the water, and those who hold the cable, pay attention to the tightness." Zu Dale called out in a low voice and personally stood by the river to direct the pontoon bridge into the water.
One end of the floating bridge was gently lowered into the river. To prevent the floating bridge from being pushed away by the current after entering the water, a rope was tied every few feet on the upstream side, and people on the shore pulled it diagonally, just like the diagonal steel wire ropes on the top of some electric poles in later generations to fix the electric poles so that they would not fall to one side. With this method, the floating bridge that was slowly extended into the river would not be pushed away by the current, ensuring that it could reach the other side of the river.
There were several people squatting in front of the floating bridge that entered the river first, using bamboo poles like rowing a boat, in order to ensure that the floating bridge extended into the water in the correct direction.
The people on the shore pushed the pontoon bridge into the water little by little, and slowly loosened the diagonal rope. The pontoon bridge slowly extended to the south bank, like a long snake crossing the river.
Everything went smoothly, but for some reason, the closer Zu Dale got to success, the more nervous he became. He suddenly felt that it was too quiet, which was a bit abnormal. According to the Qin army's intention, they clearly wanted to defend the river, so they should have sent some people to patrol the river. Why couldn't they see a single torch
As if to confirm Zu Dale's guess, when the floating bridge was about to reach the other side, a series of crisp "ding-ling" sounds suddenly came, which was the sound of bells.
What's going on? Why is the bell ringing
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ps: I am about to be squeezed out of the top 100 in the monthly ticket list. I request firepower support from my brothers. I beg for monthly tickets, urgently!
.(To be continued..)
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