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Jiangnan Admiral He Chun's official luck was pretty good. As a member of the Manchurian Plain Yellow Banner, He Chun was born with a better chance of promotion than Han people. When he followed Xiang Rong in his crusade against the Cantonese bandits, He Chun proudly rose to the rank of Commander. After Xiang Rong's repeated defeats, He Chun temporarily took over Xiang Rong's command and was given the position of commander-in-chief with the additional rank of admiral.
In the following days, He Chun's life flourished. Even when his old boss Xiang Rong came out of retirement, He Chun was already able to stand up to him. Xiang Rong became the Imperial Envoy and was responsible for the establishment of the Jiangnan Camp. He Chun was appointed Jiangnan Admiral, but he refused to listen to Xiang Rong's orders, so he led his troops to northern Hubei to attack the Taiping army in western Anhui.
At this time, Admiral He Chun was in a bad mood in the military tent outside Liu 'an. He stood up, sat down, and stood up again. After finally sitting down, Jiangnan Admiral He Chun only glanced at the documents on the official table, and he couldn't sit down anymore.
The document said that Shandong Governor Zhang Liangji was defeated and captured in Shandong. The Taiping army didn't kill Zhang Liangji on the spot, but brought him back to Tianjing. Zhang Liangji was Hunan Governor Zhang Liangji when the Taiping army attacked Changsha. He fought with the Taiping army for three months, and the Taiping army's Western Prince Xiao Chaogui died in that battle.
The Taiping army hated Zhang Liangji. When Zhang Liangji was sent to Tianjing, they first put him in a cage and paraded him through the streets for ten days, then cut Zhang Liangji into a thousand pieces. His heart was gouged out and his head hung on Tianjing's city wall until now.
During the Changsha attack, He Chun was also on the side of the Qing Army. Hearing that Zhang Liangji had ended up like this, he really felt sad for the loss of a rabbit. Zhang Liangji wasn't captured in the Jiangnan area against the Taiping army, but in Shandong by the Taiping army. Then, it would be sent to the faraway Tianjing. At the beginning of the year, the governor of Huguang, Wu Wenxiang, had drowned himself after being defeated by the Taiping army. Manchu Qing has already lost three governors, the Huguang governor-general, Hubei inspector-general, and Shandong inspector-general, under the Taiping army's hands. According to the news, the imperial envoy, Sheng Bao, had been captured by the Taiping army and executed. Could it be that the Qing Dynasty could not even protect the governor and the imperial envoy?
He Chun knew who she was fighting for. The collar, collar, and epaulettes on the uniform of the Taiping army guarding Luan City were obviously the uniform of the Cantonese bandits. Facing the attack of the Qing Army, the garrison of Lu 'an calmly defended. He Chun was deeply impressed by the fact that the Qing Army would not open fire unless they were within effective firing range.
When attacking Luzhou and Tong City, Qin Rigang was very good at building fortifications. The wooden fences he built were often several miles long. He Chun was helpless against Qin Rigang, who was an expert in positional warfare. He could only lead 12,000 Qing soldiers north to attack Liu 'an. Based on the current situation, it would be impossible to conquer Liu' an in a short period of time. As time went by, it was more and more likely that the Cantonese bandits would come to reinforce Luan. After seeing Zhang Liangji's fate, He Chun knew that as an "old friend" of the Taiping army, if she fell into the hands of the Taiping army, she would not be any better off than Zhang Liangji.
Should she retreat? He Chun felt uneasy.
"Chief of Staff, there are tens of thousands of soldiers from the Demon Cleansing Division and the Spring Division. If we can capture them all in one fell swoop …" Chief of Staff Ruan Xihao said the suggestion that any staff officer who had seen the intelligence of both sides would give. Vézé's troops loved to attack and hoped to fight the enemy in the open. And Kazuharu's troops had fulfilled both of these conditions. More importantly, He Chun's troops were stationed outside Luan. If Vézé's troops moved like the wind, they might be able to surround He Chun's troops outside Luan. At that time, Ruan Xihao was confident that He Chun would not be able to escape.
The Yangtze River divided Hubei and Anhui into north and south. If he could wipe out more than 10,000 Qing Army troops, the situation in western Anhui and northern Hubei would be completely different. The Qing Army would not be able to make up for the losses in the short term. At that time, regardless of the situation in Jiangxi, Hubei, and Hunan south of the Yangtze, the Taiping army led by Qin Rigang would be able to move freely north of the Yangtze River and easily control Hankou and Hanyang.
"How do we surround He Chun?" Vézé could not be bothered to evaluate the situation. Instead, he raised a specific question.
Pointing at the map, Ruan Xihao replied, "The best way is to surround three and leave one empty. Of these three sides, there are troops from Shouzhou in the north. We might as well go from the south. This is what a pincer attack looks like from the north and the south. But should the gap for He Chun be at Luzhou and Shucheng in the east, or Yaoli in the west? "
This was a silly question. If He Chun had not lost his mind, he would not have been able to advance eastward from Luan to Luzhou. Vézé did not believe that He Chun could take down Luan. Luzhou was the central city where Vézé's troops were stationed. If He Chun dared to attack Luzhou, Vézé would make way and send off the Jiangnan commander-in-chief He Chun to Luzhou. And if He Chun were to escape to Shu City, there was only one way to describe it, and that was to walk right into a trap. He Chun, who had fled to Shucheng, surrounded Anqing, Luzhou, and Luan. If Vézé sealed off Mount Huo, He Chun would be trapped to death without fighting.
Therefore, heading east was not a choice. The only choice was Yaoli, which was on the main road to the west of Luan. Yaoli was eighty li west of Luan. After sending troops to occupy this place, He Chun's escape route would be completely cut off.
Deputy Chief of Staff Ju Junfeng immediately raised a different opinion. "Isn't it too far to go to Yaoli, which is eighty li away? We are now at Shucheng. If we run to Yaoli, we will have to walk hundreds of li. If something happens along the way, we won't be able to call back our troops. "
In this era, battlefield communication was a big problem. It was possible to rely on cavalry to send messages ten li away, but eighty li away was a completely different world. Vézé's troops could use semaphore signals during the day and light signals at night. However, the precondition was that the line of communication had to be secure. If they used this method of communication to surround the Qing Army, it would be much more unreliable. Deputy Chief of Staff Ju Junfeng's question wasn't an attempt to shirk responsibility. There really was such a serious problem.
Vézé wasn't stumped by this question. He put on a fearless expression and said loudly, "Large armies will inevitably encounter this problem. If we want to launch a three-pronged attack, we can't assume that the three armies will converge at a certain place at a certain time like we think. "
Ju Junfeng stared dumbstruck at Vézé's heroic explanation. He could already sense a future that made him uneasy.
Vézé asked, "Do you think that when we appear north and south of He Chun, He Chun will immediately run away, or will he confront us?"
"This … if he runs away immediately, he'll have to leave someone behind to cover his retreat. Given the Qing Army's conduct, no one will be willing to cover his retreat, so He Chun will have no choice but to slowly retreat, "Ju Junfeng replied.
"If that's the case, then we'll just hold He Chun back," Vézé replied.
Ruan Xihao immediately voiced his opinion. "Don't talk about holding him back or not. We might as well circle to the southwest of He Chun and wait for the troops from Shouzhou to the northwest of He Chun. Then, both sides will appear at the same time. At that time, He Chun will be frightened and will probably fall into chaos."
Ju Junfeng retorted, "We want to fight a battle of annihilation, not a battle of rout. Although our troops are far stronger than He Chun's, we can only send fifteen thousand men to attack He Chun at most. Including the troops from Liu 'an City, there are only twenty thousand. That's only seven or eight thousand more than He Chun's troops. It's far from the level of ten encirclement. It's not a good thing for us to let He Chun run away immediately. Moreover, among these twenty thousand men, there are only ten thousand truly elite troops. Two of them are field troops, while the other two are defensive troops. Many of their weapons are matchlock guns. We can't expect them to perform too well. "
After a round of discussion, the preliminary military plan was for the troops from the north and south to slow down slightly. The Fourteenth Division would act as the assault force and advance lightly to Yaoli Town. Once the troops arrived at Yaoli Town, the troops from the north and south would attack He Chun's troops. Either they would fight He Chun outside Liu 'an City, or they would drive He Chun's troops toward Yaoli Town and ambush them on the road.
There was only one strategic goal, and that was to wipe out the Qing Army's effective forces.
After confirming the plan, Ju Junfeng complained, "If only we didn't have to fight this kind of mobile warfare."
Fighting mobile warfare was naturally very effective. After defeating the enemy's troops and killing their generals, the enemy's troops in a certain area would be wiped out, and the strategic posture of a large area would change dramatically. However, in order to achieve this goal, the effort needed was more than ten times that of a simple siege or defensive battle. Starting from dispatching people to make maps, one step after another, not only did they have to prepare the military, but they also had to control the local politics.
Compared to these investments, the annual grain output seemed somewhat insignificant. Even though they had put in so much effort, it had nothing to do with the final outcome of the battle. As the saying goes, know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. Vézé and the others now knew the characteristics of their troops, and they still had to be able to accurately judge He Chun's response in order to ensure victory. This was too troublesome. Even Ju Junfeng, who had always been considered patient, couldn't bear the pressure.
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