Chapter 290 Everyone Goes Back to Their Own Homes and Finds Their Own Mothers
On the afternoon of October 4, the battle in northern Jiangsu, which had just begun, ended with the full retreat of the Qing army, bidding farewell to the Gao Dynasty.
The Qing army commander Feng Sheng'e was very decisive. After the news of Hailancha's defeat, the news of the Fu Han army's large forces concentrating on the southern route, and the news that the firepower of the Fu Han army in Jiangyan Town on the front battlefield was suddenly strengthened, he decisively issued an order to retreat. Of course, the retreat of the Qing army was not a complete escape with their heads in their arms - Hailancha still had a large number of cavalry in his hands. The Manchu and Han cavalry attacked and quickly stopped the Fu Han army's pursuit.
The next morning, the Qing army withdrew from Hai'an Town. Not only did no one in Hai'an Town remain, but they also neatly blocked the Yunyan River with sunken ships. The Qing army retreated all the way from Hai'an Town to Dongtai.
When the news reached the Fu Han army, Chen Ming would of course pursue them. At this time, he regretted that he had left too few troops in Gaoyou. He should have left more at that time. Now, couldn't he let the troops in Gaoyou go north to attack Huai'an again? In that case, maybe he could really bury the Qing army in northern Jiangsu.
Of course, there are no ifs in this world. Chen Ming led the team behind the Qing army. Chen Ming wanted to make persistent efforts and take advantage of the opportunity of the Qing army's low morale and the loss of its elite troops to give them a hard blow. But the three or four thousand Qing army cavalry was like an unsolvable scimitar hanging over his head. Helplessly, both sides had to keep their distance. The Qing army's cavalry was powerful, but it was only powerful in the surprise attack after the large army fought. If the Fu Han army was waiting in formation, they would have to run as far as they could.
From a distance, the two armies were 20 to 30 miles apart, which was quite like a stick hitting a wolf, and both sides kept their distance and were on high alert.
The Qing army was led by Zhili Admiral Wang Jintai, and Hailancha was naturally banished to the cold palace. The Qing army marched slowly along the way, and the Fu Han army chased slowly along the way. They successfully recovered Dongtai and Yancheng along the way, and watched the Qing army split into two in Yancheng, heading north to Funing and west to Huai'an...
Hailancha, who was strong enough to fight bears and tigers with his bare hands in the past, fell ill. He fell ill the day after the army retreated from Hai'an Town. Lying in the cabin, staring blankly at the army marching on land outside the window.
It was very different from when they went to Huai'an. The Qing army was now dejected. More than half of the 100 cannons were lost. Many wounded soldiers were lying on the boat like Hailancha, and they made high and low wails from time to time. That sound was torturing Hailancha's nerves all the time, reminding him of his defeat.
Many of them were wounded by gunfire, and the pain was indescribable. The wounds were large and difficult to suture, and there was lead poisoning. Shrapnel from shrapnel shells could easily cause tetanus. In addition, there was a shortage of doctors in the Qing army and the medical conditions were backward. Many injured soldiers and officers will suffer and die miserably in the future, whether long or short.
So the spirit of the entire army has become completely gone, which is completely different from the high spirits when they crossed the Yellow River and went to Huai'an. This great defeat has dealt an unprecedented psychological blow to the Qing army. And what needs to be paid attention to is Shandong Lianyong. This team of nearly 10,000 people was originally a fighting force in the Qing army, but Liu Yong's death caused this Lianyong to fall apart, and Feng Sheng'e's decision made this army completely collapse. Nearly 10,000 Lianyong were divided up by the various divisions of the Manchu and Han Green Camps, and on the battlefield, the various divisions of the Manchu and Han Green Camps really used Shandong Lianyong as cannon fodder. As a result, the "performance" of these people can be seen in the last Qing army charge on the decisive battlefield.
Pretending to be dead, surrendering, and even turning against the enemy. Although not everyone was bold enough to "retaliate", Feng Zhenggang's knife was still fresh in Hailancha's memory.
These people can no longer be considered "trained warriors", they are rebels. Hailancha now regrets that he should have killed all the three or four hundred Shandong trained warriors who escaped from the north bank at the Yunyan River. Now think about it, if these people return to the trained warrior team, they will be a disaster.
Hailancha fell ill too early and was out of touch with the army marching on the shore. He didn't know that in the current Qing army, the Shandong trained warriors who were like a nine-headed snake and couldn't get together have "changed their appearance" and become a "united" team that can't be separated. They eat together and camp together, as if the struggle and oppression in the past didn't exist. The various divisions of the Manchu and Han Green Camps of the Qing army understood very well that the Shandong warriors were frightened. They clung together, tightly clung together, and all of them united together, completely putting aside the conflicts and factions in the past. Feng Sheng'e did not dare to force them anymore, otherwise they might have internal conflicts.
Hailancha's series of battles in the south and Jiangyan Town, and Feng Sheng'e's several attacks on the front battlefield of Jiangyan Town, not only used the death-defying camp as cannon fodder, but also really did not regard those Shandong warriors as human beings. How could those Shandong warriors who escaped from the dead not be full of resentment? They would definitely tell all the warrior camp leaders about their experiences.
When the rabbit dies, the fox mourns, and the creatures feel sad for their own kind. Then..., then they separated from the Qing army.
But Hailancha didn't know all this. As a defeated general, Hailancha had to bear a great responsibility for the failure of the battle in northern Jiangsu in a certain sense. He seemed to come to the ship to recuperate, but in fact he was already isolated.
"Master." Hailancha did not stay in Huai'an, but directly crossed the Yellow River from Qingjiang. His attendant handed him a letter. "This is sent by the general."
The straw-yellow cover had no words on it. When it was opened, a scent of ink filled the air. Hailancha's face changed as soon as he read the beginning. Because the content of this note was nothing else but the casualties of the army. There were three major sections: Banner Soldiers, Green Camp, and Training Soldiers.
Hailancha looked at the casualties of the Cavalry Battalion, Firearms Battalion, Eight Banner New Army, Guard Battalion, etc., which were under the Banner Soldiers, and the names of all the military officers who died in the battle. They were densely packed and occupied most of the page. His head was buzzing and his eyes were dizzy.
So many people died, and so many of them were of good status.
Yellow belts, red belts, Tonggiya clan, Guarjia clan, Majia clan, Socho Luo clan, Hesheli clan, Fucha clan, Nara clan, Niuhulu clan, the eight major surnames of the royal family plus the full military flag were all complete...
The note slipped from Hailancha's hand with a "click".
"Master..."
"Take it and burn it." Hailancha said while trying to suppress his dizziness. The reason why Feng Sheng'e handed this thing to him was to let him know what was going on. After arriving in Beijing and being imprisoned, he had to find a big boss who could really speak his mind, even if he had to use his connections to escape the crime.
In the previous battle, the Qing army suffered a total of more than 19,000 casualties, and more than 14,000 people died in the battle, 80% of whom were from Hailancha's army. And many of the injured soldiers will die in the following days. Only 33 cannons were lost, and the gunners suffered heavy casualties, including the ten Portuguese gunners who followed Hailancha to attack.
The Eight Banners New Army lost 900, and the Firearms Battalion and the Cavalry Battalion suffered heavy losses.
The vitality of the army heading south was seriously damaged.
Feng Sheng'e was panicked in his heart. In this battle, the Eight Banners New Army and the Artillery Battalion, which the emperor spent countless silver and energy on, suffered heavy losses, and it seemed that they did not play any role on the battlefield. Chen Ni was becoming more and more powerful. How should he deal with this traitor in the future?
Feng Sheng'e's panic was clearly expressed in the last paragraph of the letter. Hailancha was dizzy and thinking about this problem painfully. Because he was a direct experiencer of that battle, if he could summarize some good things, maybe his guilt could be reduced.
...
On October 15, the Fu Han Army received news that the Qing army had made a brief repair in Huai'an and did not occupy Huai'an City, but retreated directly to the north of the Yellow River. Feng Sheng'e led the Qing army to retreat from Qingjiang to Muyang north of the Yellow River; Wang Jintai of Funing also led his troops across the Yellow River and retreated to Haizhou.
The speed of the two Qing armies' retreat was very fast. The scouts found out in detail. Many civilians and young men who followed the army took the opportunity to escape, and the Qing army did not care to chase them.
If it was the Fu Han Army that lost most of northern Jiangsu in half a month in September, now it is the Qing Army that lost all the northern Jiangsu territory south of the Yellow River in less than half a month.
On the morning of October 17, the Fu Han Army occupied Huai'an, a focal city on the Grand Canal, after a lapse of less than a month. At the same time, the victory and outcome of the battle in northern Jiangsu spread throughout the south and north of the Yangtze River.
In Jiangyin and Zhenjiang, south of the Yangtze River, the Qing troops who were attacking the two places retreated one after another.
The Qing troops of Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong who attacked Jiangyin retreated directly to Taicang Prefecture; the Suzhou Qing troops who attacked Zhenjiang completely abandoned Changzhou and Wuxi, and did not march out of Hushuguan.
Chen Ziting and Qin Youzi, the militiamen of Wuxi, secretly sent a generous gift to the Fu Han Army garrison in Zhenjiang: two thousand taels of silver and five hundred stones of rice, which was not a small amount. Especially for the small Wuxi militia with only five or six hundred people, this was almost all the income that Chen and Qin had previously earned from following the Suzhou Qing Army in Changzhou, Jintan, Danyang and other places.
But Chen Ziying and Qin Youzi did not feel sorry for what they did. When the Suzhou Qing army launched a counterattack, the benefits of occupying Wuxi City were obvious. Not only did they get a great achievement for nothing, but they also followed the Suzhou Qing army's vanguard to capture Changzhou, which was abandoned by the Fu Han army.
Although the two are still Juren scholars, someone from the top has passed down the message to them to perform well. If the Qing army had not performed so poorly in the transition from attack to defense, Chen Ziying and Qin Youzi might have been recommended.
Now the main force of the Fu Han army has not yet returned to Jiangnan, and the Qing army in Suzhou and Songjiang has obediently retreated to their old nests, which is too embarrassing.
At this time, Chen Ming had already fought Huai'an and returned to Yangzhou. The decisive battle of the Fu Han army was not very successful. It only destroyed the elite and spirit of the Qing army, but failed to completely wipe out the 50,000 Qing army. And the Fu Han army also paid a certain price.
Whether it was the southern route, the central route, or the northern route, the total casualties of the Fu Han Army were more than 5,000 people. In particular, after Gao Pengyue's death, Chen Ming personally offered a toast. In addition, the bodies of Huang Tianbao, Chen Yongshou, Chen Wenhua and others, the sons of these three surnames, were all collected and kept in Nanjing. When the Fu Han Army marches westward in the future, these coffins will go home together.
There is no other way. The Chinese now pay attention to a burial in peace, and they are buried in their hometowns. For the remains of the fallen soldiers of the Fu Han Army, the Fu Han Army digs the ground around the battlefield and buries them collectively. They dare not leave inscriptions and graves, but only record them in books, and wait until they conquer the world in the future to erect a monument. The bodies of officers above the level of team officers are specially collected and will be dealt with later.
Chen Ming returned to Yangzhou from the battlefield early, and then returned to Nanjing, not for anything else, just because the young lady sent by the Zhang family in Fujian has arrived at Wusongkou...