Zengcheng is the same as Xiangshan is a county under the jurisdiction of Guangzhou Prefecture, which is only 60 kilometers away from Guangzhou City, and only 40 kilometers away from the area around Yinzhuizi Mountain, the closest control place of the Taiping Army, so the Qing Army in Zengcheng is the closest Qing army to the Taiping Army except for the Shunde Green Camp.
Zhou Shixiang did not want to attack Zengcheng at first, because in terms of distance alone, attacking Shunde, which was closer, would be conducive to the Taiping army's surprise attack and retreat, while attacking Zengcheng would be much farther, which would not be conducive to the strategic intention of this operation only to seize food, and would also increase the transportation burden of the baggage battalion.
However, the intelligence that Zhang An bought from Tang Sanshui showed that although the Qing army in Shunde was smaller than that of Zengcheng, with a total of only 1,600 people, its combat effectiveness was much stronger than that of the Qing army in Zengcheng, and there were 400 banner soldiers stationed here.
Zhou Shixiang is not afraid of the Han army banner soldiers in Shunde and dare not fight Shunde, now his Taiping army also has more than 1,000 Han army flag soldiers, the army has no fear of the flag soldiers, really decide to attack Shunde, the morale of the Taiping army will not be weakened by the existence of the flag soldiers.
The reason why Zhou Shixiang decided not to fight Shunde but Zengcheng was that the Qing army general stationed in Shunde was Ge Mingyi, a general of the Green Battalion, and according to Zhang An's intelligence, Ge Mingyi was known for his good defense in the Qing army.
Ge Mingyi was originally a low-level officer in Zuo Liangyu's army, and after Zuo Liangyu's son Zuo Mengeng surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, he also surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and then stationed in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province with Hu Yousheng, the commander of the Southern Jiangxi Army appointed by the Qing court.
Five years after Shunzhi, Jiangxi Jin Shengheng, Wang Deren, Guangdong Li Chengdong and other Qing generals successively returned to the Ming Dynasty anyway, in order to open up the connection between Jiangxi and Guangdong, Jin Shengheng and Li Chengdong successively attacked Ganzhou City, and as a result, let Jin and Li lead their troops to attack Ganzhou, Ganzhou City was firmly controlled by the Qing army, and finally the existence of this city also made Jin Shengheng and Li Chengdong hate and die.
In the battle of defending the city in Ganzhou, Ge Mingyi, who was the general manager of Qian, offered a number of strategies to the general soldier Hu Youshengjin, showing an amazing talent for defending the city.
When Li Dingguo led a large army to attack Zhaoqing the year before last, Ge Mingyi assisted in defending Zhaoqing City with the rank of guerrilla, and the result was that Li Dingguo failed to return from the wall under Zhaoqing City.
After that, Ge Mingyi participated in several siege battles one after another, but the Ming army besieging the city failed, so it can be said that as long as Ge Mingyi is in the city, the besieging side will not be able to break the city gate anyway.
It is precisely because of Ge Mingyi's good defense that Shang Kexi ordered him to garrison Shunde, a military town.
Shunde is close to Jiangmen and Foshan, and connects Panyu and Xiangshan counties, which is an important support point for the defense line of the Qing army's Sanjiangkou.
Such an important place, Shang Kexi naturally wants to send a fierce general to defend it, this fierce is not the fierce of the battlefield, but the fierce of defending the city as stable as Mount Tai.
Shang Kexi's generals are like clouds, but Ge Mingyi is the only one who is excellent at defending the city, and he is the only one who can take on the responsibility of guarding Shunde.
The Taiping army had just been formed, the new battalions had just been reorganized, and the training of the recruits was not enough, so Zhou Shixiang could not risk attacking a city with a good defender.
The Qing army can endure a hundred defeats, but the Taiping army can't accept one, this is the reality, if you really want to fail because of the attack on Shunde, Zhou Shixiang believes that the morale of the army that he has worked hard to manage will be severely defeated.
Another reason why Shunde could not be attacked was that Shunde was related to the safety of the Qing army's Sanjiangkou defense line, and it was still gratifying that the Taiping army could operate in Xiangshan, because the Taiping army's activities in Xiangshan could not touch the safety of Guangzhou.
But Shunde is different, if the Taiping army attacks Shunde, it is very easy to stimulate the nerves of the Xinhui Ming army, in case the Taiping army really occupies Shunde, Xinhui's Chen Qice and Zhu Tong and others will definitely take the opportunity to wave the Sanjiangkou, when the Taiping army is behind, the Xinhui Ming army is in front, and the Sanjiangkou Qing army that is attacked by the enemy on the back may really not be able to support it.
As soon as Sanjiangkou is lost, Shang Kexi will lose the initiative in the war, and it will be up to him whether to fight or defend at that time, so he can only deal with it passively.
Therefore, before the arrival of the Manchurian Eight Banners, Shang Kexi could not tolerate the loss of the Sanjiangkou defense line, which was destined to cause Shang Kexi's crazy revenge when the Taiping army attacked Shunde.
The newly formed Taiping Army also could not withstand the blows of the Qing army pouring out of the nest in Guangzhou.
"Shunde has to stay, and if you want to fight, it's not this time" Zhou Shixiang vetoed the proposal to attack Shunde, and Song Xianggong and Qin Zhisheng could only submit Xin'an and Zengcheng counties to Zhou Shixiang's decision.
Xin'an County is also the location of some towns in Shenzhen and Dongguan in the later generations, and Xiangshan County across the river, which is also the site that Zhou Shixiang is looking for for the next development of the Taiping Army.
To the east of Xin'an is Huizhou, and further east of Huizhou is the Chaoshan area, which is the largest grain-producing area in Guangdong and the main source of food and salary for the Qing army in Guangdong.
There were not many Qing troops in Xin'an County, because Chaoshan and Huizhou were occupied by the Qing army, and the Ming army in Xin'an was exterminated in the area of Wutong Mountain and Qiniang Mountain, so there were only a few hundred people stationed in the green battalion.
However, if you want to attack Xin'an, you must first solve the Qing army in Zengcheng, otherwise the Qing army in Zengcheng will be like a nail stuck in the junction of Xin'an and Xiangshan, which will make the Taiping army very unsafe.
Therefore, it is very uneconomical and extremely dangerous to fight Xin'an now.
"Fight the city" At the meeting of the military marshal's mansion, Zhou Shixiang slapped the board, "Preemptively, the Manchurian Eight Banners from Beijing have arrived in Guangdong, Shang Kexi will do it after they finish resting, he will either attack the old General Chen of Xinhui, or attack our Taiping Army, so we have to give him a guy before he does it, so that he can't be stable first, at least let his backyard catch fire, and he can't do it with all his might."
"The attack on Zengcheng is responsible for the left battalion of the infantry army and my personal battalion, in addition, Shao Chengguo's cavalry battalion also participated in the battle, and the baggage battalion followed the main force to stand by, once our army captured Zengcheng, the baggage battalion immediately entered the city and moved back all the grain that could be moved, and not a grain was left to the people in the Qing army who were willing to go back to Xiangshan with us, and those who were unwilling to send them some food to take refuge in other places, so as not to be retaliated and slaughtered by the Qing army."
"After taking Zengcheng, the cavalry battalion covered the baggage battalion to move grain and retreated, the left battalion of the infantry army should not be withdrawn for the time being, stay for 3 days, if the Qing army in Guangzhou came, they would be blocked in Zengcheng.
Don't fight hard with the Qing army, fight and retreat at the same time, try to attract them to Yinzhuizai Mountain, I will take my own barracks to meet there, and then ask the artillery battalion to set up an ambush there, to see if I can wrap up the Qing army that has caught up."
After Zhou Shixiang's series of orders, Qin Zhisheng raised a question, and he said: "Marshal, since we have sent troops to attack Zengcheng, why can't we occupy it, but instead withdraw to turn Zengcheng into the territory of our Taiping Army?"
Zhou Shixiang understood what Qin Zhisheng meant, and directly occupied Zengcheng to gain an additional active territory for the Taiping army, so that the Taiping army could have a buffer in the future large-scale offensive of the Qing army, or a place to escape.
He explained the reason why he couldn't do this, he said: "Our current strength is limited, all battalions are new, insufficient training, as a field infantry left battalion and the right battalion of the infantry army can really go into battle only half of the strength of the whole battalion, or even less than half of the battalion If we want to defend Zengcheng, the number of soldiers will definitely not work, we must let the left battalion of the infantry army or the right battalion of the infantry army put the two most elite battalions there."
Let me ask you, the left or right battalion of the infantry army has released Zengcheng, how many troops can our army marshal's office have to deal with the Qing army in the direction of Shunde, in case Shang Kexi decides to come to Xiangshan first, if we want to defend it, whether the soldiers of Zengcheng should be withdrawn, if we want to withdraw, what do we do if we don't withdraw, we have a total of 10,000 people, go to 3,000 in Zengcheng, and the remaining 7,000 You are sure that you can block the Qing army, don't forget, compared with the Qing army, our Taiping army is still very weak, so every strength at hand must be held tightly, and must not be dispersed" "The Admiral understands."
Qin Zhisheng and Song Xianggong glanced at each other and agreed with Zhou Shixiang's explanation.
Zhou Shixiang did not stop there, he continued: "We fought Zengcheng but did not leave troops to guard, the situation is different, the initiative is completely in our hands, we want to fight, we don't want to fight, we don't want to fight, the existing forces at hand can be concentrated in Xiangshan, so that we are not afraid of the Qing army coming to turn over our nest I ask you again, if we withdraw troops from Zengcheng, do the Qing army have to continue to send troops to guard Zengcheng, if he sends troops to defend again, we will also find a gap to fight it again, repeat it a few times, Zengcheng will become the chicken of the Qing army, Unless Shang Kexi is determined to deal with our Taiping army first, otherwise they will give up Zengcheng themselves."
"In short, we can't defend the dead city, put ourselves in a passive place to be beaten, no matter how good that city is, as long as our strength is not enough to carry the burden of guarding this city, then don't take it.
The so-called saving people and losing land, people and land exist; If the land is lost, the land will be lost. ” Zhou Shi is relatively confident in winning Zengcheng, because Zengcheng is really a soft bone compared to Shunde.
Zengcheng Green Battalion was originally adapted from the Ming military guard of Nanhaiwei, and the leader of the Qianzong Jiang Shuangxi was even more incompetent, with more than 1,000 subordinate battalion soldiers who wanted to rescue the good word to get a credit, but they were defeated by more than 40 cavalry of the Taiping Army.
With this kind of combat effectiveness, they can still be expected to hold Zengcheng Jiang Shuangxi fled back to Zengcheng and still had lingering palpitations for the Taiping army, and ordered all his battalions to retreat in the city, lest the Taiping army would kill him from Yinpingzui Mountain into his lair.
After the governor of Guangdong, Li Shutai, heard that Jiang Shuangxi was defeated at Yinpingzui Mountain, he was so angry that he ordered to immediately cut down Jiang Shuangxi's thousands of commanders, but this Jiang Shuangxi was not good at fighting, but he was a powerful man, and the governor's palace had already been properly dealt with by him.
As soon as the governor spoke, a group of staff persuaded him, saying that Jiang Shuangxi had no merit and hard work over the years, and for the sake of him taking the initiative to lower the Qing Dynasty back then, he couldn't be so harsh on him, not to mention that victory and defeat were a common thing in soldiers, and the gang of fierce generals under King Pingnan were so capable of fighting, wouldn't they still be bleeding in Xinhui, not to mention Jiang Shuangxi. was persuaded and persuaded by the people below, and because it was also the same reason, Li Shutai gave up his mind about punishing Jiang Shuangxi, and instead cobbled together 2,000 battalions from Huizhou and Conghua Prefecture and transferred them to Zengcheng to garrison. oshow7 t1706231537: