Han’s Son is Not a Slave

How many Qing troops are there in Guangdong? Zhou Shixiang discussed with Song Xianggong as early as in Gaoyao City. The conclusion is that the total strength of the Qing army in Guangdong is about 25ooo to 3oooo, of which the green camp accounts for most of them, about 2oooo Left and right are the Han army flags commanded by Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao, and the commander-in-chief battalion of Li Suitai, the governor of Guangdong. Among them, Shang Kexi's Han army inlaid blue flag is the strongest, with more than four or five thousand banner soldiers, while Geng Jimao, who is under the Han army's Zhenghuang banner, has only two or three thousand soldiers.

After Li Ruitai took office, he selected the elites of Guangdong Green Camp to form his Governor's Standard Camp. Although there were only more than 1,000 people, his combat effectiveness was not weaker than that of Ping and Jing. In addition, the Guangdong Green Camp was nominally promoted by him, the Governor-General. , This gave him the confidence to challenge Banping and Jing. Of course, Li Suotai's status as a royal relative also played a big role in it. In other words, he was not a bannerman, and he did not have someone who had been with the Aixinjueluo family to be the governor of Guangdong. I am afraid that everything was the only one.

After Li Dingguo's defeat and withdrawal from Xinhui, most of Guangdong was under the control of the Qing army. The area actually controlled by the Ming army was only Gaozhou, a part of Lianzhou and Leizhou, and Qiongzhou, which was across the sea, was still controlled by the Ming army. control. In these areas under the control of the Ming army, dozens of Ming armies (righteous divisions), large and small, were active, ranging from thousands to hundreds, or even dozens. Under the command of the scholar Guo Zhiqi, its combat effectiveness was naturally much worse than that of the Daxi Army under the command of Li Dingguo, and it was also much weaker than the Green Battalion of the Qing Army. But these people can always insist on resisting the Qing Dynasty, and it is commendable to insist that the national integrity will never surrender to the Qing Dynasty no matter how difficult the conditions are. Zhou Shixiang also recognized and admired this point, otherwise he would not have sent out more than a dozen messengers.

Compared with the area controlled by the Ming army. The territory controlled by the Qing army is naturally much larger, but the more territory it occupies, the more dispersed the Qing army is.

Only in the case of Guangzhou Prefecture, which was firmly controlled by the Qing army. It has jurisdiction over Panyu County, Nanhai County, Shunde County, Xiangshan County, Xinhui County, Yangshan County, Lianshan County, Dongguan County, Xin'an County, Sanshui County, Zengcheng County, Longmen County, Qingyuan County, Xinning County, There are fifteen counties in Conghua County, and there is also one Sanzhou Lianzhou under its jurisdiction.

with the current situation. The Qing army had to garrison battalions in every county, otherwise even a few dozen rural farmers could instantly change a county, not to mention the bandits and thieves everywhere. Even just for the sake of public security, the Qing army must also be stationed in each county, otherwise the county government would not dare to open the door. In this way, there are hundreds of people stationed in each county, and these counties under the jurisdiction of Guangzhou Prefecture alone need nearly 2ooo green battalions to garrison. Guangzhou is still like this, and the rest of the prefectures and counties controlled by the Qing army are naturally not much better. Zhaoqing House, Shaozhou House, Nanxiong House, Chaozhou House which do not have more than a dozen counties under their jurisdiction, this is the calculation. The Qing army alone needs to maintain the security of these prefectures and counties with nearly 10,000 troops. In other words, half of the Qing army in Guangdong is divided into tens of thousands of square kilometers!

The Guangdong Qing army had a total of only more than 20,000 people, but half of them were scattered all over the place. The number of mobile troops that could be used was only a few thousand, which naturally caused a headache for the Guangdong Qing army authorities. When Li Dingguo attacked Guangdong twice, Guangzhou's Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao responded by concentrating all the battalions scattered around Guangzhou near Guangzhou, and then relying on the strong city to defend against the attack of Li Dingguo's army. When Li Dingguo withdrew, the Qing army scattered like locusts and regained control of the territories they had abandoned.

This time. If the Qing army in Guangdong wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of Li Dingguo's army to move into Guizhou to completely seize Guangdong and Guangxi, it would have to transfer the army to the west, but the Qing army in Guangdong had only so few people. It is impossible for him to transfer all the Qing troops stationed in various places, so he can only use the Han army flags under the command of Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao as the main force, accompanied by some green battalions to move westward, so that the foundation of the Qing army in Guangdong will not be shaken.

The question is, if Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao really want to take the opportunity to go west, then the only troops they can draw now are the Qing troops that surround Xinhui.

The Qing army failed to attack Xinhui twice, and only discarded as many as 3,000 corpses. Later, in order to complete the encirclement, Shang Kexi dispatched a large number of troops and horses from various places. Combined with the analysis of the strength of the Qing army in Guangdong, Zhou Shixiang had reason to believe that the Qing army outside Xinhui City was the limit that Shang Kexi, Geng Jimao and Li Suotai could recruit.

I want to go west. You have to clear the encirclement yourself, otherwise there won't be so many troops going west. But after the encirclement was solved, I had to worry about whether the Taiping army would take the opportunity to go out and turn Guangzhou upside down. Zhou Shixiang dared to hope that veterans such as Shang Kexi, who had been fighting for decades, would make idiotic mistakes, so he thought that if Shang Kexi really wanted to go west and did not want the Taiping army to break out, he would definitely not take away all the siege soldiers. The horses will only transfer the Han troops and horses, or they will attack again, won the Xinhui at the cost of human life, completely pull out this nail, or will make some tricks, and fill the camp with some young people. He secretly transferred the elites away, in order to confuse the Taiping army not to act rashly.

In short, no matter what Shang Kexi's plan was, what the Taiping Army had to do was to prevent him from doing what he wanted. And there is only one way to achieve this goal, which is to make a commotion, make a big commotion, and make a big commotion that makes Shang Kexi afraid.

Where to start with this action?

Zhou Shixiang frowned deeply, unable to make up his mind for a while. He has only two choices. One is to continue to stick to the Xinhui, but this choice can only hold back a small part of the Qing army. Shang Kexi can still draw troops from the siege troops and move westward; the other choice is to go all out and concentrate the Taiping army. The forces forced out of the city and broke the blockade of the Qing army in person, making it impossible for Shang Kexi to readjust the deployment, thereby achieving the strategic intention of containing the Qing army in Guangdong and preventing it from advancing westward.

In the face of the Qing army's layered blockade and densely built defense lines, it was difficult for Zhou Shixiang to make up his mind to go out to fight. In the tragic battle, with the strength of the fifth battalion of the Taiping Military Region, Zhou Shixiang did not have the confidence to break the Qing army's defense line, nor could he accept such a battle of killing eight hundred enemies and losing one thousand. However, the outcome of not being able to get out of the city is no different to the Taiping army. They are also defeated. One is trapped in the city and perished, and the other is rushing out of the city to fight the enemy to the death. The two different ways of dying made Zhou Shixiang hesitate, he exhaled, and his inquiring eyes fell on the faces of his subordinates.

Obviously, Zhou Shixiang gave his subordinates how to choose, and let them choose how to die.

None of the generals said a word, all just stared at their thousand households, the hall was silent. Seriously, none of them want to die.

After a long time, Duke Xiang of Song said, "If you want to hold back the Qing army, you don't necessarily have to leave the city. If you want to dispel Shang Kexi's idea of ​​going west, I have a solution. You might as well give it a try."

Hearing this, Zhou Shixiang's spirit was shocked, and he asked anxiously, "What's your plan, sir?"

"Guangdong Navy." Song Xianggong spat out four words, and his finger landed on Tan Jiang on the map. (To be continued)