The Ming army is coming!

They came in a mighty way along the north bank of the Yellow River, and the number of people was already over 100,000! Before the infantry brigade arrived with artillery, baggage, and civil servants, the cavalry had already arrived, about three to four thousand of them.

Countless "black gun mule soldiers", in companies or platoons, spread out around the Qing army's two major camps in the north and south of the Yellow River, blocking large and small intersections, occupying surrounding villages, and isolating the two camps from contact with the outside world. And "

The "black gun mule soldiers" were accompanied by more than a thousand "foreign horse soldiers", who were also marching on mules. They also led tall and burly foreign horses with folded ears. Everyone carried carbines on their shoulders, and the points of the carbine were all charged forward.

There's a chilling glow in the winter sun.

More than a thousand "foreign cavalry soldiers" were divided into two teams and wandered in the open space four or five miles away from the Henan camp and the Hebei camp. This was a clear demonstration of frightening the Qing army and the Ming cavalry in the two camps. They would be invincible in the world! If there were anyone,

If you have the guts to test your skills, just let your horse come over! If you come, you will be dead!

Chen Tai and Tu Hai both went to the "upper platform" of the Henan camp to observe the formation. They held up binoculars and looked at these majestic Ming army cavalry with gloomy expressions. These cavalry were not only good horses, but also all wore black.

Plate armor looks intimidating!

Both of them are knowledgeable about military affairs. Chen Tai is a "veteran" who has been in battle for many years. Although Tu Hai has never been on the battlefield, he has read a lot of military books. After following Chen Tai, he was not ashamed to ask questions and also learned all about military use.

ability. So they both knew that although the number of Ming cavalry in front of them was not large, it was enough to overwhelm the 20,000 troops under their command in a field battle.

"Damn it," Chen Tai put down his telescope and cursed, "even the cavalry is not as good as others, how can we continue this battle!"

Tu Hai was still looking through the telescope. He was watching the Ming Army infantry passing through the ice of the Yellow River, then spreading out in an orderly manner on the south bank of the Yellow River, setting up camp and occupying high ground or key points.

Among them, the high ground is the embankment of the Yellow River. The terrain around Kaifeng is very flat. That is to say, the embankment of the Yellow River has been continuously raised over thousands of years to form an artificial highland. The Qing army's two camps in the north and south of the Yellow River were built according to the embankments of the Yellow River.

Therefore, the two camps have two floors. The upper floor is built on the embankment. It has two functions. One is to prevent the Ming army from seizing the entire embankment. The purpose of the Qing army in setting up the Henan camp is not to cover their digging of the Yellow River embankment.

Will the water flood the capital of Henan Province? If the Ming army occupied all the dams, where would they dig them?

Another function of the "upper level of the camp" is to cover the retreat of the defenders of the Henan camp. Although the Henan camp is strong, it will probably not be able to withstand it once the Yellow River water rushes down. Therefore, after digging the embankment, the Qing army

They also have to retreat, otherwise they will not be digging dikes but burying their own graves.

If the Qing troops in the Henan camp wanted to retreat to the Hebei camp, they had to cross the pontoon bridge, and the two ends of the pontoon bridge were connected to the second floors of the North and South camps.

Because of these two uses, the second floor of the North and South Camps, in Tu Hai's view, is the key to the battle between the North and South Camps on the Yellow River.

The Ming army seemed to have noticed this. A group of musketeers formed a very dense formation on the embankment four or five miles east of the second floor of the Henan camp. Behind them, there were many soldiers and civilians.

The cow is carrying a big bag to build a barrier

Tuhai put down his binoculars and still stared at the group of musketeers in a dense formation. The musketeers looked weird. The team of at least 2,000 people were all musketeers, and the formation was so dense that they were shoulder to shoulder.

"Linzhou, what did you see?" Chen Tai also noticed something unusual about Tuhai at this time.

"Commander," Tu Hai pointed to the army's musketeers, "Have you seen those Nanman musketeers? Their formation seems to be very dense!"

"I saw it," Chen Tai said, "It's a bit denser. Unfortunately, the top of the embankment is too narrow, so it's not easy to use cavalry. Otherwise, they will be in trouble."

Chen Tai didn't seem to pay much attention to it. Although Tu Hai felt something was wrong, he couldn't say anything and didn't pay attention.

Chen Tai said to Tuhai again: "Linzhou, don't worry. Our camp is extremely strong, and we have also deployed a large number of Folang machine guns and Hongyi cannons, as well as 2,000 firecrackers. What can the Nanbarbarians use to fight? If

If you really pile up mountains of corpses and seas of blood, you will be playing into the hands of the Emperor Taishu."

"What the commander said is absolutely true." Of course Tu Hai was worried, but he still couldn't take the superior's opinion seriously. Just watch it, and maybe he would know the answer if he took another look.

"Admiral, our No. 1 base on the Yellow River embankment has been repaired!"

Yan Yingyuan, with a small Chinese army headquarters, had just crossed the Yellow River on the ice, when his military advisor Xu Ermo sent him good news.

"There was no fighting?" Yan Yingyuan asked.

"No," Xu Ermo said, "our fusiliers didn't even have a chance to perform."

What Tuhai saw was a fusilier regiment, which, like the "Ocean Horse Regiment", was Yan Yingyuan's trump card!

This type of fusiliary unit, which specializes in lining up and shooting, has an overwhelming advantage over the matchlock unit because it can form a denser formation, load and shoot faster, and is less affected by bad weather.

of.

On the Yellow River embankment, cavalry has no place to use, so pikemen are of little use. The pure musketry fusiliers regiment just exerts its power. If the Qing army sends musketeers to fight, they will definitely die in an ugly way.

"It's okay if they don't send out musketeers!" Yan Yingyuan said, "This is our trump card, let's save it to fight Duduo."

"Admiral," Xu Ermo said, "there is still base number two!"

Yan Yingyuan smiled and said: "There is no problem. If they can watch us build the first base, they will not interfere with our second base. The first and second bases are completed. The next step is the siege dam. The problem now is manpower.

It may not be enough.”

"Manpower is not a problem," Xu Ermo said. "Vice Admiral Feng (Feng San) has guaranteed that we will bring in another 100,000 people within half a month! The weather will be warmer by then, and it will be time to dig the soil to repair the dam."

Last month, by early March, we were able to dig out the dam of the Yellow River and flood the Henan camp of the Donglu Army!"

It turns out that this is the method Yan Yingyuan, Xu Ermo and others used to deal with the Qing army's Henan camp! Aren't you going to dig dikes?

Okay, our Ming Dynasty will also dig it, and dig it before you do. Before digging the Yellow River dyke, build a circle of dykes around Daying, Henan, to form a flood storage area. Then introduce the Yellow River water, and don't let it increase in size.

Divert the water when the water is flowing, so that the dykes of the siege can easily be washed away. In March and April, slowly divert the water, and at the same time strengthen the dykes of the siege. In the end, the Henan camp of the Qing army was soaked in water!

This Henan camp was a bastion made of sandbags and soil. It could fire artillery, but it could not prevent blisters. Even if it could prevent blisters, Duduo's plan to dig the Yellow River dam and flood the Henan prefecture was in vain.

Of course, this method of construction requires a large amount of work. At least 200,000 people are required to help dig the earth and build the dam, which requires a lot of expenditure! Not only do they have to provide food for so many people, but they also have to spend money to hire workers.

.

So Feng San, a local snake in Henan, was transferred from Runing to Yan Yingyuan's army, and was specifically responsible for spending money to attract people.

In addition, Zhu Cihong also transferred a group of military officers who had participated in the Huanghuai Transport Management Project from the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Huaibo (the Ministry of Huaihe was in charge of the canal) to direct the construction of the siege dams.

Xu Ermo laughed and said: "The emperor's uncle of Donglu probably doesn't know how many dams we built during the Yellow-Huaiyun Project and how much soil we dug to dig out a way for the Yellow River to enter the sea! He wants to compete with us on river engineering, but he is really asking for it.

What a disgrace. Once our siege and dikes take shape, I guess the Emperor’s uncle will come to die on the edge of the Yellow River!"
Chapter completed!