Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 240 Recapture Xiangyang and Head North to Southern Henan

On the side of the palace army formation, thousands of archers shot heavy arrows at the charging Eight Banners soldiers, while the armored soldiers held round shields, spears, swords and axes and continued to charge forward.

Although a considerable number of them are new recruits, they have all undergone the most scientific and effective recruit training method formed after the three years of iteration of the Palace Army. With sufficient supply of materials, the training of various combat skills has been exceeded.

Although the Eight Banners soldiers of the Qing Dynasty had rich combat experience, they were already exhausted after fighting all night long. Now, how could they withstand four opponents with only their two fists?
When the soldiers of the Palace Army saw the Qing army rushing towards them, they were not afraid at all and continued to attack. The latter, under such fierce attack, soon could not withstand it and began to retreat.

So, the soldiers of the Palace Army immediately chased after them, firing their guns and arrows continuously behind the Eight Banners soldiers. Even those who could not withstand the attack, lost all their fighting spirit, and wanted to surrender in battle were hacked to death by them.

Soon, tens of thousands of Palace Army soldiers stepped on the corpses of these defeated soldiers and continued to pursue the Qing army that was retreating into the encirclement.

The soldiers of the Palace Army used their weapons to ferociously hack and shoot at the last remaining Qing soldiers, while the Heavenly Cavalry Army chased the Eight Banners cavalry who broke out from the gaps in the square formation during the attack. They held on to the Qing army tightly and had no intention of stopping the pursuit.

Gu Defu held the gun in both hands, with the left one low and the right one high. He aimed at the Eight Banners armored soldier commander in front of him and thrust forward suddenly. With the momentum of the attack, the gun tip made a "clang" sound and pierced the outer armor of the Eight Banners armored soldier he was chasing.

Although the second layer of armor on the Eight Banners soldier's body was not pierced, he was still hit by the impact and stumbled and fell to the ground.

The soldiers of the Palace Army who rushed over immediately did not even wait for him to get up. Five or six soldiers rushed forward directly, and several swords and guns quickly chopped and stabbed at his neck and head.

They quickly killed the Eight Banners soldier, and then gathered around Gu Defu, who then continued to lead dozens of soldiers under his command to pursue the Qing army.

Beside them, tens of thousands of the Palace Army's infantry and cavalry were moving and joining the battlefield.

At this time, on the top of the Xiangyang city wall, the remaining Qing army musketeers and archers were all on high alert. Countless miscellaneous soldiers and civilians, driven by the armored soldiers, were hurriedly carrying wooden planks and stones to the top of the city wall.

They were still unsure of what was happening outside the city, and had no idea that Delekhun was about to die. Driven by inertia, they continued to defend the city. There were even artillery on the city walls shooting at the approaching skirmishers of the Palace Army.

On top of the city wall, the sound of cannons continued, thick white smoke rose up, the orange-red flames were captivating, and one shell after another whistled towards the palace troops who were trying to approach the city wall.

However, this was just the last struggle of the defenders of Xiangyang City.

With the failure of Delekhun's night attack, the elite Qing army was completely wiped out, and it was no longer possible for Xiangyang City to hold on.

Now, Delekhhun didn't even dare to stop and take a breath, let alone organize a counterattack. He was struggling desperately under the cover of dozens of Bayala soldiers.

The Qing army's desperate breakout ended quickly, in less than an hour, and the Qing army in Xiangyang City also began to fall into chaos and began to break out in a disorganized manner.

As a result, the various units of the Palace Army, with the Western Camp as the main force, also immediately began the mopping-up operation. The war in which they were the protagonists had just begun.

In the chaos, Delekhun only took away dozens of people, but just as he broke out, he was kidnapped by the Tianqi Army. Most of the Qing soldiers in Xiangyang City were scattered in all directions, flying around in the chaos like headless flies.

Zhu Cilang had been closely following the progress of the war. Based on the latest military reports and the fierce gunfire coming from the direction of Xiangyang City, he had a rough assessment of the situation.

In this battle, the destruction of the Qing army that attacked at night was an established fact, and the other troops left in the city were not enough to hold the city. In addition to leaving a part of the army to clean up the battlefield, the rest of the troops could be sent to attack the city.

However, the most important thing for Zhu Cilang now is to trap all the Qing troops around Xiangyang and annihilate them in one fell swoop.

"Your Majesty, it seems that the remnants of the Qing army in Xiangyang City have been caught by our army at this time."

Zhang Huangyan looked at the densely flashing flames on the north and west sides, and reported excitedly:
"Derekhun probably never dreamed that Shang Kexi could secretly communicate with His Majesty under such circumstances, and break out much faster than he did."

"The few remaining soldiers in Xiangyang are absolutely no match for us. The Qing army has completely collapsed at this point. Pass on my military orders. All troops are mobilized. Along Xiangyang City and the Han River, guard the key pontoon bridges and crossings, as well as our camp. Don't let these defeated soldiers escape. The sooner they are annihilated, the better."

Zhu Cilang had completely relaxed at this time. The most powerful Eight Banners Army in Xiangyang City had now been completely wiped out, and the Qing army was no longer able to organize any effective counterattack.

The most important morale for him now is to do his best to expand the results of the battle.

"Also, pass on my military orders. After the remaining Qing troops outside the city are completely eliminated, all units, except for one battalion left to garrison the camp and be on standby for maneuvering at any time, must immediately enter the city. The Heavenly Cavalry will dispatch some troops to pursue the remaining Qing troops fleeing north."

"Your Majesty, Delekhun has not been found yet. He is most likely among the more than one hundred remnants of the Qing army who broke out to the north. Those defeated Qing soldiers are now unable to fight. With the combat power of the Tianqi Army, it should be easy to capture them." Zhang Huangyan then bowed and clasped his fists.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Cilang shook his head, then turned to look at Zhang Huangyan and said with a smile:

"That's true, but I still need some of them to go back and do some propaganda for me. Whether it's the defenders of Nanyang or the main force of the Eight Banners that will move south from Beijing in the future, they all need to know how powerful my Palace Front Army is.

Killing a few of these completely frightened fleeing soldiers is now unimportant. Even if they all flee, the overall situation will be minimal. On the contrary, if we encounter these defeated soldiers, already frightened by our army, again on the battlefield in the future, it will actually be beneficial to us."

"Yes, I understand." Zhang Huangyan smiled and bowed, looking up at Xiangyang City in the northeast, and said:

"I'm afraid there are no more defenders in Xiangyang City now. Should we organize civilians and soldiers to enter the city immediately? There must be remnants of the Qing army in the city. If we wait until tomorrow, I'm afraid those forced civilians will suffer heavy casualties."

"Yes, I agree. Zhang Huangyan, you will lead two battalions into the city. The Military Affairs Department and the Logistics Department will accompany you to assist you in handling affairs. I will also allocate you 3,000 civilians for temporary use. Before nightfall, you must sort out the chaos in the city." Zhu Cilang immediately gave the order. Zhang Huangyan accepted the order and rode away with his men. The Qing army was now unable to organize any effective attack, so with two battalions of soldiers, there would be no problems.

At this time, inside and outside Xiangyang City, there was chaos everywhere. Several large fires were burning in the city. From outside the city, it looked like they were connected together, and the sky above had been dyed yellow.

Not only that, inside and outside the city, from the inner city to the outer moat, and then to the plains outside the city, within a radius of more than ten miles, there were defeated Qing soldiers everywhere.

As the tens of thousands of troops of the Palace Army began to pursue, the scattered Qing soldiers could only disperse to the north. Many even jumped directly into the Han River, trying to swim across, but were soon killed or captured by the navy.

As for the city of Xiangyang, with the current strength of the Qing army, it has no defensive capabilities at all.

However, the tense situation did not ease so quickly. The reorganization, assembly and action of the army all took a lot of time.

Because the war was not completely resolved until nightfall.

But at night, even inside the city, the search efficiency of the Palace Army was not so high.

Zhang Huangyan deployed most of his troops at several city gates, and the rest were arranged in the core streets of the city, waiting for the confused Qing army's fleeing soldiers to rush towards them.

The scouts in the army who had rich battlefield experience and night vision capabilities started searching the city in small teams.

Of course, in this process, the newly trained military dogs of the Palace Army also began to play a role. Their training has now entered a critical stage, and the first batch of more than 80 military dogs have been put into use directly.

However, Xiangyang City is so big that it will still take some time for them to search such a large area.

At the same time, Zhu Cilang continued to receive military reports from various battalion commanders. Because there were no sudden situations, the content of the military reports was unremarkable. They were just about the encirclement and annihilation battle, and the war horses in Xiangyang City, which were either ridden away by the Qing soldiers who broke through the siege, or died in the chaos.

"Your Majesty, Captain Zhang has sent word that civilians in the city have organized themselves to put out the fire, and some of the Qing army's military equipment and supplies have been saved. Most of the defeated Qing soldiers still in the city have been captured and killed, and the rest are still being searched for."

Zhu Cilang looked at the military report and could not help but feel heartbroken. He said with great regret:
"The baggage is secondary. It's a pity about the war horses. So far, we've confirmed that we've captured less than 2,000 horses outside the city, and I'm afraid by the end, there won't be more than 3,000. We can just transport the weapons and food, but war horses are hard to find!"

"Delekhun fought desperately to break out. We didn't expect that. We thought they would be defeated soon." Chang Denggui sighed.

After hearing this, Zhu Cilang also sighed slightly, then changed the subject and said:

"No rush. When I defeat Dorgon's Eight Banners during the Northern Expedition next year and attack Nanyang, I'll have as many war horses as I want. Now, we're just waiting for news from Hanzhong. They should have captured Xi'an by now."

By dawn the next day, the remaining Qing soldiers inside and outside Xiangyang City who had failed to break out and were hiding in the mountains and around the city were quickly deployed everywhere. The superior troops of the Palace Army, who were on high alert, wiped them out. Hundreds of Qing soldiers were escorted out of various houses in Xiangyang City one after another, including some of the Eight Banners soldiers.

The tens of thousands of civilians who had been on standby in the two camps of the Palace Army also immediately began a full-scale operation.

Yesterday, they had worked together with the armored soldiers to clean up the piles of corpses on the battlefield. Now they had to quickly collect and sort the weapons and armor scattered everywhere, and then place them on the open space in the camp.

On the morning of the second day, Zhu Cilang, under the protection of the soldiers of the imperial camp, led the generals of various departments into the city of Xiangyang.

This also includes Shang Kexi, Xu Erxian and others who are against the trend.

After successfully recaptured Xiangyang City, Zhu Cilang did not stop. He immediately sent Lin Changfeng and ordered Tian Jianxiu. The two armies set out north to recapture Xinye, Tang County and other places, and even Nanyang.

Delekhun's main force has now been lost, and the only Qing troops left in the prefectures and cities in southern Henan are Chen Tai's entire family, Gao Di's troops, and a part of the Green Camp soldiers who are not considered elite. Zhu Cilang no longer has anything to worry about.

What he wants now is to pursue the victory and not give the Qing army a chance to react. It would be best if he could directly drive away all the Qing troops in the direction of Nanyang.

The situation was just as he expected. The two armies of Lin Changfeng and Tian Jianxiu went ahead with basically no baggage. With the cooperation of local gentry, they easily captured Xinye, Dengzhou, Tangxian and other places. Then they collected food and grass locally, went up the river, and quickly recovered all the cities in southern Henan except Nanyang City.

At the same time, the Wang brothers, who were heading north from Yunyang Prefecture, soon also reached several counties in Henan Prefecture. Then they passed through Lu's County and entered the southern part of Luoyang. Several nearby prefectures and counties basically surrendered at the sight of them.

Less than a month after the Palace Army recaptured Xiangyang City, Zhu Cilang had almost recaptured the Baihe tributary of the Han River in Henan Prefecture, and could even recapture half of Henan.

Apart from Nanyang City, the Qing court no longer had any support in the Han River Basin. Even this isolated city was in danger and could be captured by the Palace Army at any time.

Chen Tai was helpless in the face of the collapse of the situation. Apart from asking for help from Beijing, he did not even dare to send troops to guard the important checkpoints for communication to the north, so as to prevent the communication channels from being completely controlled by the Ming army. He simply withdrew all his troops, defended the Nanyang City, and waited for reinforcements from the north.

At this time, Chen Tai had very few soldiers and horses, which meant that he had very few actions to take. Fortunately, the Palace Army had recovered too much territory at once and had fought hard for several months, so it was temporarily unable to advance further.

After all, the various units of the Palace Army are no longer fully staffed in the true sense. Even if the left and right armies and the navy's troops are included, the total number does not exceed 100,000. After a series of battles, they have to rest and recover.

(End of this chapter)