It is now February 12 of the seventh year of Hongxing in the Ming Dynasty.

On the morning of 10 February, Shi Kefa learned that the Qing army brigade with a size of tens of thousands was advancing eastward from the direction of Renqiu, and after confirming the accuracy of the information, Shi Kefa, at the suggestion of Qi Yuanbi and Prince Kongdai, mobilized Xu Haijun (Gao Jie's department), the 10th Division of the New Army (the division commander was Wang Qi), the 12th Division of the New Army (division commander Qin Mingtao), and the 15th Division of the New Army (division commander Shi Dewei), a total of more than 50,000 troops, left the Tianjin Wei front line (the Tianjin Wei encirclement was handed over to Huang Degong), and rapidly advanced to the southwest.

At the same time, a large army led by Dordor came northeast from the hills. The two armies faced each other, so during the day on the 11th, the forward cavalry of the two sides began to come into close contact.

Unlike Shunzhi's reluctance to send the forward battalion to fight the striker, but let the Mongols block the gunhole, Duoduo has a lot of factions, and all the people sent out to fight the front station are the elite of the forward battalion. The elite of the forward battalion is the eyes and ears of the Duoduo army, and no matter how reluctant they are, they have to use it! Otherwise, if you go into battle with black eyes, how will you arrange your troops?

Since both sides are "dragoons" who can shoot black guns, it will be lively after the encounter, black guns against black guns! Bursts of gunfire rang out throughout the front.

And the commanders of both sides can only guess a rough idea based on the fragmentary information collected by the black spearmen in front.

The first to complete the guess was Dord.

At noon on 12 February, after confirming that the Ming army had arrived at the west bank of the canal between Jinghai and Qingxian, the brave Wang Duoduo, who had unusually rich experience in warfare, immediately deployed his main force between Deshengdian and Dacheng County, seizing a rather favorable terrain.

Deshengdian is a wetland, between Baiyangdian and the Grand Canal, the terrain is very complex, the water level is different in depth, and it is neither boating nor wading. There are also small islands scattered throughout the island, and the plants on the island are very dense, and there are trees all around the lake, and it looks like a large forest from a distance.

This kind of terrain may be good for the Black Spearmen, but it is very unfavorable for the passage of large armies. So Duoduo handed over his left flank to the victorious Dian, who was going to "guard" it.

And Duoduo's right wing has been spread to the county seat of Dacheng, which is not very strong, and because a large number of black spearmen of the Ming army have been patronized, it has been an empty city that has been burned, and the city is scorched black, and even the city gate does not know where to go? But the city wall is still there after all, and it can still be relied on.

Therefore, the right wing of the army of Duoduo was handed over to the county town of Dacheng to take care of!

As for the back of the Duoduo, it was quite open, which was conducive to the entry and exit of the cavalry.

There were a lot of cavalry in Duoduo's department, including the forward battalion, the Xiao cavalry battalion, the Bayala barracks, as well as the blue flag vests from Datong and the red flag vests from Datong, all of which amounted to 24,000 in total, accounting for almost half of the 50,000 soldiers that Duoduo brought to the battlefield of Deshengdian.

With so many cavalry, once they find an opportunity to attack in a roundabout way, it will be amazing!

"Governor, the enemy has occupied a relatively favorable terrain, and it seems that we can only deploy our position in the north by the canal."

In a large camp on the bank of the canal between Jinghai and Qingxian, it was Prince Kong who was making a suggestion to Shi Kefa, who had just returned from the front line with Qi Yuanbi, and had already checked the terrain and generally knew how Duoduo had set up the formation.

A relatively accurate military map has been unfolded in front of Shi Kefa, Gao Jie, Wang Qi, Qin Mingtao, Shi Dewei, Li Yuanyin and others at this time. Qi Yuanbi placed small wooden plaques with the appearance of "cavalry", "infantry" and "artillery" on the map between the victory lake and the city and county towns one by one.

"Is it a backwater formation?" Shi Kefa asked.

"No, there's still a little distance," Qi Yuanbi said, "It's better if it's really a backwater array." ”

Prince Condé added in the Chinese language of "tongue rolling": "If we choose to stand on our backs, the enemy will most likely choose to avoid the battle, and their cavalry is much stronger than ours...... We had at hand 8 battalions of less than 4,000 cavalry, while the enemy's cavalry numbered at least fifteen thousand, enough to cover the transfer of their main forces. ”

Although Zhu Cihong had been working hard to expand his cavalry, until the eve of the start of the Northern Expedition in the sixth year of Hongxing, the Ming army, excluding the seven feudal clans of Pingxi, Shuofang, Beiting, Sichuandong, Sichuanxi, Jinou, Jinghai, etc., only had a total of 24 muskete cavalry battalions and 2 lancer battalions, a total of 26 battalions, and there were also twenty or thirty cavalry companies (also black spearmen) attached to various infantry divisions to do miscellaneous work.

In the case of full strength, the cavalry of the main Ming army is only 16,000 people.

"How many troops do they have?" Shi Kefa asked.

"Sixty or seventy thousand," Qi Yuanbi said, "The total number is a little more than ours, but their old Eight Banner vests are generally followed by clothed minions, so the number of soldiers should be comparable." ”

"That's 50,000 against 50,000 ......," Shi Kefa thought for a moment, "they have the advantage of cavalry, and our infantry and artillery should have the upper hand, right?" ”

"Of course!" Qi Yuanbi said, "We have 80 infantry battalions and 5 artillery battalions, nearly 90 3-pounder regimental guns, and 9 12-pounder field guns. ”

The combination of 3-pounder regimental guns and 12-pounder field guns is a more popular artillery combination package for the armies of European powers in this era, with 3-pounder guns hitting people, 12-pounder guns hitting guns, and a 24-pounder gun is fighting cities, which is rare in the Ming army.

Now the artillery battalion of the Ming infantry division is 3 3-pounder artillery batteries, 1 12-pounder artillery company, 1 baggage company and 1 engineer company, a total of 6 companies!

The 12-pounder guns equipped in the infantry divisions of the Ming army were relatively light cast-iron short guns, but they were still very bulky, and if it weren't for the Persch Yanma imported from France, they really wouldn't be able to move them.

Shi Kefa glanced at Teacher Kong Dai - this person was quite able to blow when he was making up lessons in Nanjing, but now he is really beaten, is there a way? Can you replace Kong Ming?

"The enemy's infantry is weak, while the cavalry is very strong, and the normal tactic should be to attract our attention with the infantry and create opportunities for the cavalry to attack the left flank and rear of our army in a roundabout," said Prince Condé. ”

"What should we do?" Shi Kefa asked.

When he was tutoring in Nanjing, Kong Dai tried his best to test everyone on such a question, and no matter how you answered, he could always name a corresponding example of defeat - Shi Kefa suspected that these examples were made up by Kong Dai.

"Our frontal should feign defeat, retreat to attract the enemy's infantry, leading them to the west bank of the canal." "In this way, the enemy's cavalry will be forced to make a detour in advance...... And we need to put a few really strong infantry battalions on the left flank and use them to withstand the onslaught of the enemy's cavalry.

At the same time, our 8 cavalry battalions were supposed to make a detour through the Victory Lake to the enemy's left flank.

When the detour is successful, we will throw in the reserve infantry and storm the front of the enemy to completely crush their infantry! ”

It's the head of the way!

"Your Royal Highness," Shi Kefa pondered, "the key is two, one is whether our left flank can block the onslaught of the Qing cavalry?

Second, will the Qing army set up an ambush in Deshengdian? ”

Prince Condé nodded and said with a smile: "The cavalry impact of the Qing soldiers is not strong, and they can't move the infantry phalanx with artillery support at all.

As for the ambush soldiers in the victorious lake, there must be one, otherwise the king of the Qing kingdom would not be a qualified military strategist...... But King Dodor didn't have good infantry, and it wouldn't be a problem if he sent his infantry to lurk in the Victorious Lake.

If he sends the outdated dismounted knights, he will not be a match for our musketeers, and the only threat will be the so-called forward battalion cavalry.

But these troops are the trump cards in the hands of Dórd! I think he's going to concentrate them on our left...... So my plan will definitely be a success! ”

Shi Kefa was still not at ease, and he finally asked, "Prince, what if your plan fails?" ”

Prince Condé shrugged his shoulders and said with a smile: "If my plan succeeds, we will wipe out 20,000 Duoduo at the cost of 10,000 men." If we fail, then we will wipe out 10,000 of the Duoduo at the cost of 20,000 men...... That's it! ”

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