Chongzhen briefly recounted the entire process of the battle of Santun Camp to everyone in the room, although the generals present had more or less heard of the defeat of Santun Camp, Wu Xiang and others were still personal experiencers.

However, this was the first time they had heard of such a detailed course of the battle of Santunying, and although the General Staff had implemented a post-war summing up system in the army as early as a year earlier, all armies except the New Army were mere formalities.

In order to shirk the responsibility for the defeat, many people recounted the war experience very differently and were completely incorrect. Therefore, basically no one really knows the specific course of the battle of Santun Camp and the reasons for the defeat.

After Chongzhen arrived at Malanzhuang, he suppressed the debate about the responsibility for the defeat, and then sent the staff officers and non-commissioned officers around him to question the hundreds of defeated soldiers and generals who fled back, and only then did he piece together the entire battle of Santun Camp bit by bit. In order to avoid the topic of discussion at the meeting being deviated, Zhu Youzhen still hid a lot of controversial points, and only focused on the operational steps of the Later Jin army ambushing the Ming army in Santun Yingcheng.

Zhu Youzhen immediately concluded: "Sage Yun: There must be my teacher in the threesome. This sentence is not bad at all. Judging from the results of the successful ambush of our army by the Houjin army under the city of Santun camp, we have a lot to learn.

First of all, throughout the operation, the Houjin army has been controlling the transmission of information on the battlefield, and the areas that our army can detect are all areas that the Houjin army deliberately gave up. After that, in the area that Jin wants to control, our army will not be able to detect the content at all. On the contrary, because our army does not have the ability to shield and control the battlefield in the area, Houjin is completely aware of the actions of our army.

When our army was at a critical moment when it was about to capture the city of Santun Yingcheng, it was intercepted by the cavalry ambushed outside the city by Houjin, which led to the final defeat of our army. From this, it can be seen that by shielding the battlefield from allowing the other side to obtain real-time information about the situation of our army, or conversely, by monitoring the movements of the enemy army at any time, you can gain the initiative on the battlefield.

If the situation on the battlefield is favorable to us, our army will be able to launch an offensive at the right time. If the situation on the battlefield is not in our favor, our army can also retreat safely.

Second, although the Houjin claimed to be invincible in the field, they were quite cautious in choosing the timing, place, and method of fighting. They did not choose a battlefield to attack our army regardless of the fact that they claimed that they were good at field warfare, but chose to rush out and take us by surprise when our army was under siege and the army was divided into two places by the city wall.

Therefore, I believe that our army commanders and lieutenant generals should study the tactics and strategies shown by Houjin in this battle.

Of course, I am not talking to you about this, not to let you go to the temporary cramming now, but to learn from Huang Taiji's battle plan in the battle of Santun Camp.

I thought that our army should send a lean cavalry force, not less than five thousand men. This cavalry carried ten days' worth of food, crossed the Luan River, and went west along the east bank of the Luan River, breaking through the Houjin obstruction on the east bank, and directly attacked the city of Santun Camp, but surrounded but did not fight.

Besiege the city of Santun camp with a small number of troops, and then ambush the main force on the road leading to the west of Santun camp, and ambush this army outside the city of Santun camp when the Houjin army in front of us returns. I named this plan: Siege Point Reinforcements.

Of course, we must also be prepared with both hands, and I suggest that we send personnel to gather the officers and soldiers of the Great Wall west of Xifengkou and assemble in the north of the Santun camp. If this Houjin army is not fooled, the cavalry will cooperate with the defenders of the Great Wall to attack the Santun camp city. If the Houjin army was fooled, the cavalry would ambush the army and then cooperate with the siege. ”

Zhu Youzhen's gaze swept over everyone's faces, and asked, "Do you think my plan is still feasible?" ”

The people in the room were silent for a while, and Wang Zaijin spoke: "If the Houjin army in front of us does not come back to help, and the troops of our army who raided the Santun camp city cannot attack the city for a while, what should we do then?" ”

Zhu Youzhen frowned, and then turned to Li Hongyuan on the side and said: "The General Staff Headquarters estimates the risk of this battle plan, especially a more accurate assessment of the time for the return of the main force of Houjin on the Western Road, the time you have is from now until the early morning of tomorrow."

The others only need to do three things well: first, repair the big camp in this place and make it a rear base for our attack on the Santun camp; 2. Repair the wooden bridge over the Luan River in the northwest; 3. Wu Huai and Zu Dashou, you go and select the cavalry units that can attack tomorrow, and the materials that are ready to be carried by the troops.

Early tomorrow morning, I will make a final decision after evaluating the detailed battle plan submitted by the General Staff Headquarters. As for who will lead this army, we will wait until tomorrow morning. ”

Chongzhen's words made Wang Zaijin have nothing to say, while the other generals also chose to continue to believe in the emperor's decision based on the correct decisions made by the emperor in succession before.

Seeing that although everyone did not raise objections to their own ideas, there were still some doubts in the eyes of some people, Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but speak again: "The Houjin army made a long journey this time and made a detour to invade the pass, although it was strategically achieved: it was taken by surprise and attacked unprepared.

This army also had a large number of horses to replace the strength of the legs, but it was the season of winter when everything was dying, and even if the Houjin army obtained some supplies from the border villages along the Great Wall and the Santun camp city, he could not meet the needs of providing these horses with fine grain and pasture for a long time.

According to the calculations of the logistics department in the past year, a good Mongolian war horse weighs about 300-350 kilograms, and if you want to maintain a combat state, the weight of the food you eat every day should be about 13-15 kilograms, half of forage and half of refined grain.

In order to be able to break through our eastern and western armies, the main cavalry of the Houjin has been in high-intensity combat for the past half a month, which not only greatly consumes the grain and grass in the Houjin army, but also makes their horsepower use close to the limit. Even if Mongolian horses are known for their hardships and hard work, they cannot be used indefinitely.

And don't forget, if the Houjin army encounters a defeat, it is not that they will be able to go home after leaving the customs, and they will have to follow the original route to return to Shenyang. Therefore, there will inevitably be a bottom line of combat between the upper and lower levels of the Houjin, and once the Houjin army reaches this bottom line, even if they occupy a temporary advantage on the battlefield, they will have to withdraw from the pass.

Therefore, you should keep in mind that the plan I just mentioned is indeed a bit risky, but it is really not worth mentioning compared to the risks faced by the Houjin army. I can also assert here that as long as the Houjin army encounters another setback, it will have to consider the matter of retreat. ”

Although Chongzhen's words did not completely dispel the hidden worries in the hearts of some of the generals present, they did strengthen the confidence of many generals that this war would be won.

After leading the main force of the Five Banners to defeat the Ming army under the Santun camp and pushing the defense line of the east road to the east bank across the Luan River from Malanzhuang, Huang Taiji immediately led the main force of the Eight Banners back to the west again and arrived at Baozizhai on November 27.

Although the elite soldiers of the Eight Banners still showed the characteristics of daring to fight in this rushing battle, Huang Taiji also found that the Eight Banners army in his hands was no longer as good at enduring hard battles as the old Eight Banners army in the hands of his father Khan.

In the battle of Sarhu that year, Father Khan adopted various strategies to break through, commanded the old Eight Banners to break through the three-way Ming army in five days, and eliminated 50,000 of the most combat-effective Liaodong Ming army.

But now the Eight Banners Army under him, most of the new young soldiers have grown up after the Later Jin Dynasty. Although these soldiers still have memories of fishing and hunting when they were young, they began to settle in Liaoyang, Shenyang and other big cities in Liaodong because of the rise of Houjin in Liaodong as a teenager.

Although Eight Banners is a militarized organization, these new generation members have maintained perennial military training and have a certain military literacy. However, the Jurchens, who had a large number of Han slaves to serve their own production, began to gradually lose their hard-working and hard-working qualities.

When Nurhachi was alive, he had already discovered that the new Jurchen generation had a tendency to indulge in leisure and dislike work, and he had made great efforts to rectify this trend, but the results had been not great. After Huang Taiji ascended the throne, although he strongly advocated that the Jurchens should maintain the hard and simple living habits of the past, but it had little effect, so he tried to restrain the Jurchen Eight Banners with strict military discipline to delay the degeneration and corruption of the Eight Banners army.

It should be said that due to the various measures implemented by Huang Taiji after his accession to the throne, he won the welcome of the new generation among the Jurchen relatives and nobles, whether it was the increase in the number of management flag ministers or the implementation of the system of rotating deliberations of the small Baylors, which greatly improved the status of these new Jurchen generations, making them stand on the same position as Huang Taiji.

And Huang Taiji, who originally had no outstanding achievements, even encountered the defeat of besieging Jinzhou after ascending the throne. However, in just two years, he achieved the achievement of conquering Korea in the east and forcing the Chahar troops to move westward, getting rid of the strategic disadvantage of being attacked on three sides in the past by the Later Jin.

The prestige brought by military success and the support of the new Jurchen generation, coupled with the political balance that Huang Taiji played between the Eight Banners, greatly improved his position in the Eight Banners Army, and the military discipline he promoted in the Eight Banners Army was not all smooth sailing, but in general it gradually achieved results.

On the way to the west of the Chahar Division, he overturned the resolution made by the four major Baylors in Shenyang and advocated a detour into the customs and Ming. It was not only Huang Taiji trying to find a new way to attack the Ming Kingdom, but this was also a political temptation he threw out among the Jurchen nobles, wanting to see how many people supported him among the Jurchen nobles, so as to pave the way for the complete abolition of the political system of the four Baylor co-ruling dynasties.

In the beginning, this plan was implemented perfectly, and with the support of the new generation of Jurchens, Dai Shan and Mang Gurtai had to give in and agree to change the goal of the expedition.

He easily broke through the passes of the Jizhou Great Wall of the Ming army, obtained a large amount of property and people, and also made the Eight Banners recognize his military decision-making power for this expedition.

However, as Zunhua could not be attacked for a long time, the counterattack launched by the Ming army at Shimen in the west made it possible for the Houjin army to fall into a failed battle, and the doubts about him in the army began to grow slowly.

mobilized the main force to raid the Ming army on the Eastern Road, thus saving the situation from deterioration, although there were many fewer doubts, but Huang Taiji noticed that the officers and men in the army were not as heartfelt as before.

Because of this, although the main force of Jin returned to Baozizhai after November 27, seeing the bitter appearance of the soldiers of the Eight Banners, Huang Taiji also had to conform to the will of the army, and decided to repair one day on the 28th and then attack the Ming army on the East Road.

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