In fact, without the urging of Lek Dehun, Geng Zhongming also knew that he would arrive at Dangshan County as soon as possible. After all, Dorgon gave him an order that within five days, he must arrive at Wushan County, otherwise Geng Zhongming would not dare to underestimate the army. Therefore, after receiving the order, Geng Zhongming immediately sent troops from Chenzhou and divided into two groups, one by one, leading the army himself, with a total of 40,000 troops, walking in Zhecheng, and the other was the general under Wu Sangui, leading the army, with a total of 30,000 troops, traveling to Haozhou, and the two groups echoed each other, arrived at Xiayi to join, and then went to rescue Dangshan County. Among them, the 30,000 troops led by Han Daren were all the Sichuan Army of Wu Sangui's troops.

From Chenzhou to Dangshan County, there is no official road directly, and there are several small roads, so it is reasonable to march in two directions. Moreover, most of the troops of Geng Zhongming's troops are actually Wu Sangui's Sichuan Army. It is natural that no one can say anything wrong with this arrangement. But no one expected that Geng Zhongming was still making a fool of himself here.

Because Geng Zhongming certainly knew that the Chinese army would never let him go to rescue easily, and there would be people blocking or setting up an ambush in the middle. Therefore, Geng Zhongming first let Han Daren take the route on the periphery, while the route he took was on the inside. In addition, in terms of the itinerary, Geng Zhongming also deliberately slowed down and made Han Daren's troops half a day faster than him. In this way, the possibility of being attacked will be much smaller. Moreover, once Han Daren's troops are attacked by the Chinese army, he can immediately prepare for retreating and going to war.

The Qing army advanced to Dangshan County under Geng Zhongming's careful calculations.

After the Chinese army occupied Yongcheng County, it immediately sent a large number of spies to inquire about the route of the Qing army's march. After Han Daren's troops arrived in Haozhou, their whereabouts were immediately discovered by spies of the Chinese army. Huang Shengwu, the commander of the 18th Army stationed in Yongcheng, immediately sent a report back to Suzhou. Because except for Mangdang Mountain in the northeast, there were all plains and lacking favorable terrain for ambushing troops, the commander of Huang Shengwu suggested setting up an ambush beside the Tuo River and attacking the Qing army. No matter which route the Qing army took, they had to cross the Tuo River.

After Shang Yi and Cheng Jin from Suzhou received Huang Shengwu's report, they also thought that Huang Shengwu's suggestion was very good, so they immediately replied to Huang Shengwu and asked him to go out immediately. First, they also looked for a place to ambush the troops in Tuohe. At the same time, they sent Chief of Staff You Hongliang to lead the Seventh and Seventh Army of Nanjing Military Region to Yongcheng County to participate in the war. The Seventh Army cooperated with the Eighteenth Army to ambush the Qing army. The Seventh Army served as the reserve army and was responsible for attacking the reinforcements of the Qing army.

Tuohe River is a semi-artificial and semi-natural river. A transport canal connecting the three major water systems of Huang, Huai and Yangtze River opened in the southwest of Guide Prefecture, Henan Province, flowed through Xiayi, Yongcheng entered Anhui Province, and then passed through Suzhou, Guzhen to Wuhe County, and entered the Huai River. It was about 600 miles long. However, due to years of disrepair, navigation conditions deteriorated and the waterway shrank. Only rivers below Yongcheng could be navigated. The river surface from Yongcheng to Guide section was shallow and narrow, so you can cross the river on foot. This is also the most suitable place near Yongcheng to attack the Qing army.

The 18th Army ambushed in a forest on the south bank of the Tuo River, while the 7th Army crossed the Tuo River near Yongcheng and ambushed in a forest on the north bank. The 17th Army is ready to wait.

In the afternoon, Han Daren led the Qing army to the Tuo River and immediately began to cross the river. When the Qing army was halfway through, the cavalry division of the 18th Army took the lead in attacking, rushed out of the woods, and first launched an attack on the Qing army on the south bank of the Tuo River.

In fact, Han Daren knew that the Chinese army occupied Yongcheng County at this time, so he was careful to guard against the Chinese army's attacks along the way. However, the terrain in Yongcheng was flat and there were not many ambushing sites. But even so, Han Daren was not at ease and sent a lot of spies to prepare in advance after encountering the Chinese army. However, Han Daren's troops were all Sichuan Army, almost all infantry, and the entire army had only more than 30 war horses. In addition to some major generals, there were less than twenty horses that could be distributed to spies, and many spies could only rely on walking to find out the news.

In fact, the forest where the Chinese army hid was still more than ten miles away from the Qing army's crossing river. The Qing army still had some time to prepare for the battle, but the Chinese army attacked all cavalry, and the distance of more than ten miles was only four or five minutes. And when the Qing army spies discovered the Chinese army's cavalry and came back to report the news, the Chinese army's cavalry was only three or four miles away from the Qing army. Almost as Han Daren received the report, the figure of the Chinese army's cavalry had appeared in his sight.

Among Wu Sangui's 50,000 musket soldiers were there, and Geng Zhongming gave Han Daren 5,000. When crossing the river, Han Daren first sent 2,500 musket soldiers to garrison across the north bank of the Tuohe River, and only 2,500 musket soldiers were stationed on the south bank. Han Daren immediately ordered the musket soldiers to set up a formation and fight against the cavalry of the Chinese army.

Whether in another time and space or in this time and space, Wu Sangui can be regarded as a famous general, and he also knows the importance of the army in this chaotic era. Therefore, after entering Sichuan, he trained the Sichuan Army very strictly. Although he did not know much modern firearm tactics, he was still very skilled in the simple routine of three-stage continuous shooting. Therefore, in just a few minutes, the Sichuan Army quickly lined up three rows of queues, raised muskets, and shot at the Chinese Army's horse riding.

In previous battles, the defense line of the Chinese army was often attacked by the Qing cavalry, but this time the battle turned out completely, becoming the defense line of the Chinese army with cavalry to attack the Qing army with muskets. As the horse hooves of the Chinese army stomped on, the Qing army also took turns to shoot, and an offensive and defensive battle was launched immediately on the south bank of the Tuo River.

Although the soldiers of the Sichuan Army were very skilled in the operation of muskets and the use of three-stage continuous shooting, they basically used old-fashioned mesh guns, which determined that the shooting speed and range of the Sichuan Army were simply not comparable to that of the Chinese Army, and even compared with the Qing Army, they were slightly inferior.

At the beginning of the battle, the first three rounds of shooting of the Sichuan Army did cause considerable losses to the Chinese Army's cavalry. The Chinese army cavalry died directly or indirectly, but the shooting of the combstone gun will have a relatively long time to fill the bullet after the first three rounds. If it is an attack on the infantry, there may be enough time to fill the bullet again after the first three rounds of shooting. However, under the high-speed sprint of the cavalry, this gap time is very fatal. In fact, in the early days of the establishment of the Chinese Army, when the use of combstone guns was mainly used, Shang Yi would generally discharge four rows, or even five rows of arrays, to ensure the speed of the shooting.

At this time, the cavalry of the Chinese Army also used muskets to fight back against the Sichuan Army. The former Guanning Iron Cavalry was indeed a cavalry that could use firearms, but they used a three-eyed gun on the horse. The barrel was very short and the range was very close, only about twenty meters, and they could only shoot once, and then they used the three-eyed gun as a spear stick. The muskets equipped by the cavalry of the Chinese Army were one long and one short, and the short tube was the front-mounted gun, while the long tube was the latest breech musket, which was filled with ammunition before the battle. Although the range of these two muskets was only fifty or sixty meters, which was much smaller than the flintlock gun used by the infantry, it was not much worse than the mesh gun used by the Sichuan Army. Therefore, after the first three rounds of shooting in the Sichuan Army, the cavalry that rushed to the forefront also entered their range, so they raised their guns to shoot.

Although there were only more than a hundred Chinese cavalrymen who shot first, the defense line of the Sichuan Army was arranged between the Chuangpu Army without any cover. They stood in front of the Chinese cavalry, and the positions were very dense. Therefore, the first round of shooting of the Chinese Army had a very high hit rate. In the Sichuan Army's array, the number of people shot more than fifty, but more and more Chinese cavalrymen entered the range, and the cavalry rushing in the forefront immediately started the second round of shooting after changing guns.

At this time, chaos and panic occurred immediately in the Sichuan Army's array. Although the Sichuan Army had undergone rigorous training, it lacked practical experience after all. Faced with the pressure of the cavalry that rushed over and was also attacked by the enemy's muskets, all kinds of panic situations also occurred. Although the Sichuan Army quickly launched the second three-round shooting, the power of this shooting had dropped by most of the time. Some people were still filling in bullets to prepare for shooting, some were bayonets to prepare for close combat, and some turned around and escaped from the array. Before the second three-round shooting was completed, the Sichuan Army's array was a little messy.

Then, the Chinese army's cavalry rushed to the Qing army's formation and used long spears or sabers to attack the Sichuan army's musketeers. Although some of the Sichuan army were ready for close combat, the overall array of the Sichuan army was in chaos at this time and could not form a group to resist the cavalry's charge. This was the decisive factor in the infantry's fight against the cavalry in hand-to-hand combat.

One war horse after another hit the Sichuan army's array. Some were blocked by the Sichuan army, and some died under the bayonets of Sichuan soldiers. However, many of them rushed to the Sichuan army's array and rushed towards other Sichuan soldiers after the formation. The Sichuan army's array was also constantly being broken through and torn apart.

In fact, in less than five minutes of the entire charge, the defense line composed of the Sichuan Army's musket soldiers was scattered by the Chinese Army's cavalry. The other Sichuan Army never expected that their musket soldiers would be rushed by the Chinese Army's cavalry so quickly. Therefore, after the defense line of the musket soldiers, they had not organized a defensive formation at all. As a result, they were rushed by the Chinese Army's cavalry, and the Sichuan Army on the south bank of the Tuo River immediately became in chaos.

At this moment, two other brigades of the 18th Army also arrived at the battlefield, and the entire army was fully deployed in the shape of a fan, surrounding the Qing army on the south bank of the Tuo River.


Chapter completed!