In November 1862, 44 days after the battle, Li Xiucheng sighed: "There is no food, no winter warm clothing, how should this battle be fought?" Looking at Zeng Guoquan's camp, Li Xiucheng had no choice but to retreat, ending the Battle of Yuhuatai.
In the Battle of Yuhuatai, the Taiping Army claimed to be 400,000, but the actual strength was less than 200,000. The battle lasted 44 days, and Li Xiucheng tore open the gaps in the Hunan army's defense line many times, and also injured Zeng Guoquan, but he failed.
So, if Han Xin takes Li Xiucheng's script and leads 13 princes to attack Yuhuatai, will he be sure to win against Zeng Guoquan? In the author's opinion, although Han Xin can fight, he can't change the outcome.
Han Xin, the first of the "Three Famous Generals" in the early Han Dynasty, ranked among the "Ten Philosophers of Wumiao" and was known as the "Soldier Immortal". Han Xin ordered troops, the more the merrier, he was a master of the large corps of combat, and he was the absolute main force of Liu Bang to seize the world.
Li Xiucheng, the pillar of the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, is a comprehensive talent. After Chen Yucheng's death, Li Xiucheng supported the crisis alone, fighting back and forth between the eastern and western fronts, either fighting or on the way to war.
Zeng Guoquan, known as the "Nine Shuai", the ninth in the Zeng family's "national character generation", is good at fighting "turtle shell battles" and fighting opponents to the end.
Purely looking at military capabilities, Han Xin is a notch stronger than Li Xiucheng and Zeng Guoquan. If you directly pull 100,000 people out to fight and fight face-to-face, there is no suspense for Han Xin to win.
Except for Xiang Yu, no one could defeat Han Xin in a head-to-head position. In the battle of Qixia, Han Xin faced Xiang Yu for the first time, the Han army was overwhelming, and the Chu army was exhausted. Helpless, Xiang Yu was too capable of fighting and repelled Han Xin's attack.
After that, Han Xin built a long trench and fought with Xiang Yu to consume. At this time, Liu Bang had an army of 600,000 and plenty of grain and grass. Xiang Yu only had 100,000 tired divisions, and his logistics were cut off and he fell into an "embattled" situation, but he still broke through.
There is no doubt that Han Xin can fight, but with Li Xiucheng's script, he can't win against Zeng Guoquan. Han Xin's ending is similar to Li Xiucheng, if he chooses to "enter the north and attack the south", it is estimated that he will also be a fiasco.
In the battle of Yuhuatai, both sides went all out. According to Li Xiucheng's own account, in this battle, the Taiping army lost more than 5,000 casualties, and the Hunan army was about the same. There are hundreds of thousands of troops, but more than 5,000 have been killed, why can't they fight?
Throughout the battle of Yuhuatai, Li Xiucheng was not defeated by Zeng Guoquan, but by "logistics". Li Xiucheng's unit was equipped with a large number of foreign guns, and while attacking the fortified positions head-on, it adopted "tunnel tactics", and the Hunan army was unable to defend against it.
In the fierce battle, Li Xiucheng also tore the defense line many times, Zeng Guoquan personally went to the gap to command the counterattack, and was injured in the left forehead by the Taiping army. However, the Taiping army only tore open the gap, but could not expand the results of the battle, and were driven out by the Hunan army.
If Li Xiucheng has enough food and grass, and the supply of ammunition and materials is stable, even if he pays a heavy price, he can take the Yuhuatai camp of the Hunan army. However, the logistical problem cannot be solved, it is a dead end, and whoever comes is the same.
Han Xin replaced Li Xiucheng and fought with the script, and he couldn't get around this problem. Han Xin led an army of 200,000 and was equipped with Western firearms, but there were not many elite soldiers, and the weapons did not have much advantage compared with the Hunan army, and the number was superior.
Zeng Guo Quanji character camp, the number of people at this time is 20,000, and there are 6,000 people in Zeng Zhengan Dashengguan. Yang Zaifu and Peng Yulin's Yangtze River sailors also have about 8,000 people. The total strength of the Hunan army is more than 30,000.
On the surface, the Taiping army was outnumbered, the Hunan army was scarce, and Han Xin had the advantage, but in fact it was not. Because the Hunan army has a strong naval force, firmly controls the Yangtze River route, and can constantly transfer troops from the rear and raise food.
What about the Taiping Army? They carried food with them for more than 40 days, and it was quite difficult to supply ammunition and materials. Tianjing City, even his own food and clothing can hardly be solved, how can he provide supplies to Han Xin? You must know that in the later stage of the Tianjing War, Hong Renji went out to bring rescue troops, but no one wanted to come, because there was no food to eat, and it was useless to go.
Since Tianjing cannot provide supplies, can Sufu Province and Tianzhejiang Province do it? The answer is no. First of all, Li Hongzhang's Huai army, Zuo Zongtang's Chu army were in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and Han Xinda's rear was unstable. Secondly, without a water division, the grain of Jiangsu and Zhejiang could not be transported, and it was wiped out by the Hunan army halfway.
In addition, the gentry class did not support the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the grassroots level in Sufu Province and Tianzhejiang Province was very chaotic. At this time, once the Taiping army reached a stalemate in Yuhuatai, the generals of the Taiping army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang chose to change their courts. Facts have proved that after Li Xiucheng's Yuhuatai was frustrated, Luo Guozhong in Changshu rebelled, and Li Wenbing in Suzhou colluded with the Qing army, and a fire broke out in the backyard.
Without stable, safe, and adequate logistical supplies, Han Xin and Zeng Guoquan fought a protracted war, which would not work at all. If Han Xin wants to win, he can only rely on a decisive battle in the field and then use his wits to defeat his opponent, but this cannot be done.
Zeng Guoquan was determined to "harden the village and fight in a daze", and with strong fortifications and advanced firearms, it was enough to resist Han Xin's offensive. Zeng Guoquan would not leave the camp, no matter how provocative Han Xin was, he would not give the Taiping army a chance.
Zeng Guoquan and Han Xin fought a war of attrition, and Zeng Guofan could provide a steady stream of supplies to his younger brother. Han Xin's side is cut off from food and grass, ammunition is in short supply, and he can't move the front line from the rear, how can this battle be fought?
Han Xin's two classic battles, the Battle of Jingcheng and the Battle of Weishui, were not fortified battles, and the victory had an element of chance. For example, in the Battle of Jingcheng, if Chen Yu adopted Li Zuoche's suggestion, went deep and high, refused to fight, and then cut off the Han army's grain route, Han Xin was estimated to have lost.
After the war, Li Zuoche was captured, and Han Shin said to him: "If your opinion is adopted, now our position will be changed." Han Xin admired Li Zuoche very much, and used his strategies to pacify Yan and Qi.
In the era of hot weapons, there are not many skills to speak of in war, and the role of weapons is too great. As long as Zeng Guoquan sticks to it and fights with Han Xin, the Hunan army will be the victor. War is to fight for resources and consumption, especially in modern wars.
In World War I and World War II, the German army was quite capable of fighting, and its quality and combat effectiveness were first-class in Europe. As a result, we all know that after the trench tactics of World War I, after the two sides entered the stage of a war of attrition, the German army was doomed to defeat, because Germany could not afford to consume it.
There are only more than 40 days of food and ammunition, and it is almost unrealistic for Han Xin to want to take Yuhuatai. The failure of the Taiping army was not due to the lack of strength of the generals, but the lack of resources and the inability to withstand consumption. In addition, without the strength of the naval division, the already insufficient resources cannot be concentrated on the front line, and the chance of victory is even slimmer.