Hulin Wing
We know that Hu Linyi is the core figure of the Xiang Army, and he has a set of practical battles and theories. Drawing on the ancient Qi Jiguang's art of war and the training experience of his contemporaries Zeng Guofan, he created his own set of military ideas such as army building, army management, strategic, tactical, and regimental training.
This article talks about the tactical thinking of Hu Linyi in the Battle of Taihu-Qianshan and the Battle of Anqing. In these two battles, Hu Linyi gave full play to and applied tactical guiding ideologies such as siege and reinforcement, multi-way coordination, etc.
Taihu County, Anhui
01 Battle of Taihu Lake
For the tactic of siege and reinforcement, many friends can know a rough idea.
So which city was the Taihu-Qianshan Campaign surrounded? Which reinforcements are being fought? Who will be arranged for the reinforcements to fight, who will be arranged for the city to fight, whether there are mobile units, and how will the troops be distributed?
This Taihu-Qianshan campaign surrounded the county seat of Taihu and fought against reinforcements from the Taiping Army gathered by Chen Yucheng.
In the Taihu-Qianshan Campaign, Hu Linyi sent Duolong'a and Bao Chaobu to the task of reinforcement.
DuoLong'a and Bao Chao went up from north of Taihu, near Xiaochiyi, to face Chen Yucheng's reinforcements, and transferred a part of Li Xuyi's Xiang army and a part of Zeng Guoquan's Xiang army to supplement the strength of Duo and Bao, so that the total strength of Bao became about 23,000.
Hu Linyi arranged for Jiang Ningxue, Tang Xunfang, and other units, as well as 7,500 men from another part of Zeng Guoquan's Xiang Army, to be the reserve army to replace Duo and Bao, and another part of Li Xuyi's Xiang Army with 7,500 men to replace Duo and Bao in besieging Taihu Lake. Responsible for the siege of the city.
With Jin Guochen and Yu Jichang leading nine battalions stationed in Tiantian (the junction of the four counties), the third part of Li Xuyi's Xiang Army was about 6,000 people to strengthen Tiandi (now Yuexi County), and together with the original garrison increased to more than 10,000, and Duo and Bao echoed Chen Yucheng to form a pincer-shaped attack on the Taiping Army.
This key force was originally stationed in Yingshan, Hubei Province, to prevent Chen Yucheng's army from detouring back to the rear of the Qing army through Huoshan and Tiandi, but later found that Chen Yucheng had no such intention, so he transferred Jin Guochen and them to Heaven and joined forces with the regiment led by Ye Zhaolan of Zhixian County. From the Heavenly Path you can reach Takayoko-ri Yangten-an, and this place is only about twenty miles away from Koike-eki.
In addition, six battalions of troops were stationed in the Huangzhou area of Hubei to protect the gateway of Hubei, while Zeng Guofan led his troops to wait in the Anqing area for the back road of the Taiping Army. In this way, a large encirclement of Taihu Lake is formed.
During the operation, Hu Linyi also stressed that "the Taihu forces should focus on fighting and aiding the thieves, that is, letting go of the city thieves, it is no harm." If the thief is broken, then not only will the Taihu Lake aid thief succeed, but then the Taihu Lake will be obtained, and is also obtained by Ishida."
From this arrangement, it can be seen that the main forces of the Xiang Army, such as the Duolong Abu, Bao Chaobu, and Zeng Guoquanbu, were all used for reinforcements.
The purpose was to block the main elite force of the Taiping Army, Chen Yucheng's reinforcement of Taihu Lake, in the words of Li Yunlong in "Bright Sword", Lao Tzu fought the elite.
From January to mid-February 1861, Chen Yucheng did indeed lead tens of thousands of troops to reinforce the Taihu lake area, and as expected, the Taiping Army fought with the Duo and Bao armies for a long time, and Jin Guochen, Yu Jichang, and Ye Zhaoyan came out from Heaven via a small road to Yangtian'an in Gaohengling, and covered the back road of the Taiping Army, and Chen Yucheng suffered defeat.
However, the county seats of Taihu And Qianshan county were forced to withdraw from Taihu And Qianshan because of the delay in the arrival of reinforcements and the situation of being isolated and helpless. The Xiang army won the Battle of Taihu Lake.
Yuexi, the paradise in the text is where the current Yuexi County is located
02 Battle of Anqing
After the victory of the Taihu-Qianshan Campaign, Hu Linyi began to arrange the Battle of Anqing.
Anqing City faces almost three rivers, and there are large and small lakes in the city that can lead to the Yangtze River. To the east is Zongyang County, and to the north out of Jixian Pass is Huaining and Tongcheng.
Therefore, the Taiping Army had to go out of the city on three main roads and go north out of Jixian Pass; in the east, Zongyang County was the outer stronghold of the Taiping Army, and out of Zongyang County could go south to Chizhou; through the waterway into the Yangtze River, to the upper Jiujiang River or the lower reaches of Wuhu Nanjing.
Hu Linyi deployed the Xiang army zeng guoquan troops to occupy the north of Anqing City Jixian Pass inside and outside, and then entered Anqing City, fortified deep ditches to set up camps, and then dug long trenches to besiege the city, the long trenches were divided into two internal and external channels, the inner trenches were used for siege, and the outer trenches were used for reinforcements.
The Xiang army of Yang Zaifu and Peng Yulin commanded Huangshiji in the southwest of Anqing, and the 20 battalions of the Water Division blockaded Anqing from the surface of the Yangtze River.
The above two armies, the land and water armies, are the besieging troops arranged by Hu Linyi.
A total of 20,000 men from The Dolong'a and Xiang armies, Li Xuyi, stationed south of Tongcheng as reinforcements. About thirty battalions of Bao Chao, Cheng Daji, and other units were mobile units to be used for countermeasures. In addition, the city defense forces consolidated the rear road grain road.
On June 5, Yang Peng's water division dug a waterway to divert water into irrigation, and the land and water besieged Zongyang, and The defenders of Zongyang asked for surrender. The loss of Fengyang meant that Anqing was completely surrounded.
After that, Hu Lin ordered Zeng Guoquan's troops to cooperate with the water divisions Peng Yulin and Yang Zaifu to besiege Anqing. Duolong Abu came to the aid of the trailer river outside Tongcheng, and Hu Linyi himself led his troops into Taihu Lake to communicate and communicate with the troops on the outskirts of Anqing and Tongcheng, taking into account the command of the front and rear.
With Li Xuyi's troops as a living soldier, he prepared reinforcements to receive reinforcements from various other armies. After the siege of Anqing was formed, Hu Linyi asked Zeng Guoquan to strengthen the trenches and plan for a long-term siege of the city, and as for the safety of other places, Duolong'a and Li Xuyi were responsible. In September 1861, Anqing was finally occupied by the Xiang Army.
Overlooking the Anqing River
This method of siege and reinforcement warfare combines attack with defense, which can not only destroy the enemy's living forces, but also take advantage of the situation to attack and occupy the city, and can be widely used when firearms are not yet developed. So how to implement the siege and reinforcement?
First, in order to prepare for the siege, it is necessary to first organize reinforcements. To besiege the city with 10,000 men, it is necessary to retain 20,000 or 30,000 combat soldiers and reinforcements.
Second, judging from the relationship between the two, the siege of the city is secondary, and the main thing is to fight for help. Therefore, the siege of the city should not be too much, the siege of the city is too much, the elite soldiers will become the siege soldiers, the stupid soldiers, should try to turn the siege soldiers into living soldiers, soldiers. If Anqing is besieged, tongcheng can no longer be besieged, and if it is surrounded everywhere, there will not be enough mobile troops for reinforcement. If a large number of enemy reinforcements come to attack, and they have no strong troops to block their own reinforcements, if they cannot break the reinforcements, then the army in the city will not be destroyed, and the last end will not fall.
Third, proper encampment. When implementing the encampment and siege of the city, in terms of the location of the encampment, we must not be too close to the city, the siege is too close, it is inconvenient to receive battle when the enemy comes to the rescue, if the enemy in the city rushes out at this time, it is not convenient for our side to meet the enemy, and it is not conducive to the hidden troops to be too close to the city.
At the same time, the camps must be stretched out against the dangerous terrain, so as to help prevent thieves from attacking the camp and hunting down and killing the defeated thieves, and to enable the camps to look left and right and facilitate communication. After the camp was chosen, the trench was built to ensure that it was deep and high.
In addition, before and after the division, there are usually two trenches in front and behind, the front trench is used to defend against the enemy leaving the city, and the rear trench is used to deal with the enemy with the back. Relying on this strong camp, the Xiang army could stand undefeated first, and could take the initiative to annihilate the enemy, so as to achieve the purpose of besieging the enemy in the city and attracting enemy reinforcements around.
Through the Battle of Taihu-Qianshan and the Battle of Anqing, we can see that the tactical ideas of Hu Linyi's siege and reinforcement, multi-way cooperation, and front-and-back encirclement and other tactical ideas adapted to the needs of the military struggle at that time, had distinct characteristics of the times, and had a very important impact on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Xiang Army.
This article is original by Jiangnan Yizheng, welcome to pay attention to, take you along with long knowledge!
Original link: From the Battle of Taihu Lake and the Battle of Anqing, we can see the tactical guiding ideology of Hu Linyi
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