"Your Excellency, the gate of Shaoxing City has been opened." A hussar circle came to report, "King Lu is greeting the army outside the city, but the sky is beginning to darken, and he does not dare to go too far from the city." ”

Zhu Lin glanced at the sky and was about to give the order to enter the city, when he heard the summons of the cavalry and said: "In addition, yesterday, a sailor rushed to Shaoxing from the Puyang River to warn him, saying that nearly 30,000 thieves and horses had crossed the river. ”

Zhang Jiayu said on the side: "It seems that Ma Degong's main force actually went straight to Shaoxing. ”

Zhu Lin nodded when he heard this, Qingshanling is more than eighty miles from Puyang River, and from the perspective of time, Ma Degong had just defeated Fang Guoan, and he almost didn't repair to Shaoxing.

"The Puyang River is only forty or fifty miles away from here, and if Jianyu marches quickly along the way, it may have reached the vicinity of Shaoxing."

Thinking of this, he hurriedly took out the map and examined it carefully, and then summoned the generals to quickly arrange, "We won't enter the city." The 1st to 5th infantry battalions were deployed between Jianhu and Lingjiang, and the artillery battalions set up positions on both flanks. The hunters were responsible for the artillery cover.

"The terrain here is not conducive to the deployment of cavalry, so only three companies of hussars are left to be on guard, and the rest are dismounted as reserves."

The people looked at the map as he had spoken. The water network near Shaoxing is dense, Jianhu Lake is a wide waterway in the east of the city, although the Lingjiang River is called Jiang, in fact, it is only a small stream on the south side of Jianhu Lake.

The gap between the two is less than three miles, but it is the only way to go to Shaoxing from the east. With such a narrow width, with five battalions of nearly 3,000 infantry spreading out in a line formation, it is basically impossible for the enemy to bypass it.

Jiao Lian was not familiar with Zhu Lin's tactical habits, and couldn't help but wonder: "My lord, why don't you defend the city instead, but line up outside the city?" ”

Without waiting for Zhu Lin to say anything, Zhang Jiayu smiled and said: "First, the flat and open place is suitable for my infantry line and artillery battalion to concentrate fire, but it can kill the enemy more easily than defending the city."

"Second, if they only hold on, the thief army can go around the city to find weak spots, or harass and plunder outside the city, and our army can rely on passivity. And with this narrow passage, the thieves can only fight the way we want......"

"One more point," Zhu Lin continued, "Hong Chengchou's main force has been moving south for a long time, we must settle the battle south of Qiantang as soon as possible, and then take advantage of the fact that the Jianyu army has not yet gained a firm foothold on the north bank of Qiantang to catch him off guard!" ”

After Jiao Lian nodded and retreated to the side, Yu Xin pointed to the map and said, "My lord, the road in the Qinghu area further west is narrower, why don't you choose to fight the enemy here?" ”

"Because Jianhu Lake is wider and deeper." Zhu Lin said with a smile, "Originally, I was a water diverter in case the Zhejiang clan refused...... However, I didn't think that King Lu knew the general situation, but now these warships near Shaoxing can be used in Jianhu Lake. ”

As soon as the combat deployment was completed, several hussars galloped from the west, and saluted as they approached: "Report! There is a large camp of thieves under Doosan in the west of the city, and there are more than 20,000 people and horses. ”

Everyone hurriedly looked at the map and saw that Doosan was more than ten miles west of his preset defense location.

Yu Xin immediately said: "My lord, it is already dark, maybe you can raid at night......"

Zhu Lin thought for a moment and shook his head, "The camp behind the mountain is not conducive to the development of our army, and it is difficult to chase far away at night, which may cause some enemy soldiers to escape."

"In addition, there are many new recruits in our army, and night battles are the most error-prone, so in order to be safe, we still fight with the original deployment."

In fact, there is another factor, that is, if you attack Doosan at night, the huge combat power of the naval warship will not be able to be exerted.

"Yes!" The generals saluted in response, and each led the army to give the order.

……

Ma Degong was in a hurry to enter the city, and the time was quite tight. The next day, just after dawn, the Qing army had already set out for camp, but it was not until they had walked several miles around Doosan that their scouts spotted the Dragon Guards waiting for work.

These scouts cannot be blamed, the Qing army from top to bottom believed that there were only more than 1,000 Zhejiang troops near Shaoxing, and the nearby waterways were vertical and horizontal, and it was difficult to distinguish the road at night, so they only poked out three or four miles yesterday and turned back.

"Four or five thousand?" When Tian Xiong heard the report of the former army, he was immediately surprised, "Where did this person come from, could it be the Fujian Ming Army?" ”

Ma Degong pondered, shook his head and said, "No." Zhu Yihai abdicated only four days ago, and the previous Fujian army was all in Quzhou and Xianxia Pass, more than 500 miles away, even if they planted their wings, they would never have rushed here. ”

How did he know that Zhu Lin had already waved his army north two days before King Lu announced his abdication.

At that time, the main force of the Zhejiang army had been defeated, and the state capitals along the way were afraid that the construction of the captives would wreak havoc in the south, so they all hoped that the Longwei army would be attached to the banner. Two days later, Zhu Yihai returned to the domain, and there was no one to stop him on the road, and there were even local officials who brought grain and grass to the army.

The Dragon Guard, which was all mules and horses, threw off the slow heavy artillery, baggage, and heavy cavalry, and marched more than 90 miles in a day.

Although Ma Degong's troops were also marching all the way, he had just rushed from Qingshanling to Doosan and had walked only more than 120 miles, and the 5,000 men and horses of the Long Wei army to Shaoxing had already arrived at the city.

At the same time, according to Zhu Lin's plan, the other half of the Long Wei Army arrived in Zhuji yesterday afternoon. Even the Broken Capture Battalion, which had not yet been completely muled and horseed, had marched more than 200 miles at this time, and its new battalion had arrived at the Pujiang garrison southwest of Qingshan Ridge, while the main force of the Broken Capture Battalion had already crossed Qingshan Ridge and caught up with Li Yu's division in Ma Degong's rear team.

This is one of the great advantages of a small number of elite troops, and the ratio of soldiers to horses is large. For example, on the side of the Dragon Guard, everyone in the infantry has horses, and a cannon must be equipped with ten to twenty horses, plus the engineer battalion that operates with modern ideas to pave roads and build bridges, this speed is naturally so fast that the horses dare not think of it.

On the other hand, the Qing army, which still relied on the tactics of crowds, had more than 140,000 troops stationed in Jiangsu and Zhejiang alone, and it was extremely difficult to match all the horses for so many people.

Not to mention the cost of buying so many war horses, it is a very laborious thing to raise these horses in the Central Plains. The Ming Dynasty once practiced horse politics and ordered private horse owners to be responsible for raising military horses. And even if eleven households in the south of the Yangtze River only raised one horse, they were tired of a large number of horse households going bankrupt, and the people's resentment was boiling, which shows that the labor and wealth of raising horses at that time were lost.

Therefore, Ma Degong bet on his treasure and was very close to Shaoxing, so he could take the lead in occupying the city and defending it, but he didn't know that comparing the marching speed with the Dragon Guard was simply looking for death. He thought that he would have at least seven or eight days to attack the city after arriving in Shaoxing, but in fact, what was waiting for him was a decisive battle outside the city.

Tian Xiong asked the scout who reported the news: "Who is the flag of the enemy army?" ”

"Back to my lord, the sun and moon on the blue background, I don't see the font size."

Tian Xiong's brows furrowed, "Is it really a Fujian soldier?" He suddenly realized and sneered, "I know, it must be Zhang Mingzhen who transferred Xiangyong and miscellaneous soldiers from the vicinity, and he was afraid that he would be defeated by our army with one blow, so he pretended to be brave of the Fujian army!" ”