In the small city of Changhua, the corpses under the city are piled up into mountains, the water of Tongxi is dyed blood red, and the stream with red foam laps on the beach. The city wall has long been bombarded by the Qing army's artillery, and the Ming army in the city has lost more than half.

The Qing army launched a siege battle again, this time the Qing army first concentrated more than 30 Hongyi cannons to bombard fiercely, blasted a large section of the city wall into a pile of sand, and even the arrow tower of the city gate was blown into pieces, and then groups of Qing infantry crossed Tongxi and launched another strong attack on Changhua City.

"People are in the city, and people are dead in the city!" Luo Zimu and the soldiers of the Ming army shouted.

The Ming army used knife carts to block the gap opened by the Qing army's artillery, and Chen Wenda personally led the death squad to start a fierce battle with the Qing army that rushed into the city. The Zhejiang army, which has always been reluctant to use, also came in handy with the surname of the country and 10,000 enemies. The Ming soldiers threw a large number of national surname bottles from behind the knife cart, threw out 10,000 enemies, and the Qing army that poured into the city fell a large piece.

After a bloody battle, the Zhejiang army finally drove the Qing army out, and the auxiliaries plugged the gap.

Chen Wenda, who was covered in blood and had more than a dozen injuries, sat on the bluestone street, escaped from his arms with a pack of Nanyang Red Double Happiness, lit a cigarette, and inhaled hard, the stimulation of the smell of smoke eased the pain on his body.

Just now the battle was won again, killing more than 1,000 Qing soldiers, but the Ming army also paid the price of more than 600 casualties.

"The Tartars are coming up again!" Before Chen Wenda could catch his breath, shouts rang out again from the city.

Bloody battle, another bloody battle, the Ming army once again repelled the frantic attack of the Qing army.

The Ming army held on for another day, and it was a day before the retreat, which was the last day to hold on, but it was also on this day that the offensive and defensive battles were fought extremely fiercely, and the Qing army concentrated intensive artillery fire, continuously bombarding small cities, and smashing two gaps at the same time with overwhelming shells!

This time. Chen Wenda and Luo Zimu each led a team of death squads to plug the gap and started a fierce hand-to-hand battle with the Qing army.

While attacking the gap, the Qing army also sent people to carry simple ladders and ants to attack the city, launching a multi-faceted attack. The Ming army at the head of the city fought bravely and finally withstood the attack of the Qing army.

Zhuo Butai asked a group of green battalion soldiers to attack again, but this time the two gaps were not blocked, and the Qing army besieging the city climbed to the top of the city again, and the west gate was lost. However, the Ming army first blocked the city gate hole of the west gate with a boulder, and the Qing army that occupied the city tower could not open the city gate for a while.

Luo Zimu secretly said in his heart: There are still three hours! Hold on for another three hours, and it will be dark. We'll be able to retreat!

The Zhejiang army launched a counterattack at all costs, Luo Zimu sent his own personal soldiers, and after a tragic bloody battle, he finally recaptured the lost city gate.

The fierce battle lasted until dark, and there were less than 1,000 Ming troops left in the city, and all those who survived were wounded.

Just after dawn the next day, Zhuo Butai attacked the city again. However, when the Qing army attacked the city this time, it did not encounter any counterattack by the Ming army. When the Qing army entered the city, they found that Changhua was already an empty city.

"The dog ran away overnight?" Ashar was surprised.

"Our army has been attacking for days. The barbarians defending the city suffered heavy losses, and it was estimated that they were undermanpowered, so they abandoned the small city. Zhuo Butai replied lightly. But at this time, he regretted very much in his heart, why he didn't attack the city overnight last night. I knew that the Ming army had retreated, and the Qing army was able to occupy Changhua last night, which wasted another night's time.

The news of the capture of Changhua was sent to the camp of the Chinese army in Aobai, and it was not long before Aobai issued an order to Zhuo Butai. Let him not act rashly, occupy Changhua City, and wait for the main force to arrive.

Looking at Aobai's reply. Zhuo Butai frowned and said, "My eldest brother is too conservative, right?" The fortified city of Changhua has been breached, and there is no danger in front of us, but he asked us to hold our troops still, isn't this a delay in the military plane? ”

Asiha said: "Lord Dutong, Lord Ao also has his considerations. Although our army has broken through the fortified city of Changhua, we have not met the main force of the barbarians. What we just repelled was the Zhejiang army with the worst combat effectiveness in Minggou. Their Min army and Qiongzhou army have not yet appeared. ”

After Aobai entered Changhua City, he ordered the Qing army behind to cross Tongxi one after another, the front team did not move, the Chinese army moved to the right flank, and the rear team accelerated forward. When a large group of Qing troops all crossed Tongxi, Aobai left only 20,000 soldiers to cooperate with auxiliary troops to ensure the safety of logistics and transportation lines, and the main army was fully rolled out, covering the hills and hills in front and behind, and the large and small roads that passed through the valleys. On each hill, a small number of men were left to serve as observation posts, and the main army was arranged in the valley near the water source, and a strong camp was set up, which was interconnected with each other and advanced steadily.

"Our army far outnumbered the thieves, why should Eun Xiang be so cautious?" Bambulshan asked.

Ao Bai replied: "The main force of the thieves has not yet appeared, since they will stop our army in Changhua for six days and six nights, it means that they must also be arranged!" Although the hilly terrain is not more complex than the mountainous terrain, the jungle here is dense and it is easy to be surrounded by thieves. We are steadily advancing, delaying time, we can afford to delay, thieves can't afford to delay! ”

In the camp of the Ming army, Wang Yuyou was very anxious when he heard the report of the spies. Aobai did not leak a drop of water, and fought steadily, so that the Ming army, which was at a disadvantage in terms of strength, could not find a breakthrough. If the Ming army concentrates its forces to attack a little, it will be surrounded by the Qing army!

If you don't fight in the hilly areas, when the Qing army reaches the city of Hangzhou, it will not be easy for the Ming army, which is inferior in numbers, to hold the city of Hangzhou, and Jiaxing, Yixing, Songjiang and other grain-producing areas are also under the threat of the Qing army. At that time, the Qing army in Jiangning also took the opportunity to launch a counterattack, attacking the Ming army from two directions, and more seriously, the Qing army in Fujian would also go north and attack Huiji Shanyin and other places from behind, so that the Ming army would suffer from the enemy. If such a situation occurs, then the Northern Expedition will end in failure, and the Ming army will be forced to abandon the Yangtze River Delta that it has just captured and withdraw from the Yangtze River estuary again.

How do you break the turtle shell tactics of Aobai? Outflanking the Qing army's grain road and burning the Qing army's grain? That's something that is simply impossible, the battle-hardened Ao Bai must have considered his weaknesses, and it is impossible to give the Ming army this chance.

Taking advantage of the advantages of having a large number of troops and a wide range of generals to advance steadily is the best tactic, no matter how the opponent plays tricks and how to play various schemes, it is to ignore it, just advance towards his own goal, make the opponent invulnerable, and finally can only fight a decisive battle with himself. This trick of Ao Bai is really difficult to crack.

"If we attack a little, our army will be surrounded by Tartars. We have been harassing the Tartars with small units to distract them. When we found a little protruding Tartar, our army attacked from both flanks at the same time, digging out that Qing army to surround and annihilate it? Wang Xinyu remembered the example of the battle of Menglianggu in later generations and made a suggestion.

Wang Yuyou said: "I can only try it first!" If our trick still doesn't work, we can only retreat with the whole army and retreat to Hangzhou City to hold on. But our main force retreated to the city of Hangzhou, and the rest of the city was empty, and those state capitals and counties that had just surrendered to us would immediately turn around and surrender to the Tartars! ”

The laws of the Qing court were very strange, and if the magistrate was lost, the city would be lost. He will inevitably be executed by the Qing court. But if the magistrate can't hold it, surrender to the opponent. When the main force of the Qing army comes over and surrenders to the Qing army, it will only be dismissed, and maybe it can be reused by the Qing court again. It is for this reason that many magistrates at both ends of the head and rat surrendered to the Ming army when they saw that the situation was not good during the Ming army's northern expedition. Now, if the main force of Aobai enters the Yangtze River Delta, those magistrates will surrender to the Qing army. Therefore, as long as Ao Bai is allowed to the city of Hangzhou, the situation in Jiangnan will collapse again.

Liu Guoxuan asked, "Mr. Wang." If the main force of the Tartars arrives at the city of Hangzhou, the guys at both ends of our rear will definitely surrender back. If we want to get rid of those troubles, we might as well kill them all, so that we don't have to worry about them surrendering back. Make trouble behind us. ”

"No! Their surrender to the Tartars was also forced! If we kill them all, and we attack the city in the future, every magistrate will lead the local gentry to resist to the end, which will be very bad for us. Wang Yuyou said.

Wang Xinyu nodded: "It's easy to kill those people." But they are one with the Jiangnan gentry, and if we suspect that they will surrender back, we will kill them all. Didn't that push the Jiangnan gentry down to the Tartar side? In the future, those who originally supported us will fall to the tartars. ”

Wang Yuyou said: "Even if we kill all the guys at both ends of the first rat, but our main force retreats into Hangzhou, who will defend those small cities?" At that time, our Ming army lost its field combat ability and could only retreat to isolated cities, which was broken by the Tartars, so it was impossible for us to divide our troops to defend the small cities. Those cities are not like Changshu, Changshu we have occupied for a long time, there are already very strong city defenses, and there are sailors to help fight, and the Tartars can't take it. But what about other small towns? ”

After discussion, it was finally decided, and Wang Xinyu led the army to take the initiative to attack and annihilate the main force of the Qing army in the field. Because Zheng Chenggong handed over the command of the Fujian army to Zheng Cong, in fact, it was equivalent to handing over the command to Wang Xinyu, so in this battle, Wang Xinyu had the power to command the two new armies of the Fujian army and the Qiongzhou army, and Zhang Huangyan's Zhejiang army also cooperated with the Fujian army to fight and handed over to Wang Xinyu for command. In this way, the Ming army had a total of 70,000 land divisions.

Compared with the strength of the two sides, the Qing army was 170,000, and the Ming army was only about one-third of the Qing army. However, the Ming army has a great advantage in both cold weapons and firearms, and the Fujian army has the strongest iron army of the king of foot warfare that year, as well as long-handled sword soldiers who restrain cavalry, Miao knife hands with strong combat effectiveness, and foot archers who have experienced a hundred battles; The Qiongzhou army had a mountain army composed of Miao Li people who were good at mountain warfare, Spanish halberders hired from abroad and British and Portuguese muskets, as well as their own elite infantry. Coupled with several new firearms of the Fujian army and the Qiongzhou army, the quality of the Ming army was above that of the Qing army, whether it was a long-distance battle or a close combat.

The Zheng family army did not have many cavalry, but it did not need much cavalry to fight in the hilly and jungle areas.

Wang Xinyu and Wang Yuyou personally went to check the terrain and look for the ambush site.

"Marking all the hills and naming them is good for our unity of command. On the top of the mountain, arrange copper mortar cannons, and then build a large number of seven-pin cannons, which can attack the enemy from a high position. On the avenue between the hills and hills, we dug trenches and arranged camps to prevent the Tartar cavalry from making a detour. Leave a clear route for our attack so that our infantry can attack. We make good use of the terrain and have both offense and defense, so that we can win more with less and defeat the enemy. "When Wang Yuyou arrived in the area of Yuqian County and observed the nearby terrain, he gave orders to the soldiers around him.

This is the Tianmu Mountains, surrounded by hills, Tianmu Creek flows from the west of Qianxian County, surrounded by hills and small highlands, and an official road leading to Lin'an in the middle.

Observing the terrain, Wang Yuyou came up with a way to break the enemy: "We can set up positions on the two peaks of Nantianmu Mountain in the south and Meiling in the north to block the enemy. If the Tartars want to surround our army in a roundabout way, they must pass through the middle official road. And we set up ambushes at Qingling and Dongwuling. When the Tartars surrounded our army, our army ambushed and carried out a counter-encirclement of the Tartars who entered the middle official road and tried to surround our army in a roundabout way! ”

"We counter-encircle the Tartars, and the Tartars will inevitably send reinforcements with all their might, and they can implement a big encirclement on us, and retreat can rescue their besieged army." Huang Zhao said.

Liu Guoxuan also said: "In this way, the two armies that carry out our counter-encirclement are under great pressure. ”

"Reinforcements can be arranged! The reinforcements used to block the Tartars can prevent the Tartars from encircling us; Second, it also blocked the retreat of the besieged Tartars and annihilated the Tartars in the encirclement! Wang Xinyu proposed the tactic of encircling the point to send reinforcements.

"Not bad!" Wang Yuyou nodded, "Let's arrange it according to this method!" ”

Wang Xinyu said: "All the soldiers listen to the order! You obey Mr. Wang's arrangement! ”

"No!" The generals will bow down on one knee.

Small-scale harassment units of the Ming army still operated on the roads used by the Qing army. Although Ao Bai adopted the tactics of a turtle shell that was steadily advancing, he always had to send scouts to the front to explore the way. The small-scale harassment of the Ming army specifically targeted the scout soldiers of the Qing army, constantly causing trouble for the Qing army, and killing a large number of Qing scout soldiers.

The Qiongzhou army did not collect traps on the road at night, and used rifled guns to shoot at long distances, causing all kinds of trouble for the Qing army, and annihilating many Qing soldiers who were sent by Zhuo Butai to explore the way.

Zhuo Butai, who had repeatedly damaged the scouts, was furious, wanting to let the army chase into the mountains and chase those annoying Ming army scouts, but was stopped by Asiha: "Lord Dutong! Lord Ao has an order, all departments should not act rashly! If there is a mistake, you and I can't afford to take this responsibility! ”

"But our scouts have suffered such a big loss, they really can't swallow this breath!" Zhuo Butai said indignantly. But he did not dare to order the division of troops to pursue him, although he was Aobai's younger brother, he also knew what was at stake, and if he suffered a crushing defeat because of his reasons, his brother would at least remove him from his post if he did not send him to Ningguta.

"Bear with me for a while! When we arrive at the city of Hangzhou, Minggou will not fight and defeat itself! Atha said.

At this moment, a scout who came back from the front came to report: "Report to your lord! Seven miles ahead of us, we found the main force of Minggou! A trench is being dug on the official road in front of it, and a wall is being built. (To be continued.) )