The Qiongzhou Army and the Gongchang Wang Army wanted to join Hengzhou, but they had to face only 3,000 Hunan Green Battalions, 10,000 Hunan regimental training, and 20,000 Hengzhou people, and among the more than 30,000 Qing troops, the real regular army was only 3,000 Hunan Green Battalion. The remaining 30,000 people www.biquge.info pen & fun & pavilion were not in the official establishment of the Qing army that year.

The Xiang River flows through the land of southern Shonan, and on both sides of the river are continuous rice fields.

In the eighth month of the lunar calendar, it is the harvest season, the fields are golden, and there is less than a month to go, which is the season when the late rice is ripe. The heavy ears of rice drooped down, and the grains of rice were full, and it was conceivable that there would be a bumper grain harvest this year. But in the nearby villages, there is no joy of a good harvest.

Men from several surrounding villages have been requisitioned, and this year's farming has to rely on the elderly, women and children.

"thief! Why do you want to come to harm Hunan? Both of my sons were taken away! I don't know if I'll be able to come back alive! The old lady with a small foot looked at the farmland that was about to be harvested, and her mouth was babbling.

There was no longer a single adult man in the family, and even the old man was taken away and sent to Wuchang for hard labor. The three sons were taken away by the officials, and they heard that Lian Yong was formed, and the local gentry contributed the money. In order to protect Hunan and expel the thieves, the local gentry raised donations one after another, formed Lian Yong, and even Zhao Dashan in the village also gave out money.

The old lady recalled more than ten years ago, when she was still young, and her husband had an older brother and two younger brothers. At that time, Hunan was still the world of the Ming Dynasty, and the official of that year was He Tengjiao.

But later, the thieves came to Hunan and were renamed the Ho Loyal Camp. The old lady really can't figure it out, isn't Chongzhen dying because of the thief? Why did the imperial court still recruit thieves? The next thing was that the Tartars outside the gate called, and the husband, brother and brother were all pulled to serve as soldiers, and the old lady's own five younger brothers also went to serve as soldiers. After a few years of war, the husband came back by luck, but none of the husband's elder brother and younger brother came back, and all five of his younger brothers died on the battlefield.

The world is so easy to be peaceful, although because it is easy to shave hair, it has caused some people to resist, but what does it matter to the peasants? Originally, the peasants wore sleeveless shorts, and it didn't matter if they changed their clothes or not; Shave? It's ugly, but it's okay, and it's cool in summer when you shave your head.

Most of those who resisted shaving their hair and changing clothes were scholars and gentry, who asked them to give up their elegant and flowing Hanfu and change into ugly horse coats; It is indeed unbearable to shave the long hair of the Han people, take off the headscarf, and replace it with the money rat tail.

But for farmers, shaving and dressing doesn't seem to have much effect. Although it's ugly, it's also the incompetence of you officials, who let you not be able to beat the Tartars?

If it is decided today, why do you have to fight again?

Just as the old lady was thinking wildly, she suddenly saw a number of small boats on the river, which were gradually approaching. On the boat, there is a big red flag with the word "Ming", as well as a handsome flag with the word "white", a flag with the word "horse" and a flag with the word "line"!

The old lady opened her eyes and took a closer look, and saw that these small boats were full of soldiers, some of them were wearing six-petal helmets and red battle suits, some were wearing red tasseled hats and blue battle clothes, and some were wearing white felt hats and white, blue and red military uniforms.

"It's strange, why are the soldiers of the imperial court and the soldiers of the previous dynasty on the same boat?" The old lady was a little puzzled.

The fleet that drove over was the fleet of the Ming army, and the Ling Canal had not yet been completed, but it was just a simple cleaning of the channel, which could barely allow the boat to pass, so the sampan of the Ming army passed through the Ling Canal, entered the Xiang River, and went downstream.

Wearing a six-petal helmet and a red battle suit are Liu Guoxuan's sailor officers and soldiers; Wearing a red tasseled hat and a blue battle suit are the armies of Ma Xiong and the Lianjia Army; Wearing a white felt hat and a white and blue Red Army uniform were Bai Wenxuan's troops. All three military uniforms were Ming Army, but they were all still wearing their original military uniforms.

On the riverbank, a group of cavalry in front opened the way, followed by groups of native soldiers wearing rattan hats, wooden armor, and colorful robes.

The Ming army advanced by land and water, and had entered the boundaries of Hengzhou.

The reason why the troops were chosen to be sent in August was because by capturing Hengzhou in this season, food supplies could be obtained on the spot.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, and the weather in Hunan is still unusually hot. The fleet went down the Xiangjiang River, and along the way, it was hardly stopped by the Qing army.

The flotilla stopped near the old lady's village, and a group of soldiers wearing red tasseled hats and blue uniforms jumped out of the boat and walked towards the village. Although this kind of dress is the dress of the imperial army, but the villagers see that they are in the company of the Haikou Kou, even if they are fools, they must be the imperial officers and soldiers who have surrendered to the Haikou Emperor!

"The Haikou is here!" The villagers were so frightened that they hid in their houses.

Seeing that the people were so scared, Bai Wenxuan shook his head helplessly, and asked people to pass the order: "Pass the order, don't disturb the people!" It's getting dark, so set up camp! Watch out for the Tartar night sneak attack! ”

The Ming army on land and water stopped advancing, and the Ming army on the boat disembarked one after another, chose an open land by the river, dug a trench, built a wooden fence, and set up camp.

Bai Wenxuan gave another order to the army: "All cavalry are forbidden to trample on farmland!" If there is a violation of the order, behead! ”

"Along the way, I didn't meet a single Tartar!" Bai Wenxuan sat in the big tent of the Chinese army.

General Zhang Guoyong said: "The Tartars are afraid of being beaten, I heard that the Qiongzhou army is very powerful in the field, winning a hundred battles, and even winning a big victory, the Tartars dare not go out of the city to face the battle!" ”

Zhao Desheng laughed: "Where do you dare to come?" Although our army is not as good as the Qiongzhou army, it is not a vegetarian! ”

Since accepting Ma Xiong's Guangxi Green Battalion and Lianjia Army, coupled with the integration of the anti-Qing wolf soldiers, Bai Wenxuan's current army can be said to be strong and strong, not only with powerful cavalry and war elephants, but also artillery, firearms and mountain soldiers. The wolf soil soldiers are not lost to the elite of the Qiongzhou Mountain Army at all, but the weapons are worse than the mountain soldiers of the Qiongzhou Army.

In fact, just with Bai Wenxuan's army, it is not a problem to fight all the way to Wuchang City, the Qing army in Hunan is not an opponent at all, and even the most tenacious Xiangyong cannot beat Bai Wenxuan.

It's just that compared with Bai Wenxuan's army and the Qiongzhou army, there is still a big gap, just like the gap between the Japanese army and the Soviet army during World War II, and the Qing army is almost the combat effectiveness of the fruit army.

After Bai Wenxuan received the news that the Qiongzhou army had conquered Chenzhou, he sent troops from Yongzhou. At this time, more than a month has passed since the Qiongzhou army conquered Chenzhou, but there is no way, the communication speed back then was too slow.

In addition to Bai Wenxuan's own subordinate general Wu Sanxing and the surrendered general Ma Xiong who stayed in Guangxi, there was also Guo Zhiqi sitting in Guangxi, with 3,000 soldiers and 10,000 auxiliary soldiers left behind to defend the town, and another 30,000 people. On the one hand, Guo Zhiqi maintained law and order in Guangxi to prevent a sneak attack by the Qing army, and on the other hand, he also had to supervise the construction of the Lingqu.

Bai Wenxuan's army had 18,000 soldiers and 10,000 auxiliaries, including 8,000 cavalry, 300 war elephants, 5,000 firearms troops, 5,000 mountain soldiers, more than 3,000 muskets, 100 artillery pieces, and Liu Guoxuan's 5,000 sailors to help.

When it was dark, the camp was brightly lit, and the soldiers who had eaten dinner went to bed early, leaving only a few soldiers who patrolled and guarded at night. The night passed quickly, and although there was only less than thirty miles left to travel from Hengzhou, not a single Qing army came to harass it.

After dawn, the Ming army pulled out the camp and continued to advance north.

It was not until all the Ming troops had left that the old lady and the villagers came out of the village. From yesterday afternoon to today, no one has come to disturb the people. At the entrance of the village, the villagers saw a notice of peace and mind, only to see that it was written: We are the kings of the Ming Dynasty, and you are all the people of the Ming Dynasty! Wang Shi did not disturb the people, but just passed by.

A few days later, the officials from the county government came to the county seat, but did not make any other demands on the villagers, but only asked the adult men to cut off their braids, or to break the braids.

For the peasants, there is not much difference whether they change their clothes or not, the short clothes they wore when they worked and the short coats required by the Qing court did not look much different from the appearance, and many old clothes left by ordinary people more than ten years ago are still worn on their bodies, whether they are changed or not, they are still the same clothes left from the Ming Dynasty.

But for the gentry and scholars in the village, the difference was great: they were required not only to remove their braids, but also to change their clothes and restore their original hanfu.

After the Ming army set out from Yongzhou, all the way over, there is no county town for hundreds of miles along the way, here is the hilly area of southern Hunan, the county seat is relatively small, there are many hills and rivers, and the rice fields are located in the surrounding mountains and rivers.

In front, there is only one county, and after capturing the county, Bai Wenxuan will be able to come to the city of Hengzhou.

The Ming army set off on the fifth watch, advancing by land and water, and it only took about a morning to arrive at Yuxian County at noon.

Yuxian is the gateway to the south of Hengzhou, and Bai Wenxuan originally thought that he would meet resistance from the Qing army here. Who knew that the Ming army was approaching the city, but found that this county town was vulnerable, and the Ming army just shouted, and the people in the city opened the city gate and surrendered. When Bai Wenxuan entered the city, he found that the county order had committed suicide in the county office.

"Why aren't there any soldiers here?" Bai Wenxuan asked a surrendered officer.

The official replied: "Back to the prince, the Qing army has gone to Hengzhou!" Such a small county town is simply unmanned. The county commander refused to bear the sin of losing his land, so he committed suicide alone. ”

Just when Bai Wenxuan's army advanced to Hengzhou, the Qiongzhou army also set off from Chenzhou and went all the way north.

Three days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Bai Wenxuan's army and Wang Xinyu's Qiongzhou army met victoriously under the city of Hengzhou, and the two armies merged all the way and began the siege of Hengzhou.

On the Xiang River, the Ming naval division encountered the Qing fleet. Since the Ling Canal had not yet been completed, the Ming army sailors who entered the Xiangjiang River only had some small sampans, while the Qing army's Hunan sailors had many large ships. (To be continued.) )