Chapter 217: The Battle of Baoding No. 4

The Wu army used auxiliaries to push the shield carts to fill the moat, and the Qing army at the head of the city opened artillery bombardment from afar, damaging many shield carts. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info Waited until the shield cart approached the city wall, the Qing army in the city fired a volley of bows and arrows and birds, and the Wu army auxiliaries who left the shield cart to carry sandbags to fill the river suffered heavy casualties, and the water of the moat was dyed red.

The rainfall in the Zhili area was much greater than that of later generations, from Yanjing to Baoding, Yanjing to Tianjin, this area is the water network area in the north, the rainfall is abundant, and the river network is vertical and horizontal. In fact, don't talk about that era, it can be seen from some photos of old materials, even at the beginning of the 20th century, the water volume in Beijing, Tianjin, and Baoding was not small, and there was abundant precipitation at that time, of course, precipitation also included snowfall, so there was no haze.

The moat water source of Baoding is from the spring river, the Hou river, the white grass ditch in the south of the city to gather, in order to protect the city, to artificially dig around the three sides and dig a circle, formed the Baoding moat.

At that time, the Baoding moat was not a stinky ditch five to six meters wide today, but a river ten zhang wide and could reach thirty zhang at the widest point, and the river was one zhang deep. In fact, the solidity of Baoding City is not lost to Yanjing. Lu Xiangsheng was martyred near Baoding, when Zhang Qiping was hiding in the fortified city of Baoding. After Lu Xiangsheng was martyred, the army of Gao Qiqian was stationed in Jize, and there were not many defenders in Baoding, but the Qing army did not dare to attack Baoding.

The city of Baoding is strong, the moat is wide and deep, and it is not easy to just fill the moat.

According to the agreement between Wu Sangui and Wang Yu, Wu Sangui could not take the eastern canal to the north, and could only attack the Beijing division from the north of the Central Plains, and Baoding City became a city that must be conquered, otherwise the logistics and transportation lines of the Wu army would be disturbed by the Qing army. And when the Qing army bypassed Baoding and surrounded Lu Xiangsheng south of Baoding, it was different, the Qing army would not attack the capital, but just grab a handful and run away, they could avoid the fortified city and fight in motion. Today's Wu Sangui is different, and Baoding must be conquered.

The moat of Baoding was wide and deep, and the arrows and projectiles of the Qing army at the head of the city fell like rain, and the auxiliary soldiers of the Wu army suffered heavy casualties. However, the Wu army withstood the dense projectile arrows of the Qing army, and went forward to follow the operation, and the width of the moat narrowed little by little.

As the width of the moat was shortened, the shield carts approached the city, and the bastions on both sides of the city wall came into play. Rainstorm of arrows and projectiles shot out from the forts on both sides and into the shield cart array from the wings. The shield car was protected only on the front, and the side was the weakest position, and it was fired at by the fortress, and the casualties of the Wu army auxiliaries increased exponentially.

The corpse fell into the moat with sandbags, and the width of the moat had been reduced to less than two zhang under the reckless operation of the Wu army.

However, in this last short distance of two zhang, the Wu army spent ten days, but it still could not fill this moat, and a large number of auxiliary soldiers did not even have time to carry the sacks, so they were shot by projectile arrows from both sides. On the city wall in front, lime bottles and oil canisters were constantly dropped, and rockets were fired, which increased the casualties of the Wu army. On the edge of the moat, the corpses piled up into a hill.

It has been more than half a month since the Wu army arrived in Baoding, and after the siege of the city for more than half a month, the Wu army suffered heavy casualties, not only losing more than 10,000 auxiliary soldiers, but also more than 1,000 soldiers.

In the north, the Qing army rushed to the rescue, but was defeated by Wu Sangui. After the Qing army was defeated three times, they no longer dared to come to the rescue of Baoding, and could only watch the Wu army attack the city.

However, the siege of the Wu army still did not make much progress, and the Wu army suffered heavy casualties under the city.

"Marshal, the city of Baoding is extremely strong, and our army's losses are too great!" Hu Guozhuyu, who lost again, reported, "I'm afraid that the last general will be too dead and wounded, and when Baoding is defeated, he will no longer be able to attack Yanjing!" ”

Wu Sangui was a little hesitant, after all, his character is like this in real history, in real history, Wu Sangui raised troops against the Qing Dynasty, and the road was smooth, but when he hit the Yangtze River in Yuezhou, Wu Sangui blindly pursued to preserve his strength because of the setback in the siege, so he stopped the attack, and as a result, he gave the Qing court a chance to breathe, and finally Wu Sangui died of illness, and the fierce general Gao Dejie also died of illness, and the luck of Kangxi was able to reverse the situation.

Baoding Mansion City can be described as impregnable, which made Wu Sangui hesitate. He pondered for a moment and said, "There are more than 300,000 people in the city, and our army is only more than 200,000. The food consumption in the city is much greater than that of our army, if the city is besieged with 100,000 soldiers, and the 100,000 auxiliary soldiers are responsible for transportation, you can trap the dog in the city! ”

"No!" As soon as Wu Sangui's words came out, Wu Sangui's three strategists objected in unison.

This time, Liu Xuanchu, Wang Shirong and Fang Guangchen were rare to see, and they didn't need to be discussed, they issued the same opinion at the first time, in the past, the three of them were not convinced by anyone, and each other's suggestions were always different.

"Why are the three gentlemen unanimously opposed?" Wu Sangui asked.

Fang Guangchen arched his hand and said: "Dashuai, the student thinks that the main forces of Qinggou are all in Baoding City, if Baoding is conquered, when our army arrives in Yanjing, Qinggou will have no soldiers available!" In addition, the student learned the news that your grandson-in-law has taken control of the canal and is preparing to attack Shandong along the canal! Wang Yu's army has rivers to rely on, and the attack speed is much faster than our army! If you don't besiege the capital as soon as possible, I'm afraid you will fall behind Wang Yu! ”

Wang Shirong also arched his hand and said: "Handsome, Qinggou sticks to Baoding and has made full preparations!" There is plenty of food in the city, and if it is besieged, I am afraid it will be difficult to take it in a year! In a year, Wang Yu has already hit the capital! ”

"Xuan Chu, what do you mean?" Wu Sangui turned his head to look at Liu Xuanchu.

Liu Xuanchu arched his hand and replied: "The students also know one thing, Qinggou is in contact with the Rakshasa people to train the new army!" It's just that there is not much time left for them, and the new army has not yet been completed! If it drags on for a year and a half, even if the combined forces of the King of the South and the King of Jingbei can't reach Yanjing, the new army of Qinggou has already been trained! And our army's grain transportation is all by land, and the consumption is extremely high, and when the time comes, it will be even more difficult to attack the Beijing division! If we take Baoding in one go, by the time our army arrives in Beijing, the Tartars will have no troops available! ”

Seeing that Wu Sangui was still hesitating, Fang Guangchen arched his hand again and said, "Handsome!" The casualties of the auxiliaries are too large, so the people can be strong! We then recruit people from the surrounding villages! ”

"Siege the city with the people?" Wu Sangui's face changed slightly, "The old man didn't do anything to slaughter the city when he helped Qinggou back then, let alone coerce the people to attack the city, but now he wants the people to attack the city?" ”

"We are not coercing the people to die!" Fang Guangchen said with a solemn face, "It's just that our army's auxiliaries are not strong enough to recruit the people, recruit the people into the people's strong, and let them transport the grain baggage, and our army's existing auxiliaries and people's strong soldiers can all free up their hands to attack the city!" In addition, you can concentrate artillery fire to bombard the fortress and weaken the fire of the Tartar defenders. ”