Lang Tingzuo ordered to forcibly cross the river to break through, and attacked several times in a row, but they were all repulsed by the Zhejiang army on the opposite bank. Occasionally, a few Qing soldiers successfully landed on the river beach on the opposite bank, and were attacked by the Zhejiang army half-crossing, and the Qing army, which had not yet gained a firm foothold on the shore, was immediately repelled into the river by Zhejiang's fierce counterattack.

The Qing army failed to break through, and the shells on the opposite bank smashed like hail and fell in the crowd of Qing troops, stirring up bursts of bloody rain. The artillery fire of the Zhejiang army caused heavy losses to the Qing army.

"Dashuai, we can't get out! I hope that the handsome man will be guilty! "Tow Hui, who was in charge of breaking through in the east, stepped forward.

Bu Yan, who was in charge of breaking through to the rear, also stepped forward and said: "Commander Qiqi, the thieves defended with the help of the river bank and the power of the water division, and our army was unable to cross the river to attack, and the losses were very heavy. ”

Lang Tingzuo thought for a moment and said: "Although the river in the east is relatively narrow, it is useless for our army to break through to the east now, and now our army has lost its artillery and baggage, and its morale is low. The only way now is to desperately break through to the west and break out of the encirclement of the thieves. ”

Tuo Hui and Bu Yan knelt down on one knee at the same time and said: "The last general is willing to make meritorious service and personally lead the elite of the Eight Banners to break through!" ”

"The thieves stopped us with the help of the river, but the invincible Eight Banners Army in the world can't play a role on the water, so don't let the Eight Banners go to death senselessly, you lead people to press the formation in the back, and let the green battalion forcibly cross the river!" Lang Tingzuo said.

"Wow!" Buyan and Tuohui retreated at the same time.

The war drums rumbled, the horn sounded, the Qing army launched a breakthrough to the west of the river, a large number of green battalion Qing soldiers under the threat of the steel knives of the Eight Banners, boarded the improvised rafts and bamboo rows, braved the fierce artillery fire of the Zhejiang army's naval division, and forcibly crossed the river to break through.

The small warships of the Zhejiang Army's naval division rushed back and forth on the river, and the small cannons on the boats fired rows of shotguns into the river, and the birds and bows and arrows fired a dense raindrop of projectiles and arrows. Constantly beat the Qing soldiers on the raft and bamboo raft to the water. The warships rushed back and forth, knocking over many rafts and bamboo rafts of the Qing army.

The Eight Banners organized elite archers and fired rows of rockets into the river. However, the arrows were blocked by the planks on the ship, and could not cause much damage to the Zhejiang troops on the ship. Some of the rockets were stuck on the ship's planks, and the Zhejiang army used wooden barrels to draw water to extinguish the flames. Although a small number of arrows fell from the sky and landed in the cabin, causing some casualties to the Zhejiang army, the losses were not large. The bows and arrows of the Eight Banners Army could not pose much threat to the warship, and the shells fired by the small cannons on the ship killed many Eight Banner soldiers.

Shoot the bow and fire the arrow for a long time. Shooting at the boats on the river from a long distance made the arms of the Eight Banners sore, and they soon could no longer draw their bows and arrows. The range of the green battalion's bird guns was not enough, and the projectile hit the Zhejiang army's warship in the river fifty paces away, like scratching an itch.

The Qing army of the Green Battalion broke through six times, but was repulsed by the Zhejiang army, and countless Qing soldiers were killed in the river, and all the river water was stained red with blood.

After hitting the back, the Qing soldiers of the Green Battalion, who were forced to cross the river with knives, rowed rafts and bamboo rows to the center of the river. simply surrendered to the Zhejiang army sailors in the river in order to survive.

Seeing that he could not break through, Lang Tingzuo had no choice but to order the entire army to retreat, away from the river bank. Dodge the artillery fire of the Ming army.

The Qing army retreated to the middle of the one-mile-wide island, trying to dodge the shells fired by the Ming army from across the bank. But 70,000 or 80,000 Qing soldiers crowded into this small area, and after being shelled by the Ming army, almost every shell whistled. Falling to the ground and bouncing continuously can cause a large number of casualties among Qing soldiers. Although the Qing soldiers were hiding in the depths of the island. It can dodge the attack of the small-caliber artillery of the Ming army, but the red-coat cannon and the general's cannon can still hit the Qing army.

After the Zhejiang army attacked the Qing army's baggage and artillery, it seized a large number of cannons, gunpowder and shells, and also seized a large number of firearms such as birds, which made Zhang Huangyan, who was "used to being poor", ecstatic. He ordered the bombardment of the captured twenty-six cardinal cannons and forty-two general's cannons across the river, without regard to the consumption of shells. You must know that Zhang Huangyan has never been so arrogant and can squander ammunition so much. Although he currently has a very powerful naval division in his hands, the large ships and gunboats are borrowed, and the Zhejiang army's own weapons are still some small boats and small cannons, when did the land division of the Zhejiang army have so many cannons.

The shells kept falling, and the Qing army could only be beaten in vain, but they were unable to fight back, which was a great blow to the morale of the Qing soldiers.

After all, Lang Tingzuo was an experienced general, and after being bombarded, not only did he not mess up, but instead organized the Qing troops and dug trenches and built fortifications on the spot to resist the artillery attacks of the Ming army.

Under the threat of the steel knives of the Eight Banners, a large number of green battalion soldiers of the Qing army braved the artillery fire of the Ming army to dig soil on the ground, dug out trenches one after another, and the excavated soil was piled up in front of the trenches to block the artillery shells of the Ming army. Jiangnan is very wet, and the ground is not dug deep into the moist soil, and piling up this soil can make the shells no longer bounce and reduce the lethality of the shells.

The Qing army dug a trench one zhang wide and three feet deep, and piled up a mound of earth five feet high and six feet wide in front of the trench, effectively resisting the artillery bombardment of the Ming army. However, these Qing soldiers carried dry rations for three days, and their food and baggage had been lost, and the morale of the besieged Qing troops was low.

Lang Tingzuo pointed to the rice fields and said, "Although the rice is not yet ripe, it is barely edible. There are also a lot of loach frogs and small fish in the rice fields, which can also be caught and eaten! Thieves trying to trap us? As long as we hold out for more than ten days, the green battalion troops from all over the country will be able to relieve us from the siege. ”

It has to be said that Jiangnan is very rich in products, and there are a large number of fish and shrimp, frogs, crabs, loaches and the like in rice fields and small ditches in the fields. The Green Battalion soldiers were held to their necks with knives by the Eight Banners, risking their lives to go outside in the fields to catch food.

The Ming army found the Qing soldiers who came out to hunt and immediately greeted them with cannonballs.

Many Qing soldiers carrying bamboo baskets fell in the fields, but Lang Tingzuo did not feel sorry for the loss of these green battalion soldiers at all, as long as he could get something to eat, it didn't matter how many green battalion soldiers died, first of all, he had to ensure that the Eight Banners soldiers could live.

The Qing soldiers of the green battalion also thought of countermeasures, they did not dare to come out during the day, and then lit torches and lanterns at night to catch fish and shrimp. The shells fired by the Ming army arrived as scheduled, but the Qing soldiers hung lanterns in many places, so that most of the shells of the Ming army were wasted. And the rice fields in the south of the Yangtze River can absorb the energy of the cannonballs, so that the cannonballs cannot bounce.

After a stalemate for two days, Zhang Yukun asked the Qiongzhou army to transport the mortar artillery and fire flowering shells at the besieged Qing army.

As soon as the mortar cannons and flowering shells of the Qiongzhou army came up, they exerted great power. The whistling shells continued to rise into the air and smashed down behind the trenches of the Qing army. It exploded in the camp of the Qing army, exploding a ball of fireballs, and the flying debris swept away a large number of Qing soldiers of the green battalion.

"Master Zhang!" Zhang Yukun told Zhang Huangyan, "Although the Tartars are trapped, it will take too long to trap them, and the Qi family in Shanyin needs us to save them, and they can't support them for too long." Therefore, we must resolve the battle of Changshu as soon as possible, so as to free up our hands to rescue the Qi family in Shanyin. ”

Zhang Huangyan asked: "Although the Tartars suffered heavy losses and low morale after being trapped, there are still as many as 70,000 or 80,000 people. The combined forces of our army and the land and water forces are no more than 30,000 people. There are less than 10,000 people in the Lu Division, and there are less than 20,000 people in the army, so how can they defeat the 70,000 or 80,000 Tartars who were besieged? ”

"The enemy was demoralized and lost most of their firearms. As long as our army first bombards with artillery, and then attacks with infantry, most of the false Tartars will surrender. The remaining Eight Banners soldiers are actually not to be feared. Their horses in the field could not run, and our army could break the enemy with pikemen and long knives and shields. Zhang Yukun replied.

Zhang Huangyan took Zhang Yukun's proposal and launched a final attack on the besieged Qing army.

It was discovered that the Ming army began to cross the river. Lang Tingzuo was overjoyed: "The thieves gave up the benefit of the sailor to besiege our army, but they want to cross the river to attack, this is God help me!" Let the Eight Banners get ready and wait for the thieves to cross the river. If the cavalry strikes at it halfway, it will be able to break the enemy! ”

The Ming Army's land division took a small boat to cross the high river and set foot on the river beach on the opposite bank.

After coming ashore, the Ming army did not rush to advance, nor did there appear a chaotic situation as Lang Tingzuo imagined. Instead, they formed a formation with ironclad soldiers carrying wooden cards and pikemen behind them. The ships approached the riverbank. The muzzle of the black hole is facing the shore, and it is ready to guard against the counterattack of the Qing army.

When Lang Tingzuo's Eight Banners saw the Ming army coming ashore, they immediately outflanked them from both flanks.

"Fire!" Finding that the Eight Banners cavalry were attacking the Ming army from both flanks, Chen Wenda gave an order.

The Ming gunners on the boat lit the artillery, rows of fires flashed on the river, dozens of solid shells drilled into the Eight Banners and horses, ploughed open a bloody road, and dozens of Eight Banners soldiers and horses were smashed by the shells and fell into the river beach grass.

When the Qing army approached, another row of shotguns shot out from the ship, sweeping over hundreds of Eight Banner soldiers.

The Eight Banners approached the Ming infantry formation, took out the bows and arrows on their backs, and shot them with light arrows. Rows of feathered arrows flew into the sky, drawing a parabola and landing in the Ming formation. For the Ming army with heavy armor protection, the light arrows fired by the Qing army did not have much power, except for a few Ming troops who were shot in the arm and calf, most of the Ming army was unharmed.

The infantry archers of the Zhejiang army and the musketeers of the Qiongzhou army fired at the Qing army, but did not do much damage to the Eight Banners soldiers who were moving at high speed and were heavily armoured.

The Qing army rushed to the front of the Ming army, but did not rush headlong into the spear array, but harassed it with bows and arrows for a while, and then quickly retreated, trying to attract the Ming army to pursue them. As long as the Ming army dared to catch up, the infantry chasing cavalry would not only fail to catch up, but there would be confusion in formation, so that the cavalry would have a chance to defeat the infantry.

But Zhang Huangyan knew this, and did not order the infantry to pursue, but let the infantry stand by to cover the follow-up landing force ashore, and at the same time bombarded the retreating Eighth Banner Army with artillery.

After all, these Eight Banners are the second generation of Eight Banners after entering the customs, and their combat effectiveness is far less fierce than the first batch of Eight Banners soldiers who entered the customs, they attacked twice tentatively, and after being defeated, they did not dare to move forward, but stayed away from the range of the Ming army's small artillery, and circled around the periphery, no matter how several Qing generals supervised, they did not dare to attack again.

Seeing this, Zhang Huangyan stroked his beard and laughed: "It turns out that the Eight Banners Army, which is known as invincible in the world, is nothing more than that!" ”

"Your Excellency!" Zhang Yukun arched his hand and said, "These Eight Banners are not the Tartars who entered the customs back then, the old Tartars in Jiangnan were annihilated by the King of Yanping three years ago, and these Tartars in front of them are the second generation of Eight Banners after entering the customs, and they have already rotted!" Their combat effectiveness is not worth mentioning at all! As long as we defeat the Green Battalion, the Tartars will be defeated! ”

Seeing that his plan could not succeed, Lang Tingzuo gave the order to let a large number of green battalion infantry attack the Ming army formation from the front, and the Eight Banners were still waiting for an opportunity on both flanks, once the Green Battalion infantry broke through a gap in the Ming army's formation, the Eight Banners took the opportunity to enter the Ming army's formation and defeat the Ming army.

The Green Battalion began to attack, and groups of Green Battalion troops pressed up in a neat formation.

The artillery on the Ming warships bombarded row after row, and the flesh and blood of the Qing army in the green camp were flying. However, these green battalion Qing troops charged forward as if they had been beaten with chicken blood. The rows of green battalion soldiers in front fell, and those behind continued to advance. Until it entered the firing range, the Green Battalion military fired at the Ming army with bird guns.

The Zhejiang army and the Qiongzhou army counterattacked with bows and arrows and bird guns, and the two sides fired fiercely, and many people fell. However, the Ming army was protected by wooden cards and ironclad soldiers in front, and assisted by the ship's artillery in the back, so the losses were obviously much smaller.

Lang Tingzuo ordered the Eight Banners to charge from both flanks.

The cavalry of the Eight Banners rushed up, and were again beaten back by shells, bows and arrows, and projectiles. After losing dozens of Eight Banner soldiers, the rest of the Eight Banners did not dare to move forward, but slowly advanced behind the Green Battalion soldiers.

Although the Qing soldiers of the green battalion were "heroic and invincible" and rushed to the front of the Ming army, they found that their swords and guns could not help the ironclad soldiers in the front of the Ming army, while the long knives and halberds of the Ming army were like harvesting ripe rice, harvesting the Qing army piece by piece. The birdmen and archers in the rear of the Ming army fired freely, constantly overthrowing a large number of Qing troops.

Because the front formation of the Ming army was narrow, and the two wings were supported by the artillery of the ship, although the Qing army was large in number, the troops could not be deployed, but crowded and chaotic.

And those Eight Banner soldiers, not only did they not play a role at this time, but because the huge war horses mixed into the green battalion infantry crowd, it caused even greater chaos.

The Ming army on the other side bombarded the rear of the Qing army with mortars, the shells fell in the dense crowd, and the exploded fireballs splashed everywhere with flying pieces of flesh and blood. Soon, the chaotic formation of the Qing army began to break up.

Zhang Huangyan was overjoyed when he saw the opportunity coming: "The Tartars are in chaos!" Rush! ”

"Kill!" A large number of Ming troops began to launch a fierce assault on the formation of the Qing army. The one-handed sword and iron armor soldiers in front scattered, and the long knife men in iron armor rushed out from behind and smashed into the Qing army formation.

The long knife shows great power in close combat, and everywhere the long knife passes, everyone is shattered. Whether it is the Green Battalion Qing soldiers or the Eight Banner soldiers, they are all broken bones. The formation of spears and halberds mixed in the back also killed, and rows of spears continued to swallow and reap the lives of the Qing soldiers. (To be continued.) )

PS: The Chinese New Year is coming soon, I wish all readers and friends a happy and prosperous New Year