"What a Wu Sangui thief! It turns out that this special offering of the Eight Banners is a poison that harms my banner people! General Ben must report this matter to the court! Eight Flags Special Offerings Must Be Banned! Zhuo Butai's roar echoed through the barracks.

It has rained heavily for many days, and the rainy season in the south of the Yangtze River does not seem to pass so quickly, and all the roads have become muddy ground, and no caravan is willing to come in this season, and the "Eight Banners Special Offerings" that the Qing army urgently needs at present cannot be transported at all, and the consequences are very serious.

Almost every Eight Banners soldier who loves the Eight Banners special offerings has exhausted the special offerings they carry with them, and at this time their addiction comes up, and when they are addicted, they have become wasted and completely lose their combat effectiveness.

There are actually many people in the Green Battalion who are obsessed with the Eight Banners special offerings, and many people are starting to have seizures at this time. The green battalion soldiers who lost the supply of goods are about to go crazy, and the Jinhua City behind the Qing army camp has long been out of stock, all the special offerings of the Eight Banners have been sold out, and the green battalion soldiers who have lost the special offerings are wailing and crying every day.

A few days ago, Zhuo Butai had realized the seriousness of the matter. Before the soldiers became addicted, he ordered three attacks on the Ming army's battalion, but all three attacks were repulsed by the Ming army.

The Qing army attacked in heavy rain, bows and arrows and firearms were not available, and only the cannons placed in the tents could bombard. But the long-range shelling did not have much effect on the Ming army. The attacking Qing army was stopped by bullets and feathered arrows fired from the Ming army's fortifications, and suffered heavy casualties. When the Qing army, which was one foot deep and one foot shallow, easily rushed to the camp of the Ming army, they were repelled by the fierce Ming army in hand-to-hand combat.

Successive attacks could not defeat the enemy, and a crisis broke out in the camp of the Qing army, which had exhausted the special supplies of the Eight Banners.

At this point, Zhuo Butai could only plan to drink to quench his thirst, and let people go to Huguang to report quickly, asking the supplier to send a batch of special supplies from the Eight Banners to relieve his urgent need.

"What a thing that hurts people! What a harmful thing! Wu Sangui contains evil intentions, only for his own selfish interests to harm my Qing Dynasty! Hateful! It's hateful! "Zhuo Butai hated it so much that his teeth itched.

On rainy days, the roads were muddy and difficult to walk, and the messengers sent by Zhuo Butai were either injured on the road, or were intercepted and killed by the Ming army's night of not collecting them on the way, and the secret of the Eight Banners special offerings could not be sent out at all! And in such weather, no caravan is willing to come and deliver goods. Not only that, the Yongxin Battalion, which had been operating behind the Qing army, did not stop its activities on rainy days, digging river embankments and destroying roads, making it even more difficult for the Qing army to replenish their already difficult supplies.

"My lord, we might as well return to Jinhua City and hold on. Now the morale of the army is low, if the weather suddenly clears up, and Minggou takes the opportunity to attack, my army may not be able to resist. Yu Yongshou stepped forward to offer advice.

Listening to the sound of heavy rain and looking at the downpour outside as if the sky was leaking, Zhuo Butai gritted his teeth and nodded: "That's the only way!" The rain was too heavy, and when the rain was lighter, they immediately pulled out the camp and retreated to the city! ”

But Zhuo Butai didn't expect that the Ming army would no longer give the Qing army a chance to retreat into the city.

On the second day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, inside the camp of the Ming army.

The rainy season in the south of the Yangtze River did not stop, and the continuous rain brought inconvenience to the Qing army and also to the Ming army. However, the Ming army, which relied on water transportation, was much better in terms of logistics than the Qing army.

"Report!" A spy came to report, "There is movement in the Tartar camp, and it seems that they want to abandon the camp and return to Jinhua City!" ”

Wang Xinyu nodded and asked the spies to retreat first: "Okay, you go down first!" ”

"No!" The spy turned and stepped back.

"I think everyone knows about the situation of the Tartars! If it rains heavily today, if our army attacks, firearms will not be available. But the situation with the Tartars will not be better than ours either! After so many days of heavy rain, the caravan couldn't come up, and the Eight Banners special offerings of the Tartars were completely out of stock, as long as we got close to the Tartars in hand-to-hand combat, now we can beat ten of them alone! Except for the Huguang New Army, the other Tartars are not to be feared! Wang Yuyou proposed to attack before the Qing army retreated into the city.

"It's raining heavily, and our army has a high proportion of firearms, so I'm afraid it's not good for our army to attack, right? Even if our cannons were wrapped in tarpaulins and transported to the firing site to set up tents, I am afraid that when we arrived at the destination, we would be hit by the Tartar cannons. Wang Xinyu asked.

"We can move overnight, take advantage of the night Tartars not to see us, and transport the artillery to the firing site. After the cannon arrived, the tent was erected. Our powder kegs are wrapped in tarpaulin, not afraid of rain. Send it to the tent to load the cannonballs, and you can fire at the tartars in the rain. Wang Yuyou said.

"Good! Then we'll attack the Tartars at night! Take advantage of their Eight Flags Special Offering Addiction Hair Crafting and strike out tonight! Annihilate the Tartars under the city of Jinhua! Wang Xinyu slapped the table.

Once the Qing army retreated to the city, they could recruit the people in the city to defend the city at any time, which would cause unnecessary losses to the Ming army. The best thing to do was to prevent the Qing army from retreating into the city, and the battle would be settled outside the city. As long as the main force of the Qing army is annihilated, it will be much easier to attack Jinhua City again.

It was raining and it was dark early, and it was not yet seven o'clock in the evening, and it was already so dark that it was completely invisible. As early as an hour ago, the Ming army was ready to attack before attacking. In the large camp, the men prepared dinner early, and the dinner before the attack was very rich.

Fragrant fine white rice, braised pork, steamed ham, covered with a little red oil roasted tofu, a little greens, and everyone has a steaming bowl of hot soup to drink. By the time we had eaten, it was already completely dark.

Everyone was checking their weapons and equipment, and the rain was not good for the musketeers, the main force of the attack became the sword and shield bearers and pikemen, the musketeers had only one chance to fire, their muskets were loaded with bayonets, and each musketeer carried two grenades to use as short spearmen and bombardiers. The task of the musketeer is to fire a round and then charge, throwing a grenade as he charges.

The rest of the hand-to-hand fighters each fired a grenade, and immediately rushed into the Qing army camp after throwing it.

The heavy cavalry was also ready, and when the frontal attacking infantry threw their grenades, the heavy cavalry rushed in from the flanks and stepped on the clear camp. The dragoons became light cavalry at this time, and each dragoon carried only two double-barreled short guns and a saber, and when the heavy cavalry stepped into the camp, the light cavalry followed.

In the dark, the Ming army quietly left the barracks. The baggage soldiers pulled cannons and various vehicles, and under the protection of the soldiers, quietly approached the direction of the Qing army camp.

On rainy days, the road was muddy and very difficult to walk, but there was plenty of time, and Wang Xinyu stipulated that the artillery should complete the march for three miles within two hours. The artillery advanced three miles and arranged artillery positions. It is expected that the attack will be launched at two o'clock in the morning, that is, at midnight.

Long before the main army left the camp, the Ming army had already begun to brave the heavy rain at night.

After dark, the heavy rain did not abate, and it was still pouring down. On the road leading to the Qing army camp, several Qing soldiers wearing hats and robes hid in the woods by the roadside. The rain and a cold wind came in front of him, and one of the Green Battalion soldiers sneezed.

"Ma, what the hell is the weather, they can sleep comfortably in the camp, our brothers have to keep watch here in this kind of ghost weather!" A Qing soldier scolded.

"Brother, are there any more cigarettes? I finished pumping and suffocated. A soldier asked.

The first Qing soldier spread his hands: "I'm gone, it's been so many days, and I've already finished drawing." ”

"Forget it, it's over." Qing Bing, who wanted cigarettes, said helplessly.

The first Qing soldier smiled: "Fortunately, we didn't smoke that terrible Eight Banners special offering, and the addiction of this cigarette can still be endured." I heard that those brothers who were infected with the Eight Flags special offerings, it was miserable, I didn't have to smoke, and my whole body hurt! Speaking of which, the Eight Banners special offerings are really harmful. ”

"This cigarette is okay, it's not that addictive. The Eight Banners special offerings are indeed harmful. "The other Qing soldier said.

The two soldiers were so focused on talking that they didn't notice that someone was quietly approaching them in the dark.

"Whoosh" The crossbow arrows fired by the two spring crossbows came and accurately pierced the throat of the Qing soldiers.

Out of the darkness, several Ming soldiers wearing robes and hats jumped out of the darkness and dragged the corpses aside. The Ming army did not accept the spring crossbow that was not affected by the rain at night, and this weapon could still pull the bowstring in the heavy rain and shoot arrows, because the bowstring of the spring crossbow was a thin steel wire, which mainly relied on the bending power of the steel spring bow with strong elasticity to fire crossbow arrows, so it would not be affected by the weather at all. It's just that the cost of the spring crossbow is too high, and ordinary soldiers are not equipped.

The Ming army did not collect at night to clean up the secret posts of the Qing army on a rainy night, and cleaned up the Qing army sentries on the road one by one.

The main army marched in the heavy rain, although each soldier carried a hat, but the rain still wet their armor, the cotton armor on the outside was soaked, and the iron armor on the inside was also wet, sticking to the body, blown by the wind, it felt very unpleasant. Although it is the fifth month of the lunar calendar, the weather is already hot, but the rainy day is still quite cold.

Although the musketeers had only one chance to fire, their flintlock muskets were wrapped in tarpaulins so that the muskets, which were preloaded with bullets and gunpowder, would not get wet and not be fired. Although there is only one chance to shoot, this chance to shoot can reduce a lot of casualties for your own side and increase the casualties of the Qing army. Each musketeer carried no other ammunition, only two grenades, and after firing the bullets and throwing the grenades, he launched a white-knuckle charge.

But the infantry was quite good, and compared to them, the hardest thing was the artillery and baggage soldiers.

The road is muddy and difficult to walk, although Wang Xinyu gives him a lot of time, but it is still very inconvenient to push such a heavy gun cart and walk on the muddy road, and it is dark, and from time to time there are gun trucks stuck in mud pits, no matter how the soldiers swing their whips and whip the mules, they can't pull the gun carts out of the mud pits.

"One, two, one! One, two, one! The auxiliaries and gunners shouted and pushed the gun carriage.

Some of the wiser men brought planks and put them in front of the mud puddle in which the wheels had fallen, and the mules pulled the cart and the soldiers pushed it behind, and finally pushed the cart out of the mud puddle.

Following behind the gun carriage was the big killer that Wang Xinyu was about to take out: a powerful swarm of bee cars. At the same time that the artillery will open fire on the Qing army's camp, a swarm of bee cars will fire rockets at the Qing army's camp. As long as a few rounds of artillery fire and a round of rockets covered, the Qing army will be caught off guard first, and then the infantry will charge and kill, and the cavalry will march into the camp, and the chaotic Qing army will suffer heavy losses.

According to Wang Yuyou's strategy, while the Ming army launched an attack on the Qing army camp, some of the elite agents of the Night Bushu and the Tiandihui, as well as a group of elite soldiers, would disguise themselves as Qing soldiers and wait under Jinhua City. When the Qing army was defeated and retreated to Jinhua City, the Qing prefect in the city would definitely open the door and release people, and the agents of the Heaven and Earth Society and elite soldiers would also take advantage of this opportunity to infiltrate the city.

The army marched hard in the rainy night, and the Qing army's secret posts and probe horses on the road ahead had been cleaned up by the Ming army at night, and all the way through, the Qing army did not find that the Ming army was quietly approaching them.

In the camp of the Qing army, neither Zhuo Butai nor any Qing army general expected that the Ming army would attack on a rainy night. All the generals of the Qing army believed that the Ming army relied on nothing more than sharp firearms. It rained so heavily, it was okay to defend, but if it took the initiative to attack, firearms could not be used, how could the Ming army be able to strike long with a short blow.

Wang Xinyu's younger brother, Wang Zihao, marched on the muddy road with his heavy horse. The sound of the rain drowned out the sound of the horses' hooves. In order to save horsepower, each heavy rider dismounted and led the horse on foot. The heavy cavalrymen in iron armor wore hats on their heads, and the iron armor was covered with a lily coat to avoid rain as much as possible.

The dragoons turned into light cavalry, and their melee weapons, double-barreled short guns, were wrapped in tarpaulins to avoid getting wet in the rain. After the light cavalry rushed into the Qing camp, they first shot with short guns, and then drew their swords and slashed.

The army marched slowly, arriving at the predetermined position half an hour ahead of the scheduled time.

The artillery positions were located at a relatively high level, where there was no standing water, which ensured that when the powder barrels were placed on the ground, the gunpowder would not be damp.

The baggage soldiers braved the pouring rain and nervously built temporary artillery positions in the heavy rain. The auxiliaries laid stone slabs on the ground, drove wooden stakes, and erected tents to shelter the artillerymen.

After setting up the tent, the gunners pulled the cannon into the tent, then took out the dry cloth and began to clean the cannon. Some people use a dry mop to stick into the barrel to ensure that the chamber is dry. Vehicles filled with gunpowder were also pulled into tents, and the auxiliaries wiped the stone slabs on the ground with mops and rags, and then opened the tarpaulin covering the powder kegs and placed them on the ground.

The artillerymen were intensively prepared, while the infantry and cavalry took shelter from the rain in the woods for a short rest.

After walking for so long on a rainy night, the soldiers' straw sandals were soaked and covered with mud. Sitting in a makeshift canopy, the soldiers took off their straw sandals and cleaned the mud from them.

However, such a big move of the Ming army could not completely hide from the Qing army.

In the camp of the Qing army, someone hurriedly came to report to Zhuo Butai: "My lord, it's not good! Ming Dog wants to attack at night! (To be continued.) )