It was late at night, and the city of Xipingbao was temporarily quiet.

There is a strong smell of blood in the city, there are countless corpses on the street, no one is going to clean up the battlefield for the time being, the area of Xipingbao City is not too large, the radius is about two square kilometers, such a small city, there are nearly 100,000 troops to fight, this is unimaginable.

The Jiangning camp occupies two-thirds of the range, and the remaining one-third is still in the hands of the Houjin Tartars, and the south gate, east gate and west gate are all occupied by the Jiangning camp, except for the north gate, which is still in the hands of the Houjin Tartars.

After dark, the fighting gradually stopped, and both sides needed to rest and adjust.

Su Tiancheng and Qu Qingze had already entered Xiping Fort.

He Renlong, Qin Rui, Di Huaixiang, Liu Wenxiu, Ai Nengqi, Li Dingguo and other generals concentrated around Su Tiancheng, their fighting spirit was very strong, and they didn't want to stop fighting because it was dark.

Losses are difficult to count for a while, the battle is not over, and there is no time to think about these aspects.

Su Tiancheng didn't want to stop because it was dark, but at this time, he needed to unify everyone's ideas, and at this time, some offensive strategies needed to be changed.

Everyone, you and I have been talking for a while, everyone's faces are full of excitement, no one thought that the attack on Xiping Fort was so smooth, and it was basically taken down in less than a day.

Su Tiancheng finally spoke, and the surroundings quickly quieted down.

"The occupation of Xiping Fort is a matter of catching turtles in the urn, and there is no need to think too much about it, and now the biggest task is to exterminate the golden tartar after it has vitality. Houjin Tartars occupy the north gate, they may break through from the north gate at any time, we can't let them go, outside the north gate, five thousand soldiers are waiting for it, but I'm worried. The amount of force is a little insufficient. ”

When Su Tiancheng said this, everyone was even quieter, everyone understood that there were still tens of thousands of Houjin Tartars, this was a huge force, and how to exterminate this Houjin Tartar was not as simple as words.

"You all want to take advantage of the night to start a fight, in fact, I also agree, but the night fight. With too many uncertain factors, it is very likely to increase the casualties of the officers and men, which is a situation that I do not want to see, so this is the last blow to rely on the artillery battalion and the Shenji battalion. ”

"Qin Rui, the artillery battalion mobilized all the Furlong machine guns and tiger squat guns to deal a fatal blow to the recalcitrant Houjin Tartars stationed at the north gate. You have to remember that the blows inside and outside the city are carried out at the same time. In the process of your offensive, all the officers and men, do not attack for the time being, you don't have any worries, you can bomb indiscriminately, I hope that the artillery battalion can completely defeat this group of Houjin Tartars. When dawn comes, I want the battle to end. ”

"Di Huaixiang, after the attack of the artillery battalion is over, the first to charge is your Shenji battalion, and use flintlock pistols to clean up the Houjin Tartar. After laying down his arms, the golden tartar was guarded on the spot, and if he made a slight move, he would be killed. ”

"He Renlong, you lead the rest of the soldiers to launch the last attack."

"You have to remember one thing, you must not let the Houjin Tartars escape, after dark, the Houjin Tartars are likely to choose to break through, and we must not let them succeed."

"Okay, you all go and prepare, and launch an attack in half an hour, and Lord Qu and I are here waiting for your good news."

Everyone went to prepare, and Qu Qingze didn't understand Su Tiancheng's arrangement.

"The words of the marshal just now don't seem to be ready to let go of the captives who laid down their weapons."

Su Tiancheng nodded, and a cold expression appeared on his face.

"After such a long time of fighting, those who should have surrendered have already surrendered, the rest is to think about surrendering, and the determination is not so firm, I will not forgive these people, during the battle of Gaizhou, I felt it, the Han Eight Banners are not weaker than the Manchu Eight Banners, when treating my Ming army and people, they are even more cruel than the Eight Banners, these soldiers, although they are Han people, but their hearts have long belonged to Houjin, I will not want such a captive, so as not to waste food."

When Su Tiancheng said these words, he was not emotional at all.

"Lao Qu, the newly incorporated 4,000 Han troops have given us a lot of surprises, their performance is really good, which also prompted me to decide to expand the army from the captives, in fact, we still thought too much before, the sergeants take obedience to orders as their duty, these people are professional soldiers, and they know how to abide by military regulations, but they must be given a suitable environment, and the sea can be called big, if there is no trace of tolerance, the future development path of the Jiangning battalion will not be smooth."

Qu Qingze was a little confused, and the meaning that Su Tiancheng said before and after seemed to be contradictory.

Of course, Su Tiancheng knew Qu Qingze's doubts, and then explained.

"Lao Qu, you may think that what I said is a bit contradictory, but in fact, it is not contradictory at all, for those diehards among the Houjin Tartars, such as the officers of the Houjin Tartars, such as the backbone sergeants, we must not show mercy to our subordinates, leaving these people is leaving a scourge, that is, making trouble for ourselves, as for those high-quality sergeants, we can completely absorb them and strengthen the strength of the Jiangning battalion."

"The Jiangning camp can't just exist as a Han Chinese, in our team, there are already Tujia soldiers, blonde and blue-eyed foreigners, and even black slaves, then there can be Manchus and Mongols, as long as they are loyal to the Jiangning camp, no matter what his identity is, we can accept it."

Qu Qingze was dumbfounded, nodded unconsciously, he completely understood what Su Tiancheng meant, but he felt that Su Tiancheng's idea was too bold, there were Tujia men in the army, most of them were former white pole soldiers, this is not strange, even if there are a few foreigners and black slaves, this is not an uncommon thing, but thinking about recruiting full people, this is a bit bold, I am afraid that it is Su Tiancheng who can have such ideas.

Shi Tingzhu finally made up his mind, to lead the army to retreat, the brutal battle during the day, so that he was completely sober, more and more soldiers surrendered, casualties are getting bigger and bigger, fortunately it is dark, the Ming army temporarily stopped attacking, taking advantage of this time, leading the army to retreat from the north gate, taking advantage of the darkness to rush out of the city, this can be regarded as preserving strength, as for Bayan's proposal to launch a counteroffensive while it is dark, that is not valid, that is looking for death, Shi Tingzhu will never adopt such an opinion.

At this point, Shi Tingzhu can't care so much, no matter what kind of punishment he accepts, he will take the army out of the city and preserve part of his strength.

The only problem is that Bayan is resolutely opposed, which makes Shi Tingzhu very difficult, because of the defeat in the battle, his ability to rule has been questioned, but fortunately, Ma Guangyuan expressed his support. However, Bayan's identity is different, in order to avoid unifying actions, opinions must be unified, and Shi Tingzhu also has to think about his future.

Unfortunately, the conversation did not go well, but Bayan resolutely did not let go, and insisted that the soldiers with the red flag would not evacuate Xiping Fort and would definitely hold out until the end.

Cracks inevitably appeared, and as time passed, Shi Tingzhu's heart was dripping blood, and he had long understood that there was no point in holding on to Xiping Fort, it was nothing more than burying all the soldiers here.

Shi Tingzhu made a decision again, Bayan led the soldiers with red flags to garrison, and the soldiers with yellow flags and yellow flags all evacuated and broke through at night.

Shi Tingzhu's decision also met with strong opposition from Bayan, who believed that the army should not break through, but unfortunately, Ma Guangyuan, who was in a hurry, had already conveyed the decision to break through.

After the day's fighting, the losses of the yellow flag were the heaviest, and there were not many remaining sergeants, on the contrary, the sergeants with the red flags who were stationed at the north gate were not very large, and their strength was also the strongest.

The reason why Bayan dared to disobey Shi Tingzhu's order was also because of his strength and special identity.

The fierce quarrel was between Shi Tingzhu, Ma Guangyuan and Bayan, they forgot the preciousness of time, Shi Tingzhu and Ma Guangyuan even had the idea of killing Bayan, but they didn't dare to do it in the end, if they really did this, they would have no place in the Great Qing Kingdom.

When the rumbling cannon rang out, and the surrounding fires began to appear, Shi Tingzhu and the others were still arguing.

The sound of the cannon brought their quarrel to a halt.

Shi Tingzhu's face turned pale, and he spoke to Ma Guangyuan and Bayan.

"We don't have to argue, I said before, the Ming army will definitely attack, will not let time pass in vain, the Ming army has an advantage, just now temporarily stopped the attack, but the Ming army adjusted the layout of the operation, the Ming army's artillery began to attack us again, since General Ba advocated resistance, well, the night battle, you have full command, I will not continue to interfere, for the sake of today, we don't have any plans to break through, do your best to fight."

Bayan's face was still red, Shi Tingzhu made such an arrangement, he did not refuse, and turned his head to command the battle.

Ma Guangyuan looked at Shi Tingzhu for a long time before he spoke.

"General Shi, you and I used to be the generals of the Daimyo, and now we have become the banner owners of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty, there must not be much way to live, just Bayan's attitude, suddenly made me regret a little, if the Ming army had such bravery, we would not have fallen to the point where we are today, okay, these things have no effect, I went to command the battle, if there is an afterlife, I will not make such a choice, General Shi, you take care." (To be continued......)