Chapter 76 Mutual Schemes

Author: Scholar Wu

Chapter 76 Mutual Schemes

Hangzhou Deputy General Li Baoguo, who was stationed in Anxi, was ordered to lead 2,000 green battalions north to Wukang County overnight, preparing to join forces with Jiaxing Deputy General Wang Zaixing to capture Wukang County.

Anxi is only more than 20 miles away from Wukang. Li Baoguo quickly arrived at the gate of Wukang after marching for an hour.

At this time, Wang Zaixing had camped in the east of Wukang City. When he saw Li Baoguo arriving with his troops, he quickly came out to greet him.

Wang Zaixing said: "Not long after I sent the letter asking for help to Hangzhou, Vice General Li led his troops to come for reinforcements. It was really fast."

Li Baoguo also said politely: "The military situation is urgent. I rushed here immediately after receiving the order from Governor Xiao. What is the situation now?"

Wang Zaixing said with some frustration: "Our troops raided Deqing County yesterday and captured Wukang in one fell swoop. We wanted to pursue the victory and capture Wukang directly. Unexpectedly, the Ming army was prepared. Our troops attacked several times in a row but were unable to capture it, so we could only attack Xiao."

The governor came to the rescue."

"The south of Wukang City is Qianxi, so it is impossible to attack the city. Now it is surrounded by our troops on the east, west, north and west sides. But I left 500 people to guard Deqing County, and only 1,500 people are left to besiege the city. If we want to capture the city, we don't have enough troops.

Please also ask Brother Li for help."

Li Baoguo said: "I wonder how many Ming troops are in the city?"

Wang Zaixing said: "There should be more than a thousand people, but the Ming army's weapons are sharper. Our troops who attacked the city continuously were trapped and exhausted, resulting in heavy casualties. We couldn't do anything to them for the time being."

Li Baoguo said: "General Wang's continuous attack on the city is very hard. Please help us pretend to attack the northwest gate. Our troops will rest for a while and then attack the east gate."

After resting for two quarters of an hour, Li Baoguo began to command the troops to attack the city.

Due to the urgent march, Li Baoguo did not prepare a carriage, but the Qing army still prepared a lot of large shields.

The large shields of the Qing army were made of thick wooden boards covered with cowhide and iron sheets, which had a very good defensive effect on firearms.

If it were replaced by the bird gun that used ordinary black powder, it would not be able to penetrate the large shield at 30 steps. Even if it could barely penetrate the large shield within 30 steps, it would be difficult to cause much damage to the Qing soldiers wearing cotton armor.

The Green Battalion under Li Baoguo was also a battle-hardened force and naturally understood the power of the Ming army's cannons, so they charged very quickly at the beginning. After entering 50 steps, soldiers holding large shields started to open the way, and the rest followed behind the large shields.

.,

Wukang City also has a moat, but at this time half of the moat has been filled in, and there are 7 or 8 passages directly leading to the city.

Li Baoguo thought that this was the result of Wang Zaixing's previous attack on the city, which saved him a lot of energy.

In fact, this was the march route that the Ming army deliberately left for the Qing army. The Tiger Crouching Cannon on the city had already calibrated its position and aimed at these passages.

At this time in Dongcheng, Huang Yu was leading 400 soldiers of the Shenji Battalion to prepare for the attack.

Tian Xiong has already gone south to reinforce eastern Zhejiang, so Huzhou Fucheng can rest easy. Qian Mo specially asked Huang Yu to lead half of the Shenji Battalion south to help the Chongming Battalion eat this wave of reinforcements sent by Xiao Qiyuan.

In fact, the improved Lumi gun can cause damage to Qing troops wearing cotton armor at a distance of more than 80 steps.

The tube of the Lumi gun is longer than that of the bird gun, and the powder charge is larger than that of the bird gun. Coupled with the power of granulated black powder, the effective killing distance has been greatly improved.

Coupled with the Lumi gun's stable shooting accuracy, it became the standard equipment of the Ming army under Qian Mo's command.

At this time, the Qing army had already entered within the 80-step firing range, but Huang Yu still ordered the soldiers of the Shenji Battalion not to fire.

After the Qing army entered within 50 steps of firing range and began to advance towards the city wall, Huang Yu ordered the soldiers of the Shenji Battalion on the top of the city to shoot.

"Bang, bang, bang"

I saw bursts of white smoke rising from the top of the city.

At this time, Li Baoguo, who was watching the battle from a distance, laughed and said: "This Ming army really doesn't have a long memory. The fire cannons at a distance of 50 steps cannot penetrate the large shield and injure the soldiers wearing cotton armor behind them."

But as soon as he finished speaking, his smile instantly solidified.

The soldiers in the front row of the Qing army holding large shields fell one after another. The Ming army's fire cannons not only easily penetrated the large shields, but even many Qing soldiers behind the shield soldiers who were seventy or eighty steps away from the city wall were hit and fell down.

land.

After just the first round of shooting, nearly 100 Qing soldiers fell.

Many Qing soldiers were stunned by the scene in front of them, and stayed where they were.

Fortunately, these green battalions are veterans who have been on the battlefield for a long time, and they know that there will be a rest period after a round of shooting.

The Qing army reacted quickly and took advantage of the Ming army's shooting break to use the siege ladder to quickly rush towards the city wall.

However, the Ming army on the city used "three-stage attack", with 400 people divided into three groups and taking turns to shoot.

Soon the second and third rounds of shooting followed.

After three rounds of shooting, nearly 300 Qing soldiers fell to the ground.

At this time, many Qing troops had already rushed to the blind spot under the city wall. Unless the Ming troops stuck their heads out and fired downwards, they would not be able to shoot at them with firecrackers.

This is also the biggest difference between an ordinary Chinese-style city and a Western bastion. The multi-faceted wall design of the bastion can shoot at the enemy under the city without any blind spots.

Just as the Qing troops under the city wall were thankful that their legs and feet were fast enough and were preparing to set up ladders to attack the city, the squatting tiger cannon on the city wall opened fire.

Accurate cannonballs landed on several passages, and then the second round of "three-stage strikes" on the city wall began to harvest again.

Faced with huge casualties, the subsequent Qing troops finally began to retreat.

At this time, the hundreds of Qing troops under the city wall were now alone. If they fled at this time, their backs would be exposed to the Shenji Battalion on the city wall.

Moreover, several narrow passages cannot allow them to retreat quickly.

Huang Yu shouted: "Fire the bayonet!"

The soldiers of the Shenji Battalion installed the bayonets they carried with them on the interface under the blunderbuss tube.

The design of this bayonet is quite mature, so at this time the Shenji Battalion no longer has specialized spearmen.

At the same time, the east gate of Wukang City was suddenly opened, and Hong Fugui, who had already been itching for a long time, led hundreds of Chongming troops to fight out.

I saw Hong Fugui holding a big sword, rushing left and right, feeling uncomfortable. Wherever he spoke, there were corpses of Qing soldiers lying on the ground.

The few Qing troops who managed to climb up to the top of the city were skillfully driven off the city with bayonets by the soldiers of the Shenji Battalion.

Li Baoguo was about to send in his follow-up troops to form a formation to fight against the Ming army fighting out of the city. He heard Wang Zaixing shouting to Li's troops: "The main force of the Ming army has reached the city. Don't stop fighting. Follow me and retreat to Deqing County."

When Wang Zaixing shouted this, the morale of Li Baoguo's men instantly dropped sharply, and he could only order the troops to withdraw to Deqing County.

Fortunately, Deqing County is not far from Wukang County, less than 20 miles away.

After a wild run, Li Baoguo gathered nearly a thousand men and arrived outside Deqing County.

Fortunately, Deqing County was still under the control of the Qing army at this time. Wang Zaixing stepped forward and called for the city gate to be opened. Then he immediately went into the city and told Li Baoguo and others to enter the city quickly so that the Ming army would not catch up.

At this time, the Ming army behind them had also arrived, and Li Baoguo quickly urged his men to enter the city.

After entering Wengcheng, the shocked Qing army rushed to the city gate. They saw that the city gate was closed after Wang Zaixing entered the city, and ambushes were everywhere on the city wall.

At this time, the suspension bridge outside the urn city had been pulled up, and the Qing army became a turtle in the urn.

Li Baoguo reacted at this moment and cursed loudly: "You Wang Zaixing actually betrayed the Qing Dynasty and led me into despair!"

Wang Zaixing said calmly: "I have long been the commander-in-chief of Jiaxing under the command of Qian Mo, the governor of Suhu in the Ming Dynasty. Now you are surrounded by my army, why don't you just surrender?"

Li Baoguo laughed and said, "Don't be too happy too early. Brothers, follow me and fight out of the city."

At this time, there were 2,000 people from Wang Zaixing's camp, 400 people from Shenji camp, and 800 people from Chongming camp in Deqing County.

Outside the Wengcheng, Huang Yu has led 400 Shenji Battalion to aim at the gate of Wengcheng, and Hong Fugui has also led hundreds of soldiers from the Chongming Battalion to guard the city.

Where can Li Baoguo survive?

"Bang, bang, bang"

Smoke billowed everywhere inside and outside Wengcheng. Li Baoguo was shot several times and died, and there was even more wailing in the city!

At this time, the remaining 500 Qing troops completely lost their fighting spirit and all knelt down and surrendered!

Qian Mo finally got his wish and ate the 2,000 men Xiao Qiyuan sent to his door.

——

After Jiang Riguang and Pan Yongxi's Northern Expedition captured Qimen County, they successively captured Yi County and Xiuning County.

Huizhou was shaken for a while, but at this time the reinforcements of the Qing army had arrived at She County, the capital of Huizhou.

On March 8, 4,000 Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners led by Pingnan General Jin Li ambushed the Ming army led by Pan Yongxi in Tunxi, easily killing more than 3,000 Ming soldiers. Pan Yongxi had to lead the remaining troops to retreat to Xiuning.

However, the Eight Banners led by Jin Li were all cavalry and were not good at attacking cities.

At this time, Jiang Riguang also led reinforcements to Xiuning County in time, and the Ming army was able to stabilize its position.

The two sides started a confrontation in the mountains of Huizhou.

It was not until Jin Li received an urgent report from Xiao Qiyuan on March 14 that he mobilized his troops to prepare to recapture Huzhou.

While Qian Mo was gathering his main force to encircle and annihilate Li Baoguo on the southern front, Jin Li's troops had also arrived near Guangde and were preparing to enter Huzhou.

Since the Ming and Qing armies were facing off on the battlefield in Huizhou, Qian Mo did not receive news of the Ming army's defeat.

Therefore, there was no precaution against Jin Li's actions, and the Intelligence Department did not discover this mobilization of the Qing army.

At this time, Qian Mo was concentrating on digging a hole for Xiao Qiyuan in the south, unaware of the approaching danger.

In Si'an Town, adjacent to Huzhou and Guangde, the Pioneer Battalion of the Qing Army was chasing the rangers of the Jingnan Battalion.
To be continued...