Author: Scholar Wu

After taking Si'an Town with difficulty, Pingnan General Jin Li did not feel the joy of victory at all.

The Eight Manchurian Banners under the True Red Banner lost a total of 1,000 men in Si'an Town, and also sacrificed most of their elite white-armored soldiers.

Counting the 300 Mongolian Eight Banners lost the day before, if he had only 2,700 Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners left.

This is the second time Jin Li has seen such a difficult Ming army.

If the battle in Si'an Town had not been so brutal, the dusty memories deep in his memory might never have been awakened!

The last time was the "Battle of Hunhe" 27 years ago. At that time, the Ming army's Baigan soldiers and Qi's army also killed the "Manchu warriors" in fear. At that time, Jin Li was just an unknown soldier.

The Eight Banners of Manchuria, known as the "invincible", were also killed face to face by the Ming army until no trace of them was left. At that time, the first wave of charging red armored soldiers were defeated by the Ming army's "white pole soldiers".

Facing 20,000 elite cavalrymen of the Eight Banners, thousands of infantrymen in the Ming Military Region actually withstood several rounds of charges and killed thousands of Eight Banners warriors. If the Ming army had not refused to save them and fought independently, the consequences would have been

Unimaginable.

After retracting his thoughts, Jin Li now faced two choices. The first was to go south to Anjizhou, where to open a gap, and finally to return to Hangzhou.

The second one is to attack the front city of Huzhou to regain Huzhou and complete the task assigned to him by Xiao Qiyuan.

If it was a day ago, he would have chosen to go straight to Huzhou without hesitation.

At this time, he actually hesitated, because he didn't know how many Ming troops there were like this?

However, Jin Li quickly decided to lead his army to Huzhou Prefecture. He did not believe that the Ming army would have many such troops. After the "Battle of Hunhe River", such a Ming army never appeared again. Now he is the winner.

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In Heping Town, not far from Huzhou Prefecture, the Mongolian cavalry led by Agari were using whips to drive countless people to Huzhou.

Some slow-moving old people were directly killed by the Mongolian butcher knives. In order to vent their anger, they even set fire to the entire town.

These ferocious-looking Mongolians seemed to have regained their former self-confidence when facing these unarmed people.

After receiving information about the attack on Si'an Town from Zhang Xiaofan, the Huzhou Prefecture began to impose martial law throughout the city.

After Qian Mo learned that the Mongolian cavalry had attacked Si'an Town, he immediately realized that it was the Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners led by Jin Li who had returned to the defense.

At this time, his main force was destroying Xiao Qiyuan's 2,000 reinforcements in the south. There were only 800 people from half of the Shenji Battalion in the entire Huzhou City.

Qian Mo quickly sent someone to notify the Chongming Battalion and Shenji Battalion in Wukang County to return to Huzhou to defend themselves.

Qian Mo did not have any organized cavalry, so it was definitely too late to send people to support Si'an Town at this time.

If he went to Si'an Town to support Zhang Xiaofan, he might directly encounter the Eight Banners of Manchuria in the wild, so Qian Mo simply gave up the idea of ​​supporting Si'an Town.

So he ordered Wang Zaixing to leave 500 people in Wukang and Deqing counties. He quickly led 1,500 people north to Huzhou to "join forces" with Jin Li's Eight Banners.

This time I was really careless.

After seeing the 5,000 troops of Zhejiang Admiral Tian Xiong heading to eastern Zhejiang, Qian Mo felt that Huzhou was safe, but he didn't expect that Xiao Qiyuan actually had this skill.

At this time, Qian Mo was even more afraid that Jin Li's cavalry would bypass Si'an Town and attack Huzhou City.

So Qian Mo, accompanied by Ma Li, the prefect of Huzhou, went to the Qing army's prisoner-of-war camp.

After all, it is not known whether the reinforcements from the south will have time to return to Huzhou Prefecture. The 1,000 Qing troops in this prisoner-of-war camp are the most direct combat force at the moment.

Fortunately, several of Feng Rujin's confidant officers who were prisoners of war had been sent to mine in the Tianmu Mountains, and inspired by the "Zhezi Opera", most of the Qing troops had changed their minds.

At this time, Ma Li, the prefect of Huzhou, started his performance and shouted: "Brothers, now our Ming army is launching a full-scale counterattack."

"In the Ming Dynasty, Jin Shenghuan, the Duke of Yu, and King Deren, the Marquis of Jianwu, raised 300,000 troops and recaptured the entire territory of Jiangxi in one fell swoop. They led the army in an all-out northern expedition. The army of the Duke of Yu, Jin Shenghuan, had already conquered Huizhou and was now advancing on Nanjing; while the army of Jianwu Marquis Wang Deren had already conquered Huizhou.

We have conquered Huangzhou and are besieging Wuchang."

"The 100,000 Ming army led by Dingxi Marquis Zhang Mingzhen has captured the entire territory of Taizhou, and is currently attacking Ningbo together with Su Lubo Huang Binqing. The army of Zhejiang Admiral Tian Xiong has been besieged by our Ming army in the city of Ningbo."

"Qian Mo, the governor of Suhu in the Ming Dynasty, led the Ming army to recapture Huzhou and Jiaxing in one fell swoop. The army under the governor's office is attacking Hangzhou with all its strength. At this moment, the Zhejiang provinces have no troops to mobilize. It is everyone who has made great achievements following the Ming Dynasty king's division.

good time."

"Xiao Qiyuan, the governor of Zhejiang, had no choice but to call back the Eight Banners of Manchuria who had gone out for reinforcements."

"The Eight Banners are not good at attacking cities, but they want to open a gap through our Huzhou. Brothers, can we agree?"

At this time, some of the surrendered soldiers who had been secretly bribed by Ma Li took the lead in shouting: "Defend to Huzhou and never let the Eight Banners soldiers enter the city and harm the people of Huzhou!"

Driven by Ma Li's half-truth and half-false passionate speech, and the encouragement of some "surrendered soldiers" to take the lead in cutting their pigtails, soon all these Qing soldiers cut off their pigtails and became the Ming army.

Magistrate Ma, who was worried about the loss of Huzhou, even organized the gentry and common people of Huzhou to vigorously recruit young men and women in Huzhou City, and soon organized 5,000 young men and women to help defend the city.

Fortunately, Zhang Xiaofan led the Jingnan Battalion to hold Jin Li back for another whole day in Si'an Town, buying Huzhou City a lot of preparation time. At this time, a lot of thunder stones, rolling logs, and kerosene had been prepared on the Huzhou City Wall.

In the early morning of March 17, Jin Li finally led 2,700 Eight Banners to the foot of Huzhou City.

However, he did not have enough troops at this time, so he had to send Mongolian cavalry in both directions to attract the attention of the defenders.

Concentrate the main force of 2000 Zhenghongqi to attack Ximen.

Huzhou City also has a moat, but this time Jin Li was fully prepared and directly drove a large number of people to carry earth to fill the river.

Driving the people to fill the moat was also a kind of psychological warfare imposed by the Qing army on the Ming army defending the city.

If the general ordered the civilians to be shot, although it would prevent the river filling, it would give him a bad reputation. Even if he won the battle, he would probably be impeached by the civil servants behind him for "killing innocent people indiscriminately" and "slaughtering the common people".

Moreover, this era pays great attention to the feelings of fellow villagers, and the guest soldiers do not have this concern. However, most of the defenders are still locals. If they are asked to slaughter their own countrymen, they will still have a lot of resistance, and it will easily cause conflicts between officers and soldiers.

If the guard is merciful, he can only watch the moat being filled in little by little.

In this way, the Qing army's goal will be achieved, and the morale of the Ming army defending the city will be further damaged.

However, morale mainly relies on publicity and strict training.

The daily military regulations of the Shenji Battalion, coupled with the touring performances of the "Zhezi Opera" troupe, had long vividly portrayed the ugly face of the Qing army.

At this time, at the top of the city of Huzhou, whether it was the original soldiers of the Shenji Battalion, the Qing troops who later changed their gates, or even the ordinary young men, they all hated the evil deeds of the Qing troops and gnashed their teeth, vowing to destroy these arrogant soldiers.

The Eight Banners Soldiers.

Qian Mo did not order the soldiers to fire on the people filling the river, but only ordered the soldiers of the Shenji Battalion to shoot at the Qing troops who were supervising the work behind the people.

However, at this time, the Qing army already knew the range of the Lumi gun, and they basically wandered a hundred steps away from the city wall. Of course, at this distance, the Qing army's bows and arrows were also powerless against the Ming army on the city.

Watching the moat being filled in little by little, Jin Li was in a good mood. It seemed that the Ming army general who was defending the city was also an idiot with a womanly heart. After the moat was filled in, he could attack Huzhou City.

At that time, we must let the warriors loot the city and let the Han people know the consequences of opposing the Qing Dynasty.

By this time, the people filling the river had been filling the river for an hour, although Qian Mo estimated that it would still take some time for Lu Shanhai and Huang Yu to arrive.

But they can't let them continue to fill in the moat. If they really fill up the moat, the Qing army will attack the city.

So the Ming army on the city shouted: "Common people below the city, quickly jump into the moat to escape. When the moat is really filled, the Qing army will drive you to attack the city, and then you will be dead."

Since the Qing army in charge of supervision did not dare to get within a hundred steps of the city, the people filling the river were already some distance away from the Qing army. Most of the people in Huzhou area knew how to drink water. When the Ming army shouted this, the people jumped in one after another.

The moat flows towards the north and south gates.

Some supervising Qing troops saw the people jumping into the river to escape, and tried to stop them, but were hit by fire cannons on the top of the city.

So they had no choice but to set up their bows and shoot arrows at the people.

Many people were killed by the Qing army's bows and arrows, and the moat was dyed red with blood for a while.

There were still four Folan cannons on the top of Huzhou City. At this time, Qian Mo ordered to open fire and bombard the Qing troops who were killing civilians.

Although the accuracy of the artillery was really limited, the roaring sound of the artillery still caused some confusion to the Qing troops who fired arrows.

At this time, the remaining filling work could only be completed by the Qing army themselves.

Under the cover of one cart after another, the Qing army began to charge towards the moat.

After the battle of Si'an Town, the Qing army discovered through inspection that in fact, the thicker parts of the middle and lower parts of the carriage were not penetrated by the Ming army's firearms, and only the relatively thin upper part was penetrated by the Ming army's firearms.

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So the existing catapult carts were reinforced and modified overnight. Even if the modified catapult carts were fifty steps away, the Ming army on the city could not penetrate them.

In this way, the Qing army successfully advanced to the moat and began filling soil.

With the loud "bomb" of the Fo Lang machine cannon, a carriage of the Qing army was blown away, and several Eight Banners soldiers behind the carriage also went to the west, and the soldiers of the Shenji Battalion on the rear city took the opportunity to

Kill the Qing army who lost the cover of their carriages.

Usually, there would be about 30 soldiers behind each carriage of the Qing army, so blowing up one or two carriages would almost mean the death of dozens of people for the Qing army.

However, the hit rate of this Fo Lang machine gun was indeed not high. After a long time of fighting, it only destroyed 5 Qing army's carriages.

At this time, the Qing army had also entered within 50 steps of the city. The Qing army's archers kept hiding behind the carriages to shoot at the Ming army on the city.

The Ming troops on the city were constantly being hit by bows and arrows thrown by the Qing troops. Although the bows and arrows directly hit their vital points, not many were killed on the spot.

However, the continuous projectiles of the Qing army still greatly affected the Ming army on the city's interference with the Qing army's filling of the moat.

Especially those young men who helped with transportation on the city were hit by bows and arrows thrown by the Qing army from time to time, causing great panic.

Of course, the Qing army at this time could only use projectiles. They did not dare to leave the cover of the carriages to find targets and shoot freely, otherwise they would be hit by the gunmen of the Shenji Battalion on the city first.

At this time, Qian Mo felt that it was necessary to create sniper guns with a longer range in the future, as well as some mortars that could perform parabolic shooting. Otherwise, facing the Qing army's tortoise-like car-carrying tactics, the Ming army would not have the same solution.

many.
To be continued...