Chapter 99 Incident in East Zhejiang 2 (Please subscribe for support)

Author: Scholar Wu

Chapter 99 Incident in East Zhejiang 2 (Please subscribe for support)

Seeing that his men were successfully filling the moat, Yang Wenqi also relaxed.

He smiled and said: "It seems that the Taoist leader has been overly worried. Ma Xin is now short of men and horses and is unable to stop us from attacking the city. As long as the moat is filled in, I can capture Ninghai City in less than an hour."

Chuchen stared at Ninghai City expressionlessly and said lightly: "I hope so!"

At this time, the west gate of Ninghai was suddenly opened, and Ma Xin led hundreds of Ming army cavalry to rush out quickly. Since the main force of the Qing army was at the south gate at this time, there were not many troops here at the west gate. One Qing army was killed at once

Caught off guard.

Facing the galloping cavalry, the Qing army was completely unprepared. Looking at the flying dust and the slightly trembling earth, they began to feel timid.

These Qing soldiers fired their bows and arrows randomly, then turned around and ran away. But how could the "two legs" outrun the "four legs"?

Ma Xin took the lead and quickly swung his sword towards the fleeing Qing army, easily harvesting their heads. After a burst of killing, the Qing army quickly collapsed.

However, Yang Wenqi knew that there were many Ming army cavalry in Ninghai City, and he had already deployed cavalry outside Ninghai to prevent Ming army raids.

Just when Ma Xin's attack was about to start, he saw smoke billowing from the south, and Vice General Pan was galloping towards him with more than a thousand cavalry.

Ma Xin quickly ordered his men to adjust their formation, but instead of leading his men in a face-to-face confrontation with the Qing army, he gave up chasing the defeated troops and headed west instead.

When Lieutenant General Pan saw that Ma Xin did not lead anyone to fight against him, he thought that the Ming army was too timid to fight because of its small number, so he shouted: "Brothers, Ma Xin wants to run away, everyone should follow me and catch up."

However, the Ming cavalry led by Ma Xin did not just run away desperately, but from time to time they turned around and shot a few arrows at the chasing Qing cavalry.

Vice General Pan immediately ordered the Qing cavalry to fire arrows in return. Although the volley shooting skills of this group were really poor, after all, the Qing army fired arrows from the front, and several Ming soldiers were hit by arrows and fell from their horses.

Seeing the fallen Ming army, the Qing army became even more excited and started cheering. If the Mongolian cavalry saw the Qing army's riding and shooting skills, they would probably faint on the spot!

However, this did not prevent the Qing army from continuing to enjoy the joy of chasing, as if they were hunters chasing their prey.

Soon, Vice General Pan could no longer be happy. He saw hundreds more Ming cavalry charging out from the high slopes on both sides, like two sharp swords thrusting into the Qing army.

Faced with the sudden attack, the Qing army fell into chaos instantly, and those who were killed flipped over. At this time, Ma Xin and others who were escaping from the front turned their horses and killed one with a carbine.

The Qing cavalry rushing in front encountered attacks from three directions. The formation was soon ruthlessly torn apart by the Ming army. How could they still have the courage to resist?

As the Ming army's swords harvested all the way, the Qing army fell in large numbers in an instant.

Facing the Ming army's ambush, Vice General Pan remained calm and shouted in the crowd: "Don't panic, everyone, face the enemy head-on."

At this time, he saw a familiar face among the enemy. Ma Xin was slashing all the way with his sword raised high. He ran directly in front of Deputy General Pan and cut him off his horse with a sword. It was quite similar to the momentum that Guan Yun used to kill Yan Liang with a long sword!

The general died, and the remaining Qing cavalry lost even more fighting spirit and simply dispersed like birds and beasts.

Ma Xin shouted: "Everyone, hurry up and follow this group of defeated troops, and use them to directly overwhelm Yang Wenqi's infantry in the south of the city."

Outside the south gate, Yang Wenqi saw the cavalry retreating in his direction and knew something was wrong. He quickly ordered his infantry to form a formation to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of the retreat.

Of course, the defeated cavalry would not directly attack the front of the infantry. After all, the bright spears would stab them to death. However, following them around the sides of the formation were the cavalry of the Ming army behind them.

After bypassing the Qing troops holding spears in front of them, the Ming army gave up chasing the fleeing Qing cavalry, and instead began to directly kill the Qing infantry who lacked protection.

Yang Wenqi's infantry formation of 2,000 people was instantly smashed to pieces, and more than 700 people were killed by the Ming army on the spot. Fortunately, these were Yang Wenqi's direct troops. They knew that they could not escape at this time. Once the infantrymen turned their backs

If exposed to the cavalry of the Ming army, the entire army would really be wiped out.

With the desperate fighting of the soldiers, they finally withstood the charge of the Ming Army cavalry. The Ming Army cavalry, which had lost its impact, turned around and left, but the Ming Army cavalry that had regrouped did not continue to attack Yang Wenqi.

Instead of marching in formation, they headed towards the south gate.

At this time, the Qing army who was filling in the moat was completely panicked. In front of them were the Ming army's moat and bows and arrows, and behind them were the Ming army's cavalry galloping towards them.

Needless to say, this must have been a complete massacre. Facing the galloping Ming cavalry, some people instinctively chose to lay down their weapons and kneel down to surrender.

At this time, Ma Xin also shouted: "Put down your weapons, disarm and do not kill!"

Su Jian also quickly asked the Ming troops on the city to shout together: "Put down your weapons, surrender your weapons and not kill."

Amidst the deafening shouts of the Ming army, the Qing army completely collapsed and they all knelt down and surrendered.

Ma Xin's prediction was true. Yang Wenqi indeed asked the 1,000 new troops with the weakest combat power in Linhai City to serve as cannon fodder and take on the task of filling in the moat.

The reason why Ma Xin abandoned these new troops at Linhai was partly because there were not enough horses to take them away.

What's more important is that these new armies have weak fighting will and lack of combat effectiveness. Once the war goes unfavorably, they can easily defect on the battlefield, just like now.

However, these people also have an advantage. They never dare to act as Yang Wenqi's internal correspondent. At this time, they are much more useful than other Qing troops who surrendered.

Besides, this group of people were originally Ma Xin's subordinates, and now they can be regarded as bringing order to the chaos.

Except for a small number of Yang Wenqi's cronies who were taken to Ninghai Prison, the others directly transformed themselves into the Ming army guarding Ninghai.

Ma Xin also accepted it as soon as he could, and quickly took these Qing prisoners back to Ninghai City.

Seeing Ma Xin covered in blood, Su Jian shouted: "General Bing Ma is really a god. 1,000 soldiers and horses actually killed Yang Wenqi's 7,000 troops crying for their fathers and mothers, and even captured nearly a thousand enemy troops."

Ma Xin asked with a smile: "Brother Su, you don't have to worry about being unable to defend Ninghai now. Brother Ma and I can fight well. How do they compare with the general soldiers under your Governor Qian?"

Su Jian said seriously: "Although I have many powerful generals under my command in the Suhu Governor's Office, I have never had a good cavalry commander. Brother Ma's cavalry skills are superb and eye-opening. Su Jian admires him very much!"

Ma Xin smiled and said: "It seems that this little brother Su wants to recruit me for Governor Qian. Ma has heard for a long time that Governor Qian is the richest man in the world. He won five million taels of silver in a 'World Game' that year. I don't know.

How much money are you prepared to pay?"

Seeing Su Jian's troubled expression, Ma Xin smiled and said: "It seems that Brother Su is serious. Ma was impressed by Dingxi Marquis' arrogance. He can hand over Taizhou to me as a surrendered general. I will definitely not let him down."

How can he dare to have second thoughts?"

Ma Xin's concern was revealed. Su Jian blushed and quickly changed the subject and asked: "Yang Wenqi was clearly defeated just now. Why didn't Brother Ma take advantage of the victory and defeat him completely? Instead, he retreated into the city?"

Ma Xin said: "Yang Wenqi is a good leader. His infantry was defeated and he refused to retreat. Even if I adjust my cavalry again to charge them, I estimate that it will take two more kills to completely defeat them."

"He still has 1,000 cavalry at the east gate, and they will arrive soon. If there are no 1,000 cavalry to hold down the formation, I have enough time to overwhelm his infantry formation. The best option at this time is to surrender these 1,000 cavalry to strengthen Ninghai

The defense force is strong, otherwise when the 1,000 cavalry attack me, I may not be able to escape unscathed if I am attacked by them from two directions."

At this time, the casualties of the Ming army's attack were also counted. Despite the two-way attack with the cavalry ambushing outside the city, the Ming army still lost 200 cavalry this time.

At this time, Yang Wenqi outside the city was in shock. Fortunately, he still had a backup plan. If the Dongmen cavalry had not arrived in time, Ma Xin would have completely overwhelmed his infantry formation.

This time he led 7,000 troops to besiege Ninghai. Now, the troops filling the moat were killed and 1,000 were captured. The infantry in the infantry formation outside the west gate and the south gate were 1,000 killed, and the cavalry was killed 800.

Only 4,200 people remained, including 3,000 infantry and 1,200 cavalry.

Yang Wenqi understood that most of the captured people were new soldiers from Linhai City who had just surrendered, and most of them had directly become Ming troops at this time.

To be honest, the strength of the two sides was already very close at this time, and Yang Wenqi was already thinking about retreating. But if he, the admiral of southern Zhejiang, retreated to Linhai City in such a dejected manner, his face would be ruined and his prestige would be completely lost.

At this time, the red cannons had been delivered to the city. Yang Wenqi decided to bombard Ninghai first to boost morale.

The Qing army quickly set up artillery positions, and six red cannons took turns to bombard Ninghai City.

After all, Ninghai is a county town, and the city is not that strong. After the brick-clad city wall was hit by a cannonball, the rammed earth inside was quickly exposed. Fortunately, although the red cannon can hit Ninghai City, it is difficult to hit a single point.

However, after half an hour of shelling, Ninghai City was now riddled with holes.

The city tower at the south gate was almost collapsed, and there were huge craters in many places on the city wall, which threatened to collapse at any time. Several artillery shells even hit the city head directly, causing dozens of casualties to the Ming army.

In fact, compared with the actual damage caused by the artillery, the psychological blow to the Ming army was fatal. Ma Xin's veterans were okay, but it turned out that the Ming army stationed in Tiantai and Ninghai were not the main force, and their morale suddenly fell in the face of the continuous bombardment.

Much lowered.

Fortunately, Ma Xin did not place the new Linhai recruits who had just surrendered in the south city at all, but dispersed them directly to the other three city walls, otherwise they would have been scared to death on the spot.

What was even more unfortunate was that the iron chain of the suspension bridge was broken by Qing artillery and fell directly on the moat.

At this time, Yang Wenqi had already given up on besieging the city on all sides, and instead concentrated all his troops to the south of the city to prevent them from being defeated one by one by the Ming army.

Looking at the devastated Ninghai Nancheng, the morale of the Qing army has been restored, and Yang Wenqi is also full of confidence at this moment.

Yang Wenqi said regretfully: "Yang was too hasty before. He should not have surrounded the city and dispersed his troops, which gave Ma Xin an opportunity to take advantage of."

"If we concentrate our forces and rely on red cannons to attack Nancheng, Ninghai will have already broken the city!"

Looking at the newly confident Yang Wenqi in front of him, Chuchen thought: If you were willing to listen to my advice and abandon Ninghai, cross the Tiantai Mountains and go straight to Xinchang, you would have solved the siege of Shaoxing long ago, and you would not have just lost your troops under the small city of Ninghai.

?

Chuchen said: "It is already dusk now. Is Admiral Yang preparing to attack Ninghai City overnight?"

After being asked this question by Chuchen, Yang Wenqi found that he was now in a dilemma!

Attacking Ninghai City overnight? Are you kidding? There are two to three thousand Ming troops in the city. It's hard to say who will win in a street battle all night long.

If you retreat while you are victorious, where will you put your face?

What's more, if we are pursued by Ma Xin, there is still a question mark as to whether we can safely retreat to Linhai.

Yang Wenqi said in embarrassment: "I regret not listening to the Taoist priest's words. Now we are in a dilemma under Ninghai City. What can we do?"

Chuchen said: "The most troublesome thing in Ninghai City is the cavalry under Ma Xin. As long as they are killed, the remaining Ming army will not be able to filter."

"Since there is no guarantee of victory in the siege, let's lure him out and eat him."

As the sun set, the red cannons of the Qing army finally ceased their activity, and the Ming army on the city took advantage of this rare gap to repair the city wall.

Su Jian asked: "Will the Qing army attack the city overnight?"
To be continued...