Wangqi Gate, the north gate of Suzhou City, a sad city gate!
At that time, Duke Jinggong of Qi was afraid of King Helu's military might, so he had to marry his daughter to Prince Wu Bo. When Qi's daughter was young, she cried day and night and became ill, so Helu built the north gate, named "Wang Qi Gate". In order to allow Qi's daughter to be able to
Climbing high and looking far away at the homeland of Qi, I saw that the city wall at Qimen was very tall.
Climb high and look far away, thinking of us all together! Parents and relatives are here, we are far away from each other every day!
It’s so sad! The story of Qi Nu has been legendary for thousands of years, and a thousand years later, the sad scene happened again. There is nothing sadder than war!
Cai Lu, the deputy general of the Ming Dynasty Navy, led 5,000 naval troops and 80 warships. They set out from Fushan Port, often familiar with the waterways, and arrived at the gate of Wangqi in Suzhou. Although there were not many soldiers and horses, the cannons on the warships were both numerous and heavy. "Hit me hard!"
Following Cai Lu's order, Wangqimen fell into sadness.
Previously, among the eight major city gates in Suzhou, Guxu Gate, Pan Gate, Shemen Gate, Miao Gate, Ganjiang Gate, and Wumen had been attacked by Ma Bao's army for more than half a month. Wangqi Gate and Chang Gate were protected by the river.
It was not affected. Unexpectedly, I was not spared today.
"Enemy attack! Go and report to the commander!"
The loyal Chinese army was stationed on Nanhao Street next to Changmen. The reason why the Chinese army was stationed here was because Changmen had a waterway connected to the Jiangnan Canal. Once the war situation was unfavorable, one could escape north through the canal to Wuxi County, Changzhou Prefecture.
; In addition, the Chang Gate is also known as the Chu Gate. Sun Wu and Wu Zixu set out from this gate to attack and destroy the Chu State. They used this gate as the central army, which was auspicious.
Hearing that the Ming navy was coming up the northern waterway, Guan Zhongzhong hurried to Qimen to watch. He was a veteran, and he knew the Ming warship was a sea-going ship.
It's over! The navy of the Ming Army must have captured Changshu via Baimaopu or Yushan Waterway. Once Changshu is lost, the Ming Army can capture Wuxi and cut off its retreat.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
As if they knew they were coming, the cannonballs from the Ming army's warships rained down on Wangqimen.
Guan Zhongzhong had to go down to the city to escape. Wang Fuchen rushed over and said, "Commander, I hope the Ming navy appears under Qi's command. Changshu must be lost. We must evacuate to Wuxi quickly, otherwise the Ming army will cut off our army's retreat and everything will be over!"
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Guan Zhongzhong nodded, "Don't worry, General Wang, I have already prepared a boat in Shangtang River (ancient river channel of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal) and will leave tonight."
It was dark at night, and the Qing army opened the water gate and took a boat from Shangtang River to Wuxi.
In addition to Guan Zhongzhong and Wang Fuchen's more than 10,000 subordinates, the Suzhou garrison also had more than 2,000 local garrison troops from Wu County and Changzhou (the same city in the two counties). Guan Zhongzhong and Wang Fuchen's men boarded the ship and fled. These local garrison troops
But they refused to escape. Their families were all in the city, so they simply opened the city gate and dawn came.
When Ma Bao's army entered Suzhou, it was already dawn. Hearing that Guan Zhongzhong had fled to Wuxi, he quickly collected ships, asked Cai Lu's navy to escort them, and rushed to Wuxi along the canal.
Fighting meant morale. The Ming army won consecutive battles and their morale was high. The Qing army suffered consecutive defeats and their morale collapsed. Despite his loyalty, Wang Fuchen was frightened and did not dare to defend Wuxi. He continued to flee along the canal to Changzhou Prefecture and Wujin County. After escaping to Wujin, the two of them calmed down. Wujin is a prefectural city with a high city and a deep pool. It is also close to Zhenjiang, so it is easy to get reinforcements from friendly forces. The two decided to defend Wujin and wait for reinforcements.
The two of them thought too much, but Ma Bao had no intention of entering the city with force. Zhu Hengjia's military order was to seize the central and southern parts of Changzhou, cut off the connection between South Zhili and Zhejiang, and then rendezvous at Liyang County, Yingtian Prefecture.
Therefore, after capturing Wuxi, Ma Bao planned to turn west and capture Yixing County, and then go to Liyang.
"Uncle Pucheng, the general's mission has been completed. He rushed to Zhenjiang to meet the Marquis of Dinghai and came to say goodbye." Cai Lu said goodbye to Ma Bao.
"Thanks to the help of our navy brothers in the battle of Suzhou, I will keep this in mind. Vice Admiral Cai will be careful all the way." Ma Bao saw off Cai Lu.
After sending Cai Lu away, Ma Bao's 30,000-strong army headed west and headed straight for Yixing County. The speed was so fast that before the Qing Yixing garrison had time to surrender, they were beheaded.
After capturing Yixing County, it was connected with Guangzhou controlled by the Ming army. The military order Zhu Hengjia gave to Ma Bao to cut off the connection between Southern Zhili and Zhejiang was completed. The next step was to rush to Liyang County, Yingtian Prefecture, and communicate with Jianguo
King Jing’s army gathers.
Ma Bao asked the scout: "Has the army of the Supervisor arrived in Liyang?"
"Commander, no large army of supervisors has been found near Liyang."
Ma Bao laughed loudly, "Jian Guo, Jian Guo, you kept urging the general and Dinghaihou to speed up the march. As a result, Dinghaihou has blocked the Yangtze River waterway, and the general has also cut off the connection between South Zhili and Zhejiang. No.
I think you arrived too late. Anyway, I will rest for two days at the end and capture Liyang for you. I will wait for you in Liyang. Hahaha!"
??
Ma Bao thought that Prince Jing was slow, but in fact he was not slow at all!
Naturally, the 140,000 troops cannot march as fast as the 30,000 troops. In addition, Zhu Hengjia's army is accompanied by hundreds of civil and military officials. With these people present, the speed will naturally slow down.
With the conscience of heaven and earth, Zhu Hengjia has tried his best to speed up the march.
He first led a large army to cross Shijiu Lake, with more than 140,000 troops, and it took three days to cross the lake alone; then, he made a surprise attack on Gaochun County. Gaochun County is located between Shijiu Lake and Gucheng Lake. It is naturally dangerous, but the Ming army
After crossing the lake, they appeared behind the county town. To the surprise of the defenders, there were only two thousand defenders in the city, and they easily captured the city. Finally, they went all the way east and captured Guangtong Town, an important town in Lishui, with their swords pointed at Liyang.
Now, the vanguard of the Ming army is only three days away from Liyang.
"Hurry, speed up the march," Zhu Hengjia urged his men. He thought he was faster than Ma Bao, and said to his left and right: "Give Ma Bao the order to attack Yixing quickly, and Gu will wait for him in Liyang." ??
"Da da da", "ta da da"??
The cavalry is as fast as flying, Zhao Butai is the real person at the front of Qinggu Mountain, and Ga Chuha of Mele Zhangjing is galloping with eight thousand Manchu and Mongolian eight banners.
Lang Tingzuo asked Zhao Butai to rush to help Changzhou and Suzhou. Zhao Butai was a veteran Manchu general and naturally knew the importance of Changzhou, so he traveled to Changzhou day and night.
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But he didn't expect that Guan Zhongzhong and Wang Fuchen would lose the city and land so quickly. Suzhou, one of the strongest cities in the world, was lost in twenty days, and Wuxi failed to defend it for a day and fled directly to Wujin.
"The lower official welcomes Ezhen respectfully", Guan Zhongzhong, Wang Fuchen welcomed Zhao Butai into Wujin City.
Zhao Butai was going crazy when he saw that the two of them had fled to Wujin so quickly. But now that the army was defeated like a mountain, it was the time to hire people, and the generals should not be blamed lightly. Now that Suzhou and Wuxi have been lost, Yixing must not be allowed to return.
Lost it, otherwise, the connection with Zhejiang would be cut off. I still hope that the two of them will guard Yixing with me.
He suppressed his anger and calmly asked the second general: "Where is the Ming army now?"
Guan Zhongzhong always replied: "The Ming army went to Yixing."
"What!"
Zhao Butai was shocked, but quickly regained his composure. First he asked Guan Zhongzhong: "Are you with the flag?"
"Thanks to the emperor's kindness, I entered the Han Army Banner."
"Yes." Zhao Butai nodded and asked Wang Fuchen: "Have you ever been a first-class imperial guard?"
Wang Fuchen once followed Jiang Xiang to rebel against the Qing Dynasty and was taken into Xinzhe's treasury as a slave. He was highly skilled in martial arts and gradually became famous in Beijing. After Emperor Shunzhi came to power, he favored Han people. Hearing that Wang Fuchen was good at martial arts, he once appointed him as a first-class imperial guard.
Later, he was sent to Hong Chengchou as the commander-in-chief. It can be said that Emperor Shunzhi was kind to Wang Fuchen.
Seeing Zhao Butai mentioning that he was a bodyguard, Wang Fuchen's eyes were full of gratitude, "This is all a great kindness from the Emperor, and it will be difficult to repay it until you are broken into pieces!"
"Okay, please don't forget the kindness of the emperor! Today is the time to serve the emperor. Do you dare to fight to the death with me?"
"The general will be willing!"
"Well, the Ming army went to attack Yixing, but Yixing was in trouble. I want to lead the army to recapture Yixing. You will assemble the army to follow me as soon as possible."
Guan Zhongzhong hesitated, "Well, our army has less than 20,000 soldiers and horses, but the Ming army in Yixing has 30,000. I'm afraid that instead of recapturing Yixing, we will lose Wujin."
Zhao Butai was very confident, "If there are not even ten thousand Jurchens, they are invincible. This time, I have brought eight thousand Manchu cavalry, all of them are warriors who have experienced hundreds of battles. Not to mention thirty thousand, it is an army of one hundred thousand.
I dare to fight. What, you don’t dare to fight?"
"If there are not even ten thousand Jurchens, they will be invincible." These words greatly encouraged Guan Zhongzhong and Wang Fuchen. The two men cheered up and shouted in unison: "The final general is willing to follow Ezhen and take back Yixing City!"
