Nanming Yiming

Chapter 156
After a night of rest, the morale of the Qing army gradually recovered.

Shi Tingzhu inquired about the battle process carefully, and observed the fortress in front of him, and found that the strong attack was really terrible.

The cunning Ming army cooperated with trenches, various fortifications and firearms, making it impossible for the Qing army to fully launch an offensive.

Now that the war has just started, his Han army has lost a total of 4000 men in Zhengbai chess, leaving 11000 men left.If it is filled with people like Wuertai did yesterday, even if Si'an Town is captured, it will basically be useless.

Fortunately, he insisted on carrying the cannons in red, and now he can only rely on these cannons to take down the fortress of the Ming army.

In order to prevent the Ming army from attacking, Shi Tingzhu still placed the position of the red cannon on the other side of the Si'an River.With an order, the 10 red cannons on the artillery positions of the Qing army began to roar towards the bastion of the Ming army.

Soon, the shells began to fall on the moat in front of the bastion. For a while, flames were everywhere, dust was flying, and deep pits appeared in the moat one by one.

Bai Bing said: "Pay attention to concealment, they are adjusting the distance of the guns, and they should hit the bastion soon."

Sure enough, after the second round of shooting started, several shells hit the thick wall of the bastion directly. The Qing army in the distance saw that the artillery had hit the target and began to cheer.

But soon their cheers stopped, because the Qing army found that after the shells hit, they hardly caused any substantial damage to the fortress.

In addition to leaving a little depression, it just let some gravel debris fall off the surface.

The shelling lasted for nearly half an hour. Although the moat in front had been blown beyond recognition, the bastions of the Ming army were almost safe!
Seeing that there was no effect, Shi Tingzhu ordered the artillery position to be moved forward two miles, and bombarded the castle of the Ming army at close range.

Soon the Qing army arranged the red cannon properly, readjusted the gun distance and started a new round of shooting.

After seeing that the Qing army entered the range, the Ming army was not polite, and began to fight back with Frang machine artillery.

After the two sides shot each other for a while, the bastion of the Ming army was still not significantly damaged, but the artillery positions of the Qing army were attacked by the Ming army, and 5 red cannons were directly blown up.

Shi Tingzhu hurriedly ordered the transfer of the remaining cannons, avoiding the annihilation of the entire army.

Shi Tingzhu took a deep breath, the fortress of the Ming army was too strong, even if it was bombarded for a few more days, it would not be possible to destroy it.

At this moment, Urtai on the side gloated a little and said, "Shi Dutong, it seems that the red cannons you brought with you are also useless?"

"There is no other way at the moment, but to attack by force; my Red Banner soldiers suffered heavy casualties yesterday, today depends on the performance of your Han Army Banner!"

After finishing speaking, Urtai put on a look of having nothing to do with himself and hanging on high.

Shi Tingzhu began to scold his mother in his heart: Urtai, you bastard, yesterday you sent 7000 to [-] heads to the Ming army, do you want me to continue sending them today?
The flag soldiers who are facing the red flag are human lives. Isn't my Han army flag not human life?
Shi Tingzhu suppressed his anger and said: "Wu Ertai participated in the leadership, the Ming army's firearms are sharp, even the Manchurian warriors of Zhenghongqi have not conquered; our Han army Zhengbaiqi is stronger than Zhenghongqi?"

Shi Tingzhu's question stumped Wuertai, he originally wanted to embarrass Shi Tingzhu.As a result, Shi Tingzhu turned him into one army. If he continued to let the Han Army Banner fight alone, wouldn't it be a disguised admission that he is not as good as the Han Army Banner?
Anyway, in terms of fighting spirit, he will never be able to compare with these Han people.

Originally, he was just speaking out of anger, not really wanting to stand on the sidelines, and said: "Okay, I can send troops to attack all the way under the red flag, and I ask Shi Dutong to go all out."

Now it's Shi Tingzhu's turn to ride the tiger, and the whole army attacks the Ming army's fortress?
Could it be that my brain is flooded, and it is still boiling water.

So he said: "Dare to ask Wuertai to participate in the leadership, what price do you think we have to pay to capture this fortress of the Ming army?"

Urtai gritted his teeth and said, "At least six to seven thousand people are needed!"

Shi Tingzhu nodded in agreement, and continued, "Actually, six to seven thousand people is an optimistic estimate. Even if we capture the fortress in front of us, how many people are left?"

"If the Ming army still has a few such fortresses ahead, can we attack again?"

"Let's not talk about Hangzhou City by then, I'm afraid we won't even be able to beat Huzhou."

"This"

Ultai didn't know how to answer.

Shi Tingzhu took the opportunity to say: "The Ming army was good at defending the city. If I, the Qing Dynasty, had been staring at Shanhaiguan, would I still be able to enter the pass and dominate the world?"

"This kind of stubble, we can go around it. Although it takes time, it's better than folding it all here."

Wuertai thought it was a brilliant move, and said: "I have already sent out spies to explore the way. Si'an Town has blocked the only way to enter Huzhou. We can't get around it."

Shi Tingzhu knew very well that the Ming army must have seized the danger in advance, and there would not be any avenues near Si'an Town for them to pass through. Otherwise, wouldn't it be useless for the Ming army to spend so much effort to build a fort here?
Since ancient times, when marching and fighting, the topographic map of mountains and rivers is the most important.Whoever controls the map can control the initiative of the war.

In "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Zhang Song wanted to donate the twelve counties of Xichuan to Cao Cao and Liu Bei. In fact, what he presented was only a "Topographic Map of Xichuan". Although a military topographic map cannot be equated with the states and counties, it is enough to see The importance of maps.

In history, the reason why Tan Tai was able to enter Jiangxi quickly was because of the geographical maps of Jiangxi's various prefectures donated by Liu Tongchun, the capital of Jiangxi.But now Liu Tongchun is drawing a map and making a sand table for the governor's office in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.Tan Tai's southern conquest army was even more helpless in the face of the complex terrain of Jiujiang, Huizhou, and Huzhou.

On the topographic map given by the Ministry of War, there are indeed two roads in the north-south direction that can bypass Si'an Town and enter Huzhou.As soon as Shi Tingzhu arrived here last night, he sent scouts to investigate.

As a result, the news that came back today drove him to death. The road to the north leads directly to Changxing County, and the scouts came back and said that they found an identical Ming army fortress in the direction of Changxing.

The scouts went to investigate along the road to the south, and found that this road led directly to Kuling Pass, which had been garrisoned by Ming troops long ago.

Shi Tingzhu knew that the main road would definitely be impassable, but there were still many small roads.

Although the Ming army could block the main roads, they certainly couldn't block all the small roads.Even if it is a grand pass like Jiange, isn't there a Yinping trail that can be smuggled?
So the Qing army sent a large number of soldiers to search the mountains, and searched for the people who cut firewood, hunted, and collected herbs in the mountains.

The Manchurian soldiers in the red flag would definitely not be able to do this job, so the soldiers in the Han army flag suffered.The weather in May was already hot, and they were wearing thick cotton jackets and traversing the mountains to feed mosquitoes.

A soldier scolded angrily: "Isn't Shi Dutong trying to amuse us? We all know that there is a war here. Where are ordinary people haunting? We searched for a long time and didn't even see a single person?"

The other soldiers said: "Don't bite Lu Dongbin, Shi Dutong saved the brothers. Isn't it because he was born with stinky sweat and fed the mosquitoes? Are you not happy?"

"Tell you, I participated in the siege yesterday. The fortress of the Ming army was so weird that it couldn't be attacked at all; plus their firearms were sharp, we killed 6500 people in more than an hour yesterday. 3000 positive red flags wiped out the entire army."

Now the soldier was so frightened that he didn't dare to speak. He couldn't even feel the heat anymore, and started to break out in a cold sweat.

When a few people were complaining, they suddenly heard a sound in the woods in front of them. Looking carefully, it turned out to be a woodcutter chopping wood.

A Qing soldier shouted: "Chop firewood, come to me quickly!"

The woodcutter saw that it was the Qing army, so he ran away!
Seeing this, the Qing army was in a hurry, and immediately shouted: "Don't run, we won't hurt you."

This is like the Anti-Japanese War of later generations, the puppet army shouted: "Folks, come out, the emperor does not shoot food!"

It's okay if you don't listen to this, but the woodcutter runs faster when he hears this!

Several people rushed to chase after seeing this, but they were wearing thick cotton armor, and they ran past the woodcutter in the mountains, and they disappeared after chasing for a while.

Just when several people were regretting, they found a mountain path.To say it is a road is a bit of an exaggeration, it is full of weeds and thorns, and it is impossible to see the appearance of the road; but out of curiosity, they walked all the way, and unexpectedly they walked out of the mountain.

They even saw the smoke from the village's cooking not far away. This was really unintentional, and they suddenly felt that they were very lucky.Originally, I wanted to go to the village to grab a few tongues and ask about the situation, but if the identity was exposed, the villagers would not be worth the loss if they ran to report to the Ming army, so they had no choice but to give up.

Several people hurriedly made marks along the way, and hurriedly went back to receive the reward.

Shi Tingzhu and Wuertai were also very anxious at this time. They were delayed for two full days before Si'an Town, but they were unable to make any progress.If the general knew about it, how would they explain it?

This important discovery made their eyes shine instantly.

If it was the way pointed out by the nearby villagers, he was worried that it might be a Ming army spy pretending to be it.This accidental discovery convinced Shi Tingzhu of this.

However, for safety reasons, he still sent a vanguard of 1000 people to explore the way.On the one hand, it is to open the way first to see if there is an ambush by the Ming army; on the other hand, it is also to see if the large troops can pass through safely.

Armed with machetes, these Qing troops cut through thorns and thorns and cleared obstacles along the way. It took half a day to finally clear a road that could barely pass through. However, heavy weapons such as red cannons were impossible to pass through.

When Shi Tingzhu heard the news, he couldn't hide his excitement, it really paid off!

Shi Tingzhu decided to leave 1000 Han army flags, and continued to bombard the fortress of the Ming army with artillery to cover the transfer of large troops.

At this time, the white soldiers in the bastion also noticed that something was wrong with the Qing army on the opposite side.

Although the Qing army still used artillery to attack, and there were many flags and flags in the camp, the smoke from cooking was significantly reduced.

Soon the spies brought news that the main force of the Qing army might have left, and there were only a thousand Qing troops in the opposite camp.

But at this time he also fell into a dilemma. If he chooses to attack, there is no guarantee that this is not a conspiracy by the Qing army to lure snakes out of the cave.If he was ambushed by the Qing army, this bastion would not be able to hold on. When the Huzhou gate opened wide, the entire Tianmu Mountain defense line would be useless.

But if the Qing army has really moved away and only left these thousands of people as suspects, he must take action.

After several weighings, Bai Bing decided to send sentry cavalry to Huzhou to report the news that the main force of the Qing army might need to break through from other places.

In addition, a commando of 50 people was sent to test the Qing army.

His goal was not the Qing army camp, but the artillery positions of the Qing army.

Under the cover of the darkness, the Ming army of the Tianmu Battalion slowly came out from behind the bastion and sneaked into the woods on the north side.

The Qing army thought that they could prevent the Ming army from crossing the river by choking the stone bridge in front of the Si'an River, but they were newcomers after all and did not know the geography.On the north side of Si'an River, there is still a shoal with gentle current that can be directly swam across.

At this time, the Ming army had quietly touched the artillery positions of the Qing army.After easily taking out several sentries, they ignited the gunpowder and shells.

There were several loud bangs, and the artillery positions of the Qing army burst into flames, and these red cannons were directly blown up by the Ming army.

Seeing this scene, the Qing army was dumbfounded. Can the artillery of the Ming army hit the artillery positions of the Qing army?
Looking at the chaotic Qing army in the distance, Bai Bing can now be sure that there is no ambush at all.

So he personally led the Tianmu Battalion to attack the soldiers in two ways.

One way attacked the stone bridge along the front. When the main force of the Qing army was attracted to the direction of the stone bridge, the other way crossed the Si'an River from the north and attacked from the other side.

The Ming army carried the tiger squatting cannon and attacked the stone bridge directly with artillery fire; the range advantage of the Lumi blunderbuss made it impossible for the Qing army to cross the stone bridge.

Just as the Qing army was confronting the Ming army at Shiqiao, there was another cry of killing from behind.

The Qing army, which was attacked from both sides, did not know what to do, and it was too dark to see the situation clearly. They thought that reinforcements from the Ming army were coming, and began to retreat after a little resistance.

This battle of encirclement and annihilation completely turned into a battle of defeat, and the Qing army completely lost the will to resist.

After this battle, more than 300 people were killed by a thousand Qing troops, more than 200 were captured, and more than 400 people fled in the dark.

But Bai Bing was not happy. The confession of the captives confirmed his speculation that the main force of the Qing army had sneaked around Si'an Town through the mountain path.

On the other side, also using the cover of the night, the Qing army finally broke through the barrier of the mountain.

Although the path that was forcibly opened up was rough and difficult, fortunately, the moonlight was bright tonight, and the Qing army entered the hinterland of Huzhou after experiencing some twists and turns. The Huzhou city in front of it was already flat.

Shi Tingzhu is in a good mood at the moment. In ancient times, there was Han Xinming who built plank roads and secretly went to Chen Cang;
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(End of this chapter)