Nanming Yiming

Chapter 183
After Qian Mo received the news that the Qing army had landed from Yanziji, he was also very surprised. It seemed that he had underestimated Hauge too much, and he was tricked by the Qing army, allowing the main force of the Eight Banners to cross the Yangtze River safely.

Although Liu Guoxuan and others fought hard, the results of a Shaoxing ship were really limited, and the overall casualties of the Qing army in the direction of Yanziji were not large.

During this river crossing, the Qing army was sunk by the Ming army and hundreds of small boats crossing the river were sunk. 18000 Green Battalion soldiers and 2000 Manchurian soldiers with red flags were killed on the Yangtze River.Although Hauge knew very well that it was hard-won to cross the Yangtze River at such a price.

But in Dorgon's eyes, this was undoubtedly a serious defeat. Hauge's 10 troops were wiped out by the Ming army by just crossing the Yangtze River, not to mention that there were 2000 Manchurian Eight Banners among them.

This also determines that Hauge must immediately kill the enemy and make meritorious service, otherwise it is not impossible to directly kill Hauge according to Dorgon's method.

Now with the 6 Green Battalion in the hands of Ma Guozhu, and the 14 troops in Hauge's hands, it is naturally impossible to retreat and defend, and must try to regain lost ground.

Although Fan Wencheng was resourceful, but after all he didn't understand the actual situation in Jiangnan, he still told Hauge not to rush into the army, but to find out the reality of the Ming army first.

Due to the barrier of Taihu Lake, the current confrontation between the Qing army and the Ming army is mainly in two directions.One is the line from Wuxi to Jiangyin in Changzhou Prefecture; the other is the state capitals in the south of Jiangning Prefecture that were occupied by the Ming army, specifically Changxing County in Huzhou, Guangde Prefecture, Xuancheng in Ningguo Prefecture, and Tongling in Chizhou Prefecture.

Among them, the biggest threat to Nanjing is Huzhou, which is too close to Yingtianfu where Nanjing is located.The Ming army can easily threaten Nanjing by sending troops from here.But Huzhou was not easy to fight. The Ming army built a bastion in Changxing. Before that, Shi Tingzhu's 2 horses were wiped out by the Ming army in Huzhou.

The remaining Guangde, Xuancheng, and Tongling are also located in mountainous areas, which is not conducive to the performance of the Manchurian cavalry.

The Changzhou area is different, all the way is plain.Moreover, the three prefectures that contributed the most taxes to the Qing army were Suzhou, Songjiang and Changzhou.Now two and a half of these three mansions are in the hands of the Ming army, and it is imminent for the Qing army to recover the two mansions of Sui and Song.

Of course, although the direction of Suzhou is all plains, the rivers are intertwined, which is also not conducive to the performance of cavalry, and I heard that the Ming army has already established a line of defense relying on the Xicheng Canal from Jiangyin to Wuxi to stop the Qing army.

After analyzing the situation, Hauge decided without hesitation to divide his troops into two groups. He personally led the 8 main force to attack Suzhou.Let Nikan, king of Jingjin County, lead 3 horses to attack the Ming army in the south and contain the enemy to ensure the safety of Nanjing.

Fan Wencheng has no objection to this. After all, Hauge is also a battle-tested commander, and his ability to deploy troops is far stronger than himself.

The Xicheng Canal was first built in the Song Dynasty. In the beginning, in order to facilitate ships to enter the Yangtze River directly from Wuxi through Jiangyin, it connected the Grand Canal and the Yangtze River, with a total length of 37 kilometers.

After Qian Mo occupied Suzhou, he mobilized 20 people around to dredge and widen the canal, and built five bastions along the canal.After more than two months, the construction of the bastion was finally completed before the Qing army went south.

Although the bastion was small in scale, it was equipped with the latest 12-pound cannon with a maximum range of 5 kilometers. No matter where the Qing army crossed the river, it was actually under the artillery fire of the Ming army.

很快豪格就率领满洲镶蓝旗2万人，汉军正黄旗1万5千人，以及4万5千绿营赶到了锡澄运河。

Ma Guozhu pointed to the bastion ahead and said, "This is a strange fort built by the Ming army. It is said that it is very powerful and difficult to conquer. When Shi Tingzhu attacked Huzhou before, he suffered a lot from this kind of fort."

"The Ming army built a total of five such forts along the canal, and this fortress is the largest, and the other four are relatively smaller."

Hauge said: "How can my 8 army be intimidated by a small fortress, and send orders to go down and prepare to attack."

At this time, Fan Wencheng said: "Prince Su, don't worry. As far as I know, the other four forts of the Ming army were built on the other side of the canal. Only this large fort was built on our side. There must be something strange in it."

"The Ming army dared to build it across the canal must have something to rely on, and a strong attack may not be a good strategy."

Then he asked Ma Guozhu: "Governor Ma, can this canal be smuggled?"

Ma Guozhu said: "There are patrol boats on the river, and there are beacon towers every 500 meters on the opposite bank. I am afraid it will not be easy to smuggle in."

Fan Wencheng laughed it off, he could even sneak across the Yangtze River, and how could he fall into this small ditch in front of him?

This time it was hard for the Qing troops who crossed the river.During the day, as long as the Qing army approached the shore, they would be shot by the Lumi guns on the opposite side. The Ming army had a farther range than them, and they only had to be beaten.

The side of the canal near the Qing army is bare, not to mention the big trees, even the reeds can't be found, and it can't hide people at all.Helpless, they had no choice but to smuggle in at night. Unexpectedly, the Ming army would patrol the beacon towers at night; not only the Ming army, but also the villagers in charge of night watch. He was shot dead by the Ming army patrolling nearby.

Fan Wencheng originally thought that the canal was 37 kilometers long, and the Ming army always had some omissions in defense. After one night, he found that the Ming army had no dead ends in defense, and the Qing army lost hundreds of people.

So he decided to change the policy.In the Jiangyin section of the canal, the patrolling Ming army found a large number of Qing troops crossing by force. The Ming army on the beacon tower hurriedly fired. However, there were a large number of Qing troops, with thousands of people, and the dozens of Ming troops patrolling could not deal with it.

In the dark night, a loud arrow crossed the night sky, leaving a clear mark. The Ming army in the bastion said immediately when they saw the arrow: "The beacon towers on the 17th and 18th were ignited, and there was a yellow arrow, about 1 Qing troops .”

Soon the patrolling sailors and cavalry arrived at the scene. At this time, the Qing army was mercilessly hacked and killed by the Ming army's cavalry just as they climbed up the river embankment.

The navy's warships did not fire at them, but began to pour kerosene into the river 50 meters away from their upper air outlet. After a while, there was a burst of fire on the water, and the Qing army's ships caught fire instantly.

When the Ming army in the bastion saw the flames, they directly fired at the Qing army smuggling from this position, and the Qing army waiting to cross the river on the other side was directly greeted by artillery fire from the Ming army.

And those Qing troops who were lucky enough to cross the river were directly strangled by the cavalry of the White Robe Battalion. The wails of the Qing troops could be heard everywhere, which seemed particularly infiltrating in the dark night!
The smuggling in the Wuxi section of the canal also failed. After a few nights of tossing, the canal did not break through, and the Qing army itself lost 5000 people.

Fan Wencheng had no choice but to stop the smuggling operation.

However, the Qing army has not been idle these days, but has transported 20 red cannons from Nanjing.

Now that the artillery was in place, following Hauge's order, countless cannons roared towards the bastion.However, the solid bullets of the Qing army could not cause much substantial damage to the bastion of the Ming army.

On the contrary, the counterattack of the Ming army's 12-pound cannon blew up three red cannons of the Qing army.

A shell even exploded in front of Hauge, killing several Xie Ling and Zuo Ling with the blue flag.

Now Hauge was completely enraged. He is a majestic prince of Qingsu. He has fought countless battles in his life. What kind of fortified city has he never seen?How can you show your cowardice in front of a strange fortress.

Of course, such things as attacking the city and exploring the road should be left to the green battalion.

Soon 2000 Green Battalion soldiers slowly approached the bastion with their chariots. The Ming army analyzed several battles in the bastion and found that the enemy should not attack too hard when probing the attack, and must hide their firepower.

He Zhiyuan shouted: "Don't expose the range of fire, wait for the enemy to advance to the vicinity of the moat before firing."

So the Qing army pushed the chariot and easily advanced to the moat, which was only 60 steps away from the bastion. At this time, the Ming army's firecrackers also began to ring.

"Bang, bang, bang"

It wasn't until the firecrackers of the Ming army directly penetrated the chariot that the Qing army realized that it had already entered the firing range of the Ming army.So quickly jumped into the moat ahead and rushed towards the bastion.

Equipped with some rifled guns, the normal firepower of the Ming army could completely block the exits of the moat and prevent the Qing army from approaching the bastion.

However, in order not to beat the Qing army too hard all at once, the Ming army deliberately put hundreds of Qing troops in front of the slope of the bastion.

At this time, He Zhiyuan ordered crossfire to kill all the Qing troops rushing up the slope.

Seeing that the purpose of the firepower investigation was basically achieved, Hauge ordered to withdraw the troops, and the hundreds of Qing troops behind those chariots were amnesty. The muskets could not penetrate their chariots.

Haug said: "This fortress is indeed quite strange. His design limits the deployment of our troops, but it seems that the firearms of the Ming army cannot completely block the road. We can still rush to that slope after paying a certain amount of casualties. Yes. Just don’t know what happened afterwards, we can’t see what’s going on on the slopes.”

Since this bastion was built against the water, it was not in the shape of a five-pointed star like other bastions, but it was built into an irregular crown shape, and only 4 sides were available for the Qing army to attack.

Soon Hauge invested 12000 Green Battalion and launched an attack on the 4 sides of the bastion at the same time.Seeing that the main force of the Qing army was mobilized, the Ming army was no longer polite. When the Qing army first assembled, the Tiger Squatting Pao greeted them.

However, the Ming army still had reservations about the attack distance, and did not shoot until the Qing army entered within 90 steps.The Ming army's range and shooting density were much higher than last time, and the Qing army was completely unprepared, and was beaten all of a sudden.After the Qing army entered the passage, the Ming army took advantage of the speed of fire of their guns to perfectly block several entrances and exits of the moat.

However, considering that this would not be able to kill the enemy in large numbers, in the end, a group of Qing troops were rushed to the vicinity of the slope in a rhythmic manner, and then continued to block and block their follow-up troops.

After sending many waves, the Qing army finally realized that the Ming army deliberately let them rush out one by one, and then simply hid in the moat and stopped rushing.Seeing no progress, Hauge had no choice but to withdraw his troops.This time the Ming army was not polite and kept shooting at these Qing soldiers. Many Qing soldiers were killed by Lumi guns after leaving the bastion for more than 100 steps.

According to statistics after the war, it was found that the Green Battalion soldiers left a full 7000 corpses in front of the bastion after fighting for a day.

Faced with such a result, Hauge was furious and said: "These green battalions are unreliable. Now they have been terrified by the Ming army. Let the Han army flag and my warriors with the blue flag go out together tomorrow. We must take down this fortress." .”

Fan Wencheng said: "According to Jiangxi's information, Jin Shenghuan has assembled an army of 18 in Nanchang, and Boluo's attack on the city has been repeatedly blocked. We still have time. Prince Su, don't worry."

"According to my observation today, the moat dug in front of this fortress was carefully designed by the Ming army. As long as our army attacks along this moat, the final force will not be deployed at all. No matter how many people are invested, it will not help."

Haug said: "At that distance, the chariot can't stop the firecrackers of the Ming army at all, and we can't carry out the hole filling operation at all."

Fan Wencheng said: "I already have a way to deal with it, we are like this."

After a day of fierce fighting during the day, corpses were piled up in front of the bastion.After the Qing army retreated, the Ming army took the time to clean up the battlefield. It is now the end of August, and it is the hottest time. If these corpses are not disposed of in time, it is easy to breed plague.

Of course, the Ming army’s method of dealing with these corpses is also very simple. They just throw them into the river. Naturally, someone downstream is responsible for receiving these corpses, recycling their useful armor and other belongings, and then burying the corpses. Then sprinkle quicklime for disinfection.

Just as several Ming soldiers were tired from moving and resting in front of the moat, they suddenly found a faint head moving ahead.Suddenly a sharp arrow passed through the throat of one of them, and the remaining Ming army shouted: "The Qing army attacked at night!"

In fact, most people in this era suffer from night blindness due to malnutrition. They can't see clearly at night, and night battles are purely blind.

They want to supplement enough vitamin A, and only eat enough meat or animal offal.

The main fighting force of the Ming army can usually eat a meal of meat or animal offal every two days, so night battles are naturally a no-brainer.

The green battalion soldiers of the Qing army did not have this treatment, so tonight's sneak attack missions were all elites from the Eight Banners and the Han Army Banner.

The dark night greatly affected the Ming army's shooting vision, but the Qing army was not familiar with the situation of the bastion, and their speed was also greatly restricted.

Although the moonlight is very dark tonight, with the light of the fire above the city, it is still possible to barely see the situation below the city.The most important thing is that the shooting holes of Bastion Sound are all facing the exit of the moat. It is basically impossible for the Qing army to sneak attack at night.

For a while, the sound of gunfire continued to ring around the bastion, and soon the Ming army successfully blocked several exits of the moat.

This situation was as expected by Fan Wencheng. The Qing army who rushed into the moat soon used the wooden boards and stakes they carried with them to build passages between the moats, and soon these passages connected the entire city. piece.

It takes a long time to completely fill these moats, but it is much faster to use wooden boards to build a passage directly.

Soon after, the Ming army discovered that a large number of Qing troops rushed directly from the top of the moat. Because the firepower of the Ming army was mainly used to block the exit of the moat, they rushed directly under the bastion.

At this moment, the situation in the bastion is extremely critical!
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(End of this chapter)