Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 640 The Marshal's Parting Gift ([-])

"Boom! Boom!" The heavy wrought iron shells hit the brick-clad outer wall of Yidu County heavily, denting a large area of ​​the wall that had exposed the inner layer of rammed earth.The Qing army at the top of the city panicked, but who told them to fight back without artillery, and they could only be beaten at this time.

"Attention!" Mao Desheng, the commander of the 104th company, blew the whistle suddenly, and then more than 200 musketeers in breastplates raised their rifles in their hands. They were divided into two rows, the front row squatting, Standing in the back row, pointing the musket loaded with ammunition at the brigade of Qing troops swarming out from the gate of the city.

The thousand or so members of Chen Zhilong's troops stationed on the front line to stop these Qing troops (mainly surrendered troops) had already dispersed, and the Qing army drove them towards the artillery positions behind.But fortunately, these people finally have a long memory. The tragedy of the first two times when they broke up and fled straight back and were hit by musket salvos and artillery shells is still vivid, so they quickly ran to both sides of the battlefield. Only a very few people Ran back in a panic.

"Pfft! Pfft!" The soldiers behind the earth wall of the temporarily built artillery position stabbed out the spears in their hands, and dozens of fleeing soldiers were stabbed to death.They fell to the ground screaming, their shaved faces covered in blood.

"Bang! Bang!" After the Qing army entered the firing range, the musketeers of the 104th company fired a full volley.Next came the world of small 4-pound cannons. The barrels of the guns were filled with grapeshot and shotguns, which were fired one after another, turning the Qing army, which was rushing towards them like ocean waves, into a hornet's nest.

After the muskets and artillery were fired, the soldiers stretched out their spears and stabbed the last few Qing soldiers who had escaped the bullets to the ground. This was the end of a small offensive and defensive battle aimed at fighting for the artillery positions.

"The Qing army under the leadership of Luck Dehun is different from Shi Tingzhu when they attacked Yangzhou. Perhaps they have learned the lesson of the Yangzhou battle. They did not hide in the city and be beaten passively, but frequently took the initiative to attack us, trying to attack us. The artillery positions of the army. In the past few days, it has almost reached 5000 times. Although we have not let them succeed, the loss of troops is relatively large. More than 500 people from Chen Zhilong's department have been defeated many times, and now there are only about [-] left. Next, I think it’s better to let them withdraw for training, and let the [-] people from the Qin Shangxing Department come to the top?” Captain Zhang Xudong, the captain of the first regiment holding a binoculars on the watchtower in the big army camp on the east bank, said to Mo Ming .

Mo Ming was wearing a dark blue woolen overcoat with a saber on his waist. He also put down his binoculars at this time, and asked without answering, "How is the situation of the First Brigade?"

"I'm afraid it will take some time to recover our combat power." Speaking of the first brigade, Zhang Xudong also felt a little heartbroken.This unit (2000 people) is the ace unit among the 7500 members of the first unit of the Standing Team. It was established the earliest, has the most veterans, the best equipment, and the strongest combat effectiveness. , The war damage was quite large, and the shortage reached as many as 600 people at one time.Although the vacancy has been filled by supplementing soldiers and surrendering troops, it is an indisputable fact that the combat effectiveness has declined.

"Then don't move, let the second brigade go forward to exercise more." Mo Ming said succinctly, "Although the second brigade has more recruits, there are experienced officers and non-commissioned officers drawn from the first and third brigades. Quite a few, and the combat effectiveness will not be too far behind. Now is a good time to exercise. If you don’t exercise now, when the Qing army’s Henan, Zhili, and Shandong provinces will suppress the army in the future, there will be a battle of tens of thousands of people. It's a chance to practice."

Zhang Xudong nodded, taking Mo Ming's words seriously.After a while, he said again: "A letter came from Zichuan in the morning. The scout said that Dong Xueli did not act rashly after arriving in Zichuan. He waited for two days and then defeated Xie Qian's department who came out of the city to attack the Qing army's grain transportation team. If not Zhai Cong'e brought 4000 people to fight to the rescue, and the more than [-] people from Xie Qian's department may have confessed there. Now that the two of them retreated to Zichuan County, they only dared to send a small group of cavalry out of the city at night to attack the Qing army's grain transportation team. The harassment is not as strong as it used to be."

"Dong Xueli's old background is the Gansu frontier army, and his combat effectiveness is certain. Among the more than 4000 people in Xie Qian's department, most of them are bandits and hungry people, and their combat effectiveness is not worth mentioning. Although the more than 3000 people of Zhai Cong'e's combat effectiveness is not bad, they are too mixed. The newly recruited soldiers are definitely not as durable as before, and it is normal for the two groups to beat Dong Xueli's [-] soldiers." Mo Ming took off her white gauze gloves and said as she went downstairs: "But the two of them combined Together, there is no need to be too afraid of Dong Xueli. In fact, I think Dong Xueli is also very slippery and will not easily consume his own strength. There may be a stalemate in Zichuan, but there will be no major changes .”

"I'm going downstairs first. I didn't sleep all night last night. I'll catch up on sleep first. I'm afraid the city wall will not be broken today. I guess it will take until tomorrow morning. It's okay, take a good rest today. Tomorrow I will personally command the army Attack Qingzhou City. I would like to see what superpowers Luck Dehun has. Can he carry my cannons with the few people on hand?" Mo Ming walked to the corner of the wooden ladder and reminded loudly: "You first Take over the battalion command and help me watch closely."

Zhang Xudong gave a military salute to express his understanding, then continued to raise his binoculars to observe the situation on the battlefield.

In the afternoon, the Qing army dispatched hundreds of people to attack the artillery positions on the east bank, but they still failed.At this time, the scouts of the security team also received more battlefield news.

In late September, the Yuyuan Army, which had previously rejected the proposal of the people from the East Bank to enter Jinan Prefecture, marched southward from the old village of Yuyuan in Fan County.Zhang Qi, Ren Fuxing, Liang Min, Cai Naihan, Wu Kanghua and other well-known Qushou each led more than 9 people, a total of 8 people, and went southward, heading straight for Yuncheng, Juye, and Caozhou.The Yuyuan army traveled across the state and counties. According to their usual strategy, they mainly plundered mules, property, and food, and did not pay attention to killing and wounding the Qing army.The prefectures and counties that can be easily captured will swarm up, and those that cannot be captured will let go and go straight to the next place. Anyway, the weak Qing army dare not go out of the city to fight in the field.By the end of September, their vanguard had even appeared in Cao County and Shan County, and the local bandits in the neighboring Guide Prefecture, Henan Province also took the opportunity to respond. Fly to Kaifeng and Beijing.

The other Qushou of the Yuyuan Army who did not go south also made a big fuss in Dongchang Mansion.For example, Huang Zhenshan, who was originally from Chaocheng County, led his troops back to his hometown, smashed the county seat in one fell swoop, then hunted down the officials of the Qing court, released the prisoners, and erected a banner to recruit troops; , Yanggu, Yixian, Mengyin and other cities, and took a large amount of military resources stored in Yixian by the Qing army's Yizhou Town as their own, and they were almost arrogant.Presumably, after the 2 people in Yizhou Town of the Qing Army returned from the rapid march in Jiangbei, they would suddenly find that their supplies, rations, knives, arrows, and even military pay had been plundered. I don't know that the supplies will have to wait until the year of the monkey.

Song Yadan and Chen Guozao, the small leaders of the Yuyuan Army in Xiajin County, also dispatched one after another, and after breaking through the county seat, they plundered away; On the land of Shandong, the officials of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties were at a loss and panicked.

In addition, Li Qingshan, a Liangshan bandit, also made a big fuss in Yanzhou Mansion. Most of the gentry villages in the four fields were broken by him, and he gained a lot; (Mostly coercing refugees), "raised fire from all sides, shouted to move the ground", attacked the water transport node Zhangqiu Town, failed, and then turned to join forces with the Yang Yunshan Peasant Army to conquer Tangyi County, which has threatened the canal traffic.

The two prefectures of Dongchang and Yanzhou are the wealthiest places in Shandong. If these two prefectures are corrupted, it will be a big deal-in fact, half of these two prefectures have been rotten now.In addition, the Ding Mingwu tribe who entered the north of Jinan Prefecture to the east even broke through the two counties of Pingyuan and Linyi, released prisoners, hunted down officials, and coerced the people, causing a lot of commotion. Therefore, it can be said that at this time, the rear of the Qing army in Shandong was completely chaotic. up.If the army on the east bank attacked a few days later, Luck Dehun would definitely not be nailed here to play with the people on the east coast.

And it is estimated that he no longer wants to continue playing. The original ambition of gathering tens of thousands of troops to force back the yellow-clothed thieves has disappeared without a trace with the chaos in the rear, and he no longer has the courage to waste it.This was especially true when the artillerymen on the east bank were bombarding the city day and night, but the red cannon in his hand fell on Jinan - besides, this cannon could not be used in field battles - it could not pose a threat to the yellow thieves at all.

Although they have killed and defeated some of the soldiers and horses of the yellow-clothed thieves in the past few days, Le Kede is not stupid. Those so-called yellow-clothed thieves who were killed were still wearing the uniforms of the Qing army. How about the surrender!The main army of the bandits in yellow did not suffer much damage, but the loss of the Qing army exceeded 500 people, and their morale was also quite low.Therefore, I still think of a way to withdraw first.

On the night of October 10th, Luck Deqing personally led the 6 Eight Banners soldiers and horses and thousands of green battalion soldiers with horses to withdraw westward. Afterwards, Li Sutai also personally led thousands of elite troops to retreat overnight.Although the army on the east bank detected the movement inside and outside Qingzhou City, Captain Zhang Xudong, who didn't know what the Qing army was doing, decided to be more cautious, first guarding the camp firmly, and then sending people to inquire about the news.

The news came back quickly in the middle of the night: the Qing army retreated in a big way!Zhang Xudong, who had been suspicious for a long time, immediately woke up Mo Ming. After thinking about it for a while, Mo Ming felt that the Qing army might really retreat, but it was hard to say whether it was a trap.After struggling for a while, Mo Ming ordered the cavalry brigade not to go out of the camp to pursue the enemy without authorization, and then personally commanded the infantry and artillery to attack Qingzhou City.Qingzhou City has a large amount of supplies and supplies for the Qing army. If the Qing army retreats falsely, it will definitely come back to rescue. Therefore, attacking Qingzhou City is considered a safe and prudent move at this time.

In the early morning of October 10th, on the anniversary of the 7th anniversary of Yunsheng No. 17, Chen Zhilong, who had surrendered, took the lead in attacking the city along the gap opened by the artillery on the east bank.The Qing army in the city put up a fairly fierce resistance. After more than a thousand people were killed and injured, the remaining thousands of miscellaneous armed forces composed of Yanding, Shuiding, and Xiangyong broke up and rushed out. , Waiting for them will be the pursuit of the East Bank cavalry.

At ten o'clock in the morning, Mo Ming entered Yidu County, surrounded by generals such as Zhang Xudong, Mao Desheng, Li Renjun, and Liu Zhong.For the first time, this famous city in Qingzhou Prefecture fell into the hands of people from the east coast!

(End of this chapter)