A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 101 Coming
On the ninth day of July in the ninth year of Chongzhen, in the morning.

In a prison cell in Shunxiang Fort, the Qing soldier was screaming and screaming again and again, and several disciplinary soldiers were beating him.

Han Chao yelled at him in Manchurian, but Boda just glared and yelled something from time to time.

Han Chao walked up to Wang Dou's side, cupped his fists and said, "My lord, this Tartar is stubborn, he just won't open his mouth."

Wang Dou said coldly: "Continue to torture, remember not to beat him to death, save his life, I am useful."

He led all the officers out of the cell and walked up the city wall. Along the way, the streets were full of soldiers and civilians of Shunxiang Castle preparing for war, making and carrying more rolling wood and stones, and carrying vats of gold juice to the wall.

Now all the men in the fort are incorporated into the army's auxiliary soldiers, and even all the strong women are organized, and the rations in the fort are also distributed as a whole.

The streets were full of tension, and soldiers patrolled constantly.

Wang Dou and others came to the city wall. In the plan of everyone in the fort, if the Qing soldiers attacked the city, they would definitely attack the south gate of Shun Fort!Outside the west gate of Xinbao in Nashun Township, there are full of potholes and pits, making it difficult to walk, let alone siege the city.

If the Qing soldiers attacked the city from that side, they would become a target. Just filling those pits, they would die a lot of people, depending on whether they could afford to die or not.Therefore, according to the plan, the main military equipment in the fort is arranged near the south gate.

According to calculations, there are more than [-] battlements, more than [-] police shops, and [-] horse faces in the old Shunxiang Fort on Tuesday, especially the urn outside the south gate, which is a powerful barrier to protect the south gate.

There are several police shops on each side of the city walls of Shunxiang Fort. Each police shop is about two meters long and more than two meters wide, and the part that protrudes from the city wall is more than one meter.There are observation holes on three sides of the police station protruding from the city wall, resembling a small horse face.

As for the horse faces, there are two horse faces on each side of the urn city along the south gate, at a distance of fifty steps.The protruding part of the city wall from the horse face is about two meters long and three meters wide. On the buttress wall of the horse face, there are lookout holes, and there are shooting holes under or beside the lookout holes.

The urn city is semi-circular. On the left side of the urn city, there is a door open. There is a horse face on the wall dozens of steps away on the left. This distance is just within the shooting range of the firecracker. , can severely hit the enemy attacking the gate.

According to the calculation, the dozens of crenels on the urn city and the more than [-] crenels along the walls on both sides of the city gate will be the main places for the Qing soldiers to attack, so this has also become the main place for the Shunxiang army to deploy.

The current Shunxiang Army, even on the artillery team, does not receive them at night, and has a total of more than 100 soldiers in the four sentinels.

In May, Shunxiang Fort had 170 guns and more than 200 armors.Throughout June, Li Maosen and other craftsmen rushed to work day and night, and made more than 50 guns and more than [-] pairs of armor.Entering July, and today, there are seventy firecrackers and more than ten pairs of iron armor in the craftsman's workshop.

In this way, Shunxiang Fort now has nearly 250 firecrackers and more than 70 pairs of iron armor.In addition to more than 120 firecrackers assigned to Dongjiazhuang firecrackers and [-] firecrackers to Jingbianbao, the four sentry firecrackers in Shunxiang Fort have nearly [-] firecrackers in addition to one firecracker. Inventory of firearms.

Not only that, but all the more than 100 pairs of armor in the warehouse of Shunxiang Fort were also brought out for use. Although the quality of these armors is not good, it is better than letting the soldiers fight naked.

More than 1000 strong soldiers defended a small city of thousands of households, which is considered abundant, and I am afraid that Baoanzhou City does not have the military strength of Wang Dou.Calculated on the basis of five times the strength of the enemy's army to attack the city, an army of at least 1000 people is needed to attack the city protected by more than 5000 soldiers.

Wang Dou reckoned that there could not be that many Qing soldiers appearing under his Shun Township Fort, so for the time being, he only let Han Zhong and Sun Sanjie's two-post sergeants, one new and one old, go to the city to defend the battle, and the rest were Han Chao and Wen Fangliang's two-post troops. , only served as a reserve team, and also used to inspect the rest of the fort walls and maintain order in the old and new two forts.

……

Wang Dou and others came to the crenels on both sides of the south gate. In this area, there are four sets of Francophones and two bronze cannons.Just in case, the remaining Francophone has a copper cannon, and the two tiger tail cannons are mounted at the west gate.

Before the defense, Wang Dou had asked his subordinates to calculate the number of people needed for each battle, how many gunmen, and how many spearmen were needed for the battlements of Shunxiang Fort.

At this time, the walls on both sides of the south gate were already full of defensive sergeants and related defensive equipment.Each of the crenels is in charge of a team of soldiers from each of the two guards. Each team is responsible for which crenels and what equipment they have.

At each crenel in this area, there is a kind of city defense equipment called Xuanhu or soft wall, which is made of wood, with two legs standing inside the city and the rotating shaft standing outside the city.There is a grid on the top, covered with old wadding quilts moistened with water, to prevent sharp arrows from outside the city.This soft wall is always the most important thing for guarding the battlements. Without this kind of equipment, the soldiers on the city will not be able to stand if the sharp arrows are shot from below the city.

The Xuanhu faces the side outside the city, and has hollowed out several holes to peek at the movement outside.

In order to make these hanging household soft walls, the bedding of the military households in the new and old second forts of Shun Township has been wiped out. Fortunately, it is summer, and even if the military households have no bedding, they will not be frozen.

A team of more than [-] soldiers in charge of their respective crenels also built a grass factory on the city wall, covered with thatched thatch to shelter from wind, rain and sunlight.There is a tall bamboo pole outside the grass factory, which is used to hang team flags and lanterns.There are also thick bamboo tubes in the grass factory, which are used to hang everyone's weapons.

In addition, each team of soldiers has a pile of rolling wood and stones, and the rolling wood and stones are piled next to the wall.At the crenellation wall, there is a device similar to a small catapult, which can be used to throw stones down the city and kill the enemy troops who climbed the city. People nearby can observe the enemy's situation from the lookout hole in the crenellation wall. stone.

On some crenels and walls, there are still some refusal horses. The refusal horses are full of sharp iron barbs. Even the Qing soldiers who climbed the city wall will cry in front of these refusal horses.

Not only that, after discussion by the officers in the fort, several groups of repelling horses were also placed at the gate of the city. The situation can be described as light with heavy casualties.Similarly, at the base of the city walls on both sides of the south gate, on the outside of the ditch, in some important positions, there are also repelling horses, staghorn wood, and caltrops.

After such an arrangement, all the equipment in the warehouse of Shunxiang Fort was wiped out.

Except for defending the urn city, most of Han Zhong's troops were deployed on the city wall on the left side of the south gate.

When Wang Dou came here, the soldiers of the left sentry teams were sitting in the grass factory and chatting. It was almost noon and the sun was fierce. Within the grass plant.

In Wang Dou's order for defending the city, except for some sergeants on duty, the rest of the defending sergeants were not allowed to stand under the crenel for a long time, lest the enemy's spirits would be poor and the city would be weak after the arrival of the enemy.At night, each team also sent people to watch the night in turn, and the rest slept peacefully.

However, the sergeants of each team are not allowed to leave the city without permission, and those who return home privately, including the captain, must be shown to the public by military law.

Sitting in the grass factory every day, these soldiers are naturally bored.

Han Zhong walked over with Wang Dou, and seeing everyone's listless appearance, he shouted loudly: "Come on, don't let the motherfuckers want to sleep. When the tartars sneak up, you will be able to sleep for the rest of your life."

Several sergeants said: "My lord, whether the Tartars will come or not, I have been waiting for many days."

Han Zhong scolded: "Grandma, are you looking forward to the Tartars coming?"

Wang Doudao: "Chief Han, how is the spirit of the soldiers?"

Han Zhong smiled and said: "Don't worry, my lord, brothers are gearing up, just waiting to beat the Tartars, in case the Tartars don't come, haha."

After hearing his words, all the soldiers on the city wall also laughed.

……

At this moment, three bangs of pistols were heard from the east, and then three rockets were seen shooting into the sky.

Everyone's expression changed, and they looked out of the city together. Soon, they saw Chen Shoufu, the chief of Fulujia at the east intersection, waving a yellow flag, and hurried back to the south gate with a few soldiers from the team.

He entered the castle, came before Wang Dou, and reported out of breath, "Tar... Tartars are here, there are more than a thousand of them."

Wang Dou's face sank, and he shouted: "Call the police, let the soldiers prepare to defend!"

He entered the tower of the south gate, and soon, the Central Military Headquarters located inside fired three cannonballs and raised a big white flag. For a while, all the soldiers and officers guarding the city wall rang their bells. The bamboo clappers and bronze drums in the middle make the sergeants alert and ready for battle.

The sergeants of the two teams defending the city gathered one after another, took out their own weapons from the bamboo tubes in the grass factory, and lined up in front of the crenel in small groups, ready to fight.

All of them looked serious. After waiting for so many days, the Tartars finally came.

Will everyone survive this battle?
The sound of the siren spread far away, and there was commotion in Shun Township Fort.

……

Standing on the top of the tower, Wang Dou looked towards Dongfang River in the east, and saw groups of Qing soldiers approaching Shunxiang Fort on Pingchuan.According to Wang Dou's preliminary estimate, there may be more than 500 people.

In front of the Qing army, there were groups of cavalry scouts. They came roaring, but kept running around Shunxiang Fort, and kept screaming strangely at the fort in Manchurian. Nothing happened.

These sentries ran for a while, and after seeing the situation around Shunxiang Fort clearly, some of them ran back, and the rest gathered at the south side of Shunxiang Fort.Presumably they have also seen that in the land of Shunxiangbao, it is more suitable to attack the city and set up camp in the south of the city.

Soon, most of the Qing soldiers rolled in, with white and red banners, and slowly gathered one mile away from the south of the city.

Seeing that the Qing soldiers numbered more than a thousand, some sergeants and officers around Wang Dou let out heavy gasps. Although everyone had prepared for a long time and shared the same hatred, most of the Qing soldiers came, and the Eight Banners were oppressive for a long time. Still a lot of psychological pressure.

Wang Dou's expression was calm. He looked carefully and saw that the Qing soldiers' banners and armor outside the city were all white with red borders on the outside.

According to Wang Dou's understanding of history, the Xiangbai Banner belongs to the lower four banners of the Eight Banners, and there are fifteen Niulu troops under his command. The owner of the banner was originally Du Du, the eldest son of Chu Ying. Serve as the banner owner of the bordered white flag.

Looking at their numbers and banners, it is estimated that there are five Niulu troops here, led by Jia Lazhangjing under the Xiangbai banner.

Wang Dou had read history books before, and the five bull records of the later Jin soldiers or Qing soldiers were compiled into a Jiala. Jiala traveled all the way, stopped at one place, and fought at one place, and it was true.

This was the first time he saw most of the Qing soldiers, and Wang Dou's heart was boiling with enthusiasm, and he said fiercely: "Come on, I'll be waiting for you!"

(End of this chapter)