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

Chapter 123 Defense
In the afternoon of July [-]th, the ninth year of Chongzhen.

The Qing soldiers have not arrived yet, and according to the spying reports from Yebu, they should arrive in Baoanzhou tomorrow morning. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the soldiers and civilians of Shunxiang Fort raced against time to make the defense equipment, and set up a garrison in the northeast outside the city. Dig trenches and pits on both sides to strengthen the defense capability of Shunxiang Fort.

At this time, outside Shunxiang Fort, there was a large group of auxiliary soldiers, young and strong, busy digging deep and wide trenches along the city outside the fort.On the outside of the trench, in some important places, there are also things such as rejecting horses and caltrops.

On the flat ground on the northeast sides of the old fort in Shun Township, countless pits have been dug, with different depths, but there is a principle that the closer to the city wall, the deeper the pits will be dug. Among them, the open space becomes a twisted zigzag, so don't even think about leaving.

The excavated soil was used to build a small thick wall on the spot in some open spaces. The small wall was less than one meter high, and there was no way to hide behind the wall, but it could effectively delay the advance of the Qing soldiers and shield troops.

From the early morning of this morning, the outside of Shun Township Fort was densely packed with busy people, among them were not only men, but also strong women. Under the command of the officers in the fort, they just fought with hoes.Groups of newly formed auxiliary men came out of the city in a hurry and joined the labor force below the city.

There used to be more than 50 teams of young and strong auxiliary soldiers in Shunxiang Fort, each with 1000 people, a total of more than 200 people.Since last night, all the military households in Jingbian Fort have been moved to Shunxiang Fort. There are more than 1000 households and more than 100 people.All the military households in Dongjiazhuang were also moved to Shunxiangbao, with more than 500 households and more than [-] people.There is also Xinzhuang, which has seventy to eighty households and more than four hundred people. In addition, the villagers from the nearby Yizhuang have all fled into Xinzhuang. There are nearly one hundred households and more than five hundred people.

However, some of the young and strong men in Jingbian Fort and Dongjiazhuang Fort were trained as a new army. Wang Dou organized the remaining men in several forts, and there were a total of nearly 2000 young and strong auxiliary soldiers, among whom there were some old and weak. man.

The newly moved military households, plus the original military households, these men and women squeezed the old and new second forts of Shun Township like sardines in a can, and no one could get in.The newcomers were also urgently organized, and they were led by the captains of the officers in their respective forts to assist in the defense of the city.

With a large number of people and strong organization, in just one day, the excavation of the trenches and pits outside Shunxiangbao City has begun to see scale.

After Wang Dou patrolled around the outside of the city, he felt a little relieved, and he entered the city and came to the city wall.

At this time, the city wall was defended by his sentry soldiers.Wen Fangliang and Sun Sanjie led troops to defend the south gate and the walls at both ends of the old fort, Zhong Tiaoyang and Han Chao led troops to defend the northeastern two walls of the old fort, and Han Zhong led troops to patrol around the city. department support.

There were originally four sentinels in Shunxiang Fort, with a strength of about 1000 people.During the fighting in the past few days, the Shunxiangbao sergeant suffered a total of 140 casualties, of which nearly a hundred were killed. Most of the casualties were in Han Zhong's left post and Han Chao's right post.

There were 240 nine sentries in Shunxiangbao, with 140 casualties. In total, one sentry was disabled.Fortunately, 240 nine Zhongshao sergeants from Zhong Tiaoyang were moved in, so that there would be no shortage of guards in Shunxiang Fort.

On the thirteenth, Wang Dou implemented a uniform formation of long spear teams and firecracker teams in each post. After two days of reorganization, Han Chao and Han Zhong reorganized two teams of full firecrackers. Veterans, as for the spearmen of the two teams, each team was supplemented with a large number of young and strong auxiliary soldiers.

Sun Sanjie's rear sentry sergeants also suffered 25 casualties. Two teams of full-size firecrackers and one full-size spear team were reorganized. They were all veterans. The remaining team of spearmen was also supplemented with some auxiliary soldiers.

The 120 sergeants of Dongjiazhuang's two teams had more than [-] casualties while guarding Dongjiazhuang. They were also adjusted to the firecracker team and long spear team. , were all transferred to Fort Hui Yao.

The defense of the city wall of Shunxiang Fort is still the old rules. Every sentinel defends the city wall, and each team of soldiers in the sentry builds a grass factory on the city wall for the soldiers to guard and rest in the grass factory.Among the soldiers at each post, there are also some auxiliary soldiers at their disposal.

When Wang Dou came to the top of the city, the sergeants of each team were chatting in the grass factory, and everyone was full of energy. After these few days of fighting with the Qing soldiers, they had greatly strengthened their self-confidence, and their fear of the Qing soldiers was greatly increased. Although 5000 Qing soldiers will come, the sergeants did not show fear and panic.

They chatted easily, and bragged to the auxiliary soldiers about their combat experience in the past few days, which made the auxiliary soldiers beside them fuss.

Seeing Wang Dou approaching, they jumped up one after another, scrambling to greet Wang Dou and salute.

Wang Dou smiled and nodded at them one by one, telling them to rest at ease, recharge their batteries and prepare to kill the enemy.

He circled around the city wall, seeing that the morale of the army was high, Wang Dou was also relieved, the soldiers he brought out with painstaking efforts had already begun to look like a strong army.However, he still told the sentinels not to take it lightly, but to be cautious.

At present, on the crenels of the city walls, there is no hanging soft walls like before. After fighting against the Qing soldiers in the past few days, all the soldiers of Shunxiang Fort have understood the general rules of the Qing soldiers' bows and arrows. Although the soft wall of the hanging house can well cover the sharp arrows shot from outside the city, it also prevents our own soldiers from shooting outside the city.

Therefore, after discussing with the generals of the outposts, Wang Dou decided to let the firecrackers wear more armor, and let the auxiliary soldiers hold more shields to protect themselves from the sharp arrows shot from outside the city.

The current Shunxiang Fort, including the original armor in the fort, plus the armor captured from the Qing soldiers, has more than 780 pairs of armor in the fort, and more than 150 shields.The firecrackers fighting at the top of the city should each wear as thick armor as they can, most of which are iron armor.

After these few days of fighting, the armor of some Shunxiang troops was slightly damaged, and the armor and shields of those captured from the Qing soldiers were also covered with gaps.Wang Dou had ordered Li Maosen to lead the craftsmen of Shun Township Fort, and with the help of some young and strong auxiliary soldiers, to repair all the armors and fill in some thick iron leaves at the holes where the armors were smashed.After repairing, these armors can be used as much as possible. Although some of them look ugly, it is better to have armor than to have no armor.

The same goes for shields.

In terms of firecrackers, the Shunxiang Army also has sufficient firecrackers. After supplementing some of the firecrackers that were damaged in the past few days, there are still more than 100 firecrackers in stock in the warehouse of Shunxiang Fort.

Except for one of the captured Qing army knives and guns, which were distributed to the soldiers, most of the rest were distributed to the young and strong auxiliary soldiers in the fort.

Wang Dou and others decided to take advantage of defending the city and use guns and artillery to deal a severe blow to the Qing soldiers outside the city.

In addition to the hanging walls, the refusal horses that were originally installed at many crenels were also moved away. Although these refusal horses had the effect of hindering the Qing soldiers from entering the city, they also had obvious disadvantages in hindering one's own combat.Most of those rejecting horses were arranged outside the trenches of the city walls. Inside the south gate of Shunxiang Fort, there were also densely packed rejecting horses. Those rejecting horses would be of great use to Wang Dou.

After moving away from Xuanhu Juma, Wang Dou and others increased the number of rolling wood and rocks on the city wall, and there were also a lot of cupping pots made of "fierce fire oil" on the city wall defended by each team of soldiers.In addition, the auxiliary soldiers on the city wall were also equipped with a large number of poles, forks, etc., which were used to overturn the ladders on which the Qing soldiers were leaning.

Not only that, but according to the method described by the team officer who was born as a monk, more than a dozen bells were made on the city walls, which were used to knock the Qing soldiers down the city with rams after they set up the ladders to probe.

In terms of defense, Wang Dou is generally satisfied, and what worries him is the use of artillery.

On the thirteenth, Wang Dou brought a batch of artillery equipment from the city of Zhou, and connected them to the original artillery of Shunxiang Fort. There are 23 cannons and [-] tiger crouching cannons.There are also a large number of rocket equipment and so on.

Most of these cannons were erected on the south gate and the city walls at both ends. There was only one Franco cannon, one small bronze cannon, and two tiger-tailed cannons at the west gate of Newcastle.

According to Wang Dou's estimation, the Qing soldiers mainly attacked from the south gate. Even if they attacked the rest of Shunxiang Fort, these artillery pieces were all light artillery pieces mounted on gun mounts. It's too late to go to the rest of the city wall.

Wang Dou's main concern is the manpower problem of the artillery.After the artillery from Zhoucheng arrived, the gunners did not follow. There was only one artillery team of more than [-] people in Shunxiang Fort. Strictly speaking, there were only about [-] gunners. Two gunners, the rest are sergeants of the guard.

Who fired the artillery that was moved?This is a serious problem, Wang Dou can only dismantle the entire artillery team, including the artillery sergeants who are guarding, each of them is in charge of one artillery, and each of them chooses a few auxiliary soldiers as assistants. Teach them how to fire a gun.

It's just that the shooting results will be unknown at that time.

……

Worried about the gunners, Wang Dou went down the city wall. At this time, the streets of Shunxiang Fort were noisy and crowded with people. Auxiliary soldiers on the city equipment.

Wang Dou walked on the street. Although the castle was tense and busy, it was not chaotic and panic-stricken. Everything was well organized. The young and strong in each team were led by someone who knew what they were going to do. It seemed that Lin Daofu and the others were quite capable. Strong, in a short period of time, the military households who moved into the fort were organized.

Seeing Wang Dou approaching, all the military households in the castle saluted him respectfully. At this critical moment when the great enemy approached, Wang Dou was their backbone. Wang Dou calmed down, and their hearts also settled down.Although many people came from the Tartar army, as long as everyone works together, Shunxiang Castle can still be defended.

(End of this chapter)