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

Chapter 219 The Battle of Stone Bridge

On October 11th, [-]th year of Chongzhen, the capital, outside Yongding Gate.

Thousands of soldiers and horses from Wang Dou set off with the army, and arrived outside Yongdingmen yesterday. Several participating guerrillas.

Tens of thousands of Qing soldiers were in Tongzhou, dozens of miles away, and they kept on guarding and cavalry every day. A large number of battalion soldiers fled.It wasn't until Lu Xiangsheng led the officers and soldiers of Xuanda's three towns that their emotions stabilized a little.

They strongly demanded that the brave and invincible Xuanda brothers stand in front, and Lu Xiangsheng did not refuse. Along the two city gates, each about ten miles away from the city, he deployed more than 2 officers and soldiers of Xuanda.

The more than 3000 people of Wang Dou were assigned to the land of Yizhuang in later generations. This area is full of plains, with many rivers and canals, and the land is fertile. It was originally densely populated with villages and towns near Gyeonggi. Only in the ninth year of Chongzhen, the villages in this area were captured by the Qing army. Burned once.

Two years later, the Qing soldiers came again, and the newly built homes of the people were burned down by the Qing soldiers again.When Wang Dou arrived in Yizhuang, the surrounding villages were either in a raging fire or ruined walls with light smoke left. The surviving people just fled into the capital with their old and young, looking back at their homes and crying loudly.

When Wang Dou led the army, a group of terrified ordinary people were fleeing from here. Seeing Wang Dou's thousands of troops, they were even more frightened and ran away. Wang Dou clearly heard a few people muttering: "These dog officers and soldiers , it is useless to kill the Tartars, but it is more serious to harm the common people."

At that time, Han Zhong and Xie Yike were furious, and they wanted to go forward immediately to find out those bold and talkative people.

Wang Dou severely stopped them, saying: "We are here to protect the capital and the people, not to compete with them for the advantage of words. If you want to care about a few people, why don't you spare some strength to fight against the Tartars. Besides, Many officers and soldiers are outrageous, no wonder the common people complain."

The Qing soldiers continued to harass the eastern suburbs. After many officers and soldiers of the Beijing camp broke up and fled, they fled in small groups when they met the Qing sentries to visit Wangfeng. The means are not much better than Qing soldiers.

When Wang Dou first arrived in Yizhuang, he encountered more than a dozen rout soldiers looting the people. Wang Dou was furious and captured the dozen rout soldiers, ignoring their cries and threats, and beheaded them all.

In Yizhuang, on the left is a rather large canal, which flows into the capital. On the other side of the canal is the place where Li Jianming, the guerrilla general of Xuanfu Town, is stationed.Not far from the right side of the canal is a small hill with a fire road pier, called Yandun by the locals. The pier is about eight meters high, and the surrounding pier walls are tens of feet long. At this time, several guarding pier troops have long since disappeared.

A few tens of feet away from the canal, next to the left side of the pier, there is a winding official road.

The official road is more than one foot wide, and it is covered with long-term rut marks. On the official road about ten feet in front of the pier, there is a small stone bridge. The river has long since dried up. Entering the cold winter, some seedlings that were sown in autumn appeared unsteadily in the wheat field.The wheat fields spread all the way to the right of Yandun, until a few miles away, there was another deep river canal.

At the other end of the small stone bridge, stands a stone tablet that is about to topple over. The inscription on the inscription has been blurred for a long time, only the inscription "Daming Chenghua Nianli" can be vaguely seen.

For a few miles around here, this official road is easy to travel. The rest are either fields or river canals. Maybe infantry and cavalry can pass through the empty fields, but if they want to haul any vehicles and baggage, they must use the official road.

Walk one mile from Yandun along the official road to the direction of the capital, along the right side of the official road, there is a small village fortress, and there is no one in the fort long ago.

How can I say that the wall of the fort is also two feet high, looking at the surrounding villages, only this small fort was the least damaged, it happened to be where Wang Dou was stationed, and it was stuck at the main entrance of the official road.Wang Dou immediately took possession of Yandun and Shiqiao. Wang Dou dispatched a firecracker team under Han Zhong's command to defend. During the night's rest, dozens of people crowded a fire road pier to the brim.

The rest of them all moved to the fort. At the same time, Wang Dou sent a large number of Yeburei to spy on the enemy's situation, and urgently surveyed and mapped the terrain of this area.

Compared with camping in the wild, living in the fort is of course more convenient, and the defense is also very strong, if the Qing soldiers are stupid enough to besiege their own village fort.Including the cavalry, more than half of the firecrackers in his battalion, Wang Dou is confident that at least he can block the massive attack of [-] Qing soldiers.

Wang Dou was only worried about his own food and grass. The food and grass he brought from Baoan Prefecture was not enough for a month, and he distributed [-] shi of food and grass to the friendly troops in Xuanfu Town. The remaining food and grass were only enough for ten days.People are iron, food is steel, if you don't eat a meal, you will be so hungry that you won't eat for a few days, and the combat effectiveness of the strong soldiers you bring will be reduced by more than half.

After arriving at the boundary of Yizhuang yesterday afternoon, Wang Dou looked around the village fortress. Early this morning, Wang Dou led the generals in the army to patrol around. pass.

At this time, he even led the crowd to the front of Yandun, climbed up the pier and looked around.Looking in the direction of Tongzhou, there are plains as far as the eye can see, and some fires and smoke from the villages burned by the Qing soldiers can be seen.Looking behind him, he could faintly see the majestic figure of Beijing City.

This battle has just begun, Wang Dou looked in the direction of Tongzhou with a slightly crazy expression on his face.

It was almost November, and the weather was getting colder and colder. Wang Dou had no intention of wrapping up his armor, and just stood there motionless.

There was a discussion between Han Zhong and Wen Fangliang behind him, Han Zhong said: "This smoke pier is not bad, if you bring it to the stone bridge, at least it can stop hundreds of Tartar troops."

Wen Fangliang said: "The village forts in the capital city are built thickly. If our garrisoned village forts have enough food, grass, and medicines, it doesn't hurt to guard them for a month."

Han Zhongdao: "I'm afraid that the food and grass will soon be insufficient."

Following Wang Dou, he felt Han Zhongre's breath spraying on his neck, and Han Zhong's thick head protruded from his side, and his bull's eyes looked at Wang Dou expectantly: "General, tell me, Mr. Gao will pull it out for you." Do we have enough food and grass?"

Wang Dou gave a wry smile. Tongzhou was occupied, and the grain supply was cut off. The supply of grain and grass in the capital was even more difficult.Not to mention the fact that the division of troops has already started, it seems that Gao Qiqian, Yang Sichang and Lu Xiangsheng are facing each other. If the supply of food and grass is sufficient, Lu Xiangsheng will not have to travel far to beg for food.

The officers and soldiers of Xuanda Three Towns arrived outside Yongding Gate yesterday. Although Gao Qiqian sent Lu Xiangsheng a batch of food and grass symbolically, it was only a drop in the bucket, and the officers and soldiers of Xuanda Three Towns could not eat for a few days.

Wang Dou said in a deep voice: "If you count on Eunuch Gao to provide food and grass, don't expect too much..."

He shook his head, and said the second half of his sentence with a sneer: "Fortunately, there is as much food and grass as possible for the Tartar soldiers."

"Let's talk about it when Chief Wen Bai Yebu accepts brother back!"

……

Chongzhen 11th October 21rd, morning.

Yandun Stone Bridge, early in the morning, here is lively.

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Old White Bull:
Writing is late tonight, and the next battle needs to be described carefully. The time is late, so I will focus on describing it tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)