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

Chapter 255 Encirclement
After Lu Xiangsheng's military order was handed down, all the troops worked together to dig trenches and repair walls on the spot.

First of all, around a hundred or so steps around the perimeter of the camp, trenches were dug first, and the soil dug from the trenches was built into an earth wall on the spot.As Wang Dou said, the main wall is more than half the height of a person, which can cover the musketeers, and the archers can shoot.The densely packed soldiers also went to the river to fetch water and poured it on the earth wall, making it an extremely hard ice wall.

The cold wind was biting, and many soldiers' hands were bruised from the cold, and their lips and cheeks were also swollen. When the pickaxes were swung hard on the frozen ground, they could only make a shallow hole.Fortunately, the place to camp was close to the river, and there were few hard grounds like this, so it was relatively smooth to dig trenches and repair walls.

Despite the bad weather, the sergeants were still working hard, perhaps because the enemy was coming, or perhaps it was the senior generals such as Lu Xiangsheng who personally encouraged them.Regardless of the dissuasion from Yang Guozhu, Wang Dou and others, Lu Xiangsheng wielded the pickaxe to dig the soil himself. Even though his hands were cracked and bruised from the cold, he still struggled endlessly.

His sackcloth and filial piety are extremely conspicuous, and the motivation to the morale of the army is surprisingly great.Driven by him, Wang Dou, Yang Guozhu, Hu Dawei, Zhang Yan and others also found a hoe and followed Lu Xiangsheng to dig a hole.Under the leadership of the generals, the morale of the whole army was high. With the efforts of tens of thousands of soldiers, only in the afternoon, the relevant trench and earth wall facilities were completed.

It was as if a giant city had been erected on the ground, and as planned by the generals, a half-person-high earth wall that had been frozen surrounded the three sides of the camp.

Between the earthen walls, leave a lot of space, or place artillery, or for the sergeants in the camp to attack.In front of the earth wall, many incoherent ditches were also dug, and the excavated soil was also built into a small wall with a height of half a person or less than half a person, and poured with water to make it extremely hard.

Wang Dou defended the longest frontal earth wall. Considering that the battle may not last for a day or two and requires patience, he only temporarily deployed Han Zhong and a thousand generals to defend, and the rest each served as a reserve team.

Now in Wangdou's army, there are 220 and 70 people in a thousand soldiers, but there is a thousand artillery team of 130 people, and a thousand general supply team of 11 and six people.There are still [-] people who are not accepted at night in the Ministry, and dozens of officials, guards, standard bearers, drummers, doctors, craftsmen, etc. in the Ministry.

The battalion also has two night teams directly led by itself, the battalion supply team has 300 people, the battalion artillery team has more than 150 people, and the battalion officials and guards have nearly 200 people.There are also 400 cavalry troops and 200 cavalry auxiliary troops.Now there are more than 300 troops led by Gao Xun.

Whether it is under the thousand headquarters or the battalion supply team, those supply soldiers are also equipped with firecrackers to fight, and each cavalry and related auxiliary soldiers are also equipped with firecrackers.There are also the rest of the camp, although those people can fight, but of course Wang Dou will not let them fight until the last moment.

Although the earth wall defended by Wang Dou was long, due to the many obstacles in the trench ahead, there were not many places for the Qing soldiers to pass through. enough to handle.Even if the offensive of the Qing soldiers increases, you can slowly add reinforcements yourself.

In front of Wang Dou, Zhao Xuan's battalion artillery team was deployed, with a total of fifteen medium-sized Buddha wolf machine guns, 25 small Buddha wolf machine bronze cannons, and thirty tiger crouching guns, with unprecedented firepower.The remaining two thousand total artillery teams have five medium-sized artillery pieces of the Buddha Wolf machine, ten small copper Buddha Wolf machine guns, and fifteen tiger crouching guns.All support goes to the two wings of Yang Guozhu and Hu Dawei.Their cavalry battalions each carried only thirty tiger squat guns, which were weak in terms of firepower.

The five red barbarian cannons of Lu Xiangsheng's Supervising Battalion are also placed in front of Wang Dou for the time being.In fact, these artillery can move quickly, and which side needs fire support, they can be quickly pushed to that side.Now Xuanda's battalions are working together, but they don't distinguish between each other.

……

In addition to the [-] or so steps outside the camp, a icy half-person high earth wall was also built around the [-] steps outside the tents of the soldiers.A lot of space was also left between the earthen walls to place artillery and other objects, but no trenches were dug to serve as the second inner line of defense for the Xuanda army.

Around Lu Xiangsheng's camp of the Chinese army, 380 chariots brought by Wang Dou were placed at the most important places, and protective shields were also inserted on the shafts on the right side of each chariot.As a last line of defense.In the tent inside, many fires were lit, and a large amount of hot water was prepared as a place to rescue the wounded.Many important substances are also stored here.

Such an arrangement can be said to be well-organized and the defense line is three-dimensional. This is all from Wang Dou's idea, which made Lu Xiangsheng and others amazed.Wang Doujun had the most accompanying doctors. Under the leadership of Wang Tianxue, they were all full of energy and devoted themselves to the rescue preparations for casualties with the greatest enthusiasm.

After the efforts of the whole army, the defense system of the Haoshui Bridge was announced to be completed. Lu Xiangsheng, Wang Dou and others were very satisfied after their inspection.

Wang Dou is more confident, if the 3 Qing soldiers came according to the history.If they attack hard, Xuan Da's army will have enough food, grass and gunpowder to last for a month.If they fight hard for a month, the blood of tens of thousands of Qing soldiers will be shed by the Haoshui River.

In this way, even if it is not a thunderous blow from the high and latent, all the elite Qing soldiers who entered the customs will be lost, the Eight Banners will be destroyed, and the future history will also change.

Wang Dou also took a closer look at the defense of Yang Guozhu and Hu Dawei. In their cavalry battalion, except for one thousand auxiliary soldiers with more cold weapons, the rest of the cavalry firearms team and killer team were divided into half, and the firearms team used more three-eyed guns. , I don't know the quality of their bird guns.Seeing how confident their sergeants are, and with the support of their own artillery team of thousands, the central military department also has a large number of reinforcements, so they should be able to defend the two wings.

Even if their firepower is insufficient, Wang Dou can also consider sending some of his firecrackers to support them.

On the front of the second inner defense line, the tall lookout cart was erected, and a flag bearer stood on the diaodou and watched, and the enemy's situation within a dozen miles around could be seen in his eyes.Not far from the Wanggan chariot, Wang Dou's original command chariot, the Yuanrong chariot, was also standing not far away, with a platform several meters high, and guardrails around the chariot to hold cards, it was perfect for commanding operations.

This car is temporarily used by Lu Xiangsheng. It is a hundred or so steps away from the earth wall in front, and it is impossible for any sharp arrows of the Qing soldiers to hit it.Not to mention that the battle ahead is dozens of steps away, farther away.Unless, they have artillery.However, the artillery fires hundreds of paces away, and it is very slim to hit a chariot at such a long distance.

Since the Yuanrong chariot was used by Lu Xiangsheng, Wang Dou had no choice but to build a high platform with a few meters high mound behind his defense line to command the front line operations.

Everything is ready, just waiting for the Qing soldiers to come.

However, no matter whether it was the flag bearer on the pole-cart or the Ye Bu Shou people scattered around, there was no news of the arrival of most of the Qing soldiers.

After an afternoon of hard work, everyone was also tired. Lu Xiangsheng ordered the whole army to light a fire and cook food. Soon, smoke rose from the camps on the defense line, and laughter continued to ring out.The army has enough food and grass, and there are also a lot of horse meat and dried meat. When the battle is at hand, it is natural for everyone to let their stomachs eat.

In the cold weather and after being tired again, all the troops were refreshed after eating hot rice and meat soup, and there were bursts of noise.

In Wang Dou's large tent of the Chinese army, he also invited all the officers to have dinner together. Several short tables were put together to form a large table, and several pots of boiling horse meat were burning in the fire on the table.The horse meat was sliced ​​very thin, with some ginger and salt, and it was hot and delicious.

More than a dozen Qianzong, Baizong, and Baizong Wen Daxing, Wang Douqin surrounded Xie Yike and others in a circle.All the officers yelled and yelled, and you fought over each other.Everyone's helmets were taken off. In the middle of winter, many people were sweating from eating.

Bursts of wild laughter kept ringing from inside the tent, but at this time it was Han Zhong and Yang Tong who were bickering, Han Zhong laughed and said, "Lao Yang, he has eyes but doesn't know Mount Tai. Go to plow the fields. Who is the general? Of course he won’t! Lao Yang doesn’t know what to do, so he still talks on the sidelines. No, his front teeth were knocked out by the general. If it wasn’t for Mrs. Yang’s sister-in-law to dissuade and plead, I’m afraid Lao Yang wouldn’t be able to sit down today. It's here."

He proudly said: "It's not like me, Lao Han. I was clever back then, and I saw early on that the general is not an extraordinary person, and he has the heart to serve you, so now he is the boss. Learn a lot from my old Han."

In Wang Dou's banquet, there has never been any distinction between superiority and inferiority. Yang Tong and Han Zhong were also Huo Ludun's brothers back then.

Hearing what Han Zhong said, Yang Tong was not to be outdone, and smiled triumphantly: "The general's punch is so kind, it hurts in my mouth and warms me in my heart... This is called not knowing each other without hitting, heroes cherish heroes, everyone here Everyone, not everyone can make the general knock out his front teeth, can he?"

Yang Tong cracked his mouth, sure enough his two front teeth were missing, he was still complacent.

Seeing his appearance, everyone laughed wildly again.

This kind of bickering between Yang Tong and Han Zhong is common, and the two are also very happy to reveal in front of everyone what happened between themselves and Wang in Huoludun back then, to show that they are different.To be honest, Han Chao, Han Zhong, Yang Tong, Qi Tianliang, Gao Shiyin and others had a relationship with Wang Dou in Huoludun back then, which often made the generals in the army jealous.

Because of this relationship, as long as everyone does not make any major mistakes, their position next to Wang Dou will be as stable as Mount Tai, which is an advantage that the rest of them do not have.

Looking at these two people, Wang Dou shook his head with a smile, these two living treasures.But to be honest, Wang Dou also cherishes the old acquaintance relationship with Han Zhong and others. This kind of memory of sharing weal and woe is really precious.

Among the crowd, Gao Xun sat at the end on the right side of the table, and he laughed with everyone from time to time. Han Zhong, Yang Tongri's relationship with Wang Dou also made him extremely envious.This is the core circle of guerrilla generals. Maybe I have to work hard to integrate into this circle.

……

While the people in the tent were shouting happily, they suddenly heard the warning sound of handguns from outside, and everyone fell silent immediately. From the eyes of the other party, everyone saw a signal: "Tarzi soldiers come!" gone."

Wang Dou and others got out of the big tent and came to the open space of the outer defense line.As the warning ringing of the pistols continued, the soldiers of Xuanda's battalions were alarmed, and officers and soldiers came out of their tents one after another.Lu Xiangsheng, Yang Guozhu and others were also alarmed, and they all came out of their tents.

Batches of Ming troops rushed back at night, and then the flag bearers on the watch poles also sent flags, and large groups of Qing cavalry were found in all directions of the camp.

Then the ground trembled faintly, and finally trembled violently. It seemed that at the same time, flags like oceans protruded from the ends of the sky on all sides.Countless knights of the Qing army galloped forward, and the darkness was endless. They ran wildly on their horses, and the sound of iron hoofs shook everyone's heart faintly.

Looking at the sea of ​​fluttering flags and the boundless war horses, Wang Douchang took a deep breath.Looking at this posture, there are only a lot more Qing soldiers coming to Julu than in history. How many people did they come?All the Qing soldiers who don't know how to enter the customs are gathered here, right?

(End of this chapter)