Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 321
After the Qing army broke through Fancheng, they built a pontoon bridge from the upper reaches of the Han River, crossed the river, and surrounded Xiangyang again.

When Liu Tichun abandoned Fancheng, he set fire to the entire city, so the Qing army still had no foothold in the north of the Han River, so Azig left a small number of troops to guard the grain road on the north bank, and led the army across the Han River. .

Xiangyang City is a historically powerful city. The Southern Song Dynasty was able to rely on this city to compete with Meng Yuan for five years, which is enough to see the extraordinaryness of this city. But now that artillery is developing rapidly, the city is not as easy to hold on to as it was in the Southern Song Dynasty.

At this time, the moat in Xiangyang had already been filled with mud. Outside the city were large mounds of earth higher than the city wall. Below the city were the remains of siege towers, ladders, tank cars, and rushing cars.

The bomb craters on the city wall, the broken arrows on the ground, the damaged weapons, flags, and the blackened soil all tell of the fierce battles that took place.

In the early morning, just as the sun was rising, Yang Yanchang led the guards up the road to the city, and replaced Liu Tichun, who was on duty overnight, to prepare for today's siege by the Qing soldiers.

These days, after the Qing soldiers have breakfast every day, they will definitely send troops to attack Xiangyang. A few days ago, they drove the people to attack the city. Now the people are dead and injured, and there is nothing to plunder in the northwest of Hubei, so the green battalion also participated in the siege. Come.

As the Green Battalion participated in the siege, the pressure on the defenders suddenly increased several times, making the soldiers and civilians in the city feel heavy.

At this time, the Ming army on the city was changing defenses, but a soldier on the tower suddenly shouted: "General, a soldier has entered the Qing camp."

Yang Yanchang, who was on patrol, heard the words, thinking that the Qing army had captured the people from the south again, so he turned around and strode up the tower.

Standing on the second floor and looking out, he saw a group of Qing soldiers. The team dragged on for a long time, and they entered the camp of the Qing soldiers sparsely, as if they had suffered a defeat.

"This is Gaodi's men!" Yang Yanchang looked carefully for a long time, and finally recognized it, and suddenly exclaimed.

The Qing army camp outside the city stretches for several miles, with thousands of military tents built on the south bank of the Han River, boundless, like white houses.

In the camp of the Qing army, Gaodi, who was wounded by an arrow and looked embarrassed, knelt in the center of the big tent. Azig, who was sitting on a tiger-skin chair, had anger written all over his face, and Wu Sangui, who was beside him, had a gloomy expression.

They already knew how Yicheng fell, and Azig hated Gao Di for being useless, while Wu Sangui was amazed at the Ming army's ability to take Yicheng in one day.

There is a lot of merit in this, but it is an indisputable fact that five thousand Ming troops drove ten thousand Qing soldiers out of Yicheng.

"Hmph~" Azig looked at Gaodi and said furiously, "With 1 horses, you can't even hold on for a day. What use does the king want you for?"

Azige's temper was known for his rudeness and cruelty among the kings of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. He even dared to humiliate the little emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, let alone kill an insignificant green camp general.

Yicheng, as an outpost of the Qing army in the south, was easily captured by the Ming army. As the chief general, Gao Di not only failed to play the role of early warning and surveillance, but also did not even find out the details of the Ming army, which really made Azig intolerable. .

Gaodi trembled when he heard the words, and quickly kowtowed: "Your Highness, calm down, this servant accidentally fell into the trick of the Ming army. If Your Highness gives this servant another chance, this servant will definitely make up for it."

"Make up for your mistakes?" Azig said with a sneer, "How do you make up for your mistakes!"

"My lord, please give me some equipment, and I will definitely bring Yicheng back!" Gaodi kowtowed repeatedly.

Yicheng is indeed very important to the Qing army. It can serve as a warning to the Qing army under the city of Xiangyang, and Yicheng strangles the main water and land routes for the Ming army's northern aid, so the Qing army can rest assured to besiege Xiangyang.

Hearing this, Azige was a little tempted, he was about to speak, but Wu Sangui said: "My lord, the ones attacking Yicheng are not ordinary Ming troops, as far as my brother saw, they are playing under the banner of Wang Yan's supervisor. Its general is Jinhou Yuan Zongdi. This person has been in battle for many years, and he is a general. I am afraid it will not be easy to deal with. The most important thing is that Yuan Zongdi appeared in Yicheng. Does that mean that Wang Yan has captured Wuchang, the army has started going north to rescue Xiangyang?"

Hearing the words, Azige was taken aback for a moment, and then asked in surprise, "Elder Uncle means that Luck Dehun has already been defeated, and Wang Yan's main force may have arrived in Yicheng?"

Wuchang City is tall and powerful, with nearly [-] Qing soldiers, but it was captured by Wang Yan, which made Azig unbelievable.

"Exactly~" Wu Sangui nodded slightly when he saw this, but seeing Azig's expression of surprise, he himself didn't really believe that the Ming army could capture Wuchang in such a short period of time, so he proposed another possibility: " In addition, Wang Yanjiu was unable to encircle Wuchang, and he was worried about the situation in Xiangyang, so he sent troops to support him. However, no matter what the situation was, we should first understand the situation in the south, and we should not send troops easily to prevent the main force of the Ming army from suddenly killing us. arrive."

Azig thought for a while: "Then the siege should also be temporarily stopped?"

"Stop! If the Ming army surprises us when we attack the city, it will be bad." Wu Sangui said: "If the main force of the Ming army really arrives, then our battle plan will have to be changed from siege to aid. "

Azige nodded. He glanced at Gao Yi who was kneeling, and then shouted: "You useless things, why don't you let me go out and investigate, and see how many Ming troops have come."

On Xiangyang City, the soldiers of the Ming army had already made preparations. Rolling stones and thunder wood were piled up on the city, and the smelly earthen jars were filled with boiled feces, and feathered arrows were soaking in them.

The soldiers of the Ming army had already made preparations, but after breakfast time, the Qing soldiers who were supposed to go out to attack the city in the past did not make any moves, and the camp that stretched for several miles seemed extremely quiet.

Gao Yigong walked up to the city wall with his personal guards, looked up at the sun above his head, and asked doubtfully, "Aren't the Qing soldiers planning to attack the city today?"

Hearing the words, Yang Yanchang expressed his guess: "Master Hou, today the Gaodi tribe fell into the Qing camp from the south, and the general guessed whether it was the Duke's reinforcements?"

Gao Yigong was overjoyed when he heard the words, but then he calmed down and said, "It's also possible that the Qing army is playing tricks, making us mistakenly believe that reinforcements are coming, and then dispatching troops to pretend to be the Ming army to trick open the city gate! Xiangyang is a very important place. , we must be careful~”

"Hou Ye~" While Gao Yigong was speaking, Yang Yanchang suddenly pointed to the Qing camp in the distance and said, "The Qing army sent sentry cavalry to go south."

The gates of the Qing army camp in the distance were wide open, and as expected, teams of Qing army cavalry rushed out of the camp, startling a cloud of smoke and dust, looking south.

Seeing this, Gao Yigong and the others couldn't help feeling fluctuating in their hearts.

The next day, more than a dozen sentry cavalry from the Qing army led a convoy towards the north. The leader was a middle-aged man wearing a square scarf and holding a scepter. Although he was walking, he looked majestic.

(End of this chapter)