Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 413
When the packers guarding the bonfire heard the sound of the cannon, they jumped up from the ground and fled along the camp fence like rabbits shot in the buttocks.

The Qing soldiers on duty who were dozing off on the wall of the stronghold also woke up in an instant. There was no need to blow the horn at this time, and the loud sound of twenty cannons firing could be faintly heard ten miles away.

In the supply camp not far to the northeast of the Qing army camp, the [-] Qing soldiers in charge of guarding were also awakened, and under the command of Jia La Zhangjing, they began to deploy defenses to prevent the Ming army from sneaking into the food and grass-heavy area.

Abate, who was sleeping in his clothes, jumped up from the bed when the first gunfire sounded. In a hurry, he grabbed the helmet next to the pillow and put it on his head, and then hurried out of the tent.

After leaving the camp, Abatai looked around with the torches lit by the personal guards outside the tent, and saw groups of Qing troops running out of the tents quickly, and then, under the light of the torches, they shot their heads at each other. Gathering under the banner, Abate could not help but slightly nodded.

The Eight Banners, who have been fighting continuously for many years, did not lose their positions due to the emergency in the middle of the night, and the soldiers did not panic or tense at all.

After two rounds of bombardment by the Ming army's Frang machine guns, the barracks and gates in front of the Qing army became fragmented, and the Qing army on duty on the earth wall of the camp, except for a few unlucky ghosts who died before they could get down in time, the rest After getting down early, he crouched behind the low wall built with sacks.

Under the cover of Fran's cannon, a thousand swords and shields held shields to protect hundreds of civilians, and they marched to the gate of the Qing army barracks with giant axes and saws to start a demolition operation.

The Qing army in this period never paid much attention to the establishment of the camp. The camp fences buried by the packers were also of different shades and were not strong.

As the Frangipani projectiles continued to fall from the air and bounce around, Abate did not order to stop the Ming army's sabotage operation.

On the contrary, he hoped that the Ming army would rush over after destroying the barracks, so that the two thousand archers of the Qing army would cause heavy damage to the Ming army.

Taking advantage of the fact that the barrel of the Frang machine gun was not hot, the strong men retreated to the rear camp, and the two thousand crossbowmen of the white-armed soldiers stepped forward under the light of the campfire, and several lines in front were within range. The low wall in the range started blind shooting.

Two thousand long arrows and crossbow bolts soared into the air, and after flying forty or fifty steps, they turned around and fell to the ground. The white eagle feathers of the three-edged long arrows were particularly eye-catching under the light of the fire.

Under the rain of arrows, the Han army banner soldiers crouching behind the two low walls in front suffered a huge blow.

Due to the extremely fast shooting speed of the bow and crossbow, more than [-] crossbow arrows covered a large area in just a few tens of breaths. The shield was slow to react and fell into the rain of arrows.

When the crossbowmen of the white pole soldiers finished eight rounds and retreated, hundreds of Han army banner soldiers were shot dead, and every corpse was full of crossbow arrows.

At this time, the Franc cannon that was firing with the crossbow also stopped roaring, and the gunners stopped loading ammunition, waiting for the barrel to cool down.

The Qing army in the camp was waiting calmly for the Ming army infantry to charge next, and the archers with few casualties bent their bows and set arrows, although they were preparing to give the Ming army a headache.

As time passed, the bonfire in front of the camp was short of fuel, and the flames became smaller and smaller, and the range of reflection gradually narrowed, but the sound of the large group of infantry marching forward did not resound.

After waiting for a while, after discussing with Abate, Shang Kexi immediately ordered the casualties to be dragged to the back first, so as not to affect the large-scale fighting later.

But until the soldiers of the Han Army Banner dragged the corpse away, roughly collected the projectiles of the Frang machine guns, and gathered the bows and arrows fired by the Ming Army, after this series of actions were all completed, the waiting Ming Army infantry still did not appear body.

As the piles of bonfires outside the camp fence were extinguished one after another, the entire land was shrouded in darkness again.

After a brief discussion with Shang Kexi, Abatai concluded that this was the Ming army's strategy to exhaust the enemy. After all, the possibility of sending a large army to attack at night is quite small when the sight is not clear at night.

So he ordered to choose the coat to relight the bonfire, and then left 1000 people on duty behind the low wall, and all the main force returned to the camp to rest and stand by.

After standing for a whole day during the day, they woke up to fight the enemy again at night when they were sleeping soundly. The soldiers of the Qing army were so exhausted that they returned to their tents one by one and fell asleep. After a while, the camp was full of snoring.

However, less than half an hour later, when the sky was still extremely dark, the sound of the Ming army's cannons sounded again, and there was faintly mixed with the sound of shouting and killing, as well as the sharp sound of the Ming army's unique horns. sound.

The sleeping Qing army woke up again from their dreams. This time, they were already a little chaotic when they went out of the tent to assemble, and the Qing army guarding the grain and grass camp also made the same move.

When the Qing army was ready to fight again, the sound of artillery and shouts of killing stopped abruptly, and the camp of the Ming army returned to a state of silence again.

Monk Abatai was extremely depressed, but there was nothing he could do about it. After all, there were so many cannons at the door, it was impossible for the Qing army to organize a surprise attack.

Just when Abatai was about to order his soldiers to go back to the camp to sleep and ignore any movement from the Ming army, a guard suddenly pointed to the northeast direction of the camp and shouted: "Master Belle! Could it be that the water is running out?! It seems to be storing food and grass. over there!"

Everyone around, including Abatai and Shang Kexi, turned their heads to look at the sound, and saw that the dark night sky in the northeast not far away turned into an orange-red appearance. Float away.

After Monk Abatai looked at each other happily, they could read many emotions from each other's eyes, most of which were doubts and annoyance.

The camp of the Qing army was stuck in the middle of the narrow passage of the Liaoxi Corridor, and there were thousands of horse teams separated to the left and right. It was impossible for the Ming army on the opposite side to send people to set fire to the food.

Although Zhenyuan Fort, tens of miles away, was guarded by the Ming army, how could they have the guts to send people over to attack from behind under the surveillance of the Eight Banners?
But look at such a rapid fire, if there is no kindling to support the combustion, the dozens of piles of grain, grass and firewood piled up separately will not burn so vigorously.

Could it be that the Ming army stationed at Zhenyuan Fort really sent people over to set the fire overnight?

Could it be that the Ming army harassed and harassed the enemy twice tonight to cooperate with this action of burning food and grass?

With a pale face, Abatai stepped on the horse, and after giving some instructions to Shang Kexi, he led a group of guards and lit torches and ran towards the supply camp.

For a fire with gunpowder and vegetable oil and other combustion aids, it is useless to put out the fire with wooden buckets.

The fifty Zhenyuan Fort soldiers who participated in the night attack took advantage of the fact that the guarding Qing army had risen twice to respond to the enemy's rear and fell asleep exhausted. They cut through the barracks from several directions and got in. Then, according to the division of labor in advance, they shot down the guards separately. The soldiers of the Qing army then piled the firelight under the haystack and ignited it.

When the fire broke out and the flustered Qing army began to organize firefighting, they took advantage of the chaos on the scene to ignite the rest of the grain and haystacks, and then these dozens of people retreated to the places they came in, looking for opportunities to escape.

Unfortunately, their whereabouts were still discovered by the Qing army. After a short and fierce fight, only twelve soldiers got out of the gap and ran into the vast night, and the rest were all killed.

The fire in the Qing army’s supply camp was gradually extinguished until dawn. Except for two grain stacks that were preserved, six haystacks for the horses were burned down, and three grain stacks were burned. There is a danger of starvation.

After beheading Jialazhangjing who was in charge of guarding the food and grass area, Abatai discussed with Shang Kexi again, and then decided to retreat north to join the army led by Yue Tuo.

The [-] Ming troops outside Ningyuan City did not launch an attack when the Qing army withdrew, but continued to follow the Qing army in a strict formation ten miles behind them all the way north.

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(End of this chapter)