There is a space for passenger planes in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 177 Battle of Nanwubao

The southern end of Quyechuan River.

After the army set up camp, Peng Qing organized a military meeting before the war.

"Everyone, we have finally reached the front line of counterinsurgency. It depends on everyone whether we can successfully exterminate the Lin bandits. Let's discuss the specific arrangements for this battle first, and let's talk about the intelligence that the sentry will gather first." Peng Qing Said after sitting down.

"I would like to report to you sirs that according to the investigation, the Zhenming Army built a fortress on the other side of the Quyechuan River. However, it is not large in scale, with a circumference of about two miles and about 500 troops stationed inside." A sentry horse stood up and reported.

"There are only 500 people, and we can kill them with a mass of people. I suggest we cross the river directly tomorrow and capture the Lin bandit's fortress in a quick battle." Cai Jiawang, commander of the Xi'an vanguard who came with him, said.

"If we attack by force, the casualties will be relatively high. Is it possible to sneak in and attack the fortress?" Cao Xiong asked.

"The fortress opposite is completely a military fortress. I haven't seen any civilians living there. I'm afraid it won't be possible to sneak in." The sentry horse continued to report.

"There is really no better way. Let's attack tomorrow. The front army will take the lead with 3,000 people. If the river is successfully crossed, the 4,000 people from the Chinese army will follow. With so many people, it is still possible to defeat a small castle with 500 people. Yes." Peng Qing made up his mind.

"Sir, we must also consider that the rebels will send people to support us. We must also expect the enemy to be lenient and must not underestimate the enemy too much." Cao Xiong, the commanding officer, reminded.

"Cao Qianshi's reminder is reasonable. You cannot be careless just because there are few rebels." Peng Qing continued.

"Understood!" the generals responded.

"Are there enough boats to cross the river tomorrow?" Peng Qing continued to ask.

"We have collected all the ferries along the coast. There are more than 20 ferries in total. They can ferry more than a thousand people at a time. As long as we occupy the river beach position, it will be convenient to cross the river later." Chen Jinjiehui of Jiazhou Qianhu Office reported .

"Okay, tomorrow the Xi'an vanguard will take the lead!" Peng Qing said. He decided to put the most capable Xi'an Guard Army in the forward position.

"Yes! We will try to defeat the bandit army in one fell swoop." Cai Jiawang, commander of the Xi'an vanguard, said.

"Okay, let's all go and get ready." Seeing that the discussion was almost over, Peng Qing announced that the meeting was adjourned.

The next day, the imperial army began to attack. Twenty ferries carried a thousand Xi'an vanguard troops to take the lead in crossing the river.

Lin Feng has arrived at Nanwubao and is monitoring the enemy's situation with the telescope he took out from the space.

"Chandra, order the artillery set up on the fort wall to fire. Do it casually. Don't scare them away. Fight for seven or eight rounds and then pause." Lin Feng ordered.

"Yes!" Nanwu Fort guard Qian Zhuo said, and the rumble of cannons was heard from the fort wall.

But there were only ten cannons on the fort wall. The artillery of this era could only rely on luck to hit moving targets. After three or four rounds, it failed to hit the ferry.

After the ferry rushed to the beach, the moving target became a fixed target, and the artillery fired three or four more rounds. Finally, two guns hit the imperial troops who were rushing to the beach, causing more than a dozen casualties.

On the other side of the Quye River, Peng Qing and others were also paying close attention to the defense of the rebel Wubao.

They were immediately relieved when they saw that Wubao's ten cannons fired six or seven rounds before hitting two hits.

"Sir, the rebels' artillery is too few and inaccurate. It seems difficult to affect our army's crossing of the river. It should be no problem to break through the rebel river defenses this time." Cao Xiong said on the side.

"It seems like this. Cao Xiong, lead the Chinese army and prepare quickly, take advantage of the opportunity to cross the river and occupy the rebel fortress in one fell swoop." Peng Qing ordered.

Soon, a thousand guardsmen who served as the vanguard had landed and occupied the position on the river beach. The ferry began to return to pick up the second wave of people.

The south mouth of Quyechuan River is not very wide, so the ferry can cross the river in a quarter of an hour by rowing at full strength. A round trip in half an hour, and four thousand troops can be sent to the other side in an hour.

The river beach is about three miles away from the fort. Only artillery can reach it, and the attack range of firecrackers and bows and arrows is not enough.

Nanwubao's artillery fired two or three more rounds. This time the hit rate was higher, hitting four or five guns, causing forty or fifty casualties. The troops who landed at the imperial court were frightened and dispersed in all directions.

Fortunately, the artillery on the Wubao went out quickly, which is normal. At this time, the barrels of the artillery were red after firing ten shots, so they must stop eating.

The imperial army immediately gathered together in a show of force, and faced all kinds of provocations against the castle.

Soon the second and third batches of imperial troops had crossed the river. Cai Jiawang, the Xi'an vanguard commander who served as the vanguard, felt that the people were about the same and began to organize an attack on Nanwu Fort of the Zhenming Army.

He is also anxious. The credit for the victory now belongs to his forward troops. When the Chinese army comes up, he won't have anything to do with the first attack.

Although there were many people in the imperial army, they came across the river without any siege equipment. They originally wanted to take advantage of the large number of people and launch a charge to force the rebels to land.

Unexpectedly, the thought was very beautiful, but the reality was very skinny. As soon as they rushed under the fort wall, what greeted them was not a white flag and surrender, but a dense rain of arrows and fire cannons. The team that rushed to the fort immediately fought back, killing and wounding another forty or fifty people in vain.

Seeing that the situation was not right, Cai Jiawang immediately ordered a suspension of the attack on the fort, and organized personnel to go to the edge to cut wood and make ladders, preparing to launch the attack later.

He can serve as a guard commander, and he knows some common sense about command. Without siege equipment, no matter how many people there are, the castle cannot be taken down. When Cai Jiawang organized and made the ladder, the imperial army crossed another 2,000 people. On the east bank of the Quyechuan River, four to five thousand people from the imperial court had already gathered.

Cai Jiawang ordered the forwards to wave the flag, and the army launched a tidal wave of attacks on Nanwubao with ladders. Although the muskets and bows and arrows on the fort wall were still working hard to shoot, the number of imperial troops was too large, and soon the first group of people climbed onto the fort wall.

Suddenly, hundreds of people appeared on the fort wall, and a burst of intensive firecrackers immediately knocked down the imperial troops who had climbed onto the fort wall.

"It turns out there are still ambushes. No wonder they still refuse to surrender and dare to resist. But in such a small fortress, let me see how many ambushes you can have. Keep attacking!" Cai Jiawang ordered.

The army of the imperial court swarmed up again. More than twenty ladders were mounted on the fort wall, and the guardsmen began to climb the wall like ants.

There was a special word for this in ancient siege warfare, which was called antfu siege.

This method of siege is to pile up human lives. If there are not enough defenders in the city, it will be easy to be captured under the attrition of both sides.

Just as the imperial soldiers continued to climb the fort wall and the defense line of the Zhenming Army was crumbling, the sound of intensive horse hooves on both sides of the fort was heard. Tuhong led the cavalry to rush out from the left side of the fort, like a sharp blade inserted into the enemy army. among.

On the right side of the fort, the second guard battalion led by Song Jilie also rushed out. They were all guard battalions equipped with Xidian No. 1 fire guns. They killed and wounded hundreds of people in a volley.

The main reason is that the imperial army is too dense, and the fire gun soldiers don't need to aim, they can hit casually.

"No, the rebels have an ambush! Retreat, retreat quickly!" Cai Jiawang shouted fearfully.

In fact, at this time, many members of the imperial army had already climbed onto the fortress wall. If they could tenaciously attack the fortress to the end, there was a high probability that they would be able to capture it.

After all, there are not many defenders inside the fort wall, and the cavalry and the second battalion of guards are ambushing outside.

The imperial army relied on the fortress to fight against the ambush of the Zhenming Army. It was hard to say who would win and who would lose.

However, how could Cai Jiawang and others have the courage to fight to the end and fight to the death? When they saw that the situation was not good, there were ambushes on both sides, they were frightened and immediately thought of running away.

Everything is safe, the best thing is to save your life.

As soon as they retreated, they collided with the advancing imperial army behind them, and the entire army suddenly became confused.

"Trash, trash!" This scene made Peng Qing, who was watching the battle of the fortress with a clairvoyant on the other side of the river, furious. However, he was still on this side of the river, and he couldn't hear him shouting at the other side.

"Sir, do you want to continue crossing the river?" Part of Cao Xiong's Chinese army had already crossed the river, and he was about to follow the last batches of Chinese troops. When he saw this scene, he quickly asked for instructions.

"The formation is in chaos and the morale of the army is unstable. There is nothing we can do to cross the river now. Let the troops in front quickly build defenses along the river beach and retreat immediately." Peng Qing shouted.

The messenger immediately shouted the order and began to shout gold to withdraw the troops.

When Cai Jiawang heard the news of the withdrawal of troops, he immediately sped up and ran towards the river, followed by a group of guardsmen in a chaotic manner.

The cavalry led by Hong Tu intercepted most of the imperial troops and were killing them. The second battalion of guards led by Song Jilie also pressed forward.

The officers and soldiers of the Zhenming Army shouted: "Surrender, surrender, kneel down and not kill!"

The imperial soldiers who had no time to escape immediately knelt down and surrendered in large numbers when they heard that they had a chance to survive.

Lin Feng watched from the top of the fort wall and saw that the situation on the battlefield had been decided. He asked Fang Xiaoyu to lead the guards to fight out, and Qian Zhuo to lead the garrison to also come out.

A chase started from the foot of the fort wall to the beach of Quyechuan River. A large number of court soldiers were killed, and the entire river beach was dyed red with blood.

Some Shaanxi guardsmen ran into the river and tried to swim to the other side regardless of the lack of boats; more guardsmen chose to surrender.

Almost an hour later, out of the five thousand troops of the imperial court who crossed the river, only seven or eight hundred people ran back with the ferry. A few dozen people were lucky enough to swim to the other side. The other four thousand people either died or surrendered.

When Peng Qing saw the seven or eight hundred troops returning in scattered pieces, he was so angry that he spat out blood and fainted. There was nothing we could do if we didn't faint. On the first day of the battle, we lost nearly half of our troops. How could we fight this battle?

Unlike the miserable state of the Imperial Army, the Zhenming Army was full of joy and laughter.

On the first day, they killed nearly half of the imperial court's counter-insurgency team. Even a fool knew that the Zhenming Army would win this battle.

However, Lin Feng and the others were still very busy at this time. They were organizing and cleaning the battlefield, rescuing their own injured officers and soldiers, and taking in prisoners. Someone had to implement everything.

I was busy from noon to evening, and finally these things came to an end.

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(End of this chapter)