Ming politicians

It was late at night, and the city of Xipingbao was temporarily quiet.

There is a strong smell of blood in the city. There are countless corpses on the street. For the time being, no one has cleaned up the battlefield. The area of ​​Xipingbao City is not too large, and its radius is only about two square kilometers. In such a small city, there are actually nearly It is unimaginable for a hundred thousand troops to fight.

The Jiangning Camp occupies two-thirds of the area, and the remaining one-third is still in the hands of the Houjin Tartars. The South Gate, East Gate, and West Gate are all occupied by the Jiangning Camp, except for the North Gate. It is still in the hands of the Houjin Tartars.

After dark, the fighting gradually stopped, and both sides needed to rest and adjust.

Su Tiancheng and Qu Qingze have already entered Xiping Fort.

He Renlong, Qin Rui, Di Huaixiang, Liu Wenxiu, Ai Nengqi, Li Dingguo and other generals gathered around Su Tiancheng. Their fighting spirit was very strong and they didn't want to stop fighting because of the darkness.

It is difficult to calculate the loss for a while, and the battle is not over yet, and there is no time to think about these things.

Su Tiancheng didn't want to stop because of the darkness, but at this time, he needed to unify everyone's thinking. At this point in the war, some offensive strategies needed to be changed. Also rely on firearms, the new Fran cannon, this time it should come in handy.

Everyone has been talking for a while, and everyone's faces are full of excitement. No one thought that the attack on Xiping Fort was so smooth, and it was basically taken down in less than a day.

Su Tiancheng finally spoke, and the surroundings quickly became quiet.

"Occupying Xiping Fort is a matter of catching a turtle in a urn. There is no need to think too much about it. The biggest task now is to wipe out the living forces of the Later Golden Tatars. The Later Golden Tartars occupy the North Gate. They may break through the North Gate at any time. , We can't let them go, outside the north gate, five thousand soldiers are waiting in full force, but I'm worried. The strength is not enough."

When Su Tiancheng said this, everyone became more quiet. Everyone understood that there were still tens of thousands of Houjin Tartars. This is a huge force. How to wipe out these Houjin Tartars is not as simple as talking about it. of.

"You all want to take advantage of the dark night to start fighting. In fact, I agree, but the fighting in the dark has too many uncertain factors, and it is likely to increase the casualties of soldiers. This is a situation I don't want to see, so It is said that this final blow still depends on the Artillery Battalion and the Shenji Battalion."

"Qin Rui, the Artillery Battalion has mobilized all the Frang machine guns and tiger crouching guns to deal a fatal blow to the Houjin Tartars stationed at the north gate who resisted. You must remember that the strikes inside and outside the city are carried out at the same time. When you attack During the process, all soldiers, don't attack for the time being. Don't worry about it. Indiscriminate bombing is fine. I hope that the artillery battalion can completely defeat this group of post-gold tartars. When dawn comes, I hope the battle will end. "

"Di Huaixiang, after the artillery battalion's attack is over, your Shenji Battalion charged first, and used flintlock guns to savagely kill the rear golden tartars. The rear golden tartars who put down their weapons were placed in custody on the spot, and there was a slight change. Kill without mercy."

"He Renlong, you lead the rest of the soldiers to launch the final attack."

"You have to remember one thing. You must not let the Houjin Tartars escape. After dark, the Houjin Tatars are likely to choose to break out of the encirclement. We must not let them succeed."

"Okay, you all go to prepare, and launch the attack in half an hour. Mr. Qu and I are here waiting for your good news."

Everyone went to prepare, but Qu Qingze didn't understand Su Tiancheng's arrangement.

"The commander-in-chief's words just now seem not to let the captives who put down their weapons go."

Su Tiancheng nodded, a grim expression appeared on his face.

"After such a long fight, those who should surrender have surrendered long ago. The rest are thinking about surrendering, and their determination is not so firm. I will not forgive these people. I felt it during the battle of Gaizhou , the Han Eight Banners are not weaker than the Man Eight Banners. When they treat our Ming army and people, they are even crueler than the Man Eight Banners. Although these sergeants are Han Chinese, their hearts have long belonged to Hou Jin. Such prisoners I won't ask for it, so as not to waste food."

When Su Tiancheng said these words, he was not emotional at all.

"Old Qu, the newly recruited four thousand Han troops have given us a lot of surprises. Their performance is indeed good, which also prompted me to decide to expand the army from the captives. In fact, we still thought too much before. Sergeants take obeying orders as their bounden duty. These people are professional soldiers and know how to abide by military regulations. It's just that they have to be given a suitable environment. The road of development will not be smooth."

Qu Qingze was a little confused, what Su Tiancheng said before and after seemed to be contradictory.

Of course Su Tiancheng was aware of Qu Qingze's doubts, so he explained it.

"Old Qu, you may think that what I said is somewhat contradictory, but in fact it is not contradictory at all. For those diehards among the post-Gold Tartars, for example, the officers of the Post-Gold Tartars, such as the backbone sergeants, we will never If we can be merciful and keep these people, we will leave a disaster and cause trouble for ourselves. As for those sergeants with excellent qualities, we can definitely absorb them and strengthen the strength of the Jiangning battalion."

"Jiangning camp can't just be Han people. In our team, there are already Tujia soldiers, blond foreigners, and even black slaves. Then there can be Manchus and Mongols. As long as they are loyal to Jiangning Ying, no matter what his status is, we can accept him."

Qu Qingze was dumbfounded, and nodded subconsciously. He fully understood what Su Tiancheng meant, but he felt that Su Tiancheng's ideas were too bold. There were Tujia men in the army, most of them were former white men Bing, this is nothing strange, even if there are a few foreigners and black slaves, this is not a rare thing, but thinking of recruiting Manchurians, this is a bit bold, I am afraid that only Su Tiancheng can have this Waiting for ideas.

Shi Tingzhu finally made up his mind to lead the army to retreat. The brutal battle during the day made him fully awake. More and more soldiers surrendered, and the casualties increased. Fortunately, it was dark, and the Ming army temporarily stopped attacking. Taking advantage of this time, leading the army to retreat from the north gate and rushing out in the dark is considered to be preserving strength. As for Bayan's proposal to launch a counterattack in the dark, that is untenable, it is courting death, Shi Tingzhu Such an opinion will never be adopted.

Now that the matter was over, Shi Tingzhu couldn't care less. No matter what kind of punishment he would receive, he would take the army out to preserve part of his strength.

The only problem was Bayan's firm opposition, which made Shi Tingzhu very embarrassed. Because of the defeat in the battle, his ability to rule has been questioned, but fortunately Ma Guangyuan expressed his support.However, Bayan's identity is different. In order to avoid unanimous actions, opinions must be unified. Shi Tingzhu also has to think about his future.

Regrettably, the conversation did not go well, and Bayan was determined not to let go, and insisted that the soldiers with the red flags would not evacuate Xiping Fort, and would persist until the end.

Cracks inevitably appeared. As time went by, Shi Tingzhu's heart was bleeding. He had long understood that there was no point in sticking to Xiping Fort. It was nothing more than burying all the soldiers here.

Shi Tingzhu made a decision again, Bayan led the soldiers with the bordered red flag to garrison, and the soldiers with the Zhenghuang flag and the bordered yellow flag all evacuated, taking advantage of the night to break out.

Shi Tingzhu's decision also encountered strong opposition from Bayan, who believed that the army should not break out of the encirclement. Unfortunately, Ma Guangyuan, who was in a hurry, had already conveyed the decision to break out. It can be said that the army's morale has been lost, leaving behind the embroidered red flag The soldiers are also angry, why should they stay alone in Xiping Fort to die.

After fighting during the day, Xianghuangqi suffered the heaviest loss, and there were not many soldiers left. On the contrary, the soldiers of Xianghongqi, who were mainly stationed at the north gate, suffered not a lot of losses and were the strongest.

The reason why Bayan dared to disobey Shi Tingzhu's order was because of his strength and special status.

A fierce quarrel ensued between Shi Tingzhu, Ma Guangyuan and Bayan. They forgot the preciousness of time. Shi Tingzhu and Ma Guangyuan even had the idea of ​​beheading Bayan, but they did not dare to do it in the end. If they did, they would There is no place to stand in the Qing Dynasty.

The sound of rumbling cannons rang out, and when the surrounding flames began to appear, Shi Tingzhu and the others were still arguing.

The sound of cannon stopped their quarrel.

Shi Tingzhu's face was pale, and he spoke to Ma Guangyuan and Bayan.

"We don't need to argue. As I said before, the Ming army will definitely launch an attack. Time will not pass by in vain. The Ming army already has the upper hand. The attack was temporarily stopped just now, but the Ming army adjusted the battle plan." Arrangement, the artillery of the Ming army began to attack us again. Since General Ba insisted on resisting, then well, you have full command of the night battle, and I will not continue to intervene. For the present plan, we don’t want to have anything I plan to break through and try my best.”

Bayan's face was still red, Shi Tingzhu made such an arrangement, he did not refuse, turned his head and went out to command the battle.

Ma Guangyuan looked at Shi Tingzhu, and it took him a long time to speak.

"General Shi, you and I used to be famous generals. Now that we have become the bannermen of the Eight Banners of Han Dynasty, there must be no way to survive. Bayan's attitude just now made me regret it. If the Ming army had been so brave , we won’t be where we are today, well, it’s useless to say these things, I’m going to command the battle, if there is an afterlife, I will definitely not make such a choice, General Shi, take care.” ( To be continued..)