Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 222
Let's say that after Wang Yan led the main force to attack Jingzhou, Zhang Kuang, Wang Ji, Xie Kuang and others stepped up to strengthen the city's defenses, and countless defensive materials were piled up on the city wall.

After a few days like this, Man Dazhuang led two thousand Ming troops and returned to Yuezhou from Wuchang, saying: "Luck Dehun led forty thousand Manmeng cavalry and has arrived in Wuchang."

At this time, Man Dazhuang judged that the Qing army might go to the south bank of the Yangtze River to attack Yuezhou, so he wanted to abandon the ship and enter the city to defend. However, after discussing with Wang Ji, Zhang Kuang decided to let Man Dazhuang stay outside the city to restrain and harass the Qing army. .

Man Dazhuang led two thousand Ming into Dongting, and placed the boat on Junshan Island, [-] miles away from Yuezhou, where he temporarily stationed troops to prepare for the war with peace of mind.

Not a day later, the vanguard cavalry of the Qing army had already appeared outside Yuezhou City. Dozens of Mongolian elite cavalry were showing off their power under the city. After shooting the city with arrows, they left on horseback.

Seeing this, Zhang Kuang, the grand servant, knew that Luck Dehun's army would arrive within a few days, so he ordered his soldiers to completely seal the four gates, and decided to defend Yuezhou City to the death.

At this time, in order to strengthen the confidence of the defenders, Zhang Kuang, in addition to carrying the coffin to guard the city and not going down the tower, ordered the soldiers to invite Zhang Tianshi, the God of the City God, the Emperor Zhenwu, and the statues of Guan Gong to go to the four gates, offering them with incense, and sharing with the army and the people. Let's defend the city together.

As for the defenders, Zhang Kuang followed the words of the general Wang Ji and ordered the soldiers and civilians to set aside an area to guard, with ten people as a team, guarding a stack, and rotating day and night.Each team has a small flag, and two uniforms, and a hundred people have a big flag, and a Franc machine gun.

At night, a lamp was lit every five hiding places, and Zhang Kuang and Wang Ji patrolled day and night.

In this way, within the city of Yuezhou, Tong Zhi Xie Kuang guarded the east gate, Commander Wang Ji guarded the north gate, eunuch Zhang Kuang personally guarded the south gate, and Qianhu Han Zhaowu guarded the west gate.

The [-] young warriors and the [-] strong men all went up to guard the city.

On February [-]th, Luck Dehun led more than [-] fierce cavalry and killed them to the city. He looked at the city of Yuezhou in the distance, and the soldiers and horses were patrolling the city. .

The next day, [-] Green Battalion soldiers transferred from Jiangxi by Luck Dehun arrived, and he ordered Qing general Xu Yong to attack the city.

The Qing soldiers marched in covered with planks, big tables, and cowhide. The defenders on the city smashed down with rolling stones and thunder wood, and fired with artillery, arrows and crossbows.

On the same day, the Qing army set up a large camp under the city of Yuezhou. The soldiers rushed to Yuezhou, very tired, and snored one after another.

It was three o'clock in the night, when the Qing army was sleeping soundly, when they suddenly heard the sound of cannons and the sound of killing shook the sky, Luck Dehun was shocked and rushed out of the tent, only to see a Qing camp blazing into the sky, he was furious immediately, and followed the leader The cavalry killed them, and they wanted to kill all the Ming troops who robbed the camp.

The cavalry rushed to the front of the camp, and the arsonist Ming army fled to the northwest one after another. Seeing this, Luke Dehun was overjoyed and hurriedly urged his troops to chase after him, trying to drive the Ming army into the lake, but when he reached the lake, there was a burst of artillery fire. The Ming army he was chasing had already boarded a warship parked on the shore.

Luc Dehun then knew that this Ming army was not the defenders in the city, but the Manda Zhuang troops on Dongting Lake.

Man Dazhuang succeeded in the sneak attack and burned a large amount of supplies of the Qing army. He was overjoyed, laughed loudly with his subordinates, and drove the boat into Dongting.

Every night since then, the Manchurians will sail to the outside of Yuezhou City, or send troops ashore, or bombard them with artillery, which annoys Lecter, but the Qing soldiers are not good at water warfare. Several green battalions sailed to battle, but they were all defeated by Man Dazhuang. Luck Dehun had no choice but to evacuate the Qing battalion from the shore of the lake for ten miles to the village.

On this day, when Luck Dehun saw that the defenders in the city were eating, he urged Xu Yong to attack the city again. The Qing soldiers set up dozens of ladders to rob the city. soldiers, the Qing army's siege failed again.

After successive failures in the siege, Luck Dehun was furious and bombarded the city with artillery. Most of the walls were destroyed, but only the tower was safe.

Seeing this, Luck Dehun couldn't help scolding the artillery team, but his general said, "There are gods on the tower, and the soldiers dare not offend them."

Le Kede was furious when he heard the words, came to the artillery formation, beheaded three people angrily, and then fired the cannon himself, angrily attacked Zhang Tianshi's statue at the east gate, fired three cannons, but none of them hit, he was suspicious, so he gave up.

The Qing soldiers attacked for a few more days, but they were still unable to accomplish anything. Luck Dehun was in a state of anxiety when suddenly a subordinate said, "There are people from Jingzhou!"

Luck Dehun ordered people to invite him to meet him, and he saw him as Geng Jimao, the son of Geng Zhongming, and he couldn't help being shocked, saying, "Where is your father?"

Geng Jimao wept and bowed and said: "The Ming army fell into Jingzhou, and my father thought that the Holy Dynasty was loyal."

Hearing the words, Lu Kede sat slumped, and asked about the process again, only to find out that Geng Zhongming and Zheng Siwei had a total of more than [-] horses, only [-] yellow-armored Han cavalry stood out, and the rest were all wiped out.

Seeing this, all the Qing generals in the tent panicked and panicked, beating their chests and wrenches and pinching people, and it took a long time to rescue Luck Dehun.

At this time, with the fall of Jingzhou, Luck Dehun's goal has undergone a huge change. He originally wanted to surround the Ming army in the Jingzhou area and then encircle and wipe them out in one fell swoop. rescued.

The next day, the Qing soldiers attacked the city again, and Luck Dehun personally supervised the battle with a knife, and said that those who failed to attack the city would be killed.

Seeing this, the generals of the green battalion were very solemn, and dared not not urge their troops to fight to the death. In addition to the soldiers of the green battalion, Luck Dehun also sent more than [-] people from the Eight Banners to fight against the city.

Originally, Manchu lives were noble, and Luck Dehun was reluctant to use them in siege battles, but at this time he had realized the crisis in Changde and had to use the most elite troops to defeat Yuezhou as soon as possible.

At this time, five hundred Manchurian warriors, wearing brocade clothes and cotton armor inside, and two layers of heavy armor on the outside, wearing double knives and double axes, climbed up the city wall under the cover of the green battalion.

The defenders resisted with shields, stabbed with spears, and bombarded with fire, all of which could not be injured.

For a while, no one in the city could stop the Qing army, and the defenders were all timid. Seeing this, Xie Kuang, the commander of the Houyongying Battalion, was very anxious. pierced his ears."

When the defenders heard the words, they stabbed their faces in groups, and the defenders hooked their sickle spears, hooked their legs, picked their armor, and killed several people.

However, there are 500 people in Manchuria, and the defenders cannot be killed for a while. Instead, they rely on swords and swords to injure them, and gradually occupy the city wall.

The Yuezhou garrison was not elite at all, the Houyong camp was compiled by the soldiers of the green camp, and the [-] strong men had never experienced battle.

It's okay for such a team of people to be unified and targeted at a distance, but it's obviously not enough to fight hand-to-hand. Especially in a brutal tug-of-war, the weakness will be manifested immediately.

Seeing this, Xie Kuang couldn't help becoming anxious, and the Houyongying around him was about to flee. Seeing that the city wall was about to fall, he suddenly yelled at the timid Houyongying: "You want to live this life, you want to die!" Have you always been ashamed? Let’s look at your heads, what face do you have to see your ancestors and parents? Now that the Tartars are in front of you, why don’t you work hard, and you will be ashamed of shaving your hair and be a hero for a while!”

(End of this chapter)