Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 869 Set fire to the forest
The Qing army rushed to the river, and shot arrows at the Ming Dynasty warships leaving in a hurry. Countless arrows flew out and were nailed to the side of the ship. Into the water, splashing waves.

Although they did not cause any harm to the Ming army on board, the Qing soldiers never got tired of it. Many sword-wielding soldiers also waved their weapons and rushed to the shore from the woods to cheer, as if they had won a big battle.

Seeing the excited appearance of the Qing army, and seeing the outpost Ming army landing ashore and suffering a great loss, Liu Shun was furious, and shouted: "Zhi Niang, fire me!"

The Grand Canal is so wide that the naked eye can observe the opposite bank. Although Liu Shun avoided Yangzhou City, he wanted to land. As soon as the fleet set off, Liang Huafeng spotted it. It is estimated that the Ming army must have chosen a hill to land, and then Set up a pontoon bridge, and the main force crosses the river.

In charge of taking the lead in crossing the river for reconnaissance, a team of thousands of households who set up stalls killed more than 200 people. The results were not great, but the Qing army was extremely happy.

Liang Huafeng was wearing a black official robe and a bowl cap with a red hat on his head, and walked out of the woods with his saber on his head. Thinking of his trouble, the Ming army would have to choose a new place to cross the river, and the Qing army might be able to delay for a while, so he was happy , was about to laugh, but the artillery on the bow of the Ming army opened fire in unison.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The main fleet of the Ming Dynasty was moored in the middle of the river. It was originally planned to land on the shore immediately after the vanguard set up a stand. open fire.

The sound of cannons on the river was rumbling and smoke was rising. Half of the [-] ships were equipped with cannons, but nearly a hundred cannons of different sizes were concentrated fire and bombarded. Holding on to the bamboo hat, he hurriedly ran into the woods.

Liu Shun, who was standing at the bow of the ship, saw that the Qing army cheered a few times, and was hit by the sudden artillery, so he ran away with his head in his arms. He couldn't help laughing, "Zhi Niang, why don't you howl?"

He laughed for a while, then suddenly his face darkened, and he said in a solemn voice: "Here's an order to beat the drums for this town to attack!"

The commander was on the boat, and a big flag was planted on the boat tower, and a letter was written "Da Ming Baoguo Gong, Zhongwu Town Governor Liu", and the four big drums below immediately hammered.

Dozens of oars protruding from the side of the ship slid neatly, making ripples, and the warship rushed towards the shore at high speed.

Before, Liu Shun was careless for a while and let Duoduo break up two big camps, which made him lose face, and the whole Zhongwu Town also lost face.

After the incident spread, there were also some rumors in the Shun Department, saying that Liu Guogong and Zhongwu were the weakest among the five towns, and the reason why they were able to stand shoulder to shoulder with the other towns was all because of Liu Guogong's relationship with the king, and they were actually incapable.

Wang Yan took special care of Zhongwu and Zhongyong towns, Shunxi was a little bit unconvinced, Dai Zhifan had done a lot of battles, Shunxi couldn't blame him, he couldn't fault him, so they all focused on Liu Shun.

After the reform of the titles of the imperial court, the titles of the old nobles are called Liujue, which decreases every generation. There is also a kind of hereditary title, which is the former Spyker. Of course, it is much more difficult to obtain the Spyker. .

This is also to give hope to the new forces and make them more motivated. In fact, it is a process of alternation between the old and the new.

It is said that the last time Azig was broken, Dai Zhifan was almost about to be made a county king, but Dai Zhifan didn't accept it, and refused several times before and after, and finally changed his title to a hereditary earl.Although this hereditary earl is two knots younger than his title, it may not be as valuable as the title of the county king. Dai Zhifan is a duke, and the title of his descendants will be reduced to the next. Later, he became a commoner, so this title is very precious.

Born in peace and death in sorrow, Wang Yan is actually unwilling to set up this kind of prince, because it will easily make his descendants lose their pursuit, and eventually become parasites like the clan.

Decreasing the title of each generation can make the descendants feel a sense of crisis. In order to ensure that the title will not decrease and the glory of the ancestors and the family, they must have a heart of meritorious deeds and can maintain a long-term dynamic and aggressive noble group, but human nature In this way, not everyone has his awareness and ideas, so Spyker still has to set up, otherwise it will not be able to win people's hearts.

In this battle, both Liu Shun and Zhongwu were exhausted. Although the Qing army blocked them, the soldiers still chose to continue landing. They had to cross the Grand Canal to prevent the Qing army from regaining their morale.

"Boom!" A soldier ignited the fuse, and the bow artillery suddenly retreated. An iron bullet rushed out of the white smoke and hit the river bank directly. A Qing soldier was about to turn around and retreat when he was hit by the shell, his whole body It was immediately torn into pieces, and the artillery shells continued to fly forward, smashing a fleeing Qing army to the ground.

"Quick retreat, into the woods!" Liang Huafeng was stunned by the artillery fire before he came to celebrate the victory. Seeing that a large number of his subordinates were killed by the shelling, he shouted anxiously.

Thousands of green battalion soldiers rushing out of the woods, no matter how they rushed out, they would flee back now.

Amidst the rumbling cannons, there were figures of Qing soldiers rushing towards the woods all over the mountains and plains, and corpses in infantry coats were scattered around the river.

Nearly a hundred flat-bottomed boats of the Ming army rushed to the shore, and of course there were still boats in the middle of the river, and they turned the boats around and aimed their sides at the woods to prevent accidents.

These ships are naval warships, with a deep draft and cannot reach the river.

The Qing army rushed back to the forest, but Liu Shun did not recklessly let the soldiers disembark, because the forest was too close to the shore, and the Qing soldiers could hide in the forest and shoot arrows at the shore, but it was difficult for the Ming army to hurt the Qing army with the forest blocking it.

Liu Shun looked at the terrain. It was a hill composed of more than a dozen small slopes. The range was not too large. He squinted his eyes and ordered: "Don't stop the artillery, continue to suppress, Xuanwu, Guangwu, outflank the left and right, cut off the The enemy retreated, and the Xiaowu Battalion prepared rockets to force the Qing soldiers out."

The order was conveyed, and the Ming army continued to bombard it with artillery. Iron bullets roared and smashed into the woods. Scratching the branches and leaves of other trees, they fell down with a clatter.

From time to time, trees in the forest were smashed, and the sound of "click" sounded again and again, and the green battalion soldiers below panicked.

Five thousand Qing soldiers were hiding in the woods. Liang Huafeng was directing the Qing soldiers to avoid the artillery fire and was about to shoot arrows at the bank. As soon as the Ming soldiers disembarked, they would immediately hit them head-on and drive them into the river again.

After shelling for a while, the Ming army saw the right time, and the soldiers disembarked quickly. The left and right troops did not line up, so they ran to the left and right sides. , followed by the archers and musketeers off the boat.

The Qing army also shot arrows immediately, and a general of the Qing army pointed at the Ming army, "General, two Ming troops ran to both sides, do you want to go around behind us?" Liang Huafeng was startled, but at this moment the front The Ming army formed a simple formation under the cover of artillery and shield players. Hundreds of Ming soldiers shot hundreds of rockets from their bows.

A flaming rocket shot directly at Liang Huafeng's side, immediately igniting the dead leaves.

In the broad-leaved forest in autumn, the woods begin to shed their leaves, and a layer of dead leaves has accumulated in the woods. It has not rained recently, and it immediately burns.

Seeing the fire and rain, Liang Huafeng broke out in a cold sweat, and immediately ordered: "Let's go! The whole army retreats and returns to Yangzhou!"

The Qing soldiers in the woods immediately began to flee, and quickly fled to the north.

Liu Shun saw that the forest was on fire and the rain of arrows from the Qing army had stopped, so he knew that the Qing soldiers must have fled, so he quickly ordered, "Stop setting fire, the archers should control the fire, the sword and shield players, and the spearmen should go around the forest immediately and give chase to the town." .”

(End of this chapter)