The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 650 Swift Battalion

Hauge looked up at Ningqiang city to the south again.

That lonely city was heavily besieged by his 3-odd army, but he persisted, blocking his way to attack Sichuan.

He frowned and asked Luo Luohun beside him, "How many Southern troops are there in Ningqiang city?"

"Back to the general, it is Wang Yingxiong's deputy Wang Xiang's 8000 troops."

Hauge immediately lost his temper, turned around and said angrily, "It's just such a small town, only eight thousand Nanman, and you haven't taken it after fighting for more than a month?!"

Luo Luohun was extremely wronged and said: "In addition to the southern army in the city, there is also Qin Yiming wandering outside the city to support him. The four thousand soldiers under him are quite fierce... Besides," he pointed to the three watchtowers next to Ningqiang City "The kind of thing that the southerners call a 'bastion' is also extremely difficult to deal with. We lost a lot of people on it."

Haoge had just arrived in southern Shaanxi, and he hadn't suffered from the bastions yet. Looking at the three "watchtowers" measuring [-] to [-] feet in square, he thought Luo Luohun was making excuses for his own incompetence, and cursed secretly. "Trash", said to Wakda: "Decree, the army will make food every day, and attack Ning and Qiang with me at this time!"

"Whoo!"

At dinner time, Hauge's army blew the gong to withdraw the troops, and Hauge returned to his general camp in disgrace. Under his command, more than 3 Qing troops stormed for a whole day from the morning, and made no progress except for dropping more than a thousand corpses.

Only then did Hauge realize that the three "bastions" built against the city were really difficult to deal with - even heavy artillery could hardly cause much damage to their low and sloping outer walls, so sending troops to climb the city and attack them, It was discovered that there were two layers of city walls inside!Don't explain how the guns and cannons are fierce, even if no one resists, just crawling in will be exhausted to death...

It turned out that Wang Yingxiong had tasted the sweetness of this bastion when he was guarding Chengdu. He always liked to defend the city as if he had found a treasure, so he immediately asked Zhu Linmi to send a few engineers from the Dragon Guards to Sichuan to help.

Later, most of the Baigan army was transferred away by the imperial court. He thought that his troops were not strong enough, so he resolutely gave up attacking Hanzhong and transferred the main force back to Ningqiang to defend.

A few months ago, Zhu Linmi allocated a million taels of silver to Sichuan for disaster relief. At this time, the people's livelihood in central Sichuan had improved significantly, and Wang Yingxiong was able to mobilize a large number of strong people to help build the city.

He successively raised the city walls of Ning and Qiang, and built three bastions one mile away from the city to assist in defense.Unlike the last time the bastion was hastily built in Chengdu, this time he spent a lot of money. The outer wall of the bastion is made of stones and rammed earth, and the inner wall is two layers, nearly four feet high.

In addition, during the great victory in northern Sichuan a while ago, he seized a lot of cannons from the Qing army, plus the ones allocated by the imperial court. At this time, the cannons were gathered on the bastion, and the firepower was extremely strong.

At the same time, he was taught by Zhu Linming to keep the most powerful white-armed army outside the city. Once the enemy attacked the city too aggressively, Qin Yiming would lead his troops to harass the city from the outside, making Jianlu miserable.

In this way, Governor Wang stood firm in Ningqiang for more than a month, as stable as a rock, with less than [-] casualties.

When the reinforcements from Dou Chengwu and the two red flags arrived, Hauge did not give up and attacked several times and suffered heavy casualties, but he still could not do anything to the Ningqiang defenders.

In desperation, he had no choice but to use the old method - to build a higher earth wall outside Ningqiang City, intending to attack the bastion from a high position.

He looked at the sweaty soldiers carrying earth and rocks outside the city, and his heart was already cold. If he wanted to overwhelm the Ningqiang city defense, the earth wall would have to be more than six feet long, which is equivalent to building a bigger city than Ningqiang city. city ​​walls.Under the continuous harassment of the Ming army, such a large project would take three months to complete at the fastest.

And even if Ning and Qiang can be successfully captured by then, there are still two major barriers, Guangyuan and Jiange, on the way south to Shu. If the southerners defend like they are now, it will be difficult to win Sichuan in less than a year.

By that time, Duoduo might have already invaded Fujian and Guangdong, and he couldn't help lamenting, "Could it be that God blessed him with Dorgon's failure?!"

……

Li Dingguo jumped off the diving board and looked back at the huge white-bottomed boat behind him. His stomach was churning again, and the feeling of vomiting rushed into his throat, but he suppressed it.

Deng Shan led his men to greet him quickly, glanced at Li Dingguo's pale face, and hurriedly reached out to support him, "But General Li of the Swift Battalion?"

"It's the last general," Li Dingguo nodded weakly, "Who is this general?"

"The last general will break the captive camp Deng Shan." Deng Shan turned to greet the guards again, "Bring ginger tea, General Li thinks he is seasick."

"It turns out that the deputy commander is above." Li Dingguo hurriedly pointed to the young man beside him, "This is the third brother of the last general, Liu Wenxiu." Then he knelt down on one knee.

Deng Shan had made great achievements in the previous battle to recover Nanjing. At this time, he had been promoted to one of the two deputy commanders of the Polu Camp, and Li Dingguo's department, which belonged to the Polu Camp, was his subordinate.

Deng Shan supported the two of them, and said with a smile: "General Li, General Liu, our Daming Field Army only salutes regardless of their official positions."

"Ah, by the way, the instructor taught it the day before yesterday." Li Dingguo hurriedly saluted another not-so-standard military salute, "The last general forgot."

Deng Shan returned the military salute, took ginger tea from the guards and handed it to the two of them, "Drink it while it's hot, to relieve seasickness. The Holy Majesty once said that kneeling and saluting is too time-consuming, and the battlefield is changing rapidly, so don't delay the opportunity for this."

He waited for Li Dingguo to finish drinking the ginger tea, then looked at the more than 20 boats moored in the port, and asked, "General Li, are all the fast battalion men and horses here?"

"Returning to the deputy commander, nearly 3000 people who entered Chu to fight will come first, and another 2000 people will start from northern Sichuan, and it will take two or three days to arrive. In addition, there are special personnel in charge of the army and horses, and it may be later. .”

As soon as Li Dingguo finished speaking, Liu Wenxiu complained in a low voice: "If we had recruited 5000 brothers from the old department, if we transferred all of them to Nanzhi, we would be able to kill the captives all the way north without the need for the imperial court to send another army. .But the Ministry of War only selected [-] people for the Swift Battalion, and the rest were sent back to their hometowns..."

Regarding the selection of the former Daxi Army, Zhu Linming was indeed strict no matter how strict she was, and she would not let anyone with a little bit of a habit of rogues.It is better to be short than to be indiscriminate, and we must not let anyone bring down the ethos of the Ming army, especially the elite field army.

In addition, he also asked the Ministry of War to transfer more than 400 guidance envoys to the Swift Battalion to be responsible for ideological work.In fact, if the front line was not in a hurry to use troops, he would definitely send these people to the military academy first.

Li Dingguo hurriedly shook his head to Liu Wenxiu, and whispered: "Third brother, don't talk nonsense."

Deng Shan only smiled when he heard the words, and said in his heart that he was quite arrogant, you will know after a while, not everyone is qualified to enter the Polu camp.

A messenger soldier galloped along the avenue of the pier, and saluted Deng Shan: "Report to Commander, the luggage of the Swift Battalion has arrived."

"Okay." Deng Shan turned around and greeted Li Dingguo and the others, "I will welcome the two generals first, and then I will take you to hand over the weapons and luggage."

The court order Li Dingguo received was to let them drop all their weapons and armor, and rush to Nanzhili with light clothes.At this time, when he heard the important military weapon, he immediately cupped his hands and said: "Commander, don't rush to eat, I'd better get the military weapon first, and then I will feel at ease."

(End of this chapter)