After resting for a night, early the next morning, Zhu Hao ordered the troops to move north, and at the same time there was a battle report from the front, the main force of Liu Zeqing's army in Shandong was defeated by the Qing army, and Liu Zeqing led thousands of remnants to flee west to Henan. Now look at the entire Shandong gateway is wide open, and the east of Jinan, except for the corner of Jiaodong where Yang Wenyue, the governor of Denglai, is stationed, has been exposed to the Qing army.

In addition, Zhu Hao learned that the commander of the Qing army in Yanzhou, Balatu Buri, would lead his troops south, and hurriedly urged his troops to march 120 miles in a hurry and reach Zou County before evening.

News came from the reconnaissance unit that there were only more than 1,000 Qing troops stationed in Zou County, most of them Han troops, and the scattered Qing troops in the east and west of the county town totaled more than 2,000 people, half of the Manchu and Han troops.

When Zhu Hao arrived at the city of Zou County, it was almost dusk, and without saying a word, he set up a cannon and attacked the Qing army at the head of the city. After several rounds of shelling, the Qing army was caught off guard, with heavy casualties, and less than one-third of the surviving Qing troops at the head of the city.

"Blow the trumpet of the charge, order the troops to siege the city, and the artillery and snipers cover the infantry charge." Zhu Hao saw that the Qing army was stunned, and seized the opportunity to give an order.

The horn sounded, Zhao Yuansheng was the first to issue the siege order, the last battle was not fished, this time it was not in vain, a thousand troops rushed to the city gate with a shout.

The Qing army Zou County guard was sleeping soundly with the concubine of the county order in his arms, and he was startled when he heard the rumbling of artillery outside, and he was busy ordering the troops to assemble.

It cannot but be said that the fighting quality of the Qing army, especially the Manchurian Eight Banners, is not comparable to the Ming army, even if it is defenseless, it still reacts quickly, and after a while, more than 100 Eight Banners soldiers are assembled in place, but the Han army is running around in a panic.

"Report, my lord, there is a sudden attack of the Ming army, they have a lot of artillery, the defenders at the head of the city have suffered heavy losses, and they can't organize effective resistance!" As soon as they were assembled, a soldier came to report.

"Damn, the archers are going to the city quickly, and the rest of the people are scattered through the city gates, and if the enemy opens the city gates, intercept them!" The Qing army guard ordered.

The infantry on Zhu Hao's side had just begun to charge, and the archers of the Qing army had already stood at the head of the city, but fortunately, the archers who had been hastily assembled did not have much accuracy, and they shot arrows at the charging Ming army.

Rao is so, the charging infantry also began to suffer casualties, such a close distance, the artillery is easy to hurt their own people, Zhu Hao did not hesitate, and said, "Sniper, give me the bow and arrow to suppress the enemy!" ”

This trick had a very good effect, and the archers of the Qing army were shooting happily, when suddenly there was a burst of gunfire that was not too dense, and a large number of them fell in a large area.

The snipers were all well-trained sharpshooters, and their shooting speed, accuracy, and range were the best, and in a few minutes, half of the hundreds of archers at the head of the city fell. The Qing soldiers were shot almost as soon as they showed their heads, and the rest of the archers were frightened and hid behind the wall and did not dare to come out.

Taking advantage of this, Zhao Yuansheng's infantry had already rushed to the city gate, and several demomen placed a bundle of grenades under the city gate and set it on fire.

There was a loud "boom", and half of the city gate was blown down. The rest of the infantry took the opportunity to rush into the city and kept shooting at the panicked Qing army.

Seeing that the overall situation had been decided, Zhu Hao ordered everyone to enter the city.

In less than an hour, Zhu Haojun fully controlled the county seat, and more than 1,000 Qing troops in the city were captured except for a few hundred Han soldiers who were captured, and a very small number of people took advantage of the chaos to escape, and the rest were all annihilated, and the guards were also killed by random shots. However, their own soldiers also suffered fifty or sixty casualties, half of them were shot by bows and arrows while charging, and half were lost in the attack on the city, and then they did not have time to shoot and fight with the enemy.

The newly joined Sun Daben got the opportunity to kill the enemy and slaughtered two Qing troops with his own hands.

I have to say that the individual combat effectiveness of the Manchurian Eight Banners is still very strong, although Zhu Hao's soldiers have undergone strict training, and the Manchu soldiers with rich experience in one-on-one hand-to-hand combat are still at a disadvantage, fortunately, the usual stabbing techniques and queue training have shown their power in white-knuckle combat, and the combat group of more than three people is slightly better against the same number of full soldiers, as for the Han soldiers, they are not much stronger than the ordinary Ming army.

Siege warfare is not a field battle against the enemy, it is definitely beneficial to the defending side, especially in street battles, it is difficult to give full play to the maximum power of muskets, and casualties are inevitable, so Zhu Hao didn't care.

After taking control of the county seat, Zhu Hao issued measures to reassure the people overnight, and the county order was killed when the Qing army broke the city, and Zhu Hao arranged for his body to be buried properly.

Zou County is a small county town, the population is only a few thousand, after the people find out the situation, they are hiding at home and do not dare to come out, and later see that these Ming troops are very kind, so they boldly stepped forward to ask. Soon, the military and the people became acquainted, and many civilians who had been bullied by the Qing army came to work with the army, and the soldiers paid the corresponding money in accordance with the provisions of the military law. More than 20,000 taels of silver were found from the Qing army, most of which belonged to the county government treasury, and Zhu Hao distributed half of them to the people who suffered losses. Zhu Haojun's prestige was raised to the commanding heights for a while.

As for the hundreds of Han army prisoners, Zhu Hao looked at the money rat tail behind their heads and didn't fight anywhere, these traitors who forgot their ancestors cut down all these dogs and things according to everyone's intentions, but in this way, no one would dare to surrender in the future. After an argument, Zhu Hao decided to put them on public trial, sentence those who had committed human lives and the Manchu Qing Dynasty to death as an example, and the rest of the people were sent to Xuzhou to open mines and undergo labor reform.

The common people of Zou County are not murderous people, and they all agreed to this decision, and a total of seventy or eighty people were killed in the public trial overnight.

After Zhu Hao left a few sincere repentant people, he sent a team to escort these prisoners back to Teng County, and escorted them back to Xuzhou together with the Han army in Teng County.

Not counting the artillery, now Zhu Hao has a total of 5,000 infantry cavalry in his hands, and Zhu Hao has a lot of brains on how to fight the next battle. It is said that the whole army is in the city, and unless the main force of the Qing army comes here, it is impossible to capture the county seat. But in this way, if the enemy's siege is frustrated, it will retreat and will not play a large role in annihilation.

Zhu Hao judged that although Zou County was close to Yanzhou, the Qing army in Yanzhou would not all be dispatched, in view of the distribution of the Qing army, it would be good to have five or six thousand people, so Zhu Hao left artillery and Wang Boda, who had experience in defending the city, to defend the city, and the rest of the men and horses withdrew from the city, waiting for the enemy's attack on the city to be frustrated, and attacked from both sides.

Zou County is small and not equipped with artillery, which is also an important reason why Zhu Hao can easily break through, so there are 1,000 people and artillery battalion guards are enough, Zhu Hao arranged overnight, put large artillery on the head of the city, and blocked the four city gates, and also organized some people to be young and strong, carry the materials to defend the city, make wooden shields, and assist in the battle.