November 21, 11th year of Chongzhen, Gaoyang County.

Gaoyang is only a small city, but at this time it is in full swing to repair the city walls, and the city is full of laborers inside and outside the city.

In the city, a group of soap servants (government officials) surrounded an old man with white hair and slowly walked out of the north gate, and the people stopped their work and rushed to witness it.

This old man is the Ming Emperor, the elder of the Three Dynasties, the former cabinet minister, the military department Shangshu Sun Chengzong, he has trained Yuan Chonghuan, Mao Yuanyi and other generals, when he served as a supervisor in Liaodong, he built the Guanning Jin defense line, blocked the Jiannu for decades, and Nurhachi did not gnaw to death, and now Huang Taiji is still gnawing.

Now Sun Chengzong is seventy-six years old, has dedicated his talent and hard work to the Ming Dynasty, and is now retired at home for several years, but in his old age, the Qing army hit his hometown Gaoyang County, and sent people to persuade him to surrender.

Sun Chengzong took a cane to drive away the envoys who persuaded him to surrender, and took more than 40 members of his family to the city wall to defend the city, preparing to meet the Qing army who came to attack the city.

Gaoyang is a small city, there are no defenders in the city, only some soap subordinates, no generals to command the war, and no food, which can be described as vulnerable.

Under the inspiration of Sun Chengzong, none of the thousands of people in the city fled, and all participated in the repair of the city wall, and went to the city to defend the city against the enemy.

Gaoyang County Ling climbed the tower at the north gate of Gaoyang to look into the distance, he was surprised to find a large cloud of smoke and dust in the distance, even if it was far away, he still judged the cavalry shrouded in smoke, and he hurriedly ordered a warning.

Hearing the rapid alarm bell, the construction site outside the city gate suddenly became a pot of porridge, and began to swarm towards the two-zhang wide city gate, but fortunately there was no trampling.

A few miles away, more than a thousand cavalry soldiers rushed out from under the clouds of smoke and dust rising high, their scalps were scraped with iron blue, and the back of their heads was only the size of copper coins, and their hair was braided into a braided with the thickness of a rat's tail.

On both sides of the saddle of each cavalry of the Qing army hung heads that were still dripping blood, and some hung a few cloth bags, and the fixed ropes were tightened, which should be looted money, and the weight was not light.

More than 1,000 Qing cavalry stopped advancing a mile outside Gaoyang City, and a short and fat Qing cavalry said: "Lord Zhang Jing, let's go into Gaoyang in one go and capture Sun Chengzong alive!" ”

The leader of Jia Lazhangjing waved his hand and said: "Don't worry, wait for the three thousand Han troops in the rear team to catch up, let them attack the city first, we just need to wait for the city to break through and rush in to grab food, money, and women!" ”

Humpty Dumpty's slender eyes spewed greedy light, and he hurriedly said, "Yes, it's the villain who is in a hurry!" ”

.......

Half an hour later, the Qing army completed the assembly, blew the horn and whined, the war drums sounded, and thousands of Qing troops began to attack Gaoyang City.

The 3,000 Han troops of the Eight Banners pushed the tall ladder cart, rushed straight to the north gate of Gaoyang, followed behind the ladder cart, and slowly advanced towards Gaoyang City.

The infantry led by the Han army rushed to the city gate almost without resistance, and the wooden stakes carried by several people hit the city gate rhythmically under the sound of the trumpet, and each time they hit, there were gray stones falling from the wall.

Seeing the Qing army's fierce siege of the city, Gaoyang County Ling panicked and said: "Elder Sun Ge, you should evacuate from the south gate, there are no Tartar soldiers at the south gate." ”

Sun Chengzong snorted heavily and said, "The old man will never run away, and swear to live and die with Gao Yang!" ”

Sun Chengzong knew that this was a method of battle for the slave and thief, just to let him escape, the Tartars used the advantage of the cavalry to catch up and capture him alive, and he escaped and was caught, that kind of shameful death, he Sun Chengzong would never do it!

His second son, Sun Jiao, said resolutely: "The child, like his father, is willing to live and die with Gao Yang!" ”

The rest of Sun Chengzong's sons also said in unison: "The child is the same as his father, and he is willing to live and die with Gao Yang!" ”

This sentence was loud, looking at more than a dozen children and grandchildren, Sun Chengzong's dry old eyes were a little moist, he was not a hypocritical person, since he decided to defend the city with his family, he would not say more useless words, and soon began to deploy city defense.

The Qing army's offensive to attack Gaoyang was extremely fierce, and the defenders of Gaoyang had already felt very difficult, and Sun Chengzong, who was sitting in the city, ordered his second son to gather all the family members, and paid for another Ding Zhuang in the city, and collected five hundred, and handed them over to the Dian Shi Lu domain for unified deployment.

Not long after, a heavy rain suddenly fell from the sky, which surprised the Qing army besieging the city, and in the cold winter season, it suddenly rained heavily, which was really weird......

Even though the weather was weird, the Qing army still did not give up the attack on Gaoyang, and in the cold wind and rain, the offensive and defensive battles of Gaoyang City became even more cruel.

The battle lasted for an hour, and the corpses of the Eight Banners Han Army were piled up under the northern city of Gaoyang, and the temperature after the rain continued to drop, and the icy rain mixed with snow flakes washed out a large red patch of blood on the ground.

The Qing army armor Lazhangjing, who was full of iron armor, hid a pair of eyes in the shadow of the helmet and looked coldly at the battle ahead, and the Han soldiers continued to impact the Gaoyang city wall under the supervision of Niu Lu Zhangjing in each battalion.

The resistance of Gaoyang Castle was very fierce, and in this rainy and snowy weather, the Gaoyang defenders composed of soap and ordinary people still broke out with an amazing will to fight.

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Near noon on November 22, the boundary of Boye in Baoding Prefecture is 70 miles away from Gaoyang County.

On the official road through Baoding Prefecture, the sound of hooves was like thunder, the smoke and dust rushed to the sky, and the black pressure rushed to the unknown number of cavalry.

The pedestrians who had taken refuge along the way hurriedly retreated to the side of the road, looking at these well-armed strange cavalrymen in horror, lest they be the men and horses of the Tartars.

After seeing the banner of the Ming Dynasty and knowing that the other party was an officer and soldier, everyone was even more careful, many people avoided it from a distance, and some of the people who were not good at their legs and feet knelt down tremblingly, very afraid that they would be killed by this group of officers and soldiers, robbing money and killing them.

Thousands of cavalry kept whizzing by, ignoring the kneeling people on both sides of the road, causing the people to let out a big long breath.

Just as the people got up to discuss, they suddenly felt the earth shake, and the black pressure in front of them was another army with banners waving, and this time the formation was several times larger than the cavalry battle just now.......

The people knelt down again, lowered their heads and secretly raised their eyes, carefully looking at this large group of people, only to see that these military masters were all dressed in bright red armor, full of fierce spirit, and it was even more rare that the military appearance was neat, and at first glance it was the elite of a hundred battles, and I don't know where the army was transferred from the imperial court.

"That's the Dragon Banner!" One of the people whispered.

Everyone looked up slightly, and saw that in the middle of the Chinese army, a wide chariot was erected with a golden dragon several feet high.

"It's the Tianwu Army! This is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince leading the army north! A business traveler said excitedly.

Amid the discussion of the people, the Tianwu army strode through the snow, ignoring the biting cold wind.

The curtain of the dragon chariot was lifted, and Zhu Cihong asked, "Xu Sheng, where are we here?" ”

Xu Sheng said: "Your Highness, there is Boye County in front, and it is still eighty miles away from Baoding. ”

Zhu Cihong nodded and said, "It's not early, let's set up camp outside Boye City, don't go into the city and disturb the people." ”

"Yes!" Xu Sheng waved his hand and let the herald ride his horse to pass the order.

"Stop moving! Camp in place! ”

After the order was conveyed to the various departments, in the neighing of the horses, tens of thousands of troops immediately stopped, and there was only the sound of the heralds and war horses along the way, and there was no other sound, which seemed to be very well-trained.