In the last few days of the twelfth year of Yongli, as Zheng Chenggong put on a posture of vowing to fight a decisive battle with the Qing army, the ground in western Zhejiang and eastern Jiangxi quickly boiled.

The main force of the Qing army in Quzhou went south, and the partial division of Guangxin Mansion was also trying its best to come back to help. At this time, on the last day of the year, after the Ming army crossed the line of Wuqing Mountain and Horse Mountain, it did not hesitate to continue to advance along Jiangshan Port and go straight to Jiangshan County.

Jiangshan Port is the southern source of Qujiang River, after passing the first line of Wuqing Mountain and Qima Mountain, it flows in the northeast direction, and converges with Changshan River in the south of Quzhou Fucheng City to form Qujiang River. Just like the Jiangshan Port and Changshan River, the Qujiang River will also merge with the Dongyang River in Lanxi County, Jinhua Province to form another river called the Lanjiang River, which in turn is the extremely important source of the Qiantang River. In other words, once the Ming army takes Jiangshan County, it can directly take the capital of Quzhou, and if it captures Quzhou, it can go down the river and march towards Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang!

Both the Ming army and the Qing army were well aware of this, so when the Ming army launched an offensive, Prince Zheng Jidu, who was in charge of the war against the Ming army in Fujian, also personally led a large army to Jiangshan County. The Ming army went down the river, and the Qing army's delay to the Ming army with the three frontline defense lines was only one step earlier.

In Jiangshan County, the thirtieth year of the Chinese New Year's Eve, there is no festive atmosphere at all. The men, women, and children of the entire county were all used by the Qing army as civilian husbands, assisting the auxiliary soldiers in carrying military grain and grass, and building camps and outposts. As for the Chinese New Year's Eve meal or something, it has become a delusion, if the action is half a minute slower, the leather whip is enough, but I don't know how to care about it.

In the afternoon, the Qing army had already met with the Ming army's scouts, and the frequency of the fights rose sharply in the hour before nightfall. During this period, the Ming army's offensive enthusiasm was high and it was very active. However, the Qing army still relies more on home advantage.

"If there is no Tiger Mountain, the truth of the official army will definitely be understood by the thieves."

After the preliminary confrontation between the two sides in the afternoon, the defense line laid out by Ashang Ge as soon as he arrived in Jiangshan County played an excellent role in shielding intelligence, which made Jidu express his heartfelt admiration.

Speaking of which? Is this Jiangshan county built on Jiangshan Port? On the other three sides, there is Tiger Mountain in the south? West Mountain? Only the north lacks a geographical barrier. The Qing army came from the north and took the lead in controlling the county seat? seized the opportunity. But what if it's just to occupy the city? But it's not enough. Because? Tiger Mountain, West Mountain, and Jiangshan Harbor can be either a geographical barrier for the defender to defend the city, or a trap for the attacker to hunt the living force, and the key is which side can control it.

The Ming army marched along the river, but Jiangshan Port was monopolized by the Qing army for a long time? The Ming army lacked river warships? The ones that were transported from northern Fujian and captured from the Qing army were also small boats, and the transportation baggage was still very insufficient, not to mention the threat to the county seat from the river. Aside from this road, the first pressure on the Qing army was naturally from the south. Tiger Mountain as a barrier to the south of the city? Although the height is limited, the two commanding heights of Jingxing Pagoda and Hutou Rock can overlook the surroundings. As long as the weather is nice? You can see the movements of your opponents at a glance.

Ashangge's defense was precisely to expand the scope of defense to include Tiger Mountain and West Mountain, rather than Yingcheng defending itself. At this stage? The West Mountain is still in the second place, and the Tiger Mountain, which is within the reach of the Ming army, has become the top priority.

"Of course Tiger Mountain can't give up? But we didn't come to Jiangshan County to guard such a mountain. ”

"Guarding the mountain is to defend the city? Hold the city before you can wait for reinforcements? Otherwise, why did you come to this small county town, Quzhou Jiancheng, isn't it easier to defend and difficult to attack than here? ”

"Defense, defense, defense, Ayuxi, I didn't see you holding those three lines of defense. When the Haikou transfers the Hongyi artillery team, are you still guarding it? ”

The focus of their argument is not the survival or abolition of the defense of Tiger Mountain and Xishan, but simply defending with danger and waiting for reinforcements, or taking advantage of the Ming army's unstable foothold and taking the initiative to attack. In the big tent of the Chinese army, the generals of the Eight Banners below Zijidu and Ashang Ge gathered around a table covered with maps to express their opinions. Sometimes one person speaks alone, sometimes everyone has different opinions, and when the competition is fierce, not lifting the table can be regarded as giving face to this little Prince Zheng.

The more Mele Zhangjing Akshan spoke, the more angry he became, and he was already very unkind to Ah Yuxi at the same level, so angry that the latter's face turned blue for a while. Speaking of which, he was indeed responsible for not being able to hold the three lines of defense, but it was more of a mistake in the prediction of failing to detect the Ming army's surprise attack in time under Nian Gen'er. Subsequently, he organized those green battalion soldiers to resist day by day, and finally suggested that Ashang Ge break his arm to survive, and his performance was quite remarkable, not useless.

At this moment, the emotions of the two became more and more excited, and they inevitably fought each other with old fists, delaying the major event of discussing the overall situation, Jidu slapped the table, and made a furious appearance, and the generals didn't care about anything else, and quickly knelt on the ground, saying "The master is angry".

"Get up, this prince doesn't have time to watch you kowtow and continue the military discussion."

Adjusting his sitting position, Jidu frowned and motioned for them to continue their discussion. The two stood up, first confessed, and then Ah Yuxi continued to talk about what Akshan had just said.

"Lord Wang, the slave thinks that the order given to my army by the imperial court is to resist the offensive of the Haikou and prevent the erosion of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. As long as our army is still there, those wall grasses will have to weigh how many catties and taels they have. Rushing out, unless the Haikou is defeated in one fell swoop and driven back to the south of Xianxia Pass, it will inevitably make those wall grasses have some thoughts such as the Qing Dynasty is no longer good. ”

The generals here all knew what Ayuxi meant, and they would be so passive during this period of time, all because of the strategic layout of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Drag it down until the Qing army ends the war of annihilation, and then turns to carry out a strategic encirclement of the Fujian, Guangdong and Ming armies from the southeast and southwest. This was something that all of them knew very well, and it was also a goal that the Qing court wanted them to keep in mind at all times and must achieve by any means.

This is the overall situation, and Jidu naturally can't be clearer. However, this statement could not convince A Keshan, and when A Yuxi mentioned this, he did not hesitate to say to Jidu: "Lord, the imperial court wants our army to hold Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which is true." However, in the past few years, our army has lost a large number of prefectures and counties, and the entire southeast war situation has been completely suppressed and beaten by the pirates. If this continues, even if the army that has survived to the southwest cooperates with our army to eliminate the Haikou and return to the DPRK, it may not be able to end well. ”

Akshan's words were not alarmist, after the Battle of Zhoujiapu that year, the Qing court transferred back the Eight Banners army in Huguang. It is said that the first battle of Zhoujiapu was won by the Qing army, and the most powerful driving army of the southwest Ming army was almost destroyed in one fell swoop, but due to the loss of troops and the loss of generals, plus Nikan was killed by Li Dingguo the year before, those generals who fought bloodily to break through the driving front army were punished by the Qing court, and those who cut off their titles and seized positions abounded.

They have been stationed in Quzhou for nearly four years, and the Taizhou Prefecture, Wenzhou Prefecture, Chuzhou Prefecture and Zhoushan Islands in Zhejiang have been seized by Zheng Chenggong. can continue to hold on, thanks to Hong Chengchou's heart, the southwest meridian standard was detained, to deal with Chen Kai's offensive. Otherwise, Chen Kai should have been on the way to turn around and encircle them with the momentum of sweeping Jiangxi. It's not good, the southeastern Ming army wants to complete the battle of annihilation of the country before the Qing army and realize the swallowing of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Of course, this is all just pessimistic speculation, and for now, they are still struggling to maintain the situation in the southeast battlefield. Even if the current situation of the war suddenly collapses, at least it is not the worst outcome. But the problem is that the Qing court doesn't care how cunning Chen Kai is, how strong Zheng Chenggong is, they will only see that the Fujian Green Battalion under the jurisdiction of Guijidu is almost completely wiped out, the Qing army's control area in the southeast has shrunk sharply, and a large number of Green Battalion soldiers originally planned to be used for the destruction of the country in the southwest cannot enter Guizhou to serve as cannon fodder for the Eight Banners Army.

Akshan's words made Jidu and the generals fall into deep thought, after all, no one wanted to do their best to achieve the final victory, but not only could they not share the spoils, but they would also end up being punished.

The scales of victory began to tilt, and seeing this, Akshan decided to make persistent efforts: "Lord Wang, according to the report of the Tanma, before nightfall, there are only four towns of Beizhen, Cheqi Town, Left Pioneer Town, and Right Pioneer Town, which are ten miles away from Tiger Mountain, and there are only about 8,000 soldiers. Taking advantage of their unstable foothold, they carried out a night attack, and as long as these four towns were defeated, the pirates would not have anything to fear. ”

Since ancient times, stealing camps, nine wins and one defeat, is talking about such camps that have not yet built a complete defense system. As he wished, the initial battle was unfavorable, the morale of the Ming army was bound to be frustrated, and coupled with the instability of the military spirit brought about by the Spring Festival expedition, their chances of victory could be greatly improved. At that time, whether it is offensive or defensive, the initiative will be in their hands.

However, the Ming army was like this, and the Qing army was also facing such and such problems. The most obvious point is that their strength is still in the middle of the Ming army - in addition to the Mongolian Eight Banners that have arrived in Jiangshan County in advance, only the Eight Banners of Manchuria and the reserve troops stationed in the forward defense line of Jiangshan County, the latter only have a small number of Han Eight Banners, and the rest are all green battalions. The large army of the Eight Banners of the Han Army was slowed down by artillery, and the marching speed of the Green Battalion that set out from Quzhou together was even more difficult to reach the level of the Eight Banners Army. Even if they were to travel day and night, it would take them tomorrow at the earliest.

Of course, theoretically speaking, the essence of a night attack is the blessing of the primordial fear of darkness through people, and the use of sudden attacks to cause the opponent's mass panic, and use such panic to achieve geometric results. Therefore, there are generally not many night raid troops, but they must be composed of elite soldiers.

The elite troops are the most indispensable for their Qing army, with high standards and strict requirements, leaving aside the Mongolian Eight Banners and the Han Army Eight Banners, as well as the Manchurian Eight Banners. Moreover, there was a battalion of white-armored soldiers in the army, and Baya Lama Chang Jingjue Luo Yabulan and his deputy Baya Rakal Ladrang Jingyi Ba Getu were excellent candidates for the command of the night raid troops.

This method of warfare was undoubtedly very appetizing to the Manchurian officers, while the officers of the Eight Banners of the Mongolian Army and the Eight Banners of the Han Army acted in accordance with the survival rule of kowtowing more and talking less, and acted with the attitude of "we will listen to what the Manchurian masters say," acting as a silent majority.

A growing number of Manchurian officers began to lean toward Akshan's plan of night raids, while Ayuxi's supporters remained largely silent. Therefore, His Royal Highness Prince Zheng, who is very democratic, decided to act according to Akshan's plan, and sent the Bayala battalion as the vanguard of the night attack, and once Jue Luo Yabulan succeeded, he would put the follow-up troops into it to ensure the greatest results.

As soon as they said it, the white-armored soldiers acted quickly, and their execution as the most warlike warriors of the Manchu Qing Dynasty made the generals present quite emotional. If those waste green battalion soldiers could have one-tenth of the execution power of the white armor soldiers, Zheng Chenggong, Li Dingguo, Chen Kai and the like would have been a pile of dry bones. But on second thought, if the Han army had such efficiency, they would have been wiped out decades ago, and how could they be today.

Ibagtu took his headquarters of soldiers and horses, one hundred and fifty white-armored soldiers, as the vanguard of the night attack troops, and then the remaining white-armored soldiers led by Jue Luo Yabulan as their rearguard, and then the main force of the Manmeng Eight Banners to expand the victory.

In order to avoid being discovered by the Ming army, they did not go south directly from the vicinity of Tiger Mountain, but made a detour from the southern section of Xishan and then turned south. Along the way, the people and horses tried to keep the sound of the march to a minimum. This is not a difficult task for the white-armored soldiers who were carefully selected from the Eight Banners of Manchuria. And with these, they also discovered the outermost night of the Ming army earlier, which is undoubtedly the biggest advantage for the night attack.

A few Manchurian veterans quietly touched it and cut off the Ming army's nights one by one. They then continued their exploration southward, hunting the unprepared prey like wolves in the wilderness.

In the first half, they proceeded very smoothly, and after solving the Ming army's more than ten nights of non-collection, they could already vaguely see the fire of a camp of the Ming army. The Manchurian veterans who came out sent back the good news, and Ibagtu subconsciously licked his lips and showed a cruel smile. But when he saw the fires with his own eyes, an ominous premonition exploded in his mind.

"No, you can see so much fire at this distance, don't Haikou sleep?"

As if to confirm his suspicions, a Manchurian veteran tore through the silence of the night with a scream as he crept forward. Immediately afterward, more and more chirping dwarfs awakened the campfire-filled beasts. And with the awakening of the nearest giant beast, more giant beasts also smelled the body odor on their bodies, sharp teeth and hooked claws ploughing the ground, and their bloody eyes made people shudder.

"Withdraw, withdraw!"

Ibagtu knew very well that the key to the night attack was suddenness, and once the enemy noticed it, eight thousand against one hundred and fifty, and if they had three heads and six arms to rush into the camp, they would only end up being chopped into pulp.

After receiving the order, the white-armored soldiers hurriedly got on their horses and fled, and when they fled back to Jiangshan County, the number of people counted was less than a dozen. With their experience and riding skills, they should not be left behind. From this point of view, it probably fell into the hands of the Ming army, and life and death are unpredictable.

"Haikou is extremely vigilant, and it is about two or three times more than normal to not collect at night, and it is impossible not to be detected at all."

The loss of more than a dozen soldiers, it doesn't seem to be much, but the problem is that all these casualties are borne by Yibagtu, and he is actually only one hundred and fifty subordinates as Baya Lajia Lazhangjing, and he has lost one-tenth of his troops in one breath, how can he not feel distressed. Moreover, the white-armored soldiers of the Bayala battalion are completely different from the ordinary Eight Banners Army, they are all elites selected from the Manchurian Eight Banners and the Mongolian Eight Banners, and they are the sharpest tips on the butcher's knife of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the Eight Banners of the Han Army are not even qualified for selection.

In the early Qing Dynasty, each banner had Bayala camp, of which the upper three flags guarded the palace city, and the lower five flags guarded the princes' mansions. In the seventeenth year of Shunzhi, the Qing court changed a large number of names with Manchurian colors to Han names, among which Bayala Camp was the famous military protection camp. Later, during the Yongzheng period, they were officially transformed into the Praetorian Guard, standing together with the Fengtai Battalion and the Infantry Battalion, forming the core of the three elite troops of the Manchu Qing Dynasty to defend Gyeonggi.

Ibagtu's statement was immediately confirmed by his superior, Kyaw Loyablan. Compared with the previous one, the latter not only has the identity of the clan, but also the Manchurian marksman who once shot Zhang Xianzhong with one arrow, and the weight of his words is not to say that it is Akeshan and A Yuxi, even if it is Kadahun and Ashangge, it must be estimated one or two.

Hearing this, Jidu immediately affirmed that the reason for the failure of the night attack was not the statement of the Bayala camp. As for the black cauldron, while the Ming army carried most of it, the Han army generals and colonels present were also to blame.

"Today is Chinese New Year's Eve, the Han people have a tradition of keeping the New Year, I said that Haikou doesn't sleep at night, are you all dumb?"

Speaking of which, the Manchus of later generations were not without a tradition of keeping the New Year, but this tradition was actually learned from the Han people. Long before Nurhachi, there was no such tradition as a Jurchen. Even when Nurhachi swept Liaodong, the Han Chinese were more likely to exist as slaves in Manchu society, and had little cultural impact on the Jurchens. It was not until the Qing army of the Shunzhi Dynasty entered the customs and the Eight Banners entered the Han land on a large scale that the influence began to appear. But even so, in the early years of entering the customs, the world has not yet arrived, not to mention the great contradiction between the Manchus and Hans, and the estrangement between the two sides is also very great, which is the best embodiment in the Manchurian incident.

Moreover, this subtle cultural influence often takes decades, or even hundreds of years, to accumulate before it can become a universal traditional culture. In addition, the Qing Dynasty has always emphasized maintaining Manchurian traditions and resisting sinicization, which makes it even more difficult for cultural influence to become traditional.

Yu Han Junqi, in fact, has always been an embarrassing existence. In the eyes of the Han people, they are the banner people who are powerful and prosperous; In the eyes of Manchuria, they were still Han Chinese. In the words of later generations, it is something like naturalization in the eyes of the Japanese, naturalization and green card in the eyes of the Americans, and it is not at all a national who deserves the same treatment in the eyes of traditional people. In history, in order to suppress the Han rebellion at the beginning of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, a large number of Han people were also recruited into the banner. After the world was settled, he began to try his best to remove the Han army banner man from the flag book, which was nothing more than the use of the word "two".

During the Qing Dynasty, the Han military banner did still follow some Han Chinese traditions, rather than complete Manchurianization. But just like their own embarrassing situation, their traditions are nothing more than a marginal culture within Eight Banners, not the mainstream advocated by the government.

During this period, for the accusations of the Manchurian aristocracy, these generals and colonels of the Han army banner had to make a strong accusation, claiming that entering the flag was the flag man, and the Han tradition had long been forgotten. It is a sign of faithfulness and a reduction of guilt. Now that the enemy is present, the Manchurian aristocracy has no intention of continuing to be more serious, and some things are enough to be justified on the surface, and it is unwise to continue to pursue them.

The night attack failed, and the main battle faction inevitably died down, while the main defender faction, which had fallen behind, regained the right to speak. As a result, His Royal Highness Prince Zheng, who was as good as a stream, issued an order to stand firm and wait for reinforcements, building fortifications with Tiger Mountain and West Mountain as the core, and striving to isolate the Ming army from these two mountains.

In terms of reinforcements, he continued to urge. The main force of the Han Army Banner will definitely arrive at the beginning of the first month, and the Green Camp should be a little later by a day and a half. It takes a long time for Kadahun to come and leave, and he can arrive in two or three days. As for the Han army stationed in Jiangnan, which was loyal to him, he needed to wait for at least ten days. At that time, he had the bargaining chips to continue to negotiate with Zheng Chenggong.