On the ninth night of the first month of February in the first year of Chongzhen, General Ma Shen personally led 300 elite cavalry from Baoding Mansion to divide into three groups under the guidance and assistance of hundreds of villagers, and left the city of Zhongtun Wei Qianhu in the river before sunset, and launched a search for other suspicious directions within a hundred miles, looking for possible clues.

Wang Wenqing led the 500-foot artillery team from Baoding Prefecture, as well as 1,000 township warriors, guard soldiers and even hundreds of cavalry left behind to garrison the Zhongtun Guard City in Hejian.

It should be said that Wang Wenqing is not just a scholar, but he is still willing to listen to some reliable staff officers to make cautious and careful arrangements in military affairs.

"I don't know who gave those thieves the courage to break ground on their heads... Lord Wang, do you guess they will come again tonight? ”

"I heard that although the number of those thieves is small, they have a unique siege method, and they are good at siege. Therefore, it is important to be careful, what are the arrangements of the officials during the day? ”

"I did as I was told! Relying on a lot of bed boards and door panels vacated in the camp, a lot of covers were built on the head of the city. Judging from the smashing pits of those thieves throwing stones I have seen before, it shouldn't pose much of a threat... ”

"That's good!"

Although Wang Wenqing is not proficient in the art of war, he proceeds from reason: this group of thieves actually has the ability to break through the city of a thousand households with a small number of people, so I am afraid that they may not be able to look at the little manpower they left behind at night, and maybe they will find trouble.

Just when it was close to midnight, it seemed to confirm Wang Wenqing's premonition and speculation, and people's shouts came from not far away. Wang Wenqing, who had been waiting for a long time, immediately quietly climbed to the top of the city from another direction under the cover of his entourage.

"My lord! As you might expect, the bold thieves started throwing stones at the city again... A relative from the Zhongshun Battalion in Baoding Mansion couldn't help but glance at this civil official who didn't care about him.

"Don't act rashly, get your artillery ready! Plus, the horse team in the city is ready! Wait for the thieves to attack the city, and the inside and outside will strike together to solve them under the city... Wang Wenqing seemed to realize something, and said excitedly at this moment.

I have to say: Zhang Lixin and others are very unlucky. Among the Wenchen of the late Ming Dynasty, although there were some talented people in military affairs, the proportion was not much, which happened to let Zhang Lixin and others catch up.

On the southeast corner of the city, along the two directions of the city wall, two trebuchets spread out alternately from a position about fifty paces and about seventy or eighty meters away, and at one time they could project more than 100 lead bullets weighing six taels from two directions along the city head, and the power was even more fierce than some people expected during the day. Some of the bed boards and door panels were torn apart by the onslaught of buckshot, but that was all there was to it, and there was not much force to inflict too many casualties after breaking through the simple protective measures at the head of the city. Of course, there are some very unlucky people who were smashed by the lead bullet that stole a simple rattan shield and injured their joints, limbs, and even their brains were shattered.

Within about five minutes, 20 rounds of bomb attacks were fired one after another, and the killing efficiency of about 2,000 rounds of lead bullets dropped much less than expected. Under the protection of the door and bed boards, only twenty-three brave guards from the city were wounded, and three were killed or seriously injured.

Although Wang Wenqing had a certain understanding of military affairs, he still overestimated the casualty tolerance and patience of the soldiers and men who were not of very good quality in the face of such an attack under such field conditions. Under such pressure, many grassroots township leaders and officers and men of the Zhongshun Battalion Infantry Artillery Corps really couldn't stand the beating and did not change hands. Rockets, bows and arrows, and all kinds of guns were fired one after another, and many torches were thrown out of the city.

In the direction of the stone-throwing attack, within fifty paces of the city, the dark shadows of several working trebuchets seemed to be exposed by the rockets and torches at a closer distance. The dense firepower of bows and arrows, three-eyed guns, projectiles, etc., seemed to suppress the projection of the thieves under the city in an instant.

At this time, it was noticed that there were not many thieves outside, and the horse teams in the city also went out of the city one after another to outflank the southeast corner of the city where Qianhu was camped in two directions. Soon, without encountering much attack and resistance, they occupied the position where the "bandits" outside the city might have attacked.

Oddly enough: apart from the discovery of two small trebuchets that seemed quite unique, there seemed to be no one left?

"They can't run far! It should be around here! A leader from the Chung Shun camp said.

However, at this very moment, accompanied by flashes of light at an unknown distance in the southeast direction and the dull sound of artillery, at least 60 shotguns of about one and a half cents directly covered a range of about 10 meters after flying a distance of about 100 meters, and hit four horses and two officers and men on horseback at once. If it weren't for the fact that the cavalry of the Zhongshun battalion was not a rabble, this sudden shot might have caused hundreds of people to panic.

"The thieves are over there! There is only one cannon, hurry up! "Among the officers and men of the Chung Shun Battalion, who know more or less about firearms, they know that even light artillery cannot be fired again for a long time after it has been fired.

However, in less than two breaths, another cannon fired. Accompanied by the fierce sound of artillery, dozens of projectiles covering about one and a half cents once again hit five horses and two people on horseback, causing a commotion. At this moment, the Zhongshun battalion was still not beaten and lost its fighting spirit, but the horses, who were often treated harshly and did not have much affection for their masters, began to be restless, and did not dare to continue in the direction of danger.

After a few breaths, the cannon sound in the darkness sounded again, and at this moment, the horse teams with torches that had gathered in two ways no longer dared to advance in a dangerous direction, and retreated a distance of dozens of steps or so towards the walls of the east and south cities, until they were close to the left and right of the city gate.

However, the artillery team deployed above the city finally found its target at this time, and launched a series of fire towards the position that had been exposed to the fire in the distance. The six Tiger Venerable cannons deployed at the heads of the two city walls fired one after another, seemingly completely suppressing the artillery fire coming from outside the city. It's just that at this point, the defenders in the city can't figure out how many artillery pieces the opponents attacking and harassing under the city are, and Wang Wenqing has to be cautious. Do you want to fight the thieves under the city at night? If there is a confrontation, the situation of the enemy is completely unknown, and if there are hundreds of thieves, what if the official army is defeated? But if they don't attack at this time, it seems that those thieves may completely escape at night?

"Is Wang Qianhu sure about the thieves outside the city?" Wang Wenqing also asked the general manager of the Zhongshun Winning Infantry Team who assisted in defending the city at this moment.

If it is a second- or third-rate officer or a village warrior, he will definitely not dare to fight at night in this case. However, the Zhongshun battalion of Baoding Mansion is a famous soldier of the Ming court since Zhu Di, the king of Yan, and has made a lot of contributions in the southern and northern wars. At the same time, because I have also been hereditary in this Gyeonggi generation for a lot of time, I know some of the situation, and I don't think that not far from the foot of the Son of Heaven in Beizhili, there is a famous scale of thousands of rivers and oceans, big thieves, mountain bandits, and huge bandits. If you go into battle with hundreds of men and a few cannons, let alone completely exterminate the thieves who take advantage of the cover of the night, at least let these thieves discard the artillery and siege equipment that are difficult to transport, or capture a few of them. Even if you do this, you can be regarded as a great contribution. There are not many people who have suppressed the credit to the Zhongshun camp.

In this way, Wang Wenqing led about 100 Zhongshunying to stay behind and thousands of towns to defend the city. Liu Qian led 400 battalions and 4 cannons to fight from the south gate and the east gate, and cooperated with the nearly 100 horse teams outside the city at this time, although they lost a few people and some horses, but still had combat effectiveness, and strived to completely annihilate this gang of thieves!

The officers and men of the Zhongshun Battalion, who were truly worthy of battle, were not afraid of the dangers at night, and some elites with combat experience quietly extinguished their torches and touched them. Under the cover of the shield and shield bearer, the infantry squeezed in the direction of the artillery fire like two small phalanxes with decent protection on all sides.

Those who do not know anything about military affairs may be terrified when they hear the sound of artillery. And these people have the experience of infantry artillery in cooperation with operations outside the fortress, and understand that the light artillery of the Tiger Zun cannon is impossible to hit accurately with solid bullets at night, and can only be scattered bullets. And although the sound of the scattered bombs is terrifying, it will be greatly discounted in the face of even not very advanced infantry shields and armor, and it will just scare the layman who does not know how to fight...

As the infantry and cavalry of the Chung Shun battalion converged and continued to advance to the place where the previous cannon fire had come from, and when they reached the position where the horse team had reached, the two cannons rang out one after another, and two rounds of fire were fired, firing two or three hundred shotguns of one and a half cents. However, these shotguns did not cause many casualties at all to the Chung Shun battalion, which was ready to go, and the whole team continued to advance.

"No big deal! Rush! With the shouts of the officers below, a total of four or five hundred cavalry in both directions launched a quick attack, and soon came to the place where the previous cannon sound came from. When he was about a dozen steps away, he saw two cannons, which seemed to be captured Ming army-style artillery. It's just strange: I only see weapons and no people?

"It's really evil! Could it be that the ghost was firing just now? A chill quietly rose in the hearts of some loyal Shunying officers and soldiers, with the experience of performing many tasks to suppress bandits, Liu Qian also found that there seemed to be something wrong, so he ordered: "Marin! Wang Qi, the two of you are responsible for pulling the cannons back. The rest retreated, went and looked elsewhere! ”

However, just as the infantry teams in both directions were about to retreat, there seemed to be some unusual wind coming from the air. Three trebuchets, two hundred rounds of six taels of lead bullets fired by one large and two small ones were scattered from the air.

At a distance of about sixty paces, the position covered by the trebuchet was not entirely accurate, so there were quite a few buckshots in the clearing. But even so, because the infantry team operating at night was more dense, these more than 200 lead bullets caused nearly 30 casualties at once. Almost at the same time: four cannon shots in quick succession. Two or three hundred buckshot bullets swept across a distance of several zhang or so under the attack of the trebuchet, causing the position of the two infantry formations to be scattered, and more than ten cavalrymen were knocked off their horses...

It turned out that in order to maximize the chance of victory when the strength of the two sides was disparity, Zhang Lixin had already made careful deductions and estimates: it was not easy to determine the direction and effectively kill at night, even if it was to attract the other party outside the city. It is necessary to lure the enemy twice in a row: once to lure as many opponents as possible out of the fixed position in the city, and once again to lure the opponent's forces out of the city to a fixed position--- at least far from the place where the projected power of the enemy at the head of the city may threaten.

And in order to do this, and to ensure the safety of the fighters who carry out the decoy of the enemy, it is necessary to prepare foxholes in the exact position where they can be quickly concealed. And the back of the shield is camouflaged, which allows it to quickly hide after hiding in a foxhole at night. In order to make the most of the firepower, the artillery at the second decoy position was also prepared with a simulated wooden cannon. And at night, when the opponent is approaching the position of the wooden cannon, the officer and soldier in another position in the distance can pull the cannon to continue to use... Of course, there are many loopholes and incompleteness in this combat plan, and if the opponent does not act according to the assumptions in the deduction and estimate, then he can only choose to avoid the battle or choose another opportunity.

At the same time, in order to avoid unnecessary casualties when fighting against a regular opponent of a large scale, not only did he make the most of the twenty sets of armor that had been reassembled and were still decent after all. A "dirt quilt" was also prepared to cover the car shield and even the mud shield of the soldiers on the mission to avoid casualties caused by stray bullets and arrows that were not too powerful.

This meticulous planning and the long and patient preparation that had preceded it finally paid off, and although it was not possible to achieve the desired effect in the night, most of the officers and men of the Zhongshun Battalion retreated into the city, leaving only more than 50 dead and wounded and even a few cannons, and only three soldiers who carried out the task of luring the enemy to ambush were slightly wounded by the stray guns of the long-range guns, which were not very powerful.

Just when Li Yi, Cheng Hai and others were cheering for victory, Zhang Lixin woke up from the orderly retreat of the officers and men of the Zhongshun Battalion: With the reliable manpower he has at present, it is obviously not much certainty that he wants to deal with so many officers and soldiers who are still worthy of battle in the storm. Fortunately, it was a not very sunny night, and if it was during the day against these officers and soldiers who would not collapse due to a small proportion of short-term casualties, then even if they were lucky enough to win, they would definitely lose more than they lost...

"Let's see how we can make a decision this time when we get out of the city!" Although Zhang Lixin said this at this time, he had already made a decision in his heart.