Dongguan county is a large-scale expansion in the Hongwu period, the southwest of the old city of the bowl mountain and Taoist mountain into the city, therefore, now present in Chen Kai's eyes of this Dongguan county is an irregular polygon.

The city gate opens four, the north is called Zhenhai, the south is called Chongde, the east is said to be Heyang, and the west is said to be Ying'en. Judging from the name, it is very different from Xiangshan County - Xiangshan County, where officials have always entered through the south gate; And this Dongguan County has always been from the West Gate. The reason for this is that Guangzhou, the provincial capital, is just west of Dongguan.

The army led by Chen Kai personally advanced north from Xin'an, and soon approached the county seat of Dongguan. The gap between the forces of the two sides is not small, but it is not very huge, so Chen Kai simply did not completely besiege the city, but camped in the southwest of the county, and the army arrived close to the city, cleaned up the plum blossom piles in the south of the city, and blatantly dug tunnels outside the city.

In order to dig the tunnel, the Ming army also built two camps around the tunnel near the left, showing the trend of cornering. Chen Kai used his troops steadily, but also let the Qing army in the city get nothing to take advantage of, but the fortifications and tunnels outside the city were built on a large scale, and the south of the city was originally the south city wall where the Boyu Mountain and the Taoist Mountain were guarded by the tunnel in the west and east, and the slow progress of the excavation was very one. Within the county, there is a waterway between the new city and the old city that divides the city into two, and even if it enters the stage of street fighting, it will never be as easy as the Xinhui county.

The defenders received a strict order from Shang Ke to defend the city. The city has not yet been besieged, and the strength advantage of the Ming army is far from enough to make them feel desperate, under the strict order, the morale of the defenders is not bad, and the defense work is also being carried out in an orderly manner, just waiting for the reinforcements in Shang Kexi's mouth to arrive.

At the end of October, Chen Kai set off from Xinhui and connected the two counties of Xiangshan and Xin'an, but he was forced to stop his rapid progress in Dongguan. At the same time, the departure of Chen Kai's army had no great impact on Li Dingguo's troops, and under Li Dingguo's command, the vanguard of the army crossed the Cangbu River and easily captured Gaoming County.

This was expected for a long time, after all, the Qing army's naval division is almost negligible today, even if Gaoming County, located south of the Xijiang River, has Cangbu Water as a barrier, but there are not enough ships, it is just lonely. There was no need to expend a limited number of troops for this, especially not to inflict more losses on the vassal soldiers.

Gao Ming immediately went down, and Li Dingguo's detachment set off from Xinhui County and went north to Shunde. And his headquarters crossed the Xijiang River, seeking to seize Sanshui.

People say that the water network in the south of the Yangtze River is vertical and horizontal, but in fact, the Pearl River Delta is an alluvial plain, and the whole area is also cut into small pieces by one waterway after another. In such a terrain, the side lacking a sailor will have a significant reduction in maneuverability.

The distance between Shunde and the capital city of Guangzhou is less than 100 miles, and in addition to the waterways, there are not many geographical shields that can be used as barriers. But it was precisely because of the problem of the Qing army's naval division that it was still difficult for Shunde to get effective support from Guangzhou, but just like Xinhui and Dongguan, the Qing army in Shunde also received an order to defend and wait for the reinforcements of the Eight Banners who did not know where they were still there.

In the attack of Shunde, Li Dingguo decided that Lian Chengbi, the governor of Liangguang, and Wang Xing, the general of Huben, would lead the waterway soldiers and horses to be responsible for the attack, while his headquarters troops and horses would go north to Sanshui to seize this more important place.

Sanshui County is located at the mouth of the river, and at the same time serves as the only way to connect the capital city of Zhaoqing and the city of Guangzhou. Of course, Li Shutai, the governor of Liangguang, understood the importance of Sanshui to the Qing army, and even took the governor to Sanshui County to assist in the defense.

Four years ago, the Qing army besieged Guangzhou, and there was a Ming court supervisor and scholar in Sanshui. Now, the Ming army has launched a counteroffensive, but the Qing army has also come to the side of the high-ranking officials of the governor of Liangguang to assist in the defense, which happens to be reversed from that year. The only difference is that the Qing army's attack on Sanshui was by land; On the Ming army's side, it was necessary to reach the city by water.

On the waterway of the Xijiang River, a Ming fleet slowly traced the river. On the big flag of the ship, a big Chen character waved in the wind, doing its best to inform the mountains and fields on both sides of the strait, the gentry and the common people of the identity of the commander.

The white-haired old general looked at the mountain and water along the way, and felt more familiarity, or because of the passage of time, he didn't remember it clearly, or because things were different from people. However, the hydrology has long been well understood, and for many years it has not dared or forgotten, for the sake of today's counteroffensive.

"Four years ago, Ben Shuai was ordered to be controlled by He Wusu, a scholar of the Inspectorate University, and stationed in Sanshui to cover the flank of Guangzhou. However, the captives were menacing, and the soldiers fought desperately and bloodily, and in the end they could not prevent the fall of Sanshui. At that time, Sanshui was lost, and I could only flow down the water and go to Shangchuan Island to live, but I was fortunate to have the help of Chen Fujun to have today's strength. ”

As he spoke, Ling Hai General Chen Qice turned his head to look, and behind the ship, on the Xijiang River, large and small ships were endless, competing with each other. Here are the warships that he survived when he escaped from Sanshui, the capture in the Pearl River Water Battle, the small boat given to him by Chen Kai in Hong Kong, the capture of intercepting Du Yonghe and the new construction in the past four years.

"It's finally back."

As far as Chen Qice could see, in the distance, there was a waterway in the northeast direction of the Xijiang River. Seeing there, the memories of the past came to mind, and when he ordered to the herald: "Order the fleet, turn to the Beijiang River in front, and then go downstream, occupy Dazhousha, shell Xinhui County, and cover the crossing of the army of the King of Xining." ”

The order was given, and soon, the flag-bearer on the ship stood on the lookout of the mast and waved the flag, and the ships behind noticed the ship's instructions and responded quickly.

As Chen Qice said, the fleet diverted to the Beijiang River, quickly took control of the unguarded Dazhousha, and shelled the county town of Sanshui at the mouth of the river, while the smaller ships also began to provide shipping support for the Ming vanguard who had already reached the south bank of the Beijiang River.

Tens of thousands of Ming troops under the leadership of Li Dingguo's Chinese military governor Jin Tongwu quickly crossed the Beixi, swaggered to the foot of Sanshui City, and formed a semi-encirclement posture of Sanshui County with the cooperation of the water division. Moreover, more Ming troops seem to be gathering here from the direction of Xinhui in the south, as if they are already in a posture of encompassing Sanshui in their hands.

In the meantime, there are both local green camps and Li Shutai's supervision, and it is not far from Guangzhou, so Jin Tongwu's persuasion to surrender is naturally in vain.

Seeing this, Jin Tongwu began to build siege equipment step by step, destroy the plum blossom piles outside the city, and dig tunnels at the same time, which is almost not much different from Chen Kai in Dongguan and Wang Xing in Shunde.

The siege was prepared slowly, and after a few days, the first attack was launched, Jin Tongwu personally arrived at the front line, and led the Ming army to attack by means of ants attached to the outside of the city and a surprise attack on the tunnels. Just like last year's Zhaoqing and this year's Xinhui, the Qing army had long been prepared for this tactic, and still strictly defended the city, dug an inner ditch in the city, and quickly repelled the onslaught of the Ming army after suffering certain casualties.

When the first attack failed, Jin Tongwu's side was not discouraged, but continued to build more siege equipment and dig more tunnels, making it clear that he wanted to continue to implement the tactics.

Time flew by, and it was soon late November. During this period, Jin Tongwu continued to receive news from Li Dingguo, first Chen Kai went down to Xiangshan and Xin'an counties, and then gradually became a city held by the Qing army as he did.

However, compared with his more primitive tactics, Chen Kai's attack on Dongguan was quite fierce, and even the city wall was once blown up by the Ming army, and the follow-up troops followed up slowly, so that the Qing army blocked the gap, and filled the prepared bamboo basket with earth and stone to re-plug the gap.

Such news was transmitted through Xiangshan County, and although the two sides did not reunite with each other, they still communicated with each other in military information. Chen Kai did not shy away from his attack on Dongguan in the slightest. On the other hand, on the side of Lian Chengbi and Wang Xing, the attack was also unsmooth, and even the degree of unsmoothness was even higher than that of Chen Kai and him, but the report was always quite optimistic, so optimistic that Jin Tongwu laughed out loud several times.

He is just a simple military general, and he can't understand the political tricks. In many cases, it is necessary to give confidence to the rear, otherwise if the generals are changed in battle, the impact on the battle situation will often be even more unfavorable.

These have nothing to do with him now, for him at this moment, it is nothing more than an effective attack on Sanshui County with Chen Qice, nothing more. But today, he received an urgent report, saying that the Qing army on the Shunde side had abandoned the city and the army had moved into Foshan.

"It's really strange, Sanshui and Dongguan didn't bloom, but Shunde took it first."

Jin Tongwu couldn't understand it very much, and when he said it, he also had the implication of underestimating the combat effectiveness of Lian Chengbi and Wang Xing's subordinates. Chen Qice sat opposite him and carefully read the emergency report, and soon, the new emergency report arrived, a text that had never even mentioned the word Shunde, and also explained to them why the Qing army wanted to abandon the Shunde county seat.

………………

The Beijiang River, on the bank of the three waters, flows down the river and merges into the rolling torrent of the Pearl River, which flows into the sea without stopping for a minute or second.

Above the turbulence of the Pearl River, the beacon towers along the river, except for Dongguan, Xin'an, and Xiangshan, have been controlled by the Ming army, and are no longer early warning for the Qing army.

Billowing wolf smoke rose into the sky, and soon, the next beacon ignited the wolf smoke just like the former. Columns of wolf smoke rose one by one in the direction of Guangzhou, accompanied by the Pearl River, just as after the Qing army's surprise attack on Hong Kong Island last year, a Ming fleet, much smaller than Chen Qice's command, traced the river and sailed again to Guangzhou along the old channel that had been traveled last year.

The fleet slowly approached, and the Qing army in Guangzhou had already prepared. The last time it was a great shame, which made Shang Kexi very happy, he built several forts on the city wall of Guangzhou New Town, and moved all the artillery cast in the near future. This time, the Ming army attacked again, and Shang Kexi immediately rushed to the south city wall to personally command the battle, in order to be ashamed.

However, this time, after the Ming fleet approached the city of Guangzhou, it did not approach the waterway of the wharf, but occupied several sandbanks including Dajisha, and at the same time the fleet escorted the Ming infantry to land on Henan Island and launched a rapid advance.

On Henan Island, the Qing army had a small garrison and a fort that cooperated with the south fort of Guangzhou to lock the river. The Ming army did not play its cards according to common sense, approached Henan Island, and directly chose to land, and the infantry advanced very quickly, and before the end of the requisition of fishing boats in Guangzhou, the resistance on Henan Island that could hardly be called a battle was over. Next, the Ming army began to set up camp on the island, and at the same time controlled those forts to block the river.

The Ming army dominated Henan Island and did not leave, which had never appeared. Every time, whether it was the rescue of Guangzhou or the later shelling of Guangzhou, Chen Kai only regarded it as a temporary dock, where it was like today.

Naturally, such an act will not be unfounded. As a result, the Pingnan Domain and the Jingnan Domain jointly launched a military discussion, and you finally found that the most likely thing was that Chen Kai had a way to quickly capture Dongguan, or that he had exhausted his patience under the city of Dongguan, and was ready to cross the Pearl River and go to the west bank to get involved.

Next, the Qing army in Shunde evacuated from the county seat in an orderly manner, and Wang Xing sent troops to chase after it, but the two sides did not distinguish the winner or loser, and it was over. Next, after the Ming army in western Guangdong took control of the county seat, it began to encroach on the areas north of the Xijiang River and even north of the Beijiang River step by step, and the Qing army had already withdrawn, and those areas soon fell into the hands of the Ming army.

At the same time, as the initiator of all this, Chen Kai did not move closer to the west bank of the Pearl River and the Ming army in western Guangdong, but continued to launch weak attacks under the city of Dongguan. Even at this time, Chen Kai's energy was rarely put on the nearby county town of Dongguan, but he stared at the report in Hong Kong every day, day after day, becoming more and more eager.

"Haven't you arrived yet?"

"If you go back to the Fu Army, Marquis Zhou and Admiral Ke have not yet arrived."

It should have arrived in mid-November, but now that it was the beginning of the lunar month, Zhou Hezhi and Ke Chenshu's troops still hadn't arrived. That's hundreds of warships and more than 20,000 soldiers of the Ming army, including 16,000 soldiers in eight towns in the infantry alone, which is almost twice the number of troops that Chen Kai has invested on the battlefield in Guangzhou at this stage.

This army never arrived, so Chen Kai could not let go of his hands and feet. And more importantly, the reinforcements of the Qing army should arrive immediately!