Chapter 521 is full of elites

The person who came was named Jiao Eryong.

Jiao Eryong is burly, thirty years old, and he is the golden age of an officer.

He was originally an officer of the Green Battalion stationed in Fuzhou, but since Fuzhou was lost, he crawled out of the pile of dead people and fled back to Zhejiang alone, but he has been depressed and unpopular.

Not long ago, the Ming thieves attacked Hangzhou in one go, and he escaped the Yangtze River with the brigade in a daze, and was thrown to Ma Jinbao by Chen Jin as a burden.

Admiral Ma was short of officers, so he gave him hundreds of soldiers and sent him to Tongzhou with a general.

This time, the thieves crossed the river to attack, and Admiral Ma had no countermeasures, so he decided to shrink his troops in desperation, and Jiao Eryong's team was ordered to pull out overnight and go to Yangzhou to assist in "suppressing thieves".

Although his career was not smooth, this Jiao Eryong has always been ambitious, and he was not willing to sink, and after coming to the firearms camp, he hit it off with Meng Tietou at first sight and immediately took over the training.

This time, after Wang Jijun drew out the combat methods of the mixed troops one by one on paper, Jiao Eryong implemented the training one by one.

Jiao Eryong's training is quite methodical, and soon, the queue of hundreds of people will be able to advance and retreat with evidence.

However, the problem came again, what Wang Jijun learned was only a little fur, and the largest joint training was only a company-level formation, and he didn't know how to cooperate with the formation of more than 500 people.

In desperation, the three stinkers had to cross the river by feeling the stones, and gradually, they also explored the use of this formation......

It's a pity that they don't have any more time.

A large group of thieves suddenly landed from the Yellow River, Yuntiguan and Shanyang and other places fell one after another, the news came, Ma Jinbao was shocked, there is no good way to deal with the small group of thieves in the south, once the army of the north road goes south, Yangzhou will suffer from the north and south, become a lonely city......

In a hurry, the fire attack strategy was leaked in advance, causing the Ming thieves to block the city overnight, so that Ma Jinbao had to make a desperate bet and use all his strength to snatch the water west gate......

……

When the morning star rose from the horizon, Meng Tietou hurried back to the west gate.

Before he could breathe, he summoned Wang Jijun and Jiao Eryong, conveyed to them the battle order of Admiral Ma, and ordered them to prepare as soon as possible.

Climbing the city tower and looking at the silhouettes of the trees looming outside the city, Meng Tietou was in a complicated mood......

Just now, Admiral Ma left him alone and handed over the old man to him, saying that this battle was a matter of life and death, and he would come to supervise the battle in person.

"In a battle tomorrow, don't seek to completely annihilate this group of thieves, as long as you can disperse them, you will be a great achievement,"

Ma Jinbao's eyes were uncertain, and he gritted his teeth and said, "In order to recapture the passage out of the city, I will not hesitate to fight all the firearms battalions!" ”

As soon as he heard this, Meng Tietou was so shocked that his jaw almost dropped.

I thought that if the Admiral left him to give him a secret strategy, it must have the meaning of "keeping the new army".

He knew that this team of no more than 500 people, although not all of them were armed with flintlock pistols, was extremely valued by Ma Jinbao.

Since the establishment of this army, even weapons and military salaries and food, it has cost tens of thousands of taels of silver, and Ma Jinbao must regard it as a treasure and ask him to "use it carefully" when fighting.

Unexpectedly, this big man who has been secretly slandering "fighting for power and profit" now has such courage......

In addition to being frightened, Meng Tietou couldn't help but secretly admire.

"Humble duty must not fail in the mission!"

Seeing that Admiral Ma was so determined, Meng Tietou's heart tightened, and he immediately solemnly agreed.

As soon as the morning dawned, his firearms battalion, which had not been formed for a long time, was going to be one of Ma Jinbao's trump cards, and he would fight to the death against the Ming thieves at Shuiximen.

"It's a pity that the new army has not yet been trained, and there are only 500 people......"

Meng Tietou's face was grim, and he secretly felt regret in his heart.

I, Wang Jijun, and Jiao Eryong exhausted their efforts and spent a huge amount of money to train this army, I am afraid that it will not play a decisive role.

Fortunately, it was not only these 500 new troops who served as the assault, Ma Jinbao did his best and sent his 3,000 Chinese army superintendents, commanded by Cui Duyan.

The strength of 3,000 soldiers was already a great combat power at the end of the Ming Dynasty, whether it was the Ming army or the Qing army's green battalion soldiers, the combat strength that many general soldiers could rely on was actually only two or three thousand people.

Ma Jinbao invested such a capital this time, Meng Tietou felt that the situation was serious, and he had nothing else to think about except to urge the soldiers to "fight to the death".

……

The sky was faint, and the Admiral's Mansion was already noisy.

Ma Jinbao hadn't slept all night, and at this moment, he was reclining in the Taishi chair, closing his eyes and waiting for dawn.

"Sir,"

A servant tiptoed into the study and said, "Everything is ready, do you want to go at once?" ”

Ma Jinbao opened his eyes, rubbed his temples tiredly, and said hoarsely: "Let's go......"

His head was groggy, and his sides hurt a little, since the Ming thief had violated the realm, he had not slept a peaceful night, and he always fell asleep very late, and woke up very early.

In fact, since he settled in Yangzhou, he has been unable to sleep in the face of this city that was destroyed by a fire from Duoduo a few years ago.

On the one hand, due to its geographical location, Yangzhou's position as a salt transportation center is unshakable; But on the other hand, compared with before, the vitality of Yangzhou Prefecture is far from recovering, and the population of less than 200,000 in urban and rural areas has caused him to expand his army but he is unable to recruit enough soldiers.

Of course, it now seems that even if we can recruit soldiers, it will be too late......

It stands to reason that in order to ensure that he can continue to mix, Yangzhou has to be defended, but now that the Ming thief is powerful, he has to take two preparations.

On the one hand, it is to adopt the advice of Ye Bin, the commander of Yuyao County-burning the city and clearing the wilderness.

Ye Bin's strategy is like this: Nancheng is facing the canal, and the thieves who come by boat will definitely choose to attack in the relatively open Nancheng, so he deliberately sells a flaw, withdraws all the elites stationed in Nancheng, lures them into the city, and then sets fire everywhere in the city, and then returns to fight when they are in chaos.

In case the attack under the fire does not work, break through the Shuixi Gate, and also leave a piece of ashes for the thieves.

This is a rather vicious strategy, even if the thieves can take Yangzhou, it is also an empty city full of scorched earth, with neither grain nor grass, nor wealth.

After the chaos, the people in the city will inevitably be killed and injured, and the weather will be hot, and when the time comes, the plague will be together, and it will be difficult for the thieves to gain a foothold.

Although Yangzhou is rich in products, but from Dongtai and Rugao to the east is mostly saline-alkali tidal flats, not a grain-producing area, once Yangzhou's grain is burned out, there are tens of thousands of refugees in need of relief, and the garrisons in various places have long been withdrawn, the salt people who have lost control will have trouble under the lack of food and clothing, the thieves will have to transfer grain everywhere, and they have to bomb and pressure along the way, and the troops will be very tight, and when the time comes, I am afraid that there will be no other way but to retreat......

On the other hand, it is the strategy of the henchman Cui Duyan to defend the city.

Cui Duyan was not in favor of setting fire to the city, not because he had pity for the people.

He just thinks, not to mention whether this fire attack plan is useful to the Ming thief, with the organizational level of the defenders of Yangzhou City, as soon as the fire burns, I am afraid that if the Ming thief does not mess up, he will be in chaos first, and it will definitely collapse at that time.

Cui Duyan's idea is to rely on Yangzhou's terrain and city defense to stand for help, as long as it is properly arranged, maintain contact with Luzhou, and it is not a big problem to defend it for a month.

In his opinion, Yangzhou City has sufficient materials, high walls, and cannons to help defend the city.

No matter how strong the army is, in the face of such a strong city, if you want to conquer the city, you have to brave the artillery fire to climb the wall, but they are few in number, and they are a lone expedition, so they will definitely not be able to withstand attrition.

What's more, within a month, Lord Hong's reinforcements will arrive......

(End of chapter)