In Fenghuang Town, the fighting here was very hard, the artillery of the Qing army destroyed everything, trees, houses, and even the trenches were all beaten and mutilated, the whole town became a ruin, the 3,000 people in the town became a thousand people, the lonely old people, women and children, all huddled between the ruins and walls of a compound, and many people were injured.

The Qing army entered the town several times, and the commander of the field battalion here resisted several times with nearly 4,000 soldiers and horses, and stubbornly beat the Qing army out of the town, but the trenches, strongholds, and even some houses and ponds on the edge of the town were lost to the Qing army.

When the first reinforcements arrived, they recovered the trench fortifications, expelled the Qing army, and then quickly reorganized the remaining troops, but they were just over 2,000 men, and the young men in the town were recruited less than 3,000 people, and the troops were quickly distributed.

With a sudden attack from enemy artillery, another two hundred men were killed, and the cavalry company quickly disintegrated and distributed to each of the chiefs who lacked the leadership of an officer, and then the cavalry formed his new convoy.

With these soldiers and horses, they forced the enemy to charge three times, and the second time the enemy beat them back to the town, divided and surrounded, cleared, and lost more than 1,000 troops, and when the second cavalry company entered, they could not even organize 2,000 people, and the old people who could carry guns here were organized, and there were less than 1,700 people.

They regained the trenches and other outlying strongholds, but encountered another 10,000-strong charge from the enemy, and had to retreat into the town in defeat, and by the time the Celestial Shadow received reinforcements, they were left with 800 soldiers who could fight, and organized some stout and tall women to serve as ambulances to rescue the wounded back, and they issued the women some bayonets, axes, kitchen knives, broadswords, and spears that they could find, and asked them to defend this large courtyard, and then the battalion commander took the remaining soldiers and horses one by one to rescue the courtyard surrounded by the enemy, Fight tough battles with the enemy in the town.

Seeing that the number of troops is getting smaller and smaller, there are more than 3,000 people in the whole town, and only more than 800 people are dead, and only more than 500 troops are left of the 4,000 troops here, but there are 1,7800 wounded.

The town can't hold it, that's his idea.

In fact, he knew that there was no point in holding the town at this time, the enemy had bypassed the town and crossed the river, and he was fighting for his own survival now.

The second wave of cavalry arrived let him know that reinforcements were on the way, and they only had to hold out until dawn, and the reinforcements would arrive.

Shang Kexi put down the binoculars by the morning light, pointed to the town and said: "Quick, let people rush again with soldiers and horses, the enemy does not have many soldiers and horses, only once we can rush to the town, take the town, we can hold the ferry." ”

Yes, the ferry does not have much meaning for the Huaxia army now, but for Shang Kexi, if he can take the town, his side will be stable in the future, even if he loses 5,000 soldiers and horses, he can also hold the banks of the Yellow River, and if the Huaxia army wants to raid here in the future, it will also have to pay a lot of casualties, stuck a few points on the mountain, hold the town, and then send troops to hold a few locations that are easy to cross the river, then his territory in Shanxi Prefecture will be stabilized.

He fought the Huaxia army not to drag the Huaxia army, but to solve his own worries, when the Dajin Kingdom was in the past, he lost the bridgehead on the north bank of the Yellow River, and there was no force to recapture it with the Huaxia army, and after the Qing army came, there was no force to solve here, after Shang Kexi came, he was worried every day that if the enemy crossed the river from here, he would bear the brunt of it, and now he took this opportunity to explain the past to Yao Qisheng, and he could solve his own trouble, even if the five thousand soldiers and horses were damaged, as long as his territory was stable, in the future, ask the imperial court for military salaries, grain and grass, and then recruit some soldiers and horses from Shanxi Prefecture by yourself, and the strength will slowly develop.

These are the foundations, turf, and forces that keep you alive in this world.

Soon a pipe band went out again with 2,000 soldiers and horses, there were cavalry, there were infantry, over there, after Tianying they reorganized the soldiers and horses, they ushered in an attack by the enemy with more than 5,000 soldiers and horses, and it was impossible to estimate Phoenix Town.

Because the soldiers and horses here are only just over a thousand and less than two thousand, he can't estimate Phoenix Town.

As the sky gets brighter and brighter, the soldiers' hit rate is gradually improving, the dark night, for both the enemy and us are a good time to hide themselves, but also let the strength of the two sides not be based on the number of people, although the Huaxia army is more advanced weapons, the quality of the soldiers is better, but in the dark night is still the enemy to break through to the front, hand-to-hand combat, but during the day, the Huaxia army's shooting accuracy has improved, and the new reinforcements have greatly increased the strength of the Tianying, so the enemy will soon be knocked to the ground from a distance of 200 meters, The enemy, oppressed by dense fire, did not dare to step forward.

Several six-pounder guns, which had been hidden all night, began to fire, throwing solid and flowering shells into the enemy's attacking queue again and again.

Shang Kexi looked at the stumps and broken arms that flew up again and again and wanted to commit suicide, so many of his old subordinates were killed by the enemy, which made him how could he be calm, come here, send a battalion of soldiers and horses to rush for me, rush, rush.

At this time, a pipe band ran over, "Lord Wang, Lord Wang, it's not good, our army was cut off by the enemy, five thousand, five thousand people transporting supplies were captured by the enemy, two thousand broken soldiers and horses and full adults They were all scattered, the enemy, the enemy surrounded us, and there were routs everywhere behind the mountain. ”

"Ah," Shang Kexi's heart jumped, when did the enemy run behind him.

"Damn, send someone to ask, why did that bastard Shanqi fight all night and didn't knock down the mountain city, and where did they fall to the ground now? How did the enemy run behind our ass? ”

After speaking, he said to his guards: "Send a team of cavalry to the back to see, what happened when you fall to the ground, how many troops does the enemy have?" Not too much to think about. ”

At the same time, on the mountain road, the officers and soldiers of the garrison brigade who had newly arrived were running profusely, and they received orders to immediately reinforce Phoenix Town without entering the city.

So they ran for more than half an hour, ran a few miles of mountain roads from the mountain city, and just crossed the defense area of the militia elite brigade and ran towards the ordinary militia brigade at the ferry port of Fenghuang Town.

A regiment of infantry, armed with small cannons and three-pounder guns, led the temporarily requisitioned mules on the south bank, and galloped towards Phoenix Town with ammunition.

In the distance, an elite militia brigade on the north shore was rapidly reinforcing the Celestial Shadow on the ridge.

Seeing a group of militia running in the distance, Sky Shadow said to the remaining eight hundred militiamen and garrison brigade officers and soldiers hiding in the fortifications: "Charge, let's go rescue Phoenix Town." ”

Shang Kexi counted his remaining soldiers and horses at this time, and there were still 4,000 soldiers and horses that were not used, overnight, he brought 30,000 soldiers and horses, more than 15,000 dead and wounded, and more than 5,000 people went away on the ferry boat, and there were 6,000 soldiers and horses in the mountains behind who were responsible for guarding the aftermath, and 2,000 soldiers and horses who were responsible for transporting supplies were still on the road, and 2,000 soldiers and horses who were responsible for guarding the people were defeated, and 5,000 people were captured by the enemy.

The back road was cut off.

He had to order Mingjin to withdraw his troops, and the 5,000 soldiers and horses that could still move to attack withdrew from Phoenix Town one after another, and retreated from the front of the Celestial Shadow and their fortifications, behind which the Celestial Shadow pursued them with the corpses of the Qing troops who had been killed and wounded on the ground overnight.

The two thousand Qing troops who had not had time to retreat were kept inside and outside the town, and at the same time the remnants of the 1,000 defeated soldiers who attacked them were stopped.

They were compressed outside the town in an area of 1.5 kilometers from the trench stronghold to the mountainside.

On the mountainside behind, about 200 soldiers of the elite militia brigade began to feint against the enemy's soldiers and horses, regardless of the fact that there were still large groups of soldiers and horses on the enemy's mountain.

At this time, the Celestial Shadow is very critical, even if the two militia companies behind them come to reinforce, their soldiers and horses are less than 1,500 people, and the enemy still has 4,000 fresh troops, and nearly 5,000 remnants of the defeated soldiers who have been divided, and there are hundreds of enemy soldiers and horses guarding the ferry on the side of the ferry.

(End of chapter)