drumbeat

The sound of war drums,

Ao Bai heard the sound of war drums in the second half of the night, and then hurried up to figure out what was going to happen.

As soon as I finished washing up and put on my armor, a junior colonel came to report, "My lord, my lord, the Huaxia army, the Huaxia army, is blocking the road we are returning, the barracks outside our town have been attacked by enemy artillery, the ranks are in chaos, and the cavalry who rushed out of the camp have been attacked by the enemy cavalry and are retreating towards the town. ”

"How can there be a Huaxia Army on the front line?"

"Let me explain, the nearest Huaxia army is still eighty miles away?"

Ao Bai did not blindly run away, he sent scout cavalry to the rear.

The scout cavalry stared closely at the Huaxia army in the rear, although they could not prevent the enemy from crossing the river, they could tell Ao Bai through their eyes where the enemy was and how far away we were.

According to Aobai's speculation, even if the enemy crosses the river, it will take half a night, and then the whole team, camp, make trouble until early in the morning, can walk another ten kilometers, that is, twenty miles is enough, and immediately arrive in Hubei Prefecture, here is the home of the Qing army, stationed 20,000 new troops, tens of thousands of Qing troops, and countless landlords and gentry who are interested in the Qing army, the original landlords and gentry have long been replaced by the landlords and gentry who are committed to the Qing army, it can be said that the time of entering the customs for more than ten years, the Qing army really mastered the land and the hearts of the people in the north, and now the court in people's hearts, is no longer the great Ming who is full of disasters and hardships and is harsh to the people.

The entry of the Qing army into the customs is a good news for the landlords and gentry of the Ming Dynasty, they can reshuffle the cards, stand in line early, they can have more interests, for the people, the people who have been oppressed by the landlords and gentry of the Ming Dynasty can breathe a sigh of relief, some of the policies of the Qing army are still very oriented to the people, which greatly alleviates the contradictions between the people and the interests of the Ming Dynasty.

On behalf of the Ming Dynasty, the landlord and gentry and the good government were defeated, and the people knew that the Qing army had avenged them, so many people were still very grateful to the Qing army in their hearts, and the new landlords and gentry in order to win over the people, they also came up with some new policies to alleviate the contradictions between themselves and the people, and the people in order to survive and fill their stomachs, and also accepted the employment of the new landlords and gentry.

Many of the common people also became the new beneficiaries by colluding with the new landlords and gentry, so they would support the Qing army, and they were the saviors of the people who hoped that the turmoil would stop at a very small cost.

There may be many people who have been arrested and used as cannon fodder, but many people can't see it and don't want to see it, after all, stability is what the people want.

If you can't do it to your own family, it's someone else's family if you die.

Based on these various reasons, Ao Bai thinks that this is his home field, the home of the Qing army, even if some Huaxia troops go deep here, he will soon receive information, and he will definitely not be attacked without knowing any news.

As he walked out, he ordered the herald to assemble and asked, "How many soldiers and horses do they have, how many soldiers and horses have we lost in the camp that was attacked, and in which direction is the enemy?" The elementary school who had been reporting in turn asked.

The colonel said with a sad face: "Lord Hui, I don't know, the front army came to report, when they were searching for the enemy on the way forward, they found a large force of the enemy slowly advancing, and the enemy found them, so they came back immediately to report, and before they could report, the rear camp was hit by the enemy's artillery, and then the enemy broke into the camp of the front army outside the town, and the front army collapsed." ”

Hearing that it was only the collapse of the front army, Ao Bai was relieved, the front army only had 2,000 Mongolian cavalry, those Mongols were uninhibited, and the discipline was not as good as the Manchu soldiers, the Mongolian soldiers and the front army only took care of part of the baggage, and also took the prisoners and wounded of the Qing army after the battle these days, some soldiers with low morale, those Han Han army banner Manchu soldiers, the Mongols were watching them.

The total strength was about 5,000 men, and it had not yet reached his army.

Now his army has 28,000 troops, 3,000 Han soldiers, 8,000 Mongolian cavalry, and 20,000 Qing Manchu soldiers.

The morale of the 3,000 Han soldiers was low, and he and part of the Mongol cavalry arranged for him and part of the Mongol cavalry to guard the advance path of the front army. There were also wounded and captured soldiers of the enemy, a total of two thousand people.

These wounded and prisoners are not counted, only those soldiers who can still fight, that is, 2,000 Mongolian cavalry and 3,000 Han soldiers.

On the left and right sides of the front army was a Manchu cavalry battalion of 5,000 soldiers and horses, and a Mongolian Horqin cavalry of 3,000 soldiers and horses.

His headquarters of 5,000 Manchu cavalry was in the town, and it was the Manchu cavalry who camped on the high ground on both sides of the town on the left and right.

There is a 5,000 Mongolian cavalry battalion stationed at the exit of the canyon, and there are 5,000 Manchu cavalry behind the town.

At any time, in any dynasty, at any time, this hierarchy is clearly divided.

When Ao Biden went to the third floor of the tallest building in the town, a restaurant opened by a wealthy gentleman, the lights outside the town were already bright, and the shouts of killing shook the sky.

The entire front army and the two Mongol and Manchu camps in front of the town were turned into killing fields.

In the dark, you don't have to look closely, you can tell where there is fighting, where the battle is fiercest, and so on, through the sound of gunfire, fire, and shouting.

Scouts were constantly coming to report the news from the front.

The front army collapsed, and the enemy's cavalry pursued the fleeing Han banner cavalry, the Mongol cavalry.

The Mongol cavalry was able to fight twice, and the Han flag cavalry fled directly to the Manchu camp, causing a war somewhere. The Mongolian battalion of the front army sent people to ask whether to attack or not, and to meet the Mongolian cavalry of the front army.

Ao Bai asked the Mongol cavalry to hold the camp and not attack.

Fighting in the dark, unless necessary, even the army of later generations has to be cautious, in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, many people are not nourished, a battle, it is likely to become a rout of their own army, there is no need, any general of the unified army will not easily let the soldiers out of the camp.

The attacked camp can only be supported by its own efforts to defeat the enemy, or the general of the general will send some high-morale, disciplined troops to support.

Ao Bai has not fully figured out the matter, of course he will not transfer troops, so he can only send people to guard the various passes, and order all battalions to guard the camp and not attack.

When he arrived at the door of his home, if he was harassed by the enemy for a while, he would mess up his own position, resulting in heavy losses to the troops, it was not that he had been dazed by fighting for so many years, or that the enemy was too strong, and these low-level mistakes would not be made.

He already understood that it was only the front army that was attacked, and he still had to wait for the enemy to make a move, and before that, he needed more information before he could judge the enemy's strength and purpose.

One by one, Ao Bai finally judged the size of the enemy's forces and the scale of the sortie, as well as the enemy's purpose.

It's just a part of the Chinese army, there are not many troops, they broke through the camp of the front army, the Manchu camp was hit by the defeated soldiers, the enemy's artillery bombardment, musket attack, but did not suffer much damage, the Mongol camp was not attacked, there was some riot, he sent a team of Manchu cavalry from the town, to the Mongol camp to sit and suppress.

In this way, he solved the disturbance caused by the enemy's attack on the front army.

But the bad news came, the pursuers in the rear of the enemy were approaching, and about two thousand horsemen appeared in the sight of the scout cavalry who were reconnoitring behind, and at dawn it was only twenty miles from the town where the army was located.

(End of chapter)