The battle lasted until the twelfth day, when the Qing army of Raozhou Prefecture and the Huaxia army of Raozhou Prefecture were exhausted and had to stop fighting and rest, Zhang Qiang's army had already been out for a day.

Three cavalry brigades that had gone through the war, two cavalry brigades in formation, and a newly formed cavalry brigade, this cavalry brigade was formed by the cavalry of several field brigades, and the three cavalry brigades marched quickly, and the next day they had reached the border of Raozhou Prefecture, and thoroughly investigated all the marching routes in Fujian to ensure the smooth passage of the field brigades and guards brigades behind.

so as not to fall into an ambush of the enemy.

Three cavalry brigades without artillery, each brigade was divided into three cavalry regiments led by the garrison, the first cavalry regiment was sabres, bows and arrows, responsible for reconnaissance and clearing, the second cavalry regiment was an all-lancer regiment, and the third cavalry regiment was a dragoon regiment, which was armed with short muskets, arquebuses, sabers.

Three cavalry regiments of two thousand men each, plus a cavalry brigade headquarters of one hundred and fifty men, for a total of six thousand one hundred and fifty men.

Each cavalry regiment was divided into two thousand battalions, and under the thousand battalions was five hundred households, and the general army was two hundred men.

Zhang Qiang, who was in the back, led the reorganized and adjusted Guards Brigade, the 1O Brigade of the Field Brigade, the 5th Brigade, the newly transferred 8th Brigade, and the 18th Brigade, 4 Field Brigades, and 1 Guards Brigade, each of which has adjusted the ratio of musketeers and infantry units.

The strength of each brigade rose to 8,500 men, the number of musketeers increased to 4,000, and the Guards Brigade increased the number of musketeers to 6,000, all of whom were reloaded with Jingai-2 arquebuses brought from the state capital. All the arquebuses of the 1st Arquebus were left to the troops of He Jin, who were stationed in the 9th Brigade, and the musketeers of He Jin's troops were also adjusted to 4,000 troops, and an artillery regiment was also strengthened for them, and the strength of the 9th Field Brigade had actually reached the same strength as the 2nd Guards Brigade.

Only a thousand or so fewer than the 1st Guards Brigade.

This was because the Tingzhou Mansion was too important to guard against Qing reinforcements from Jiangxi and Guangdong.

In order to rush to the battlefield of Raozhou Mansion as soon as possible, the main force of the Huaxia Army accelerated its march, and arrived at the border of Raozhou Mansion on the evening of the thirteenth day, and then rested for one night, and only pulled out the camp at noon the next day, so that the soldiers were familiar with the new weapons and equipment in their hands in the morning.

Many recruits are still touching gold for the first time to change the 2 arquebus.

The Chasseur Guards also changed their equipment, and the Short Gun was replaced by Francis's newly modified Short Fire Gun, the Flint Strike, which could shoot three times in a row at a time, which was already comparable to the revolver.

The Chasseur Guards increased by 200 dragoons, increasing Zhang Qiang's personal guard from 800 to 1,000.

There were 6,000 musketeers in the Guards Brigade, two artillery regiments, 1,200 men each, 36 18-pounder guns, 48 12-pounder guns, 56 9-pounder guns, and a cavalry regiment of 2,000 men remaining, but now the cavalry regiment was transferred to the newly formed cavalry brigade, so there was only one pikemen's battalion, one archery battalion, one baggage battalion, an engineer battalion, and one crossbow battalion, each with 500 men.

The remaining battalion was a cavalry battalion of scouts, and the Guards Brigade could not be protected without a cavalry battalion.

The total number of troops was less than 70,000, followed by a combined supply and transport force of militia and civilian men led by a temporary garrison battalion, 11,000 men.

"There are still fifty kilometers to go," Zhang Qiang looked at the map in the barracks and said to Mi Lin, Du Ge, Xuanyuan Longfei, and Baghyalu.

"We are going to rush to the capital city of Raozhou in three days, I think where can no longer withstand the enemy's attack, I didn't expect the enemy to be so cunning, he actually invested 400,000 troops to attack the capital city of Raozhou, and Hong Chengchou did not treat the Han people as people, and actually used 120,000 corpses to break down the defense line that I carefully shot and could withstand the enemy's 200,000 troops to continue to attack for a month, and now the latest information I get is that the enemy is storming the first line of defense, if the first line of defense is lost, Our retreat into the city will be difficult to support until we arrive. ”

Taking a long breath, Zhang Qiang said to Baghyalu and Du Ge: "You two lead the cavalry brigade to detour to the enemy's rear, cooperate with Huang Tao to block the retreat on three sides, you must leave the enemy behind, you can't let the enemy escape, this time I want to capture or kill the enemy Baylor again, Hong Chengchou, this traitor, must let him die, understand?" ”

"Understood." Several got up together, stretched out their hands and patted them on their chests, and then turned around and walked out of the tent with Zhang Qiang waving his hand.

Zhang Qiang said to the guards around him: "Order, the whole army will pull out the camp and march to the capital of Raozhou." ”

After thinking about it, he said to the guards beside him: "Give another order, let Ma Sanli take the 6th Field Brigade and bring more cavalry to intercept the return of the Qing army in Jinling." ”

A personal guard said: "My lord, who will guard the Quzhou Mansion?" ”

Zhang Qiang glanced at him, "Isn't there still Qi Sansheng?" Let him guard Quzhou Mansion and tell Qi Sansheng that if Quzhou Mansion is attacked by the enemy, I will remove him from his post and go home to retire. ”

In the camp of the Qing army, Hong Chengchou had just returned to the tent of the Chinese army from the front line, and a fast horse ran in, "Report to your lordship, report carefully, Tingzhou Mansion has fallen, Duoduo's army has been destroyed, Duoduo Baylor is missing, Geng Jingzhong was killed, all his troops were annihilated, and the main force of the Huaxia Army is coming in the starry night." ”

Suddenly, the inside of the Chinese military tent was quiet and silent, and the falling needles could be heard, and Hong Chengchou was obviously shocked by the news.

He held on to the table, "Quick, go and ask Lord Baylor,"

"No, the king has heard it, tell me what you think," Bolo said in a trembling voice, blushing.

Hong Chengchou gritted his teeth and said: "Withdraw the army, we can't defeat the Huaxia army, and then send an envoy to negotiate peace with the Huaxia army and redeem the bodies of Duoduo and Azigbel or himself." ”

Bolo's roar sounded, "No, we still have 300,000 troops, I don't believe it, the Qing soldiers and horses who were once invincible in the world will be afraid of being beaten by tens of thousands of Huaxia troops, and take the initiative to retreat?" ”

Hong Chengchou sat down dejectedly, and said softly: "Lord Belle, if you don't retreat now, we will also die here, the Huaxia army is probably going out this time, Jinling has been surrounded, hearing this news, I don't think we will be defeated, but now that Duoduo's 200,000 troops have been annihilated, none of them have run back to report the situation, you can imagine that the Huaxia army is bound to win this time, it must be after careful deployment, we don't even know where the soldiers come from." ”

"That's not good, we still have 300,000 troops, even if we can fight the Huaxia army, even if it doesn't work, we can jump off a few of his big teeth, and when the regent transfers troops again, the Huaxia army with heavy losses will be destroyed in an instant." Bolo was still unwilling, because if he retreated this time, this would be the second time he had been defeated by the Huaxia army.

The previous time was more than 100,000 Qing troops besieged only 20,000 or 30,000 training is insufficient, the Jinhua Righteous Army rushed into battle, although he finally captured Jinhua Mansion, but he was defeated once, by Ruan Dacheng, the Ming Dynasty general to capture Jinhua Mansion, and he was recuperated in Yanjing for a few months, in recent years only to be revived, this is the eternal pain in his heart, is the most painful shame in the Qing Dynasty, in recent years he has borne this shame, vowing to find it back, as soon as he heard that he was going to attack the Huaxia Army, he rushed to bring troops to come, and put Shandong, Henan, The green battalion soldiers and Han army banner troops in the Hebei area were evacuated, if the main force of the Huaxia Army was not annihilated this time.

If he didn't catch Zhang Qiang, the leader of the Huaxia Army, not only would his face be gloomy, and it would be impossible to lead the army in the future, but also let the Qing Dynasty fall into passivity, and the general uprising of the beacon fire would push the Qing Dynasty, which had just entered the customs for six or seven years, into the abyss anyway.

Perhaps the Jurchen Manchus will be driven out of the Central Plains by the Han in a few years, and retreat back to the white mountains and black waters, where supplies and food are scarce, and become the barbarians.

Hong Chengchou stopped talking, where did Bolo make a speech, and then sat on the chair in discouragement and didn't speak, just drank tea.

Outside, less than five miles away, the siege was still in full swing.

With the previous news and discussion, Shang Kexi and Kong Youde did not contribute to the work, allowing the remaining forces of the Qing army in Jinling and the Han army flag sent by Boluo to attack the first line of defense of the Huaxia army with a desperate attack.

Shang Kexi and Kong Youde stationed in the second line of defense, looking at the flesh and blood defense line in the distance, looking at the shells of the enemy and us flying in the air, and discussing in a low voice.

"The enemy's army has entered the border of Raozhou, and will arrive here in a few days, if we can't capture the city of Raozhou in three days, and enter the city to defend, we will all be annihilated by the enemy's army in the field." Shang Ke said happily.

Kong Youde looked worried, "Our army's losses are getting heavier and heavier now, and I have sent scouts to go out in four directions to reconnoiter the enemy's movements, except for the direction of Jiujiang, the enemy has cut off our rear road." I heard that 200,000 people have been annihilated to transport supplies and grain and grass, and only 50,000 people and grain and grass have arrived in the barracks. ”

"What then? Soon with the arrival of the enemy's army, the Yangtze River grain road will also be cut off by the enemy, and we will soon fall into the same situation as the big battalion, why don't we take the lead in leading the army to retreat to the Yangtze River, cross the river, and watch with the Huaxia army across the river? ”

Shang Ke said happily.

"No, we are now behind the big camp, there are still more than 100,000 troops in the big camp, we haven't left yet, we were summoned to find it back, when the time comes, if a Baylor doesn't speak, the old thief Hong Chengchou can kill us." Kong Youde said embarrassedly.

Shang Kexi's eyes rolled, "It's better for us to move the army to the east gate, when the time comes, we can advance or retreat, and we can also contain the enemy's forces on the surface." ”

Kong Youde's eyes lit up, "Good idea, so that we are ten miles away from them, even the cavalry has to run a cup of tea, many orders can be delayed, and we will have time to plan the way back." ”

"Hehe," the two men looked at each other, and then quickly gave an order to their heralds, and while giving the order, they asked the guards to report to the camp.

Bolobel and Hong Chengchou, who were pondering, heard the report of the herald sent by the monk Kong Youde and Shang Kexi, and glanced at each other, and the herald hurriedly explained: "My lord said that the enemy at the main gate has strong troops, so it is better to attack the east gate and contain it by our army, and the enemy must divide the troops. ”

(End of chapter)