In the tongues of fire that erupted from the four castles, the sound of flintlock guns gradually increased. Zhao Zhifan knew that this was the rifle captured by the rebels on the head of the city, and seeing that the battle line was constantly shortening, he had no choice but to order a breakthrough. Fortunately, as soon as these rebels entered the city, they had no military discipline, giving Zhao Zhifan an opportunity to take advantage of the chaos and escape from the West Gate. For some reason, the rebels did not send troops to pursue him, allowing him to flee with the remnants.

What Zhao Gongfan didn't know was that the reason why there was no rebel rank and tail pursuit, not because of any conspiracy, but purely because of military discipline, the heads of the families were extremely disgusted with the attitude of eating meat and I came to send you to death. They all rushed up and divided up all the things that could be used in the county. And Lord Tusi himself didn't notice the Ming army that broke through, but just ate a lot of meat and drank wine in the city, enjoying the sweet fruits of victory.

"Master, you can't stay here for a long time, please lead the troops to withdraw to the territory and hold on." In the midst of the cheers, the old boy said very cautiously.

"Why hold on? Since you occupy this place, why don't you take Tianma Pass in the unknown day? Come to think of it, my nephew may have passed the Tianma Pass by now! ”

"But if you send fast horses, it will only take two hours from here to Tianma Pass, why hasn't anyone reported back now? If you win, you will be victorious, and if you lose, you will come to ask for help. ”

"Not good!" As soon as he said this, Lord Tusi immediately understood what was going on--- could it be that the rout and the messenger who came back collided? A cold sweat broke out in this slightly cool season, soaking through his clothes.

"If you don't withdraw, leave some people here to take care of it, transport the baggage, and tomorrow the whole army will go south to capture Tianma Pass."

Marching at night, not every army can do it in this era, and Lord Tusi knew very well that for his rabble, marching in the dark was an impossible task, so he only put some sentry posts and let his soldiers sleep.

However, some armies can do it, and they are not silent at night, but are born out of the old era of strong armies.

In the middle of the night, a rocket flew straight into the city through the gap, igniting the thatch on the roof of a house, followed by two rockets that set fire to the center of the small county town. These people only care about destruction, regardless of construction, and they don't feel sorry for the burned county government: "Yes, it's that bright place, one row, two rows rush over, and three rows go up to control the city wall!" "Taking advantage of the panic in the city, the most elite company of the Fourth Regiment launched a night attack on the county seat of Hanlong.

"Whoosh, whoosh... Whoosh", the company carried six rockets, three of which were not fired directly, but at the city, one of which exploded in the air, and the other two fell into the city and set fire to a house.

In order to avoid being killed at reload time, the vast majority of people used their rifles with bayonets as short spears, and they rushed into the house and stabbed anyone they saw. Although there are many Tusi soldiers, they are separated by the guns of the houses, and they are at a disadvantage in every house, even if they are lucky enough to run out, they are like headless flies, and they are immediately stabbed to the ground by the Ming army who pounced, and occasionally it is just a shot, and the feng shui turns around, and in less than a day, now the one who needs to break through has become the Tusi Lord himself!

Tusi, who was quite sober, grabbed two loaded short firearms, got up from a large courtyard, kicked up the soldiers who followed him one by one, and led them to flee north in a ball.

A sharp whistle sounded in the city, and the Ming army, which was still grabbing orders in various places, quickly broke away from the battle and returned to the starting point by the same way through the gap.

"Count the number of people." The company commander looked at the soldiers who were still stained with blood under the moonlight and said.

"One, two, three...! report, a row of thirty-seven people. ”

"There are thirty-five people in the second platoon."

"There are thirty-nine people in three rows."

"There are six people in the company." A full-fledged company, after fighting like this for a short time, only thirteen people died, and the company commander didn't even know if he should laugh, but he didn't feel good. However, the superiors who got this battle report, they would not directly contact the living people, but only treated the soldiers as numbers, and naturally they were able to laugh!

"What about those who can't fight?"

"Report, there are one and five people left."

When the sky was bright, the other three companies arrived at the city, concentrated on attacking the newly lost Hanlong City from the south and west, and before noon, the rebels withdrew from the county in a hurry, and there was no time to take anything away--- except for the things that were burned by the rockets, many supplies and even the rebels returned to the Ming army without touching them.

However, last night's firing of six rockets like a local tyrant caused trouble to the work of the day, because according to the requirements of the staff manual, the battalion headquarters should set up a military administration department at this time to temporarily take over the local administrative power; The renovation of burned houses is a duty. However, the structure of the house was simple at this time, and it was not difficult to rebuild.

In the evening, the 2nd Battalion received orders from the rear to wait for the arrival of the larger force before moving on.

……

After advancing for four days like the ants moving, Yue Le's army arrived near the Taiping Mansion. Even after losing a few thousand gunboats, the Zheng army still did not give up the plan to retreat alternately, leaving 8,000 men in Taiping Mansion for defense. Of course, these 8,000 people do not need to defend the city, they only need to be dragged until the Zheng army empties here and then retreats, there are no heavy weapons on the city, but it is full of various traps left for the Qing army, quite similar to various mines in later generations. After the repeated ravages of the Qing army, no one felt that they had any confidence to survive in the face of the resurgence of the Qing army, and the residents of the city were semi-forced to help the old and the young, and followed the Zheng army to flee along the Yangtze River.

After all the people and food and other materials in the city were withdrawn, the guards of Taiping Mansion City lost their meaning. At the beginning of October, Zheng Jun abandoned the Taiping Mansion, leaving Yue Le with a crackling empty city.

At the same time, more than 20,000 people from the green battalions and the eight banners of the Han army led by Shang Zhixiao, the son of Shang Kexi, went upstream, and also barely curbed the offensive of the Kuidong Army in Huangzhou Mansion, and the throat of the Manchu Qing was slightly relaxed.

"Your Majesty, great joy! Shang Zhixin Pegasus came to report, saying that he had led a large army to curb the peak of the thieves and did not let the two thieves join forces. After receiving the return of Yue Le Wangye, Pingnan Wang and others, on October 8, our Qing Dynasty had recovered Taiping Mansion, and the forward entered the territory of Jiangning Mansion. ”

"Bring me the map." Although I still have a grudge against the two thieves entrenched on the Yangtze River, I don't know how many times I have scolded my subordinates, but this is good news after all.

Unfolding the map, Shunzhi found the curved Yangtze River from Huangzhou Mansion to Jiangning Mansion, and also found the location of the canal.

"The canal is east of Jiangning?" Shunzhi asked the little yellow door waiting beside him.

"Yes. Aobai has divided his troops to recover Yangzhou. Xiaohuangmen knows Shunzhi's temperament very well, and reports good news but not bad news, and does not point out the cruel fact that even if Yangzhou is taken, it will not be able to transport the grain of Jiangxi and Huguang to the north.

Shunzhi snorted a few times: Yangzhou, is it the Yangzhou where the fireworks go down to Yangzhou in March?

(End of chapter)