When it was dawn, Zhang Qiang squinted for a while, and then shouted to the attendant officials to prepare to go, he wanted to go to the battlefield to see the largest battle with the Qing army.

After receiving the order, the pro-guard regiment began to prepare materials, gather troops, arrange the remaining personnel, and then send personnel to the garrison headquarters to let them arrange escort personnel, this time Zhang Qiang only had two battalions of the pro-guard regiment left, he wanted to leave a battalion in the capital to protect the palace, and take a battalion out, which obviously would not be in line with his current identity.

Being ambushed by the enemy many times let him know that now is not the time for him to do his willfulness, so he must bring more troops with him.

The Janissaries of the Beijing Division, also known as the troops directly under the garrison headquarters, the elite units in the garrison army, immediately sent a regiment of soldiers and horses to follow, and at the same time a company of guards was drawn from the military academy, and the cadets of the first company were followed, and the artillery superintendent sent a battalion of troops with six twelve-pounder guns and one eighteen-pounder gun to follow.

In short, it was a long morning.

It was already early afternoon when we set off.

Zhang Qiang did not allow the troops to notify the troops along the road in advance, which is also his whereabouts need to be kept secret, in case the generals of the troops in that area rebelled, whether his reinforced regiment-level troops could hold out until the arrival of reinforcements was a matter of fact, and the Huaxia Army now has good combat effectiveness regardless of the troops in that area.

Because the Huaxia Army has been fighting since the founding of the country and has never stopped fighting.

No matter which unit it is, it is a meritorious unit that has survived the war.

Now the core area is empty, if you want to support, you have to transfer troops from the front line, all the armies are adjusting and deploying, there is some chaos, in case the enemy's lurking people seek a high position, become traitorous ministers, they think of blackmailing the Son of Heaven to order the princes, he will be unlucky.

Therefore, the troops set out for nearly half a day, and only when it was time to set up camp in the evening did they notify the nearby troops to start a cordon.

By the time Zhang Qiang drove out of the capital, Shang Kexi had already fallen into despair, and Tianying seized the opportunity to defeat the Qing army that had withdrawn from the town, captured nearly 900 people, killed and wounded nearly 600 people, and rescued the garrison troops of Phoenix Town, which had less than 300 troops left.

After that, he began to pursue the fleeing Qing army, and captured prisoners all over the mountains.

Two hours later, with the arrival of reinforcements from the garrison regiment and the militia elite brigade, their strength had increased to 5,000 soldiers and horses, and they immediately began to encircle and suppress Shang Kexi.

The Qing army defended the mountain, and fought very tenaciously, paying more than 1,000 people to drive the 2,000 Qing troops down the ridge, they occupied the ridge, leaving troops to guard the ridge, and more than 3,000 soldiers and horses chased after them.

Shang Kexi's troops concentrated 6,000 soldiers and horses, fled down the mountain, and directly attacked Wan Douni's blocking troops on the bank of the Yellow River, and the blocking troops of more than 1,000 people were like reefs beaten by huge waves, and they did not move at all.

In addition to the Yellow River, they were surrounded on three sides, compressed, and gathered more than 8,000 soldiers and horses, but they were all frightened birds, and could only attack the flat river bank less than two miles wide head-on.

Wan Dou Ni contracted his forces, added another battalion to the front, and carried the impact of Shang Kexi's 8,000 soldiers and horses, intercepted the enemy, drove him out of the valley, and compressed it to an area less than five square miles on the riverbank.

At the beginning, their forces were also insufficient, there were still a few hundred people left on the mountain, nearly 1,800 people on the bank of the river, and more than 900 troops in the valley, with artillery, bombarding the enemy, and here the Celestial Shadow pursued the enemy from the mountain to the bottom of the mountain, and the more than 1,000 troops who ran in front were too anxious, and crashed headlong into the enemy's most dense place, and had to start a bayonet white-knuckle battle, but they were beaten out by the enemy's strong forces, leaving hundreds of corpses and running back.

Celestial Shadow hurriedly gathered the remaining troops, pressed the enemy in a steady attack formation, and shot the enemy in a formation of guns and guns, and beat the enemy's pursuers back.

In fact, at this time, his troops were also insufficient, many troops were cleaning the battlefield on the road, establishing a blocking position, rushing down the mountain only 2,000 troops, after the enemy wiped out more than 1,000 troops, there were still about 1,000 people left, five miles of wide surface, the enemy is likely to break through with a countercharge.

So he hurriedly sent people to gather all the troops on the mountain, and added more than 1,000 people, so that he could stabilize his position.

At this time, their total strength was actually only more than 6,000 people, but they had to block the impact of the enemy's 8,000 soldiers and horses, but fortunately, Shang Kexi was bent on escaping, regardless of the rear, and kept attacking the front position, causing some heavy casualties in the front position, and a battalion that went up fought for less than an hour, with 300 casualties, and was almost annihilated.

It was only when the artillery of the garrison regiment was brought in from the riverside road that they were able to alleviate the problem of the desperate shortage of troops.

Thirty large and small artillery pieces were concentrated, including nine-pounder, ten-pounder, six-pounder, and three-pounder guns discarded by the enemy, as well as nine-pounder guns, six-pounder guns, and two twelve-pounder guns brought by the garrison regiment of the Huaxia Army.

As soon as Tianying and Wan Douni met, they transferred a company from the garrison regiment, a company from the militia elite brigade, five three-pounder guns from the artillery battalion, and more than 100 troops from the ordinary militia brigade, and supplemented the 50 militia reinforcements to the interception troops in front, so that the strength of the interception troops remained at 1,500 troops, and it was enough to block the enemy's desperate assault.

When a company of remnants of soldiers and horses in Phoenix Town came up, this side also launched an attack, and the enemy collapsed suddenly, and when it was dark, 8,000 soldiers and horses were killed and wounded, 3,000 people were missing, and the rest were taken prisoner, and more than 4,000 enemy troops were captured at once, hundreds of horses were captured, and countless guns were captured.

Tianying and Wan Dou Ni lay under a tree in the mountain like a pile of mud, watching the soldiers and horses in the distance cleaning the battlefield.

It wasn't until it got dark that the two returned to Phoenix Town, at this time Phoenix Town had become ruins except for a few compounds that could barely accommodate people, and the two and three garrison regiment commanders, two militia squadron captains, militia brigade captains, and several garrison battalion commanders gathered together and stared at the map in a daze in the light of the candles produced by the Huaxia Army.

Tianying pointed to the map and said: "From here to Yunchengfu to Sanmenxia into the mountain, a total of seventy-eight kilometers, the width of a ridge here is seven kilometers to fifteen kilometers wide, our current strength plus the strength of the mountain city, the current situation is 13,000 troops."

We have to leave at least 2,000 soldiers and horses to guard the mountain city, a few hundred soldiers and horses to guard the ferry behind the mountain city, and we have to send the remaining 2,000 remnants of the militia brigade to the mountains and deeper mountains to find the people of our slaughtered mountain villages, and at least 3,000 soldiers and horses here in Fenghuang Town to prevent the enemy's 5,000 soldiers and horses who have crossed the Yellow River from returning to seize the ferry and Fenghuang Town, and these soldiers and horses have to clean up nearly 50 kilometers of the battlefield. ”

Wan Douni looked up at the commander of the extremely garrison regiment, they were all dissatisfied troops temporarily drawn from various Henan Prefecture garrison brigades, the maximum was 2,000 people, and the minimum was only 400 people, and a militia brigade here had 8,000 soldiers and horses, and only 2,000 troops were left dead and wounded, and only 10,000 troops of the militia elite brigade were left, and only 4,000 soldiers and horses were left after this battle.

It can be said that they are all remnants.

They can only ask for help from the rear, so that the rear can send more troops to take over the defense, and these soldiers and horses have to be withdrawn to a place dozens of kilometers away on the south bank for rest and replenishment, or that militia brigade has reached the level of withdrawal after this battle.

Two militia brigades, 18,000 soldiers and horses, in the end only 6,000 troops remained, and several garrison regiments also suffered heavy losses after this battle, and when they finally stormed, at least 2,000 enemy men were killed in that position, and their own losses reached 1,200 men.

Oh, I haven't considered the prisoners, how many prisoners are there, not to mention the more than 2,000 enemy soldiers and horses captured on the other side of the mountain city, there are more than 6,000 enemy soldiers and horses here, this is not counting the captured enemy 5,000 people's troops, searching the mountains at night, there will definitely be a lot of enemy remnants of the defeated generals, then the enemy's prisoners will be 15,000 people, and the remaining soldiers and horses will do nothing just to guard these prisoners.

He threw the pen in his hand, "Everyone goes to clean up the battlefield, guard the prisoners, and even guard the troops in important places, we must know where Shang Kexi still has at least 20,000 soldiers and horses, and we must support reinforcements from the rear for at least three days before they can come up, so let's do it." ”

It's not that Merlin didn't have time to send someone up, but that he had already arrived at Xianyang Mansion at the moment, where was Baghyalu waiting for him, and Qin Mo of the First Guards Division.

At this moment, the chief soldier Wang Yuqun has just taken over here, and he is still learning about the situation, he was called back from Xi'an Mansion by Merlin Fish, taking over Merlin Yu's division and defending here.

At the headquarters of the corps, he dispatched a brigade to intercept the enemy's 5,000 soldiers and horses crossing the Yellow River, and cooperated with the local militia brigade and garrison regiment to attack the enemy.

A garrison regiment was also mobilized to reinforce Sanmen County to prevent the enemy from coming out of the mountains and attacking the ferry.

Where there is only one garrison battalion, a militia company.

It was not until it got dark that he learned about the deployment of a series of reinforcements on the north bank of the Yellow River that Merlin had previously arranged, and then mobilized a brigade of the field army to prepare to cross the river.

The field brigade had actually reached a village not far from the ferry in a day's time, and was collecting boats.

Since there was not a single boat at the ferry, and the garrison generals of the 50,000-strong army of the enemy, who were anxious to annihilate the enemy and resist the enemy's 50,000-strong army, also forgot to drive the ships back for a while, the remaining ships at the ferry were mobilized by the three unsatisfactory garrison regiments that were reinforced, thus creating this dilemma.

It also caused Wang Yuqun's confusion, eager to destroy the enemy's landing of the 5,000 army, Wang Yuqun did not realize this, because they have been a little careless in the face of the Qing army over the years, and they don't know Shang Kexi's cunning and spicy.

If it weren't for the strong will of Phoenix Town to resist the enemy's attack with the strong will to almost annihilate the entire army, and Celestial Shadow would have thrown the cavalry company sent to help Phoenix Town to defend it twice, Shang Kexi's back soldiers and horses would probably set off from the ferry again, but it would definitely not just go to one ferry to land, and would definitely divide the troops and land from a place that the enemy did not expect.

(End of chapter)