The shrapnel that Zhu Hongsan encountered was good, and it advanced two seconds after leaving the barrel, and then the slow-burning gunpowder ignited the gunpowder inside the shell, and it detonated at an altitude of twenty meters above the ground (twenty meters is also considered a high altitude in this era). Then the five submunitions inside the shell were blocked by the partition and all moved downward, that is, towards the ground.

In this era, there is no light pollution at night, and it is still in the wild, so it is absolutely dark. When the shrapnel exploded in the air, although the fire was not large, it still allowed Zhu Hongsan and the others to see clearly the secret numb Qing army on the ground.

Because these unlucky ghosts were in a hurry in the heavy rain, they did not have the perfect logistics support of the Ming army, and they were all wet one by one to the November rain, and if it weren't for the desperate bullet pressure of officers at all levels, these guys would have run away a long time ago. Originally, their idea was to use the darkness to lurk on the edge of the Ming army camp and launch an attack, but they didn't expect the Ming army to suddenly fire such a strange shell, which wasted all their efforts.

Immediately after the shrapnel exploded, the crowd below let out a scream, apparently the submunition had hit someone. Seeing this, the commanders of the rear team of the Qing army saw that a sneak attack was no longer possible, and immediately changed it to a strong attack, anyway, it was now less than 500 meters away from the Ming army camp, and the Ming army could not reflect it. After the order was handed down, the Qing army shouted like a hungry wolf, spread its feet and ran towards the Ming army to kill it.

On the 27th, Hong Chengchou led the Qing army out of Maoshan and assigned a part of the people to be taken by Li Shutai to Lishui County to arrest people, and Hong Chengchou took most of the people to follow the Ming army.

Because the Ming army did not have horses, the scout reconnaissance distance was limited, so they could only keep the safety within ten miles around the army, but this was enough for the all-firearms Ming army. The distance of ten miles was enough time to organize a defensive formation. The Qing army was all cavalry, and the reconnaissance distance was a full thirty miles, so when the Qing army found the Ming army, the Ming army had no news at all.

The Qing army scouts found the rear of the Ming army twenty miles ahead, and hurried back to report to Hong Chengchou, asking what the marshal should do.

It was daytime, and it hadn't rained yet, so naturally he had to wait for Li Shuotai's cannon fodder troops, so Hong Chengchou ordered the scouts to follow from a distance and not engage the Ming army.

Waiting until noon, it began to rain lightly, Hong Chengchou was overjoyed, no matter how powerful the firearms of the Ming army were, they could not exert their power in the rain, and the Ming army would definitely be defeated.

But Hong Chengchou made a lot of calculations, but he still counted a little less, that is, the speed of the cannon fodder troops. According to the agreement with Li Shutai, after dark, Li Shutai will rush to the Qinhuai River with the captured people, but now that it is dark, Li Shutai has no shadow. This is not that Hong Chengchou wronged Li Shutai, you must know that the common people are not trained troops, and they can't walk 30 miles in one afternoon, plus the Manchurian Eight Banners have robbed a lot of things in Lishui, and it is really difficult for large cars and small vehicles to march in the rain, so Hong Chengchou waited until midnight on the Qinhuai River, and Li Shutai still did not move.

However, Hong Chengchou did not bring baggage in order to hurry, some tents and other things were thrown in Maoshan, and the soldiers only brought two days of dry food with them. Unable to live in the rain, and the dry food was still wet by the rain, this kind of hard life began to shake the morale of the Qing army.

Yangzhou Chief Soldier Ma Degong came to Hong Chengchou and whispered: "Marshal, it's not a way to wait like this, my subordinates have been in the rain for a long time, and if you don't do it, it will have too much impact on morale!" ”

"Mr. Ma, I also know, but Li Shutai hasn't arrived yet, the Ming army's firearms are really powerful, if there is no cannon fodder in front, I'm afraid we won't be able to get in!"

"My lord, it's been raining for a day, and you can't use any firearms in such heavy rain, you should know about fighting with the rogues all year round!"

Ma Degong was Hong Chengchou's subordinate back then, and followed him to fight the peasant army in Shaanxi, and later Hong Chengchou was transferred to Liaodong to fight against the Manchu Qing Dynasty, while Ma Degong continued to stay in Guannei to suppress the peasant army. It is precisely because of this friendship that after Ma Degong knew that Hong Chengchou had surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, he arrested Emperor Hongguang as soon as possible to surrender to Hong Chengchou, so Ma Degong is considered Hong Chengchou's old man, and Hong Chengchou will not go to his heart if he says something excessive.

Hong Chengchou heard Ma Degong's heart move like this, yes! He was frightened by the results of the Ming army in Jiangxi, and he was a little afraid of the enemy. Even if the Ming army is all heavenly soldiers and generals, even if their firearms are eroded for dozens of miles, they will definitely be affected in this kind of heavy rain, can the Ming army's firearms still fire in the rain? If you really do that, what kind of fight will you fight, and you will surrender directly!

Hong Chengchou made up his mind, called his own soldiers, and asked him to order the generals to start crossing the river.

The Qinhuai River is not very wide, and even if it rains overnight, it only reaches the waist of a person, so it is nothing to cross the river. After crossing the river, Hong Chengchou looked at the lights two miles away and knew that it was the Ming army camp.

Ma Degong asked on the side: "Marshal, is it possible to attack the Ming army camp?" ”

"No, the south of the Ming army is facing the river, and the field of vision is wide, it must be the area they focus on defending, let's go to the north!"

There is a forest in the north, which is suitable for hiding, and when he came to the woods, Hong Chengchou asked: "It's midnight, the Ming army must be resting, and that general wants to take the lead?" ”

Xu Yong from Chuzhou was originally Gao Jie's general, since Li Chengdong's rebellion, Xu Yong has also been excluded, he is eager to prove his loyalty, and now he heard Hong Chengchou say this and hurriedly stepped forward and said: "Marshal, the last general is willing to lead the men and horses of the headquarters to rush into the camp of the Ming army and open a gap for the cavalry!" ”

Hong Chengchou knew what Xu Yong was thinking, and said: "Okay, Vice General Xu, you lead your 5,000 men and horses in Chuzhou to be the vanguard, and you will be the first to rush in!" General Ma, you lead 10,000 cavalry to follow behind, and when you see the front team open a gap, you rush into the camp of the Ming army! ”

Xu Yong and Ma Degong hugged their fists and bowed down to lead the army!

Xu Yong returned to his army, gathered a few henchmen and captains and said: "Since Li Chengdong's rebellion, our life has become more and more difficult, the military salary has not been allocated for several months, now is an opportunity, I told the marshal, let's play the vanguard, as long as we can rush into the Ming army camp, it will be a great achievement, do you have confidence?" ”

These lieutenants were all rogue back then, and they have always been brave and ruthless, and they shouted after hearing Xu Yong say this: "Big brother, it should be like this, we can't be rogue for a lifetime, let Hong Dashuai see how powerful our old camp is!" ”

Xu Yong saw that the morale was available and shouted, "Okay! Come on, each person will send two taels of yellow wine to warm up, and it will be up to tonight to eat and drink spicy food in the future! ”

These Qing soldiers were drenched in the rain all night, and their bodies were a little stiff from the cold, but now after drinking two taels of yellow wine, the heat spreads, and they feel a lot better. Under the leadership of Xu Yong and other officers, these Qing troops left the brigade and began to head to the Ming army camp two miles away.

Originally, Xu Yong felt that this mission was in his hands, and the visibility outside of this kind of heavy rain was less than 100 meters, if the Qing army had already hid in the tent to hide from the rain, could he still stand guard in this weather? Therefore, Xu Yong did not plan to hide his whereabouts, and ran quickly with the team, preparing to rush into the Ming army camp in one breath while the Ming army was defenseless.

How could I think that people are not as good as heaven, the vibration of their running has already alarmed the Ming army guards, and only then did they shoot a shrapnel under the command of Zhu Hongsan.

Zhu Hongsan took advantage of the light of the explosion of the shrapnel to see that less than 500 meters outside the camp, the black pressure was all the Qing army. Zhu Hongsan couldn't see it well, so he hurriedly shouted: "Enemy attack!" Enemy attack! ”

At this time, there were already three regiments in the barracks of the Ming army who were ready to fight, and when they heard what was happening here at the north gate, they rushed to the north gate under the leadership of the officer.

Now the Qing army outside the north gate found that a sneak attack was no longer possible, and under the leadership of Xu Yong, they spread out and ran towards the gate of the Ming army, wanting to occupy the gate when the Ming army did not react. At this time, the Qing army was less than five hundred meters away from the gate, and it could be reached in a few minutes.

Just when Xu Yong felt that he could take down the gate in one fell swoop, the front team had already entered two hundred meters and began to step on the thistles sprinkled by the Ming army outside. No matter how you place them, they have a sharp corner against them, and these cast-iron things are very rudimentary, but no matter how ugly they are, they just work. The four sharp corners of this kind of thing are ten centimeters long, not to mention people, even horses can't get better when they step on it, plus it rains overnight, and a lot of thistles get into the muddy puddle, even during the day, you can't see clearly, let alone at night when the five fingers are not visible.

The front team of the Qing army was immediately stabbed on the soles of their feet after stepping on the thistles, and dozens of soldiers in front of them lay in the muddy water and screamed loudly. The cries of these wounded soldiers made the soldiers in the rear not dare to go forward, and they could not figure out why the brothers in front of them were like this.

Xu Yong, who was behind, saw that the team had stopped, and immediately ordered his own soldiers to step forward and drive the soldiers forward. But the Qing army had lost the suddenness of the sneak attack, and at this moment, the reinforcements in the Ming army camp had arrived, and the guns at the firing port had been loaded with shotguns. There are only six artillery pieces here at the north gate, and only four of them can be fired because of the rainwater poured into the muzzles, but in this way, the four artillery pieces also caused a lot of casualties to the Qing army.

Because the Qing army wanted to sneak attack, the formation discharged was a dense formation, this formation was looking for death on the shotgun, plus the distance is only 200 meters now, the shotgun has not completely dispersed before it hits the human body block, the Qing army in the front rows have been unlucky, more than 100 people died under the shotgun of the Ming army.

Zhu Hongsan was lying on the observation port and saw that the shotgun was not shooting well because the distance was too close, so he hurriedly shouted: "Change to a solid bullet!" Change to solid bullets! ”

The second four guns were replaced with solid bullets, and it was a bit frustrating to use solid bullets at 200 meters, and the solid bullets touched the human body as soon as they came out of the muzzle, and all the power was released on the human body. Zhu Hongsan saw that a solid bullet had penetrated more than 30 people, and shouted at the soldier who was operating the cannon: "Shoot two more solid bullets and then change the shotgun!" ”

Just as the artillery was in full swing, the soldiers finally formed a firing formation at the battlements on the second floor and began to fire outside.