The Chu army made a surprise attack on Jiangning Town, which opened the second phase of the Ningzhen Campaign.

Like prey beasts, surprise attacks pay the most attention to stealth and suddenness, and they cannot rush towards the target with a shout as soon as they come up, but try to get as close as possible without alarming the other party, and wait until the best time to suddenly burst out.

Wang Yi led the first section of the firearms battalion musket corps to set off after dark, and after a night of lurking march, they arrived near Jiangning Town in the early morning of the next day, waded across Banqiaopu, and waited in concealment on the west bank of Banqiaopu. (Banqiaopu is a 30-mile-long river, now known as Banqiao River, which flows into the Yangtze River in Dasheng.) ）

After the long day passed, the night was led again, and the other units of the Chu army also entered the predetermined assembly area one after another. At three o'clock, Wang Yi led his troops to set off from the west bank of Banqiaopu, taking advantage of the night wind to rush to the southwest, at midnight, there was still a 15-mile journey from Jiangning Town, the troops turned to running and advanced, and after reaching the periphery of Jiangning Town in concealment, the various commandos dispersed into the predetermined combat position.

The place south of the Yangtze River is rich, and Jiangning Town is close to Nanjing, not far from the Yangtze River, so it is developing rapidly, and it is more of a small city than a town. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, there was a wall in the old town of Jiangning, but after more than 200 years, a large number of houses were built outside the wall, and the new city and the old town have been integrated, and only the wall that is not too high is used as the dividing line...... This battle is bound to be a street battle, plus a tough battle.

In the early hours of the morning, Wang Yi ordered an attack.

The Chu army launched an attack on Jiangning Town from the west and north at the same time, with the west side as the main attack direction and the north side as the coordinated. In other words. The Chu army on the north side had to gather some strength while attacking to prevent the Qing army from escaping towards the Dasheng Pass in the north. Threaten the rear of the Chu army to block the troops at Dasheng Pass, if the Qing army flees to Moling Pass in the southeast. Or flee to the southwest of the "three mountains by the river", ignore it.

In the pre-dawn darkness, one commando after another left their hidden positions and touched Jiangning Town.

When they reached the edge of the town, they were spotted by the Qing army sentry, and the battle began.

The pre-dawn silence was broken by a crisp gunshot, followed by the sudden sound of a screeching gong. The Qing army sentry issued an emergency warning, followed by the sound of gunfire like popping beans, the earth-shattering shouts of killing, and the explosion like a thunderbolt on a sunny day...... The Chu army attacked on all fronts, with full firepower, launched a fierce attack on Jiangning Town, quickly broke through the Qing army checkpoint on the edge of the town, entered the city, and launched a fierce street battle with the Qing army.

The period before dawn. It was the time when ordinary people slept the most soundly, the Chu army had already entered the town, and the Qing army guards were still immersed in a sweet dream, and the gunshots and explosions came from outside the house one after another. He was still asleep.

Several soldiers rushed in to wake him up, and when he opened his eyes, he was still muttering, "This whip is so long!" Hey, and these two kicks. What a fucking ring! ”

"Wake up, Lord Xietai. Wake up! It's not firecrackers, it's firecrackers! It's the Southern Thieves who have entered the town! ”

“……”

What do you mean?

The commander of the Qing army was stunned for a moment. Suddenly jumped up, and while hurriedly putting on clothes and armor, he still couldn't believe and asked, "Is there a mistake in the military situation?" Could it be that Moling Pass has been lost? Or has Stone Mountain been lost? ”

Stone Mountain, one of the three mountains by the river, is Liu Hongyu's main position, blocking between Jiangning Town and Dangtu Chu Army. If Stone Mountain and Moling Pass had not been lost, it stands to reason that Jiangning Town would not have been attacked.

"My subordinates don't know, there is no difference between Moling Pass and the direction of Stone Mountain, I only saw countless southern thieves coming in from the east, and our army couldn't resist ......"

In the panic report of the soldiers, the main general of the Qing army strode out of the house and came to the wall to check the enemy's situation, still secretly doubting in his heart.

It doesn't make sense! There's no reason to be attacked!

Since there is no abnormality in Moling Pass and Stone Mountain, which means that those two places have not been lost, then the sneak attack on Jiangning Town can only be a small force interspersed with roundabouts, and the strength will not be too many, at least it will not exceed the Qing defenders in Jiangning Town...... The commander-in-chief of the Qing army felt that the commander-in-chief of the Chu army must have gone crazy, so he would use a small force to attack Jiangning Town, and chose to launch an attack before dawn.

Although it is very common to steal camps and rob villages at night, it is obviously unreasonable to sneak attack such a big town at night!

Jiangning Town is like a small city, although there are no city walls, most of the houses in the city are solid brick houses, which are not as easy to cause chaos as the military camp, and the Chu army has no advantage in this kind of night battle and street fighting...... They are not familiar with the terrain of the streets in the town, and if they suddenly rush into the town at night, they are likely to get lost, rushing around like headless flies, although it will cause a certain amount of chaos, but there is no real threat, and after a scuffle, they are likely to be trapped in the town, and if they don't do well, they will not be able to get out, and finally the whole army will be destroyed.

The Qing army commander hurriedly climbed the wall and looked around, but he couldn't help but open his mouth wide, unable to believe what he saw......

The whole Dongcheng district was in chaos, the northern district was slightly better, but it was not about the same, and half of the town was like a burning wood, with fires everywhere and gunfire everywhere, as if the town had been slaughtered by thousands of troops, rather than being attacked by a small army.

"How many thieves are coming?!"

The Qing army commander was a little confused, and repeatedly asked his own soldiers when the Chu army would attack, and learned that the battle had just started a quarter of an hour ago, and the Qing army commander was frustrated and desperate to come to a conclusion that the Chu army would have at least 5,000 men and possibly more than 5,000 people in more than a quarter of an hour...... He couldn't have imagined that the Chu army would use the "team" as a combat unit, form more than 20 commandos, and assault at multiple points at the same time, with only 1,200 troops, it would have the effect of 5,000 people!

The refinement and independence of combat units is an important characteristic of modern armed forces.

In the period of pure thermal weapons warfare, a squad can undertake independent combat missions, if it is a well-trained elite unit, a combat group of three or five people can be pulled out to fight alone, the Chu army is subject to the conditions of weapons and soldiers, and it is far from reaching this kind of process, but must take a team of thirty or forty people as a separate combat unit, but even so, it is beyond the cognitive range of the Qing army's commander-in-chief.

In fact, this is already the limit of the Chu army.

If it was fought in the daytime and changed to an ordinary battlefield, a "team" of the Chu army was only equipped with thirty or forty flintlock guns, plus some useless "earth-shaking thunders", because the firepower was too thin, it was very reluctant to be an independent combat unit...... However, under the conditions of night battles and street battles, due to the limitations of the terrain and the special battlefield atmosphere, the various commandos of the Chu army seemed to be like fish in water, and under the leadership of the guide, they each rushed fiercely to kill, and before the Qing army had time to react, Jiangning Town was stirred up into a pot of porridge.

It's messy!

The Qing army in the town was in disarray.

Although the defenders of the Qing army were more familiar with the houses and streets here than the Chu army, in the case of a sudden onslaught, they turned into headless flies, running around in panic, scrambling to flee for their lives, and did not organize effective resistance.

Although Jiangnan has fallen for more than three years, most of the people still have their hearts set on the Ming Dynasty, and there are many anti-Qing righteous people who dare to risk their lives to lead the way for the Chu army. From among them, Wang Yi selected dozens of locals who were familiar with the terrain of Jiangning Town, and each assault team was equipped with two guides, even if one was injured and died, the other could continue to lead the way for the Chu army...... Under their leadership, the Chu army went straight to all the key points in the town, especially the two Qing army barracks in Dongcheng District and Beicheng District.

The earth-shaking thunder is not as good as a grenade, if on the battlefield, ordinary people will avoid it in time when they see the sky-shaking thunder thrown over.

However, the Qing soldiers in their sleep were not ordinary people.

One by one, the earth-shattering thunder was thrown into the barracks, and the Qing soldiers had just woken up from their sleep, the burning fuse rattled and sparks glittered in the darkness...... With the sound of violent explosions, the Qing soldiers were blown up and howled wolves. There were also some who reacted quickly and escaped from the barracks before they were bombed, only to be confronted by a row of black muzzles or shiny bayonets.

In the fierce battle, no one paid attention, and a touch of fish belly white appeared in the eastern sky.

When the first rays of sunlight illuminated Jiangning Town, a part of the Chu army had already reached Nancheng District, setting off a new chaos.

During this short period of time, the Qing army commander has been watching the battle from above the wall, but has not sent troops to support.

When the battle is like this, sending a small group of reinforcements can no longer stop the chaos, so it is better to shrink the forces as much as possible and hold the old town of Jiangning inside the wall. His Chinese military camp was inside the wall, and he sent messengers to mobilize troops everywhere, and more than 800 troops were pieced together to set up defenses on the wall.

As the sky gradually brightened, the Qing army commander had already seen that there were not many Ming troops who had entered the town, at best about 2,000 people (he still overestimated), which greatly increased his confidence...... As long as you hold the old town inside the wall, you will probably wait until noon, and the reinforcements from Dashengguan will be able to arrive, and if you can hold out until tomorrow morning, even the reinforcements from Sanshan and Moling Pass by the river will be able to arrive.

Outside the walls of the city, he decided to give up.

For the sake of safety, he sent several teams of Qing troops to set fire to the houses near the wall, so as to create a separate zone in front of the wall, so as not to be used by the Chu army.

The town of Jiangning was then plunged into a sea of fire.

Unlike fires, fires can develop rapidly under organized and premeditated arson. Outside the walls, the raging fires spread in all directions, billowing smoke billowing up, burning houses crackling, and crying people fleeing in all directions...... (To be continued......)