Hearing that the Chu army was coming directly to Guichi, Xiong Lichun dispatched troops overnight to deploy defense.

His defensive strategy is simple, which is to shrink and defend.

Guichi is surrounded by the polder area along the river, although there are many lakes and rivers, but the Yangtze River basin is still in the dry period, those small rivers and streams are very shallow, the Chu army can wade lightly, can not play the role of blocking...... Moreover, the terrain of the Zhouwei area is too flat, and some places are even lower than the Yangtze River, not only there is no danger to defend, but the ordinary camps are afraid of water attacks, so it is better to withdraw all the troops into Guichi City and shrink into a ball like a hedgehog It is safer.

All the outlying strongholds in the suburbs were abandoned, and not a single soldier was left even at the Yangtze River wharf in the northwest. According to the information of the scouts, in addition to the Gongyi battalion, the men and horses of the Chu army who came to fight Guichi also had the banners of the West Cavalry Battalion, the Jiang Cavalry Battalion and the Firearms Battalion, with a total strength of more than 10,000 people.

"Wang Junmen is out of the elite this time, we may not be able to hold on for three days. Alas, the coffins of the firearms battalion are too powerful, and I am afraid that before the reinforcements arrive, the walls of Guichi will be blown open. ”

Xiong Lichun knew the combat effectiveness of the Chu army very well, so he was even more afraid. The Gongyi battalion is the number one main force of the Chu army, the cavalry of the Western Cavalry Battalion and the Jiang Cavalry Battalion can fight with the Eight Banners cavalry, and the cannons and flintlock guns of the firearms battalion are very powerful, especially good at blowing up the city wall with gunpowder coffins.

Regarding the secret method of the Chu army using gunpowder coffins to blow up the city wall, he did not tell other Qing army generals, but only said it privately to Ma Guozhu.

"I have a plan, maybe the secret method of breaking the fire weapons battalion."

The cow strokes his beard with his hands. Shen Yin said: "This plan was obtained in a hurry, and it may not work, but there is no good way to do it at the moment. I have no choice but to give it a try, but fortunately, the city wall of Guixi is still strong, as long as our army is well dispatched, we may be able to hold the city wall. ”

Xiong Lichun was helpless, and when he heard that Niu Yan had a way, he couldn't help but feel refreshed, and hurriedly asked carefully.

Niu Yan explained to him. Guixi is a prefecture city, judging from the past examples of the Chu army, when they used gunpowder coffins to blow up the city walls. As long as a large number of sacks and sandbags filled with sand are prepared on the city wall in advance, when the gap in the city wall is blown up, they are immediately thrown down to block it, and then cooperate with the horse rejection carts and trenches behind. can block the Chu army that rushed into the gap.

The trick is actually very simple. But Xiong Lichun thought about it carefully, this is the only way at present, and it is likely to work.

He immediately sent someone to find the prefect of Chizhou, gathered thousands of young people in the city, dug a trench behind the city wall, buried a large vat every ten zhang, and prepared a large number of sandbags and sacks to build a knife cart to resist horses.

I worked hard overnight. By noon the next day, the sandbags on the walls had been piled up in several piles. And it continued to increase, and the moats behind the walls began to take shape.

"Good! Very good! ”

Niu Yan nodded again and again, and cheered Xiong Lichun with a calm and confident smile: "Although I don't dare to say that it is solid, it should be no problem to hold on for three to five days, Wang Junmen is alone, and he can't be trapped under the fortified city for a long time, as long as the reinforcements from Nanjing and Anqing arrive, he will inevitably retreat!" ”

I hope that as Mr. Wang said...... "Xiong Lichun's confidence is not very strong."

He was born as a bandit, in his early years, he tied his head to the belt of his trousers to make a living, and he has always been very single, so it can be said that he is not afraid of heaven and earth, but he is afraid of the Chu army like a tiger. If he hadn't fled without a fight and couldn't explain, he even wanted to give up Guixi and not be an enemy of Wang Kefan.

What a deal! I hid far away in Nanzhili, and just two days after the good day, Wang Kefan actually chased his ass again......

In the afternoon, the western cavalry battalion arrived at the outskirts of Guichi.

Ti Zhaorong circled around the outside of the city, and unexpectedly found that there was no stronghold of the Qing army outside the city, so he was very arrogant to divide the 1,500 cavalry into several parts, seize key positions such as intersections and docks, and cut down trees, set up camp, and lay forward for the upcoming main force of the Chu army.

The strength of the Western Cavalry Battalion was limited by the number of war horses, and at its peak there were nearly 3,000 war horses, which meant that there were nearly 3,000 cavalry...... However, it is not easy to replenish war horses in the south, and there is no place to raise horses on a large scale, in recent years, the Chu army has been fighting continuously in the south and the north, and the life span of war horses is only a few short years, and the strength of the Western Cavalry Battalion has been slowly shrinking, and now there are only more than 2,400 war horses, of which more than 500 are overdue and urgently need to be replaced. (The age of service for war horses is generally 2 to 8 years old.) ）

In this attack on Guichi, Wang Kefan personally ordered the generals, with the Western Cavalry Battalion as the vanguard, requiring them to arrive at Guichi one day in advance, clear the strongholds outside the city, and prepare for the follow-up siege operations...... Therefore, Ti Zhaorong selected all the best horses, and only brought 1,500 cavalry, and the remaining 800 cavalry followed the large army slowly to save horsepower as much as possible.

The problem of urgently needing to replenish the war horses, the Jiang cavalry battalion also exists...... Because of the blockade of the Qing army, it is now difficult to get good horses from the north, and although there are horses in the south, they are too short for cavalry.

The Jiang cavalry battalion unscrupulously cut down trees and camped outside the city, divided into small troops, but Xiong Lichun and Niu Yan ignored them, and had no intention of going out of the city to counterattack.

Are you kidding? The other party is a cavalry, the short-legged infantry suddenly ran over, and people got on their horses and flashed people, you couldn't catch up at all, and if you didn't do it, you would be bitten by others...... Besides, the city is now desperately building fortifications and making all kinds of preparations, so how can they have the leisure to go out of the city to make trouble.

Eighty miles away, the main force of the Gongyi battalion was hurrying towards Guichi.

Thanks to the efficient work of the Intelligence Bureau, Wang Kefan was very familiar with the deployment of the Qing army in this area, and he rushed all the way with a forced march without any scruples...... The Thousand-Mile-Eastern Expedition was originally a tactical adventure, and now is not the time to fight a dumb battle, the first battle into Nanzhili is particularly important, and it must be fast and ruthless, and beat the Qing army dizzy with one punch.

Behind them, the Jiang cavalry battalion covered the firearms battalion and the baggage troops were also desperately hurrying, because to penetrate deep into the hinterland of the Qing army, the Chu army did not carry heavy large-caliber artillery, nor did it carry a large amount of food and supplies, but there were still a lot of baggage to be transported.

At the same time, the Puqi battalion on the west road had been in place and began to attack the county seat of Pengze.

Their task was to seize the county seat and wharf of Pengze as much as possible, and make a gesture of crossing the river to attack Anqing, so as to contain the Qing army and naval divisions in Tunbur and Xiaogushan.

The Ji'an camp on the east road is still on the road, they set off the earliest, and the straight-line distance from Qimen County is also the closest, but the mountain road is rugged and difficult to walk, and it takes half a day to cross a hill on the winding mountain road, so the Ji'an camp is still on the road. Fortunately, most of the mountainous areas in southern Anhui are low mountains and hills, and they should be able to reach Qimen County in another day.

……

Inside, let's talk about a bug that appeared in the previous article - Nikan mentioned in the chapter "Reinforcements of the Qing Army".

At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, there were two Nikan, one was Aixinjue Luo Nikan, and the other was Nalashi Nikan.

Nalashi Nikan was a Mongol, after returning to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, he was mainly responsible for dealing with the Mongols, Jiang Jiu's rebellion had something to do with the Mongols, so he also followed Dolgon to attack Datong. When I was writing that chapter, I looked up these materials and found them dizzy, and my brain twitched, and I made a bug with Zhang Guan Li Dai, confusing him with Aixin Jue Luo Nikan.

Li Dingguo's two famous kings killed Aixinjue Luo Nikan, Nurhachi's own grandson, as if fake.

I'm sorry, this mistake must be corrected, in addition to the respect for the national hero Li Dingguo, Aixinjue Luo Nikan is also an important figure in the Manchu side, which should appear below.

By the way, ask for a subscription and ask for a referral ticket. Although it's by the way, Bandu's attitude is very sincere, thank you! (To be continued......)