In the early morning of November 16, the sky was gloomy and the sky was dim, and the cold wind from the grassland in Saibei was whistling between the valleys around Wulonggou and Bauhinia Ridge.

The upper reaches of the Juma River in front of the Bauhinia Pass have also been covered with a thick layer of ice.

At this time, Wang Fu, the commander of the second town of the newly formed Guards Army, stood on the tower of the north gate of Bauhinia Pass, holding a simple binoculars in his hand, and looked at the direction of Wulonggou in the northwest with a serious expression.

A few miles away, on the Baishishan Fort south of Wulonggou, a beacon fire had been lit, and Wang Fu could already see groups of unkempt refugees from his binoculars, staggering in the direction of Wulonggou.

Behind these groups of refugees were groups of Mongol soldiers wielding horsewhips.

Looking not far behind these Mongolian soldiers, Wang Fu even saw the army of Jianyu who was black and oppressive and could not see the edge at a glance.

As the saying goes, there are 10,000 people in a hurry, and there is no boundary.

This scene in Wang Fu's eyes naturally made him very worried.

Jianyu goes and comes back, the plan must be not small, and the second town of the Guards Army, which has just been selected and equipped and has not experienced a single actual battle, can it withstand it? !

As for the tens of thousands of Baoding soldiers mobilized by Ding Kuichu and Chen Hongfan, Wang Fu only reviewed them once, and he no longer dared to expect them to play much of a role.

Wang Fu, a veteran, originally from Liaodong, was one of the meritorious veterans who followed Mao Wenlong deep behind enemy lines to fight against the Houjin Army and open up Dongjiang Town.

For the increasingly chaotic Dongjiang Town army under Mao Wenlong's command, he can't look down on a hundred of them, let alone the Baoding soldiers who have not experienced war for many years.

In his eyes, these Baoding soldiers are a step behind the boss compared to the recruits in the second town of the Guards who he has personally trained in Zhuozhou for a long time.

In terms of physical fitness, it is not as good as the second town, in terms of equipment, and in terms of its orders and prohibitions, and in terms of uniform discipline, it is far inferior to the second town.

For Wang Fu, who has been training soldiers in Zhuozhou for so long, if these Baoding soldiers do not return to the furnace to practice again for a few months, they will not be able to use them at all.

But you have to use it if you can't use it.

On the Zijingling defense line, which is tortuous and winding for more than ten miles, in addition to the Guancheng where the Bauhinia Pass is located, there are also city walls, water gates, and many sheep intestine trails distributed in the middle of the mountains, which need to be guarded by troops.

In so many places where troops need to be deployed, the men and horses of the second town of the Guards, a total of more than 16,000 people, are simply not enough.

Originally, it was thought that the Great Wall of Water Gate, where the Juma River flows under the Bauhinia Ridge, is the safest on the Bauhinia Ridge defense line.

Therefore, he handed over the six or seven hundred pace-wide water gate defense line and the two-wing defense line to Chen Hongfan, the chief soldier of Baoding.

Because the amount of water in the Juma River is still not small, and the water gate under the city head is not very smooth because it has been silted up for a long time, so a large water surface has been formed in the valley of Bauhinia Ridge.

Under normal circumstances, the enemy's cavalry and infantry would not be able to pass through the water and attack the city wall where the water gate is located.

But now it looks like the place must be fortified, because the weather is colder in the morning than yesterday, and the water is already frozen.

Wang Fu took the telescope and looked at it for a while, took out the frozen river, then put the telescope, and said to the supervising army Yu Shi Fang Kong Zhi who was standing on the side:

"Now it seems that this Juma River is no longer a natural danger for us to guard Bauhinia Ridge, but has become a shortcut for the enemy to attack Bauhinia Ridge!"

When Fang Kongzhi heard this, his face was also full of worry, and he said: "Now that the captives have come, the siege is imminent, and at this time, adjust the defense, I am afraid that it will affect the whole body!" ”

After saying this, Fang Kongzhi continued: "For today's plan, why don't you wait and see!" ”

Wang Fu nodded, and said to Ma Dengyun, the deputy commander of the capital: "Brother of the Ma family! You go to the city with the three battalions prepared by Sun Zushou's department, and rush to the water gate under the tip of the pear blossom in case something happens to Chen Hongfan's Baoding soldiers! ”

Ma Dengyun was tall, with a high nose and deep eyes, a full face and beard, and he looked mighty, and after listening to Wang Fu's order, he didn't say a word, and left with his fists hugged.

The three battalions prepared in the Bauhinia Pass City belong to the cavalry-based standard in the second town of the new Guards Army, and the standard system is Sun Zushou, and the three battalions under the standard are all cavalry.

They are of little significance for defending the city, so they belong to the reserves prepared by Wang Fu in advance, which are to come in handy in case of unforeseen dangers.

Ma Dengyun had just plugged the weak link he had discovered, and the fort on Baishi Mountain started a battle.

The sound of "bang", "bang", "bang" and "bang" shelling covered the entire valley of Wulonggou at the foot of Baishi Mountain, and the roaring sound of artillery also spread far above the city head of Zijing Pass.

Wang Fuqiang pulled out the Qi knife on his waist and said loudly: "There is a way to raise soldiers for a thousand days, and use soldiers for a while!" The food and clothing of our generation are all gifts from Your Majesty! If we don't repay this kindness, how can we be human!?

"I, Wang Fu, have made an oath with you today that I will live and die with this city! If I don't retreat, if my Wang Fu dares to go down to the city, the prison army will kill my Wang Fu! I will die and the prison army will go down to the city, and you can punish the prison army! Even if you are ordered to fight to the point of a single soldier, you must not steal your life! ”

After Wang Fu finished saying this, Fang Kongzhi, a civil official who was born as a scholar, was also enthusiastic all of a sudden, and immediately took the lead in responding: "Fight to the point of being a soldier, and never steal a living!" ”

Wang Fu and Fang Kongzhi's oath were spoken, and a uniform shout suddenly erupted from the city of Bauhinia Pass: "Fight to the point of a soldier, never steal your life!" ”

This slogan on the Bauhinia Pass spread in an instant, spreading in the long direction of the Bauhinia Ridge, and the sudden outburst of shouts temporarily defeated the fear of the impending strong enemy, and also boosted the morale of the soldiers defending the city.

The wide entrance of Wulong Ditch was only four or five miles away from the Guancheng of Bauhinia Pass, and the crowd of people who were black and oppressive completely ignored the bombardment of the forts on Baishi Mountain, and just ran and rushed to the front of the pass in great strides.

Soon, the vanguard team running at the forefront appeared on the wide and gentle hillside in front of the Bauhinia Pass, and soon entered the range of the city's cannons.

Wang Fu slammed down the Qi knife in his hand towards the outside of the city, and shouted, "Fire!" ”

Subsequently, the big drum on the north gate of Bauhinia Pass also made a loud sound of "dong dong" and "dong dong".

Hui Shixian, Li Hongsi, Hou Gongji and others, who were guarding the wall with their respective battalion heads, also immediately waved the flags in their hands, or shouted nervously or excitedly: "Open the cannon!" Fire! ”

The city of Bauhinia Pass has not yet had time to deploy the Hongyi cannon, but the general cannon dismantled and transported from the area of the Beijing Division, plus the original, is as many as more than 100 guns, and there are also the Chongzhen rear-loading smoothbore mother cannon newly equipped in the second town of the Guards.

So the firepower on the head of the city is very considerable.

For a while, the cannon roared, the projectiles flew together, and the refugees who were driven to Guancheng by the Mongolian soldiers behind them were instantly knocked down one after another.

On the question of how to deal with the refugees who were driven to attack the city, Wang Fu, who had long been accustomed to seeing life and death on the battlefields of Liaodong and Dongjiang, did not hesitate or reluctance.

And Fang Kongzhi, a person with a lot of scholarly spirit, has also grown up in the experience of the Zhuozhou New Army Training Camp, knowing that victory or defeat is a matter of life and death in a single thought when the soldiers are fierce and in danger, and that little bit of women's kindness cannot save the refugees in front of them, and may take more lives.

So at this time, although he hesitated in his heart, he always gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and did not say a word.

Soon, the refugees who had been beaten by the seven- and five-pound projectiles of the general's cannon and the Franco's cannon turned around and fled, and some simply knelt or lay on the ground, crying and begging for a ceasefire, while dodging the projectiles bouncing around on the stiff hillside.

Whether they run away or beg for it, of course there is no point.

The Mongols would not let them escape, and it was impossible for the officers and troops at the head of the city to cease fire at this juncture and let them pass through the city.

What's more, these people still carry ladders for the Mongols, and a large number of Horqin Mongol soldiers are still loaded in the middle of them.

So it didn't take long for Oba Khan and Aduqidar Khan Taiji of Korqin to personally rush to the rear of these Han people with a large number of Korqin archers, and under the random arrow fire, these people turned back and continued to carry a cloud ladder while leaning over to avoid the projectiles, while quickly trying to close the wall and approach.

For such a refugee, do you say that he is a citizen or an enemy?

After all, the artillery fire at the head of the Bauhinia Pass is still a little sparse, and more than 100 general cannons are distributed on the Bauhinia Ridge defense line that is more than ten miles long, even if you add the 60 improved Furang machine guns of the newly formed 2nd Town Vehicle Artillery Battalion of the Guards Army, it is not dense enough on such a wide frontal defense line.

After all, it's not a flowering bomb, and it can't achieve the effect of hitting one and blowing one piece.

When thousands of people rushed towards the front of the north gate of Bauhinia Pass, which was several miles wide, some of them would be lucky enough to dodge the iron bullets bouncing on the hillside, dodge the broken stones formed by these iron bullets hitting the rocks, and then rush into the dead end of the city's artillery fire and lean the ladder against the wall.