As soon as the morning dawned, the Chu army had already appeared under the city of Xianning, with swords and guns like a forest, flags like the sea, brightly colored uniforms with black armor and red robes, like a colorful carpet spread all over the fields outside the city, and the loud military trumpets and war drums soared into the sky.

The west side of Xianning County is close to the Jinshui River, and the vast Xiliang Lake is twenty miles away from the north of the city, this area is the legendary ancient battlefield of the Three Kingdoms, and there are many place names related to the Red Cliff War, such as the Xiamapo where Wang Kefan's Chinese army is located, that is, a small mound in the south of the city.

Although this small mound is only more than 20 meters high, it is the only commanding height nearby, less than five miles away from Xianning City, the mound is shaded with green trees, the scenery is pleasant, there is a small land temple, the incense case and the statue of the god are full of traces of smoke and fire, it can be seen that the usual incense is very strong, probably it is for this reason that it was not demolished by the Qing army.

Raising the telescope and looking at Xianning, a standard Ming Dynasty county appeared in the field of vision, with a rectangular city about the size of Chongyang. According to the information that has been obtained, Xianning County has four city gates in the east, west, north and south, the circumference of the city wall is five and a half miles, the height is two zhang and six feet, the width is one zhang and five feet, there is no urn city, there are more than 2,000 households in the county, nearly 10,000 Dingkou, and more than 4,000 Qing army defenders.

Among the more than 4,000 defenders, Xu Yong's Huangzhou Green Battalion was the main force, and the main general was named Xu Bin, who was Xu Yong's own brother, in addition, there were five hundred Eight Banner cavalry sent by Luck Dehun in Xianning City, which was the so-called True Tartar.

Xianning is adjacent to Wuchang Mansion, the city is small but very prosperous, and it is a famous land of fish and rice, which can be called a large grain-producing county in this era. Since the Manchu Qing Dynasty occupied Xianning, the Ming army never returned here, and the land could not be left barren without fighting for a long time, so there was a lot of farmland outside the city, and there were some households. However, after the arrival of the Chu army last night, these residents all ran all night, and they could see clearly with binoculars, some of them didn't even have time to close the door, and the house was in a mess outside the house, which showed that they were in a hurry to escape.

Now that it was winter, the crops in the farmland were not yet ripe, and Ti Zhaorong's cavalry dispersed and lit fires in the fields, even if they were to defeat Xianning City. The Chu army will not stay here for a long time, so these crops must be burned in order not to become military rations for the enemy in the future.

With more than 20,000 Ming troops watching, the Qing army in the city did not send cavalry to stop it, allowing the fire in the field to grow bigger and bigger. Burning these crops also had the effect of clearing the battlefield, and the Qing army did not object to this.

Smoke billowed everywhere. The air was filled with a choking, pungent smell. The Ming army lined up in the open space between the fields to cover, dug ditches and set up villages, and prepared various siege facilities, but the Qing army on the city shuttled back and forth, carrying ash bottles and stones, and arranging various siege equipment.

In front of the city walls. Plum blossom piles, antler arrays, trench suspension bridges are readily available, and there are a number of wolf tooth beats, yaksha beats, stone artillery ballistas and other city defense equipment on the city wall. Xianning is guarding the south gate of Wuchang Mansion, and the Qing army has put a lot of effort into the defense of the city here.

Wang Kefan held the telescope and turned the direction little by little, and saw the east end of the city wall from the west end of the city wall, and carefully did not miss any links. Very good! Although the city defense facilities in Xianning were strong, no artillery was seen on the city walls!

Since Kong Youde and others surrendered to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the artillery technology of the Qing army has surpassed that of the Ming army, and the imitation of the red-coated cannon is very powerful, although the mobility is insufficient, it is a very powerful heavy weapon used to siege and defend the city. The artillery battalion of the Chu army used the shipborne guns of the Guangdong pirates, and how effective they would be in land battles remains to be tested in actual combat.

Taking a step back, even if the artillery of the same caliber is erected on the city wall, the range of the Chu army will inevitably be suppressed, not to mention that the artillery of the artillery battalion is all three-pounder and four-pounder guns, which themselves belong to small-caliber artillery, and the firing range is within one thousand meters, although it far exceeds the range of stone artillery bows and arrows, it is not as good as the red-coated cannons of the Qing army.

If the Qing army used artillery to help defend the city, this battle would not be easy to fight.

However, they did not have artillery!

There are five hundred true Tartars in Xianning City, that is, the so-called invincible Eight Banners in the world, which is the strongest fighting force in the city, and Xu Yong's more than 3,000 Huangzhou Green Battalions should not be underestimated, they were all elite troops that Zuo Liangyu relied on back then, in addition, there are nearly 10,000 Dingkou in the city, which should be able to recruit about 2,000 young and strong, adding up to more than 6,000 troops.

The Chu army plus Ma Jinzhong and Wang Jincai's department, a total of less than 30,000 people, about four times the strength of the Qing army, basically in line with the "five attack" conditions, Wang Kefan did not drain the water of Xianning Siege, but sent the Chu army to focus on attacking the south gate, let Ma Jinzhong block the east gate, send Wang Jincai's troops to block the west gate, and only vacate the north gate.

Xianning is less than 200 miles away from Wuchang Mansion, and the Qing army in the city should have sent someone to Wuchang Mansion last night to ask for help, and Luckdhun's reinforcements will soon arrive, and Xianning's Qing army will not abandon the city and flee lightly until the last moment of annihilation.

Wang Kefan did this entirely because of the lack of troops, unable to encircle Xianning on all sides, rather than pulling out a thin encirclement, it is better to focus on the southern city wall, conquer Xianning in one fell swoop, and end the battle as much as possible.

Judging from the reaction of the Qing army in the city, they also had the idea of sticking to the city and waiting for help, the main force of the Chu army was at the south gate, with nearly 20,000 horses, and the Qing army simply gave up the field battle out of the city and shrank in the city to wait for reinforcements from Wuchang Mansion. You must know that there are a large number of cavalry under the command of Luckdhun, and the distance of less than 200 miles can theoretically be reached in one day, even if the horsepower is saved and walked slowly, it can arrive in two days at most, and the Qing army in Xianning is confident that it will be able to hold out for more than two days, and is unwilling to risk a field battle with the Ming army.

But what they didn't expect was that two days was enough for the Chu army!

In the entire battle plan, Ma Jinzhong and Wang Jincai's troops were responsible for containing the Qing army, on the one hand, to attract the Qing army to divide the troops, and on the other hand, to prevent the Qing army from leaving the city through the east and west gates and attacking the Chu army positions at the south gate.

Ma Jinzhong's strength was stronger, and he was in charge of the more difficult East Gate, while Wang Jincai's troops were weaker and were responsible for monitoring the West Gate, which was close to the Jinshui River and the terrain was narrow, which was not good for both the offensive and defensive sides, as long as Wang Jincai's troops did not make low-level mistakes and carefully held the position between Xianning and Jinshui River, the Qing army would not be able to break through.

The south gate concentrated six infantry battalions and one artillery battalion of the Chu army, Ti Zhaorong's cavalry battalion served as a guard on the east side, Wang Meng's cavalry battalion served as a guard on the side, and Tan Xiao's Yuezhou battalion was responsible for the main attack.

However, before the Yuezhou battalion launched the main attack, the artillery battalion had to open the city gate, and there was no urn city in Xianning County, and there was no camp and moon city outside the city gate, as long as the city gate was smashed, the breakthrough was opened.

Because Xianning is too close to Wuchang Mansion, the Qing army's reinforcements will arrive at any time, so the old tactics of tunnel blasting the city wall can not be used, there are stone ballistas with a long range in Xianning City, and the tunnel excavation should retreat to 500 meters away from the city wall, such a long tunnel is too time-consuming to dig, and you can only choose to bombard the city gate with artillery.

At a place 600 meters away from the city gate, there was a preset artillery camp position, and the auxiliaries worked together to fill in the foundation under the command of the artillery battalion officer, build an earthen rampart, and set up thirteen gun emplacements.

The Gongyi battalion, the Tongcheng battalion, and the Tongshan battalion lined up in front of the artillery position to prevent the Qing army from going out of the city to attack and disturb them, while the Ji'an battalion prepared a large number of flags and strictly blocked the front of the artillery position, trying to block the view on the city wall, so that the Qing army could not figure out what this position was for.

More than 2,000 auxiliaries did not sleep all night last night, and built a batch of siege equipment, in addition to the necessary ladders, there were also wooden donkey carts and bridge carts leading to the guò trench to deal with the moats and moats of Xianning City.

At nine o'clock in the morning, the fire in the field gradually became smaller, but the smoke was getting thicker and thicker, and the air was full of dust produced by the burning of crops.

Wang Kefan gave an order, the war drums suddenly sounded, and nearly 100 wooden donkey carts slowly pushed towards the south gate of Xianning.

Behind them, Lü Renqing's Puqi battalion, with a ladder, lined up in an attack formation and approached the city wall, and their task was to take charge of a feint to attract the attention of the Xianning defenders. Although it is a feint, it must also be fought in a good way, Lu Renqing arranged for his subordinates to prepare for wheel warfare, more than 1,000 elites as reserves, and more than 1,000 people were divided into three teams before and after, just waiting for the city gate to be fired, they had to rush across the moat and attack the city with ladder ants.

Of course, this was just a feint, and Wang Kefan had already ordered that the Puqi battalion could not invest too many troops, nor could it carry out a strong attack on its own, so as to avoid unnecessary casualties.

Under the cover of the attacking troops, the artillery battalion's cannons were quietly dragged up, ten three-pounder guns, two four-pounder guns, and a new Furlong six-pounder gun of the Portuguese soldiers.

(To say a few more words, the so-called six-pounder gun means that the weight of the shell is six pounds, that is, 2.5 kilograms, three-pounder guns and four-pounder guns, etc., and it has nothing to do with the weight of the cannon itself.) With the progress of technology, the weight of artillery is constantly decreasing, the same six-pounder cannon, the early one may weigh more than a ton, the more advanced new six-pounder cannon is only a few hundred kilograms, and the Qing army's red-coated cannons are relatively heavy. ）

After these guns were pushed into position, they were fixed on the gun position by the artillerymen, adjusted the angle and orientation according to the number that had been calculated long ago, and aimed at the south gate of Xianning County together. (To be continued......)