The battle of Wencheng Town ended after two hours, and the Qing army was unable to exert much strength in the face of the Ming army, which was dominated by the Mandarin Duck Formation, because they were all cavalry and lacked the ability to attack fortifications. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info As for the soldiers and horses of the garrison on Bingxi Town, which they had previously branched out to intercept and kill the garrison in Bingxi Town, east of Wencheng Town, they were waiting for the garrison to march forward in a hurry.

The Qing army rushed to attack and took the lead, but the Ming army was not a soft persimmon, and the casualties were basically five or five cents, and the more the battle continued, the more unfavorable it was to the Qing army. However, the Qing army set fire to the houses, but to a certain extent, they regained some. However, the losses of the local people are really not small, and the Qing army is all cavalry, coming and going like the wind, which is not at all something that the Ming army, a mixed battalion dominated by infantry, can catch up.

In the following days, the Qing army dispatched a large number of cavalry to cross the 20 miles of no man's land, and attacked the towns and villages in the direction of the Ming army in batches, sneaking up on the garrisons outside the city, and even once approached the county seat to show off their might to the Ming army. The distance between the two places is only a few dozen miles, the cavalry attack is completed, and they can return on the same day, and the rotation raid is not very large, but the pressure on the Ming army stationed here is doubled.

"You should really leave a place for Hong Chengchou in the Confucian Temple."

As soon as he began to punish those gentry who had won the Manchu Dynasty and participated in the Manchu imperial examination, Hong Chengchou jumped out to make trouble, and after seeing the report, Chen Wen couldn't help but curse in his heart.

Of course, he was not unaware that this was a chain reaction since the suppression of the four provincial capitals - the Qing army in the four provincial capitals was defeated, and the victorious Ming army continued to divide the territory, and the contradictions with the local scholars and doctors expanded, thus leading to the recent political struggle; On the side of the Qing army, due to the fiasco and the blockade, Chen Wen was forced to collude with Ma Xin anyway, recover Taiwan and Wen, and while lifting the blockade in one direction, he also forced Hong Chengchou to the point where he had to move, otherwise he would not be able to explain to the Manchu court.

Since receiving the report, Chen Wen led the Guards Battalion and the Yushan Battalion to the west, while the Chun'an Battalion supplemented in the direction of Anhua Town's Fortress, just in case. The Nantang battalion in Taizhou and the Lishui battalion had to take into account both Chuzhou and Wenzhou, and the other battalions also had garrison tasks. As the core area of the occupied area, Jinhua Mansion only left the Dongyang Battalion, which was still trying its best to restore its combat effectiveness, which could be described as overstretched.

"It's still too short."

After the suppression of the four provincial capitals, Chen Wen began to build four new combat battalions, and now only two have completed basic training. However, the boot camp is still busy, even busier than before, because they have to train a large number of recruits as soon as possible to serve as garrisons in Taizhou and Wenzhou, so that the Nantang battalion can get out of it.

Most of the new recruits in the boot camp are newly recruited Ding Zhuang, like a blank sheet of paper without handwriting, in the recruit training camp to receive the Zhejiang Ming Army's exemplary training, until training, or mass production of qualified recruits sent to the battalions and various garrisons.

These are all relatively easy, but when these recruits are trained and start training those green battalion soldiers anyway after changing guards, it is not so simple.

The green battalions in Taizhou and Wenzhou have a large number of veterans, and they have advantages in combat experience and martial arts, but at the same time as training, it is necessary to correct the bad habits of the old-style battalions, and the time spent is certainly not a few, but it is much more difficult than splashing ink on a blank piece of paper.

The occupied territories have expanded, but the forces are insufficient. At this moment, Chen Wen's army was fully spread out in the occupied area, and Ning Shao had no danger to defend, but even so, he still could not concentrate his forces on Ningbo and Shaoxing, which were relatively easy, to launch a counterattack, let alone attack Guangxin Mansion and besiege the fortress. Therefore, if you want to get out of this embarrassment, you need more time and resources.

But before that, it is more important to hold this occupied area without losing it, so that we can talk about the next step.

Arrived in Quzhou with the guards first, the Yiwu battalion stationed here has entered Yushan County in the west to cooperate with the Shentang battalion to resist the Qing army, but the Qing cavalry comes and goes like the wind, and the existence of the two battalions dominated by infantry is at most to keep the county seat and the attached Guo area, and it is difficult to take care of the farther towns and villages.

"Tell the commander, the last general thinks that the Tartars attack with light horses, but they do not love war, and our army should also fight back with light horses, a tooth for a tooth, and an eye for an eye."

Li Ruixin was stationed in Quzhou and sent the Yiwu battalion to An Youfu for dispatch, while he had to continue to maintain the training of the cavalry battalion here so that it could form combat effectiveness as soon as possible. When Chen Wen came here, he planned to rush to Yushan County after meeting Li Ruixin, but he didn't know that the first thing he heard when he met was this.

After thinking for a moment, Chen Wen shook his head, and then said: "The training of the cavalry battalion is only two months, and even the infantry has just completed the most basic training, let alone the cavalry. On the Tartar side, the cavalry has many proud sons in the army, and they suffer too much in cavalry battles, so this discussion is inappropriate. ”

"The commander entrusted the last general with full authority to train the cavalry, and the last general should do his best. It's just that this cavalry is different from the infantry, the infantry trains the battle formation, strengthens the sense of obedience, and can barely go into battle with generous rewards and severe punishments, but the cavalry is different. The so-called cavalry is a clutch soldier, on the battlefield need to rush repeatedly, back and forth with the enemy to kill, just by training is not enough, must let them go into battle to feel it personally, it is best to see blood again to become an army. ”

Cavalry is not comparable to foot combat, Chen Wen is indeed far inferior to Li Ruixin's subordinates like Li Ruixin, and Li Ruixin's suggestion also sounds quite insightful.

It's just that war horses are really hard to come by, and now that Hong Chengchou has blocked the traffic in various places, it is obviously impossible to obtain trade by land. And the sea trade, which has not officially started and not mentioned, even if it can be larger than he imagined, but Zheng Chenggong's side also lacks cavalry, and war horses will never become a commodity. Nowadays, most of the war horses of the Ming army in Zhejiang are from the capture, and there is no way to compare them with the Manchu Qing in terms of quantity, they are all treasures in the army, and they are naturally cherished.

Seeing that Chen Wen was already a little hesitant, Li Ruixin decided to add another handful of firewood. "Great commander, the last general rode a horse to fight when he was only a teenager, and he had just learned to ride a horse at that time."

Can ordinary cavalry compare to you, a monster who can shoot arrows with his feet?

Slander is slander, but Chen Wen is still more inclined to the opinions of professionals. He can drive the car, but he doesn't hold the steering wheel, step on the clutch and accelerator, and fight with a cold weapon at the same time. Cavalry, he has only been in contact with it for the past three years, he can ride, can ride a horse and slash, and look at the flag to understand where to rush, that's all. Compared with Li Ruixin, who has been immersed in equestrianism since he was a child and followed Huang Degong into battle when he was a teenager, there is really a big gap in his understanding and use of medieval cavalry.

"Okay, but you'll have to take command yourself, and make sure they get as much experience as possible in relative safety."

"That's what the last general desires."

………………

In October, the weather has begun to cool slightly, but this is also the kind of coolness in the south, not as in the north, when you start to put layers of clothes on your body, you still don't feel enough, it's just not as hot as in midsummer.

In the north, when the autumn is high and the horses are fat, it has always been the time when the nomads go south to invade the Han land to plunder the goods, so there is also a saying to prevent autumn there. It's just that now here is the place where the boundary between the king of the Han family and the traitor army who fights for the tiger is located, and the word anti-autumn can also be used.

"Rush in, kill all the men, and take the women away!"

Ten days ago, although the Jingbiaozhong town officer who led the raid on Wencheng Town failed to eliminate the garrison before the reinforcements arrived, he was not punished for it. For no other reason, the reaction of this Ming army was too fast, and the firmness of the garrison far exceeded that of other armies, and Hong Chengqian and Daniel Zhang were already mentally prepared, and it was good to be able to burn the town by nearly half, and it was good to bring back dozens of beheadings, at least it was easier to explain to the Manchu court than not winning the field battle.

The attack can not only give full play to the advantages of the huge number of cavalry of the Qing army, but also effectively consume the storage and strength of the Ming army, so as to achieve the strategic goal of containing the Ming army here and making it impossible for him to go in other directions, which is a new tactic that Hong Chengchou came up with after that defeat. However, for these Qing cavalry on a mission, this was a shortcut to make a fortune - anyway, the order above was to kill and injure the army and men, so as to reduce the acquisition of human resources of the Ming army, that is, simply take the goods and women away, so as to "further" weaken the Ming army and expand the pockets and morale of the soldiers.

As early as after Wencheng Town was attacked, the Ming army began to order the people west of the county seat to take refuge in the east of the county seat, but it was difficult to leave the homeland, with little effect, and also gave the Qing army the target of the attack. This is the east of Yulang Creek and the north of Wencheng Town, named Hengjie Town, which is the county's commercial town. It's just that the "hawthorn meeting" on August 12 has long passed, especially the blockade of the Qing army, which is too deserted here, and there are more people in the town who are still local people.

There is a way to live without business, and such a large commercial town is always much richer than ordinary towns. Following the officer's order, the Qing cavalry of the brigade rushed into the town without defenders, and began to slash and kill the men and the old and weak, capture adult and underage women, and rummage through all the shops and houses for all valuable goods.

"You brutes, scum who can't enter the ancestral grave after death, when the king comes, you will kill Guang'er!"

The laughter and shouting of the Qing army, the screams of the men, and the cries of the women came one after another, diverging towards the four fields and converging in the town. However, at this moment, in front of the officers led by the Qing army was an old man with a white beard and dressed as a gentry, who was scolding on crutches.

"Seeing that you are a scholar, Lao Tzu plans to spare your life and bring it back to the old man. You old coffin, you don't want to live?! ”

"The old man is over eighty years old, and he has already lived enough, and now he just needs to see how you beasts died!"

"Damn, hang this old immortal upside down, I'll see how long he can live."

At the sound of an order, several pro-soldiers went up to push away a few women who wanted to stop them, grabbed the old man out, hung a rope on the archway, and tied it to the old man's feet. With just a pull, the old man's body reached the ground, and his feet were hung up on top of his head and below.

"Keep scolding, don't you have a kind, scold Lao Tzu."

So saying, the officer came up on his horse, and struck the old man with a whip, and then burst into laughter.

………………

After a while, the old man was still hanging there, and in the open space in the middle of the town, more and more women were captured, and the Qing army began to put ropes around their necks, ready to lead them back like cattle. Only some of the good-looking ones were tied behind their backs and thrown on the cart, and these were ready to be taken back to honor Shangguan and colleagues, so they naturally had to be treated differently.

"Let those rabbit cubs hurry up, and they have to rush back."

After receiving the order, several of the soldiers who came from him rode their horses and ran around the town, shouting to spread the order. However, after a while, the soldiers did not collect much, but the sentinels in the east of the town raised the alarm of attack.

How many cavalry were there in the Ming garrison in the county seat, and the officers had already pried them out of the mouths of the prisoners. With only 200 horsemen, some of them were stationed in the nearest town of the county seat to act as heralds, and he had more than 300 horsemen from the northwest who had fought with the Mongols, the Dashun army, and the Han Hui rebels. It's a pity that things don't seem to be as simple as he imagined.

"Report, Zhejiang's thieves and cavalry are attacking in a big way, and at a cursory glance, there are as many as four or five hundred horsemen."

"It can't be!" Subconsciously shouted out in his heart, but as a veteran officer who had been in the army for many years, he still ordered to speed up the assembly of non-commissioned officers. "Set fire to the town and set it on fire to deter the enemy."

After a while, the news kept coming, and the number of Ming cavalry in the report seemed to be a little more than just now, which made the officer wonder.

"It seems that the Ming army has a cavalry battalion training in Quzhou!"

A thought instantly opened the dark curtain of doubts. "You, take the soldiers and horses of your headquarters to escort the prisoners. The others, follow Lao Tzu to meet the thieves who just learned to ride a donkey and ran to send them to death. ”

The cavalry of the brigade poured out, and soon met with the cavalry of the Ming army rushing to this place, and neither side stopped the intention of accumulating horsepower, and pounced on each other.

The number of cavalry in the Ming army is indeed as Tan Ma said, but the officers are not stage frightened, and the cavalry battle is more important for personal bravery, as well as the experience and spirituality of the officers, rather than the infantry fighting in formation.

The cavalry of the brigade rushed towards the opponent, and the Qing officer had even seen from the flying dust that the cavalry of the Ming army began to show traces of confusion in the speed of the horse, but he was not in a hurry, but led his subordinates to rush to the other direction after rushing to a few hundred meters, forming an angle with the cavalry of the Ming army.

Stretching the bow, taking the arrow, twisting the waist, aiming, the fingers loosened slightly, and the arrows were shot at the Ming army's cavalry like a rainstorm. At this time, most of the cavalry of the Ming army was still safely placed in the bow bag.

"Sure enough, it's a bunch of inexperienced recruits."

The officer was delighted, and he was very experienced in cavalry warfare, especially with the nomadic Mongol Tatars, and he was familiar with how to use the maneuverability of the war horse to weaken his opponent.

"Now that I'm passing by the side of those Ming cavalry, if nothing else, these novices will subconsciously turn their horses' heads and chase me. However, they came from the county seat, and they consumed a lot of horsepower all the way, and the horse's head was turned around, and there was a huge difference in horsemanship, so they were definitely not as fast as my subordinates. When the time comes, I can take them around in circles and eat the stragglers little by little until they can't take it anymore......"

A classic battle between the light cavalry with fewer victories had begun to take shape in the officer's mind, leading his men to ride forward, and after the last Ming cavalry disappeared at the end of the afterglow, he turned his head, and the Ming cavalry turned around as expected.

The only difference was that instead of chasing their tails, the cavalry stopped, extending from a large banner held high to the flanks. And on that big banner, it was clearly written "General Li, the chief military officer of Quzhou Town, Daming". (To be continued.) )