At the same time as the smoke of the fortress in Anhua Town was rising, the capital city of Quzhou had already closed its doors again. The news of the defeat of the Qing army has long since spread as the Qing army war auxiliaries who escaped returned to Fucheng.

After receiving this news, the people in the city all looked forward to the recapture of Quzhou by the Ming army, which was said to be ten times the size of the Qing army. Not only to restore the Han family's hairstyle clothes that have been thousands of years old, but more importantly, it is more urgent that once the Qing army defends this city, it is the ordinary people in the city who suffer.

At this moment, the bustling merchants and pedestrians in and around Quzhou are all gone, and the streets are depressed like overbuilt ghost towns in later generations, and even Lixian Street, which is known as the flower street in Khotan, is no exception, but the shops all over the city have once again welcomed the flock of men, women, and children, after a few months.

In the ten-mile streets and alleys of Chaojing Gate, most of the small traders who were accustomed to entering the city from Chaojing Gate to sell goods have disappeared, leaving only a few unlucky people who were locked up in the city because of their greed for far more profits than usual, and now they have to sell their goods in a hurry, hoping to reduce their capital in this military disaster.

In fact, they are only the smallest part of the population in this huge market. The Qing army was defeated, and the siege of the Ming army was about to take shape, and a large number of people rushed to buy rice and other necessities, especially grain, after all, no one knew how long the siege would last.

During the Ming Dynasty, city dwellers were more accustomed to buying enough food every few days than to hoard large quantities because food was not easy to preserve and was susceptible to insect damage, rat bites, and moisture. However, once the army besieges the city, it may be the difference between life and death, so the grain shops are crowded with people who come to buy grain early.

In the crowd, a Confucian scholar named Rong Qian was lining up in the crowd carrying a bag of rice.

Although Rong is not a big surname, there is also a record of Rong Qiqi, a famous scholar in the Spring and Autumn Period, the originator of the surname Rong, discussing the Tao with Confucius in the "Confucius's Family Language". Like most celebrities with surnames, Rong Qian is also a scholar, born in the Yongzhou Mansion of Huguang, studied in Nanjing in his early years, and later returned to his hometown, and was introduced by his classmates to work in the shogunate of He Tengjiao, the governor of Huguang.

At first, it was okay, but since the Qing army went south, Zuo Liangyu raised troops and fought infighting, He Tengjiao vigorously squeezed out the loyal battalion, supported the descendants, and sat up the emperor in Huguang. Since then, the Ming army has carried out several large-scale counteroffensives on the Huguang battlefield, all of which have been frequently interfered by the superintendent who commanded the overall situation of Huguang, and even violent infighting because the main general is not a descendant of He Tengjiao, or has a gap with He Tengjiao.

After several attempts to persuade him to no avail, he quit his job as a behind-the-scenes friend. But after being in the curtain for a long time, Rong Qian knew that He Tengjiao was narrow-minded and intolerant, and his resignation from the curtain was likely to be retaliated against. Coupled with the chaotic situation in Huguang, the Ming and Qing armies were all in trouble, so he simply left his family's property and went to his uncle's house who was doing business in Quzhou with his family to avoid trouble for the time being, so as to return to his hometown after the situation stabilized.

It's just that within a few years of peaceful days, Chen Wen entered western Zhejiang, and this year he began to repeatedly compete with the Qing army for Quzhou, where they were located. Rong Qian's uncle is not a big businessman, and his business has been quite unsmooth in the war in western Zhejiang for nearly a year, and his family business has shrunk a lot, so the life of people like their family is naturally even more difficult.

Holding the cloth bag of rice, Rong Qian wanted to stand as far forward as possible, but at the same time, he was embarrassed to get too close to several nearby women who also came to buy food. Fortunately, he came to line up before dawn, and it didn't take long for him to take his turn.

But just as he watched the woman in front of the queue buy rice and leave, and was about to hand over the rice bag, he saw a guy from a grain store hang up a sell-out sign and was about to close the shop.

"Isn't there still food for this little brother? Let's sell some more, I'm still waiting to cook at home. ”

The guy saw that he was a scholar and spoke more politely, so he whispered: "The shopkeeper has closed the door, Xiucai will come back early tomorrow." ”

Before the words fell, and before Rong Qian could even speak to the people in the back, he only heard an angry shout of "stop talking nonsense, close the door quickly" from inside the store, and the guy hurriedly installed the door panel of the store with a few other workers who rushed over.

A moment later, all the people who were still banging on the door to vent their grievances just now dispersed, although Rong Qian did not understand such things, but he had not seen them for a long time. However, in the past few years, in He Tengjiao's curtain and living here, Gou Quan's life in the troubled times has worn out a lot of his sharpness, and now that he knows what is going on, he has to turn around and leave, hoping that his wife and little sister who also came out to buy food in other markets can gain something.

"I really can't do it, so I just have the cheekiness to go to my uncle's house and borrow some. As for going to the county government to do things for the Tartars, now that the Ming army is about to besiege the city, it is estimated that my aunt may not dare to mention it. ”

Sighing, Rong Qian hurried home. At the same time, the proprietor behind the grain store where Rong Qian had just bought grain came out of the back door of the governor's palace with a nod and a bow, and did not get into the sedan chair until the servants of the governor's palace closed the door.

The yamen of the governor of Zhejiang and Fujian has been completely busy, but in Li Zhifang's opinion, he always feels that this scene is very familiar, just like the scene when Chen Wen captured the left-behind general of Jinhua Mansion and the prefect of Jinhua last year, when his colleagues were also very busy, but there was no way, and they were more busy with the goods at home.

After the first battle yesterday, Chen Jin knew that he could not recover, so he fled back to Fucheng with his staff and guards. In high spirits before the expedition, on the way back to his master, Li Zhifang watched with his own eyes how Chen Jin's eyes gradually changed from the grief of defeat to the madness of destroying everything.

He thought about escaping, but as a powerless Confucian student, he fled, what could he do, but it would affect the clansmen in his hometown in Shandong. Instead of returning to his hometown and dying at the hands of a cool official, he didn't give it a go.

"To control the army, the imperial court will not give up Quzhou, and it is impossible to sit back and watch the traitor Chen Wen become bigger. Presumably, the real Manchuria will soon be sent to help suppress it, as long as it can hold Quzhou and contain the thieves here for a while, the imperial court will definitely be sympathetic to the boss. ”

Hearing Li Zhifang's persuasion, Chen Jin, who had been like a madman in the past two days, seemed to have suddenly aged ten years, and after sighing, he signaled that he would follow Li Zhifang's persuasion and continue to maintain the Manchu rule in Quzhou, and personally preside over the city defense.

Watching Li Zhifang's back go away, Chen Jin knew his own affairs. With such a big defeat, the brutality of the Manchu Qing Dynasty would never spare him easily, and it was also appropriate to implicate his family.

Just like his old subordinate Ma Jinbao, it is said that when the army put down the rebellion, he put that guy Ling Chi to death and cut 3,600 knives alive. And he also knew very well that Ma Jinbao's family members who stayed in Beijing were also punished for starting a rebellion, all the men were executed, and the women sent Ningguta to the armored people as slaves. To put it bluntly, it is not only to engage in labor, but also to be used as a tool for the armor to vent ****. Although Chen Jin has no children, he has only adopted one adopted son. But with such an end, he didn't want to fall on his family no matter what.

In fact, there is no need for Li Zhifang's persuasion, he has already seen everything clearly. If he fled to other Qing occupied areas, he would definitely be imprisoned immediately, and only by holding Quzhou, and under the siege of the Ming army, would he have a chance to get away with it, and the Manchu Qing would not embarrass the family of a courtier like him who was still holding the city for the imperial court.

As for the result, if you can't hold Quzhou, it's nothing more than a dead word; If he can hold Quzhou, he Chen Jin is the old department and cronies of the ancestral family, one of the most powerful big families in the Han Military Banner, and it may be possible to offset the merits and demerits of the operation. As for the operation, in addition to the eunuch bags accumulated over the years, the big grain merchant who had just sent away the housekeeper who bribed him in order to raise the price of grain, and the family assets of other Quzhou businessmen were his Chen Jin's capital.

However, first of all, he still has to hold Quzhou, in the past two days, he has gathered more than 2,000 defeated troops, plus the 200 green battalions that guarded the road, and the 200 soldiers of the newly built sub-patrol road this year, as well as the guards he brought back, as well as a small number of city guard troops, the foundation of 3,000 soldiers is still there. In addition, the people in Quzhou Mansion City have not suffered much damage, and they should be able to put together a few thousand or ten thousand auxiliary soldiers to go to the city to help defend it.

Of course, relying on these alone, it is definitely not enough to face the wolf-like Ming army. The rest can only be pinned on this impregnable majestic city and the reinforcements that do not know when they will arrive.

Compared with these, in fact, food and salary are the big problem, before the army was assembled and marched, the inventory has bottomed out, at most half a month, not even yet, and this is still in the case of a round of autumn tax imposed before the expedition. It's a pity that the entire grain fields of Quzhou Mansion were not burned, and those outside the city must be the enemy.

Having experienced the siege of the Daling River, Chen Jin, who is experienced, is not without any means. If there is no food, all those profiteers who hoard Juqi will be slaughtered, and the family property will be confiscated, and it should be able to hold on for another month. As for a month and a half later, it is nothing more than to return to Daling River again.

After rethinking his thoughts, Chen Jin's confidence in holding Quzhou became more and more firm. But when I think about it carefully, it seems that I have undercounted the food and salary of the reinforcements.

"Then leave half a month's grain for the reinforcements, and then start to change the taste after a month, and eat these tens of thousands of two-legged sheep in Quzhou City instead."

"Well, October!"

………………

When Chen Wen received the report from the fortress of Anhua Town, it was the third day after the end of the war, and the war report was taken out of Anhua Town by carrier pigeons, and after changing in Fucheng, he continued to fly to Longyou, and finally was delivered to Chen Wen by fast horse.

Whether it was the Qing army's use of large-caliber Hongyi cannons, or the accident of exploding the chamber, these were all unexpected by Chen Wen. It's just that one thing has always been in his grasp, that is, the fortress of Anhua Town is still as stable as Mount Tai at the moment!

On that day, in addition to the Hongyi cannon on the battlefield, the Qing army still used the old siege method, but due to the appearance of the moat, the officers led by the Qing army suddenly pushed those rushing cars with roofs into the already not wide moat, so as to achieve a rapid approach.

After the accident, the wounded guards reorganized the defense according to the rules of the fortress guarding the imperial drills, and although the Qing army's selection of vanguards climbed to the top of the city with the help of the watchtower, the fortress of Anhua Town was not only a layer of defense with convex corners. To be precise, the loft was just the claw of the main fort, and when the Qing army's commanders climbed the bulge that had a defensive gap due to the explosion, the higher main fort quickly transferred its fire to the lobe, and cooperated with the defenders who had re-completed the whole team to recapture the loft, thus realizing the completion of the defensive angle.

Then, the besieging Qing army soon fell into the trap of attacking the fortress several months earlier, and the Qing army, which had been attacked from several angles at the same time, was once again repulsed by the defenders with heavy losses.

After getting this report, Chen Wen thought viciously that the fortress defense system was created in Europe, but the soldiers in Europe are still carrying out siege warfare against the fortress in the way of siege, and at that time, because of the current level of military science and technology and weapons and equipment, it was impossible to quickly capture the fortress.

This kind of thing began exactly 100 years ago in the Battle of Metz, when the attackers fired more than 7,000 shells in one day, and the city wall of more than 70 meters was destroyed but still could not shake the fortress, and finally had to retreat on its own after several months of siege. In the history of China, the naval division was invincible in the China Sea, and Zheng Chenggong, who had an uncountable number of artillery, could only besiege the defenders in the face of the fortress when he recovered Taiwan. As for the Battle of Yaksa decades later, the Qing army, as the attacking side, turned out to be even more unbearable.

Now, in the sixth year of Yongli, that is, in the ninth year of Shunzhi, in 1652 AD, it is decades ahead of schedule to let the Qing army feel the fear from the fortress. Chen Wen said that this is very traversal!

The thickness of the convex walls almost made the entire convex corners solid, and the foundation of the fortress was incredibly thick. As for the bricks of the wall, Chen Wen even used glutinous rice juice, a binder made in ancient times.

Due to the importance of the fortress in Anhua Town, Chen Wen's manpower, material and financial resources at the beginning of the construction almost dragged down his weak forces, which took several months, if a few Hongyi cannons could capture the fortress, then the Qing army was still playing with Mao's heartbeat again and again in Chinese mainland and Nanming, and directly locked the journey into the sea of stars.

The fortress of Anhua Town is impregnable, and there is half of the Dongyang battalion on the flank, of which the second infantry bureau, one hundred cavalry, artillery and engineers are also the establishment of normal combat battalions. With them harassing on the flanks, even if the Qing army did not besiege the city and continued to move south, they had to ask whether the grain road and the flank were safe.

Perhaps, Chen Wen can also return to the division in a big way, and cooperate with the half of the Dongyang battalion to completely kill the elite of the Qing army in northern Zhejiang in Jinhua as last year. In that case, it doesn't matter if Quzhou doesn't want it for the time being, because Hangzhou is already an empty city!

Since Jin Li did not choose other possible offensive directions, there is nothing to worry about on the northern front for the time being. At this moment, Chen Wen's army had besieged the capital city of Quzhou. It's just that the water camp of Jinhua Town, which almost completely annihilated the Quzhou water camp of the Qing army, and the chief general and deputy who completed the last link of the siege of Quzhou, saw him The first thing he did was to call it a capital crime.

After Chen Wen defeated Chen Jin's army that day, according to the order, they should enter the source of Shentang in advance and burn the pontoon bridge, in which case the number of Qing troops beheaded and captured would increase significantly. However, due to the miscalculation of the distance and the speed of the Qing army's water camp, the water camp encountered the Qing army on the way to Shentangyuan, and had to fight a decisive battle with the Quzhou water camp that received the death order, and finally continued on the road after sinking and capturing most of its warships, and burned the pontoon bridge when the Qing army was halfway through.

This mistake had nothing to do with the water battalion, but was caused by a dogmatic mistake made by the General Staff when making the battle plan without sufficient intelligence and scientific means of calculation.

In the staff department that Chen Wen has now set up, except for Lou Jiye, who is a defeated general, half of the rest of the personnel are experienced officers who have undergone simple literacy, and the other half are scholars who have joined the army. The combat experience of the scholars is almost zero, and the officers are all from the infantry, artillery, cavalry and other branches of the army.

How far the cavalry could gallop in an hour, the speed at which the infantry marched, the speed at which the infantry kept on alert, the speed at which different artillery pieces traveled on different vehicles, and so on, were the basis for calculating the speed of their march in the past, and they were all based on experience, but the water battalion was completely different.

Wind direction, wind speed, water speed in different river sections, and even reefs are too many reasons to calculate, and a lot of physics involved is simply not something that can be carried in this era. Since it can only be estimated, the officers of the water battalion are more professional after all, and may be able to estimate closer to the correct answer, which is better than those landlubbers.

Haosheng appeased him, and Chen Wen confirmed the merits of the water camp before they continued to return to the fleet and hold the Qujiang waterway.

It seems that the staff system still has a bumpy road ahead, but Chen Wen is not in a hurry because he still needs time to think clearly about the improved plan. At this time, the most crucial thing is to capture Quzhou and draw a successful end to this war with the goal of fighting for the strategic initiative in southwest Zhejiang.

In the previous battle, the Ming army calculated more than 3,000 people and 18,000 prisoners in the main battlefield and the east bank of Shentangyuan in the early days, which would have been impossible to achieve without the existence of Shentangyuan.

When the pursuing troops of the Ming army and the water battalion completely returned to the team, the troops of the Dubiao battalion and the general army standard battalion on the left road of Fujian who pursued and killed the fleeing to the south brought back more than 100 heads and twice as many prisoners, and the water camp brought back more than 100 heads and twice the prisoners, and the water camp summed up most of the Qing troops who annihilated most of the Quzhou water camp and killed on the source of Shentang, and there were also hundreds of heads, but in fact, many of them could not be found along the current.

All in all, nearly 4,000 were beheaded in this battle, and the number of prisoners was still more than 18,000, an increase of only two or three hundred. Of the 15,000 soldiers of the Qing army and the actual 20,000 auxiliaries according to the documents that Chen Jin left in the camp, only the Governor Battalion and the Fujian Left Road General Battalion escaped from the battlefield in formation, and they all lost more than 1,000 people each, and they didn't want to recover in half a year.

The battalion of the governor of Zhejiang, as well as the garrisons of Quzhou, Chuzhou, Wenzhou, and Jianning Prefecture in Zhejiang, suffered heavy losses, and no more than 4,000 should have been able to escape to the other side, and the rest were either corpses or drinking the northwest wind in the prisoner camp.

It's a pity that the harvest of the officers is really lower than his expectations, the commander of the Qing army, Chen Jin, the governor of Zhejiang and Fujian, Liu Guangbi, the governor of Jiangxi, Wang Zhigang, the chief soldier of the left road of Fujian, and Zhang Guoxun, the deputy general of the supervision standard battalion, these guys are all veterans, and the experience of escaping on the battlefield one by one is too strong, and none of them were captured by the Ming army, even the deputy general of Wenzhou also ran away.

Fortunately, the deputy generals of the Green Battalion in Quzhou, Chuzhou, and Jianning Prefecture in Fujian were all arrested, and as for the officers such as guerrillas, capital divisions, garrisons, general managers, and general generals, Chen Wen had long since lost the interest he had in catching the group of officers of the standard battalion in Siming Mountain, and they were all directly locked up.

According to the report of Tanma, Wang Zhigang and Zhang Guoxun should have fled to Jiangshan County with their respective remnants, or further to Xianxia Pass. Judging from the position on the battlefield at that time, Liu Guangbi probably fled with Chen Jin, and Chen Wen also discovered Chen Jin's banner when he surrounded the Quzhou capital city.

Now, this is a dead place for the Qing army, and Chen Wen has drained the entire Quzhou capital city, but due to the siege of a few months ago, the defenders still seem to have an unusually large number of garrisons. Chen Wen didn't intend to waste the already somewhat tired elite troops in his hands on hard siege warfare, so it would be the best choice to divert the moat water and use the collapse method.

There was not much food and there was a severe shortage of tools, but the autumn harvest was over, and Chen Wen planned to send the captured auxiliaries home to reassure the local people and save the limited military rations. As for the rest of the Qing army, they were incorporated into coolie battalions to divert water from the moat. In this way, one month should be enough.

"Well, October!" (To be continued.) )