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On the afternoon of May 18 in the third year of Longwu (1647), Qingyuan County, Guangdong

At this moment, the gates on all sides were closed, the drawbridges were raised, and the scene was as if facing a great enemy, and there was a suffocating tension all around. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info and around the city is a black oppressive army, foot and horse, waiting for the battle, all the officers and soldiers are silently looking at the city in front of them, the greed and cruelty in their eyes are undoubtedly revealed. In the sky above the dense military formation, flags like forests and seas hunted in the wind, revealing an aggressive might. At the same time, the color of the military flag also undoubtedly reveals the identity of this army - the Manchu Green Battalion.

At the head of the West Gate City, a middle-aged man in his forties, wearing a black gauze hat and a cyan cormorant regiment uniform, looked at the black and oppressive Qing army outside the city, his expression was grim, and his two thick eyebrows were almost twisted into a river. Beside him were several generals in armor, all covered in dust and tiredness, and there were even faint blood stains on their armor and cloaks.

The middle-aged man held on to the battlement and looked outside the city for a while, then turned to a few generals around him and sighed: "This official is incompetent, and even several generals have fallen into this desperate situation!" In this regard, the official is really guilty. ”

A military general on the left hurriedly said, "Lord Chen said this and saw the outside!" When the Qing captives entered Guangdong, Lord Chen was willing to put his own safety at risk with his enthusiasm for serving the country. Take the lead in organizing righteous teachers to maintain the Daming Jiangshan Society, such high righteousness, which really impresses the last general! Previous World War. Because Li Yu was strong and the enemy was strong and we were weak, our army fell into this unfavorable situation, which really had nothing to do with Lord Chen. What's more, as a military general of the imperial court, we should repay the king's grace by eating the king's favor, even if we die on the battlefield, it is a matter of course, adults must not blame themselves for this! ”

A military general on the right also spoke: "What General Soldier Wang said is true. Master Chen doesn't have to worry about this! Lord Chen's high righteousness, the last general is also admired. The last generals and others are also responsible for the defeat in the previous battle. How could you complain about Lord Chen? It's a big deal, I'll wait for Li Yu to fight and die in the net! Besides, it is not yet known who will kill the deer, and if the Tartars come to attack the city, we will definitely make them pay a heavy price! ”

With these two generals taking the lead. The rest of the generals also comforted the middle-aged civil official. expressed his willingness to live and die with Qingyuan City. Seeing that the generals could still have such courage after suffering defeats, the middle-aged civil officials couldn't help but be greatly moved, and gave their hands to encourage each other with the generals. The vows of generosity add a touch of tragedy to the current tensions.

This person who is called Lord Chen is Chen Bangyan, the director of the staff department of the Longwu Dynasty, and the two generals who took the lead in persuasion are Wang Dongri, the chief soldier of Shaozhou, and Cao Tianqi, the chief soldier of the Qingyuan regiment.

Chen Bangyan, a native of Shunde, Guangdong, was sent by Emperor Longwu to recruit troops in his hometown of Guangdong last year before the Qing army invaded Fujian. Later, the Qing army captured the whole of Fujian, Emperor Longwu moved to Huguang, and Chen Bangyan was also preparing to go to Hengzhou to catch up. However, due to Li Chengdong's invasion at the end of the year, the situation between the two Guangxi provinces was out of control. Chen Bangyan continued to stay in Guangdong, using his prestige and some family connections to organize the people to resist the Qing army, and successively united with Yu Long, Huo Shilian and other righteous divisions, and once conquered Shunde County, which was held by the Qing army, and the troops pointed directly at the provincial capital Guangzhou. However, since Li Chengdong led the main force back to Guangdong last month, the anti-Qing division under the command of Chen Bangyan, Yu Long, Huo Shilian and others has suffered setbacks one after another.

At the beginning of this month, Li Chengdong entered Shunde, Chen Bangyan and Yu Long waved their troops into battle, but they were quickly defeated by the main force of Li Chengdong's army, and Yu Long was killed in battle. However, Chen Bangyan was not discouraged in the slightest, and continued to move to Jiangmen, and together with the Huo Division, he conquered Qingyuan, Sanshui and other counties as a base. Unexpectedly, Li Chengdong then continued to lead the main force of the headquarters to chase after him, and arrived in Qingyuan County yesterday (May 17). Huo Shilian, the leader of the rebel army, led the water division to intercept the Qing army along the Beijiang River, but was defeated by the Qing army with fire, and Huo Shilian himself was unfortunately killed. As soon as the commander died, Huo Buyishi suddenly lost his will to fight, fled in panic, and was captured and killed by Li Chengdong, and few people fled back to the city. Chen Bangyan personally led the righteous division under his command and Cao Tianqi, the chief soldier of the Qingyuan regiment company, to fight, but because the righteous division was hastily formed, lacked training and weapons and equipment, and was far from being able to compete with the regular army under Li Chengdong, it was completely defeated in a few rounds, with heavy losses and most of the soldiers scattered. Subsequently, Wang Dongri, the general soldier of Shaozhou, who had received a letter from Chen Bangyan asking for help more than ten days earlier, led his army to arrive, and was soon besieged by Li Cheng's superior Qing army in the east. Although the combat strength of Wang Dongri's department was not weak, because the reinforcements brought were only more than 3,000 people, it seemed useless in front of Li Chengdong's army of 20,000.

After dawn today, Li Chengdong did not launch an attack for the time being, but on the one hand ordered the army to rest temporarily, and on the other hand, sent a number of rangers to search for the scattered righteous divisions and the Ming army.

Although today's war has not yet begun, Chen Bangyan is also well aware of the severity of the current situation: at present, there are only more than 3,000 righteous divisions left under his command, and their combat strength is weak, and they will not be able to receive a few rounds when they encounter Li Chengdong's army. Cao Tianqi, the general soldier of the Qingyuan regiment, was also newly recruited, and his combat strength was almost the same as that of the righteous division that had just been transformed from the people, and the total number of soldiers was not fully recruited in advance, and after the previous battle, there were only more than 1,000 people left, and it was estimated that it would not play a big role. The only one who could fight with Li Chengdong's army was the Shaozhou General Army Wang Dongri, who had just come to help, but due to the limited number of people, it could not change the current balance of forces between the enemy and us. Perhaps, as long as Li Chengdong's troops launched a full-scale general attack, the destruction of the city was inevitable.

That being the case, then there is only a bloody battle to the end and a death to repay the country! Chen Bangyan looked at the invincible Qing army outside the city, clenched his fists, and secretly swore.

……

At this time, the Qing army outside the city of Qingyuan was the largest, with seven or eight thousand people, and the formation was the most rigorous. In the position of the Chinese army in the entire military array, a large banner embroidered with the word "Li" is particularly conspicuous. Under the banner, a member of the Qing Dynasty dressed in fine iron armor, tall and strong as a bear, with a face full of meat, rode on a black horse, looking at the city from time to time in his eyes showing contempt and pride, this is the "famous" Manchu Qing Liangguang Governor Li Chengdong. Around Li Chengdong, there is a group of generals who also wear helmets and armor, are sturdy, and ride good horses, including generals Du Yonghe, Li Hangui, Zhang Yue, Yang Dafu and so on. These people are all old subordinates who have followed Li Chengdong since the period of the peasant army in northern Shaanxi, and almost all of them exude the violent atmosphere cultivated after a long period of bloody battles, and their faces are indifferent or cruel.

In the north of the city, it was more than 5,000 Qing troops led by Li generals Zhang Daoying, Yan Keyi, Zhang Youde, etc. Almost all of these 5,000 people were the newly surrendered original Ming army in Guangdong. At the beginning of this year, when Li Chengdong led his army to attack Guangxi, Zhang Daoying and Yan Keyi led their troops to attack Shaozhou but suffered defeat under Wang Dongri. Li Chengdong, who learned the news, was furious, and after returning to Guangdong, he ruthlessly implemented the military regulations against Zhang Daoying, Yan Keyi, and others, and took back all the veterans of the headquarters who were originally handed over to them to command, and only let them command these former Ming troops who had recently been reorganized to make meritorious contributions.

The Qing army in the east of the city also had more than 5,000 people, and it was also the former Ming army that only surrendered to the Qing Dynasty last year. It's just that they are not surrendering troops from Guangdong, but the old troops of Zheng Zhilong, led by the generals of Zheng Zhilong, Wu Yibo, Shifu, Huang Ting, Hong Xishan, etc., who followed Li Chengdong from Fujian to Liangguang at the end of last year. Originally, Shi Fu and others also did their best, and after entering Liangguang, they served as the main attacker and conquered the city many times, and made a lot of great contributions. However, Li Chengdong has always looked down on these "southern barbarians", and when there was a war, he sent them to charge into battle, and when there was no war, he wantonly squeezed out and made things difficult, and even dragged out the grain and grass for a long time, and also degraded them and others to worthlessness in the notes to the Qing court. In this regard, Shi Fu and others also felt extremely angry, and they also reported to Tong Yangjia, the governor of the Qing Dynasty and Guangzhou. But it's a pity that Tong Yangjia and Li Chengdong are both northerners, so naturally they won't talk to the "southern barbarians", and the matter will be closed. In view of Li Chengdong's power, Shi Fu and others had no choice but to swallow their anger for the time being.

In addition, in the south of the city, there are 2,000 newly surrendered original Guangdong Ming troops led by Li General Liang Desheng and others, and the strength can be regarded as the weakest. However, the south gate is close to the Beijiang River, so there is not much room for maneuver, and Li Chengdong also moved the ships on the nearby river upstream in advance, if the Ming army breaks through from this direction, it is completely self-defeating. Therefore, Li Chengdong was also very relieved about this direction, and only left these people to monitor.

Although as early as a few days ago, Li Chengdong learned that Yang Tinglin, the newly appointed governor of Liangguang by Emperor Longwu, led an army into Guangdong to support, he was not too worried about it. As early as on the way to Qingyuan, he kept sending a large number of sentries to patrol and investigate within dozens of miles around Qingyuan, and so far he has not found any trace of a large number of Ming troops. More importantly, early this morning, the sentinels deployed in the north captured several Ming army messengers and intercepted a handwritten letter written by Yang Tinglin to Chen Bangyan, which was also stamped with the seal of the governor of Liangguang. In the letter, Yang told Chen Bangyan that he must hold on for some time, and that the reinforcements would arrive in Qingyuan around May 22 or 23. After that, Li Chengdong personally tortured these captured Ming army messengers, and the speed of the Ming army's reinforcements marching that he learned from them was really the same as what the letter said. In this way, Li Chengdong no longer took the reinforcements led by Yang Tinglin to heart, 22nd or 23rd? At that time, Qingyuan County had already been leveled by itself! (To be continued.) )