On 24 February, just after noon, Pang Yue kept receiving news from the front that a large number of Qing troops were coming in the direction of Wanshou Bridge. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 Looking at its military appearance, it is very strict and vast, among which there are faintly visible multi-pole weaving golden dragons, nine times out of ten by Duoduo personally led, it is estimated that within today you can reach the vicinity of Wanshou Bridge.

After receiving this news, Pang Yue's expression did not change much, after all, this is an inevitable trend, since he led the army to support Xiangbei, he will definitely face the main force of the Qing army in the south. Since you have to face it sooner or later, what is there to worry about? Just prepare carefully.

But strategic contempt does not mean that tactical attention is not taken seriously, Pang Yue still did not relax his vigilance, he knew that the commander of the Qing army who was about to confront him this time was the current heavyweight in the Manchurian royal nobles, the younger brother of the regent Dolgon, Duoduo, and most of the soldiers and horses under his command were the elite of the Qing army. Although he defeated his vanguard the day before yesterday by luring the enemy and relying on a firearm battle array, the sergeants of Huguang Town were mainly new recruits after all, and the results of the field battle against tens of thousands of Qing troops who had been prepared for a long time were still unknown.

If this battle can withstand the attack of the Qing army, and even fight a few beautiful counterattacks with the cooperation of friendly forces, it will naturally be better, not only can the crisis in Huguang be reversed, but also can teach a hard lesson to Duoduo, the culprit of the Jiangnan Massacre, and the scum under him who are stained with the blood of the Han people. However, if the war is unfavorable and encounters defeat, the officers and men of Huguang Town will surely undergo the most severe test since the opening of the town, and I don't know how many officers and soldiers will sleep on this land forever, and it is unknown whether the whole army will be able to come out of the shadows and cheer up again in the shortest possible time after the war.

When I think of this. Pang Yue felt that he had a great responsibility, and as the commander of the first army, there were many things that he needed to consider in all aspects. However, the most important thing at the moment is to make all preparations for the enemy, so that we can be calm and unhurried when the Qing army arrives.

Shortly after lunch. Pang Yue also went to inspect the fortifications around the camp and the artillery positions on the hills.

After the soldiers have been building and constantly improving in the past few days, the entire defense system has become relatively mature. About 150 paces north of the outer perimeter of the camp and nearly 100 paces south of Mianxi, a trench as deep as one zhang and about two miles long almost connected the hills on the left and the high mountains on the east side. However, the low wall here is not completely enclosed, but there are some empty spaces. In front of the vacant seats, there is a passage across the trench for the passage of scouts who go out to patrol and reconnoite, and they can be blocked with horses and thistles in wartime. Moreover, these passages are also easy to make the Qing soldiers have a fluke mentality. Instead of making great efforts to fill the trenches and destroy the low walls, they attacked from the passage with all their might, and then a painful lesson awaited them.

Once the Qing army attacked, the low walls and ditches here would become the first line of defense in the entire defense system, so they were particularly important. Pang Yue deliberately inspected a few sections of low walls. It was found that they were all built using the slab construction method, and they were quite sturdy. According to Chen He, the person in charge of the fortifications and the battalion officer of the Huashan battalion, even if Jiannu brought Hongyi cannons to bombard, a few cannons could not be fired. To this statement. Of course, Pang Yue wouldn't take it all seriously, but he still praised Chen He and the soldiers who participated in the construction with a smile. Chen He was very encouraged.

After this first line of defense, it was more than a hundred steps to the south, and more than forty steps to the perimeter of the entire camp. A low wall was built around the camp. This ring of low walls was a little higher than the low walls of the first line of defense, almost two meters high, and there were plenty of empty spaces for artillery and for your own sergeants to attack. In addition to the passage in front of the vacant space, a trench was dug in front of each low wall, forming the second line of defense of the entire defense system.

In addition, the wheelwheels and carriages of the Huashan and Taishan battalions, including some of the two-wheeled chariots of the Agni Battalion, were also arranged at the critical places on the edge of the camp, roughly forming a circle around the camp. The side of the van facing the periphery of the camp was all inserted with a placard and covered with cowhide bedding and other objects to guard against the bows and arrows of the Qing army. For those places that are not protected by vehicles, simple horse rejections have already been prepared nearby, and they can be blocked immediately in case of emergency. At the same time, some important military tents in the camp, such as the Chinese military tent, the medical tent for the wounded, and the military tent for storing grain, grass and ammunition, were also protected by chariots and horses. These various defensive measures can be roughly called the third line of defense of the entire defense system.

However, if the soldiers of Huguang Town really need to resist with the second and third lines of defense, it means that the situation is more serious, and they have even fallen into the heavy encirclement of the Qing army. Pang Yue naturally didn't want this to happen, and the reason why the last two lines of defense were built was to allow the soldiers to have a safe place to rest, and still have a certain ability to protect themselves when the situation was most critical, so as not to be chased and killed by the Qing army after the rout. As for the focus of defense, Pang Yue still put it on the first line of defense, hoping that the soldiers would be able to make the Qing army bleed with the fortifications here.

Not only that, but the hills on the west side of the camp were also used by Pang Yue to build some fortifications on them.

As early as when the fortifications were just being built, Pang Yue was ready to choose a high ground as the artillery position of the Agni Battalion, so as to suppress the Qing army from a high place and increase the effect of killing the enemy. After some field surveys, he quickly settled on the ideal site. A hill on the western side of the first line of defense is a lot higher than the surrounding hills, and the top is wide and flat, jutting slightly north of the first line of defense, making it a good location. After finalizing it, Pang Yue ordered an artillery position to be built here, deploying five Hongyi six-pounder guns, ten Hongyi three-pounder guns, and twenty Furlong medium guns.

But there are two sides to everything, and if this hill is in the hands of the Ming army, it can naturally deal a heavy blow to the Qing army from a high position. And if it is taken by the Qing army, the consequences are unimaginable, as long as the Hongyi cannon is set up on the top of the hill to bombard the camp of Huguang Town under the mountain, the side with heavy casualties will be converted into the Ming army.

Therefore, Pang Yue also attaches great importance to the defense of this hill. In the north and east directions, where the Qing army was most likely to attack. From the bottom of the hill to the top of the hill, a total of three trenches were dug and sprinkled with thistles and other things, and two trenches were also dug on the west side. The excavated earth was transported to the top of the mountain, where a chest wall was built at the edge of the hill to serve as a bunker for the soldiers to defend against the Qing army.

Since the Qing army carried 24-pounder guns and other large Hongyi cannons this time, of course, these guns deployed on the hills could not face the north and shoot at them, which was no different from looking for death, but facing east or northeast, aiming at the area from the north of the first trench to the south of Mianxi, and used as side fire. Moreover. In order to guard against the Hongyi cannons of the Qing army, two "anti-artillery walls" with a thickness of more than one meter and a height of about two meters were built at the north-facing edge of the top of the hill. There were about ten paces between the front and rear walls, and the south side was raised a little more so that the soldiers could stand up and shoot. These two walls can play a good role in defending the artillery positions when facing the Hongyi artillery of the Qing army. Even if the Qing army wasted all their strength, filling the trench and rushing to the top of the mountain, it could become a strong line of defense.

In this way, if the Qing army wanted to completely destroy the Ming artillery positions on the hill with Hongyi artillery after breaking through the first line of defense, it would need to move the artillery to the northeast of the hill, that is, at the foot of the high mountain on the east side of the first line of defense. And in that position, the six-pounder guns of the Ming army on the hill can also hit it. It is completely possible to preemptively neutralize the range advantage of the Qing army's artillery.

Originally, Pang Yue also wanted to build an artillery fortification on the high mountains on the east side, but he had no choice but to use the hills on the west side of this high mountain range, with dense vegetation, dangerous terrain and many rocks. The amount and difficulty of the project were too great, so I had to give up. It was just that a number of guard posts and some patrols led by locals were set up on the mountain to prevent a sneak attack by the Qing army.

After inspecting almost all the fortifications. Pang Yue was still quite satisfied, and it could be seen that the soldiers were doing a solid job. Moreover, due to the two victories in the previous two days, the morale of the whole army was very high, especially those recruits, who firmly believed that they could kill the Qing army without much effort. Pang Yue didn't say anything about this, just smiled and encouraged them.

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"Wait for Jiannu! Can you dare to fight? In the afternoon, more than ten miles north of Wanshou Bridge, Wang Zhangtang held the reins in his left hand, picked up a bloody human head with a spear in his right hand, and roared majestically at the black and oppressive Qing army battle array in the distance.

"Can Jiannu dare to fight?!" Nearly 200 cavalry behind him also shouted together.

Because of Wang Zhangtang's outstanding performance in that outpost battle a few days ago, coupled with his own insistence, it is his share to lead the team out to patrol and guard today.

Originally, the rest of the reconnaissance cavalry and the patrol team of the Flying Tiger Battalion had returned to the Wanshouqiao camp one after another after finding out the direction and progress of the main force of the Qing army, after all, there were also a large number of cavalry in the Qing army, and if they were entangled by it, it would not be a joke. But Wang Zhangtang insisted on standing on the last shift. Finally, after killing more than a dozen Qing army sentries and capturing a few people, he finally saw the shadow of the main force of the Qing army here.

I saw the Qing army in the distance, the black oppression, and the flags of various colors spread almost all the way to the sky, although they were nearly two miles away, they still made people feel extremely pressured. At the moment, they had stopped moving forward and were silently looking at this side, obviously having also discovered this small army of the Ming army.

"It's almost there, let's go back to the camp!" Tang Kun, the hundred head of the reconnaissance cavalry, shouted behind Wang Zhangtang, "This is the main force of the Tartars, we don't have a chance to take advantage of anything else!" ”

Not long ago, Tang Kun had just returned from the front with his scout cavalry soldiers, and happened to meet the patrol led by Wang Zhangtang. Tang Kun was originally going to return to the camp immediately, but when he heard Wang Zhangtang say that he would stand on the last shift, he stayed and sacrificed his life to accompany the gentleman. But judging from the current situation, Wang Zhangtang not only has to stand on the last shift, but is also ready to play a good role.

"Let's go!" Seeing that Wang Zhangtang was still unmoved, Tang Kun shouted again.

As soon as the words fell, Wang Zhangtang and his cavalry finally moved, but the direction of progress made Tang Kun stunned: they were actually heading in the direction of the main force of the Qing army.

Wang Zhangtang and the others, who were galloping to their heart's content, let out bursts of excited shouts, which were mixed with bursts of whistles, and several Qing army sentry agents who were tied to their horsetails let out bursts of screams.

These guys are crazy! What kind of officials there are, what kind of soldiers! Tang Kun couldn't help but scold in his heart.

Fortunately, Wang Zhangtang and the others still had the last trace of the bottom line, and finally stopped when they ran three hundred steps away from the Qing army's array, threw the heads on the guns towards the Qing army, and shouted in unison again: "Wait for Jiannu, dare to fight?!" After the roar, there was another burst of excited shouts and whistles, and then without waiting for the Qing army to "respond", they turned their horses and quickly rushed back and forth.

Before Tang Kun could react from the shock, Wang Zhangtang had already led the team to roar past him, and turned around and shouted, "Let's go first!" Withdraw quickly! ”

Tang Kun: "......"

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When the sun set, all the scouts in Huguang Town returned to the Wanshouqiao camp, and Wang Zhangtang and Tang Kun's men and horses were among the last to return.

Compared with the rest of the soldiers who were on high alert, Wang Zhangtang and his cavalry were almost all proud, and seemed to have done what a great feat, causing a burst of confusion among the people around him, and only Tang Kun, who knew the inside story, showed a disdainful expression from time to time.

When all the patrol personnel had returned, the officers and men guarding behind the low wall of the first line of defense raised their horses to block the passage and sprinkled it with thistles.

Although Wang Zhangtang and others were happy, their emotions could not affect the vast majority of people. With the passage on the first line of defense completely blocked, the entire camp was already solemn, and there was a faint smell of slaughter in the air. Even the most unbelievable recruits put away their smiles and waited for the moment when the enemy army arrived with a serious expression.

At this time, Pang Yue and a group of senior generals and staff officers in Huguang Town had already climbed the hill on the west side of the first line of defense, stood behind the first "anti-artillery wall," and observed the situation in the distance with monoculars. Like the majority of officers and soldiers under the mountain, the generals and staff officers around Pang Yue also had serious expressions, after all, this time they had to face more Qing troops than any previous time, and they were more elite than before, and the enemy commander was still the notorious white-flag-inlaid slave chief Duoduo, so he still needed to deal with it carefully.

I don't know how long later, a muffled thunderous noise from the north intensified, and then I saw smoke and dust roll up above the wilderness to the north, almost obscuring the sky. In the dust, you can faintly see flags like a forest and a sea surging towards the direction of Wanshou Bridge.

Seeing this scene, everyone's faces suddenly turned cold... )