After giving the order to start the battle, Luo Jian returned to his tent, although there were still fifty or sixty thousand Qing soldiers defending outside Cangzhou City, it was destined to be a battle without suspense.

Not to mention that the strength and firepower concentrated by the national defense force this time have far exceeded the Qing soldiers defending outside Cangzhou City, even after a month of attacking the heart, the Qing soldiers who are basically the Han army are basically without fighting spirit, and it is reasonable that Luo Jian does not pay attention to such a one-sided battle.

Tan Tai felt the strangeness of the Cangzhou front two days ago, they were all veterans of fighting on the battlefield, Tan Tai knew that this was the Wehrmacht going to attack.

Tan Tai was not nervous, but had a sense of relaxation, although he sang every day in Hou Fangyu's mansion for the past month, living a drunken life, but the torment in his heart was only understood by himself.

A few days ago, Shi Tingzhu reported to him that the other two divisions of the Wehrmacht were maneuvering near Cangzhou, and he knew that the Wehrmacht was going to make a move, but he had no way to deal with it.

There are nearly 50,000 or 60,000 people defending the city in Cangzhou, and there are also 50,000 or 60,000 people in the rear of Cangzhou to provide support, but Tan Tai knows that there are only a few dozen artillery pieces in Cangzhou City, and although there are many people in the city, it will not be able to prevent the national defense army from attacking the city no matter what.

Luo Jian returned to his tent, opened the folder and carefully inspected the urgent report sent by Huang Degong from the Wuchang front again, he remembered that he had written to Yan Yingyuan, asking him to fight steadily, but he didn't expect Yan Yingyuan to take a long-distance attack method, judging from the current results, it doesn't seem to be bad.

The stubborn resistance of the Qing army encountered by the Second Division in Huangmei County aroused Luo Jian's attention, and the Wehrmacht now has only one and a half divisions, the Marine Corps, and the First Army Cavalry Brigade equipped with new rifles, and the new artillery is only available to the Seventh Division. However, more and more troops of the Qing army were equipped with mini guns. If the 60,000 or 70,000 new troops in Beijing all adopt this defensive method of the Qing soldiers in Huangmei County. The battle in the future will not look too simple.

Of course, these are only partial things, and from the perspective of the general strategic trend, there is no doubt that the Manchu court has reached the end of its rope.

The First Army has been training in Guide in Henan for nearly a month, and how to deal a devastating blow to Haoge next depends on Liu Zhaoji.

Hunan and Guangxi have been on the defensive against Li Chengdong's Second Army for nearly a year, and it is estimated that Li Chengdong is definitely about to be driven crazy, and this time more than 20,000 grenades have been distributed to the Second Army, and I don't know if he will use these grenades to take offensive actions against Hong Chengchou.

The key to the direction of the two lakes is whether Hong Chengchou will give up the offensive action against the Second Army. Turning to the direction of Hubei to rescue Wuchang City, if the Hong Chengchou group is mobilized, the situation in the direction of the two lakes will be fully activated.

If the Second Army can join forces in the Hubei direction, the Hong Chengchou group, despite its strong strength, may be difficult to deal with, right?

The general strategic policy has been decided, and all Luo Jian can do now is to grasp the situation of the various troops, and he cannot give them specific guidance, after all, the distance is so far, and when the instructions arrive, the specific situation must have changed greatly. Their own ideas will also cause confusion to commanders from all walks of life, so it is better to let them play.

"The national problem must be resolved within this year." Luo Jian secretly made up his mind. Such nationwide wars together. The entire Nanjing government is revolving around the war, and all kinds of construction will definitely be delayed, which Luo Jian does not want to see.

A report came from outside the tent, and a staff officer walked into the tent and reported to Luo Jian that the front-line troops had broken through the Qing defensive positions and were advancing in depth, and so far, more than 10,000 prisoners had been captured.

Luo Jian looked at his watch, it was only less than seven o'clock, and the battle had only started for more than an hour, and the resistance of the Qing soldiers was indeed too weak.

Indeed, as Luo Jian expected, the defensive front of the Qing troops outside Cangzhou City had collapsed, and the Seventh Division soon broke through the three-layer defense line of the Qing troops, and the other divisions began to advance in depth through the breakthrough.

Shi Tingzhu, the commander-in-chief of the Qing army's front, was frightened by the artillery fire of the Wehrmacht at the beginning, he did not expect that the Wehrmacht would concentrate nearly 200 artillery pieces of various kinds to bombard his defense line fiercely, and the artillery using black medicine was just enough, the shells of these artillery shells were not very powerful, and they basically had no lethal effect on the fortifications and the personnel in the fortifications, but the new artillery was completely different.

In the past, the new artillery of the Wehrmacht also fired, but the shock of a single shell and the cluster bombardment was completely different, the Qing soldiers in the trenches were almost stunned by the fierce artillery fire, and when they crawled out of the soil and were about to look out with muskets and bows and arrows, the Wehrmacht soldiers with rifles had rushed to the front of the trenches, and the Qing soldiers at this time had no way out except to raise their hands and surrender.

The battle after the defense line was broken through seemed to have become a competition between the various units of the Wehrmacht to see who could catch more prisoners, and the 4th Cavalry Brigade, under the leadership of Zhao Quan, had already crossed the fortifications of the Qing soldiers and rushed towards the rear of the Qing soldiers.

Under the dark sabers of the two cavalry brigades, a large number of Qing soldiers threw away their muskets and bows and arrows, knelt on the side of the road and raised their hands.

The two cavalry brigades had a brief fight with the cavalry units of the Qing soldiers, and the Qing soldiers outside the city also had more than 10,000 cavalry, and Shi Tingzhu went out with 5,000 cavalry during the last night attack, although the night attack failed, but these cavalry took advantage of the night to escape.

This time, Zhao Quan's Fourth Cavalry Brigade was too fast, and as soon as the defense line broke through, the Fourth Cavalry Brigade rushed over and stopped directly on the way of the Qing soldiers to escape, and only then did they meet the Qing cavalry.

I have to say that Wu Sangui's Guanning Army was indeed a strong army in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, and the 8,000 people of the 4th Cavalry Brigade adapted from the Guanning Army did not fall behind in the battle with more than 10,000 cavalry of the Qing Army.

By the time the Seventh Division arrived on the battlefield where the cavalry was fighting, the Qing cavalry had already begun to rout, and the two cavalry brigades pursued and killed for a while, and the Qing cavalry finally fled with less than 5,000 men and horses.

None of the Qing infantry in the defense line outside the city escaped, and in addition to those who were killed, the Wehrmacht captured more than 40,000 prisoners. Among them, the sixth division caught the most. The Seventh Division, which had the strongest combat effectiveness, caught the least.

Wang Qiang didn't care how many prisoners he caught. He led the Seventh Division with only one goal, that is, to assault, where there was resistance from the Qing soldiers, the Seventh Division rushed to where the resisting Qing soldiers crushed, and the Seventh Division did not go to capture prisoners, but rushed towards another Qing army assembly place.

The Seventh Division has been breaking through the entire defense line of the Qing army, waiting for Cangzhou City to be in sight. Wang Qiang ordered the Seventh Division to stop, and by this time, although there were still a small number of Qing troops resisting, the battle was actually over.

The Seventh Division rested in place for half an hour, Wang Qiang looked at his watch, and when the time came, he immediately ordered the Seventh Division to march from the right side of Cangzhou City to the northwest of Cangzhou, they were going to block the escape route of the Qing soldiers, and the two cavalry brigades had also outflanked it from the northeast.

Shi Tingzhu was among the five thousand cavalry who fled, and he actually knew the outcome of this battle in his heart. It's just that nearly 60,000 horses collapsed so quickly, which Shi Tingzhu didn't expect.

Shi Tingzhu was not worried about how to explain to Tan Tai when he returned to Cangzhou. The defense line is not far from Cangzhou City, thinking that Tan Tai has already seen the battle outside the city at the head of Cangzhou City, no one can stand this kind of artillery fire of the National Defense Army, Tan Tai will not blame himself, not to mention that the National Defense Army is about to attack Cangzhou City, and Tan Tai has no time to think about anything else.

Shi Tingzhu led nearly 5,000 cavalry and did not flee Cangzhou City, he knew that once he entered the city, he would not want to run away again, not to mention that his 5,000 cavalry would not help to defend the city.

Towards the end of the battle, Luo Jian came to the temporary command post on the front line, Yi Bang led the staff officers to count the results, the troops rested in place, they only had an hour to rest, after lunch, the troops would surround Cangzhou City, Luo Jian did not want the Qing soldiers in Cangzhou City to escape again.

"The Grand Governor, it's completely falling apart, the Qing soldiers are completely falling apart!" As soon as he saw Luo Jian, Yi Bang, who had always been steady, reported to Luo Jian very excitedly.

Luo Jian was a little surprised by Yi Bangcai's excitement, but he forgot that Yi Bangcai had not really seen these battle scenes since he became the chief of the General Staff, and it was understandable to be happy to see the battle so smooth for the first time today.

"What about our casualties?" Luo Jian asked.

"There were three hundred and ninety-eight casualties, of whom fifty-three were killed and the others were wounded. The situation with the 7th Division and two cavalry brigades has not yet been counted. Yi Bangcai had already counted these data very clearly, and when he saw Luo Jian asking this, he hurriedly said it.

This casualty figure was not beyond Luo Jian's expectations, after all, there were 60,000 Qing soldiers outside the city, that is, to kill 60,000 pigs, I am afraid that there would also be some casualties, not to mention that these are fierce enemies.

Luo Jian has already received a report that two cavalry brigades are fighting against the cavalry of the Qing army, and the cavalry brigade is still using cold weapons, and the casualties are estimated to be not too small. The Seventh Division has been rushing to the front, doing all the work of knocking on the fortress, and it is estimated that there will be a lot of casualties.

"How many prisoners have you taken?" Luo Jian pressed the idea of desperately wanting to know the casualties of the Seventh Division and the two cavalry brigades, and then asked.

"Forty-three thousand two hundred and eighty-seven men, arrangements are being made for troops to evacuate these captives." Yi Bangcai's answer was still detailed and accurate.

The prisoner camp in the rear has been set up, and these preparations have been done very well before the battle, and now there is no need to worry about these things, only to take Cangzhou wholeheartedly.

There are still more than 50,000 Qing soldiers stationed in the north of Cangzhou City, these troops are not deliberately arranged outside the city by Tan Tai, but Cangzhou City is already "overcrowded", and there are not so many people at all, so Tan Tai has no choice but to let them be stationed in the north of Cangzhou City.

When the cavalry brigade arrived to the north of Cangzhou City, most of the Qing soldiers were still sleeping with their heads covered, no wonder they were, although there was a rumbling cannon sound in the south of Cangzhou City, but what happened to the north of the city? Everyone can't eat enough, even if they get up and don't have breakfast, it is better to sleep to save food and spirit.

Zhao Quan and Leng Yundeng did not immediately attack these Qing soldiers, but waited for half an hour, and only after the Seventh Division had arrived did they bring these more than 50,000 Qing soldiers into their pockets.

The Qing soldiers in the north of the city are more vulnerable than the Qing soldiers in the south of the city, after all, the Qing soldiers in the south of the city are on the front line, and they are still guarding the fortifications, and they are basically full every day, and the guys in their hands are much better, and these Qing soldiers in the north of the city are basically auxiliary soldiers, and many of the Qing soldiers don't even have a guy in their hands, and when the Seventh Division rushed to the front, they saw that some of the Qing soldiers actually carried a wooden stick in their hands, and looked straight at the Wehrmacht soldiers who rushed up.

"Dare to ask this Southern Army general, will we be able to eat enough if we surrender?" A Qing soldier's question amused Wang Qiang.

"As long as you're not afraid of dying, you can eat hard." Wang Qiang said to him with a smile.

"The general of the Southern Army said that as long as we surrender, we will be able to eat our stomachs, everyone will surrender!" What Wang Qiang didn't expect was that the Qing soldier threw the wooden stick in his hand and ran towards the back shouting. (To be continued.) )