The road from Dangshan to Guide was dug by the Qing soldiers, and in some places trenches more than two meters deep, the sappers of the First Army struggled to sort out the road so that the artillery could pass through.

Liu Zhaoji rode on a horse and frowned at the dilapidated road, scolding his mother in his heart.

"Chief of Staff, order the troops to speed up their march after passing this rotten road, and strive to launch an attack on the Qing troops in three days!" Liu Zhaoji was a little helpless, and the battle that was originally scheduled to start tomorrow afternoon had to be postponed for two days.

Watching the troops slowly move forward, Liu Zhaoji simply jumped off his horse and came to a small hillside on the side of the road, where Chief of Staff He Ying and several staff officers also followed.

Liu Zhaoji found a stone and sat down, and asked the staff officer to take out the map, and he had to think about it carefully.

Judging from the situation detected by the scouts, Hauge's intention is now basically clear, that is, to use the position to drag the first army, and then use the cavalry to launch a decisive charge against the first army, in the final analysis, it is a desperate way of fighting.

"I want to fight hard with Lao Tzu, and I don't want to think about whether I have this ability!" The corners of Liu Zhaoji's mouth showed a sneer of disdain.

Its extremely bad road and the constant harassment of the cavalry sent by Haoge, from Dangshan County to Guide for more than 100 miles, the first army really walked for more than three days, making Liu Zhaoji angry, but angry to angry, Liu Zhaoji has not lost his calm, he has been thinking about the cavalry of the Qing army.

Along the way, Wang Zecheng's cavalry brigade engaged in skirmishes with the Qing cavalry, which was the first battle after the cavalry brigade was replaced with cavalry rifles.

The more than 1,000 cavalry of the Qing army was only a harassing attack, not a stalking army. Found after the cavalry brigade followed. They touch and go. The cavalry brigade followed behind and fired a few shots, but it turned out that it was very difficult to hit the moving target on a moving horse, and the cavalry brigade only knocked out a dozen Qing cavalry, and the results were almost negligible.

Liu Zhaoji was extremely attentive to this skirmish battle of the cavalry brigade, and he saw all the whole process of the battle, although Wang Zecheng came to him to review, but Liu Zhaoji, who was extremely familiar with the use of rifles, knew that this could not be blamed on the poor training of the cavalry brigade.

Liu Zhaoji silently calculated in his heart. It seems that although the cavalry brigade has been replaced with cavalry rifles, if the opponent has too many opponents, the cavalry brigade will still not be able to play its due role, and once the cavalry is hedged, the cavalry brigade, which has only more than 8,000 cavalry, may also suffer large losses.

"It seems that the cavalry brigade can only dismount and participate in the battle." Liu Zhaoji said to himself.

The first army stopped more than ten miles away from Yucheng, a small county east of Guide, more than 30 miles away from Guide, as a barrier to Guide, where more than 20,000 Qing soldiers were stationed.

began to set up camp, and Liu Zhaoji was ready to fight steadily. On the one hand, it waits for the logistical baggage, and on the other hand, it also allows the troops to have a good rest for a day. The offensive will begin early tomorrow morning.

Haoge took Li Guohan and several generals to observe the first army's camp with a telescope on a high slope more than five miles away from the first army camp. The monoculars were originally bought by the imperial court at a high price from Franco, and later after the cottage glass factory in Henan, they began to build some one after another, although they are not very easy to use, but they are much farther than the naked eye.

"Lord Wang, seeing that the Wehrmacht is so encamped, aren't they afraid of our sneak attack?" Li Guohan doesn't have this thing, but he can see it with his eyes at this distance.

The Wehrmacht did not encamp with wooden fences, as in the past, but with tents in a large circle, of which there were several, and it appears that they were stationed together as divisional units.

Hauge did not speak, at first he did have the intention of sneaking up on the camp or stealing the camp at night, but when he saw through the monoculars, he saw that the army did not even have a fence, and he knew in his heart that the Wehrmacht would dare to do so, but he did not dare to steal the camp again.

"Come and see, what do they rely on? There is not even a fence in the camp? Hauge handed the monocular in his hand to Li Guohan.

Li Guohan took the telescope and held it up in front of his eyes to search carefully, and suddenly Li Guohan put the telescope away and shouted: "Lord Wang, run!" ”

Haoge didn't react for a while, Li Guohan raised his whip and lashed at Haoge's war horse, Haoge's war horse neighed and ran down the hillside, Haoge's personal soldiers saw it, and quickly patted the horse and followed.

As soon as Hauge and more than a hundred soldiers ran down the hillside, there was a whistling sound on the hillside, and a moment later a series of explosions rang out, startling the war horses.

Hauge finally reined in his horse, looked back at the hillside where he was standing just now, and broke out in a cold sweat on his back.

Liu Zhaoji held a telescope in front of the tent and watched, and saw that the artillery fire did not hit the Qing generals in the camp, and he was quite regretful, but it was so far away, how did the Qing soldiers find that the artillery was preparing to fire, which made Liu Zhaoji a little puzzled. It is important to know that the Nanjing government keeps the technology behind the telescope strictly secret, and there have been no reports of the loss of the telescope.

However, soon a scout came back and reported that the Qing general who had just been watching the camp on the hillside must be a senior officer, and he was holding a long long cylinder in his hand, and it was with this thing that they found that the artillery of the First Army was about to open fire.

Liu Zhaoji did not know that Hauge was coming to observe the camp of the First Army, but habitually asked the artillery to prepare for firing, and if there was a situation, he could open fire immediately. failed to kill Haoge this time, which was also expected by Liu Zhaoji, if Haoge was defeated by artillery like this, the battle for Guide would be really easy.

Hauge returned to Guide City in shock, and then asked Li Guohan: "How can their artillery shoot so far?" ”

"Prince Yu specifically said before he left that the artillery of the National Defense Army was shooting very far away, and we should be more vigilant, and it was when he saw that their artillery was being loaded behind the tent, and it was very likely that he would fire at us, so he reminded the prince." Li Guohan replied while slandering in his heart, "You were also present when Prince Yu said it, and now you actually come to ask me." Obviously, he didn't listen to Prince Yu's words. ”

Hauge frowned and said no more. I don't know what's going on in my mind.

The next day, when the morning star was still hanging in the sky. Smoke has risen over the camp of the First Army, and the First Army has dry food, but Liu Zhaoji wants to let the soldiers have a hot meal today, and at the same time tell the Qing soldiers in Guide City, "We are about to start attacking!" ”

After eating breakfast in a hurry, the first army packed up the camp, the tents were loaded into carts, and the army was exhausted. Advance to Yucheng.

When they arrived outside Yucheng County, the sky was already bright, and the first army quickly launched and prepared for the attack.

Although the scouts had already reconnoitred the situation in Yucheng County in great detail, Liu Zhaoji still took two division commanders to the front line to carefully observe the situation before the attack.

The Qing soldiers did not line up outside the city, and all of them were guarded in the county seat. Yucheng County is not small, Liu Zhaoji estimates that there is a radius of about a mile, although the city wall is not tall, but it looks very solid, there are many traces of new reinforcement,

"Commander. Don't look at it, it's a broken city. Let's destroy it as soon as we fire it, see how they are still in the turtle shell? Zhuang Zigu looked at the city wall and said with disdain.

"A cannon fire? You kid think you don't need money for cannonballs? The cannonballs still have to be kept to fight the city of De, and the cavalry of the Tartars has to be consumed here, how will you fight the next battle? Liu Zhaoji heard Zhuang Zigu say this, and was very dissatisfied with him, although there are a lot of shells, but it is not an open supply, the province still has to be saved, for the small Yucheng, Liu Zhaoji is not ready to use precious shells.

"Yes, Master Zhuang, there will definitely not be many of us who can hit the city wall with a single artillery fire, and they will definitely hit the city by then, and the people and their houses will be injured." Lou Ting, the commander of the second division, said.

"As long as you can, you said that you don't need artillery, how can this city be attacked?" Zhuang Zigu didn't dare to talk back to Liu Zhaoji, but he was not polite to Lou Ting, Lou Ting was a small character in front of him, and Lou Ting's division was still equipped with Yangzhou rifles, the two divisions were juxtaposed in the past, and now his division is the absolute main division.

Lou Ting glanced at Zhuang Zigu, Xindao has been fully arranged and deployed yesterday, and today you still come to ask me how to fight?

Liu Zhaoji stared at the city wall for a long time, and gave an order to the two in a deep voice, "Send someone to shout at the city head with an iron horn, urging them to surrender, the mortar battalion is ready, be sure to suppress the tartars on the east gate city wall for me, and the demoman is ready to blast." ”

Although there were more than 20,000 Qing soldiers in Yucheng, everyone did not pay much attention to the battle of Yucheng, and Liu Zhaoji inspected the city before the battle, which was also a matter of habit. The terrain around Yucheng County is flat, and Haoge will not be here if he wants to use cavalry, and his tens of thousands of cavalry cannot hide and stealth in such terrain.

Wang Zecheng's cavalry brigade had already circled to the west of Yucheng, and a regiment of the 1st Division was also advancing in this direction, and the 1st Brigade and 1 Regiment were to encircle Yucheng on the one hand, and on the other hand, to prevent the Qing troops from returning to Germany from reinforcing Yucheng.

The previous observation did not show any signs of artillery from the wall of Yucheng, and Liu Zhaoji ordered the troops to slowly press forward, and formed an attack formation about a mile away from the city wall.

Dozens of soldiers pushed the earthen iron "armored car" to continue to advance towards the east gate tower, and stopped two or three hundred miles away, and the city head looked like there were rolling logs and stones, and the iron car could not bear these things and smash them.

"The soldiers of the Han army are listening! We only fight the Tartars, as long as you open the city gate and lay down your arms, we will not blame the past, we Han people will not fight the Han people, Han brothers, lay down your arms and surrender! Two horns rolled up from both sides of the tin cart began to shout at the city.

Liu Zhaoji held a telescope and looked at the city wall, he was observing the effect of shouting, but the reaction on the city wall disappointed Liu Zhaoji. The shouts of the two tin horns did not seem to have much effect other than adding a little commotion to the walls of Yucheng.

"Shout two more times, and if you haven't reacted yet, start attacking! The mortar battalion is ready to open fire. Liu Zhaoji gave the order again.

What Liu Zhaoji didn't know was that most of these Qing soldiers guarding Yucheng were the Ming army and the Dashun army that surrendered in Henan and Shaanxi, and after the surrender, they had been marching to Sichuan and Yunnan-Guizhou with Haoge, and had not encountered the Wehrmacht, and they had only heard about how powerful the Wehrmacht's firearms were.

The Qing generals who defended the city were Wei Hui's general Zu Kefa, Zu Kefa was the adopted son of Zu Dashou, a famous general in the late Ming Dynasty and Wu Sangui's uncle, Zu Dashou surrendered to the Manchu Qing as early as 1641, and Zu Kefa, who was a hostage in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, immediately chose to surrender.

Zu Kefa made a "great contribution" in the battle against the Dashun army when he accompanied the Azige West Expedition, and was appointed by the Manchu court as the chief soldier of Henan Weihui.

Zukefa stood on the wall of Yucheng and looked down from the city. Seeing that the Wehrmacht actually shouted with a loudspeaker to make it surrender, he couldn't help but sneer a few times, and had the intention to smash the Wehrmacht iron car that was not far away, but there was no artillery in Yucheng, and seeing that many soldiers began to whisper below, Zu Kefa couldn't help but beat the city wall hard. (To be continued.) )