The strategy of northern Jiangsu agreed by Shi Qingxuan and Shen Chiyun earlier was that the First Army would first conquer Taoyuan County, and then turn around and go south to Huai'an, and besiege Huai'an with the Fifth Army.

But this strategic concept is based on the fact that the Qing army will not come out to the rescue!

If the Qing army rescued Taoyuan County on a large scale, then the First Army took the opportunity to move and carried out the matter of encircling the point to send reinforcements, in order to defeat the main force of the Qing army from the source in the field battle, and then attack Taoyuan County.

But even Shi Qingxuan didn't expect that Monk Lingqin would have such great courage and directly lead 60,000 people to have a head-on duel with him in the plains and wilderness!

He took advantage of the situation and directly defeated the main force of Seng Lingqin through a frontal decisive battle, leaving only 10,000 Qing troops to flee back to Suqian.

In this case, Shi Qingxuan was not in a hurry to fight Taoyuan County, but went straight to Suqian, on the one hand, because according to intelligence, Taoyuan County has been reinforced by more than 10,000 Qing troops in Muyang and 8,000 Jianghuai New Army in Huai'an, so that Taoyuan County has gathered nearly 30,000 Qing troops, and there are tens of thousands of new troops in these 30,000 people. It is estimated that it will take more than seven or eight days.

Relatively speaking, there are only 10,000 remnants of soldiers on the Suqian side, and most of them are the old army of the Green Battalion. If the Chinese army followed suit, it would not take a few days to take Suqian.

And more importantly, it is. Taking Suqian is equivalent to cutting off the connection between the Qing army in the north and the Qing army in the direction of Huai'an and Taoyuan, and can cut off the canal. Cut off the supply of the Qing army.

At that time, although the Qing army can continue to transport grain and grass and other supplies from the direction of Muyang by land, the efficiency will definitely be greatly reduced!

If the Qing army in Taoyuan and Huai'an is indifferent, then the Chinese army can slowly try to swallow the Qing army in these two places, if the Qing army is afraid of being surrounded and annihilated, then it has to take the initiative to abandon Huai'an and Taoyuan County, so it is equivalent to the Chinese army conquering the above two places without a fight.

And if the Qing army wants to retreat. The First Army can completely pursue or intercept, thus forcing them to engage in a field battle with the Chinese army, and a field battle is much more advantageous for the Chinese army!

In line with these strategic ideas, Shi Qingxuan did not care about the enemy in Taoyuan County, but went straight to Suqian!

On October 27th, one day later, Shi Qingxuan led the main force of the First Army to pursue the Qing army and successfully arrived in Suqian!

In order to achieve suddenness, Shi Qingxuan did not wait long, but let the troops simply build some long ladders to climb the city and then launched a large-scale attack.

Now the Qing army in the city is at most more than 10,000 people. Moreover, it is a defeated army, and the morale is completely lost, and it is the time to take the opportunity to take Suqian in one go, if it is delayed for a few more days. Let the Qing army in the city breathe down, or gather more rout, or get reinforcements from the Qing army in the north. It's not going to be easy to fight then.

In line with the idea of everything as soon as possible, Shi Qingxuan sent a large number of troops to attack on the morning of the 27th!

The first to go into battle were the Allied Defence Force soldiers. The 20th Auxiliary Defense Division went into battle, and only two hours later it filled the moat under Suqian City. Then, in the rear of the Royal Army's fire support day, directly with the 9th Auxiliary Defense Division to launch a landing operation.

Now Shi Qingxuan's tactics are used by the Chinese military, with the Royal Army providing fire support and the Auxiliary Defense Force being responsible for hand-to-hand combat in the city.

If it weren't for the enemy's intractability, it would generally be this tactic, and only when the enemy army in the city had a large number of new troops or too many troops, the Chinese army would use the Royal Army to participate in the direct landing battle, otherwise it would be the same old routine now.

Because the Chinese army fought too quickly and was not too well prepared, it was reasonable to suffer certain casualties in the offensive project.

However, Shi Qingxuan looked at the soldiers of the Allied Defense Army who kept falling, and his brows did not wrinkle, if it was the soldiers of the Royal Army who would be killed or injured, it might make Shi Qingxuan very heartbroken, but the dead and injured were only the soldiers of the Allied Defense Army, and Shi Qingxuan did not feel any heartache.

As a general, if you don't have the consciousness that you can achieve ten thousand bones, and you can't ignore the thousands and tens of thousands of soldiers who died in the charge, then you will definitely not be able to become a qualified general.

One after another, the soldiers of the Allied Defense Army fell on the way to the charge, and when they ascended the city, they were inevitably counterattacked by the Qing army at the head of the city, so that people kept falling from the long ladder or the top of the city.

However, a few casualties did not affect the offensive of the Chinese army on Suqian, it was only the first attack, Shi Qingxuan was invested in the ninth auxiliary defense division and the twentieth auxiliary defense division, with a total strength of more than 8,000 people to fight in the city, and the Qing army in the city was only more than 10,000 people, even if there were thousands of people in the city who were urgently launched, but it was difficult to resist the tide of the Chinese army's attack.

Not to mention that the Qing army in the city was the rout of yesterday's battle, the morale of the army had fallen to the bottom, and when the soldiers of the Chinese Army's Auxiliary Defense Army had not yet captured the city, they could barely carry out counterattack operations, but after the sword and shield soldiers in the Auxiliary Defense Army climbed the city wall, they quickly scattered in all directions, and they had no courage to resist at all.

At this time, outside the city, Shi Qingxuan put down the binoculars in his hand and said with a smile: "These sword and shield soldiers are okay, and in the future, the auxiliary defense force will still increase the investment in the sword and shield soldiers!" ”

Bing Qusong on the side also laughed and said: "Yes, these sword and shield soldiers in the auxiliary defense army can barely get by, and it is also appropriate to increase investment in them in the future!" ”

According to the training system of the auxiliary defense force, most of the soldiers are used as cannon fodder, but the sword and shield soldiers in the various auxiliary defense divisions are not among them, and although these auxiliary defense divisions only have two or three hundred people in each auxiliary defense division, although they only use long knives, shields, and cotton armor, they do not say that they are equipped with any advanced weapons. However, these sword and shield soldiers are the main force of the Chinese army to fight in the city, and their role in hand-to-hand combat after landing on the city cannot be underestimated.

And these small number of sword and shield soldiers are basically selected from the assistant defense division. The physical fitness and martial arts are relatively good people, and the food supply for them is also relatively good. In addition, although they still say that they still have no military salary, they can still be rewarded with relatively generous silver if they make meritorious contributions in battle.

For example, if you successfully climb the top of the city and stabilize the position at the head of the city, then the sword and shield soldiers who participate in the battle will generally receive a silver reward ranging from 5 to 10 yuan, and if you kill the enemy in battle, you will always be rewarded with a heavy reward, and the basic standard is to kill one enemy and reward 10 yuan of silver!

Some brave men are ordinary to kill one or two enemies in a battle, and a very small number can kill more than three or five enemies. This earns a lot more than the soldiers of the Royal Army, you must know that the soldiers of the Royal Army are judged according to the collective, not according to the number of enemies killed, and the collective merit does not mean that the reward is directly issued.

Because the soldiers of the Royal Army are different from the soldiers of the Auxiliary Defense Army, the soldiers of the Royal Army are professional soldiers, and it is their duty to fight and kill the enemy, and they will not say how many enemies you kill will give you a reward of dozens of taels of silver, usually their reward is generally a promotion to a military rank, from a second class soldier to a first class soldier. If you are promoted to corporal, sergeant, corporal, etc., your rank will increase by one level, and your salary will be increased accordingly.

is also a good fighter, and the income of the sword and shield soldiers in the auxiliary defense army is actually higher than that of ordinary auxiliary defense soldiers. However, although these sword and shield soldiers have a lot of them, the risk is also extremely high.

The Royal Army's battles were mainly based on line shooting, and it seemed that they were in a dense formation for others to use as targets. But the danger in real combat is average, except for the enemy's artillery and a small number of new troops. There are very few things that can threaten their lives. In addition, the generals of the Chinese Army generally do not let the Royal Army take risks, so the overall casualty rate is much lower than that of the Allied Defense Army.

And what about the Auxiliary Defense Force. Don't say anything else, just talk about the words of the Ninth Auxiliary Defense Division, this auxiliary defense division has gone through the Battle of Yangzhou, a series of battles in northern Anhui, and then yesterday's Battle in the northwest of Taoyuan County and now the Battle of Suqian, the cumulative number of casualties has long exceeded 5,000, and the total number of people in the Ninth Auxiliary Defense Division in full strength is less than 5,000.

In other words, in the battles of less than half a year, the Ninth Auxiliary Defense Division is still the Ninth Auxiliary Defense Division, but the soldiers in it have basically changed.

Not to mention ordinary cannon fodder, the casualty rate of these sword and shield soldiers is also quite high, it is normal for twenty or thirty percent of the casualties to be killed and wounded in a battle, and if you encounter bad luck, for example, if you climb the city and are counterattacked and beat down the city, then it is possible that the sword and shield soldiers who climb the city will be wiped out.

These sword and shield soldiers are taking their lives to fight for high rewards, and the so-called licking blood on the knife edge is talking about them!

The same is true of today's battle, for the sake of a high bounty, but also because of the strict military law, these sword and shield soldiers once again walked in front of the whole army, climbed up to the city through the long ladder, many people were just up or were stabbed to death by the Qing army's city head soldiers with spears, but more people saved their lives with their personal bravery, and then slashed at these Qing soldiers.

These Qing soldiers were able to organize effective resistance when the Chinese army had not yet captured the city, but when a large number of Chinese army's sword and shield soldiers landed on the city and slaughtered in all directions, they broke up without suspense!

As in the past, these sword and shield soldiers who occupied the city did not immediately expand the occupied area or descend the city wall to kill the city, but covered more soldiers to climb the city.

Along with the hand-to-hand combat, there were many musket regiment soldiers in the auxiliary defense army, they were not as strong as those sword and shield soldiers, and the overall quality was inferior to these sword and shield soldiers, and they were carefully grouped to the two ends of the city wall to clear the remnants of the Qing army.

Then more soldiers began to walk down the city wall, extending to the inner side of the city wall, in the process, naturally it was inevitable to be hit by the Qing army to fight some small counterattacks, there was a musket company just off the city wall, ready to march forward, it was attacked by hundreds of Qing troops, these Qing troops armed with swords and spears rushed to these musketeers, and then the two sides started a melee.

This kind of skirmishes also frequently occur all over Suqian!

By the end of the evening, the auxiliary defense forces that had entered the city reported that they had cleared the city of enemies!

And after a fierce battle, the main forces of the First Army, that is, the First Division and the Third Division, had not even entered the city, and today's battle was completely fought by two auxiliary defense divisions!

After clearing the enemy in Suqian City, Shi Qingxuan did not enter the city that night, but continued to camp outside the city, and at the same time sent men and horses to cooperate with officials from the Quartermaster Department, Ordnance Department and other troops to count the spoils.

The next day, he didn't wait for the people in the city to report how much loot he had captured, he hurriedly took the first and third divisions south to Taoyuan! (To be continued......)