The Ming army led by Li Sixing reached Jiangmen and routed the Qing army, which was attacking and wanted to recover the place. Subsequently, with the assistance of Zhou Yu and Li Rong's righteous army, they went to Shunde, passed Panyu, and approached Guangzhou at an amazing speed. At this time, in addition to the 12,000 regular troops after the rendezvous, plus a sailor who came to support by sea, the Ming army added more than 20,000 rebellious people, and the momentum was great.

Under the inertial thinking, Shang Kexi in Guangzhou had not yet woken up when the Ming army came to the city. It was impossible for Xinhui to fall in such a short period of time, and he didn't believe it if he was killed. In addition, the news of the conquest of Xinhui was blocked, and according to his own thinking, he believed that after the Ming army besieged Xinhui, he divided his division to take Guangzhou.

The back road is not quiet, the lone army is deep, and the soldiers are taboo. Shang Kexi looked at the Ming army approaching Guangzhou according to his own judgment, and felt that the shape was not so strict.

First of all, although the number of the Ming army was large, there were a large number of rebellious people, and if the city was forcibly besieged, it would inevitably disperse the forces and give the Qing army a chance to break through; Secondly, there were still more than 10,000 Qing troops in Guangzhou, and it was very difficult to gather the scattered troops around the city, and there were fortified cities to rely on, and the mixed forces of the Ming army and the righteous army, which did not have much advantage in numbers, wanted to break through Guangzhou; Finally, the Ming army's bypassing of Xinhui undoubtedly left a nail in its back, which not only dispersed the troops, but also threatened the land food and grain routes, and how long could it hold out by sea?

The wrong judgment lost the last chance to escape, and the vanguard Ming army was unable to besiege the city due to insufficient troops, although it joined the rebel army. The two sides had several skirmishes under the city of Guangzhou, and the Qing army could not shake the Ming army. The Ming army stabilized the camp in the southwest of the city.

After the Qing army retreated into the city, it strengthened the city defenses while waiting for reinforcements from the surrounding areas. At this time, Shang Kexi issued an order to transfer all the green battalion Qing soldiers who had a small number of surrounding counties and towns to Guangzhou, and also recalled Gao Liangfu and Gao Liangzhen, who were fighting in Jieshi and Boluo. In his opinion, as long as the Ming army is overwhelmed in terms of the number of troops, not only will the city of Guangzhou be safe, but also the Ming army will be able to counterattack when it shows fatigue.

Such successful examples are not uncommon in the history of Shang Kexi's conquests, and the most famous ones are naturally the two battles of Zhaoqing and Xinhui. Two defensive counter-attacks. defeated Li Dingguo, the famous Jin king at that time. Naturally, Shang Kexi was proud, and he was also very interested in this tactic.

Old experience has also proven to be unreliable at times. When Shang Kexi was relieved by the increasing number of troops in the city of Guangzhou, the main force of the Ming army set out from Xinhui. Take Heshan and Foshan lightly. Arrive directly to the west of Guangzhou. and immediately divided troops to attack Qingyuan, closing the door for the Qing army to flee north.

At this point, Guangzhou was already surrounded by 40,000 Ming troops and 50,000 or 60,000 brave villagers. Although the encirclement was not very tight, it was not easy for the Qing army in Guangzhou to break through. Just when Shang Kexi was stunned and inexplicable, and the Qing army in the city was undecided, the Ming army quickly launched an attack. A Ming army, with the cooperation of the naval division, landed from the northwest of the city, outflanked the high city in the north of the city, and attacked various batteries in the northeast of the city; The vanguard Ming army also went out to fight and attacked the key points southwest of the city.

The attack and defense of Guangzhou was different from that of Xinhui, and Shang Kexi's department was, after all, the army with the highest proportion of firearms in the Qing army. Due to the difference in performance, the musket naturally could not compete with the Ming army. However, the number of artillery pieces possessed by Shangbe was very large, which did make the Ming army not smooth in the initial attack. Subsequently, the Ming army adjusted its fighting methods, unloaded the heavy artillery from the ships of the naval division, and basically destroyed the enemy's artillery before launching an infantry attack, and finally gained the upper hand.

When the "Sea Dragon" slowly sailed to the port of Guangzhou, the battle on the periphery of Guangzhou was coming to an end, but the battle was fierce. Around the forts in the northeast of the city, both the enemy and us invested a lot of strength, and the sound of cannons rumbled and the sound of killing shook the sky. Shang Kexi knew that the key points here were important, and if they were lost, it would mean that all the important places near Guangzhou would be lost, and the Ming army could even bombard the city of Guangzhou from the forts. Therefore, he personally went to the city to supervise the battle, and constantly sent reinforcements to reinforce the fort.

The Hudun Fort in the north of the city, from a distance, is just a mound, shaped like a crouching tiger, close to see, only to know that it is opposite to the city wall across the river, all around are the steep walls of the knife, a platform is dug in the middle, and there are caves to connect with. The guards fired their guns and arrows from above, and it was difficult for them to get close below. The highest part of this tiger pier is a flat land of half an acre square, with a stone building in the middle, and two trestle bridges behind the building are connected to the city.

The Qing army was able to provide flank fire on the city wall, covering the two sides of the Hudun Fort and the back, and the Ming army could only attack from the front. Despite this, with the sharpness of the navy's naval guns and the explosive shells of the Tianwei cannons, the Hudun Fort is still precarious.

Boom, boom, boom, three explosive shells exploded next to the stone tower at the top of the fort, and the flying shrapnel swept across, and the Qing soldiers fell down one after another screaming and wailing.

Several heavy solid bullets roared and smashed on the tiger pier, splashing countless gravel and soil, and the middle platform was already full of falling stone chips and clods, and the Qing soldiers were disgraced one by one, shrinking in the bunker and not daring to move.

The tortuous trenches continued to stretch and approach the tiger pier. Most of the artillery of the Qing army was destroyed, and there was a dead end of bombardment from a high position. As long as the trenches were dug to a certain distance, the Ming army could shoot with muskets, and the only remaining artillery of the Qing army could not help them.

Shang Kexi also sensed the intentions of the Ming army, and ordered the artillery on the city wall to fire from the side to help the battle, which had a certain impact on the Ming army's excavation. And with the obstacle of Hudun, the artillery of the Ming army could not be pushed too close, and it could not help the Qing army on the city wall.

The battle stopped, the artillery of the Ming army needed to be cooled down, and the attack needed to be adjusted; The Qing army temporarily held the only fort and was able to maintain access to the city.

Zhu Yongxing did not raise his flag, got off the boat very low-key, and went directly into the camp in the southwest of the city under the protection of the guards. The news did not leak, but the senior generals of the Ming army were notified and gathered in the camp to report the situation and listen to instructions.

The opening remarks were simple, Zhu Yongxing was very satisfied with the results that the Ming army had achieved, praised the generals, and when he conquered Guangzhou, he would be rewarded for his meritorious deeds, which naturally made the generals secretly happy in their hearts. Next, Ma Bao and Wu Sanxing reported on the current battle situation and the arrangements for attacking Guangzhou.

"Tiger Dun doesn't seem to be that important, does it? If it is difficult to conquer, it will be regarded as part of the city, is it feasible to fence it? "Zhu Yongxing feels that there is a little problem, in order to attack a fort, waste too much ammunition, is it really necessary?

………… (To be continued......)