The Third Army of the Guards, like the Second Army of the Guards and the First Army of the Guards, was one of the three descendant armies of the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen who originally established the Guards.

However, the current Third Army of the Guards undertook the main task of annihilating the Manchus during the Second Southern Expedition of the Manchu Dynasty, and the losses were relatively large, and when the Seventh Army of the Guards Army was reorganized, the Third Army of the Guards Army transferred the most promoted veterans and grassroots officers.

As a result, many soldiers of the current Third Guards Army are new recruits, and the combat strength of the Third Guards Army has not yet reached its peak.

Despite this, the Third Army of the Guards Army still showed extraordinary combat power when it crossed the Yellow River in the north.

As soon as the two main corps of the Third Army of the Guards Army crossed the Yellow River, they quickly marched in the direction of Yuanwu and Yangwu, of which the Second Corps occupied the county seat of Yuanwu within three days, and the First Corps quickly occupied the county seat of Yangwu within two days.

Then, the Third Army of the Guards Army was divided into two routes, and the First Corps advanced from Yangwu to Fengqiu and Yanjin, preparing to enter Weihui Mansion and be responsible for recovering Weihui Mansion;

The Second Corps attacked from Yuanwu to Wuzhi County and was responsible for recovering Huaiqing Mansion.

Once Weihui Mansion and Huaiqing Mansion were recovered, it meant that only Zhangde Mansion remained in the hands of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the whole of Henan.

Although the second battle of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the twentieth year of Chongzhen has ended, the three prefectures of Huaiqing, Weihui and Zhangde in Henan Province in the Manchu ruled area have not fully recovered.

First of all, because of the massive loss of population caused by wars and natural disasters, the Third Army of the Guards is now almost invisible when it enters several rich prefectures and counties in northern Henan, and the streets of some market towns that seem to have a lot of shops are so barren that there are only weeds or wild dogs or wild wolves that poke their heads out of the rubble from time to time.

Compared to Kaifeng and Guide, which are only separated by a river, under the rule of the Ming Dynasty and after a series of water conservancy projects and measures to encourage the resumption of production by allocating land to displaced people, endless green wheat seedlings can already be seen in the ridges of the fields in this area.

Secondly, the Manchu Qing Dynasty has become a frightened bird, and it is no longer able to govern these places, and even the Manchu local government no longer has the confidence to do something beneficial to the country and the people, so they can hurry up and collect money or mix in the city of Xiaosuo for a day.

When the First Corps of the Third Army of the Guards captured the two county towns of Yangwu and Fengqiu, the magistrates of these two counties surrendered without a fight, and even took the initiative to open the city gates.

Naturally, the Guards did not spare these people who had sacrificed their lives for the Manchus, and although they now chose to surrender, it was not a defection.

But because of this, in the next battle, the Qing army did not dare to surrender easily, and many states and counties began to choose to resist, but often could not gather many people to defend the city.

In the end, the Third Army of the Guards did not encounter any decent resistance after crossing the Yellow River to the north, and the Third Army of the Guards could only transfer some people from Kaifeng Prefecture for its own logistics and transportation, because the people who could not be hired locally could only bear the cost of the people's long-distance journey.

Of course, this is not to say that there are no civilians in these places, because they have long been exploited and oppressed by the Manchu government, and have adopted a state of distrust of the official army, even if the Guards insist that they are disciplined officers and soldiers.

The real challenge to the Third Army of the Guards was the landlords' armed forces who formed a village to protect themselves.

Because in troubled times, it is natural for a village of people to form a village to protect themselves under the leadership of the patriarch or squire, but these landlord forces are real power forces not controlled by the government, and they have a great challenge to the rule of the central dynasty.

Even these landlord armies are good citizens in their own villages, but in the face of other villages they turn into bandits, and their purpose is naturally to compete for land, but it is precisely these landlord armies that are the reason for the chaos in the entire northern part of Henan.

As a result, the Third Guards Army had to send officers and soldiers to eradicate these landlords' forces.

As the First Army of the Guards did in Beizhili, most of the squires were eliminated in the name of punishing the Han thieves, and the common people were distributed to these common people by using the profits plundered by the squires to attract the common people to support the entire Guard, so that most of the landlords and squires in the north were isolated and helpless, and they were successfully eradicated by the Guards one by one.

But because of this, these gentry and the Manchu government were more united together, and some landlord forces began to take the initiative to unite with the Qing army to resist the Northern Expedition of the Ming Guards.

This was the case with Weihui Mansion City at this time.

Xiang Degong, the prefect of Weihui Mansion, had no intention of defending it anymore when he learned that the Guards had crossed the Yellow River, and was ready to abandon his official position and flee back to Shanxi, but at this time, the Manchu Qing Juren Gong Zhaolu of Huaiqing Mansion and a group of gentry stopped Xiang Degong and demanded that Xiang Degong defend Huifu to the death and be loyal to the Qing Dynasty and not abandon the people of the city.

Even Miyazhao Ritsu took a cadre of squires and gathered 20,000 people to gather in Fucheng to prepare to resist the attack of the Third Army and the First Corps of the Guards.

The prefect of Weihui Mansion had no choice but to issue a notice to defend Weihui Mansion for the Qing Dynasty, and began to open the treasury and recruit soldiers.

Even, Xiang Degong, the prefect of Weihui Mansion, had to write a note to the Manchu court, asking the Manchu court to grant the official position of Gongzhaolu.

However, Xiang Degong had no enthusiasm for guarding the Hui Mansion, and everything was simply handed over to the Juren Palace.

Gong Zhaolu is very active, every day will personally go to the city to check the situation, and also wrote a blood letter to say that he will swear to fight for the Qing Dynasty, preaching that the Ming Guards are the most brutal army, as soon as they enter the Weihui Mansion, they will be stained with blood to wash the Weihui Mansion, and the people who circulate the words of the Guards in the city about the distribution of fields to the common people will be directly executed if they are caught, and even directly hung on the city tower to deter the people in the city.

The people in the city didn't know the reality of the Third Guards Army, and they had never had a good impression of the officers and soldiers, so most of them also thought that if the Guards occupied Weihui Mansion, it might be a disaster.

"The capital city of this Weihui Mansion is actually not open to welcome the surrender, it is closed so tightly, it seems that it is going to defend to the end, who gave them the courage!"

Liu Fangliang, the chief officer of the Third Army of the Guards, took off the monoculars and retreated to his command camp tent after looking at the tower of Weihui Mansion City for a while: "Inform me, the two artillery battalions of the First Corps will give Ben Shuai a few blows, and the cavalry battalion will prepare, since the prefect of Weihui Mansion is going to compete, we will accompany him to the end!" ”

At this time, the First Corps of the Third Army of the Guards Army had gathered 2,000 infantry field guns, heavy guns and light guns, of which 30 rifled infantry light guns and 10 heavy infantry field guns had 12 kg guns, all of which were aimed at the city of Weihui Fufu.

"Gun Position No. 1 is ready!"

"Gun Position No. 2 is ready!"

"Gun Position No. 3 is ready!"

……

A series of shouts shouted over the barren field, and one cannon after another began to shoot tongues of fire, and solid iron bullets and flowering bullets roared all over the city of Weihui Mansion.

(End of chapter)