In addition to occupying the county government, Liu Zongmin also has a great advantage, that is, the cannons of Xinzhou are placed in Nancheng, which is still deployed when Dashun just established the country and randomly announced the Eastern Crusade, and later decided to surrender when everyone was first worried that the Shun army would not accept their surrender; Second, I didn't bother to carry it down from the city.

At this time, the prefect had already accepted Liu Zongming's battlefield appointment - to become the magistrate of Xinzhou in Dashun, urging the officials to quickly help the Shun army transport the cannons to the wall and begin to shell the new army in Beicheng. At this time, Zhang Qianhu and Li Qianhu were working together, busy transporting the family out of the city from the east and west gates, and the people in the city closed the gates one after another to avoid the war outside the door.

By the afternoon, the three cavalry battalions of the Eastern Expeditionary Army had all arrived with 5,000 men, and Liu Zongmin transferred 3,000 of them into the city to fight, and commanded the troops to launch an attack under the cover of artillery fire, trying to drive Yang Huaizu out of Xinzhou City. Fortunately, the narrow terrain was really not suitable for cavalry combat, and the cavalry battalion of the Shun army was equipped with much less firearms than the direct guards of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, and most of the cavalry only equipped with sabers could not become qualified infantry, so although Liu Zongmin tried several times, he still could not advance to the bottom of the Beicheng City.

Towards evening, Yang Huaizu finally looked forward to his own reinforcements, and 5,000 new army infantry wearing white feathers dragged twelve field guns to Xinzhou.

"Uncle Wang came at the right time," Yang Huaizu's men now dismounted and met the battle with handcuffs, completely unable to give full play to the greatest advantage of the direct guard, he pointed to the intricate battle lines in the city, and said to Wang Qinian: "Hurry up and let the infantry of the fire battalion enter the city, the thieves on the opposite side are all cavalry, we will definitely be able to drive them out tonight." ”

Wang Qinian observed the battle situation for a while, shook his head and said: "The fire battalion is a field army, and this kind of street fighting will only lose troops in vain. ”

"But the marshal said that he must occupy Xinzhou."

"Yes, that's what the marshal said, but the marshal wants Xinzhou in order to prevent the thieves from blocking this door, and we don't need to stick to it in Xinzhou."

"Oh?" Yang Huaizu still seemed to understand when he heard it.

"Actually, you don't need me to come, Yang Xian's nephew is enough to repel the thieves," Wang Qinian said with a smile, stretching out his hand and pointing to the banner at the head of the city: "Didn't Xian's nephew notice what kind of wind is blowing now?" ”

"It's the north wind," Yang Huaizu was stunned for a moment, and immediately understood Wang Qinian's plan: "Uncle Wang plans to set fire to the city?" ”

"This city is not big, the houses are still so dense, the fire together with the thieves can only cry out in vain," today's north wind is still very strong, Wang Qinian immediately prepared to start arson, and ordered the fire battalion to prepare the materials for ignition: "Such a small city, it burned down overnight, our army is resting tonight, and when the fire is extinguished, it will occupy the Beicheng tower." ”

"But there are still people in the city." Most of the people are hiding in their own homes, Yang Huaizu and Liu Zongmin have been fighting around the roads in the city just now, and the war has only affected some houses with a limited number of houses on both sides, and most of these people have fled to their neighbors' houses: "The thieves are all on the streets outside, and they will immediately escape from Xinzhou City as soon as they see the fire, this fire can't burn them, but the people are still at home." ”

"We are martial artists, what we want is how to win this battle with the least losses, what the marshal wants is to be able to pass through Xinzhou smoothly, not to let us annihilate all the thieves here," Wang Qinian retorted disapprerovingly, at this time, the fire battalion had already lit a large number of torches, and only waited for Wang Qinian to start acting under the order: "Doesn't Yang Xian's nephew remember Kaifeng?" If Inspector Hou had broken the embankment earlier, how could Ling Zun have become ill from hard work and unfortunately die in the army? ”

Speaking of his father Yang Zhiyuan, Yang Huaizu suddenly rose from his chest, but he was still a little worried: "But Master Hou said that our officers and soldiers are to protect the territory and the people." Yang Huaizu still remembered that Huang Shi was very dissatisfied with Hou Xun and strongly advocated that he be punished.

"We first want to win, first of all, we must protect ourselves, and then we can go to Anmin," Wang Qinian is not willing to engage in street fighting at all, this kind of battle loss will be very large, and if it is not done well, it will bring a lot of losses to the fire battalion, but he will not say too many bad things about Huangshi in front of Yang Huaizu: "If Inspector Hou dug the river early, and then we took advantage of the situation to pursue, this thief would have been peaceful a long time ago, where did it take so many years to fight?" Trouble to this day? ”

Seeing that Yang Huaizu was already speechless, Wang Qinian waved his hand, and immediately entered the city to start arson after the fire battalion was ordered. Yang Huaizu's guards looked at their adults, saw him nod silently, and immediately ran to give orders for all the brothers to return. Thousands of white-feathered soldiers threw thousands of torches into various buildings in the city in a matter of minutes, and in the blink of an eye, the northern city was lit up. As soon as it was blown by the violent north wind, the firelight became a piece in an instant, and suddenly rose into a wall of fire more than ten meters high, and large clouds, large clouds of smoke rolled into the air.

Even Yang Huaizu, who was standing upwind, could feel the hot heat wave coming to his face, and the guards who had retreated to the wall were silent one by one, watching the fierce tongue of fire lick towards Nancheng, and there was crackling wood blasting everywhere, as well as countless burning thatch and broken wood chips were rolled into the air.

"Oh my God, the New Army is crazy." Liu Zongmin still felt strange when the direct guards of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion on the opposite side suddenly retreated, but as soon as he saw a fire coming out on the opposite side, he knew that it was not good, and hurriedly ordered the soldiers to retreat. By the time the huge pillars of smoke and walls of fire appeared, the Shun army had already begun to flee outside the city.

The whistling north wind blew the breath of death with a pungent smell of burning, and the soldiers of the Shun army, who had been sticking to the yamen, also threw down the cannons that they had managed to move in and ran south like crazy.

"Order, order!"

Chi Shude tried his best to maintain military discipline at the gate of the southern city.

"You must march out of the city, and there will be no forgiveness for violators!"

The 1st Cavalry Battalion, under Chi Shude's command, formed a tight formation and watched the friendly troops rush out of the city gate in marching columns.

One batch after another, until Liu Zongmin rushed to the city gate with the guards and left Xinzhou, Chi Shude ordered the first cavalry battalion to start leaving the city.

Some of the people who were close to the city gate also fled to the edge of the city at this time, Chi Shude looked at these Xinzhou residents who came in a hurry, they helped the old and the young, and the crowd was full of panicked shouts and terrible cries.

"My lord, the whole camp is out of the city."

The guards behind him reported to Chi Shude that the fireworks had engulfed the yamen in the city, and Chi Shude's military uniform was hung with flying ash blown by the north wind.

"Withdraw your troops."

Chi Shude took one last look at the flames that were about to devour the whole city, turned around and walked towards the city gate with his own guards, the people around him and the last team of Shun troops crowded together, desperately rushing out of the door, and from time to time there were screams of people who were crowded and trampled.

……

The fire burned until nearly dawn, and several of the walls were burned red, and the new army waited until the walls had cooled down before occupying all the ruins.

"My lord, there are no more thieves within a radius of a few miles, and they probably went back to Taiyuan." Seeing that the fire battalion had arrived, Liu Zongmin knew that a large number of infantry of the New Army might arrive at any time, and any move to recapture Xinzhou would not only fail but would put the army in danger, so he returned south overnight to fight with the Guards Battalion and the Armored Battalion.

"Don't spend a single soldier, take Xinzhou lightly." Last night, Wang Qinian had already reported to He Baodao, and now the three battalions of Changqing, Tianyi and Dongsen have all arrived at the north gate of Xinzhou: "Let's start the clean-up work, and tomorrow we can cross Xinzhou and continue south." ”

There were hardly any buildings left in the city, and some of the remaining brick walls had been blackened by the flames.

Several white-feathered soldiers gathered around the edge of a well, peering inside, and on the wall of the well, which had been roasted and dried, there was a charred corpse with a faint human form. The black objects had been baked to the size of a child, and one by one they clinged to the wall of the well like dough without falling to the bottom of the well.

Yesterday, in desperation, some people who had no way to escape jumped into the well to take refuge, and the fire first boiled the water from the well, steamed it dry, and then charred the corpses inside.

"Good boy, we'll know later," a white-feathered soldier stuck out his tongue, "You can't jump into the well when the fire starts." ”

"Can you jump into the well when it's not on fire?" Another white-feathered soldier smiled: "You still have a long life." ”

……

"If Xinzhou is lost, the new army can drive straight into Taiyuan and come straight to Taiyuan." After getting the news, Xu Ping immediately realized the seriousness of the problem: "After the Shanlan battalion, there are twelve battalions of new troops, each battalion is about 5,000 people, plus the direct guards, there are still 62,000 people. ”

"There won't be so many," Zhou Dongtian immediately said: "The new army also fled along the way, and his subordinates are absolutely sure of this." ”

"I know there are deserters in the New Army, but how many are there?" According to the report made by Zhili Dashun, the new army, like other Ming troops, was on strict guard against its own soldiers, in case they were paid but refused to go into battle, and deserters whose bodies were hanged could be seen in front of the doors of each battalion. Moreover, He Baodao also resumed insulting punishments such as piercing arrows and cutting off ears in the new army to deter those new army soldiers who tried to desert.

"It has to be thousands, right?"

"Thousands? Brother Zhou, are you sure? ”

"Not sure, of course, but there should be."

"Even if we have 60,000 of them, that's still a lot more than our army."

The three battalions of the marksman, the avant-garde, and the rearguard led by Li Guo have arrived, and now Kaifeng, excluding Liu Zongmin's three cavalry battalions, already has six battalions of more than 30,000 troops, and the fully staffed guard battalion has 6,500 officers and soldiers under its jurisdiction.

"Where's General Lee?"

Xu Ping had been anxiously waiting for Li Dingguo's three battalions of soldiers and horses, and when this batch of troops arrived, he would have 50,000 troops.

"General Li is coming in the starry night, if it is 50,000 against 60,000, we are completely enough to fight, no, we will definitely be able to win." Zhou Dongtian was full of confidence in defeating the new army, but there was still a serious threat at the moment, and Li Dingguo, who took the northern road, might not arrive in Taiyuan earlier than the new army: "If the new army is stuck between us and the Sanxi camp and divides our army in two, we may lose this war." ”

"What does Brother Zhou think?"

"The subordinates think that our army should leave Taiyuan and go to meet General Li Dingguo."

"Leave Taiyuan?"

"Yes, my subordinates think we should march towards Niuweizhuang," Zhou Dongtian pointed to a small mountain village in the northwest direction on the map, "We are here to meet the new army." ”

"Why here?"

"We are backed by the path of the Sanxi Battalion, and we will definitely not be divided by the new army."

"But there is a problem, and that is that the new army may engage us before the arrival of the Sanxi Battalion." Yu Shenhe pointed out that the main force of the new army may pass through Xinzhou at any time, and the road from Xinzhou to Niuweizhuang is not only short, but also easier to walk.

"Yes, but at most it will be half a day, and it will be no problem for us to hold on for half a day with the strength of the six battalions, and the advantage of the new army will definitely take the initiative to attack, and when they run out of strength and fail to attack, General Li will arrive with the fresh force of the Sanxi battalion, and we can take advantage of the situation to counterattack."

"It's an adventure." Yu Shenhe didn't seem to agree: "And the risk is similar to the risk of sticking to Taiyuan, and the new army may not take the initiative to look for Sanxi Camp west regardless of Taiyuan." ”

"But it is possible to allow the Forces nouvelles to take the initiative to attack our defensive positions." Zhou Dongtian was stubborn: "This is a benefit. ”

"The benefits are limited." Yu Shenhe still disagreed: "Maybe the new army will take the initiative to storm Taiyuan." ”

"The siege of the city is different from the field battle, Taiyuan, a fortified city, most of them will want to clear the periphery first, to see if there is any way to besiege and trick, it is likely to be installed in the Sanxi camp, at least General Li will have a hard time wanting to join us." Zhou Dongtian emphasized: "He Shuai has always been arrogant, and the general will be regarded as an insult and provocation by him to fight him in the field with half of his troops, and he will definitely think: 'Since you dare to go out of the city, I will destroy you.'" And if they don't dare to come to fight with the new army with half of our troops, then what are they going to fight? Where will there be morale? ”

"That's a good point." Liu Zongmin began to agree with this plan: "I like the pleasure of field battles, and I don't like to defend the city in aggrieved terms. ”

"Do you know that field warfare is an adventure?" Yu Shenhe continued to object.

"I'm willing to take the risk." Xu Ping didn't let everyone continue to argue: "Brother Yu and Brother Zhou are right, it is almost the same risk to defend Taiyuan or Niuweizhuang, so at this time, I can't help but think of what Hou Ye once said, as well as the sentence that Instructor Song put on his lips." ”

"The Immortals must always remember that we are fighting for the people behind us."

"Yes, Hou Ye said that the Immortal Army is to protect the territory and the people, and the people around Taiyuan are already our Dashun people, since it will not be more disadvantageous militarily, then we will go forward to defend them."

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