With such a large fog, it is not easy to strike at the enemy in motion, and Gong Jichang ordered Tanma to continue to reconnoiter the enemy's movements.

Soon Tan Malay reported: "General, the rebels are still ten miles away from Jade Girl Peak!" ”

"Got it. Let's go down. Gong Jichang waved his hand, he spread out the military map, and he was at a loss.

The atmosphere in the tent of the Chinese army could not help but become solemn. Gong Jichang's heart couldn't help but get anxious, Qin Tianshan was flat, there was no barrier to resist, only a desperate battle.

Tanma came in again and reported: "The rebels are still five miles away!" ”

Gong Jichang asked Liu Dawei: "Has the firearms team arrived?" ”

Liu Dawei replied: "It's been a long time, just waiting for the general's order." ”

Gong Jichang said eagerly: "The order is given, and the firearms team quickly rushed to the area around the Jade Girl Peak to set up a formation on the spot. ”

"Order!" Liu Dawei had just left, and the fog outside the tent gradually dissipated.

"God help me! Firearms finally came in handy. Gong Jichang breathed a sigh of relief, he couldn't sit still, and went straight to the Jade Girl Peak with the armor-piercing gun, and directly commanded the firearms team to deploy the formation.

20 light guns were placed in the first row, each equipped with 8 axemen, to slash and slash the enemy who rushed to the front of the formation. The second array of firebolts, the third array of crossbowmen and rocketeers. The horse corps was on the left and right sides of the firearms corps, and everything was ready for the rebels to ascend the mountain.

The black rebels came from the southern foothills, and the one at the forefront was Lai Cutskin, the commander of the blue wolf army who escaped in the battle of Wuyou City, dressed in a black robe, and saw that Gong Jichang's men and horses were only a thousand, so he didn't care about it at all.

Lai cut his skin and thought that this was in the Jiangbei region, and couldn't help but be overjoyed: "Fighting a positional war, even a thousand men and horses dare to fight against me, and the Jingyi battalion is still tender!" ”

"Damn, this rebel army actually colluded with bandits!" Gong Jichang shot arrows, and three arrows flew towards the rebel leader Lai Cut.

The guy was quite cunning, lying on his horse and dodging two arrows. The third branch couldn't dodge, hit the door of the brain, went straight into the skull, pierced the back of the head diagonally, and immediately fell off the horse, and died with a whimper.

When the rebels saw that the leader was dead, they were a little flustered, and soon a black-faced man shouted in the middle of the formation: "Calm down, calm down!" The first team to strike! ”

The 2000 rebels hesitated for a moment, brandished their machetes, and rushed towards the firearms array!

Near, near, 1000 steps, 900 steps...... At 600 paces, the enemy entered the optimal range distance of the Tiger Squat gun.

"Shoot!" As soon as Gong Jichang waved the command flag, 20 tiger squatting cannons fired in unison, and the shells exploded in the enemy group.

The rebel horses were frightened and collided with each other and became a mess. The musketeers fired again, and the first group of rebels, killed and wounded, retreated out of the range of the artillery.

Gong Jichang ordered the artillery team to move forward, and when the artillery team moved a few steps, the rebels took a few steps back until they could no longer retreat.

The leader of the rebels, knowing that if he continued to retreat, he would be driven down the mountain, so he took advantage of the gap when the artillery was not fired, and ordered the whole army to charge, and rushed desperately.

"Musketeers shoot!"

"Rocketeer launch!"

"Archer shoots!"

There were too many rebels, and after a while the Tiger Squat artillery fired three more volleys, and the enemy was getting closer and closer, less than fifty paces from the artillery array.

Gong Jichang understood that once the rebels broke through the firearms array, there was a danger of annihilation!

"Cavalry, it's time for a decisive battle! Strike left and right! Gong Jichang was the first to pat his horse and rushed forward, and the two teams of cavalry jumped out of the position after him.

Gong Jichang broke a peak, the rebels were killed and wounded, and then fought in all directions, and the rebels immediately flew flesh and blood. The 600 horse infantry soldiers were extremely fierce, brandishing broadswords and charging back and forth in the enemy formation, and the heads of the rebels fell to the ground.

The two sides fought for half an hour, and the rebels still had more than a thousand people left. The black-faced leader suddenly threw out ten steel needles at Gong Jichang, Gong Jichang turned his head, raised his left hand to catch the five steel needles, and he roared angrily: "Traitor, he actually plotted against General Ben!" With a raised left hand, it reflected back.

Blackface was hit two in his heart and two in his eyes, and one hit his carotid artery, and he covered his eyes and screamed in pain.

Gong Jichang urged the horse over, took the opportunity to use the armor-piercing gun, only to see a beautiful arc crossed, and the commander of the blue wolf army immediately died in a different place.

Seeing this, the cavalry captain of the rebels fled down the mountain with the remaining hundred or so men. The infantry began to waver, and also began to retreat.

Jiang Shunshun, the chief of Niu Dong, led 300 Xiangyong to intercept the retreat of the rebels from the southern foot of the mountain, and the two armies attacked back and forth, and the rebels were killed and lost their armor, unable to parry, and surrendered one after another.

In this battle, more than 1,000 rebels were killed and wounded, more than 500 prisoners were captured, more than 200 war horses were captured, and no one was killed in the Jingjie battalion.

After defeating the blue wolf army that attacked Qintian Mountain, Gong Jichang returned to Chenyuan Prefecture to rest for a few days, and received frequent emergency battle reports from Nanyue County.

Wang Haiyang, the king of the Blue Wolf Kingdom, continued to attack the Nanyue region and used mobile warfare, which made the Qing and imperial courts very panicked.

Xi Qitian ordered Gong Jichang and others to block from Pingyuan, Rong Weishan was the vanguard, Gong Jichang was the main force, the two chased the blue wolf army all the way, and successively fought with Wang Haiyang's department in Pingyuan, Dongshi, Xinfeng and other places, all of which were victorious, killing tens of thousands of people of the blue wolf army, and repelling the blue wolf army for 500 miles, which caused a lot of psychological pressure on Wang Haiyang.

Shiling is an ancient town with a history of nearly 200 years in Nanyue County, and is named "Shiling" because of the rich granite in the territory. The town is a low hilly area with a southern subtropical monsoon climate, with an average annual rainfall of 1700 mm, an average annual temperature of 22.8 °C, abundant sunshine, abundant rain and fertile soil.

It is rich in natural resources, and there are more than 20 kinds of mineral resources such as granite, limestone, river sand, china clay, and kaolin. Shiling is connected to Jishui and Shicheng towns in the east, Xinmin Town in the south, Shineck and Yatang Town in the west, Tangpeng and Heliao Town in the north, and is 16.5 kilometers away from Lianjiangfu City.

The residents here are mainly Hakka, the Hakka people are aggressive, good at fighting, Wang Haiyang retreated to this place, and was warmly welcomed by the Hakka people, so the blue wolf army absorbed more than 1,000 Hakka people into the gang, ready to rely on the advantages of the tulou, and Gong Jichang who followed to fight to the death.

As soon as Gong Jichang arrived at Shiling, he ordered the soldiers to dig trenches outside the tulou, cut off the tulou from the outside world, and surrounded Shiling.

Tulou is a self-defense style of living for the safety of the ethnic group, with the functions of fireproof, earthquake-proof and defense-proof. The most ordinary round building, its diameter is about 50 meters, the height of three or four floors, there are more than 100 houses, can live in 30 or 40 households, can accommodate 2 or 300 people.

The large round building can reach 70 or 80 meters in diameter, is five or six stories high, and contains four or five hundred houses, which can accommodate seven or eight hundred people. The tulou is like a huge mushroom blooming on the earth, and it looks like a black flying saucer falling from the sky, which is really an incredible sight.

How to attack Tulou, this made Gong Jichang quite a headache! He ordered the soldiers to bombard them with artillery several times, but the effect was not ideal, the rammed earth layer was too strong, and a shell could only blow up a small crater, and if it went on, the shells would not be enough.

Gong Jichang and his entourage climbed to the commanding heights of the Stone Ridge, held a telescope and looked at the tall earthen buildings rising from the ground, and asked Ji Rong Weishan: "Now the Hakka people, as the main force of the blue wolf army, are a bit tricky, the earth buildings are so high, how can we get in?" ”

"Big brother, there will always be a way, as soon as they come out, we will bombard the gate." Rong Weishan said without thinking.

"But we've been besieging it for four or five days, and there's no sign of panic in the tulou at all." Gong Jichang's brows furrowed.

"Then let's dig a tunnel!" Rong Weishan said with a smile.

"Nope." Gong Jichang shook his head, "The outer wall of the tulou is five or six zhang high, and the foot of the wall is a wall made of rammed earth, with a thickness of four or five feet, which is mixed by loess, lime and sand in proportion, and the middle is also sandwiched with stones and bamboo chips, which is a 'bamboo tendon and soil wall'." The foundation of the wall buried in the ground is at least three feet deep and more than nine feet wide, and it is basically impossible to dig a tunnel to enter the building. ”

Rong Weishan said: "Build a ring dam around the tulou, and when the rainy season comes, divert water into the tulou and drown these long hairs!" ”

Zhu Rongchu immediately denied Rong Weishan's plan to take a water attack: "Not even better." Look at the foot of the wall, which is made of blocks of stone and granite, and is more than six feet high, which is not only extremely strong, but also resistant to flooding. Besides, we don't have so much manpower and material resources to build dams. ”

"Burn a fire, burn one and count it as one." Rong Weishan has another plan.

Gong Jichang said: "The door frame of the tulou is made of granite masonry, and a water hole is set up above, so that if it is attacked by fire, it can be put out of the fire." ”

"It doesn't work, it doesn't work either." Rong Weishan was a little annoyed, "Then it's okay to besiege them, trap them for ten days and half a month, and if it doesn't work, it will be half a year, a year." ”

Gong Jichang is still not satisfied: "Each tulou can store grain, raise livestock, and have two public wells, and all kinds of daily necessities." Once attacked by foreign enemies, the tulou is closed and can be maintained for several months. We didn't bring much rations, so we couldn't trap them. ”

Rong Weishan held the binoculars and took a closer look at the structure of the tulou, as Gong Jichang said, it is solid, more practical than the ordinary city wall, and sighed: "Damn, this tulou is easy to defend and difficult to attack, we are old cats who eat Wang Ba, and we have no way to start......

"Big brother, it's better to do this, let's retreat as advance, withdraw the large army first, leave a small force, led by Brother Rong, and monitor the situation in the tulou at any time, I don't believe that they will not come out for the rest of their lives." Zhu Rongchu offered advice.

Gong Jichang thought about it and felt that this plan was feasible, so he immediately made a decision: "Okay, it's decided." Withdraw—"

As a result, the soldiers of the Jingyi Battalion withdrew from the periphery of the tulou one after another, and Wang Haiyang, Tan Tiyuan and others, who were watching in the tulou, were overjoyed when they saw this, and ordered the trumpeters to blow the horn of attack, preparing to rush out of the tulou and pursue Gong Jichang's troops.