In order to prevent the Xia army from attacking Xingjing, the Qing army's defense here was naturally extremely strong, and it also kept an eye on the dynamics in the direction of Shengjing.

Therefore, when the Xia army sent troops to Xingjing to kill, the Qing army got the news as soon as possible and reported it to the actual speaker in the city, the Empress Dowager Borzigit Bumubutai, that is, the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang in later generations.

When the Queen Mother learned of this, her face changed in vain, and she hurriedly ordered the Minister of the Guard, Ji Bilong, to count the number of soldiers and horses in the city, and ordered the Minister of Parliament Sonny to gather and recruit the Manchu and Han bannermen living in the city to help defend the city.

When the city reported the roster of soldiers and horses in the city to the queen mother, the face of this strange woman who was still a few days away from her 43rd birthday became more serious, there were only more than 1,000 Manchurian soldiers with imperial flags and less than 3,000 Han army flags and almost negligible Han people's clothing, even if the city banner people were gathered, the number of people defending the city would not exceed 6,000, and it might even be more than 5,000.

Although the strength of the Xia army has not been given a clear figure, it has been confirmed that it will not be less than six thousand.

The situation was urgent, and the Empress Dowager immediately summoned three auxiliary ministers and asked them how to deal with the attacking Xia army.

If you stick to Xingjing, at present, all the soldiers and horses of the imperial court are besieged in Shengjing City by the Xia army, and the two cities will be isolated and helpless, and they will be trapped and killed in the city by the Xia army, so it is the best policy to defend the city.

The three auxiliary ministers realized this, and the three of them muttered to each other in a low voice for a while, and Sonny said: "Queen Mother, the old minister thinks that the terrain on the road from Fushun Pass to Xingjing is complicated, and the Xia army does not know much about this place, so our army can set up an ambush on the way, relying on the terrain to block and consume the Xia army's strength along the way, so that even if the Xia army can come to Xingjing, it will suffer heavy losses, and our army will take the initiative to fight a decisive battle with it, and the Xia army will be defeated."

The Queen Mother didn't speak when she heard this, she looked at Kubilong and Suke Saha, Subilong had no objection, Suke Saha didn't understand the military strategy at all, and he could only follow along.

Seeing that the two auxiliary ministers who knew military strategy both agreed, the Queen Mother nodded and said cautiously: "Since this is the case, then this matter will be handed over to the command of the Minister of Parliament, Sonny, to curb Bilong and guard Xingjing, and the two of you must cooperate with each other."

"Huh."

The two answered.

Subsequently, Sonny counted the soldiers and horses in the city, and he directly took half of the Manchurian soldiers and almost all the Han army flags to leave Xingjing, and set up ambushes along the way from Fushun Pass to Xingjing, waiting for the Xia army to throw themselves into the net.

On March 25, the Xia army, led by Zhao Liangdong, conquered the empty Fushun Pass, repaired for a while, and then marched to Salhu, where he went to pay homage to the ancient battlefield of the Battle of Salhu under the leadership of the locals, and finally went to Xingjing.

However, soon, the Xia army was ambushed by the Qing army.

"Enemy attack—"

With a shrill scream, countless deadly arrows were shot from the mountains and forests on both sides of the road, and the Xia army was not wearing armor when marching, so the arrows killed dozens of foot soldiers in an instant.

Then, only to hear the sound of artillery, the Qing soldiers brandished their swords and shouted from the mountains and forests on both sides to kill and kill the Xia army on the march.

Zhao Liangdong, who was in the lead, hurriedly pulled out his saber and shouted loudly, "Line up and meet the enemy!"

"Reload! Reload!"

The officers in the riflemen also shouted loudly, and the Xia soldiers who were surrounded in the middle hurriedly lined up to meet the enemy, the soldiers on the outside raised their bayonets to meet the enemy, and the soldiers on the inside hurriedly loaded their ammunition and fired at the enemy.

"Kill!"

In the roar of the Qing army, the soldiers of the Qing army came from both sides like a tide, and although the soldiers of the fifth town were all new recruits who had just entered the battlefield, they still quickly completed the reloading, and raised their guns to shoot when the Qing army rushed out.

Bang –

In the chaos, the sound of the two-type rifle sounded from time to time, as the Qing army rushed into the queue of the Xia army, the two sides launched a fierce fight, the Qing army brandished the machete and wanted to kill all the Han people in front of him, the Xia soldiers could only barely use the body of the gun to block the machete that was slashing at themselves, and at the same time kicked the enemy's body hard, forcing it back, and then retracted the rifle, roared and stabbed out the bayonet, giving the enemy a heart-chill

。

Although the Xia army was attacked in a hurry to meet the enemy, it quickly stabilized the formation and retreated the ambushed Qing army, and after the Qing army retreated into the mountains and forests, hundreds of corpses of both the enemy and us had been lying on the road.

"Damn."

Zhao Liangdong looked at the corpses in that place with a gloomy face, and looked at the long mountain forest vigilantly, he could only order the corpses of the fallen soldiers to be collected, buried near the battlefield and left markers, and then collect the bones of the fallen soldiers and bring them back to China after the pacification of Xingjing.

As for the corpses of those Qing soldiers, they were hastily buried.

This ambush also brought Zhao Liangdong a reminder, he ordered the officers and men of the whole army to put on armor, and sent more scouts to investigate the enemy's situation, preferring to slow down the advance rather than give the enemy a chance to ambush.

On the other side, Sonny, who learned the results of the first ambush, still had a grim face, although he had no intention of defeating the Xia army with a single ambush from the beginning, but the number of troops killed by his own side this time still shocked him a little.

Nearly 200 of the 300 Manchurian soldiers and nearly 1,000 Han soldiers who participated in the ambush were killed, and many of the people who came back were wounded, and the casualties they inflicted on the Xia army, if the generals under their command had not lied about the military situation, would certainly not have been more than them.

It's an ambush.

One side was completely unguarded by an ambush, and they still dealt such casualties of nearly one to one.

It can be seen that Xia Jun is strong.

The generals who came out with him saw that Sony's face was ugly, and they were all silent, not daring to make a sound, until Sony spoke again, ordered them to prepare to continue the ambush, and then hurried back to Xingjing to report the matter to the Queen Mother.

Since this day, the Xia army has encountered several ambushes and Qing troops along the way on the road to Xingjing, but because the Xia army has increased its vigilance, the Qing army did not take advantage of them, and the two sides suffered casualties on each other, but on the whole, the Qing army suffered greater casualties.

On March 28, when the Xia army marched to Zhaka Pass, the Empress Dowager spent a simple 43rd birthday in Xingjing, she looked at the slightly depressed Xingjing Palace, and then looked in the direction of Shengjing, and secretly prayed to the heavens in her heart, hoping that the Qing Dynasty could survive this pass.

However, I don't know if it's because her heart is not working, or if the gods and Buddhas of the heavens happen to be away from home this day, and her wish has not come true.

At the beginning of April, the Xia army fought steadily all the way, and finally reached the foot of Xingjing City, besieging the city built on the mountain.

Sonny failed to stop the Xia army, he withdrew to the city with the rest of the army the day before the arrival of the Xia army, knelt down in front of the Queen Mother with a sad expression, and complained to the Queen Mother that he had failed to complete the task, not only failed to bring heavy casualties to the Xia army, but instead put valuable troops into it.

The Queen Mother didn't blame her, and she also knew that it was useless to deal with Sony at this time, just to let Sony regain morale, defend the city, and don't let the Xia army attack Xingjing City.