"Bang, bang, bang, bang......"

On the city wall, thousands of muskets were fired at the same time, the fire flickered and dazzling, and the thick smoke filled the wall, accompanied by a deafening explosion, like a wind and waves pouring down from the smoke and plumbing, sweeping away the soldiers in the front row of the Qing army under the city wall.

In the blink of an eye, under the city wall, there was a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, the lead bullet pierced through the armor, swirling in the human body, the severe pain made the wailing and screaming continuously, the blood column shot out of the wound swayed into a rain of blood in mid-air, and the smell of blood in the air swept in.

At this time, Geng Zhongming, the king of Huaishun of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, who was wearing two layers of scale armor and taking the lead, had also been killed by three turtledove foot lead bullets of one or two or three coins, and after he was hit by a bullet in the horse, he was no longer controlled, and Geng Zhongming was thrown off the horse directly.

Suffering such a blow, the Qing army's originally imposing pursuit was interrupted in an instant, and the Ming army, which was originally exhausted and frantically defeated, was quickly replaced by the armored soldiers who went out of the city to meet them.

This is Xue Laoer's plan to "lure the enemy deep", if he does not have an advantage in troops, he has to use the advantages of the city wall and muskets. In this way, the Qing army can be defeated at the lowest cost.

Duoduo gritted his teeth and looked at the battle outside Xuzhou City, and then gave the order to retreat. The standard-bearers in the Qing army immediately shook their flags vigorously, and the sentinels in the army immediately set out and rushed to the city wall.

At the same time, Tunqi also hurried down the city, put on his armor, and planned to personally lead the troops out of the city to meet him.

This is stealing chickens and rice, Nikan, Geng Zhongming and others originally saw the rout of the Ming army, thinking that victory was just around the corner, so they desperately pursued, wanting to kill and injure more Ming troops, but they didn't expect that this was the Ming army's strategy to lure the enemy.

In fact, Xue Laoer's move is not very clever, but the grasp of proportion and the use of the Qing army's contempt are extremely important, and it can even be said that it directly determines the success or failure of the strategy.

"Withdraw, withdraw!" Nikan shouted in panic after hearing the roaring explosion of muskets.

At the same time, the Ming army, which was still in the rout, immediately turned around and counterattacked, Gao Jie, Li Benshen, Hu Maozhen and others personally led the troops to rush out, and the Qing army was quickly defeated under such damage.

At this time, the generals of the various departments could not help but be brave, and then led their troops to rush and fight, fighting hard, the standard-bearers around them waved the big flag, and the morale was constantly rising, and the shouts of killing shook the sky.

The two armies of the Ming and Qing dynasties combined nearly 10,000 soldiers and horses fought fiercely under the city for half a day, and the Qing army suffered heavy losses, including Gushan Beizi Muerhu, Huaishun Wang Geng Zhongming, and several Manchurian officers, more than 1,000 elite soldiers including feudal generals were killed, and the morale of the Qing army was greatly hit.

However, the Ming army under Gao Jie did not take much advantage, and the soldiers and horses sent by these Duoduo to fight in the field were all first-class elites in the Qing army, and their combat effectiveness was better than that of Gao Jie's soldiers and horses.

In other words, Gao Jie relied more on the advantages of geographical location and the blessing of muskets, but in the end, the casualties of the two armies were mostly maintained at the level of one for one.

Of course, after all, this battle was won by the Ming army, or it was won in front of everyone's eyes, and the morale of the army was undoubtedly greatly boosted.

However, since that day, Duoduo has not launched any new offensive, except for strengthening the deployment of artillery positions and ordering Minfu to dig ditches and build walls to besiege the Ming army in key areas south and west of the city.

After all, as the defeated and defeated side, the morale of the Qing army could not help but be depressed and sluggish, and the fear of the Ming in the army had even emerged, advocating siege rather than attack, and the faction waiting for the field battle was also supported by more generals in the army.

In this way, due to the strict defense of the Ming army in Xuzhou City, Duoduo's offensive in the south did not make progress for a while, and the two armies of the Ming and Qing dynasties seemed to have entered the stage of confrontation between the attack and defense of the city in advance.

At the same time, the strategic adjustment of the Qing army outside the city seemed to be formalized, and Duoduo began to shrink strategically, concentrating his troops and horses in the south and west of the city in a few newly built villages.

The Qing army's sentry horses also began to be blockaded more strictly, but the Ming army scouts in Xuzhou City were equally fierce, which made Xue Lao Er and Gao Jie still able to get in touch with the outside world.

Of course, this was Duoduo's strategy of "tightening the outside and loosening the inside", in order to lure the Ming army from the south to come to support.

Duoduo not only had to command the army to capture Xuzhou City, annihilate the main force of the Ming army in Nanzhili, make immortal achievements, lay the foundation for maintaining his power, but also preserve the strength of the army under his command as much as possible, which is his greatest political capital.

After all, with immortality and the absence of the most powerful army, Duoduo's position in the court was just as precarious. The most reliable is always only the military power in one's own hands.

Therefore, he was so desperate for Zhou Shixian to go north to support Xuzhou, so that it was possible to eliminate the main force of the Ming army south of the Huai River in the field battle. For this reason, Duoduo even did not hesitate to let Zhou Shixian know about the situation in Xuzhou City.

You must know that as the side besieging the enemy, it should be to release the sentinel messengers in the city when breakthroughs are made on all fronts, so that they can bring these bad news back to the city and further damage the morale of the defenders in the city.

"The Ming army in the city has not moved for a long time, and so is Zhou Shixian in Huai'an and Fengyang, we must let them hear some good news before they can let go of their hands and feet to fight."

Duoduo looked at Hong Chengchou, Nikan, Kong Youde and the others in front of him, turned around and said slowly: "Take advantage of this opportunity to send people to collect the wood needed to make siege equipment and build a camp as soon as possible, and the manufacture of siege equipment must be completed within a month." ”

But if this is the case, the morale of the Ming army in the city will inevitably be greatly boosted...... In this way, the slave is worried that the situation will be difficult to control......" Hong Chengchou listened, but suddenly opened his mouth to persuade.

"What Inspector Hong said, this king has also considered it, but if it continues according to the current situation, the morale of the Ming army is low, but there are still tens of thousands of soldiers on the city wall, if it is attacked, the casualties may be incalculable."

Duoduo sighed slightly and said: "The war in Nanzhili has to be strengthened by Huguang, forcing Zhou Shixian of the Ming Kingdom to go north for a decisive battle. ”

As soon as these words came out, Hong Chengchou was slightly stunned and stopped talking.

"Wu Sangui, Senior Brother, and Arzin are now holding back the Ming army in Huguang, and we must beware of Zuo Liangyu leading the Ming army to attack Xiangyang and break into the hinterland of our army." Nikan spoke suddenly.

"Prince Ying should have led his troops into Huguang now, just wait for Zuo Liangyu to lead his troops to attack, and he can annihilate it under Xiangyang City, at that time, the morale of our army will inevitably be greatly boosted, and the Ming State horse will inevitably fall into passivity."

"However, even if you don't attack the city, if you want to encircle the point and send reinforcements, you must also wipe out most of the elite of the Ming army in the city and crush the will to fight of the rest of the city. Otherwise, it is very likely that the Ming army and Zhou Shixian in Xuzhou City will be attacked from both sides. ”

Hong Chengchou suddenly turned his head, looked at the Manchu and Han generals in front of him, and continued: "The main force of the Ming army in Xuzhou City still has to find a way to solve it, otherwise it will be difficult to attack Zhou Shixian's reinforcements with all his strength. ”

This is recognized by everyone, but Duoduo has other thoughts about it: "Supervisor, there is no need to annihilate them, surround them, it will be impossible for the Ming army to go out of the city and fight with us in the field, so the effect is the same." ”.

Soon, this great war, which spanned several provinces and had hundreds of thousands of horses and horses in the Ming and Qing dynasties, had broken out for more than a month.

However, due to various reasons, except for the decent confrontation that broke out in Xuzhou City, the Ming and Qing armies in other places were small forces that could not affect the battle situation and attacked tentatively.

Since Wu Sangui besieged the city by the Shun army, he has continuously sent small forces to attack the Ming army outside the city, but he has always stopped at a shallow level and has no intention of moving seriously.

However, Wu Sangui launched such a high-frequency attack and harassment, sent so many soldiers and horses, and spent so many military weapons, not only to deal with the Qing court, but also to drag Li Guo and Gao Yigong's army, so that they did not dare to move their troops elsewhere. This is Wu Sangui's cunning.

In this way, he did not have to lose too many soldiers and horses, but also completed the task of defending the city and containing the city assigned to him by the Qing court, which can be described as "killing two birds with one stone".

Of course, Wu Sangui naturally did this not to be loyal to the Qing court, but to take the opportunity to send troops, integrate the Shaanxi, Gansu, and green battalions in Jingzhou City to form a local force with himself as the core.

Dolgon's so-called "checks and balances" failed to succeed here in Wu Sangui after all, but was used by him to unite local military leaders and expand his own power.

And on the side of Changsha's Plug Yinxi, he originally wanted to send elite soldiers and horses from Yueyang to Jingzhou Mansion in Hubei Province to help in the war, but now he was so stirred up by Wu Sangui that he could only give up temporarily and continue to stick to the defensive line.

After all, fighting a war is not a strong point for Plug Yinxi, and it is more than enough for him to engage in logistics and arrange grain, grass and military supplies. Moreover, Nanjing trusted him so much that he supervised and coordinated the military and political affairs of the entire Huguang with full authority, and also allowed Liangguang to supply a considerable part of the military supplies of the army, so he naturally had to ensure the security south of the Yangtze River.

Therefore, unless Nanjing's order came and he was transferred to help in the war, he would not take the initiative to attack.

Before the war, Zhou Shixian had formulated a thorough battle plan, taking into account a variety of different situations, and with the development of the war situation, many initial deployments would inevitably have to be adjusted and changed.

In this way, when the change really comes, whether it is beneficial or disadvantageous to one's own side, the DPRK and China will not be at a loss in the military, and even some low-end mistakes that are inconceivable as in the original history will occur.

Of course, the current situation is still within the plan of Zhou Shixian and others, although Wu Sangui is constantly operating, as long as he can't send troops to break through Li Guo, Gao Yigong's encirclement, the situation in Jingzhou, and even Huguang will not exceed Zhou Shixian's plan.

However, to everyone's expectations, Zuo Liangyu's army in Wuchang Mansion on the south bank of the Yangtze River has not launched a decent attack.

This made Gao Di, who was stationed in Xiangyang, very puzzled, he couldn't understand what Zuo Liangyu was going to do, and he even had a plan to redeploy the soldiers and horses of Xiangyang Mansion in his heart.

And as Azig led his troops to infiltrate Xiangyang in batches, Li Guo, Gao Yigong, Plug Yinxi, and Zuo Liangyu were all unaware of it, and the battle situation in Huguang would also undergo earth-shaking changes.