Tongzhou.

In a vacant lot on the east side of Tongzhou, from time to time I think of bursts of artillery bombardment, which was requisitioned as the school field of Dashun, and on the school field, several field guns are being test-fired.

Zhang Nai stood on a mound at this time, watching the four-pounder field guns lined up shelling the scarecrows 200 steps away, and the shells bounced on the ground, smashing seven or eight scarecrows on the spot, and finally the shells stopped far away.

"General Su, what should we do if the enemy rushes closer?" Zhang Nai rode to the artillery position and looked at Suarez, the commander of the artillery team.

Suarez is a typical Portuguese, because of his long life at sea, his skin is red, there are many scars on his bare skin, and the most conspicuous is his legs, he has only one leg and the other is wooden.

Suarez had been a mercenary since he was sixteen years old, and he had twenty years of experience, he was recruited by Li Zhaoji to the north, and now he was sent to Li Chuang's side as the chief general of this artillery company.

Six iron-cast four-pounder guns were all of Suarez's firepower, and in fact, he was the same one on display under the Shanhai Pass. In Tianjinwei, Zhang Nai's artillery company was equipped with more than 100 mules and horses, as well as blacksmiths and husbands, and the scale of this artillery company reached about 200 people.

After arriving from Tianjinwei, the artillery company has been training.

Hearing Zhang Nai's question, Suarez hurriedly put away a booklet, he was very proficient in Chinese, and did not answer directly, but took out a bag of shotguns in the grid of the ammunition car, and said: "This is a shotgun, there are two kinds, large shotgun and small shotgun, also called grapevine bullet, when the enemy is close, you can load these into it and launch."

Of course, if these are gone, we can still put in pebbles, iron nails, and everything else we can find. ”

Zhang Nai nodded slightly, he weighed the shotgun, and found that it was wrapped in linen, and carefully tied with ropes, and the shape of each outer layer of shotgun was pulled out, Zhang Nai thought of something, so he walked to the hot muzzle of the gun, and tried to stuff the shotgun bag in, sure enough, the shotgun bag tied into a cylinder could be stuffed into it smoothly.

"Are you people from the Oriental Trading Company so careful in fighting?" Zhang Nai couldn't help but say with emotion.

Suarez said helplessly: "Your Excellency Marquis, war is the most testing thing, and any little effort will be rewarded." However, as far as I know, the shotguns used by Lee's artillery were not like this, and the shotguns they used were packed in tin cans.

It is said that the shotgun can spread out at a greater distance, which can increase the range of the shotgun. But you can't provide me with tin cans, that's all I have to do. ”

"Then you can demonstrate a shotgun launch for me." Zhang Nai didn't want to dwell on this, he thought that an artillery unit given by Li Zhaoji was like a pancake, which could be stuffed into his mouth and eaten. But in fact, this is not the case, Li Zhaoji was given a bag of flour, as well as oil and water, and if he wanted to turn it into a pancake, he had to process it himself.

Starting from Tianjin Wei, he put a lot of effort into this artillery unit, meeting their special requirements in terms of religion, diet, and clothing, and they did not use the gunpowder they provided, but demanded high-quality raw materials for their own proportions, and even the medicine packets wrapped in gunpowder had to be silk.

Fortunately, everything has come to fruition.

Suarez said: "Your Excellency Marquis, I will work according to your orders, but I would like to remind you that firing a shotgun will cause great damage to the barrel of the gun, which will reduce its lifespan, and according to the rules of the code, it will not be tested unless it is absolutely necessary." ”

The drill code is the booklet that Suarez put in his arms, which is translated from the artillery drill code that Li Zhaoji personally participated in compiling, which stipulates in detail the use, maintenance, transportation, etc. of artillery, but Suarez copied it into Latin, but it is nothing to Zhang Nai, and John Tang has already copied a copy and is in the process of translating it into Chinese.

For the test shot shell, Zhang Nai finally chose to give up, he had already asked Tang Ruowang, the casting level of these six guns is very high, it will be difficult to imitate it for a while and a half, if the life is exhausted, or even the chamber is blown up, it means that it will be difficult to deal with it in actual combat.

It's just that Zhang Nai is still very satisfied with the drill of this artillery company, at least he can expect this artillery to play a role on the battlefield.

"Master Hou, a holy decree has arrived." A cavalry came running in the distance, the two horses in front were Zhang Nai's personal soldiers, and there were seven or eight people in the back.

Zhang Nai immediately beckoned people, ready to kneel to receive the holy decree, but it was the old camp guards beside Li Zicheng who passed the decree, he was good at riding, and the horse had not stopped, he had already turned over, and hurriedly supported Zhang Nai, who was about to kneel, and said: "The righteous marquis is exempt, the emperor has a military order."

Dongyu broke through the pass from the wall ridge, Miyun guarded the future report, there were more than 1,000 captives, and ordered Zhang Nai, the marquis of righteousness, to lead the cavalry to meet Miyun, and find out the reality of Dongyu. ”

After all, the Great Wall is hundreds of miles long, and the soldiers and horses under his command are sprinkled out like pepper noodles, which will inevitably make the capital empty, so Li Zicheng dispatched the main force of the Jizhen garrison to the back in large numbers, and arranged them in the capital, Tongzhou, and Changping, and only arranged the guard troops on the side walls, and arranged a small number of soldiers and horses in the second line, such as Miyun, Pinggu, Zunhua, and Jizhou.

This way of arranging troops and horses is the experience of Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin integrating Zhu Ming's historical experience of resisting the Eastern Koubian.

From a historical point of view, in addition to Shanhaiguan, from Jizhou to Datong hundreds of miles of side walls, the East Captives may tear the side wall at any time to enter, and the distribution of soldiers and horses can not resist at all, but it is easy to be surrounded and annihilated by the superior forces of the East Captives, and the East Captives also have a characteristic of entering the pass, that is, they march in multiple ways, so that the defending side does not know which way is the main force, so when dispatching reinforcements, there will be errors in judgment, and the physical strength of soldiers and horses will be consumed in vain, and even the snake will be led out of the hole.

Zhang Nai, as one of the few marquis of the Great Shun Dynasty, knew Li Zicheng's defense strategy, and the moment he got the holy decree, he also understood that this time he went north to Miyun, firstly, to give the local Tang Tong Department the confidence to hold on, and secondly, to test the reality of the East Captives to see if this road was the main force.

"You play back to the emperor, I will take the cavalry to Pinggu first, and then go north to Miyun." Zhang Nai said.

The face of the guard who ordered changed slightly: "Yihou, the emperor asked you to answer Miyun." ”

Zhang Nai smiled: "You don't need to ask more, just report truthfully, and the emperor will understand." ”

"General Su, can your artillery team keep up with my cavalry?" Zhang Nai looked at Suarez again, and Suarez grinned and said, "Thanks to your full support, we have the fastest artillery and can keep up." ”

The six field guns under Suarez are actually monkey versions, and there are a lot of key things missing, such as when he came, Li Zhaoji was only equipped with gunners, such as horses, husbands, etc., all of which were equipped by Zhang Nai, in fact, when Li Zhaoji sent this artillery, he already had the mental preparation that they would be left behind.

But the problem is that Dashun has the advantage of Dashun, although Dashun does not have as many war horses as the Manchus, but there is no shortage of horses and mules, and it is very simple to equip an artillery company with enough horses and mules, and Suarez took the opportunity to open his mouth and ask for high allocation, so that the horse and mule equipping rate of this artillery company exceeded that of the field artillery company of the Eastern Trading Company.

Everyone could march in a carriage or on horseback, so in essence, it was no longer a field artillery company, but a mounted artillery company.

Beijing, Qianqing Palace.

Li Zicheng, who became the emperor, wanted to have the emperor's style, but the sudden invasion of the Manchu Qing Dynasty made his plan to establish a new dynasty in vain, and there were soldiers and horses everywhere inside and outside the capital, and even tents were set up in the imperial garden, and many tables and chairs were set up in the main hall of the Qianqing Palace.

Zhang Nai, in fact, was only responsible for one road, and there were also six passes that received the invasion of Dongyu, Zhangjiakou, Dushikou, and Xifengkou, but the group of people who entered the pass at Qiangziling advanced particularly fast and the scale was large enough, so reinforcements must be sent to support.

"Your Majesty, the Marquis of Yi sent troops and brought Yangyi's artillery. But he said that he would go to Pinggu first, and then help Miyun. The guard said to Li Zicheng.

The officials and generals present frowned, mostly puzzled, you know, Zhang Nai is Li Zicheng's absolute confidant, how can he still play tricks in the war?

But Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin looked at each other and smiled, nodded with satisfaction, Liu Zongmin looked around, and said, "Yihou's move is very wonderful. Can't you even see it? ”

Everyone shook their heads, and Liu Zongmin took the horsewhip and pointed to the map to explain.

Pinggu is located in the northeast of Tongzhou, southeast of Miyun, the three cities form a triangle, to go to Pinggu, it is a lot more to walk, but this is an extremely smart approach.

Miyun is located in the middle reaches of the Chaobai River, from Tongzhou to aid Miyun, it must be the closest along the official road in the river valley, but this is not the case now, because Tang Tong before the surrender of Dashun, is the Miyun general army, this deployment of the defense of the Dongyu, Miyun front-line cities, obviously to give up, but Dashun does not have the habit of selling teammates at will, so Li Zicheng left the main force of Tang Tong's department in the capital, let him take 2,000 soldiers to garrison Miyun, and at the same time instructed the relatives of the officers and soldiers of Tang Tong's department to move to the capital for settlement.

There are 7,000 people in Tangtong, and most of their families are in Miyun and the surrounding areas, and as soon as the Tang Tong Department withdrew, many people in Miyun followed suit, resulting in the official road between Tongzhou and Miyun, all of them must be people who fled south.

And the main force of Dashun is the most eastward, that is, in Tongzhou to garrison this batch, and Miyun to the north, deep into the grassland, aid Miyun, the most afraid is that there is an enemy attack in the east of the back road, Zhang Nai led the troops to Pinggu first, if the captives rode into the pass, intercepted the back road of the Miyun department, just met.

Liu Zongmin has fought an old battle, and when he saw the terrain of the mountains and rivers, he understood Zhang Nai's intentions, and he explained a few words, which made everyone suddenly realize.

Miyun, Tang Tong was in a hurry in the yamen, and the Miyun prefect was by his side, constantly urging, and said: "General Tang, hurry up, take advantage of the fact that Dongyu is blocked by the soldiers of Modaoyu, let's go quickly, it's still too late, anyway, the family members are already on the way." ”

"You don't want the dog to bark endlessly, touch your head, although you are still wearing the official robe of the Ming Dynasty, but the Forbidden City has changed the Son of Heaven of Dashun!

He is not so easy to fool, in the Ming Dynasty, we ran away, the court did not dare to do anything to Lao Tzu, but what about Dashun? Without getting an order, fleeing without authorization, abandoning the city, Lao Tzu's head is not enough to cut off. "Tang Tong is not a good temper, and he scolds endlessly.

The prefect also knew this, and said, "But if we wait for the eastern captives to surround us, we will be finished." ”

"Then we have to wait a little longer, at least wait for tomorrow, the news from the capital is that before noon tomorrow, reinforcements will arrive, and the reinforcements will not arrive on schedule, so we will have a reason to withdraw." Tang Tong said.

At this time, a pro-soldier came running and shouted: "Master General, good news, the reinforcements have arrived, it is the Yihou himself who led the cavalry, and it has already reached ten miles away." ”

Tang Tong and the prefect both breathed a sigh of relief, but the prefect said: "General Tang, we have to go to the city gate immediately to greet us, but we can't enter the city as reinforcements." ”

As soon as Tang Tong heard this, he was angry and kicked the prefect's buttocks: "Your grandmother should be the Ming Dynasty now!" ”

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