The sound of striking metal, piercing echoed in the rain curtain, announcing the defeat of another day's assault on the Yuhuatai Heights and the Xiaoling Acropolis outside Nanjing.

In the southeast of the Yuhuatai Heights, four high mounds (artillery forts) have been erected, and even if the cannons on the Yuhuatai are still firing, the people who were captured from the four townships outside Nanjing and the Tuanding who were forcibly requisitioned from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places are still struggling to transport straw bags up these lands and pile them higher. In the muddy water around the mound and Yuhuatai Heights, there were the corpses of fallen regiments, people, and green battalion soldiers.

It was already the early summer of the thirteenth year of Kangxi or the forty-seventh year of Chongzhen, and a gust of wind blew, bringing heavy rain to the battlefield around Nanjing City. This sudden rainstorm brought great trouble to both the offensive and defensive sides.

The land under Yuhuatai has become very muddy, and many potholes have become pools of water, and the captured people and forcibly transferred Tuanding can only wear single clothes, or even bare-chested, against the rain splashed from the air and the cannonballs flying from Yuhuatai from time to time, and build fortifications with hard scalps or piles of earth.

The amount of work to build the earth and the time is tight, and the Eight Banners and the Green Battalion soldiers who are responsible for supervising are urging them very fiercely, and if there is a slight mistake, they will be whipped with a head and face, even if they are strong, it is difficult to hold on for ten days and half a month!

Relying on these fortified land, the Qing army launched wave after wave of fierce attacks on the southern edge of the Yuhuatai Heights since a few days ago.

The highest part of the Yuhuatai Heights is about 30 zhang away from the ground, and it is relatively close to the city wall of the inner city of Nanjing.

Moreover, after occupying Yuhuatai, the south side of Nanjing City was basically locked - the outer city of Nanjing was already dilapidated at this time, and it was too long, and the Qing army at most captured some city gate towers as support points, and there was no possibility of completely controlling the city wall. Therefore, if you want to completely blockade the south of Nanjing, you have to lay down Yuhuatai!

And to blockade the east of the city, at least to control the Acropolis of Xiaoling.

As for the blockade of the west of the city, it is easy to do, just deploy defenses along a branch of the Qinhuai River, there are many branches of the Qinhuai River into the Yangtze River, and it is impossible for the Ming army to deploy defenses.

Therefore, the last two rings of Yue Le's plan to encircle Jiangning are Xiaolingwei and Yuhuatai.

Of course, it would be better if we could capture Xiaoling! Set up a cannon on the filial piety tomb, and you can directly bombard the city wall in the east of the inner city of Nanjing!

However, the Qing army's attack on Yuhuatai encountered greater trouble than piling up earth and building fortifications!

Although the Ming army only dug a deep and wide trench on the southern edge of Yuhuatai, at the same time erected a wooden fence behind the trench, and behind the wooden fence, relying on the trees on Yuhuatai, a circle of sheep and horses was built with straw bags filled with soil.

But behind that wall of sheep and horses, there are countless crossbowmen!

This kind of troops, which were rarely seen on the battlefield of the first Ming and Qing dynasties, are now quite lethal with artillery and musketeers.

The artillery erected on the high place of Yuhuatai is accurate for the Qing army marching in formation, and if it forms a ricochet, it will be really miserable. Sweep a large area!

At the same time, those shield carts that can only move slowly are also excellent targets for them!

After the Qing army's formation was scattered and the shield carts were destroyed one after another, the infantry, which had lost its cover, became the target of crossbowmen and musketeers.

Everywhere along the edge of the trench under Yuhuatai were discarded straw bags—filled with dirt that were used to fill the trenches. However, the people and regiments carrying straw bags were shot by crossbow arrows one after another!

Those people and regiments who were not knocked over by the arrows saw that the situation was not good, so they had to throw away their straw bags and run away on the battlefield crying and screaming. Of course, the green battalion and the Eight Banners of the Qing army who were holding them were not polite, and they were shooting arrows and swords, trying to drive them away and continue to fill the trenches. But at this time they often become targets for musketeers who hide under rain-proof shacks!

The number of musketeers was small, but they were quite accurate, and the Eight Banners and Green Battalion soldiers who shot the escort team also suffered heavy casualties, so they had to retreat in despair.

However, the attacking Qing army did not give up so easily, and was shot back a group, and soon another group would come up.

The bloody battle of Yuhuatai is going on without interruption!

However, the tragic situation of the battle under the Xiaoling Acropolis was even worse than that of Yuhuatai. The Acropolis of Xiaoling is not large, built according to the Purple Mountain, guarding the gate of Xiaoling, and at the same time stuck on the main road to the height of the Purple Mountain. The Purple Mountain is not steep, but the mountain is densely wooded, and it is easy for infantry to penetrate, but it is only south to carry artillery up and use it to bombard the city of Nanjing. Especially the area close to Nanjing City is Zhu Yuanzhang's filial piety mausoleum, and in order to facilitate the filial sons and grandsons of the Ming Dynasty to climb the mountain and sweep the tomb, the filial piety tomb has built a very good road here, and no matter how heavy the red-clothed cannon can easily pull up the highlands of the Purple Mountain.

The third prince of Zhu is really worthy of being Zhu Yuanzhang's filial son and grandson, and he doesn't care about the peace of the ancestors' mausoleum - Daming is almost over again, your ancestors don't hurry up to bless you, and sleep in peace!

Therefore, after the Qing army approached the Xiaoling Acropolis, Zhu Daxiaozi personally led the Fujian artillery under Chen Yonghua to drag eight red-clothed cannons that could shoot 12 catties of cannonballs to the Purple Mountain, and also asked people to transform the gate of Xiaoling, the Golden Gate, and the small fort of the Quartet where the monument of divine merit and holy virtue were stored into artillery forts.

He also said that if he used this cannon mount at the gate of Xiaoling to defend the Ming Dynasty, he would definitely be blessed by Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, and he would keep a hundred shots and a hundred hits when the Tartar soldiers came over - co-author Zhu Hongwu also understands artillery!

But the actual effect is really good!

The solid shells fired by the eight red-coated cannons mounted on the Dajinmen fort and the Shengde Monument fort can cover a large area of land due north, northwest and northeast of the Xiaoling Acropolis, and can also form crossfire with the artillery erected on the Xiaoling Acropolis.

The Qing army did not know that the third prince of Zhu was so filial at first, and wanted to use filial piety as a cover to intersperse between the Purple Mountain and the Xiaoling Acropolis, trying to cut off the communication between the Xiaoling Acropolis and Nanjing City by raiding and occupying the Xiaoling Tomb.

As a result, when the two or three thousand foot cavalry was performing the interspersed mission, they were suddenly bombarded by sixteen red-clothed cannons, and then they were also killed by the Purple Mountain and the Xiaoling Acropolis of Yingtian Regiment and rushed violently, losing more than 1,000 people in a very short period of time. On the narrow strip between Xiaolingwei and Purple Mountain, the corpses of the Qing Army's Green Battalion and the Eight Banners were rotting and stinking!

While the Qing army was making a detour between Xiaolingwei and Purple Mountain, they also sent another roundabout force composed of Green Battalion soldiers and Eight Banner Soldiers to make a detour from the south of Xiaolingwei. As a result, this army was bombarded by the red-coated cannons on the urn city of Chaoyangmen and the red-coated cannons on the south of the Xiaoling Acropolis, and the losses were also not small!

However, this Qing army was composed of the Jiangning Banner Battalion and the Green Battalion who folded their families in Nanjing, and they all went to the battlefield with a belly of blood and hatred. Therefore, after they were bombarded, they actually withstood the counterattack of the Ying Tianfu regimental training and the Dongwang army that rushed out from the Xiaoling Acropolis and the Chaoyangmen Urn City, and occupied a Zhuangzi in the south of Xiaolingwei, and then set up red-coated cannons and cannons on the Xiaoling Acropolis in this area.

After gaining a foothold in the south of the Xiaoling Acropolis, the Qing army began to storm the southeast corner of the Xiaoling Guard to attract the attention of the Xiaoling Guards.

Although it cost a huge amount, this artillery fort that could be used to cover the right flank of the Qing army attacking the eastern wall of Xiaolingwei was finally successfully constructed. It's just that the price is a bit big! Around the fort, the corpses of the people and the regiment were stacked on top of each other.

After the construction of the artillery fort in the northeast direction of Xiaolingwei was completed, the Qing army's attack on the eastern wall of Xiaolingwei also began!

After many days of fierce battles, under the low Xiaoling Acropolis City, all the people walking were damaged shield carts, rushing carts and ladder carts, and there were many people and regiments pushing these vehicles to approach the Xiaoling Acropolis. So it was everywhere, soaked white in the rain. These siege vehicles were either destroyed by the red-coated cannons and red-coated cannons (six or three catties of projectiles) arranged on the Xiaoling Guard, or they were cut off with big axes by the dead soldiers of the Ying Tianfu Regiment who were killed from the Xiaoling Acropolis. Fierce hand-to-hand combat broke out between the armorers on both sides, and many fighters died together in layers.

The eastern wall of Xiaolingwei also suffered a lot of cannonballs, and the upper part of the city wall was full of gaps that were opened by cannonballs. Below the gap, there were all the Eight Banner soldiers, green battalion soldiers and regimental soldiers who were used as cannon fodder by the first two.

Supported by cannons on the two artillery bases in the rear, they either put on one or two layers of cloth iron armor, or only held wooden shields (one layer of armor for the Green Battalion soldiers, two layers of armor for the Eight Banner Soldiers, and no armor for the regimental soldiers), and launched wave after wave of onslaught against the bullets and crossbow arrows rained down from the city wall.

In fact, there are not many musketeers placed on the wall of Xiaoling Guard, there are about 1,000 in the sky, and they are all arquebuses, and they are all arquebuses, which are full of moisture in this rainy day, and they cannot exert much power. This is also the reason why Mang Yitu, who was in charge of commanding the siege battle, dared to take advantage of these rainy days and began to attack Yuhuatai and Xiaolingwei.

However, the huge number of crossbow arrows shot from Yuhuatai and Xiaoling Acropolis smashed Mang Yitu's wishful thinking!

The attack on these two important places outside the city of Nanjing was defeated again and again. Not only did the people and regiments who were responsible for filling in the trenches and acting as meat shields suffer heavy losses, but the green battalion soldiers and Eight Banners of the escort team also suffered many casualties.

After a day's battle, except for the many corpses stacked under Yuhuatai and Xiaoling Acropolis, there was no effect.

Hearing the Jin Ming of the troops, the Qing army, the people, and the regiment on the battlefield all withdrew in mud and water - they will not all be withdrawn, there are always some slippery people and regiments who will take advantage of the opportunity to flee from the battlefield and go around to the bridgehead of the Zhonghe Bridge outside Zhengyang Gate to join the Ming army, and then find the Qing army to take revenge!

However, at this time, Yue Le didn't care that the defenders of Nanjing City might fight more and more. He is not as "axis" as Mang Yitu, after all, his wife and children did not die in Nanjing, if it were not for the mood of a group of Jiangning Banner Army and Green Battalion soldiers who were screaming to slaughter the city, he would have given up the attack immediately after finding out that Xiaolingwei and Yuhuatai were difficult to fight.

Now he didn't even go to Yuhuatai and Xiaolingwei to supervise the battle, but stayed in his Qixia Mountain camp, and studied the gift from Xuzhou just received with Sai Shuo, the deputy minister of the Jiangdong camp, Li Zhifang, the head of the Jiangnan camp, Mu Zhan, the head of the Jiangbei camp, and Gestai, the deputy head of the Jiangxi camp. It's the joint post of Shang Shuying, Shang Kejiao, and Nian Yaoling.

These famous kings and important ministers of the Manchu Qing Dynasty have already read this somewhat fatal post at this time!

Yes, it's deadly!

It may take Li Yat-sen's life, but it is also possible to ask for the lives of a large number of Qing soldiers who went to Yin Li Yat-sen on the battlefield of Xusu, and it is more likely to break the siege of Nanjing.

The reason why it is so fatal is because Shang Shuying, Shang Kejiao, and Nian Yaoling opened up the "Kill Li Plan" not to put on a Hongmen banquet, nor is it a sneak attack by elite soldiers. Shang Shuying has already revealed Li Zhongshan's troop strength - there are tens of thousands of Huai troops, including no less than 20,000 elite and fierce soldiers, and no less than 20,000 soldiers who may be brought to Fuliji.

If you want to be the commander of this army, you naturally have to dispatch the main force of the Qing army in the southeast.

At least 30,000 elite soldiers should be transferred from the four major battalions of Jiangnan, Jiangbei, Jiangdong, and Jiangxi to do this transaction, and it is best to ask for more elite soldiers from the three regimental training envoys of Guide, Tai'an, and Jining, and make up 50,000 to have a great grasp.

But the problem is that 30,000 elite soldiers are withdrawn from the four major battalions in the southeast, northwest and northwest at once, and the four battalions are empty!

Now there are a lot of cannon fodder in the four major battalions, but there are not so many elites!

Among them, the old foundation of the Jiangdong battalion with the strongest troops is the 30,000 elite soldiers brought by Yue Le from Jingzhou, plus more than 10,000 flag soldiers and green battalion soldiers who ran out of Jiangning who lost their families. Later, I received some usable Jiangnan Green Camps, gathered 50,000 people, and was sorted out by Yue Le, and the five towns of Jiangdong Daying were sorted out.

There is no elite in the Jiangbei camp, even the navy is okay, but the Jiangbei navy has no way to defeat the Yingtian navy on the river near Jiangning - although the scale of the Yingtian navy is not large, but the strength should not be underestimated, the main warships of the Yingtian navy are all galleys that come in from the sea, and the artillery on the ships are all three-pound copper cannons produced by the Macao Artillery Factory!

The total strength of the Jiangxi battalion is as high as 80,000! However, most of them are the original Anhui Green Battalion and Jiangxi Green Battalion, and only the former military town, rear military town, Zhongjun town, and Zuojun town of the Jiangxi battalion that were expanded on the basis of the new army of the green battalion originally stationed in Hunan are elite. But three of these elite towns must be held in Jiujiang, Nanchang, and Anqing, and only one town can maneuver.

However, this town suffered serious losses in the battles of attacking Quarry Rock, Dangtu City, and Dashengguan, and its vitality was damaged, and now it can only bluff in the west of Nanjing City, and can no longer be used to death. In addition, Jieshu sent his deputy, the old villain who had been Dorgon's guard, and the deputy head of the Jiangxi battalion, Geste, to bring more than 10,000 soldiers from the Jiangxi battalion who participated in the siege of Jiangning. I can make up 20,000 in total.

The foundation of the Jiangnan camp is the 3,000 soldiers (according to Kangxi's order) that Zhang Zhifang insisted on coming from Fuquan and some Zhejiang green battalions, with a total of more than 10,000 people who can fight, and there are still some regiments or something.

Therefore, the veterans of the Qing army camp besieging Nanjing now say that there are 100,000 (including the naval army), but it seems that there are only 30,000 that can be drawn out for the "Battle of Xusu".

And after these 30,000 people were withdrawn, the Jiangning encirclement was not very solid.

But you can't do it without troops!

Because Yue Le did not send troops, it was possible that Shang Kejiao and Nian Yaoling would really surrender, and they had already contacted Wang Wei Datou under Shang Shuying's matchmaking, and the conditions were all negotiated.

If Yue Le didn't dare to send troops to fight Wang Datou, it would mean that Yue Le, who had 100,000 troops (the Qing army besieging Nanjing), was afraid of Wang Datou, so what were they struggling with a total of 3,000 soldiers? Isn't it fragrant to be an earl of Daming?

And once Xuzhou surrendered. Then the transportation will be completely interrupted, and the "return route" of the Qing army in the southeast will also be cut off, which is more fatal than the canal being cut off.

So Yue Le had to bet on it!

Bet now, it is possible to win, maybe you can turn the tables around.

If you don't place a bet now. It's hard to say whether there will be a chance to bet after that!

Thinking of this, Yue Le just sighed and looked at the few people in front of him: "The Jiangdong battalion sent 25,000 troops. You still need to pay another 5,000, so you can spread it. In addition, this king still wants to besiege Jiangning, and he really can't leave. Which of you would like to lead troops to Xuzhou and Suzhou? ”

"Zhongtang, Shang Kejiao and Nian Yaoling have all agreed to surrender, but the concubines seem to be unwilling! They promised too much, they didn't ask for much of a reward, and they didn't hand over the hostages immediately. Although most of their family members are in Beijing, there are still some concubines and relatives around them.

Therefore, the concubine thinks that they may be cheating, and you must be on guard against them. ”

It is Shang Shuying who is persuading Li Zhongshan to be careful about being able to teach and be old.

She had already returned to Suzhou from the city of Xuzhou, which had been taken by the Ming army not long ago, and Li Yat-sen's Chinese army had infiltrated Suzhou.

"Defense?" Li Zhongshan looked at Shang Shuying and thought: What do you mean by being a demon girl? Who exactly are you going to sell?

"That's right! Prevent them from sneak attacks. Shang Shuying said, "It is even more important to prevent them from asking Yue Le for troops. Zhongtang, you might as well give Jian Guo a notebook and ask him to pay attention to the changes in the number of Tartars outside Nanjing. If there are fewer Tartars, you have to break the siege of Nanjing as soon as possible! ”

You demon girl still sold me to Yue Le? Li Zhongshan understood a little, and Shang Shuying made a series of schemes, on the one hand, selling his movements to the Qing army. On the one hand, he sold Yue Le to the third prince of Zhu, the Ming Dynasty, so that the third prince of Zhu had the possibility of relieving the siege of Nanjing.

How does she do it, it can probably be called a seller seeking loyalty, right?

The seller should fight for loyalty!

(End of chapter)