The three towns of Xuanda, together with more than 10,000 officers and soldiers of Liu Yan's department, set off from Qingdu County early in the morning and arrived at the edge of the Tang River in the afternoon of the same day.

The night of the various departments did not receive the news one after another: Dingzhou Shiqiao was defended by elite soldiers of the Qing army.

So Lu Xiangsheng had already ordered the march to stop, which he was quite surprised, he didn't expect that the Qing soldiers would also defend according to the danger, which is not like the style of the Qing soldiers. Lu Xiangsheng ordered troops to be arranged in a hard river beach not far from the Tang River.

Then all the generals followed Lu Xiangsheng's horse, and they all raised their eyes to look in the direction of Dingzhou on the opposite side. Far away, it seems that you can see the majestic figure of Dingzhou City, Dingzhou City is surrounded by water on three sides, there is an important town in Hebei, known as the world to rush, the city wall is quite solid. There are local commanders of Teng Xiaowei, as well as Shoumu and Zhizhou stationed in the city.

Around the perimeter of the city, you can faintly see a large white camp with red flags, and the Qing soldiers besieging Dingzhou there are the Qing army's white flags, led by the white flag lords Duoduo and Belle Abatai.

The cold wind swept along the river beach, blowing the sound of everyone's clothes and flags hunting, and the whistling whistling across their faces, like a knife cut.

Dingzhou is located in a semi-humid and semi-arid zone, and the winter has always been cold, dry and snowless, and the weather was even colder during the Xiaoice River period at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

In the cold wind, Lu Xiangsheng and the others remained motionless, and Liu Yan also stared at the Qing army camp in the distance and fell into deep thought.

After a long time, Lu Xiangsheng sneered and said: "The slave thief takes the risk and guards, it seems wise, but in fact he is stupid. There are many artillery pieces and birds in my army, and there is only one stone bridge, how can it stop the march of our army? ”

"Today, we will capture the stone bridge, gather troops under the city of Dingzhou, and then fight to the death with the slaves!"

Then Lu Xiangsheng ordered Liu Yan to lead his troops into battle, and ordered artillery to cover the bombardment.

Since Liu Yan led his troops to come to help, Lu Xiangsheng and the generals of various departments have intuitively felt the elite and strong of Liu Yan's troops from the equipment and weather of the new army in Xiahezhai, and then there is the conclusion drawn from the great victory of Yaoshan Mountain Road mentioned in the holy decree.

But whether it is Lu Xiangsheng or the chief military officer of each town, he has never seen the real combat power of Liu Yan's department, and before pursuing a small group of cavalry of the Qing army, Liu Yan only led more than 500 people to rush and kill, which is not counted.

"This time is just to test the real combat power of Liu Yan's department."

Lu Xiangsheng said secretly in his heart.

Liu Yan immediately received the order and rode back to the department to rectify the soldiers and horses.

Soon Lu Xiangsheng and the others also rode back to the army, and the five heavy Hongyi six-pounder guns in the Governor Battalion were pushed to the shore, and the black pressure muzzles were aimed at the enemy on the other side of the shore.

Qian Qiao, the commander of the artillery team in Liu Yanjun's army, did not show weakness, and also pushed out the five tiger cannons under his command. The hundred-meter-wide river channel and the range of the Huzun cannon could not cover and suppress the opposite bank with the shotgun, but it could also hit the Qing soldiers and horses defending the stone bridge.

While the artillerymen were busy, Liu Yan's more than 3,700 soldiers were quietly lined up behind the dense artillery.

It can be seen very clearly that on the opposite side of the stone bridge, there are multiple layers of rejection horses, and the bridge is also covered with thistles, and it seems that along the perimeter of the stone bridge riverbank, there are many trenches. The formation of the Qing soldiers is very incomprehensible.

No matter how they arrange, to convince people, with artillery, birds to open the way.

Compared with the loading method of the Huzun cannon in Liu Yanjun's army, the Hongyi cannon of the Supervisory Battalion is slightly different, the breech is loaded, a large number of groups are used, and a large bullet is wrapped in a wooden red cloth and sent into the abdomen. Then a pack of twelve small bullets was delivered. They also used cranks and screws to adjust the direction of the muzzle, unlike the wooden sleepers used in the Tiger Cannon.

The gunners in the battalion also seem to be quite well-trained, but when Liu Yan saw that their artillery was aiming, he also used a relatively primitive parallax method, estimating the distance with his eyes and thumb.

It's just that at present, this kind of shotgun shooting, there is no need to estimate the distance of the shell landing point, and the artillery is flattened and hit.

Seeing Qian Yan commanding a group of gunners, staring at the friendly troops of the Biao Battalion from time to time, with a competitive rooster-like look, Liu Yan couldn't help but laugh.

Seeing that the gunners on both sides had been arranged, the gunners of the five Hongyi cannons turned the cranks, lowered the muzzles, and tried to aim at the large area of Qing troops and horses on the other side of the bank.

One of the Hongyi cannons was placed not far from the bridge, and the black pressure of the cannon muzzle, facing the rejection horse at the other end of the bridge, you can faintly see the silver mercury armor of the Qing army's Baya Lama soldiers at the end of the rejection horse, as well as the dancing pole and flag on their backs.

"Fire!"

It seemed that at the same time, there was a deafening cannon sound, and a large area of smoke rose up, and one by one the whistling shells rolled towards the opposite bank. In particular, those Hongyi cannons, more than a dozen large and small cannons were fired in one shot, and the scene was even more spectacular.

After the shells were fired, Liu Yan and the others watched the results of the shelling intently. It's a pity that although there was a commotion among the Qing soldiers on the opposite side, they were generally fine. The beach on the opposite bank may have a soft surface, and the shell does not jump very well after hitting the ground, and unless it hits directly, the lethality is a little worse.

Obviously, it is still a little more difficult for these artillery shells to accurately hit small targets that refuse horses. It seems that there are still many Qing soldiers hiding in the trenches, and the shotgun fire of the Huzun cannon has no effect on them.

Only the Hongyi cannon not far from the bridgehead made a result, and the six-pound bomb directly collapsed a large part of the rejection horse, and the cannonball smashed into the rejection horse, not to mention, it jumped directly into the chest of a Baya soldier not far behind, breaking his body into a huge blood hole. The rest of the dozen or so small bullets flew sideways in all directions, jumping on the hard bridge deck, and directly hit a bloody path.

"Pull all the Tiger Zun cannons to the bridge!"

Qian Jian couldn't help cheering and jumping when he saw this, under his order, under the gaze of the friendly troops, a group of gunners of the new army in Xiahezhai pushed five Huzun guns onto the bridgehead, and in the frightened eyes of the soldiers with white flags on the opposite side, they calmly fired scattered bullets.

"Fire!"

In the earth-shattering shouting of the flag general Qian Yuan, the five gunners violently ignited the Tiger Zun cannon.

"Boom!" With a loud bang, a large area of lead shot iron bullets directly swept away several rejection horses on the opposite side of the bridge, accompanied by a large number of screams of the Qing army's Baya soldiers on the other side of the bridge, and their figures rolling back and running.

"Bird's hand, up!"

Liu Yan was overjoyed when he saw this, and immediately shouted an order, and Chen Xun, the former general manager of the hundred generals, led his troops to the front, only to see Chen Xun wave his hand violently, and immediately two teams of bird soldiers pounced on the bridge, and then the bird soldiers of each general, each flag, and each sentinel lined up behind them, waiting for their own participation in the battle.

Only five bird soldiers can walk side by side on the bridge deck, and the bird soldiers of this team immediately hold bird guns after they get to the bridge. The Qing soldiers in front did not shoot bows and arrows, they cleared the bridge of the horses and thistles, a hundred paces ahead, or dozens of steps away after the Qing soldiers appeared, they shot on the bridge, one team after another. The Qing soldiers' bows and arrows were far from threatening them, but their bird guns could break through their heavy armor from a few paces away. Those Qing soldiers, even if they were as fierce as the Bayala soldiers, rushed in batches and only sent them to death. Soon, Wei Han, the former general left outpost, led his troops to occupy the Dingzhou Bridge.

At this time, Wei Han walked to the front, only to see that in front of him was an open plain, a flat official road, along the Dingzhou Bridge to the city of Dingzhou. Scattered from both sides of the stone bridge, dozens of steps away from the river bank, there were several trenches dug in each, and it seemed that the previous Qing soldiers were hiding in the trenches and dodged the shelling.

However, there was no trench dug on the official road in front of him. After occupying the Dingzhou Bridge, Wei Han immediately took the radius of the bridgehead as the key point, set up a protective place, covered it with the sword and shield soldiers of the left outpost, and constantly shot at the Qing soldiers rushing from both sides in front.

Their bird's guns were advantageously able to block the onslaught of the Qing soldiers, and then a group of bird's guns followed. Then, one by one, chariots were pushed up, and this bridgehead was occupied by hard work.

A few hundred steps away from the Dingzhou Bridge, there is a large group of Qing soldiers gathered here, a large sea of red and white flags. In the flag, three huge gold-woven dragon drums are erected high, and the owners of these daqi are one for the white flag master Duoduo, one for Rao Yu Bel Abatai, and the other for the white flag of Baya Lama Zhangjing.

Listen and watch the smoke and shouts over there, as well as the faint deafening sound of birds. Duoduo and Abatai remained silent, and the horizontal flesh on Naba's face was shaking, and the bravery of the Ming army greatly surprised him.

Yu Zhangjing roughly estimated that in this short battle, the Bayala warriors in his battalion had suffered hundreds of casualties, but the Ming army was still attacking step by step, and the sons and daughters under his command were just making useless resistance.

After a long time, Duoduo, the owner of the white flag, said: "For the Ming army, we really can't keep a small heart. ”

Rao Yu Belle Abatai said lightly: "The Ming army has sharp firearms, in fact, there is nothing to be afraid of, and there are many well-armed firearms in the Ming army, so they are like the king of Gong, don't they also descend our Qing Dynasty?" What is terrible is the courage of the department's operations, the strict discipline, from the general to the small army, all have the heart to fight to the death, which is very different from the existence of other Ming armies. ”m.

Duoduo's young face was a little unconvinced, and he said, "In this way, the Ming army of this department is invincible?" In the future, when our warriors of the Great Qing Kingdom encounter this Ming army, will they still have to make a detour? ”

Abatai said: "I'm just saying that when we encounter this Ming army, we need to be careful and cautious, cautious and cautious, and we must not underestimate the enemy, so as not to damage the warriors in the banner!" ”

Duoduo asked, "Then how should I fight when I encounter this Ming army in the future?" ”

Abatai pondered for a long time and said: "Fighting with this Ming army in the field, it is difficult to find their flaws, so we can only give full play to the strengths of our army's iron cavalry, do not confront them head-on, and deal with them after they run out of ammunition and food." ”

Duoduo didn't speak, he was young and vigorous, and he didn't think much of Abatai's words, and he had another layer of worry on his face: "The Ming Kingdom Lu Xiangsheng Department is now in full swing, with an army of 10,000 thousands, we only have 5,000 people under the white flag in Dingzhou City, and less than 2,000 people in armor, asking for help from the fourteenth brother of Gaoyang, I don't know if he will send reinforcements......"

This time, in addition to the two yellow flags of Huang Taiji and his son Haoge, including the Eight Banners of Mongolia, the remaining Qing soldiers of all banners were dispatched, and tens of thousands of auxiliaries followed. However, the main force of the Qing army has been divided into eight ways to attack and plunder the city since Baoding, and it has been in trouble until now, but the troops of every place and each road have been spread.

In the past, the Qing army bullied the Ming army and did not dare to fight in the field, but when it met those who really dared to fight and dare to fight, they were helpless and realized that their troops were too weak. Duoduo only hoped that the reinforcements sent by Dorgon under Gaoyang City would arrive quickly.

Abatai suddenly said: "Fifteenth brother, according to the opinion of brothers, we should withdraw to Gaoyang and join the general who was ordered, the Ming army is vigorous, we don't need to fight with them." ”

Abatai's words aroused the arrogance of Duoduo, and he had always ignored this brother, and at this time, when he heard his discouraged words, he shouted even more: "Retreat? In the eyes of my warriors of the Great Qing Kingdom, how could there ever be a word for retreat? Even though the Ming army has 10,000 troops, after the rise of the Qing Dynasty, which time was not to attack the crowd with outnumbered? I have 5,000 warriors with white flags, and I can kill the Ming army on the opposite side without leaving a piece of armor. Let them also see that the white flag of my Great Qing Kingdom is so powerful that they are frightened and depressed, and they dare not have the heart to fight me head-on again. ”

Looking at Duoduo's young and arrogant face, Abatai let out a sneer in his heart: "Idiot! ”

The sound of the golden drum sounded, and the soldiers with white flags guarding the bridge retreated like a tide, and then gathered under the banner of Duoduo, and then slowly retreated to their Dingzhou camp with a very strict military formation.

Liu Yan led the new army of Xiahezhai and successfully occupied the Dingzhou Bridge, and on the bridge, he ushered in Lu Xiangsheng and others with smiles on their faces.

In the afternoon of the same day, Lu Xiangsheng led 10,000 thousands of Xuanda and Shandong soldiers to pass through the Dingzhou Bridge and set up camp on the Tang River, a few miles away from the Qing army camp. The local Dingzhou Zhizhou and Tengbei guards were overjoyed when they heard that the reinforcements had arrived, and sent supplies, grain and grass to the labor army for several days.

In the evening of the same day, Lu Xiangsheng gathered the generals of various towns to discuss military affairs overnight, and in the camp of the Qing army, Duoduo did not expect reinforcements that night, but received a warrant from Dolgon, asking Duoduo to go to Gaoyang with all his army and quickly evacuate the city of Dingzhou. He had already made up his mind that early tomorrow morning, he would go out of the camp to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army on the opposite side.

The next morning, the weather was still cold, and the wind swept through it in gusts of wind, freezing cold.

From early in the morning, most of the Ming army and Qing soldiers left their respective camps and began to gather in front of their respective barracks. From the opposite side of the enemy, there are flags and soldiers of the other side all over the field.

Some people died, but not completely......