Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 168 General Xiang, you must hold on!

February 7 night
"Everyone, be alert. Don't wait until the Ming army gets close to you."

Wang Siwa crouched down and patrolled among the soldiers, and slapped anyone who seemed confused.

After returning to the camp yesterday, the Tartars did not punish them for their defeat, but sent this army to ambush near the artillery position that night.

In this regard, military generals such as Wang Siwa and Li Benshen were naturally grateful, and even the soldiers felt that the Jurchen nobles were very generous.

Unfortunately, after guarding all night, there was no movement from the Ming army. This situation made Wang Siwa, who wanted to redeem himself for his crime, a little disappointed.

To be honest, he was not convinced of his defeat in that battle.

Although the combat power of that team of Ming army's heavy armored soldiers was indeed strong, when he recalled it after the war, he felt that most of their strength lay in their solid defense and heavy attacks, while their tactics and coordination had a bit of the meaning of gangsters.

If the two armies had fought in a fair fight, even though their own soldiers' equipment and combat effectiveness were much weaker, they would not have been defeated like that.

Although he thought so, when the order to send them to guard for another night was issued, Wang Siwa couldn't help but murmur in his heart: If the Ming army doesn't come tonight, do I have to guard tomorrow? If the Ming army doesn't come, do I have to guard it all the time?

Of course, he only dared to think about these complaints in his heart, and he didn't dare to show too much even in front of Li Benshen.

After all, even Li Benshen, who was at the bottom of the noble family, was six or seven levels lower than him. How could Wang Siwa, a mere captain, dare to complain in front of him?
just
"Captain, the climate here is not as good as that in my hometown."

"Ah."

After finishing his patrol, Wang Siwa was about to leave, but the sentry officer chased him and started talking nonsense about nothing.

After all, he has followed him for many years, so he knows what this guy is going to say as soon as he sees his tongue.

After responding casually, he went straight to the next sentry post without any further expression.

"Captain, I heard that the prince got sick because of this damn weather. You should wear more clothes to protect your health."

"Ah."

Seeing that Wang Siwa ignored him, the sentry didn't care and continued to follow him and talk nonsense.

However, despite his tireless efforts, he did not receive a real response from his captain, which made the sentry feel helpless.

"Captain, you don't have to guard tomorrow."

"How do I know?"

"We lost so many brothers yesterday, but we didn't even have half a day to rest. If this continues, I'm afraid the soldiers will cause trouble."

After guarding for two consecutive nights, Wang Siwa's mood was naturally not very good. When he heard the slightly threatening words from his sentry, he immediately stopped and turned to look over.

"Make trouble, make trouble now, don't hide your abilities."

After being scolded, the sentry officer was stunned for a moment, and then he said with a smile as if he had thought of something: "I just said that, how can it really cause trouble?"

When they were on the Ming army's side, this tactic was tried and tested. Any general with one or two hundred men would use it to ask for some benefits from his superiors.

But things are different now. There are civil officials watching over the Ming Dynasty, and the generals can hardly pass their influence through layers of regulations to the soldiers. The generals suppress one level above them, and in the end they can only control the generals under their command, while the lowest-level soldiers only obey the orders of centurions and sentry officers.

As long as the subordinate generals are unwilling to obey orders, the superiors will have no other choice but to use trickery to physically eliminate them.

As a result, threatening superiors with various reasons became commonplace for military generals.

But when we got to the Qing Dynasty.
As long as you dare to make trouble, the Eight Banners soldiers will dare to kill you. The most important thing is that they have the ability to kill.

Under such circumstances, the sentry officer could only talk about it, how could he really allow the soldiers to cause trouble?

"The military order has come down from above. We will resume firing tomorrow."

"Then we don't have to guard it anymore?"

"Let's just get through this night first."

The sentry officer was visibly relieved after hearing these words.

Although it was not very cold here at night, the moisture from the ground still seeped into their bones in the wilderness, and these soldiers who came from Guanzhong were naturally extremely impatient.

But he didn't feel happy for long, as Wang Siwa's words caught up with him and startled him.

"Will something happen tonight?"

“This is not obvious”

"Whoosh!"

"Whoosh!"

Hearing the sentry's question, Wang Siwa was about to explain a few words to him, but before he could say half of his words, there were bursts of breaking air sounds coming from the other side.

"Enemy attack!"

In this situation, he knew how to deal with it. He shouted and then lowered his body to the ground.

what happened? !
Why did the Ming army come from behind? !
As he tried to determine the direction from which the arrow came, Wang Siwa, who had been planning to explain things to the sentry officer a while ago, suddenly became flustered.

The so-called mantis stalks the cicada and the oriole follows behind.

His army originally planned to ambush the Ming army, but after guarding for two nights, they didn't see any trace of the Ming army, and he was the one who was ambushed.

In this situation, he could naturally think that the Ming army had sneaked in by taking advantage of the terrain and the support of the people, but his side had come from afar, and the generals were unable to prepare in advance because of the frequent incidents in recent days.

Now that I think about it, weren't all the actions of the Ming army a preparation for this?
Since the generals had lost the battle in their plan, it was impossible for him to just wait for death here according to his original plan.

"go!"

He shouted to the side, but got no response. When he turned his head, he saw that the unlucky guy was shot in the neck by a random arrow in the dark.

"Click, click, click."

The blood that kept pouring into his throat from the wound made the sentry, who was still chattering a moment ago, only able to raise his hands slightly but unable to utter a word.

Seeing this situation, although Wang Siwa was anxious, he also knew what the emperor wanted to tell him.

As they had been comrades in arms for more than ten years, he naturally wanted to make some distinction. However, just as he moved closer to the sentry, he heard a noisy sound of footsteps over there.

In this situation, how could he not know that the noise was made by a large group of people?
Then he hardened his heart and left the sentry who was not yet dead and ran straight towards the running position.

"Chase!"

Although the Qing army's reaction was somewhat beyond Fang Yuanke's expectations, it was also reasonable.

After all, if they could really launch a counterattack under such a situation, they would definitely be a powerful army in the world. How could they surrender to the Tartars without even fighting?

"Don't worry about them, just charge!"

It was the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, and it was pitch dark.

In this situation, even if someone suddenly shouted, the others would be scared half to death, let alone so many Ming soldiers who were willing to chop people with knives suddenly jumped out?
Those who saw the opportunity early, such as Wang Siwa, had already run a long way away, but those who saw the opportunity later could only drop their weapons and kneel on the ground with their heads in their hands. Although Fang Yuanke's original mission was just a feint attack, since the enemy army was in such a state of collapse, how could he stop here?

Since joining Zhu Cilang's army, Fang Guoan's troops had only survived the battles with the help of friendly forces. Such a record really made the young man Fang Yuanke feel a little aggrieved.

He thought that it would be fine if they were not strong enough, but in the previous battle they were stabbed in the back by the rebel king, and in the next battle they were not even well-equipped.

Although he did not reveal anything in front of others, he still had the urge to prove the strength of his department in front of His Highness.

Don't think that this is just a personal emotion. Proving the strength of the unit means showing your own value in front of the commander. For the superiors, valuable subordinates are worthy of more benefits.

The still young Fang Yuanke would naturally seize every opportunity for this.

"Young Marshal! Do you want to slow down for a moment?"

"You guys wait for our headquarters to be on guard, and others continue to charge!"

When Fang Yuanke was charging into battle, he heard a shout from the general beside him. He stopped and looked around, and finally felt that they should make a concerted effort to break through the Tartar artillery position.

In your Highness's plan, our attack at night is like a louse on a bald man's head.

Based on this, the Qing army would not only prepare for this situation, but would also most likely add an additional layer of arrangements to counter the Ming army’s response.

In this way, the final plan became that Fang Yuanke's troops would go around the Qing army's bait, and then lure out the Qing army's real ambush and then defeat it by the guards.

But according to Fang Yuanke's observation, there was only this group of Qing troops lying in ambush here, and there was no sign that they had made any deeper arrangements.

Under such circumstances, it was already a warning for him to leave a group of troops behind to be on guard. How could he really stop the pursuit and let the Qing army catch their breath?

After settling down, Fang Yuanke started to chase after him again.

Although he did not find anything unusual around him, he felt a little strange in his heart: the guards should have appeared, so why was there no movement at all?
Thinking of this, he didn't care too much. After all, it was dark and it was expected that he would take some detours. But when he was about to catch up with the enemy, he saw a soldier in front of him stopped and looked into the distance.

"What are you looking at!? Why don't you chase them?!"

The soldiers were familiar with Fang Yuanke's voice. After hearing the question, he hesitated and answered, "Young Marshal, there are sounds of killing over there."

"Killing sound?"

Looking in the direction the soldier pointed, Fang Yuanke discovered after some analysis that that seemed to be the direction the guards were detouring.

Oops!

The Tatars' other deployment is not here, but on the side of the guards!
What should be done?

Fang Yuanke was conflicted.

Morally, the guards had saved them twice, so he should go to rescue them first; but logically, destroying the Qing army's artillery positions was the most important task tonight, so how could he sacrifice his public duty for personal reasons?

"rush!"

Finally, Fang Yuanke shouted and rushed towards the Qing army position about a hundred steps away, but at the same time he kept repeating in his heart: "General Xiang, you must hold on!"

Time goes back a moment.

Xiang Rensheng and his entourage left Hangzhou City through the west gate at about nightfall.

Afterwards, they made quite a big circle before arriving at a place a mile away from the Qing army's artillery position.

According to the task assigned by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, they had to wait until Fang Yuanke had lured out all the Qing army ambushes before attacking. However, when there was a commotion at the artillery position, they discovered that there was a Qing army hiding not far from them.

Faced with this situation, Xiang Rensheng's first reaction was whether he had been discovered by the Qing army. After seeing that the other party seemed to be normal, he began to suspect whether the Qing army had other plans and deliberately allowed himself to be discovered.

However, such suspicion did not last long. After all, he was leading his troops to sneak into the vicinity of the enemy's formation, so it was natural for him to be careful. However, the Qing army was near his own formation, so he naturally had to be a little lax in hiding his tracks.

After realizing this, Xiang Rensheng no longer hesitated and prepared to kill the enemy from behind as soon as he made a move.

But who would have thought that when this Qing army moved, they did not go to the position to provide support, but instead moved towards Hangzhou with their thieves naked.

Only at this point did he truly understand the Qing army's plan.

How could defending the artillery position be more direct than attacking Hangzhou?
With this in mind, Xiang Rensheng also realized that the enemy's goal was to capture Hangzhou, and their number must be much greater than the so-called ambush troops.

"You must return to the city and report immediately."

He whispered something to the soldier beside him, and then passed down the order to prepare for battle.

The situation is now very clear. Fang Guoan's elite troops are already attacking the Qing army's artillery positions, and His Highness's guards have all followed him out of the city.

Apart from the more than 10,000 useless recruits under Li Yongmao, there were only 3,000 to 2,000 men under Fang Guoan who could go into battle.

Without any preparation, it seemed impossible to stop the Tatar attack with such little force.

Thinking this way, it seems that there is only one way to go.

Delay the Tartar advance as much as possible to buy time for arrangements in the city.

"Brothers! His Highness has treated us well. Even if we die here today, we cannot let the Tartars reach the city safely! Kill!"

At the command, more than a thousand guards rushed out from their hiding places and attacked the Qing army that was heading towards the city.

"Oh!"

"Oh!"

"Oh!"

The sound of more than a thousand heavily armored infantrymen stomping on the ground was almost like thunder and cannon fire, causing the Qing soldiers to look up at the sky.

"Enemy attack!!!"

"Form a formation!!!"

As the generals shouted, the soldiers realized that they had fallen into an ambush by the Ming army.

But when someone was about to retreat back, another sword mercilessly chopped across his neck, and then, with a stream of hot blood, it rushed straight to the next target.

"Those who run away from battle will die!"

Seeing that some soldiers were planning to escape before the Ming army arrived, Li Benshen would not show mercy. He killed two of them in succession and ordered his personal soldiers to enforce military law on the battlefield.

It was just a night march, and the team was very long. Even if he tried his best, he could only maintain the stability of the three or two thousand troops around him. As for the others, he felt that he was out of reach.

"Admiral Li, there aren't many soldiers in Hangzhou. There must be only one or two thousand soldiers hiding here. I'll watch from here. You take your soldiers to stabilize the front line."

Hearing this, Li Benshen hesitated for a moment, but when he saw Kong Youde's slightly threatening look, he had no choice but to follow the order.

"Order!"

(End of this chapter)