Late Ming Dynasty: Special Forces in 1645

The first day of the siege of Xinzhou by the Zheng army came to a hasty end.

Zheng Jun left behind hundreds of corpses and hastily retreated.

The Restoration Army also suffered more than a dozen casualties. A layer of bricks and stones was dug away from the city wall at the east gate. If Zheng's army continues to dig tomorrow, the city wall will probably collapse.

Liang Zicheng was also feeling troubled. If the three thousand troops guarding the city were all elite veterans, he wouldn't mind going out of the city to fight.

However, only one thousand of these three thousand men were veterans whom Li Chengming had not taken with him; the remaining two thousand were new recruits who had been enlisted for less than ten days, and their combat effectiveness was questionable.

Killing enemy officers would be a significant advantage, but Yan Huidong's drone hovered high in the sky for a long time without finding any enemy generals.

The messengers with signal flags did take care of several, but it wasn't very effective. As soon as one messenger fell, another would immediately take his place. Moreover, the messengers had become smarter; after signaling with the flags, they would immediately disappear into the crowd, making it easy for them to be replaced. Spending more time searching was no longer worthwhile.

Liang Zicheng learned from the walkie-talkie that Li Chengming's side was also embroiled in a fierce battle and could not spare any troops to support Xinzhou City.

Fenshuiguan also dispatched troops. After receiving military support from Fuzhou, Shi Fu personally led 10,000 troops straight to Ehu Town!

Li Chengming chose to take the initiative and engage in battle, setting off an encounter with Zheng's army a few kilometers south of Ehu Town.

Although the number of the Restoration Army was small, they were all veterans who had fought many battles. They had a lot of firearms, cannons and bows and arrows, so Li Chengming dared to use two thousand soldiers to fight against Zheng's ten thousand soldiers!

In this encounter, the fierce general Feng Erlei led a thousand-man team to attack the flank of Zheng's army several times. It looked like they were about to shake Zheng's army formation, but they were blocked by Zheng's superior number of troops.

The battle raged from noon until dusk, and neither side could gain the upper hand for a time!

Because of the large amount of spoils captured, the restorative soldiers were all armored, but they also suffered heavy casualties in this encounter, with 157 killed and more than 300 people unable to fight again.

This battle alone resulted in the loss of 500 men. If two more battles like this were to occur, Li Chengming's restoration army would be essentially wiped out.

Seeing that his own side had suffered heavy casualties, Li Chengming voluntarily withdrew from the battle and led his troops back to Ehu Town to hold their ground.

Compared to Li Chengming, Shi Fu was even more shocked. He witnessed the formidable fighting power of the Restoration Army for the first time. The Restoration Army, with only two thousand men, was able to hold its own against the Zheng Army, which had five times its strength, without being at a disadvantage. In fact, the Restoration Army even had an absolute advantage in terms of casualties!

Shi Fu came with great momentum, but was defeated by the Restoration Army in one battle and lost his temper. Seeing that the Restoration Army took the initiative to retreat, he dared not pursue them any further.

After returning to Ehu Town, Li Chengming called Zhou Lei of Qianshan City and asked him to send another 500 men from the 1,500-strong garrison to support him. He planned to fight Shi Fu's Zheng army again the next day!

Li Chengming's side also faces a formidable enemy and is unable to provide support to Xinzhou City, but sniper Chen Shaoping is stationed in Yushan County, upstream of Xinzhou City.

After occupying Yushan County, Chen Shaoping began recruiting and training soldiers. Due to limited time and resources, he only trained one thousand new soldiers in the past month. Including the veterans he brought with him, Yushan City had a total of two thousand soldiers.

Upon learning of the predicament in Xinzhou City, Chen Shaoping decided to lead the 1,000 veterans and 500 new recruits he had brought with him back to provide support.

Although Chen Shaoping had a thousand veterans under his command, they had only been trained for a long time and had not yet experienced actual combat. Their combat effectiveness was not as good as that of the veterans under Li Chengming's command.

As for equipment, a replica of the Hongyi cannon was moved onto the Yushan city wall. The cannon's performance wasn't very good, and Chen Shaoping didn't intend to take it with him.

There are no muskets, and fewer than fifty archers!

Chen Shaoping led 1,500 soldiers, traveling downstream along the Xinjiang River by bamboo rafts or sampans.

Liang Zicheng was overjoyed to learn that Chen Shaoping had come to his aid.

Although there were only 1,500 troops, it should be noted that Xinzhou City only had 3,000 troops, so Chen Shaoping's 1,500 troops were a great help to Xinzhou City.

However, the four assault team members in Xinzhou City had a great disagreement about whether to send Chen Shaoping into the city to help defend it or to find an opportunity to harass Zheng's army outside the city.

Liang Zicheng and Yan Huidong wanted Chen Shaoping to find an opportunity to harass Zheng's army outside the city, which would not only reduce the pressure on the city's defenders but also inflict more casualties on Zheng's army!

He Mingqiu and Song Yourong disagreed, believing that if Zheng's army launched several more attacks like the one that happened that morning, Xinzhou City would not be able to hold out for more than two days.

The city was short of troops at the time, so it was more inclined to send Chen Shaoping into the city to help defend it.

The two sides argued fiercely, neither willing to back down.

Upon learning that the city was arguing about this, Chen Shaoping said speechlessly, "Did you even ask for my opinion before you started arguing like this?"

Liang Zicheng said through the walkie-talkie, "Tell us your thoughts and opinions. The vote here is two to two, and we're just waiting for your vote."

After a long silence, Chen Shaoping finally said, "I'm also unsure. Why don't we report this to the captain and let him make the decision?"

Liang Zicheng, Yan Huidong, He Mingqiu, and Song Yourong exchanged glances and nodded.

When disagreements are too great, the team leader is asked to make a decision, but no one can really say anything!

Ehu Town is too far from Xinzhou City, so direct communication using a walkie-talkie can only send and receive text messages.

Liang Zicheng turned on the small radio left in the city and called Li Chengming directly. After Li Chengming received the call, Liang Zicheng reported the situation facing Xinzhou City to him.

Li Chengming pondered for a moment, then asked, "Does the enemy have long-range firepower?"

Liang Zicheng replied, "There are a large number of archers and a small number of muskets. Perhaps they came by mountain path, which is why we haven't found any cannons!"

Li Chengming said, "I remember Chen Shaoping only has forty archers. They will be at a disadvantage if they face Zheng's archers and musketeers."

Instruct Chen Shaoping to remain hidden outside the city and avoid being discovered by Zheng's army. Wait until Zheng's army attacks the city before launching a surprise attack from a suitable direction!

"Make sure Yan Huidong's drones coordinate well throughout the entire operation, attacking when necessary and retreating when appropriate."

Liang Zicheng: "Yes, I will do as you instruct, Captain!"

After hanging up the call, Liang Zicheng said happily, "You all heard that, right? This is the captain's order."

Although He Mingqiu and Song Yourong still had objections, they could only agree after Li Chengming spoke.

He Mingqiu said, "The enemy's commander is not simple. I have a feeling that today's attack was just a probe. After all, more than half of the enemy's forces have not yet moved. Tomorrow, they may launch an even more fierce attack!"

Liang Zicheng said, "Our Restoration Army is not to be trifled with. Do you think it was my mistake that I didn't transfer troops from the other city gates to the east gate to help defend the city today?"

Song Yourong hesitated and asked, "So you did this intentionally?"

Liang Zicheng nodded: "I've noticed that too. Although the enemy forces attacking the city today look formidable, they haven't gone all out yet. So I've been holding back and haven't deployed troops from the other city gates. When the time is right, we'll go all out!"

Yan Huidong also spoke up: "Everyone doesn't need to worry too much. I'm right here at the East Gate. Who can understand the battlefield situation better than me? My support for Shao Ping to stay outside the city is naturally because we can't just take the beating without fighting back."

After some discussion, the four people in the city finally reached a consensus and formulated a plan for the next battle.