Late Ming Dynasty: Special Forces in 1645

The tens of thousands of civilians captured by the Jin army were rescued, and the elite soldiers guarding the civilians were also annihilated.

How exactly did the Restoration Army manage to do that? Jin Shenghuan couldn't figure it out.

First of all, Jin Shenghuan's plan was very secretive, and very few people knew about it.

In order to catch the defenders of Qianshan City off guard, Jin Shenghuan only ordered his troops to plunder the people yesterday and drove them to hide in a valley.

That valley is far from major roads and is not easy to find. If a large number of people are not sent out to search, you may not be able to find it even in ten days.

Unexpectedly, the Xingfu Army found the valley that very night and quickly dispatched troops to annihilate the 2,300 elite soldiers sent out by Jin Shenghuan.

After much deliberation, even the most foolish Jin Shenghuan realized that there was a problem within their ranks; someone had tipped off the Restoration Army.

Jin Shenghuan's eyes flickered, and he summoned Wang Deren.

Wang Deren and Jin Shenghuan are on the same boat, so it's unlikely that Wang Deren would betray Jin Shenghuan, but the situation is different for Wang Deren's subordinates.

Wang Deren has been having a tough time lately. His men are mostly former subordinates of Wang Tizhong. In the two previous sieges, Wang Tizhong's former subordinates sent out the most troops and suffered the most casualties. They believe that Jin Shenghuan and Wang Deren are to blame and that they deliberately sent them into the line of fire. As a result, they are becoming increasingly resentful of Jin Shenghuan and Wang Deren.

After the war, Wang Deren failed to advocate for the interests of his subordinates. His former troops under Wang Tizhong suffered from food shortages, which caused the lower and middle-ranking officers and soldiers to harbor resentment towards Wang Deren. They began to outwardly comply with Wang Deren's military orders but inwardly defy them, preventing Wang Deren's orders from leaving the camp.

After discussing it for a long time, Jin Shenghuan and Wang Deren determined that it was Wang Tizhong's former subordinates who betrayed them and secretly colluded with the Restoration Army.

Although there is no evidence, the problem of Wang Tizhong's former subordinates must be resolved sooner or later, otherwise they will turn against us one day.

The original plan was to launch another large-scale siege today, but the plan was disrupted, so it is impossible to launch the siege today.

Jin Shenghuan had been unhappy with the restoration army in Ehu Town for a long time. Last time, he sent two thousand troops to launch a probing attack, which was easily repelled. For the next ten days or so, the two armies were at peace.

The reason why Ehu Town was not touched was because Jin Shenghuan focused his main efforts on Qianshan City. However, as it turned out, Qianshan City was a tough nut to crack.

Since Qianshan City is difficult to attack and the army has already assembled, let's send troops to Ehu Town!

This was the result of Jin Shenghuan's discussion with Wang Deren.

Changing the target of the attack was no small matter, but the Jin army's garrison was only about ten kilometers away from Ehu Town, which could be reached in an hour. Although Jin Shenghuan's decision was made on a whim, it was not an impulsive act.

They mobilized 25,000 troops to attack Ehu Town. Since there were no civilians left, they let Wang Tizhong's old troops lead the charge.

If the battle goes smoothly and we can capture Ehu Town, that would be ideal. If not, we should take advantage of the heavy casualties suffered by Wang Tizhong's old troops, scatter them, and then transfer troops to replenish the losses of other units.

......

Zhou Lei got up early and went up to the city wall. He not only mobilized all the restoration troops to be on high alert, but also called on the able-bodied men in the city to help defend the city.

But after waiting for a long time, the Jin army did not attack the city.

Zhou Lei had a guess: all the people Jin Shenghuan had kidnapped had been rescued, the plan had been ruined, and it was possible that he would abandon the siege today.

However, Yan Huidong saw from the drone that Jin Shenghuan's army had still gathered and had not dispersed for a long time, and he didn't know what Jin Shenghuan wanted to do.

After waiting for a while, they saw Jin Shenghuan's assembled army move, but instead of heading towards Qianshan City, they went east.

Yan Huidong's expression changed, and he exclaimed in surprise, "They've headed east? Isn't that towards Ehu Town?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Lei quickly took out his walkie-talkie to call He Mingqiu, but the call failed several times. Frustrated, he said, "Is the walkie-talkie out of power?"

The commando team had two hand-cranked generators and one solar charging panel.

Chen Shaoping took the solar charging panel to Yushan City, left one hand-cranked generator in Xinzhou City, and brought the other hand-cranked generator to Qianshan City.

In other words, He Mingqiu's walkie-talkie needs to be taken to Qianshan City to be charged.

Yan Huidong asked, "When was his walkie-talkie charged?"

Zhou Lei thought for a moment and said, "It's been half a month since Jin Shenghuan arrived."

Yan Huidong shook his head and said with a wry smile, "It's not bad that he's managed to hold on for so long. Write a note down and I'll take it to him using a drone, and bring his walkie-talkie over with me as well."

Zhou Lei nodded in agreement; this was the only way.

The problem is that Yan Huidong's drone doesn't have enough battery power to make a round trip to Ehu Town, and he needs to come back and charge it for half an hour.

So, the drone took off from Qianshan City half an hour later, and landed in Ehu Town about seven or eight minutes later.

He Mingqiu arrived at the place where the drone landed, took the note off the drone, opened it, and his expression changed.

He muttered to himself, "Twenty-five thousand people have come to Goose Town? Tsk tsk, Jin Shenghuan thinks too highly of my Goose Lake Town."

It was only then that He Mingqiu realized his walkie-talkie was out of power, probably due to frequent use since last night.

After attaching the walkie-talkie to the drone and watching it fly away, He Mingqiu began to gather his troops to prepare to intercept Jin Shenghuan's army.

The town of Ehu has a total of 3,500 troops, plus 13 new cannons, 300 new muskets, and five Hongyi cannons, more than 20 tiger-squatting cannons and small cannons captured from Zheng's army. Its firepower is sufficient and should be able to hold off the Jin army for some time.

If we only defend and don't attack, and hold out for just one more day, Xinzhou City will send troops out tomorrow. With the captain's strength, it shouldn't be a big problem to directly defeat these 25,000 Jin soldiers.

Although he had been up all night and hadn't had much rest, He Mingqiu, having figured out the key point, was no longer flustered, but rather felt a little excited.

He Mingqiu shouted, "Pass down the order: be on high alert! Load the muskets and cannons with ammunition in advance and bring the enemy close to fire!"

More than a month of arduous training—the time has come to see the results!

An hour later, Jin Shenghuan's 25,000-strong army crossed the Qianshan River and arrived at Ehu Town.

Jin Shenghuan had long ago deployed a large number of scouts around Ehu Town to monitor its every move. Although many of these scouts were killed by the Restoration Army, Jin Shenghuan persevered and replaced them with one as soon as one was eliminated.

After a while, He Mingqiu got annoyed. He would get rid of those he saw on the spot, and ignore those he didn't see. He thought to himself, "I'll just stay in Ehu Town. Come and fight me if you dare!"

Now the Jin army has really come to attack Ehu Town, and they have been scouting Ehu Town for a long time. Jin Shenghuan is very familiar with the terrain of Ehu Town and the deployment of the Xingfu Army.

However, after much discussion, Jin Shenghuan and his advisors could only conclude that the troops in Ehu Town were insufficient, and they could not find any other weaknesses in the Restoration Army.

Insufficient troops? After the two defeats at the gates of Xinzhou, it was clear to everyone that the Xingfu Army had sharp firearms and fierce soldiers. You couldn't defeat the Xingfu Army without more than three times the number of troops!

Firepower deployment? The artillery of the Restoration Army is extremely flexible. Five or six people can push it around, and it can stop and fire immediately. The wheels of the carts carrying the cannons are made of steel, and there is no need for gun emplacements. So there are no weak points in the firepower!

What the Jin army feared most was the new type of cannon, which could shoot far, accurately, load quickly, and was very powerful. The Jin army had no way to counter it.

Especially in Ehu Town, although there are no city walls, the new cannons have no blind spots, which gives Jin Shenghuan a real headache.

Therefore, after the army arrived at Ehu Town, the Jin army did not launch an attack immediately, but instead surrounded the Xingfu Army's garrison.