Xuandasan Town, together with more than 10,000 officers and soldiers under Liu Yan's command, 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.
All the ministries sent back news one after another at night: Dingzhou Stone Bridge was defended by elite soldiers of the Qing Dynasty.
So Lu Xiangsheng had already ordered to stop the march. He was quite surprised by this. He did not expect that the Qing soldiers would defend according to the danger. This was not like the style of the Qing soldiers. Lu Xiangsheng ordered the troops to line up in a wilderness on a hard river beach not far from the Tang River.
Then all the generals followed Lu Xiangsheng's horse and looked towards the opposite direction of Dingzhou. From a distance, it seems that the majestic figure of Dingzhou City can be seen. Dingzhou City is surrounded by a city on three sides and surrounded by water on one side. It faces an important town in Hebei Province and is known as the strategic center of the world. The city walls are quite strong. There was a commander of Teng Xiang Guard in the area, as well as Shou Mu and Zhizhou garrisoned in the city.
Around the city, one could vaguely see a large white camp with red flags. The Qing soldiers besieging Dingzhou there were the Qing army with white flags, and their leaders were Duduo and Belle Abate, the leaders of the white flags.
The cold wind swept along the river beach, making everyone's clothes rustle, and the whistling wind blew across their faces, causing pain like a knife cut.
Dingzhou is located in a semi-humid and semi-arid zone. Winters have always been cold, dry, and less snowy. During the Little Ice Age in the late Ming Dynasty, the weather became even colder.
In the cold wind, Lu Xiangsheng and others remained motionless, while 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 slaves and thieves are defending at the risk. They seem wise, but in fact they are stupid. There are many artillery and cannons in our army, and a mere stone bridge, how can it stop the progress of my army?"
"We will capture the stone bridge today, gather our troops under Dingzhou City, and then fight to the death with the slave thieves!"
Lu Xiangsheng then ordered Liu Yan to lead his troops into battle, and ordered artillery to cover the bombardment.
Since Liu Yan led his troops to come for reinforcements, Lu Xiangsheng and the generals' understanding of the elite strength of Liu Yan's troops was intuitively felt from the equipment and weather of the new army in Xiahe Village, and also from the great victory on the Yaoshan Mountain Road mentioned in the imperial edict. the conclusion.
But neither Lu Xiangsheng nor the chief military officers of each town had ever seen with their own eyes the real combat power of Liu Yan's troops. Previously, when chasing a small group of Qing cavalry, Liu Yan only led more than 500 people to follow and kill them, which was not counted. .
"This time is just a chance to test the true combat power of Liu Yan's troops."
Lu Xiangsheng thought to himself.
Liu Yan immediately accepted the order and rode back to his headquarters to reorganize his troops.
Soon Lu Xiangsheng and others also rode back to the army. Five heavy Hongyi six-pound guns in the Dubiao camp were pushed to the shore, and their dark muzzles were pointed at the enemy on the other side of the shore.
Qian Qian, the flag commander of the artillery team in Liu Yan's army, showed no signs of weakness and also pushed out the five tiger cannons under his command. The river is a hundred meters wide, and with the range of the Tiger Gun, although the shotgun shells cannot cover and suppress the other side, they can still hit the Qing troops defending the stone bridge.
While the artillerymen were busy, Liu Yan's more than 3,700 soldiers lined up quietly behind the dense artillery.
It can be clearly seen that on the opposite side of the stone bridge, there are multiple layers of Juma. The bridge is also covered with caltrops. It seems that there are multiple ditches along the edge of the stone bridge river bank. The formation of the Qing soldiers is very difficult to understand.
No matter how they arrange it, they can convince people with force and use artillery and blunderbuss to open the way.
Compared with the loading method of the Hu Zun cannon in Liu Yan's army, the Hongyi cannon of Dubiao camp is slightly different. It is loaded in the front chamber, using a large number of bullets, and one big bomb is wrapped in wooden red cloth and sent into the abdomen. Then a pack of twelve small bombs was sent in. They also use cranks and screws to adjust the direction of the muzzle, unlike the Tiger Gun that uses wooden sleepers.
The gunners in the Supervisor Battalion seemed to be quite well-trained, but Liu Yan saw that when they aimed their artillery, they still used the relatively primitive parallax method to estimate the distance with their eyes and thumbs.
It's just that for the current shotgun shooting, there is no need to estimate the distance of the cannonball's impact point. The artillery can be fired flatly.
Liu Yan couldn't help but smile when he saw Qian Qian commanding a group of gunners and glaring at the friendly troops of Supervisory Camp from time to time with an expression as competitive as a rooster.
Seeing that the gunners on both sides had completed their arrangements, the gunners of the five Hongyi cannons turned the cranks, lowered the muzzles, and tried their best to aim at the large Qing army and Juma on the other side of the bank.
One of the Hongyi cannons was placed not far from the bridge entrance. Its dark muzzle faced the Juma at the other end of the bridge. You could faintly see the shining silver armor of the Qing army's Baja soldiers at the other end of the Juma. And the pole flags dancing on their backs.
"fire!"
It seemed that at the same time, there was a deafening sound of artillery and a large smoke rose, and the roaring shells rolled towards the other side. Especially those red cannons, which fired more than a dozen large and small cannons with one shot, the scene was even more spectacular.
After the shells were fired, Liu Yan and others watched the results of the shelling intently. Unfortunately, although the Qing soldiers on the opposite side made a commotion, they were generally fine. The surface of the riverbank on the other side may be relatively soft, and the cannonballs will not jump well after landing. Unless they hit the ground directly, the kill rate will be a little worse.
Obviously, it is still difficult for the shells of these artillery guns to accurately hit small horse-resistant targets. There seemed to be many Qing soldiers hiding in the trenches, and the shotgun fire from the Tiger Cannon had no effect on them.
Only the Hongyi cannon not far from the bridgehead had any success. The six-pound shell directly knocked down a large section of the Juma. The cannonball smashed the Juma away and jumped directly into a baga not far behind. A huge bloody hole opened in La Bing's chest. The remaining dozen or so small bullets flew in all directions, bouncing on the hard bridge floor and creating a bloody path.
"Pull all the Tiger Cannons to the bridge!"
Qian Qian couldn't help but jump for joy when he saw this. Under his order and under the watchful eyes of the friendly forces, a group of Xiahezhai New Army artillerymen pushed five tiger cannons onto the bridge. On the opposite side, Ba Ya la soldiers with white flags were horrified. In their eyes, they took the shotgun calmly.
"fire!"
Amid the earth-shattering orders from Qian Qian, the five gunners suddenly lit the Tiger Cannon.
There was a loud "Boom!" and a large area of lead pellets and iron bullets directly wiped out several horse-repelling horses on the opposite side of the bridge. Accompanied by the screams of a large number of Qing army Baya La soldiers on the other side of the bridge, and they The figure crawling back and running.
"Sniper gunman, come on!"
Liu Yan was happy when he saw this, and immediately gave an order. Chen Xun, the former general manager, led his troops at the front. Chen Xun waved his hand suddenly, and two teams of gun soldiers immediately rushed to the bridge. Teams of gun soldiers with flags and sentries lined up behind them, waiting for their participation in the battle.
Only five cannon soldiers could walk side by side on the bridge. After the team of bird cannon soldiers stepped onto the bridge, they immediately held the cannons in their hands. If the Qing soldiers in front did not shoot any bows and arrows, they would clear away the horses and iron caltrops on the bridge. When the Qing soldiers appeared a hundred or dozens of steps ahead, they would shoot on the bridge, firing one group at a time. Continuously. The Qing soldiers' bows and arrows pose no threat to them from a distance, but their muskets can break through their heavy armor from a few steps away. Those Qing soldiers, even with the fierceness of Baya's soldiers, would only end up dying if they rushed in batches. Soon Wei Han, the former general left sentry general, led his troops to occupy Dingzhou Bridge.
At this time, Wei and Han walked to the front and saw an open plain in front of them. A flat official road led directly to the Dingzhou City along the Dingzhou Bridge. Scattered from both sides of the stone bridge, several trenches were dug dozens of steps away from the river bank. It seemed that the previous Qing soldiers were hiding in the trenches to avoid shelling.
However, no trenches were dug on the official road in front of us. After occupying the Dingzhou Bridge, the Wei and Han Dynasties immediately set up a defensive position around the bridge head as the main point. They used the sword and shield soldiers on the left sentry to cover the situation and continuously shot at the Qing soldiers rushing from both sides in front.
Their cannons effectively blocked the attack of the Qing soldiers, and then groups of cannon soldiers followed. Afterwards, another chariot was pushed up one by one, and the bridgehead location was already occupied by labor.
A few hundred steps away from Dingzhou Bridge, a large group of Qing soldiers gathered here, a huge sea of red and white flags. Among the flags, there are three huge gold-woven dragon banners erected high up. The owners of these banners are Dodo, the owner of the banner with a white flag, Raoyubele Abatai, and Baya Layong with a white flag. Zhang Jing.
Listening and looking at the smoke and shouts and killing sounds over there, there is also the faint sound of deafening bird gunshots. Duduo and Abata remained calm, while the flesh on Baya Lazhangjing's face kept shaking. The bravery of the Ming army was beyond his expectation.
Zhang Zhangjing made a rough estimate. In this short battle, the Bagala warriors in his camp had suffered nearly a hundred casualties. However, the Ming army continued to advance step by step. The men under his command were just making preparations. Useless resistance.
After a long time, Duduo, the leader of the banner with a white flag, said: "We really can't keep any secrets about this Ming army."
Rao Yubeile Abate said calmly: "The Ming army has sharp firearms, but there is nothing to be afraid of. There are many troops in the Ming army with excellent firearms. Just like King Gongshun and others, didn't they also surrender to our Qing Dynasty? The scary thing is that this army The courage in combat, the strict discipline, and the determination to fight to the death, from the general to the small army, are very different from other Ming armies." m.
Duduo's young face was a little unconvinced, and he said: "So, this Ming army is invincible? In the future, when our Qing warriors encounter this Ming army, will they have to take a detour?"
Abatai said: "I'm just saying that when encountering this Ming army, we need to be more careful, more cautious, more cautious, and we must not underestimate the enemy, so as not to damage the warriors in the banner!"
Duduo asked: "Then when we encounter this Ming army in the future, how should we fight?"
Abatai pondered for a long time and said: "When fighting this Ming army in the wild, it is difficult to find their flaws. We can only use the strengths of our cavalry and not confront them head-on. We will wait until they run out of ammunition and food before dealing with them."
Duduo didn't say anything. He was young and energetic. He didn't take Abatai's words seriously. There was another layer of worry on his face: "Lu Xiangsheng's troops in the Ming Dynasty are now at their peak. There are ten thousand troops. We are setting up a white flag in Dingzhou." There are only 5,000 people in the city and less than 2,000 armored men. We asked Gaoyang’s Fourteenth Brother for help, but I don’t know if he will send reinforcements..."
This time the Qing troops invaded. In addition to the two yellow banners of Huang Taiji and his son Hauge, the Qing troops of all the remaining banners, including the Eight Mongolian Banners, were dispatched, and tens of thousands of auxiliary troops followed. However, the main force of the Qing army was divided into eight groups to attack and plunder the city after securing the city. As of now, the troops in every area and every group have been spread out.
In the past, the Qing army bullied the Ming army and did not dare to fight in the field, but when they encountered those who really dared to fight, they were helpless and were shocked to find that their own forces were too weak. Duduo only hoped that the reinforcements sent by Dorgon under Gaoyang City would arrive quickly.
Abatai suddenly said: "Fifteenth brother, in my opinion, it would be better for us to retreat to Gaoyang and join the ordered general. The Ming army is very powerful and we don't need to fight them."
Abatai's words aroused Duduo's arrogance. He had always looked down upon this brother. Now after hearing his discouraging words, he shouted loudly: "Retreat? In the eyes of my Qing warriors, Has there ever been a word of retreat? Even if the Ming army has tens of thousands of troops, after the rise of the Qing Dynasty, how have we not defeated the masses with a small number? I have five thousand warriors with white flags, and I can kill the Ming army on the opposite side without leaving a single piece of armor behind. Let them see how powerful our Qing Dynasty is with its white flag. It will make them frightened and discouraged, and they will never dare to fight me head-on again."
Looking at Dodo's young and arrogant face, Abata sneered in his heart: "Idiot!"
The sound of golden drums sounded, and the white flag-encrusted Baya soldiers guarding the bridge retreated like a tide, and then gathered under Duduo's banner. Then they slowly retreated to their Dingzhou camp in a very strict military formation. Inside.
Liu Yan led the new army of Xiahe Village and successfully occupied the Dingzhou Bridge. On the bridge, he welcomed Lu Xiangsheng and others with smiles on their faces.
In the afternoon of that day, Lu Xiangsheng led ten thousand Xuanda and Shandong soldiers to pass the Dingzhou Bridge in a mighty manner, and set up camp on the upper reaches of the Tang River a few miles away from the Qing army's camp. The local officers and soldiers of Dingzhou Zhizhou and Tengbei Guards were overjoyed when they heard that the reinforcements had arrived, and sent supplies and food for the laborers in the past few days.
In the evening of that day, Lu Xiangsheng summoned the generals from various towns to discuss military affairs overnight. However, in the Qing army camp, Duduo did not expect reinforcements that night, but received an order from Dorgon, telling Duduo to go with all his troops. Gao Yang quickly evacuated from Dingzhou City, and Duduo was so angry that he tore the warrant into pieces. He has made up his mind to set out his camp to fight the Ming army on the opposite side early tomorrow morning.
In the early morning of the next day, the weather was still cold, with strong winds blowing one after another, and it was bitingly cold.
Starting early in the morning, most of the Ming and Qing troops came out of their respective camps and began to gather in formation in front of their respective barracks. Looking from opposite sides of the enemy and ourselves, the fields are filled with the banners and soldiers of the other party.
Some people died, but not completely...
