weaving

Chapter 1359 Dang Shousu’s Innovative Design
August of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen was destined to be an unusual August, a month that would affect the fate of the bandits that had wreaked havoc on the Ming Dynasty for decades...

August of this year may also affect the future destiny of the Ming Dynasty!

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On the first day of August, starting at the hour of Yin, on the vast land from Kaifeng City to Zhuxian Town in the south, teams continued to move forward like slowly crawling centipedes on the broken official roads, on the dilapidated country roads, and between the barren fields.

All this indicates that a life-and-death battle is inevitably about to take place!
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August 1st, at the hour of Chen.

The government troops under the command of Zhang Dechang, deputy general of the Baodu Biaoying Camp, broke through the defense line guarded by Du Kewu, a minor colonel under the command of Tian Jianxiu, the leader of the rebel army.

In this battle, the bandit leader Du Kewu died in the chaos, the bandit lieutenant He Laoqi was killed in the battle, and lieutenant Qian San fled south with only more than 30 bandits.

There were originally 500 bandits and 2,000 starving civilians stationed on this section of the defense line, but after the battle, the prisoners were counted and only 123 bandits, 1,384 starving civilians and other servants were found.

Most of the rest died in the fighting on the battlefield. There were also more than one hundred bandits and more than three hundred hungry civilians who took advantage of the chaos to escape. Zhang Dechang now had no time to chase after these fugitives.

The Baoding Battalion suffered heavy losses in this battle. Although they had some guns and cannons supplied by Earl Yongning, neither the gunners nor the artillerymen could compare with the regular troops of the Yongyi Army. They were not skilled enough in their operations and failed to fully utilize their firepower advantage.

In addition to the fierce resistance of the bandits organized by Du Kewu and the charging of many hungry civilians, 134 people were killed and 315 were injured.

Although they lost nearly 500 soldiers, Zhang Dechang was very happy that they had won the first battle. He rode on his horse and looked at the bloody battlefield in front of him. He shouted, "Pass the order. All the prisoners who are seriously injured and difficult to treat will be beheaded on the spot!"

He then shouted to a soldier beside him, "Li Chengwu, I'll give you fifty cavalrymen and two hundred infantrymen to escort the wounded and the prisoners back to the camp."

After Li Chengwu loudly received the order, Zhang Dechang shouted to the officer beside him: "Chen Zhibin, tell the whole army to clear out the seriously injured prisoners within a quarter of an hour, and march out to help General Chen!"

"Yes." Chen Zhibin responded loudly, whipped his horse, and shouted Zhang Dechang's military orders all the way.

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Four miles south of where the rebel lieutenant Du Kewu is stationed is a defense center where the rebel general Dang Shousu is stationed.

At three quarters past the hour of Mao, he had already received Du Kewu's call for help. However, just as he had ordered his troops to be assembled and was about to go and rescue Du Kewu, he received another urgent report: A large number of government troops were spotted attacking one mile away!
Dang Shousu was indeed an experienced thief. His many years of battle experience told him that today's incident was by no means a simple harassment, otherwise the government troops would not have appeared on his side as soon as he received the news that Du Kewu was attacked.

Fortunately, he had already assembled his troops to rescue Du Kewu, and immediately ordered the leaders to organize defense immediately, intending to rely on the earthen walls that had been built to find out the details of the invading government troops. At this time, Dang Shousu had not yet planned to let the hungry people take the lead to consume the manpower of the government troops.

He believed that with the earthen walls and trenches in front of him, plus his own 500 cavalry, 500 archers, and 3,000 infantry, he would not be afraid even if thousands of government troops really came to kill him.

However, he still organized the young and strong people among the hungry people into an additional battalion of about 1,800 people. Most of them only had sharpened wooden sticks as weapons, and even people who used iron farm tools as weapons were rare. Their fighting effectiveness can be imagined.

But - something is better than nothing!
A trivial matter on the battlefield may affect the outcome of the war and the direction of the entire war. What’s more, there are nearly two thousand hungry young and strong people holding sharp wooden sticks!

Dang Shousu's main camp was set up in Lijiazhai, and he only left some hungry civilians beside the long trench to use as sentinel points. Once the government troops attacked, they would burn smoke and beat gongs as signals to pass on the message. As for their own life and death, it all depended on their personal luck and was not at all within Dang Shousu's consideration.

At this moment, Dang Shousu was stationed in Lijiazhai with 500 elite cavalry and 1,000 infantrymen, and sent the leader Liu Zhanyuan to lead 1,500 infantrymen to fight against the attacking government troops. At the same time, Dang Shousu also ordered another leader Ke Zhenjie to lead 500 infantrymen to march northward along the west side of the long trench to support Du Kewu.

Lijiazhai is located on the west side of the long trench dug by the rebel army. If the government army wants to attack Lijiazhai, they must first seize the long trench and fill a road. Only after crossing the long trench can they attack Lijiazhai.

Of course, you can also lay wooden boards on a long trench that is nearly two meters wide and build a wooden bridge to cross the long trench - and the troops from the Tiger Camp of the Yongyi Army that attacked today just happened to bring the long wooden boards needed to build the bridge.

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The section of the long trench that Dang Shousu was responsible for guarding was almost all piled up on the west side of the trench, which was on the outside for the government troops, and Dang Shousu did not use the excavated soil to build a low wall.

He ingeniously built many high earthen platforms on the other side of the long trench. On each platform, there were more than ten or twenty archers, making them into fixed arrow towers, overlooking the long trench not far away, ready at all times to destroy any enemy who dared to approach the edge of the long trench!
There were also some residual soil left on the inner side of the long trench, which was also piled up into earthen platforms, but they were not as high as those on the outer side of the long trench. This was the sentry post set up by Dang Shousu.

There were thirty to fifty hungry people on each earthen platform. Their role was to keep watch, and the platforms were just high enough for them to stand and see far.

At the edge of the long trench, especially on the outer side, there were a large number of hungry young and strong people guarding it. Basically, there were dozens of bandits leading one or two hundred young and strong people guarding one point.

Thick long wooden boards are laid on the long trenches at these locations to facilitate traffic on both sides of the trenches.

These long wooden boards have small holes punched on the outer ends, and thick hemp ropes are tied to these small holes. Once the attacking government troops are strong, they can quickly remove these long wooden boards by dragging the hemp ropes at any time, turning the long trench into an insurmountable natural barrier in an instant!
When Liu Zhanyuan arrived with 1,500 bandits, Hu Zichen's vanguard troops had already broken through two earthen platforms in succession, and the vanguard was heading straight for the long trench.

However, the soldiers of the Tiger Camp did not expect that there were a large number of archers lying in ambush on the opposite platform. The soldiers who rushed to the front fell down in an instant and had no choice but to retreat.

Fortunately, due to the long distance and insufficient power of the arrows, there were no fatal injuries and no officers or soldiers were shot dead on the spot.

But because of this delay, they were unable to seize the wooden bridge and had to watch Liu Zhanyuan organize the bandits to cross the long trench!