weaving

Chapter 58 The bandits are scattered and the camp is moved to the eastern suburbs

Howling, the leader of the gangster rushed up the official road from the gap. With the cover of his shield, coupled with his nimble dodging and slashing, five young men were knocked to the ground by him one after another.

As the gap widened, other infantry also rushed forward, seeing that this place was about to fall.

A sledgehammer hit out of nowhere, the gangster didn't have time to react, he still used his shield to block it as usual, with a "bang", the shield flew directly, the gangster's left arm was broken at that time, but the sledgehammer did not Stop, continue to hit the gangsters on the head.

Under the forceful impact, the skull shattered and the brains scattered in all directions. The thug's body was thrown far away by the sledgehammer, and he flew directly down the official road and fell heavily in the wilderness.

Shi Zhuzi kept walking, and the sledgehammer made terrifying circles one after another, up and down, no matter whether it was a knife, spear or stick, as long as it was brought by the sledgehammer, it would be knocked away, let alone human flesh and blood.

The bandit who had just rushed up was immediately driven off the official road again.

Suddenly, some bandit yelled, "Boss Hu has escaped, run away..."

A group of bandits whined, turned and fled, some of them didn't know what to do when they turned around, and tripped on the ground by themselves, they rolled a few times before getting up again, and ran away.

Liu Quan shouted loudly: "Stone, hurry up!"

Shi Zhuzi shouted angrily: "Min Yong, follow me."

Holding a sledgehammer and stepping on a pair of long legs, he chased after him wildly.

Liu Quan sat firmly on the cart, watching a green shadow looming in a puff of smoke and dust in the distance, and the same puff of smoke and dust not far away from him, with red figures sandwiched between them, galloping in the same direction.

Then, I saw another stream of smoke rising from the wilderness north of the official road, and gradually spreading towards the mountains to the north.

"Hiss, it's really fast enough to escape."

As soon as Liu Quan finished speaking, he saw a group of cavalry galloping towards the east of the official road, intercepting the more than 300 foot bandits who were fleeing northward from a distance.

They were one group far away, but they split into two groups when they approached. One group still rushed westward, while the other group changed direction slightly and ran towards the northern mountains.

They drew a circle, and just caught these bandits on the north side of the official road, no matter how they ran, they were not as fast as He Shihui and his horses.

…………

On October 11th, the [-]th year of the Chongzhen reign of the Ming Dynasty, in the north of Beijing, outside the Yongding Gate.

Garrisoned in the area from Yongdingmen to Zuo'anmen are several generals and guerrillas from the Jingying's Fifth Army and Third Battalion, Shenshu Fourth Battalion, Shenshu Fifth Battalion, and Shenji Fourth Battalion.

More than a thousand cavalry from Zhang Cheng's department set off from Changping with the army of King Qin of Xuanzhen, and arrived outside Yongding Gate at noon yesterday.

At this time, tens of thousands of Qing troops were stationed in Tongzhou, dozens of miles away, and they kept sending out guards and cavalry every day. The soldiers of the Ministry are still in panic all day long, and many battalion soldiers deserted every day.

It wasn't until yesterday that Lu Xiangsheng led more than [-] King Qin's troops from the three towns of Xuanda that their mood stabilized a little.

As soon as Xuanda and Qin Wang's troops from the three towns of Shanxi arrived, all the generals and guerrillas from the Beijing camp came to see the governor Lu Xiangsheng, and strongly asked the brave and invincible Xuanda Bianzhen elite to stand in front of them.

Governor Lu Xiangsheng didn't refuse, and readily agreed, which attracted the gratitude of all the generals and guerrillas.

In this way, more than 3 troops and horses from the three towns of Xuanda and Shanxi, who entered to aid King Qin, set up their defenses in sequence along the area from Yongdingmen to Zuoanmen, the eastern suburbs about ten miles away from the city.

Zhang Cheng's cavalry headquarters, along with his uncle's general Zhang Yan, was stationed in a garrison area. Their garrison area was demarcated, located about [-] miles southeast of Yongding Gate, outside the west gate of Nanhaizi, the royal hunting ground, which is now Beijing. Yizhuang Township area.

Nanhaizi was called Feifangbo in the Yuan Dynasty, because the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty often trained Haidongqing to catch birds and small animals in this area full of rivers and lakes.In the Ming Dynasty, it was renamed Nanhaizi. During the Yongle period, earth walls were built and four gates were opened: Dahongmen in the north, Donghongmen in the east, Nandahongmen in the south, and Xihongmen in the west.

According to the records of "Old News under the Sun": "Since the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Nanhaizi has a circumference of 160 miles." Its width is comparable to that of Yanfang Lake in Jingdong. The creatures on the vast blue water are frequently moving, and its scenery and colors are beautiful and charming.

Therefore, there are mostly plains in this area, with occasional earth hills in between, many rivers, lakes, ditches, and fertile land. Around Nanhaizi, there are densely populated villages and towns near Gyeonggi.

Just because in the ninth year of Chongzhen, the Qing army once invaded the frontier, the villages in this area were once burned down by the Qing army.

Two years later, the Qing army came again, and the new homes built by the people were burned down by the Qing army again.

When Zhang Cheng led his troops to this place, many surrounding villages were in ruins, some of them were still burning ragingly, and the remaining light smoke rose straight to the sky.

Occasionally, I saw some surviving people. They helped the old and the young to flee to the direction of the capital. While walking, they looked back at their homes with sad expressions and tears in their eyes.

Zhang Cheng rode his horse and looked at all this, but he was powerless. He just shook his head and said to himself: "I don't know if these poor people can still enter the city of Beijing. I hope they will be safe in the future!"

A group of terrified common people were fleeing from here, and when they passed by Zhang Cheng's army of cavalry, they were even more frightened and turned away. Zhang Cheng faintly heard a few people muttering in a low voice: "These dog officers and soldiers, kill the Tartars!" If you don't have the ability, it will harm our common people very badly."

At that time, several of Zhang Cheng's personal soldiers were furious, and they rode their horses to go forward, intending to find out those talkative and arrogant people.

Zhang Chengce was on the horse, waving his whip, stopped them and said: "When I entered Jingqin King, I came to protect the people, not to fight for the advantage of words.

With these strengths, compared with them, it is better to save and kill more Tartars and captives.Besides, these officers and soldiers are really not looking good now, no wonder the people are complaining. "

At this time, the Qing army marched in two directions and gathered troops on the Tongzhou River. They continued to harass the eastern suburbs of Beijing frequently.

If they encountered the sentry cavalry of the Qing army, they would flee at the wind, but when they encountered the fleeing civilians, they would act like wolves and tigers, looting property, raping and humiliating women, and sometimes their methods were even more extreme than the Qing army.

The area where Zhang Cheng and the others were stationed was to the west of the Nanhaizi Royal Hunting Ground, and to the east of it was a fairly wide river. From Shuitouzhuang in the east of Lugou Bridge, it flows southeast into the North Canal, which is the Liangshui River.

Liangshui River is located in the south of Beijing City. It originates from Shuitouzhuang in the east of Lugou Bridge, and flows southeast to Liuzhuang in Huo County into the North Canal. The total length is 58 kilometers. There are Caoqiao River, Xiaolong River, Macao River, Macaogou and Dayangfanggou. , Empress Dowager Xiao River and other tributaries.

Ten miles north of the Liangshui River in the south of Beijing is where the Xiaolong River joins the Liangshui River, and five miles south of the Xiaolong River is where the guerrilla general Li Jianming of Xuanfu Town is stationed.

Five miles to the south of Li Jianming's garrison is the defense area of ​​Yang Guozhu, the chief soldier of Xuanzhen. He has a wide stone bridge across the Liangshui River, connecting the wide official roads on both sides of the river.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Note: There is another update at noon!
(End of this chapter)