There is a space for passenger planes in the late Ming Dynasty

Datong City, the magistrate's office.

Zhenming Army Datong garrison division commander Cao Xiong, Datong prefect Li Boxen, and mobile first division brigade commander He Xiaolei are conducting military discussions.

Cao Xiong was originally the Shaanxi Commander of the imperial court and the deputy chief of the Zhenming Army Staff Department. He was later appointed as the division commander of the Fugu Combat Division. This time he was just transferred to Datong by the reorganization system and reorganized into the Datong Garrison Division.

As soon as their whole division settled in, they faced the severe situation of the Ming and Qing allied forces pressing into the territory.

Fortunately, Cao Xiong was considered a veteran of the army and had seen a lot of the world when he was the deputy general manager of the General Staff Department, so he was not particularly panicked.

He asked a sentry camp commander who came in to report military information: "Have you found out all the latest enemy information?"

"Come back to the commander, we have basically found out. To the east of Datong City, the army led by Ming Dynasty Governor Hong Chengchou has arrived and camped fifty or sixty miles away from the city. They are now organizing and building siege equipment. It is estimated that they will launch an siege in the near future. Fight." the commander of Shaoma Camp replied.

"How many troops do they have?"

"The Ming army is all over the sky, with camps as far as the eye can see. There are at least 100,000 troops," the camp commander replied.

"Where are the Tatar troops?"

"The Tatar army bypassed Yuzhou and directly attacked Hunyuan Prefecture. According to a small number of defeated soldiers who fled to Datong, the Tatars massacred the city in Hunyuan Prefecture."

"Bang!" Cao Xiong slammed his fist on the table and angrily shouted: "These damn Tatars are really incorrigible! We must avenge the soldiers and civilians of Hunyuan Prefecture!"

"Commander, although the Tatars were delayed for some time by attacking Hunyuan Prefecture, they have now reached Xi'an Fort, which is about a hundred miles south of Datong City. The cavalry can also reach it within a day."

Cao Xiong was speechless after hearing this. He stared at the map of Datong Mansion for a long time and said, "Now that the Ming court and the Tatar army are encircling Datong City, we must be prepared for a tough battle."

"Prefect Li, are the people and related defense materials in Datong City ready?" Cao Xiong then asked Li Boxen.

Li Boxhen was originally the steward of Li Wanxiang's family, and later served as the magistrate of Baodou.

After the Zhenming Army retook Datong, Lin Feng arranged for Li Wanxiang to be promoted to the post of magistrate of Datong, so that he could be regarded as a member of the Li family and continue to be in charge of Datong.

"Everything is ready. After the people in the city experienced the pain of being re-occupied by the Ming court last time, their will to defend the city is extremely firm.

The people also voluntarily organized more than ten patrol teams to help check the situation in the city and strictly prevent the problem of traitors offering sacrifices to the city.

Many people wanted to donate their money and food to defend the city. However, Datong's treasury is relatively full now, and private money and food are temporarily unavailable. We have not accepted it yet. Li Wanxiang replied.

"The people's support can be used! The people's support can be used!" Cao Xiong said with emotion.

He went on to say: "There are hundreds of thousands of Ming troops outside the city. The current five thousand people may not be enough. Let's mobilize another five thousand people as preparation."

"Okay, I'll recruit you when I get back. This shouldn't be a problem."

"He Xiaolei, have you contacted Commander Yang? Where are their troops?" Cao Xiong then asked.

"Commander, because Hunyuan Prefecture was captured by the Tatars, our contact with Commander Yang was temporarily interrupted, but I believe they will come to Datong soon." He Xiaolei replied.

"Yes, not abandoning or giving up is the military spirit of our Zhenming Army. The Governor will not give up Datong City, and the prince will not give up Datong City. We must firmly hold on to Datong. As long as there is still one person, If you still have a breath, you must hold on until the end." Cao Xiong ordered.

"Yes!" Several people took the order.

"Commander, Datong City is relatively large, and our troops are generally insufficient. Currently, there are 16,000 regular troops and 5,000 civilians.

Even if Fu Zun Li could recruit another 5,000 people soon, there would only be 26,000 people.

The Ming and Qing allied forces outside the city numbered at least 150,000. My suggestion is that if the outer city cannot be defended, we should be prepared for street fighting.

Currently, the city of Datong is lost. The original battalion commander Luo Kai occupied Fanjiabao and defended it until the prince led his troops to rescue him. Now he has become the prince's personal guard division commander. "He Xiaolei said with some envy.

"Indeed, let's divide the work first. Our Datong garrison and Minzhuang are mainly responsible for defending the city. He Xiaolei and your brigade of 6,000 people will serve as the reserve team. They will also be responsible for building street fighting positions in the city." After hearing this, Cao Xiong felt that it made sense and immediately absorbed it. He Xiaolei’s suggestion.

"The commander is wise!" He Xiaolei replied.

"Then let's prepare separately." Cao Xiong ordered.

In the east of Datong City, there is Hong Chengchou's camp.

"Master Taiwan, our siege equipment is almost ready. When will we launch the attack on Datong City?" Wu Sangui came over and asked.

"Where are Dorgon and the others?" Hong Chengchou asked.

"They are at Xi'an Fort, a hundred miles south of Datong City." Wu Sangui said.

"I heard that they also massacred Hunyuan City. Do we really want to cooperate with them?" Cao Bianjiao always found it difficult to accept joining forces with the Tatars.

"Hey, the country is in a difficult situation, and the people can only have to pay a certain price. We'd better defeat the Zhenming Army as soon as possible so that we can send the Qing army out of the country." Hong Chengchou also said helplessly.

Then he ordered Wu Sangui and the two of them: "We will break camp early tomorrow morning and launch an all-out attack ten miles away from Datong." "Sir, are you not going to attack with the Qing army?" Wu Sangui asked.

"The Qing army is south of Datong and has contained part of the Zhenming army. We still have to rely on ourselves to attack the city. It is really difficult to cooperate with the Manchus, and we also have to prevent them from massacring Datong again." Hong Chengchou responded.

Hunyuan Prefecture is a small town with a small population, so the city was massacred. If Datong was massacred, Hong Chengchou would definitely be scolded to death by everyone in the world.

Therefore, he did not dare to take this risk and decided to rely on the strength of the Ming army to attack the city.

At noon the next day.

The Ming vanguard army led by Wu Sangui arrived at the outskirts of Datong City.

He tried to wipe out the sentry horses in Datong City first, give the city a warning, and see if he could force the Zhenming Army to surrender.

Unexpectedly, a team of 200 sentry horses sent by him were beaten to a pulp by the well-equipped sentry horse battalion of the Datong garrison division, which gave him some bad premonitions.

At three or four o'clock in the afternoon, the Chinese army led by Hong Chengchou arrived, and the Ming army began to set up camp.

Hong Chengchou took Wu Sangui and Cao Bianjiao to personally inspect the enemy's situation in front of Datong City.

Wu Sangui did not dare to neglect, and sent out a full two thousand Guan Ning cavalry to protect him. Then he dispersed the sentry horses in Datong City and slowly approached the east gate.

When they reached a place four or five miles away from the east gate, Hong Chengchou and others did not dare to get closer, for fear of being bombed by artillery from the top of the city.

Hong Chengchou raised his single-eyed telescope and observed the top of Datong City.

Cao Xiong happened to be checking the enemy situation at the top of Datong City, and he also saw Hong Chengchou and his party.

Unfortunately, the distance was too far and the artillery at the top of the city couldn't reach it. As long as Hong Chengchou was within one kilometer, Ordnance Commander Zhenming's stainless steel artillery would be able to reach them.

"Send people to recruit surrender." Although Hong Chengchou felt that there was little hope, if he was lucky, he would be able to reduce the losses during the siege.

Wu Sangui arranged for a cavalryman with a loud voice among his own soldiers to go and recruit him to surrender.

After a while, the cavalryman came back and said that the Datong City garrison asked Governor Hong to go to surrender in person and to talk to him.

Hong Chengchou was also eager to make a contribution, so he decided to go and have a look.

"General of the Zhenming Army across from you, I am the Governor of the Ming Dynasty, Hong Chengchou. As long as you open the city and surrender, I promise not to kill anyone, and everyone will be rewarded!" After Hong Chengchou walked forward for a short distance, he used several loud-voiced personal soldiers. Transmission shouted.

"Governor Hong, I am Cao Xiong, the former commander of the Shaanxi capital. Please come closer and let me identify you. If you are really here in person, I will open the city gate and surrender immediately."

When Hong Chengchou heard this, he realized that the general opposite was a surrendered general of the Ming Army. No wonder he wanted to surrender.

He immediately took a few steps forward, and suddenly felt alarmed in his heart. If the general of the Zhenming Army on the opposite side really wanted to surrender, he would not shout at the top of the city.

Thinking of this, he immediately stopped.

Cao Xiong paid close attention to Hong Chengchou and others at the top of the city. Seeing that he was about to step into the range of the steel cannon, he suddenly stopped and felt bad.

can not wait anymore!

Cao Xiong immediately ordered the gunners to fire and try their luck at the edge of the maximum range of the artillery.

As soon as Hong Chengchou stopped outside the city, he heard the sound of cannons at the top of the city. He immediately understood that the other party did not want to surrender at all, but was preparing to lure him over and kill him with artillery.

Hong Chengchou hurriedly ran back in a hurry.

There was a "boom".

A projectile had hit nearby.

The soldiers immediately knocked Hong Chengchou down and quickly dragged him away from the danger area.

The group of people rolled and crawled five miles away. Hong Chengchou stood up and saw that the place where he had been was covered by Zhenming Army artillery, killing and wounding more than a dozen guards.

If he had taken another ten steps or so, he probably wouldn't be able to escape this time.

Although he has escaped now, he is in rags and has a gray face. This makes Hong Chengchou, who always pays attention to an elegant image, very angry.

"Siege the city! Attack the city immediately!"

The furious Hong Chengchou didn't want to wait for a moment and immediately issued an order to attack Datong City.

"Yes!" Wu Sangui was almost killed by artillery fire from the top of Datong City just now, and he immediately angrily directed his troops to attack the city.

(End of this chapter)