golden scales

On the ninth day of December in the 17th year of Chongzhen, it was sunny.

Yesterday, Xiergen camped ten miles to the north and west of Pangjiazhuang. In the evening, he found the Ming army approaching Pangjiazhuang.

The two originally wanted to report the situation of the battle after taking down Pangjiazhuang. Maybe because of the accidental hit and collision, they would gain a lot, and the higher-ups would not punish the heavy casualties.However, after receiving the news of the Ming army's reinforcements, Xiergenzu Zerun could only choose between retreating and standing by for reinforcements.

The result of retreating troops is that they are left idle, and they may even be whipped.

If you stand by...

"Don't talk dead," Hilgen said to his own note: "Just say that there seems to be an important person here."

It was a fact that the Ming army gathered one after another, and based on this fact, it must be that there happened to be a big man in Pangjiazhuang, otherwise, who would care about the safety of a village?Recalling the Battle of Songjin, when Hong Chengchou led troops to rescue Zu Dashou who was besieged in Jinzhou City, the Ming army was not as active as it is now.

Zu Zerun didn't agree with this statement, and he didn't believe that Hong Chengchou would believe it.Because there is a huge loophole in this statement: it is absolutely impossible for a big man in the Ming army to come to such a front-line village without bringing his own guards.

And during the whole day's battle, I didn't see any flags or official cards.

Taking a ten thousand step back, if there was really someone important, he would have run away before the village was besieged.

But now he and Hilgen are grasshoppers on the same rope, and it would be a shame not to be able to take down the village. Those who make sarcastic remarks don't care that there are artillery in the village, and the elite reinforcements come very quickly.

So it is only wise to keep silent and let Hillen come forward.

……

"Since the Ming army is going to fight, let's fight a fierce battle! After this battle is over, we will open up the situation, and we are worthy of the Holy Spirit." Abate coughed and pointed to the location of Anping County on the map.

The atmosphere in the big tent was a little weird. The Manchu generals headed by Boluo had different expressions. Some laughed at Hilgen's incompetence, some couldn't wait to kill the enemy and made meritorious deeds, and some looked dignified and preoccupied.

Only Hong Chengchou and Zu Zepu, the second son of Zu Dashou, are on the Hanjun Banner.Although Zu Dashou has been unwilling to fight for the Manchu Qing after he surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and only took his wife Houlu as a parasite, but this time the situation was too urgent. Both King Sanshun and Wu Sangui went to fight on the West Road, and the Han Army Banner in the south There is really a lack of leadership, so we can only use the ancestral generals.

Although Hong Chengchou's qualifications are extremely high, he is a civil official and a handsome minister. When the two armies meet the enemy, they still have to rely on generals with experience in battle.He looked at Zu Zepu next to him, as if he could see the resistance in his heart to this battle, then turned his head and said to Abatai: "Xilgen was only ordered to investigate the reality, and I don't know the strength of the Ming army's three towns. Can An Neng lightly move soldiers?"

"Cowardly!" Suo Hai got up and shouted: "I, the warriors of Shen, have never been afraid of the Ming army? Even if they come from all three towns, they can't hold back my one hundred thousand army!" He is a military officer, but Hong Chengchou is a first-rank Governor-General's bachelor. If it was in the Ming Dynasty, it would be impossible for anyone to dare to be rude to him.

Hong Chengchou also knew the truth that people had to bow their heads under the eaves, so he didn't argue with this rude man, and simply kept silent.

Abatai knocked on the table with one hand, stroked his chest with the other, and said: "After a fight, the reality will come out naturally. Suo Hai, since you want to fight, I will give you 1 people, break through Anping as soon as possible, and then withdraw." , Let’s see how the Ming army responds.”

"Hey! If you don't break the peace, I will raise my head to see the prince!" Suo Hai carelessly issued a military order.

Abatai shook his head slightly, and said again: "Bohetuo, hurry to Tianjin and lead the soldiers from the east to attack Cangzhou. It is also mainly to test, don't lose too much force."

"Hey!" Bo and Tuo are Boluo's older brothers, but Boluo is already a Baylor, but he is still a Beiler, and just needs a chance to be his own.

"Turai, Ebilong," Abatai said, "Rush to Hejian, and lead the troops in the middle to support Bohetuo and Suohai. This king and Mr. Hong lead the army to defend against the Zhending Ming army."

"Hey!" The two responded at the same time.

Hong Chengchou was very dissatisfied that Abatai had set the whole strategy by himself, but as a Hanchen, although he was the governor of military affairs, it was still impossible for him to overwhelm Nurhachi's son.The Qing Dynasty is said to be a country, but the nature of the tribal alliance is stronger. The six officials are dispensable, let alone a governor.

Abatai stood up slowly and announced, "Let's march here."

After a while, all the generals in the big tent left cleanly, leaving only Hong Chengchou alone.

Only then did Hong Chengchou say: "Your Majesty, it's freezing cold now, and it's really not the right time to attack in the wild."

How cold was North China during the Little Ice Age?Before there is no meteorological statistics, it is difficult to get specific values.But now in winter in Guangdong, dripping water can turn into ice, and the temperature in North China is intuitively [-] degrees below zero.In this kind of extremely cold weather, even if people in the city freeze to death, let alone living in the wild?

"Could it be that I, the Qing soldiers, were the only ones who suffered from the cold?" Abatai disagreed: "Isn't it colder when our Zhushen were in Liaodong? We also entered the pass. I am afraid that the Ming army will find it more difficult to adapt."

Hong Chengchou could not deny that Eastern soldiers were indeed better than Ming soldiers in adapting to the cold.However, people's ability to resist is limited after all. When the temperature drops to a certain level, even if they resist the cold, they will freeze to death.It has been twenty-nine days now, and if they were still living in tents by the third or ninth day, a large number of soldiers would freeze to death.

"If someone in our army froze to death, then the Ming army must have froze to death." Abate said very confidently.

Facts have proved that Abate is too optimistic.

In the early morning of the ninth day of the ninth day, more than ten people froze to death in the Hilgen camp.These people were mainly Aha who didn't have winter clothes, and they were originally consumables, so they didn't attract his attention.But by noon, the number of attrition was still rising, extending from Aha to the wounded and sick.

Hilgen also had the same thought as Abatai, thinking that the Ming army must have no time to bring luggage in the emergency rescue, and there must be more people freezing to death at night, so he immediately made an appointment with Zu Zerun, and then formed an attack with the Ming army.

……

The Ming army was safe and sound last night, and no one was frozen.

The observation post on the watchtower immediately discovered the queues in the Qing barracks, and immediately passed on the news.

Wang Jiakang came out of the tent, looked up at the sky, and ordered to line up to meet the enemy.

All night long, a half-person-high parapet had been built on the front of Pangjiazhuang.In this season, as long as you pull up two pieces of coarse cloth and pour water on them, it will be frozen hard in no time.Then pour mud in the middle, and after a night of freezing, an indestructible parapet was built.

Because there are three deep wells in the village, the water brought up is still steaming.So the key to this kind of simple fortification wall is to excavate the earthwork. Fortunately, the village had ready-made sand, earth and stone materials for strengthening the wall, which will come in handy this time.

With breast walls, tiger squats, and red cannons in the stockade, the Ming army didn't even have to count them all.The [-]th headquarters was divided into two shifts, which took turns.Those who did not have their turn rested in the tent behind to ensure their physical fitness.However, in order to maintain the attacking force, the Qing army could only march in the field and attack the Ming army's defense line all at once, but they couldn't even open a gap.

Hilgen once wanted to bypass the flanks to attack the Ming army, but found that the flanks were already guarded by new Ming army reinforcements, and there were also several unstoppable tiger crouching cannons.For a moment, Hilgen finally realized that he had kicked the iron plate, but he had no way out if he wanted to turn back.Because, he received a notification from Tangma this morning, and Mele Erzhensuohai was leading the army to rush over.

Now is the real riding a tiger.

"The Ming army must be more difficult than us." Hilgen said to Zu Zerun.

Zu Zerun couldn't help but said: "You don't know how rich Daming is. If you use Jiangnan's financial resources to build this line of defense, even if a hundred thousand troops are spent here, they won't be able to survive them."

Hilgen exhaled a rough breath from his nose and made no rebuttal.

The Ming army started cooking again, and the fragrance that wafted out made the mouth gush with fluid, without any signs of fatigue.Several Ahas were wearing thin underwear, cold and hungry, with black lips, looking at the Ming army camp that was emitting smoke, swallowing their saliva.

For the Qing army, the armor was prepared by themselves. If they were not prepared enough, they could only peel off the armor to keep warm, or accept their fate and freeze to death.In fact, a large number of coated ahas died of freezing and starvation every winter, which is why the Manchurians "scramble to the west" to supplement the labor force at the handover of winter and spring every year.

But this time, they were already in the west. (To be continued.)