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The northwest is the territory of the Yehe tribe.

At this moment, Wang Tingchen led the cavalry division and detoured south from the edge of the grassland.On the way, they gathered soldiers from the Yehe tribe, gathered Huifa tribe and other Haixi Jurchen tribe along the way, and marched towards Mandahai's lair in mighty force.

The main battlefield on Saerhu's side is full of mountains and rivers, and it is of little use for the cavalry division to go there. It is better to rush to outflank the Mandahai side.

Leng Saiyi turned pale with shock, and said to the soldiers, "Hurry up and catch up with me, Ah Ma, and let him come back with the cavalry!"

After sending someone to deliver the letter, Len Saiyi immediately led the infantry back home.His whole family lives at the mouth of the Meihei River, and all their belongings are stored there.There is the ruins of Zhaosan City in the Liao Kingdom. On this basis, Mandahai even built a simple city, which he wanted to operate as a core base.

The Datong Army has a large number of soldiers, not only the cavalry division is conducting raids, but Yang Zhenqing's independent regiment is also conducting surprise attacks.

In the north and south, three roads bloom.

Chapter 682 [Siege Warfare]

The infantry of the Eight Banners Army had a high rate of riding horses, and they could ride on the road no matter how poor they were.

But now it doesn't work.

There is not enough food for people to eat, and livestock such as mules and horses naturally cannot afford so many.After all, mules and horses can only eat grass, but it is not acceptable to only eat grass and let them be ridden by people.

What's more, the Eight Banners Army lost countless horses and livestock on the battlefield after being defeated many times before.

Therefore, although Mandahai's troops are the only remaining elite of the Eight Banners Army, there are only more than 1000 real cavalry.The infantry who can ride horses (including mules) to travel will only cost two thousand to death.This is the result of his continuous collection of horses, and the rest of the troops are pure infantry.

Leng Saiyi took these infantry and hurried back to the mouth of Meihei River, laying out defenses non-stop.

But this city is too crude. Although Lensaiyi has more than 6000 infantry, he has no confidence in defense at all.Its predecessor, Zhaosan City, was abandoned as early as the Yuan Dynasty. Although the Haixi Jurchen Huifa Department built a city on the site, it was destroyed by Nurhachi.

Facing a ruined wall, Manda Hai has only been leading the army for a year. What can he accomplish with a shortage of manpower?

Don't use heavy artillery. Facing ordinary artillery, you will be knocked down with one hit.

"Go and check again, see how far are those barbarians?" Leng Saiyi ordered.

Forty miles away from the northwest, hundreds of years later is Dongfeng County.

Wang Tingchen's cavalry division has 500 men, all of whom have one man and two horses, one of which is used to carry luggage.

After the reform of the military system of the Datong Army, a full division has 1000 people, but the cavalry division is an exception.Because the cavalry division has added tiger squatting guns, a lot of new gunners have been established.In addition to civilian positions such as military doctors, veterinarians were also included in the regular army, and there were other auxiliary personnel.

By the way, regardless of whether it is a military doctor or a veterinarian, they usually need to carry out riding training, and they can ride out to fight at critical times.

"General, we have captured a Tartar leader!" Nan Chu rode back excitedly.

This guy who married Huang Taiji's ex-wife has completely broken with Man Qing, and the Tartars can speak more fluently than anyone else.

Wang Tingchen: "Bring it here!"

A tartar was tied up and dragged by Wuhua Da, knowing that he would die, but he was very tough, and it took him a long time to ask for the news.

In fact, there is no useful information, this person is from the Huifa Department.The rest of the tribe rebelled, but he was still loyal to the Manchus. After the Manchus suppressed the Huifa tribe, he was sent to manage the nearby villages.

The man clutched his right palm with the finger cut off, and wanted to roll all over the floor in pain, but was held down and couldn't move.When he was about to continue to cut his left finger, he said with pain: "The lord took the cavalry to go out. Beizi came to recruit the infantry a few days ago, and also took away the food in the village."

Chief Propaganda Officer Wang Yaochen said with a smile: "It seems that Mandahai is leading troops to rescue Sarhu. If we come a few days later, we can take Mandahai's lair without any effort."

"Da da da da!"

More than two thousand cavalry rushed back, Wang Fuchen got off his horse and came to Wang Tingchen's side: "Master, there are not many people living around here, and the Tartars have suffered a lot. We went to the village, and the locals started fighting themselves. The Huifa tribe Some of the tribesmen are lackeys of the Tartars, and they are usually domineering here. As soon as our army arrived, the people of the Huifa tribe spontaneously rose up and led us to kill the lackeys of the Tartars."

"Understood, you lead the troops to rest for a while." Wang Tingchen.

Wang Yaochen murmured: "After the Tartars are destroyed, the Jurchens have to be scattered and migrated to Haixi. This Huifa tribe is so withered, it is because they refuse to accept the oppression of the Tartars.

Many fled to Yehebu.Today's Haixi four tribes, the Yehe family is the only one, if they are not scattered and migrated, they will become the second Jianzhou Jurchen in a hundred years! "

"This is a matter of the imperial court, just report it truthfully, you and I don't need to intervene too much." Wang Tingchen said.

Two days later, the cavalry division came to the other side of the Meihei River.

Mandahai's separatist base is at the confluence of Meihei River and Huifa River.After Wanyan Agu raised his army back then, he fought a battle with the Liao Kingdom here, completely confirming the myth that "Jurchens are less than ten thousand and invincible".

Wang Tingchen used binoculars to observe the enemy city, and the dilapidated city was visible to the naked eye.

Wang Tingchen ordered: "Let the Ye He Department and the Hui Fa Department organize manpower to build a pontoon bridge to cross the river upstream."

When the Datong army moved, Leng Saiyi was startled. He quietly clenched his fists: "Gaoli, take another 1000 people to the ferry to stop the southern barbarians!"

"As ordered!"

Goryeo comes from the Aixinjueluo family and is the son of Nurhachi's cousin. Historically, he led troops to fight against Zheng Chenggong.

This fellow led a group of infantry to leave the city to reinforce his clan brother Doerji who was guarding the ferry.

Whether it is Goryeo or Doerji, they are all trash fish of the Aixinjueluo family.The seniority is quite high, the brothers of Huang Taiji and Dorgon, but they have never made great achievements.Now that the Eight Banners Army is in decline, too many generals have died, and these miscellaneous fish have begun to lead the army.

"Are the enemy troops going to cross the river?" Gao Li asked.

Dorji shook his head: "We are guarding here, and the southern barbarians may go further upstream."

Goryeo checked carefully, and sure enough, he saw that the Datong army was divided, and half of them went to the upper reaches of the Meihei River.

But there is no negligence here. Once they withdraw, the Datong Army will definitely cross the river immediately.

Gao Li said: "If you can't hold the river bank, it's better to retreat to the city."

The Meihei River is neither wide nor fast-moving, and there are too many places to come, so foolishly defending the river bank is purely useless.

"Boom boom boom!"

The cavalry division on the other side suddenly fired at this place.

Gao Li was startled, and quickly ducked down to avoid it.

Doerji said: "It's a tiger crouching cannon. I saw it when I was fighting with the Ming army. It's not very powerful at such a distance."

It's really not very powerful. More than a dozen tiger squatting cannons fired shells across the river, only killing a few unlucky guys of the Eight Banners Army.

Dorji said: "Go back and talk to Beizi. If you can't hold the river bank, let him think of another way. You can either defend the city, or send troops to a decisive battle, or the whole army will withdraw to the southwest and throw the city to the Nanmanzi."

Goryeo left the soldiers behind and rode back to the city by herself.

After some talking, Leng Saiyi hesitated.

The best opportunity has been lost for the withdrawal of the whole army. It should have been withdrawn yesterday.They had too much luggage, and the Datong army had already killed them, so it was impossible to drop the luggage and escape.

Battle out of town?

That's even more emboldened, a group of infantry, did they come to the outskirts to fight the cavalry?

It is also not good to defend the city. When Man Dahai left Hetuala, he left in a hurry without any artillery.There are no city defense guns here, so they can only shoot with bows and arrows, but the Datong Army has tiger squatting guns.

Under normal circumstances, the tiger squatting cannon has no siege ability, but in front of it is a broken city!

It was very tangled anyway, Leng Saiyi: "Let Dorji retreat to the city."

As soon as the Tartars on the shore withdrew, the Yehe and Huifa tribes, who were the servants of Datong, immediately organized people to cut down trees and build a pontoon bridge.

The wheat outside the city has just been harvested, and it is estimated that they are piled up in the city, and they can quickly break through the city to obtain military supplies.

More than 1 cavalry, long-distance raids, people eat horse chews, unable to fight a protracted war.

Leng Saiyi only needs to hold for more than half a month, and Wang Tingchen's cavalry division will have to withdraw. If it continues to drag on, the army will definitely run out of rations.

Watching the Datong army cross the river, watching the Datong army set up camp, Leng Saiyi didn't even dare to go out of the city to attack.He thinks he should do something,

Instructed the left and right: "Order the whole army, not only to pay the marching fee, but also to double the army's salary during the defense of the city. The new rations that have just entered the warehouse, let them eat as much as they want, and all those who kill the enemy and make meritorious deeds will be rewarded!"

The military order was passed down, and the Tartar soldiers finally boosted their morale.

On the other hand, the Datong Army continued to cut down trees to make ladders.No matter how simple the city wall is, it is difficult to bombard it with a tiger crouching cannon. This time the siege must be a desperate attack.

A few days later, Mandahai's cavalry hadn't returned yet, and the Datong Army's simple siege equipment had already been prepared.

"I'm afraid many robes will die this time," Wang Tingchen said.

Wang Yaochen: "There are not many hard bones left in the Tartars. If one is gnawed off, one will be missing. The enemy army in the city in front of us is one of the few elite Tartars.

As long as we can gnaw it down, the puppet Qing Dynasty will not be far from being destroyed.Moreover, the city is dilapidated and low, so it is better to attack here than to retreat to the big city. "

"Master, I'll go first!" Wang Fuchen said.

Wang Tingchen nodded: "Go and prepare."

The city has no moat, but it is surrounded by natural rivers on both sides, so it can only be attacked from the northwest and due west.

"Boom boom boom boom!"

All the tiger squatting guns were dragged up and aimed at the city wall to shoot.Although it can't blow down the city wall, it can use shotguns to hit the enemy on the city wall outside the range of the bow and arrow.

Leng Saiyi withdrew his large army to the city, leaving only a few on the wall, and pushed his chariot up to defend.

The bombardment lasted for a long time, but the effect was weak, and few Tartars were killed.

"Go ahead." Wang Tingchen said.

Since it is a servant army, it must have the consciousness of a servant army. The Yehe tribe and the Huifa tribe are both cannon fodder for the first round of siege.

Nan Chu drew his sword and shouted: "Warriors of the Yehe tribe, don't forget the last words of their ancestors. Even if there is only one woman left in the Yehe tribe, they will destroy the Jianzhou Jurchen. Warriors, follow me to attack the city!"

Thousands of Haixi Jurchen soldiers, carrying simple weapons and simple siege ladders, roared and rushed towards the city wall.

Len Saiyi shouted: "Quickly defend!"

A large number of Tartar defenders who avoided the shells rushed back to the city wall with weapons, and some carried boiling hot oil and golden juice.

"Zizizi...

The hot oil poured on the person's body, making the sound of frying squid on the iron plate.

The first batch of siege soldiers from the Yehe tribe and the Huifa tribe collapsed and fled back in an instant, leaving only nearly a hundred corpses outside the city.

"And then on!"

Nan Chu began to organize the second wave of attack. For the continuation of Ye He's tribe, he could only let these warriors die.The greater the contribution you make today, the more you will be appreciated by the Datong court in the future, so that you can survive the most difficult years.

If it weren't for the Datong Army's support of food and cotton cloth, I don't know how many people in the Yehe tribe would starve to death and freeze to death in the past two years.

After all, they had just left the Qing Dynasty, and they were extremely scarce in all supplies, and they would have to continue to rely on the support of the Datong court for the next few years.

The whole day was spent in the siege of cannon fodder, and more than 900 people were killed or injured by the Yehe tribe and the Huifa tribe.Among them, more than [-]% were killed in battle,

Many of the remaining [-]% of the wounded suffered burns.

Their only achievement was to consume a lot of hot oil and gold juice from the defenders.

Chapter 683 [First Arrival]

"Ye He and Hui Fa both had too many casualties yesterday, so they don't want to attack the city today," Wang Yaochen said.

Wang Tingchen turned his head to look at the rear camp, and asked with a smile, "If you said that if the Tartar civilians were driven out of the city, what kind of punishment would we bear?"

Wang Yaochen was stunned: "You and I will both be dismissed, and there will be no meritorious service in this battle. I am afraid that it will take a year and a half before the officer can be restored to his original post and continue to lead the army. If you are unlucky, your title will also have to be downgraded."

"Then do it!"

Wang Tingchen rubbed his hands and said: "The Tartars' supplies for defending the city have not been consumed, and Ye He and Huifa can't sustain the casualties. At this time, a strong attack is to let the soldiers die. We are still young, and we will have more battles in the future." Fight, even if you lose the title, you can get back!"

"This... this is not good." After all, Wang Yaochen is the chief mission officer of the cavalry division.

Wang Tingchen said: "It's fine if you don't want to. If something goes wrong, I will handle it alone. Just say that you tried to persuade me, but I will forcefully violate the military regulations."

"It's not a question of who is carrying it," Wang Yaochen said. "The Datong Army has strict discipline, and the military regulations are clearly written. You can't force the people to fight, even if they are the people of the enemy's country."

Wang Tingchen said with a sneer: "I was born as a frontier general in the former dynasty. I have fought with the Tartars for several years. I have seen many disasters committed by the Tartars. Which Tartar has no Han blood on its hands? This is the territory of the Huifa Department. Now it is the Tartar people who are farming. Where did they come from? It was brought by Mandahai,

The land they planted was snatched from the people of the Huifa Department.Do you think they are civilians, when they killed Han Chinese and Huifa people, why did they feel pitiful for those people? "

Wang Yaochen was still hesitating, but he was tempted by the words.

Wang Tingchen also said: "When the Datong Army first established a foothold in Liaodong, they also killed Tartars when they saw them.

What is the difference between fighting and expelling Tartar civilians? "

Wang Yaochen said: "That's different. When we first gained a foothold in Liaodong, we had to kill the Tartars when we saw them. This was consuming the population of the Tartars, otherwise our army would not be able to gain a firm foothold in Liaodong. Now the court has said that in order to disintegrate the Tartars Morale, Tartar civilians can't be killed indiscriminately."

"Although the Tartar prisoners in the back camp were all civilians, did they resist when our army arrived?" Wang Tingchen asked.

Wang Yaochen nodded: "I resisted."

Wang Tingchen said again: "If the cavalry divisions hadn't come and gone like the wind, and let these Tartar civilians flee back to the city, would they have become enemies defending the city? The closer we get here, the fewer Tartar civilians. Why? Because The young and strong were conscripted to fight. If we came later, would these Tartar civilians further north be conscripted to fight as well?"

"Definitely." Wang Yaochen said.