Yang Zhen, who was in Fuzhou City, didn't know that Dorgon and his gang had brought so many people this time and actually planned to adopt a strategy of siege and reinforcements to deal with him.

On the contrary, he believed that Dorgon would definitely avenge Duduo, and the men and horses of the two white flags would become red-eyed when they saw the original officers and soldiers of Songshan City, and come to attack the city at all costs.

However, misunderstandings also have their benefits.

The advantage of this is that Yang Zhen and his generals all know that the main force coming back is the people of the Two White Flags, and it can be said that the hatred between them and the people of the Two White Flags is so great that they cannot be separated.

In the series of battles in western Liaoning last year, the officers and soldiers of various departments in Songshan under Yang Zhen fought against the two white flags, especially the bordered white flags, and suffered heavy casualties.

From Duduo on down, the Manchu and Mongolian dignitaries with white flags as well as the top officials of the Han army were almost wiped out in one fell swoop.

In the city of Shengjing in the rear of the Qing Dynasty, almost every household with white flags wore mourning, and those with white hair gave gifts to those with black hair.

Since there is such a deep hatred between the two sides, then this time Dorgon leads the army to take revenge, and he must go crazy!

Therefore, the various troops in Fuzhou City, needless to say, Yang Zhen said that since the news of the Manchu Tat troops stationed in Xiongyue City came, they immediately invested in repairing fortifications and preparing for battle.

Fuzhou City is neither big nor small. Fortunately, except for the various soldiers and horses who have been preparing for war for a long time, there are no other civilians in the city.

The food, grass and ammunition stored in the city, after being replenished three times, are now very sufficient, enough for Yang Zhen and others to hold on to the city for several months.

At the same time, Fuzhou City is tall and wide, with only three city gates in the north, east and south, and each gate is protected by an urn.

Each fort above the Wengcheng is also equipped with a Hongyi cannon that was transported into the city after the capture of Fuzhou.

At that time, Yang Zhen's idea was that Fuzhou City might be abandoned at any time, and it was not a place he must defend.

If the precious Hongyi cannons are concentrated here too much, once they decide to give up, they will need to be destroyed. This will inevitably be a pity.

Just like this, the long-range artillery fire at the top of the city was relatively insufficient, and it became the weakest point in Fuzhou City's defense system today.

Fortunately, although there were insufficient heavy Hongyi cannons in Fuzhou City, after Zhang Degui crossed the sea, he sent a large amount of ammunition ordnance to Li Lu and others in Fuzhou City.

Among them, there are as many as thirty large-caliber mortars using exploding bullets, which are the soaring cannons named after Yang Zhen.

Therefore, although the long-range firepower at the head of Fuzhou City is relatively insufficient, its short-range firepower is considerable.

Correspondingly, the huge fleet led by Yuan Jin and others far away from the coast of Beixunkou also had many sky cannons, generals and Folan cannons mounted on large ships.

At critical moments, their artillery mounted on ships can also fire at enemies on the shore.

The existence of these ammunition and ordnance was the reason why Yang Zhen still dared to defend Fuzhou City with more than 4,000 people after hearing the news from the north.

It was not that Yang Zhen had not thought about the strategy of retreating in order to advance, such as simply abandoning Fuzhou City and retreating directly to Jinzhou City. However, after much deliberation, he was still afraid of damaging the morale of the army, so he decided to hold on for a while.

In his opinion, before they were able to defend Songshan City with thousands of troops against tens of thousands of Manchu and Tatar troops, there was no reason why they could not defend Fuzhou City, which had better conditions.

Even if we can't hold it in the end, if we abandon it from the beginning, it will be a bit too demoralizing for the various people who have just moved to Jinhai.

Especially for the thousands of people in Liu Wanzhong's Fifth Tun Camp who were dividing the fields and stationing in Nanguanling and renovating the fortifications behind him, once they directly retreated to Jinzhou City, their just-started business would not be able to continue.

There is also the Jinzhou Shipyard in Longwang Temple. How should we deal with it at the same time?

Should I abandon it or burn it on fire?

These aspects also forced him to conscientiously hold on to Fuzhou City for a period of time in order to create more preparation time for the rear.

In this way, Yang Zhen was determined to hold on to Fuzhou City and wait for or create new opportunities while holding on.

According to Yang Zhen's deployment, Lu Pinqi led his Jinhai North Road troops to garrison the north gate, which is the Zhenhaimen Wengcheng; Zu Keyong led his Jinhai East Road troops to garrison the east gate, which is the Mingtongmen Wengcheng; Zhang Chen and his musketeers

The men and horses of the battalion were stationed at the south gate, which was the urn city of Ying'en Gate.

In addition, Li Lu and the left-wing troops of his grenadier battalion served as the central army, following Yang Zhen's actions, and were responsible for the strategic reserve task of supporting the other three troops at the opportunity.

On the morning of February 17, the 13th year of Chongzhen, around 10:00, Zhong Lingxian's troops, who had been sent out to continue their reconnaissance to the north, hurried back to the gate of Zhenhai again, and the Tatar vanguard was in the blue.

News that the banner's 6,000 to 7,000 troops were rapidly heading south was brought to the city.

At noon, continuous explosions were heard in the Luotuoshan area near the northwest of Fuzhou City.

Violent explosions came with the sea breeze from the west coast, one after another, which made the generals in Fuzhou City feel very uneasy.

"It must be the vanguard of the Manchu Tatars, Zhenglan Banner, who discovered Pan Xi and Hu Dabao's team stationed at Luotuo Mountain! Not far to the east of Luotuo Mountain is the post road from the north to Fuzhou City. If the Manchu Tatars want to go south with peace of mind,

, especially if they come to besiege Fuzhou City, they must first remove our garrison at Luotuo Mountain!"

In order to stabilize the military morale in the city, Yang Zhen summoned the generals in the city to the tower of Zhenhai Gate at the North Gate of Fuzhou. While looking at the Luotuo Mountain near the northwest coast with a telescope, he analyzed the situation at hand to the generals.

"However, it doesn't matter. Although Camel Mountain is not big, the terrain is extremely steep. If the Tatars want to capture Camel Mountain, it will not be something they can do in three or two days!

"As long as Pan Xi, Hu Dabao and the others have endless ammunition and food on Luotuo Mountain, it will be absolutely impossible for the Manchu Tatars to rely on horseback riding and archery to attack the top of the mountain!"

Yang Zhen knew about Luotuo Mountain in the northwest of Fuzhou City. In three hundred years, it would be a famous scenic spot full of wonders of mountains and seas.

Luotuo Mountain is not very tall, and the highest main peak is only about 300 meters.

There is a huge rock shaped like a camel on the main peak, so this mountain is called Camel Mountain.

Except for this abrupt and towering main peak, the main ridge of Camel Mountain is only about 200 meters above sea level.

However, Camel Mountain, which does not look very tall, is extremely steep. There are no big gentle slopes around it, and it is almost entirely filled with cliffs rising from the flat ground.

The most surprising thing is that the mountains of Luotuo Mountain are full of trees and springs, and there is no shortage of drinking water.

With such conditions, as long as the troops stationed on the mountain are not short of ammunition and food, they can continue to hold on.

Therefore, Yang Zhen was not too worried about Pan Xi and Hu Dabao, who had already arrived on Camel Mountain one step ahead.

"But, Governor, what if the Manchu Tatar army keeps besieging Camel Mountain and Pan Xi and Hu Dabao run out of ammunition and food on the mountain?!"

Li Lu, who also already knew the geographical conditions of Luotuo Mountain, still had doubts when he heard the fierce explosions coming from the direction of Luotuo Mountain.

He followed Yang Zhen to the tower of Zhenhai Gate. After looking northwest for a long time, he couldn't help but express the questions in his mind.

"It doesn't matter. I have told Yuan Jin before to pay attention to the response. Before Luotuo Mountain runs out of ammunition and food, Yuan Jin and his fleet will transfer a batch of food, grass and ammunition from Jinzhou City!"

Since Yang Zhen sent Yuan in and out of the city and led the fleet to anchor on the sea near Beixukou, it was natural that he had already made arrangements for them to serve as the entire battlefield transport team.

At the same time, when Yang Zhen sent out Hu Dabao and Pan Xi, he had already prepared for the worst.

"Besides, I have already told Hu Dabao and the others that if they really run out of ammunition and food and can no longer withstand it, they can retreat to the sea on their own!

"Their mission was to delay and consume the Manchu Tatar troops as much as possible in Luotuo Mountain. Haha, if the Manchu Tatars attack Luotuo Mountain so fiercely that they can defeat Pan Xi and Hu Dabao who have occupied the favorable geographical conditions.

If we run out of food, the Tatar army will only suffer greater losses, and I’m afraid we will have to suffer thousands of casualties there!”

When Yang Zhen said this, all the generals following him nodded in agreement. For a while, the previous tense atmosphere also dissipated a lot.

During the next three days, the explosions in the direction of Luotuo Mountain near the northwest of Fuzhou City continued to sound, sometimes sparsely, sometimes densely, regardless of day or night.

At noon on the fourth day, that is, February 20, the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, the explosions that had been going on in broad daylight suddenly stopped and lasted for half a day.

Waves of sentinels sent out from Fuzhou City were either ambushed shortly after leaving the city and fled back hastily, or they just disappeared without any news.

The generals in Fuzhou City did not know what was going on, and they all anxiously speculated on what might happen.

Every individual's heart is filled with an unknown premonition.

Even Yang Zhen, who had always had full confidence in the defenders of Camel Mountain, couldn't help but begin to doubt whether his previous judgment was correct.

In the evening of that day, Zhong Lingxian, who was ordered to leave the city and go north to inquire about the news, came back from the north with a small team of people.

"Captain, the area around Luotuo Mountain is completely surrounded. There are many Tatar sentries and scouting horses everywhere. The humble officials and others are unable to penetrate deeply. What happened to Pan Xi, Hu Dabao and the others, we still have no way of knowing!"

Zhong Lingxian, who was panting from the journey, went up to the tower, saw Yang Zhen, and immediately reported to him the situation in the Luotuo Mountain area.

After saying this, I saw him taking a breath, and then continued: "However, as I walked north, I found that there were countless Manchu Tatar horse infantry coming south from the ruins of Yongning Prison City!

"The humble officers and others found out from the outside. The leader was the red flag, the middle one was the blue flag, and there were more people and horses behind them. Under the light, they looked like white flowers. I don't know if it was the white flag of the Manchu Tatars or the Manchu Tatars.

The white flag!"

Zhong Lingxian's words immediately caused an uproar in the city.

Obviously, although Zhong Lingxian and others did not find out the actual situation in the Luotuoshan area, they did bring back the news that a new batch of Manchu Tatar troops were coming to Fuzhou City.

"Oh, then, how many people are there among the newly arrived Mantatars?"

Since the armies of several banners of the Manchu Tatars have arrived in the Xiongyue City area, and since the vanguard team has already fought with the troops stationed in Camel Mountain, the follow-up Manchu Tatar army must come.

It's a blessing, not a curse. It's a curse that can't be avoided. Since the enemy is destined to come, let's come.

When the generals were tense, Yang Zhen had to maintain a calm composure, otherwise, the next battle would be impossible to fight.

"Based on my humble observation estimate, among the newly arrived Mantars, the number of troops wearing red flags and armors was the smallest, about four to five thousand people. The people with blue flags and armors were in the middle, about ten thousand people. On the contrary, those marching in white were the ones at the back.

The armored team is the largest, numbering between 10,000 and 20,000 people!"

After hearing Zhong Lingxian's report, Yang Zhen and the generals in Fuzhou City felt somewhat enlightened.

Thinking back to the beginning, there were more than this number of Tatar troops gathered outside the small town of Songshan. So what was the result? Didn't they return in vain in the end?
Chapter completed!