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Chapter 84(1/2)

Trapped in Ningbo (please subscribe to support)

Author: Scholar Wu

Trapped in Ningbo (please subscribe to support)

Ever since the news came that the Ming army had raised troops to capture Huzhou, Zhejiang Admiral Tian Xiong had been paying attention to the movements of the Ming army in Huzhou, constantly sending people to explore the situation in Huzhou, and making preparations to regain Huzhou.

But what he didn't expect was an order to reinforce Ningbo. After hearing about the great changes in eastern Zhejiang, Tian Xiong also understood the seriousness of the matter.

So he led his troops southward from Songjiang without stopping all night, and basically did not waste any time except for a brief meeting with Xiao Qiyuan, the governor of Zhejiang in Hangzhou.

When Tian Xiong arrived in Hangzhou, news came that Wang Zaixing had led his troops to regain Deqing County. In addition, Xiao Qiyuan arranged for Pingnan General Jin Li to return to Huzhou from Huizhou, so he no longer worried about the situation in Huzhou.

Tian Xiong, who had no worries, rushed to Shaoxing Prefecture overnight.

As soon as I arrived in Shaoxing, I found that the situation in eastern Zhejiang was more severe than I thought, and the entire Shaoxing Prefecture was in chaos.

Zhu Xu, the prefect of Shaoxing, said: "Thanks to Admiral Tian who led his troops to help in time, otherwise I, Shaoxing, would be in danger."

Tian Xiong was confused when he heard this, and asked: "Doesn't it mean that the bandit Zhang Mingzhen's troops just occupied Taizhou, and now he has already reached Shaoxing?"

Zhu Xu hurriedly explained: "Zhang Mingzhen had controlled the entire territory of Taizhou Prefecture a few days ago. All the rebels in eastern Zhejiang have now joined Zhang Mingzhen. Their momentum is huge, and it is said that there are no less than 100,000 people. Zhang Mingzhen marched into Ningbo yesterday and captured it.

Fenghua, now I am afraid that they will go north to attack Yin County, the capital city of Ningbo."

"The Tiantai Mountain Bandit Bandits Yu Guowang and Siming Mountain Bandit Bandit King Wang Yi have led thousands of people to occupy Xinchang and are now attacking Shengxian County and are about to approach Shaoxing City."

Hearing that Ningbo City was still in the hands of the Qing army, Tian Xiong finally breathed a sigh of relief. He traveled at night because he was afraid that Ningbo City would fall into the hands of the Ming army.

I thought to myself that Zhu Xu was really an incompetent person. There were only a few thousand thieves and bandits, but they were not regular Ming soldiers, so they scared him like this!

Then he said: "The bandits in Shengxian County are just a mob. Magistrate Zhu does not need to be so panicked. As long as Yinxian County, Ningbo Prefecture, is still in the hands of our army."

"When I defeat the Ming bandits in Ningbo, these bandits in Shaoxing will definitely collapse without a fight."

At this time, Zhu Xu said: "Two days ago, Huang Binqing, the Zhoushan Ming invader, raided Dingguan. Now he has captured Dinghai and Cixi counties one after another. I am afraid that his troops have already reached Yin County."

Tian Xiong was really furious and roared: "Prefect Zhu, why did you reveal such important information last?"

"In other words, the entire territory of Ningbo has actually been occupied by the Ming army, and only Fucheng Yin County has not yet fallen?"

Zhu Xu said tremblingly: "That's exactly it!"

The supervisor under Tian Xiong's command is the essence of Zhejiang Green Camp, with a total of 2,000 horse troops and 3,000 infantry troops.

At this time, Tian Xiong only rushed to Shaoxing with 2,000 cavalry, and the infantry was still behind. Reinforcement was like putting out a fire. Now that Yin County was in danger, Tian Xiong naturally did not dare to delay, and incorporated the remaining 500 cavalry in Shaoxing Prefecture into his own cavalry.

, and went straight to Yinxian County.

Tian Xiong was indeed a battle-hardened warrior. He led his team to run wildly, bypassing Cixi County, and finally met Zhang Mingzhen outside Ningbo, who was leading his troops to attack.

Tian Xiong was originally the commander-in-chief of Huang Degong, Bo of Jingnan, but he had long wanted to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. After Huang Degong was killed by an arrow, Tian Xiong and another commander-in-chief of Huang Degong, Ma Degong, captured Zhu You, Emperor Hongguang of the Southern Ming Dynasty. Song and dedicated it to the Qing army.

According to historical records, Tian Xiong carried Emperor Hongguang on his back, and Ma Degong carried Emperor Hongguang's legs and rushed to the Qing army camp. At this time, Emperor Hongguang begged the two to let him go, and promised that they would be reused. Let’s revive the Ming Dynasty together.

At this time, the two of them had already regarded Emperor Hongguang as a bargaining chip for their promotion and wealth, so how could they let this opportunity pass?

Emperor Hongguang hated him very much, but he couldn't resist. He could only bite Tian Xiong's shoulder with his teeth, biting out a large sore. This gave Tian Xiong a stubborn disease. Because it was summer, the wound healed poorly. From then on, every summer and May, Tian Xiong's old injuries would relapse, and the pain would be unbearable.

When the wound relapsed, there was no way to relieve the pain. It could only be covered with raw meat to relieve the pain for a while. After a while, the pain was still there, so the only option was to continue covering the wound with fresh meat to relieve the pain. It is said that Tian Xiong was tortured by this disease for eighteen years. years until his death.

After Tian Xiong surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, he suppressed the Ming army in eastern Zhejiang. He became very prosperous in Zhejiang and is now the admiral of Zhejiang.

It can be said that Tian Xiong has always been the sufferer of the Ming army in eastern Zhejiang. Now that he encountered this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, he naturally would not miss it and directly led the Qing army into battle.

When encountering this situation, Zhang Mingzhen knew that the odds were stacked against him, but at this time he had no other option but to forcefully form a formation to fight.

Zhang Mingzhen shouted: "The shield soldiers come forward, the spearmen are behind, the fire musketeers, and the archers shoot in sequence."

The Qing cavalry did not directly hit the shield array in front of the Ming army, but went around and ran directly towards the flank of the Ming army.

In the panic, the Ming army's firecrackers and bows and arrows could only fire at random, and did not cause much damage to the Qing army at all.

The Qing army, on the other hand, charged directly into the Ming army's formation from the flanks. Without the protection of shields, the Ming army could only use their bodies to resist the Qing army.

Many Ming troops were cut down by the Qing army, but after all, they were elite troops under Zhang Mingzhen. The Ming army fought hard with the mentality of "kill one to make up for the loss, kill two to earn one", and there were still many spears that pierced the Qing soldiers. body of.

Although a large gap was opened on the flank by the Qing army, causing heavy casualties, the Ming army had not yet collapsed at this time.

The Qing troops who rushed into the Ming army and gradually lost their impact were constantly shot and killed by the Ming army.

On the other side, Hu Hitili was originally planning to bypass Zhang Mingzhen. When he saw a large number of cavalry approaching not far away, he immediately ordered his men to attack the Ming army from the other side.

The Ming army, which had finally stabilized its position, was attacked from behind again. The Ming army, which was killed and penetrated by two Qing troops, could no longer withstand it and was instantly defeated.

A large number of soldiers began to flee. Although they knew that leaving their backs to the Qing army at this time was tantamount to death, their natural fear still made them turn around and flee.

Seeing this, the Ming army general Li Shenfu shouted to Zhang Mingzhen's soldiers: "What are you doing here? Hurry up and take the Marquis of Dingxi back to Ningbo."

After saying that, he led a group of Ming troops to fight against the Qing troops. The Ming troops' shouts of killing did not stop for a long time!

Zhang Mingzhen knew that Li Shenfu was buying time for him to escape, and he no longer wanted to look at the scene behind him. The outcome of those Ming troops could be imagined.

In this era, when infantry encounters cavalry in the wild, tragedy is basically unavoidable.

Unless it is heavily armored infantry that is specially equipped to target cavalry, or it is equipped with a flintlock gun with an extremely fast rate of fire.

Otherwise, even Qian Mo's Shenji Battalion, when there is not much difference in the strength of the two sides in the field, will face the impact of the cavalry directly without using the terrain, and it will be a disaster.

Of course, the desperate resistance of the Ming army infantry was still valuable. In addition to increasing the casualties of the Qing army, it also gained some valuable time, which was enough to change the entire battle situation.

Tian Xiong did not expect that the resistance of these Ming troops was so tenacious, and nearly 500 of his cavalry were killed by the Ming troops. If Hu Hitili had not come out from the other side, he would have paid a higher price.

When Tian Xiong led the cavalry to catch up to the north city of Ningbo, more than 20 of Zhang Mingzhen's cavalry had already entered the south city of Ningbo.

What greeted him were the bows, arrows and firecrackers of the Ming army on the city.

After all, he came a step too late. Although Tian Xiong almost wiped out all 5,000 elite members of the Ming army at the cost of less than 500 people in this battle. However, Ningbo had already fallen into the hands of the Ming army. At this time, he and Hu Hitili

The total number of soldiers and horses is less than three thousand, and they are all cavalry, so they can only look at the city and sigh.

At this time, he couldn't help but say to Hu Hitili in a reproachful tone: "How could you attack rashly and lose Ningbo Mansion?"

Hu Hitili was also full of grievances. There were only 4,000 defenders in Ningbo City. If he didn't design a trick to deceive Huang Binqing, he would not be able to defend Ningbo Mansion.

He was also eager to expand the results before pursuing the defeated Ming army. In fact, he was very successful in defeating the remaining troops of the dynasty. However, he should not be too greedy and take the initiative to attack Huang Binqing's camp, allowing Zhang Mingzhen to take the opportunity to steal Ningbo Mansion.

So he told Tian Xiong the whole story, but of course the part about how he tricked Cao Shanbao to death was omitted.

Tian Xiong saw that Hu Hitili was indeed a strong general. He went out of the city to kill a large number of Ming troops and helped him at a critical moment.

So he said: "Vice Admiral Hu has indeed worked very hard this time. I, the admiral, will take credit for your contribution. At the moment, Huang Binqing's troops are still camped outside the city. Let's defeat this Ming army first."

Looking at the retreating Qing troops, Zhang Mingzhen finally felt relieved.

He said to Zhang Huangyan full of guilt: "I regret that I didn't listen to Cang Shui's words and take the risk to attack. I was in vain and implicated 5,000 soldiers."

"How is the situation in the city now?"

Zhang Huangyan said: "Victory and defeat are common matters for military officers, so the Marquis of Dingxi does not need to blame himself too much. Fortunately, we still successfully captured Ningbo Prefecture. Let's record the hatred of our brothers for the time being, and we will make the Qing army pay for it with blood!"

"Ningbo Magistrate Huang Wantian didn't know that reinforcements from the Qing army outside the city had arrived. He had just ordered all the stubborn Qing troops in the city to surrender. Now Ningbo is under my control."

"Now we only have 4,500 troops left in Ningbo. There is a serious shortage of troops to defend the city. I have notified the 3,000 troops stationed in Fenghua to arrive in time to reinforce Ningbo."

"There are now 1,200 surrendered soldiers from the Qing army in Ningbo Prefecture. I have sent people to take them to Taizhou by water overnight. Otherwise, it will be easy to cause chaos when the Qing army besieges the city and stays in the city."

Zhang Mingzhen said: "Cang Shui handled it properly. It's all my brother Wei's fault for taking the risk and attacking that led to the lack of troops in the city now, which almost ruined the big thing."

"I think their cavalry should be the vanguard, and the infantry should still be behind, but they will attack the city tomorrow at the latest."

Zhang Huangyan laughed and said, "Don't panic, Marquis of Dingxi. Governor Qian has already occupied Huzhou. I guess there won't be many reinforcements from Hangzhou, and the number of reinforcements is only a few thousand."

"There are a lot of armors and weapons in Ningbo Mansion. We will recruit troops in the city tomorrow. Defending Ningbo Mansion will not be a problem."

"I heard that Huang Binqing has also occupied Dingguan, Dinghai, and Cixi counties. Now the entire Ningbo Prefecture has fallen. As long as we hold on to the prefecture, the Qing army will definitely be unable to do anything."

"Besides, Huang Binqing's navy is still anchored on the Yongjiang River. How easy will it be for the Qing army to recapture Ningbo?"

"It's just that Huang Binqing's camp is still outside the city. I don't know if the Qing army will take advantage of the situation to attack the camp."

Zhang Mingzhen has a clear distinction between love and hate. Although he had many conflicts with Huang Binqing before, he was often annoyed by Huang Binqing during his stay in Zhoushan.

However, Huang Binqing kept his promise during this expedition to eastern Zhejiang and sent troops to harass Ningbo. Moreover, his troops suffered heavy casualties during this expedition. If Huang Binqing had not attacked Ningbo with all his strength, Zhang Mingzhen would not have been able to capture Ningbo so easily.

Said: "We are all Ming soldiers. If Huang Binqing is in trouble, we can't just ignore him."

Huang Binqing had just killed Cao Shanbao and others, and his morale was high. He originally wanted to see if he could take advantage of the situation to seize Ningbo Mansion.

It didn’t take long for the sentry cavalry to report: “A large number of Qing cavalry were found ahead of the field intercepting and killing Ming infantry!”

This confused Huang Binqing. Where did the large number of Ming and Qing troops come from outside Ningbo City?

Could it be that the troops he sent to Xicheng were being intercepted and killed by the Qing army?

Along the way, I also met some remnants of Chaoshan, saying that Chaoxian had been trapped and killed by the Qing army, and all 5,000 troops were killed by the Qing cavalry.

Although he knew that it was unlikely to be his own men and horses, Huang Binqing still asked the sentry rider with a hint of luck: "How many men and horses are there in the Ming and Qing armies?"

The sentry rider said: "I can't tell exactly how many people there are. The Ming army has at least four to five thousand men and horses, and the attacking Qing army cavalry also has several thousand."

The sentry knight added: "It seems that the situation of the Ming army is not good!"

At this time, Huang Binqing had already guessed that it was probably Zhang Mingzhen's Ming army. It was impossible for thousands of other Ming troops to appear here.
To be continued...
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