The Zhejiang Army retreated to the camp. When Du Hongyu heard the war reports of the guerrillas of the generals and thousands of households, his face became increasingly ugly. In just one morning of attack, the Zhejiang Army killed and injured more than 3,000 people. How could the Zheng thief have such combat power? There were even bandits who died with the Ming army in their arms, holding explosives barrels, which was quite like the spirit of the Japanese pirates.

Since the offensive stopped, Du Hongyu simply waited for Yuan Chonghuan's army to attack the city again. Taking advantage of this period, Zheng Zhihu ordered his soldiers to hurry up and repair the city and repair the defense facilities. The soldiers in the city were busy. The fierce battle in the morning were even more serious than the soldiers and horses in Du Hongyu. The casualties were estimated to be more than 4,000, and most of them were veterans. The new soldiers only suffered major casualties when they were supporting behind. He roughly counted the soldiers, and there were still three or four thousand to fight, and the veterans were only more than two thousand left to fight. His soldiers were severely injured.

However, according to the military order, he had to hold on until tomorrow night. The current situation, Yuan Chonghuan's large team of troops must be not far behind. It is still unknown whether they can survive tonight. Zheng Zhihu is not a rigid person. Thinking of this, he immediately sent a few horses to report to Yang Sanjun not far behind the city to prepare. He also released a pigeon letter wrapped in a red cloth rope to report their situation to Xiamen, and let the eldest brother make arrangements early.

In Jinjiang County, Feng Chengshi and Zheng Hongkui led their troops to Jinjiang, they began to mobilize according to the established policy. In order to speed up efficiency, they divided the five thousand soldiers into two parts. Feng Chengshi led two thousand people to evacuate the residents in the city. Zheng Hongkui led the remaining three thousand people to gradually place the gunpowder they brought in the private houses, and sprinkled flammable sulfur toner and other items on the roof. Zheng Hongkui ordered the soldiers responsible for arranging these explosives. No one was allowed to bring weapons, no shirts, and only shorts. This was to prevent spies from mixing in to ignite gunpowder, and also to prevent these soldiers from carrying any fire-induced objects on their bodies. If they were accidentally ignited, the whole city would be burned. He didn't want to shoot himself in the foot.

In addition, on the sea, ships coming from Taiwan kept docking, hundreds of civilians transported buckets of gunpowder to the shore, and then received by soldiers to transport them to Jinjiang City. The whole thing was going on in an orderly manner.

Before leaving, Zheng Zhilong gave Zheng Hongkui a secret order to ask him to ensure that the military advisor's family was safely escorted to Xiamen. Zheng Hongkui knew what his brother meant, so he immediately sent more than a hundred of his personal guards to escort Feng Chengshi's wife and son to Xiamen. Feng Chengshi just smiled at this and did not say a word.

By this afternoon, half of the mechanisms had been arranged in Jinjiang City. It would probably take one day to arrange them all, but I don’t know if Zheng Zhihu could hold on for another day. Feng Chengshi was not sure about this. After all, man-making is not as good as God-making. Yuan Chonghuan’s army was in a dilemma. If Zheng Hongkui had delayed a few days, he would have been able to arrange them calmly now. Well, as long as he can complete it, he can only cause huge damage to the official army.

After receiving Zheng Zhihu's report from Tang, Yang San did not dare to be negligent. He immediately raised his troops to go to the official road from Jinjiang to Quanzhou to ambush. He also sent a message to inform Jinjiang City to ask them to make preparations. Zheng Zhilong was not idle either. After receiving the pigeon letter, he was going to send troops to Houwan Mountain at night to achieve the suddenness of the battle. However, the situation on the battlefield changed rapidly. Since Zheng Zhihu was not very sure, Zheng Zhilong had to go to Houwan Mountain immediately. Fortunately, Houwan Mountain was not far from Xiamen, and it would be possible to arrive in most of the day. Zheng Zhilong asked Zheng Zhibao to lead three thousand old and weak troops to defend the city. He personally led a large army of 20,000, of which the new and old troops were 10,000 each.

Zheng Zhilong is worthy of being a master of tactics. Heavy equipment such as cannons were shipped from sea to near Houwanshan two days ago. As long as the army arrived there, it would be possible to unload the equipment from the ship. Soon, Zheng Zhilong gathered good people and advanced at a high speed to Houwanshan with an order. The Zheng army soldiers were very morale. Of course, the old army had just defeated Yu Zigao. After Zheng Zhilong's encouragement, each of them gave ten taels of Anjia Silver. They showed higher morale than the veterans. They all wanted to perform well in front of the boss. Zheng Zhilong also promised them that if they win this battle, they would reward them according to their merits. Zheng Zhilong prepared 10,000 taels of gold to see if the soldiers were capable of getting it, and even fanned these newly-entered soldiers.

In the evening, Yuan Chonghuan's army finally arrived to meet with the vanguard Zhejiang soldiers. He immediately organized more than a thousand households to discuss the matter despite the fatigue of the journey and listened to Du Hongyu's report on the daytime war. Du Hongyu said it in detail and briefly introduced the casualties between the two sides. Yuan Chonghuan frowned when he heard it because he had been in the north for a long time and did not know much about the pirates in the southeast.

In his impression, the equipment of the pirates in the southeast may be slightly better than that of Jianlu and Beilu. After all, they have been living abroad for many years and can get a lot of Western firearms. They must have certain advantages in artillery and firearms. Judging from the situation introduced by Du Hongyu, it is true that Zheng thief's artillery team is not inferior to that of Jianlu. However, in his opinion, the willpower of the pirates should not be as strong as Jianlu. Although both are robbers, Jianlu is not in the Chinese territory after all. They have their own set of rules. After Huang Taiji ascended the throne, they have basically transitioned to a national regime. Although they are still robbers in their bones, they have their own grand goals. Whether at the tactical level or the strategic level, they are by no means comparable to a pirate armed group like Zheng Zhilong.

But if according to Du Hongyu, Zheng Zhilong's soldiers actually had such a strong fighting will. These people were just farmers who were digging food in the soil in the past. When did they have such terrible combat power? He couldn't help but feel a little worried.

In history, Yuan Chonghuan was wrongly killed in the early years of Chongzhen. If he knew that the newly joined hungry people under Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng were fighting, he would know what spiritual power was. When a life was not as valuable as a steamed bun, when a full meal could urge people to rush to the city, people would lose confidence in the world. They could still eat after fighting, but they could starve to death. Under the rule of the court, they would starve to death. If they were obedient, they would not care about anything. If they fought, they would be cruel, they would be afraid of being arrogant, and they would be afraid of being lucky. If they didn't want to die, they would fight. Zheng Zhilong's soldiers had this mentality. They were dead in the front and back. If they fought, they might have a way to survive. The soldiers of the official army were just to join the army and eat food. Who would talk to you about the ideals of family and country. So once they suffered great setbacks, they would immediately feel like retreating.

This is why Chongzhen asked Sun Chuanting to train the new army in the late history. It was just to replace the old army and let a conviction army go to the battlefield to fight. This was also the same routine, including the Beiyang New Army in the late Qing Dynasty.

At this time, Liu Yi was rectifying military affairs in the camp. Because he only put the general level, he could not attend Yuan Chonghuan's high-level meeting. Yuan Chonghuan divided the army in Nanzhili according to the original garrison. Naturally, Liu Yi was still under the command of Long Zongwu and did not divide his troops into the sequence of Sudi. Although Liu Yi was not qualified to participate in this meeting, he also went to the Zhejiang soldiers' camp to listen to many soldiers' statements. Although Liu Yi and Zhejiang soldiers did not belong to the same sequence, they were all the Ming army after all, and they were also the general and their superiors, so Liu Yi did not dare not to answer when asked about the soldiers.

He casually pointed out a few people and called them aside. Each of them gave five taels of silver and then asked questions. The soldiers were a little nervous when they saw Shangguan Wenzhai, but when they saw the silver, they all felt relieved. They praised General Liu's heroic spirit. They poured beans on the bamboo tube and told Liu Yi in detail what he saw on the battlefield. After hearing this, Liu Yi knew it and returned to the camp to summon several hundred households to discuss countermeasures.
Chapter completed!