Dongguan County underwent large-scale expansion during the Hongwu period, including Boyu Mountain and Taojia Mountain to the southwest of the old city. Therefore, the Dongguan County that now appears in front of Chen Kai is an irregular polygon.

There are four gates in the city: Zhenhai in the north, Chongde in the south, Heyang in the east, and Yingen in the west. Judging from the name, it is very different from Xiangshan County - Xiangshan County has always had officials there.

You enter from the south gate; but for Dongguan County, you always enter from the west gate. The reason is that the provincial capital, Guangzhou, is to the west of Dongguan.

The army led by Chen Kai personally advanced from Xin'an to the north and soon reached Dongguan County. The gap in the strength of the two sides was not small, but it was not huge, so Chen Kai simply did not completely besiege the city, but camped in the southwest of the county.

The army approached the city, cleared the plum blossom piles in the south of the city, and blatantly dug tunnels outside the city.

In order to dig the tunnel, the Ming army also built two camps near the tunnel to surround the tunnel. Chen Kai's steady use of troops did not allow the Qing army in the city to take advantage of it. However, the fortifications outside the city were

The tunnels were being built extensively, and in the south of the city there were Boyu Mountain and Taojia Mountain guarding the south city wall to the west and east, which led to the slow excavation progress. Within the county, there is also a waterway between the new city and the old city.

Dividing the city into two, even if it enters the stage of street fighting, it will never be as easy as in Xinhui County.

The defenders had received a gratifying strict order to defend the city. The city had not yet been surrounded, and the Ming army's superiority in strength was far from enough to make them despair. Under the strict order, the morale of the defenders was pretty good.

The defense work is also proceeding in an orderly manner, just waiting for the reinforcements Shang Kexi said to arrive.

At the end of October, Chen Kai set out from Xinhui and went down to Xiangshan and Xin'an counties, but was forced to stop his rapid advance in Dongguan. At the same time, Chen Kai's army left, which had little impact on Li Dingguo's troops.

Under the command of Li Dingguo, the vanguard of the army crossed the Cangbu River and captured Gaoming County easily.

This had been expected for a long time. After all, the Qing navy was almost negligible today. Even if Gaoming County, located south of the Xijiang River, had Cangbu Water as a barrier, it did not have enough ships, so it was just hanging outside.

There is no need to consume limited troops for this purpose, especially there is no need to cause the feudal soldiers to suffer more losses.

Immediately following Gao Ming, a partial division of Li Dingguo set out from Xinhui County and headed north to take Shunde. His troops crossed the Xijiang River in an attempt to seize Sanshui.

People say that the water network in the south of the Yangtze River is criss-crossing. In fact, the Pearl River Delta is an alluvial plain, and the entire area is cut into small pieces by one waterway after another. Under such a terrain, the side that lacks naval forces will

There will be a problem of a significant decrease in mobility.

The distance between Shunde and the capital city of Guangzhou is less than a hundred miles. Apart from waterways, there are not many geographical barriers that can serve as barriers. However, it is precisely because of the problem of the Qing navy that it is still difficult for Shunde to get effective support from Guangzhou.

But just like Xinhui and Dongguan, the Qing army in Shunde also received orders to hold on and wait for the reinforcements of the Eight Banners who didn't know where they were.

In order to attack Shunde, Li Dingguo decided that the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Lian Chengbi, and Huben general Wang Xing would command the waterway troops and horses to take charge of the attack, while his own troops would go north to Sanshui to seize this more important location.

Sanshui County is located at the mouth of the river, and is the only way to connect Zhaoqing and Guangzhou. Of course Li Shutai, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, understood the importance of Sanshui to the Qing army, so he went to Sanshui with his supervisor.

County town assists in defense.

Four years ago, the Qing army besieged Guangzhou, and Sanshui had a Ming Dynasty military governor sitting here. Now, the Ming army launched a counterattack, but the Qing army also had a senior official from the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi to assist in the defense.

It was the other way around. The only difference was that when the Qing army attacked Sanshui, they advanced by land; while the Ming army had to pass through water to get close to the city.

On the Xijiang waterway, a Ming army fleet slowly moved up the river. On the ship's flag, a large Chinese character "Chen" fluttered in the wind, trying its best to tell the commander-in-chief to the mountains and fields on both sides of the river, the gentry and the common people.

identity of.

On the bow of the ship, the white-haired old general looked at the mountains and waters along the way. What he felt was more of a familiarity, or because it had been so long that he could not remember clearly, or because things were different and people were different.

It's a bit unfamiliar. However, the hydrology and geography have been understood for a long time, and I have not dared or forgotten them for many years, just for today's counterattack.

"Four years ago, I was ordered to be stationed in Sanshui to protect the flanks of Guangzhou under the control of the supervising scholar He Wuzuo. However, the Japanese army came with great force, and even though the soldiers fought desperately, they could not prevent the fall of Sanshui in the end. Then

At that time, Sanshui was lost, so I had no choice but to swim down the river and go to Shangchuan Island to live there. Thanks to Chen Fujun's help, I am now as strong as I am today."

As he spoke, Linghai General Chen Qice turned around and looked around. Behind the ship, on the Xijiang River, there were endless ships of all sizes, with hundreds of battleships vying for the water. Here are the warships that survived when he escaped from Sanshui, and the Pearl River Water Battle.

Among the seizures, there were the small boats assigned to him by Chen Kai in Hong Kong, as well as those captured by Du Yonghe and those newly built in the past four years.

"I finally came back from the fight."

Chen Qice looked around and saw that in the distance, there was a waterway in the northeast direction of the Xijiang River. When he saw it, the memory of the past emerged in his mind, and he immediately ordered the messenger: "Order the fleet to divert to Beijiang in front, and then

Go down the river, occupy Dazhousha, bombard Xinhui County, and cover the army of King Xining crossing the river."

The order was given, and very quickly, the flagman on the ship stood on the mast's lookout and waved the flag. The ships behind noticed the ship's instructions and responded quickly.

As Chen Qice said, the fleet diverted to Beijiang and quickly took control of the unguarded Dazhousha. While shelling Sanshui County at the mouth of the river, the smaller ships also began to attack the Ming Dynasty, which had approached the south bank of Beijiang.

Military Pioneer provides shipping support.

Tens of thousands of Ming troops, led by Li Dingguo's Chinese Army Commander Jin Tongwu, quickly crossed Beixi and swaggered close to Sanshui City. With the cooperation of the navy, they formed a semi-siege situation around Sanshui County. Moreover,

, more Ming troops seemed to be gathering here from the direction of Xinhui in the south, as if they were ready to take Sanshui into their hands.

Here, there were both the local green camp and Li Shutai's supervision. It was not far from Guangzhou, so Jin Tongwu's efforts to persuade him to surrender were naturally in vain.

Seeing this, Jin Tongwu began to build siege equipment step by step, destroy the plum blossom piles outside the city, and dig tunnels at the same time. What he did was almost the same as Chen Kai in Dongguan and Wang Xing in Shunde.

Preparations for the siege were carried out slowly. After a few days, the first attack was launched. Jin Tongwu arrived at the front line in person and led the Ming army to launch an attack by attacking outside the city with ants and tunnel raids. Just like the Zhaoqing War last year

Like this year's new meeting, the Qing army was well prepared for this tactic. They still defended the city tightly and dug inner ditches in the city. After suffering a certain amount of casualties, they quickly repelled the Ming army's fierce attack.

After the first attack failed, Jin Tongwu did not feel discouraged. Instead, he continued to build more siege equipment and dig more tunnels, making it clear that he would continue to implement the tactics.

Time passed quickly, and it soon passed to late November. During this period, Jin Tongwu continued to receive news from Li Dingguo. First, Chen Kailian went down to Xiangshan and Xin'an counties, and then, just like him, he gradually defeated the Qing army.

city.

However, compared to his more primitive tactics, Chen Kai's attack on Dongguan was quite fierce. Even the city wall was blown down by the Ming army once. As a result, subsequent troops followed up slowly, leaving the Qing army to block it.

The gap was closed, and the prepared bamboo basket was filled with earth and rocks to block the gap again.

Such news came through Xiangshan County. Although the two sides did not reunite in the same place, they still exchanged military information. Chen Kai did not shy away from the failure of his attack on Dongguan. On the contrary, Lian Chengbi and

On Wang Xing's side, the attack was also not smooth, even more so than that of Chen Kai and him, but the reports were always quite optimistic, so optimistic that Jin Tongwu laughed out loud several times.

He is just a simple military commander, and he is not very understanding of political intrigues. When reporting on battles, he is often not motivated by the desire to gain credit. In many cases, he still has to give confidence to the rear. Otherwise, if generals are changed at the last moment, the impact on the battle situation will often be huge.

Even more disadvantageous.

These don't have much to do with him now. For him, at this moment, he is nothing more than launching an effective attack on Sanshui County with Chen Qice, nothing more. But today, he received an urgent letter.

The newspaper reported that the Qing army in Shunde had abandoned the city and the army moved into Foshan.

"It's really strange. Sanshui and Dongguan didn't bloom, but Shunde won it first."

Jin Tongwu couldn't understand. What he said also meant that he underestimated the combat effectiveness of Liancheng Bi and Wang Xing's troops. Chen Qice sat across from him and read the urgent report carefully. Soon, a new urgent report was sent.

When they arrived, a text that had never even mentioned the word Shunde also explained to them why the Qing army wanted to abandon Shunde County.

………………

The Beijiang River on the banks of the Three Rivers flows down and merges into the rolling torrent of the Pearl River. It flows into the sea without stopping for a moment.

Above the rapids of the Pearl River, the beacon towers along the river, except for Dongguan, Xin'an, and Xiangshan, have been controlled by the Ming army and no longer serve as early warning for the Qing army. The other beacon towers are still fulfilling their duties as faithfully as they have been since their establishment.

Responsibilities.

Rolling smoke rose into the sky, and soon, the next beacon tower lit up the smoke just like the previous one. The widely spaced smoke pillars rose one by one towards Guangzhou, followed by a stream of smoke rising above the Pearl River.

Just like last year after the Qing army raided Hong Kong Island, a Ming army fleet much smaller than Chen Qice's fleet sailed upstream and once again sailed towards Guangzhou along the old waterway that it had traveled last year.

The fleet came slowly, and the Qing army in Guangzhou was already prepared. The last humiliation made Shang Kexi very happy to build several forts on the walls of Guangzhou New City, and moved all the recently cast cannons up there. This time

, the Ming army attacked again. After hearing the news, Shang Ke immediately rushed to the south city wall to personally direct the battle, in order to avenge his previous shame.

However, this time after the Ming army fleet arrived in Guangzhou City, it did not approach the waterway of the dock. Instead, it occupied several sandbars including Dajisha. At the same time, the fleet escorted the Ming army infantry to land on Henan Island and launched a rapid attack.

Advance.

On Henan Island, the Qing army had a small garrison and a fort that cooperated with the fort in the south of Guangzhou City to lock the river. The Ming army did not follow common sense and approached Henan Island and directly chose to land. The infantry advanced very quickly and did not wait for recruitment from Guangzhou.

After the fishing boats were over, the resistance on Henan Island that could hardly be called a battle was over. Next, the Ming army began to set up camp on the island, and at the same time controlled the few forts to block the river.

The Ming army dominated Henan Island and refused to leave. This has never happened before. Every time, whether it was the rescue of Guangzhou or the later bombardment of Guangzhou, Chen Kai only regarded it as a temporary transfer dock.

Like today.

Such an act would naturally not be unfounded. As a result, Pingnan Fan and Jingnan Fan jointly launched a military discussion. They talked about each other, and finally found that the most likely thing was that Chen Kai had the means to quickly capture Dongguan.

Maybe they have exhausted their patience at the gates of Dongguan City and are ready to cross the Pearl River and come to the West Bank to interfere.

Next, the Shunde Qing army withdrew from the county in an orderly manner, but Wang Xing sent troops to pursue it. As a result, the two sides could not decide the winner, so it was settled. Next, after the Ming army in western Guangdong took control of the county,

It began to encroach step by step on the areas north of Xijiang and even north of Beijiang. The Qing army had already withdrawn its troops, and those areas soon fell under the control of the Ming army.

At the same time, as the initiator of all this, Chen Kai did not move closer to the west bank of the Pearl River and the Ming army in western Guangdong. Instead, he continued to launch weak attacks under Dongguan City. Even at this time, Chen Kai's energy was also exhausted.

I rarely focus on the nearby Dongguan County. Instead, I stare at the reports from Hong Kong every day, becoming more and more anxious day after day.

"Not here yet?"

"If we go back to Fujun, Lord Zhou and Admiral Ke have not arrived yet."

It should have arrived in mid-November, but now it is already the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, and the troops of Zhou Hezhi and Ke Chenshu still have not arrived. There are hundreds of warships and more than 20,000 Ming soldiers, including infantry.

There are eight towns with 16,000 soldiers, which is almost twice the number of troops Chen Kai currently invests in the Guangzhou battlefield.
Chapter completed!