Ma Shi Town in the northeast of Shixing County was the only place for the Central Plains to enter southern Guangdong as early as the Three Kingdoms period. There were water and land docks and land stations. After the Ming army besieged the city, Su Yangzhi immediately led his troops southward here, thinking that it would be a containment

.The Ming army has never done much to expel the Qing army in the north, so Su Yangzhi has always been stationed here to cope with the changes.

It didn't take long for him to learn about the rumors from various channels. Naturally, he scoffed at them and didn't even bother to pay attention to them.

When the two armies are fighting, this is the most common method to use rumors to shake the enemy's morale. He is a veteran general who has been practicing martial arts for a long time, and he knows better that when the war is delayed, even if there is no enemy operation, the stupid men and women among the people will suffer.

Fear, and even some people with ulterior motives, will create all kinds of rumors. If you believe them all, then there will be no need to fight the war.

However, Su Yangzhi also knows that there will always be few wise people and many fools in the world. His experience does not mean that his soldiers have it; he has will, but it does not mean that his soldiers have it. As a general, military morale must be paid attention to.

He got up, and he also had an excellent advantage at the moment, that is, reinforcements from Southern Gansu continued to arrive. As long as reinforcements and food supplies continued to be delivered, the rumors would be self-defeating.

"Shaozhou Town is guarding the county seat. Our troops and the Zuoying of Ganzhou Town are all out to contain the situation. There is only one city guard association in the town. Commander, will this risk an unstable retreat?"

Chen Kai has always been known for his cunning tactics in the public opinion of the Qing army. There are many important figures in the Qing court who were tricked by him, and many of them even had their heads no longer around their necks. If someone like this were to avoid him,

It was only a lie, cutting off their escape route, and all the officers present felt a chill on the back of their necks.

"Don't worry about Fucheng. I have received news that the right battalion of Nan'an Town has arrived. In addition, the general has personally led the army to go south and will arrive in the near future. This time, we have solved Nanxiong's difficulties first, and Tingzhou Fucheng

It will be solved there.”

Hearing Su Yangzhi's words, all the generals were relieved. The commander in their commander's mouth could not be anyone else, but Hu Yousheng, the former commander-in-chief of Southern Gansu and now the admiral of Southern Gansu. It is undeniable that Hu Yousheng

Since then, he has been in charge of Southern Gansu and has defended Ganzhou Prefecture with the support of Liu Wuyuan, the former governor of Southern Gansu, thus defeating three large-scale offensives by Jin Shenghuan and Li Chengdong.

At that time, the two provinces returned to the Ming Dynasty anyway, but Nangan, which was stuck in the middle, remained loyal to the Manchus. Such huge pressure finally reversed the situation of the war, and it was definitely worthy of being said to have turned the tide.

Regarding the generals in the early Qing Dynasty, leaving aside the Ming army, most of the people in later generations praised the generals of the Eight Banners, especially those of the clan. Yu Luying, Zhang Yong, Wang Jinbao, Sun Sike, Zhao Liangdong, the four Hexi generals, or Liang Huafeng, Cai Yurong and others.

The generals of Southern Gansu, starting from Hu Yousheng and below, actually performed well on the battlefields in Southern Gansu, Huguang, Guangdong and other places. And to them, the commander-in-chief who was once directly subordinate to him was the pinnacle of stability in the Southern Gansu region.

As long as Hu Yousheng is around, the Ming army will not be able to achieve anything good.

Hu Yousheng's bid raise is about to arrive, which is a shot in the arm for the Nanxiong generals. After receiving the news, Su Yangzhi also quickly sent his elite cavalry to try to break through the Ming army's interference and approach Shixing County.

Next, tell Jia Xiong, the commander-in-chief of Shaozhou, the good news.

Time is passing by, and the troops raising bids from Nangan are heading south in an orderly manner. Su Yangzhi can receive the latest progress almost every day. The situation is developing in a good direction, which makes him feel relieved. But the problem is,

However, the Ming army in Shixing County didn't even make any movement - they neither attacked the city nor surrounded it, as if Chen Kai had brought that army to camp here!

"Commander, that guy Chen Kai is not an ordinary person. There must be some conspiracy here!"

The more Chen Kai remained motionless, the more reasonless fear Su Yangzhi and the others became. Come to think of it, Jia Xiong in Shaozhou City was probably in the same state, and even more frightened, because they were the ones who faced the huge threat of Chen Kai most directly.

In the following days, the expectations for Hu Yousheng and the worries about Chen Kai began to intertwine in the hearts of the Nanxiong generals, and gradually became a knot. Su Yangzhi was a veteran, and they knew very well that they wanted to untie it.

To achieve this, we must first understand why Chen Kai remained motionless, or whether he directly expelled the Ming army from the territory of Nanxiong Mansion and won this war, otherwise there is no other way.

If they want to win, they alone are definitely not enough. Hu Yousheng's army has become the only hope. It is not too far from Ganzhou Prefecture to Ma Shi Town. In order to stabilize the military morale of Nanxiong Prefecture, Hu Yousheng has dispatched troops every day.

The horse reported the progress of the march. This commander, who could take into account the psychological state of his subordinates, made Su Yangzhi and the others feel at ease.

It's a pity that such news suddenly stopped not long after, and it lasted for three days. Amidst this uneasiness, they received news again, but it was a military order from Hu Yousheng, which ordered them to give up immediately.

Nanxiong Prefecture led its troops to return aid to Ganzhou Prefecture. The words used were "at all costs"!

"Commander?"

The generals of the third battalion of Nanxiong Town gathered in the big tent. Su Yangzhi's face was pale, and cold sweat was flowing down his forehead. There was no way to hide it. Seeing this, the generals secretly thought that something was wrong, but the letter was in Su Yangzhi's hands.

In his hands, they had no choice but to look at each other, and then the deputy general in charge of the guerrilla affairs in the Central Camp stepped forward and spoke to test them.

This word pulled Su Yangzhi back from the abyss. Seeing the generals' suspicion, Su Yangzhi thought about it, sighed, and put the letter directly into the deputy general's hand. Because, the next action,

It was impossible for him to hide the reason from the generals.

After receiving the letter, the generals hurriedly came forward and filled every space where they could see the letter. The order was clearly understood by them, and Hu Yousheng said that he had no choice but to do so.

He then provided them with assistance and immediately led his troops back to the capital of Ganzhou. As for the reason, it was only said that news came from Ruijin County that the Ming army had captured the capital of Tingzhou. Now Zheng Chenggong is leading his most capable generals.

They passed through the official road at the southern foot of Wuyi Mountain and headed straight for the capital city of Ganzhou. Ruijin County, on the other hand, had probably already fallen when the warning was sent.

Many previous rumors turned out to be true!

"Pirates!"

Zheng Chenggong's name is well known to them. Although in recent years, it seems that it is not as eye-catching as Chen Kai, especially for those in the Southern Jiangxi military, but everyone knows that Chen Kai is Zheng Chenggong's staff and is Zheng Chenggong's first-hand man.

After being promoted, the prefectures and counties in Guangdong that are now controlled by Chen Kai are actually the territory of the Zheng Group.

A behemoth leader with a cloud of generals and a rain of counselors under his command. Generals such as Chen Hui, Gan Hui, Huangshan, Wanli, Hao Wenxing, Wang Jin, etc. were all famous generals in the Fujian Qing army. These guys,

All appeared in their minds, and they had already determined in advance that Wang Xiuqi and Huang Ting were still in charge of the defense of Shaowu Mansion and Jianning Mansion and should not follow. But even so, the Ming army in Fujian

Their strength is definitely not something they can compete with, and it is even difficult to imagine.

"I heard that the pirates captured Zhoushan in Zhejiang last year. Zhoushan's deputy general Ba Chenggong and Ningbo's deputy Zhang Hongde both surrendered to the pirates. Those two guys are both good at using cavalry."

"So what if we don't have them? Wang Jin, Li Jianjie and that horse treasure are all famous cavalrymen. We will suffer in a wild battle!"

The Qing army and the Ming army might lose to the cavalry in a field battle. If you didn't look at the current situation, you might have thought that the generals in this large camp were all frustrated and crazy.

However, they were in the middle of the game, and they knew very well why Hu Yousheng immediately set off back to the capital city of Ganzhou, leaving them behind; why he ordered them to abandon the place immediately and retreat to the capital city of Ganzhou; and why he used the word "at all costs".

There is only one thing, that is, Hu Yousheng knows very well that the scale of the Ming army coming from Fujian this time is simply beyond what they can bear. After abandoning Nanxiong, Chen Kai's army went north to join Zheng Chenggong and strengthen the defense force of Ganzhou Prefecture.

Comparing the two sides, he unmistakably chose the latter.

"The result of defending Nanxiong Mansion is likely to be that Chen Kai and a partial force of the pirates will join together and take the city directly!"

The result of dividing the troops and being defeated one by one can only be unnecessary losses, and it may not even be delayed for long. The answer is that the gains outweigh the losses. After reading the military orders, the generals thought that they were in chaos.

Fortunately, at this time, Su Yangzhi had recovered from his long-term battle experience and began to arrange the evacuation tactics based on old experience. The three battalions on the left and right in Nanxiong Town, the left battalion in Ganzhou Town, and Nanxiong City

Su Yangzhi is responsible for the safety of the 6,000-strong army of the Shouxie Association and the newly arrived Nan'an Town Right Camp. Which army goes first and which army comes behind? These are all matters of knowledge and need to be properly arranged.

.

"Da, Marshal, then Shaozhou Town..."

"Let them wish for themselves."

Speaking of which, Su Yangzhi and Jia Xiong have always had a good relationship. When Yi Yonggui and Hu Yousheng decided to appoint Jia Xiong as the chief military officer of the rebuilt Shaozhou Town, they also took into account the friendship between the two generals. However, at the moment,

The situation was changing so rapidly that they could not resist it. Su Yangzhi said these words word for word, and the blood dripping in his heart could be heard clearly, but for the generals, they need to ask for more blessings.

It's not just Shaozhou Town, they are not.

Su Yangzhi quickly determined the order of retreat. These troops were all from the Southern Gan area, and many generals had eaten in the same pot. But the troops in Nanxiong Mansion, Ganzhou Town and Nan'an Town

They were all guest troops. He could not guarantee whether the guest troops would collapse first when attacked by the Ming army. Therefore, in his arrangement, the two battalions of guest troops had to set off first, crossing Meiling and passing through Nan'an Prefecture.

Evacuate.

When they arrived at Nan'an Prefecture, the right battalion of Nan'an Town could be reorganized, and it had nothing to do with him. Although the left camp of Ganzhou Town had been assisting the defense in Nanxiong Prefecture, after withdrawing from Meiling, he no longer had any responsibility.

He has direct responsibility. At this time, he can confidently and boldly rush back to the capital of Ganzhou with his troops.

This process will undoubtedly take time. Su Yangzhi is preparing step by step. At the same time, Chen Kai, the head coach of the Ming army besieging Shixing County, also received a piece of military information. The degree of urgency is real.

The courier was so tired that he passed out immediately after getting off his horse. With this military information in his hand, Chen Kai's smile became even stronger.

"Ke Shuai, it's time to stretch your muscles."

The coach's will was quickly reflected in the deployment of the Ming army. The siege artillery team that had already arrived officially appeared. Led by the two auxiliary guns of the spirit gun, sixty-six red cannons were lined up outside the city.

Once lined up, the shells swept across the walls of Shixing County like a violent storm.

Otherwise, if he moved with such force, before Jia Xiong could recover, the defenders on the city were beaten until they cried for their fathers and mothers in the first round of baptism. At this time, it stands to reason that

The garrison on the city wall should be moved down and observation posts should be left on top. Jia Xiong was not ignorant of this truth, but the ferocity of the Ming army's firepower was beyond his expectation.

It was not too late to make amends. Jia Xiong probably realized this and quickly adjusted his deployment. Then, the casualties were relieved a lot, but the Ming army's bombardment did not seem to end easily, and they continued to bombard them.

The city wall, wall bricks were smashed, the rammed earth was cracked, and the fine masonry and powder were flying and passing at an increasingly faster speed. In the afternoon, on the walkway at the top of the city wall, the observation posts watched the cracks under their feet spread rapidly.

, before they could really escape down the city, the collapse took the lead and crushed them and the Qing troops and civilians behind the city who were waiting to board the city under the masonry and rammed earth.

"The city is broken!"

The screams gradually became clear amidst the deafening sound of the city wall collapsing. More and more people were erupting in such panic, the decibels became louder and louder, and the collapse process gradually ended. Those who were directly trapped under the city could not live.

, the flying masonry and earth clods even beat the heads of the Qing troops and civilians who were farther away. Jia Xiong had already retreated to a building in the distance, observing the situation of the city guards from a high position.

He didn't suffer even a single flesh injury from the collapse just now, but the problem is that if the city collapses, the Ming army will definitely attack the city next. Looking at the Qing army fleeing in the streets, he will soon

Lost the courage to continue guarding.

The city was broken, and Jia Xiong led his soldiers to flee. At this time, because the Ming army was not in a collapse, the splashing of masonry and earth and the direction of the collapse of the city wall were more advantageous to them. As early as the artillery attack,

The team was already prepared when they observed the general signs. Just waiting for the city wall to collapse, the army directly attacked without any hesitation.

The Ming troops outside the city rolled forward and soon reached the gap. Here, there were no Qing troops guarding them. There were only painful screams coming from the street corners, the end of the alleys, and even from the bricks.

Under the rocks and soil, some were clearly visible, while others were only vaguely audible.

The Ming army ignored these and attacked key points in the city. The first thing to do was to open the city gate, and when the city gate opened, more Ming troops rushed in. At this time, even if Jia Xiong fought hard to defend, it was nothing more than

It's just a dead end.

The north gate opened, and the Qing army's defeated troops fled. Su Yangzhi was stationed in Mashi Town. This was something that Jia Xiong and even the entire Shaozhou Town knew. This was used to boost morale. Now it has become their last way to survive.
To be continued...