Beijing City, outside Yongding Gate, southeastern suburbs.
The garrison area of General Yang Guozhu of Xuanzhen, more than five miles south, is the garrison area of General Zhang Yan. They also set up their defenses along the Liangshui River, but there are two small stone bridges lying across the Liangshui River in their section.
Zhang Yan's general camp is located about two miles away behind the stone bridge in the north and in an abandoned village fort in the southeast. The fort has long been deserted to avoid the war.
Although the village fort there was also seriously damaged, looking at the surrounding villages, this village fort is considered to be relatively good. Quite a few houses can still be used, and the fort wall is generally intact, about one foot high. Although it is somewhat damaged, it can still be used.
Supplement with Juma etc.
The key is that this abandoned village fort is adjacent to the official road leading to the capital on the left, right at the entrance of the official road, and not far from the stone bridge over the Liangshui River to the east.
Zhang Yan immediately occupied this place and set up camp. He stationed an infantry guard at the stone bridge. He agreed to guard against smoke during the day and to raise fire at night as a signal. At the same time, sentries and cavalry were constantly coming and going. If they were harassed by captive cavalry, they could come from
It is very convenient for officials to send help.
Compared with setting up camp in the wild and occupying a ready-made village fort, it certainly saves a lot of things, is convenient and fast, and the defense is more powerful. Even the ruins of the house and the fort wall can be used.
In addition to the outposts stationed outside, nearly two thousand men and horses from various ministries, including food, fodder, ordnance, etc., were all stationed in the camp in the village fort.
At the same time, a large number of Zhang Cheng's men were sent out to investigate the situation of the surrounding captives and urgently inspect the topography of the area. They basically used armor as a unit, riding two horses to go out for inspection.
About two miles south of the village fort where Zhang Yan camped, not far to the west of the Liangshui River, there was an earthen hill with a long-abandoned pier on it. It is believed that it was destroyed after it was destroyed in the ninth year of Chongzhen.
It was repaired and then abandoned.
Although the pier and platform are dilapidated, there are still ruins of more than two feet high, which can be climbed up to observe the surrounding situation, and can also be used to shoot muskets and cannons to guard the important stone bridge ahead.
And there are dozens of feet of pier walls around it, which are basically well preserved and can be used to garrison and defend the stone bridge.
On the south side of the abandoned pier, there is a winding official road, which is more than three feet wide and full of rutted marks over the years. Go east along the official road for about ten feet, and it is officially the second part of the Zhangyan Defense Zone.
A stone bridge.
For a few miles around, this official road is fairly easy to walk, and the rest is either fields or canals. Perhaps infantry and cavalry can still pass through the empty fields, but if they want to haul any vehicles or baggage, they must be official.
The way is impossible.
At this stone bridge, there is also an infantry sentry stationed here.
Different from the stone bridge in the north, they are much better than the other stone bridge. They only need to set up horses, antlers, and caltrops on the stone bridge to block the enemy's cavalry, and then leave a team of sergeants to guard, and the others
You can enter the fortress located in the abandoned mound and garrison it.
The two infantry posts guarding the stone bridge are equipped with a high proportion of firearms. The proportion of gunfire in the posts is half, and they are equipped with two No. 3 Fran machine guns and two Tiger squat cannons.
A stone bridge should be no problem.
Zhang Cheng's cavalry headquarters also had a large number of firearms. Due to the urgent military situation when the reinforcements were sent to King Qin, a large number of weapons and supplies in their department were followed by the infantry headquarters who came to Changping together. There were three Buddhas in total.
There are ten Langjis, thirty No. 4 Folangjis, thirty Tiger Crouching Cannons, and some other firearms, etc.
In Qi Jiguang's "New Book of Jixiao", there are clear records of five kinds of Fo Lang machine guns.
Among them, the No. 1 gun is eight to nine feet long, with one kilogram of ammunition and one kilogram of medicine; the No. 2 gun is six to seven feet long, with ten liang of ammunition and eleven liang of medicine; the No. 3 gun is four to five feet long, with five liang of ammunition and six liang of medicine; four
The No. 5 cannon is two to three feet long, has three liang of ammunition, and three liang of medicine. The No. 5 cannon is one foot long, has three qian of ammunition, and five qian of medicine.
A series of equipment from large to small has been formed.
Moreover, the "New Book of Jixiao" not only has scientific and detailed regulations on the manufacture of the various types of Folan cannons mentioned above, but also explains the uses of different Folan cannons. For example, No. 1 and No. 2 are mainly used for naval guns.
No. 3 is mostly used for fortress defense, No. 4 can accompany the army in combat, and No. 5 is mostly used as a common equipment for soldiers because of its light weight.
This time, Zhang Cheng's troops brought a large number of Fo Lang machine guns and Tiger Crouching Cannons to defend King Qin of Gyeonggi.
Xuanda and the reinforcements from three towns in Shanxi formed a defense zone along the Liangshui River, starting ten miles south of the Yongding Gate of the capital, and all the way south to resist the harassment of the eastern suburbs of the capital by the captive cavalry.
…………
When he got up this morning, Zhang Cheng inspected his camp as usual.
Although this ruined fort was dilapidated, it was quite spacious. His cavalry headquarters was stationed near the official road. There were several large houses here. The houses were so dilapidated that they were demolished and converted into stables.
Hu Dake saw Zhang Cheng from a distance and hurriedly came over to greet him and said, "Master, the wind is getting colder and colder. You should wear more clothes."
Zhang Cheng said to him calmly: "Dake, please tell the brothers who go out to scout, be careful not to suffer any losses."
"Don't take advantage of me, you bastard!" Hu Dake said with a playful smile. Seeing that there was no displeasure on Zhang Cheng's face, he added: "Mr. sir, this Tartar is also very slippery, even better than that loach.
It must be slippery and difficult to catch."
Zhang Cheng said: "Catch if you can, no need to force..."
Just as he was talking about this, he heard the sound of horse hoofbeats. It was Zhang Yan's personal soldiers who came to summon Zhang Cheng to follow Zhang Yan to inspect the camp.
Zhang Cheng gave Hu Dake a few more instructions and then hurried away with Chen Zhong and several soldiers.
Zhang Yan was dressed neatly and was chatting with the infantry commander Liang Song. Zhang Cheng hurriedly rushed forward, cupped his fists and saluted: "Commander Qian Zhang Cheng is here to see the general."
Zhang Yan glanced at his nephew and said in a deep voice: "You have to tell your subordinates that safety is the most important thing when conducting sentinel inspections and not to fight with Lu Qilang."
"Yes, Cheng'er knows." Zhang Cheng agreed.
Zhang Yan took the reins from the soldiers, got on his horse, and said, "Let's go and see the two stone bridges."
Zhang Cheng rode his horse and followed Zhang Yan. Next to him, the infantry commander Liang Songce was on the horse and said to him: "Young master, you have harvested a few Tatar heads in the past few days."
Zhang Cheng smiled and said: "Hey, you tiger, you are in a hurry. When you have the opportunity, you will let the Tatars see the power of my brother."
In a blink of an eye, we arrived at the stone bridge to the north, where Liang Song's Infantry Thousand Headquarters was stationed here. They stood at the end and in the middle of the stone bridge with resisting horses, and the bridge was covered with iron caltrops. Thirty steps away from the stone bridge,
At this place, a chest-high earthen wall was built from both sides to the official road. Two No. 4 Franco machine guns and two squat tiger cannons were placed on the earthen wall, and the muzzles of the guns were adjusted.
Directly facing the bridge.
On the official road, there are large carts crossing it. There is no earthen wall here, which is also to make it easier for our horsemen to come and go without raising their posts at night. There are two layers to block the horses, plus the carts, it should be enough to block the road.
Riding on horseback.
About three hundred steps away from the stone bridge, there is a place on a high ground, next to the official road, where the outpost's tent stands. It is surrounded by horses and earthen walls, and there are more than twenty tents lined up in it.