The soldiers of the 22nd Regiment were busy until the first day was almost over, and they had to be buried all the cannons, organ guns and other weapons. Li Dingguo also looked at them several times, thinking that if he hadn't known about the merchant army in advance
If weapons are buried and searched intentionally, it is impossible to find a landfill site, so it is very satisfactory.
Then Li Dingguo ordered the soldiers to rest for a while, and then began to evacuate. The 20th Regiment first left the city, and then the 22nd Regiment also left the city with the wounded and small cannons and advanced into the Dabie Mountains. According to the assignment of work, Deputy Commander Huang Qingwen followed.
The 22nd Regiment evacuated together and led the team forward, while Li Dingguo stayed in the city and evacuated together with the 14th Regiment.
When the 22nd Regiment left the city, Li Dingguo led two companies to take them away. Mainly on the way out of the city, he covered the 22nd Regiment behind the 22nd Regiment and then turned back.
But Li Dingguo led his team and had just sent the 22nd Regiment out of the county town, and had only walked more than 200 steps. Suddenly, he heard the shouts of killing in Macheng County behind him, and there were a lot of gunfire. Li Dingguo couldn't help but be shocked.
, It's hard because the Qing army knew that they were going to evacuate Macheng tonight, so they followed him to chase him? However, the sound of killing came from the county, but there was no outside the city. So Li Dingguo immediately rushed back to the county town and went to see it.
I saw what was going on.
When Li Dingguo had just arrived at the suspension bridge, he saw the city gate closing with a bang, and the suspension bridge was also pulled up. At this moment, Zhao Yue, the commander of the 14th Regiment, came out on the top of the city and said loudly.
: "Captain Li, the Qing army has come into the city. You can go quickly. We will hold the Qing army in the city and prevent them from catching up with you."
After saying that, he turned around and got off the city tower without waiting for Li Dingguo to answer.
Li Dingguo and the two soldiers around him were stunned. The sound of shootings in the city became louder and louder. A company commander couldn't help asking: "Commander, what should we do now?"
Li Dingguo looked at the city, gritted his teeth and said, "Let's go, don't let down the efforts of the brothers of the 14th Regiment. But everyone should remember that we must go to Qing for the revenge of the brothers of the 14th Regiment.
The army got back.”
After saying that, Li Dingguo wiped his tears and turned around and left. The other soldiers followed him and chased the 22nd Regiment. Many people were still muttering: "Brothers of the 14th Regiment, don't worry.
, We will definitely avenge your revenge."
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Tonight was purely a coincidence. During the day, Hong Chengchou saw that the merchant army was very tenacious in resistance, so he also planned to try the night attack. Because according to what he thought, the merchant army had been fighting fiercely for a whole day, even if he was prepared at night, his troops were exhausted.
It is probably not better than that, and the Qing army still has enough rotations, so the chance of winning is relatively high.
In fact, the merchant army also left a certain amount of vigil force, which had to resist for a while, but because they were about to retreat tonight, there were no other reinforcements except the 22nd Regiment that were cut off.
Zhao Yue, the commander of the 14th Regiment, also knew that it would be impossible for him to stop the Qing army by relying solely on his own, which had only 60% of the troops left. However, at this time, the 22nd Regiment had just evacuated from the county town.
It was lightly equipped, but there were also many small and medium-sized artillery, and they were also carrying wounded, so they couldn't walk fast at all. Once the Qing army entered the county town and then pursued it, they would definitely catch up with the 22nd Regiment. At that time, ordinary soldiers were fine.
But I'm afraid the wounded will not be able to escape.
At this moment, Zhao Yue finally made a decision to stay in Macheng County and block the Qing army. The longer the delay, the better. It just so happened that Li Dingguo sent the 22nd Regiment out of the city, so Zhao Yue ordered the city gate to be put into operation again.
Close the suspension bridge and pull up to prevent Li Dingguo from coming into the city.
With this delay, the Qing army had already broken through the city wall and entered Macheng County. Of course, at this time, the Qing army had not realized that the merchant army had evacuated Macheng County and thought that its night attack had been successful.
.
At this time, there were only more than 1,800 soldiers from the 14th Regiment who remained in the city. Fortunately, they were preparing to evacuate tonight, so all the soldiers were fully armed and could fight at any time.
~But at this time the city wall could no longer be defended, so Zhao Yue led the entire regiment of soldiers to use the housing and street cover in the county town to snipe the Qing army.
Because it was fighting in the dark, the Qing army could not figure out how many people the Merchant Army had to block itself. Moreover, the Merchant Army had always been good at street fighting, so the Qing army naturally believed that it must be the main force of the Merchant Army to fight itself.
So I didn't think much about anything else and focused on fighting the merchant army.
However, at this time the city wall had been occupied by the Qing army, and the Qing army could also continuously enter the city to reinforce. The merchant army was small and afraid of being surrounded by the Qing army from both wings. Therefore, under the command of Zhao Yue, he also fought and
Retreat, gradually retreating to a section of the city wall, no longer retreating, and leaning against the city wall, relying on various bunkers to resist. The Qing army also increased more and more, forming a half-encirclement, completely sieging the merchant army.
.
And at this time, Luke Dehun also rushed into Macheng County with the army. He was a man who was proficient in military tactics. He knew at a glance that the situation was wrong. The main force of the merchant army had withdrawn from Macheng, and now the one who stayed in the county was just
A team of people who were cut off. But Luke Dehun didn't know how long the main force of the merchant army had withdrawn. It was not too late to pursue it now. Moreover, in the dark, there were no ambushes from the merchant army, so
I dare not send troops to pursue him. Anyway, I have taken down Macheng tonight. If I eat up the merchant army in front of me, it will be considered as if the task is done.
So Luke Dehun ordered that the musketeers were first transferred to fire from the merchant army, and launched a fire on the side, and at the same time, a team of troops were sent to guard outside the city to prevent the merchant army from jumping over the wall and fleeing.
.
After all the teams were assigned, the two sides immediately made guns and started fighting fiercely. However, the Qing army used mostly coercion guns, which became very obvious targets in the dark, and the fire hats used by merchants used to hit the tunnel guns.
There was no such problem, so the two sides shot at each other, and the Qing army suffered a lot of secret losses.
However, the attacks launched by the Qing army from both sides also involved a lot of energy from the merchant army. Because they could not find the target in the dark, it was very difficult to deal with it. Fortunately, there were grenades, which could not only kill and injure with a flash of fire.
The Qing army could also see many places clearly. Moreover, the narrow streets also restricted the Qing army from leveraging its number of advantages. Therefore, the Qing army was unable to break through the defense line of the merchant army for a while, and the fierce battle between the two sides was also in a deadlock.
The deadlock was broken after more than an hour. At this time, the merchant army's ammunition and grenades were basically used up, and they could only use bayonets to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the army.
"The merchant army has no gunpowder."
"They can't use muskets."
"Kill them all."
Soon the Qing army discovered this phenomenon, so they were all excited and waved their weapons one after another. The merchant army rushed over. The swords and guns hit each other, and the two sides also formed a group of killing. At this time, hand-to-hand combat, The merchant army had no firepower cover, it was a genuine hand-to-hand combat, and it was entirely based on the combat effectiveness of the soldiers on both sides. Therefore, the merchant army had no advantage. The number of people was far smaller than that of the Qing army, and the number of people was also rapidly gathering. In a short while, only four or five hundred people were left.
Zhao Bing also held a rifle and joined the melee, stabbing three Qing soldiers to death in a row, and beside him, there were only more than a dozen regiment guards left. Zhao Yue looked up at the battlefield, and at this time the merchant The army's formation was completely disrupted by the Qing army, and the soldiers could only fight on their own and fell into a melee. It can also be said that their entire army was wiped out, which was almost a foregone conclusion. But at this time it was almost the fourth time. He had almost delayed the Qing army for more than two hours. I believe that the retreating troops had gone far away and could save the large army and injured comrades. In addition, Li Dingguo also took away two companies of soldiers, which was also considered to be the 14th. The group retained the last seeds. Even if they all died in the county town, it was worth it.
Thinking of this, Zhao Yue made up his mind and yelled: "Brothers, fight with the Tartars."
As he said that, he first picked up the bayonet and rushed towards a Qing army. More than ten guards around him also shouted and rushed towards the Qing army.
"kill!"
With a roar, Zhao Yue's bayonet stabbed into the body of a Qing soldier again. At this time, he couldn't remember which Qing soldier he had stabbed to death. He was now covered in blood and injured. More than ten places.
At this time, three more Qing soldiers raised their swords and guns and rushed towards Zhao Yue. Zhao Yue hurriedly pulled out bayonets from the body of the Qing soldiers who were stabbed to death and prepared to fight. However, although the Qing soldiers were stabbed, It was not the key point. He grabbed the barrel with both hands and refused to let go. Zhao Yue pulled it out twice but couldn't pull it out.
But the Qing soldiers had already forced Zhao Yue to approach him. Zhao Yue quickly let go of his rifle and pulled back, trying to retreat for a while, pick up a weapon from the ground and then fight with the Qing soldiers. Then he made a mistake in his busy schedule, and he took no steps back. He tripped at the bottom of his feet by the corpse lying on the ground, and immediately fell backwards to the ground.
Zhao Yue knew something was wrong. As soon as he arrived at the ground, he struggled to get up, but as soon as he supported his body with both hands, he heard a "bang" sound, and he was hit hard on his head, and his whole body was also The fight was flying two or three feet away, and even the helmet was knocked down. Fortunately, it was protected by the helmet. Although he had the eyes of Venus, it was not a risk of life.
But before Zhao Yue could wake up, he was hit again on the back of his head, and his eyes suddenly turned dark and he was confused.
After dawn, the Qing army had completely occupied Macheng County. In this night attack, the Qing army did achieve a comprehensive victory, killing more than 1,500 merchant troops and capturing more than 240. The regiment commander Zhao Yue was captured alive, and one camp-level officer, three company-level officers, and eleven platoon-level officers were captured, and more than 1,200 muskets were seized. The Qing army itself also suffered more than 1,200 casualties. people.
By this time, all the territory of the merchant army in Hubei was occupied by the Qing army, and all the remaining troops had retreated into the Dabie Mountains. Come and share.