Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 436: The Han Army Collapses

Meng Jun had the same doubts as Hao Yongzhong. Why didn't Dorgon use such powerful soldiers earlier, but waited until he was almost at the end of his rope before dispatching these Sauron soldiers?

Leng Sengji was silent for a long time before explaining, "When Your Majesty started the rebellion, whether it was when you defeated Li Chengdong or Bolo, the Qing court only regarded Your Majesty as a minor threat, and mainly focused all its attention on Zhang Xianzhong, the remnants of Li Zicheng, and the Ming army. In addition, the Qing court's control over the Solon soldiers was extremely lax. Even though the Solon tribes were relatively brave, their numbers were too small after all. These 6,000 Solon soldiers were almost exhausted before they were transferred into the pass."

Meng Jun nodded. He really had no intention of sending out the main force to fight a decisive battle with Dorgon. Now was the critical moment to capture Tianjin. As for the four camps, Meng Jun believed that he had already invested heavily in the defense. Even with the Sauron soldiers, it would be impossible to break through easily. Besides, Bai Yongfu did not send anyone to ask for help. Meng Jun still believed that this veteran could defend the camp.

As for the Sauron soldiers wearing double armor, Meng Jun was not particularly panicked. After all, times had begun to change, and artillery and muskets were developing with each passing day. Armor could not be broken by hand-to-hand combat, but muskets and artillery could always break it.

Moreover, of the seven regiments of soldiers recruited in the Huaibei area, four have already been recruited, and two have been supplied with firearms. Meng Jun has already ordered the soldiers of these two regiments to march north to support the main army.

As for digging tunnels, Meng Jun dug a total of six tunnels outside the walls of the East City and the South City. A talented person proposed a plan to Meng Jun, which could disrupt the defense of the garrison.

This person was Lin Congxiao, the head of the Civil Affairs Department. Lin Congxiao was from Xinghua, Fujian. After Zheng Chenggong took charge of Fujian, Lin Congxiao responded to Han Xiong's call and traveled thousands of miles to Nanjing to join the shogunate.

Lin Congxiao advised Meng Jun: "Now our army has dug deep tunnels, hoping to dig underground and break into the city, but the defenders have set up strict arrangements and set up eavesdropping techniques to distinguish movements. I have a trick that may confuse their ears and eyes and make them unable to distinguish true from false."

Meng Jun was very interested when he heard this and asked for details. Lin Congxiao replied, "You can fire cannons day and night from the southeast sides of the city. The rumbling sound of the cannons can cover all other sounds, making it impossible for the defenders to distinguish them."

Meng Jun felt that this was reasonable, so, according to Lin Congxiao's words, artillery fire was carried out day and night outside the East City and South City. The vibration caused by the artillery sound did achieve the desired effect. For a while, the Tianjin defenders found it difficult to distinguish the sound of tunnel digging from the artillery sound, and their ability to detect the tunnel was greatly reduced.

Just when Meng Jun was concentrating on blowing up Tianjin City again, Dorgon once again launched an attack on Zhongzhai where Hao Yongzhong was stationed.

North of Tianjin Port, there is Zhongzhai where Hao Yongzhong is stationed.

There were shadowy figures on the wall. The Zhou army was ready for battle and various small artillery pieces had been placed on the wall.

At this time, a cavalryman appeared in the wilderness in the distance, followed by several more cavalrymen who stopped to look at the village. Soon, more and more cavalrymen appeared, like a black line, covering the sky and the earth.

Hao Yongzhong took out a telescope and observed the Qing army, but as the telescope swept across, he could see the densely packed Qing cavalry that stretched as far as the eye could see.

Not only the ordinary soldiers, but even Hao Yongzhong gasped. Hao Yongzhong was not like those generals of the Zhou army who came from the south. He had seen a lot of cavalry when he followed King Chuang in his campaigns. However, this was the largest cavalry team he had ever encountered since he started the campaign.

Dorgon stopped here, waiting for the arrival of the infantry, especially the Han army. It was not until noon that the Han army finally arrived.

Dorgon pointed with his whip and said in a deep voice: "Meng Jun is too arrogant. I want to see if he can remain calm if I break into this grain camp."

After saying this, Dorgon waved his whip without hesitation and shouted, "Attack!"

As he was speaking, the command flag was waved, and the Qing army's artillery began to fire. The "booming" sound of the artillery represented the beginning of another brutal and bloody battle. The tactics used by Dorgon were simple and crude, and exactly the same as the one used to break the Shiyan stronghold the day before. The Han army was still divided into several waves, with 2,000 people in each wave, and they attacked in turns, assisted by the Eight Banners supervising the battle, and at the critical moment, the elite Solon soldiers were deployed to break the stronghold in one fell swoop.

The age of firearms is indeed different from the age of traditional cold weapons. Attacking a city may still be a little difficult, but attacking a camp, at least using cannons to blast a breach is not too difficult.

Hao Yongzhong led his troops to defend the camp, feeling extremely anxious. Although he had been prepared, the Qing army's overwhelming force still put Hao Yongzhong under great pressure.

Before the Han army flag arrived, the Zhou army mobilized small cannons to counterattack. At long distances, although these small cannons are not as powerful as large cannons, they are an excellent choice for close combat. These small cannons can place buckshot and sweep a large area. Perhaps some will not die immediately, but those hit can quickly lose their combat effectiveness.

At once, the cannons fired in unison, and the Han army flags in the front row fell to the ground like straw cut by a sickle. When they came within the archers' shooting range, the Han army flags would be hit by at least three rounds of arrows.

Such continuous attacks directly killed the first formation of the Han army in an almost horrific way, and they were directly defeated. The second formation came closer, but still collapsed before reaching the camp. Only the third formation of the Han army rushed up and fought with the Zhou army.

As for the Qing army in the rear, even after the third line of Han army had taken over the battle, they still did not stop their bombardment. One of the shots was even fired at the middle of the Han army because the angle was not adjusted properly when the cannon was returning to its position. This bullet smashed a bloody path through the Han army flag formation like a plow. Although the casualties were not large, at most twenty or thirty people, the blow to morale was enormous.

The Han army was deeply hurt by Dorgon's blatant use of cannon fodder. It turned out that even if the flag was raised, the huge difference could still be seen at this critical moment.

The third formation of Han troops was directly defeated, and even the fourth and the prepared fifth formation of Han troops were implicated. Dorgon was furious. However, with such a large defeat, Dorgon could not kill all the defeated soldiers on the battlefield.

After all this commotion, it was no use attacking the camp again. Dorgon had no choice but to suspend the attack. Hao Yongzhong was extremely excited. He immediately sent someone to report the victory to Meng Jun and immediately repaired the camp.

Hao Yongzhong said to Shi Yan happily, "Haha, I will be stationed here in person to kill Dorgon. Shi Yan, just wait and see. I will guard the camp. To use the words of a scholar, it is as solid as a rock!"

On the opposite side, Dorgon was looking at a Han army general who was tied up with an angry face.

The Han general knew that he was doomed, so he just threw in the towel and shouted, "Your Majesty, the soldiers have tried their best. The reason for today's defeat is that Your Majesty treated us Han soldiers like grass and trampled on us at will, which greatly hurt the soldiers' hearts."

Dorgon was so angry that he laughed. He said in a cold voice, "So, you are afraid of death and fled privately. It is my fault. Come, drag him away and behead him. Circulate his head to the whole army!"

"Dorgon, the Qing Dynasty perished in your hands. I will leave first and see how you die..."