Over the whole night, the Qing army invested two or three thousand troops and suffered more than a thousand casualties, but never successfully entered the city.

The fatigue of the Ming army guarding the city was undoubtedly revealed, and what supported them was just the last breath. Shi Tingzhu knew very well that as long as he persisted for a while, the Qing army could completely break into it and burn the city with such a fierce resistance. Even the people were killed in the city. However, the attack of the main force of the Ming army completely disrupted all this.

From attacking Lanxi County last night, to boarding the ship in the morning, and then to the siege that lasted all night. Although the former was mainly the army he brought, and the latter was mainly the Eight Banners in Hangzhou who were fighting, they only rested in Lanxi and the ship for several hours respectively.

The army was already exhausted all night after the Dunbing City. They originally thought that as long as the city wall collapsed, they could go in and take down the entire city. In fact, they did it in the first half, and it could even be said that they did it from the beginning, but neither from the gap nor from the city gate, they were able to achieve the set goals in both directions.

This was something Shi Tingzhu and Liu Zhiyuan had not imagined. Looking at those faces, their subordinates were shocked. It can even be said that if Hong Chengchou or other Qing officials heard this, no one would believe it.

The tenacity of the Ming army is unimaginable, and the bigger problem actually comes from the impatience of the Qing army itself. This impatience made them launch an attack without preparing any siege equipment. The time they arrived would inevitably enter the night battle, and it would be impossible to attack other city walls separately, causing greater pressure and it became impossible to do things. In the dark night, division of troops is a great taboo. This will not only cause the consequences of incoordination between each other, but more importantly, it is pitch black all over, and if it is not done well, no one knows that his own people will fight a war with his own people.

As soon as it seemed, impatience was the biggest disadvantage of the Qing army in this battle, but from now on, Shi Tingzhu and Liu Zhiyuan would never imagine it in this direction again. Because the main force of the Ming army rushed back to support from an inexplicable direction, if they had not seized the opportunity last night, they would probably not even have the possibility of easily capturing the city.

Shi Tingzhu didn't know how many people came from the main force of the Ming army, but those experienced snoops said that they did not have much more troops from the Qing army.

There are two choices at present. One is to withdraw troops and preserve their strength in preparation for another battle. Lanxi County and Qujiang Waterway are now under the control of the Qing army. They can also be regarded as restraining the Ming army in Jinhua to ensure the victory of the Quzhou siege; the other is to fight, and then take advantage of the situation to enter the city after defeating the main force of the Ming army and annihilate the timid defenders.

If the main force of the Ming army entered the city, then these two options could be decided by Shi Tingzhu and others. However, the main force of the Ming army not only did not enter the city, but also did not even restrain the flanks. Instead, they marched and rushed forward, obviously not wanting them to go back.

At this time, the Qing army withdrew, lacking the cover of camps and fortifications, could only leave all the baggage, artillery, and even the bodies of the wounded and the dead, fled in a panic. Even if there was an advantage in cavalry restraint, they had to throw away a lot of things to escape, which was simply unbearable for Shi Tingzhu and Liu Zhiyuan.

What they led was the eight banners of the Han army, one of the elite troops of the Qing Dynasty. None of the Niulu brought was formed after entering the pass. They were all the old foundations of the eight banners of the Han army in the era of Huang Taiji, and the elite among the elites.

The city wall collapsed but failed to capture the city. As a result, the baggage was left behind, artillery and injuries fled. Even if they did not fight the Ming army, a crime of defeat would inevitably be on their heads. At that time, the furious Qing court, Hong Chengchou and others would definitely put the responsibility of the four provincial capitals to them for not doing their best to suppress them. The fate of waiting for them was to die and the armored people to be slaves.

They didn't want to go either of these two roads, and the Ming army may not be in good condition at this moment. It would be better to defeat them in the field and take advantage of the opportunity to take down Jinhua City, even if the casualties were a little more serious than becoming a scapegoat!

Mingjin withdrew his troops, and those Niu Lu, who had already begun to gradually suppress the Ming army with the absolute advantage of military strength, had to withdraw from the city. After standing for a while, the defenders soon burst into cheers for a lifetime. Because they knew that their invincible commander Chen Wen, who was invincible, came back with the main force of the Ming army, and these Qing troops no longer dared to attack the city.

Hearing the cheers in the city vaguely, Chen Wen signaled the officers to cheer up their morale again, at least to let all the soldiers know that the defenders in the city fought hard for a night and did not let the city fall into the enemy. At this moment, they were even watching how they would avenge the dead comrades.

The Ming army was exhausted after a night of march. According to the standards of this era, the normal marching speed of a feudal army would not exceed twenty miles, and it would be only one day. The marching speed of this army under Chen Wen's command was actually only more than thirty miles on weekdays, reaching the passing line of the early modern army.

Like the whole day yesterday, I first marched for nearly forty miles during the day to assault the Qing army, and then returned. At night, I forced myself to march for 130 miles. It was really unimaginable and difficult to replicate.

But Chen Wen knew that according to the standards of modern and modern army, this was not an expansion. The atypical feudal army of Qi's army that had begun to transform into modern army can be put aside. The marching speed of modern European troops before motorization was also rapidly increasing. In his memory, there was once a modern army full of illiterates that defeated two enemy troops in 28 hours, and attacked and advanced 240 miles on the rugged mountain road. Then, immediately climbed over an iron chain bridge guarded by machine guns and defeated the last enemy. What is even more unimaginable is that they could actually bring a small mountain cannon and several heavy machine guns when they ran along the mountain road...

But for Chen Wen, along the way, the three soldiers in his hands were almost all veterans but abandoned all the artillery, and nearly a hundred soldiers were left behind for various reasons. Although those who were left behind were new recruits, the Ming army in Zhejiang, which relied on the formation, would still be greatly affected.

Of course, it is extremely rare for a feudal army that has just stepped into the gate of modern army and has not yet completely completed the transformation to achieve this. Now, morale is the most important factor for the Ming army in Zhejiang to win. Although it is not as good as the Qi family army's mountain roads, at least it has surpassed the process, and this alone has aroused great fighting spirit. However, these are far from enough. At least there must be some breakthroughs in tactical terms, otherwise there will still be no confidence in fighting and winning.

Chen Wen remembered that in the Battle of Huajie, the Qi family army first used firearms to take turns to break up the Japanese pirate formation, and then the entire army came out and defeated the Japanese pirates in one fell swoop.

But now, he only had a few tiger squat cannons that Yin Yue had come out of the military commander's warehouse. It can even be said that even if the artillery was complete, the cannons his army could not compare with the Eight Banners of the Han Army, let alone the repeated shooting to break up the opponent's formation.
Chapter completed!