From a son-in-law to a favorite of the empress

Chapter 503

While the soldiers of the Five Army Camps were struggling to hold on in the mountains, the third large ship had slowly landed, but this time the place of landing was Xinglin Fort.

Wang Xiong and Shi Yi were both generals selected from Shandong refugees, but there was no doubt that Wang Xiong had a better overall view and political wisdom through his performance in the Central Plains War, so Zhou Yuan gave him the most important task - a surprise attack on Xinglin Fort!

This time, 4,000 people boarded the ship, but only 3,000 people went to the surprise attack on Jinxi, and only 1,500 people went to Jizhou to attract Huang Taiji's pursuers.

The snow was vast, and the footprints could indeed distinguish the direction, but not the number of people.

When Shi Yi and others went up the mountain, it was difficult for Huang Taiji to find any clues.

Zhou Yuan took the remaining more than 1,000 soldiers of the Five Army Camps, lurked in the coastal forests, and retrieved the supplies prepared in advance, including gunpowder and tung oil.

As soon as Huang Taiji's army left, they went directly west to Xinglin Fort.

They waited until late at night.

They are waiting for a gunshot! That is the signal to launch an attack!

Wang Xiong looked at the sky, took a deep breath, and said in a low voice: "Check the guns! Check the mother gun and the sub-gun, check the ammunition bag! After confirming that everything is correct, set off!"

Soon, the preparations were finally completed.

Wang Xiong also raised his gun and said in a deep voice: "The shield man is in front, always protecting the front line to prevent the opponent's bows and slings."

"Kill!"

A thousand troops suddenly roared, accompanied by gunshots, and the surprise attack on Xinglin Fort finally started.

At this moment, Huang Taiji's soldiers were gone, and only two thousand defenders were left. Logically speaking, in this terrain, they were enough to resist at least five thousand Han troops, and there would be absolutely no problem holding on until the reinforcements arrived. This was also the confidence of Nurhachi and others.

But this time, they ignored the flintlock sub-gun musket that Zhou Yuan had rushed to make in the Jinling Firearms Bureau for more than three months!

Flint fire! No fear of wind and cold!

"The Han soldiers are coming! Get on the horses! Kill them!"

"These short-necked Han soldiers are here to give us military merits! Kill them all!"

The soldiers of the Eastern Tartars were in high spirits. They got on their horses one by one, holding their swords, and rushed towards Wang Xiong and others.

But Wang Xiong did not change his expression, but just shouted: "Shieldmen, move forward! Gunners in the back! Set up your guns and shoot!"

"Remember! Shoot in echelons! Ammunition is endless!"

A row of two hundred people, divided into four rows in total, took turns shooting, and the gunfire was deafening.

The war horses neighed, startled by the fire and the loud noise, and began to lose control. The Jurchens fell off their horses and fell down in the face of dense bullets.

Their cotton armor was very cold-resistant and had a certain degree of defense, but it could not withstand the bullets of flintlock rifles.

Four rows of gunners, just after a round of shooting, the other side lost three or four hundred people. Such casualties were terrible for them.

For a time, the Eastern Tartars were already in disarray.

Wang Xiong shouted hurriedly: "Pursue the victory! Move forward!"

Rounds of shooting continued, and the dense gunfire broke the silence of the night.

The flames were spitting out, and after two more rounds of shooting, the casualties of the Jurchens had exceeded 500.

The flintlock rifle has six sub-guns, plus the bullets in the gun body, a total of seven rounds can be fired, which means that at least seven rounds of shooting can be maintained.

This was only the third round, and the opponent was a little overwhelmed.

But Wang Xiong also had pressure, because after seven rounds of shooting, the soldiers had to manually reload the ammunition, which was very time-consuming. The soldiers of the Fifth Army Camp had only trained for one day, and it might take thirty breaths to reload one round of ammunition.

And this time was enough to be killed like a pig by others.

It must be within seven rounds! Defeat the opponent!

"Kill them all! Kill all the Tartars!"

Wang Xiong shouted, and thousands of soldiers also roared in unison. This momentum shocked the defenders of the Eastern Tartars and made them unable to lift their swords.

Because for them, this war was beyond their cognition. The fire guns of the Jin Dynasty were very weak, and the range was less than fifty steps, which could not penetrate their cotton armor at all.

They had fought before, and they didn't suffer any major losses. How could this happen today!

How could they penetrate the cotton armor at a distance of a hundred steps? How could they fight this war?

"There are food and grass in the rear! We can't retreat anymore, fight them!"

The general of the Eastern Tartar roared and led his men to rush forward immediately, and they were greeted by a new round of shooting.

Facing dense enemies, dense bullets can achieve better killing. Two more rounds of shooting were very effective, and four hundred people fell again in the Eastern Tartar.

After five rounds of shooting, they actually suffered half of their casualties, and their fighting spirit was almost wiped out.

Wang Xiong was also unsure, and there were still two rounds of shooting. If he couldn't defeat the opponent, the situation would be completely reversed.

He even began to worry about how the willpower of this group of dog Tartars was so strong, and the casualties were so heavy. If it were other soldiers, they would have collapsed long ago. TheyHe could still hold on.

At the critical moment of life and death, Wang Xiong finally saw a raging fire in the east of Xinglin Fort.

He was overjoyed and could not help but roar: "Brothers! Marshal Jie is here! Marshal Jie has set the grain and grass on fire! Kill these dogs!"

The soldiers of the Fifth Army Camp could not help but roar, which made the Eastern Tartar defenders even more frightened. Seeing the fire in the rear, the morale of the army collapsed instantly.

Zhou Yuan led more than a thousand soldiers of the Fifth Army Camp and sprinkled tung oil and gunpowder on the granary. When they were set on fire, they exploded immediately.

He finally let go of his heart and shouted: "Quick! Support Wang Xiong! Kill them!"

The two armies began to move closer, and the fighting spirit reached its peak.

The Eastern Tartar defenders finally couldn't hold on, their morale collapsed, and they began to flee everywhere, and some even fled directly on horseback.

"Marshal Jie! Marshal Jie! We are here!"

Wang Xiong shouted while running forward, with only excitement in his eyes.

When he saw Zhou Yuan, he couldn't help but half-kneel down, clasped his fists and shouted: "General Jie, we succeeded! Success!"

Zhou Yuan laughed and said: "Retreat quickly! The reinforcements from the Eastern Tartars will arrive soon! Hurry up and get on the boat!"

"Prisoners! There are more prisoners!"

Wang Xiong hurriedly said: "Capture these defeated soldiers before leaving!"

Zhou Yuan said: "Fuck you, don't lose the big picture for the small, these prisoners are nothing, let's go!"

He took the soldiers of the Five Army Camps and hurriedly boarded the boat. At the moment when the reinforcements from the Eastern Tartars arrived, they finally all boarded the boat and quickly left Xinglinbao.

On the boat, he drank a few gulps of water, and then shouted: "Food! Give us some food! Arrange food for everyone!"

After running back and forth in this battle, he really didn't eat well and was already hungry.

The great victory of Xinglinbao laid a solid foundation for the subsequent plans, and Zhou Yuan was excited.

Seeing him shouting, Li Yu'an couldn't help but want to laugh. She poked him with her hand and said, "Hey, you are the Grand Marshal. You should be careful not to show your emotions and maintain your dignity. How can you be so happy?"

Zhou Yuan held her hand and panted, "Because the battle of Xinglinbao is the most critical battle in this battle against the Eastern Tartars."

"Don't think that these two thousand defenders are easy to deal with. That's because we have guns and they are stunned."

"If they launched a group charge against Wang Xiong at the beginning, regardless of the cost of casualties, we would not be able to defeat them at all."

Li Yu'an looked at his excited face, and her heart couldn't help but tremble slightly. She said softly, "But you still succeeded."

Zhou Yuan said, "That's because Huang Taiji was deceived. He is too smart. I know he will definitely return to defend Xinglinbao, but he was deceived. Haha, he thought I only had two ships, but I actually have three!"

Li Yu'an was slightly stunned, and then Doubtfully, "Yes, when we were having dinner last night, you told Wu Dingzhong and the others that we were going to go on an expedition, and two ships had already arrived at the shore."

"When I boarded the ship, I found that there were three ships, and I was also stunned for a moment. I felt strange at the time."

Zhou Yuan narrowed his eyes and said, "So you should have guessed it, right? We have an undercover agent inside, who passed the news of my surprise attack to the other party."

"That's why Huang Taiji thought that my two ships and three thousand people had all arrived in Jinxi."

"He didn't know at all that the third ship and the other former musketeers were still on the sea, waiting for him to leave."

Speaking of this, Zhou Yuan couldn't help laughing and said, "This is a trick within a trick. It was all thanks to the undercover agent who gave Huang Taiji the wrong information, which allowed me to lure the tiger away from the mountain."

"Next, we should go back and deal with the undercover agent!"

Li Yu'an said, "How to deal with him? Kill him directly?"

Zhou Yuan smiled and said softly, "Of course, treat him with good food and drink and have a heart-to-heart talk."