Chapter 21                                                             �

A miserable victory is like a defeat, which refers to the situation of Zhou Mengchen today.

Although this battle successfully forced the Tartars to retreat and gave Yongning Pass a chance to breathe, Yongning Pass's original defensive power was gone.

It turned out that there were more than 1,000 soldiers in Yongning Pass, but now only more than 600 survived, and half of them were seriously injured. The personnel brought by Zhou Mengchen also suffered a considerable loss, with about 300 people killed in battle. A considerable number of them were future military officials and future officers who were to inherit their official positions.

Zhou Mengchen was also very sad for a moment.

Although Zhou Mengchen admitted that the quality of the officers of the Ming Army Guards was not good. However, there were actually two tricks for those who dared to take the imperial examination and assaulted people. After all, there were gold like Qi Jiguang in it. It was almost the reserve team of the future Ming Army generals. It was a pity to die here as a small pawn.

After all, these people dare not say how knowledgeable they are. They are at least able to read military books and have read military books.

Fortunately, these people usually bring one or two companions. They all have children or hire bodyguards. Generally speaking, the proportion of these people who die in battle is relatively low. But there are nearly a hundred people.

However, there are only hundreds of war soldiers on the defensive surface of the city wall nearly two miles wide, so it is probably a little difficult to stand all over. Not to mention, there are quite a large number of wounded people among them.

And the organization is chaotic.

Zhou Mengchen's army was originally a hurry. Now that he has taken over the remaining troops in Yongning Pass, the organization is even more chaotic.

Under such circumstances, Zhou Mengchen only chose to incorporate all the civilians in the convoy into the army this time. This increased the organizational chaos within the army, and in many cases, it was not the better the more people.

In addition to this problem, there is another problem, that is, the city is in a mess, with the corpses of the Tartars and the Ming army, layer by layer, making it impossible to use any place above the city, and almost all artillery cannons.

All kinds of city guarding equipment were also empty, leaving only rolling stones and wood.

There are not many rolling stones, and some mechanisms of wood are destroyed. If you don’t have time to practice well, I’m afraid you can only do it at one time.

Many people think that squash is the wood that was smashed from the top of the city. This is a big mistake. If squash is just a piece of wood and it will be finished after being smashed, what is the difference between it and the rolling stones prepared? Moreover, ancient materials were very precious. A good heavy wood on it would probably cost a few dollars. If a few dollars were spent, it would probably not be able to afford the Ming army.

Generally, there are iron chains on both sides of the wood, and there are nooses on the top of the city. Once you throw it down, you let it go. The nooses are smashed down several meters with the help of gravity potential energy. After smashing the person to death, the person above turns the noose and then pulls the noose on the city wall to wait for the next use.

It is very useful to deal with enemies who climb the city.

I don’t know how many Tartars were killed by Mumu. So after they came up, they naturally swung their axes and cut off the wheel and iron chains on them. It was useless.

Of course, this structure is very simple and maintenance is also simple.

The problem is time.

Whether it is reorganizing the army, cleaning up the bodies on the top of the city, repairing the city guarding equipment, or even transporting all the cannons and other materials left behind, it will take time.

But what Zhou Mengchen was most worried about was that the Tartars launched another attack regardless of life and death, which left Zhou Mengchen no chance to breathe.

Zhou Mengchen looked up and saw the sun, but saw that the sun was like an old man basking in the sun, leisurely in the air with his hands behind his back, and he was not in a hurry to go home to sleep. At his speed, it would take several hours to get to the west mountain of his hometown. It was so long that it was heartbreaking.

Suddenly, Zhou Mengchen discovered that the Tartars had a team of troops. They were not attacking. Instead, they dug the official road one or two miles outside the city, forming a trench and piled up a lot of earth. This was obviously to prevent the Ming army from rushing straight into the gunpowder chariots. With this trench, Zhou Mengchen's plan would be difficult to use.

Zhou Mengchen suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.

Let go of your heart.

It's nothing more. It takes half an hour to an hour to complete these tasks. Although the trench is not long, it is in the mountains. If it can't be dug deep down, it's just a stone. The geology is hard. And although it's still a little early, after wasting a little hour, time slowly approaches dusk and cannot afford to fight.

Zhou Mengchen didn't care what the Tartars thought. Thanks to the Tartars for giving them a breathing opportunity.

This gave Zhou Mengchen the space to mobilize troops and rectify the army.

Before he was uncertain about the Tartars not launching an attack, Zhou Mengchen knew that his army was confused, but he didn't dare to move, for fear that the Tartars would rush up. However, there was not even a silly organization in the army, so that was the real battle for each other.

At this moment, Zhou Mengchen organized the elderly, weak, women and children in Yongning City, and took Li Ru as the leader to clean up the city, count the materials, and sent people to transport the materials behind.

Although Yongning Pass is a simple military city, it will be different over time. The soldiers stationed here get married and have children, and gradually become a nearby big village. The mountain people in the surrounding mountains also come here to buy and sell things, becoming a small market.

Although this is not a road to get out of seclusion, occasionally some merchants come out of seclusion from here every year.

Therefore, although the prosperity of Yongning Pass is not as good as that of some small counties, it is also a big market. If Yongning Pass can survive, it is inevitable that the help of the people in the city will be helped by the people in the city. However, it turns out that the guards of Yongning Pass are more mediocre talents. He only recruited all the strong men. He did not use the other manpower.

At this moment, Zhou Mengchen simply registered all men and women over twelve years old, under 60 years old, and all the men and women were collected. He sent a lot of auxiliary work to these old and weak troops.

All the remaining strong men, plus all the transport personnel who had just arrived, had a total of more than 3,000 people, and Zhou Mengchen was divided into four divisions.

Qi Jiguang, Wang Xiao and Lu Tong have troops from each generation, one step of the remnants, and some strong men, a total of 800 soldiers, becoming warriors and an army ready to fight with the Tartars who were climbing the city at any time. Now, there is no need to say about training and other things, and there is no time.

However, although their original subordinates were few, they were all trained as officers. With this group of officers as backbone, they dare not say that they are good at fighting. Generally speaking, they can fight.

There is a part where Zhou Mengchen and Li Ru, the craftsmen in the military weapon supervision, and the generals and the men were added. There were about a thousand people. As the general reserve team of the entire army, it was also a counterattack force. This counterattack force was mainly the cavalry of the Fengcheng Hou Mansion. As the prince of Fengcheng Hou, Li Ru was born in a general, but was more suitable for civil servants. Not to mention rushing to the front, Li Ru was stunned when he saw the blood.

Perhaps, this is because he first went to the battlefield. But Zhou Mengchen didn't have time to wait for Li Ru to adapt, so he took more than a hundred elite cavalry of Li Ru and sent Li Ru to do something else. These more than a hundred cavalry were the only counterattack force in the city. Zhou Mengchen hoped that it would be better not to use it.

Of course. Their most important task is not to counterattack, but to manipulate firearms.

To be honest, the best gunner in the Ming Dynasty was the craftsman in the military weapon supervision. The reason was nothing else, and it was practiced.

Just think about it and you will know. Where can I find such a luxurious experimental artillery in the Ming Dynasty? Many craftsmen find it annoyed when they see the work of firing artillery. One cannon is shot 200 times. The number of artillery produced by the military weapon cannon every day is quite large, and this work is also very heavy.

But there are no opportunities for the Ming gunners from other places to train them to open fire 200 times.

In many cases, artillery shooting is not easy, and if you hit too much, you will naturally be accurate.

Zhou Mengchen couldn't sleep again.

I have to say that once the war starts, there is no time to sleep, especially the general. It is really a lot of things to deal with. I don’t know how many things to deal with. I often can’t sleep. I’m afraid that the enemy will rush over as soon as I close my eyes.

After the body was overloaded, there was no option to be unable to sleep. In the glimmer of light the next morning, Zhou Mengchen took a sip of the strong wine to refresh himself, took the hard teeth-knocking sesame cake and nipped it. He held a sip of the sesame cake, leaned his head against the blue bricks on the top of the city, and fell asleep.
Chapter completed!