Southern Ming Rebel Army

That night, in Wuxi city, most people had gone to sleep, but in the prosperous places of the city, there was still singing and dancing, and the sound of stringed instruments. At this moment, the magistrate Feng Xidong was sitting in the main seat, enjoying the flattery of the crowd with a smug look on his face. Today was a good day for him to take in his ninth concubine, and he was so happy that he couldn't help but drink a few more glasses.

"As the ancients said, there are four great joys in life: meeting an old friend in a foreign land, a downpour after a long drought, the wedding night, and being named on the list of successful candidates. Your Excellency the County Magistrate is so blessed," said the gentleman sitting next to him with envy.

"Alas, I fell in love with this Miss Qingyue at first sight. We have been talking about poetry and writing essays for days. I have been living a very happy life. If I were not burdened with important tasks at the court and serving the country and its people, I would rather go boating on the rivers and lakes. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Hahahahahaha." Feng Xidong stroked his beard and smiled complacently.

"Alas, if Wuxi County is separated from the County Master, it would be like a snake without a head or a bird without wings. How can it succeed?"

A group of gentry gathered together happily. As they toasted each other, the magistrate gradually became a little tipsy. Just as he was about to stand up, a servant pushed the door open and came in with a somewhat anxious look on his face. He walked quickly to the magistrate and whispered something in his ear.

The drunkenness of County Magistrate Feng seemed to be poured with a basin of cold water, and he suddenly sobered up. He stood up as if he had lost the strength to do so, and sat back on the chair with a thud.

He murmured, "How could we lose? Such a mighty army lost, and the invincible Eight Banners. How powerful must the enemy army be? What should we do if they come to Wuxi?"

In an instant, the cheerful atmosphere at the table disappeared, and was replaced by a strange atmosphere, and the gentry looked at each other in bewilderment.

Bai Yongfu sat in the tent with a melancholy look on his face. His head was about to explode with thoughts. In the battle two days ago, he suffered heavy casualties. Even his personal guard Bai Songlin died on the battlefield. Only more than a hundred servants ran back. This was still a minor issue. The problem was that he had lost the battle. How could he explain to Governor Hong? Even the elite troops of the Eight Banners were wiped out. There were more than a thousand bannermen. How many of them must hate him to death? Who knew how many of the dead were relatives? If he were to withdraw, he might offend someone and he would be used as an example to warn others.

But if they don't retreat, almost all of their weapons are lost, and there are only 3,000 cavalry left with complete weapons and equipment. But these cavalry can't attack the city, and they lost too badly in yesterday's battle, and the morale is low. The army has no will to fight anymore. If Meng Jun takes the opportunity to attack, he will have to run away with the cavalry, and the remaining infantry will definitely be doomed. Bai Yongfu grabbed his braid and thought hard, then sighed, "Let's retreat to Wuxi first. It's a blessing in disguise. If it's a disaster, we can't avoid it."

At this time, the guards outside the tent whispered, "General, Wu Cang is coming."

"Let him in"

After Wu Shunchang met with Bai Yongfu, he sat down and asked anxiously, "Marshal, have you made a decision?"

Bai Yongfu narrowed his eyes and slowly said, "What decision? Our army is still strong, and the outcome of another battle is still unknown."

Wu Shunchang was stunned. He didn't expect that the Marshal still wanted to fight. The battle that day was so brutal that the infantry organization was disrupted and even the cannons were lost. How could they continue fighting?

After a moment's silence, Wu Shunchang finally spoke up and said, "General, the infantry suffered heavy losses. It will be difficult to capture Suzhou City with the few men we have."

"Don't you know that we can't fight now?" Bai Yongfu suddenly stood up angrily, and then said with some boredom, "Withdraw the troops!"

Wu Shunchang was startled, and when he heard Bai Yongfu say to withdraw the troops, he asked uncertainly, "Marshal, where should we withdraw to?"

"Wuxi Bar"

…………

Although Meng Jun won the Battle of Yangcheng Lake, he also suffered heavy losses. Meng Jun now wants to return to Suzhou City to rest, but the Qing army refuses to withdraw, and Meng Jun dares not retreat, so he has to remain in a stalemate.

In the Meng army camp, Meng Jun was shirtless, holding a bowl of soup and a large pancake, and talking with the generals. There was a group of rough guys, all with the same appearance. The only difference was that among the dark chests, only Meng Jun looked fair, like a touch of bright color.

"In this battle, the Heavy Armored Army made great contributions. If it weren't for the Heavy Armored Army, this battle would have been disastrous," Meng Jun said seriously.

Seeing that all the generals had no objection, Meng Jun continued, "This is the first time that our army has engaged the enemy head-on as an upright army. All of you towns and battalions should summarize the experience of this battle, promote it to the entire army, and learn from each other. The war is far from over."

Everyone nodded. This battle indeed benefited Meng's army a lot, not only themselves, but also the Eight Banners soldiers and even the Green Camp soldiers. They gained valuable experience from them.

If it weren't for the heavy armored army turning the tide this time, perhaps the Meng army would have been defeated, the city of Suzhou would naturally have ceased to exist, and history would have returned to its original trajectory.

"I understand," everyone nodded in response.

Since he could not retreat for the time being, Meng Jun had to rest on the spot and replenish the auxiliary troops in the three towns, especially the nine captured cannons. Fortunately, four gunners from the Green Camp were captured. Meng Jun patted his chest and assured these technical soldiers that as long as each of them taught ten gunners, he would be rewarded with a huge sum of 500 taels. This made one of the captured gunners so surprised that he fainted on the ground and it took him a long time to recover.

Huang Cheng found almost everyone in the army who could ride a horse, even the surrendered prisoners in the Green Camp, as long as they could ride a horse, Huang Cheng recruited them all into the scout team. Thanks to the captured war horses, excluding some unusable ones, the number of scout cavalry exceeded a thousand for the first time, reaching 1,100. This made Meng Jun quite excited. When the war just broke out a few days ago, the huge cavalry team on the opposite side made him envious. More than a thousand horses could barely be considered to be of some scale.

As for the large number of wounded soldiers in the army, they have already returned to Suzhou City. Meng Bizhi, Gao Yi, Zhang Shun, and Zhao Yongping have all returned safely to Suzhou City. After several days of intensive reorganization by Meng Jun and the generals, the three towns have restored their original troops. Although it will take some time to get used to each other, the morale of the entire army is high and they are full of fighting spirit.

The scout team was expanded into a battalion. Zhang Chengsheng was praised by Meng Jun for his desperate battle with the Qing scouts before the war. He was even praised for his courage to draw the sword throughout the army. After the war, he was promoted to the rank of scout commander.

At this moment, Zhang Chengsheng led more than ten riders to spy on the Qing army camp from afar. He saw a crowd of people outside the Qing army camp, and the baggage carts had already left the camp, heading north.

"Captain Qian, do you think the Tartars are going to run away?"

Zhang Chengsheng hesitated for a moment and said, "I guess so. Let's wait and see."

The Qing army also saw the Meng army scouts standing in the distance, but did not immediately send out cavalry to drive them away. Instead, they waited until the Qing army began to dismantle the camp before sending out cavalry to drive away the scouts.

In early August, more and more news came back that the Qing army had indeed withdrawn. After receiving the confirmation, Meng Jun laughed loudly. The news of the battle of Yangcheng Lake had now spread to all parts of Jiangnan. This was like a shot of adrenaline for some of the troops who were still resisting the rebel army, greatly boosting their morale.