stubborn thief

Half an hour.

This was the time Liu Chengzong left for Shang Kexi.

He was not wrong. Although it was Kong Youde who read the letter in Liaoyang City, Liu Shizi did spend half an hour on Shang Kexi.

Just before Liu Chengzong sent someone to deliver the letter, Gao Yingdeng used coastal boats to build a floating bridge at the Taizihe Bay, 20 miles northwest of Liaoyang, and drove logs and piles into the riverbed.

As for the letters, Liu Shizi was just giving Kong Youde something to do.

To prevent him from leading his troops to cause trouble during the half hour of work.

According to intelligence, Shi Tingzhu, a Han general of the Later Jin Dynasty, was in the capital with Ajige; Geng Zhongming, one of the Three Shun Kings, was in southern Liaoning with Huang Taiji.

Only Shang Kexi and Kong Youde commanded the Han army troops from which a large number of troops were withdrawn.

Kong Youde is in Liaoyang, and it is difficult for him to defend the city with his troops, so there is no need to worry too much.

But Shang Kexi was in Haizhou and might have commanded a navy.

This is Liu Chengzong's speculation after analyzing Qian Shisheng's narration of the whereabouts of the Three Shun Kings as Liu Chengzong traveled south.

Qian Shisheng felt quite sympathetic towards Shang Kexi's experience. Kong Geng was severely beaten by Shang's navy when he was fleeing at sea. After he went ashore and surrendered to the Jin army, he led the Jin army to attack Lushun. Not only did they kill Huang Long, but they also killed more than 300 members of Shang Kexi's family in the city. There was a deep hatred between the three Shun kings.

He believed that Shang Kexi would not come to support Kong Youde.

But Liu Chengzong was the leader and he could not gamble the lives of his troops on his luck.

The navy is not as good as the army. Although it is impossible for the weak to defeat the strong in army combat, it is possible for the few to defeat the many.

The navy was even more brutal. Yu Dayou, a famous naval commander of the Ming Dynasty, said it very clearly in his military works: There is no other technique in naval warfare. Big ships are better than small ships, big guns are better than small guns, many ships are better than few ships, and many guns are better than few guns.

More is beautiful, bigger is stronger, and the ships are strong and the guns are powerful.

Someone with a boat will naturally be better off than someone without one.

Even if Shang Kexi sent 10,000 men in a land battle, the Marshal's Army would not be afraid. However, on the Taizi River, even if there were only ten warships and a thousand soldiers, it would be enough to block the river, bombard his troops with ships, and land at any time and any place, and he would have no way to deal with them.

So even though Liu Chengzong also believed that Shang Kexi would not come to support Kong Youde, he still had to make preparations for both scenarios.

His judgment has nothing to do with the hatred between Kong Shang and Kong Shang.

It is said that Kong Youde led the Jin army to kill more than 300 members of Shang Kexi's family, but the family members mentioned these days do not only refer to blood relatives, but usually also servants and retainers.

Even if you don't count it this way, there aren't that many people. The entire Liu family in Heilongwang Temple Mountain has only more than 500 people. Shang Kexi must have been crazy to move the entire family to the front line of the war zone, where there was no way to retreat to Lushunkou.

Besides, Shang Kexi’s closest father and brothers all died at the hands of the Later Jin, so where would so many of his clansmen come from?

It is true that there was hatred for the killing of servants, but this hatred was limited and would not cause Shang Kexi to violate military orders and watch friendly troops die without rescuing them.

The basis for Liu Chengzong's judgment that he would not send troops to help Liaoyang was that Zu Dashou's Jinzhou army was hiding on the west bank of the Liaohe River.

He didn't think that Zu Dashou and his Liaodong Vanguard Town would be honest people. He, the leader of the western bandits, could make tens of thousands of soldiers stay in western Liaoning obediently by writing a threatening letter.

If they were really so honest, they would have been eaten up and killed by Huang Taiji long ago.

The only possibility that the Zu army did not enter Liaodong was that they considered all aspects of the situation and judged that it was not appropriate to enter Liaodong.

The threat from Liu Chengzong was at most one of the important bargaining chips that led to this judgment. If Shang Kexi left Haizhou City to try, Zu Dashou's troops would dare to invade Haizhou and plunder his hometown.

The nomadic invading marshal's army could rob anyone they wanted as long as they could defeat them, but the Jinzhou army, King Sanshun and Huang Taiji, who were defending their homes, had a lot more to consider.

However, this half hour did cause great confusion to Kong Youde in the city.

Kong Youde did a lot of useless work in half an hour.

He discussed the false surrender with the guard Bai Yunlong, generals Xian Guoan, Quan Jie and others.

His original intention was to surrender, but it was not up to him to decide. He had to at least surrender with his troops and population, then Liu Chengzong would treat him as a human being.

Therefore, he could only pretend to surrender to test his subordinates' thoughts.

As a result, Guoan and Quanjie, who had rebelled with him in Shandong, were talking enthusiastically about the fake surrender tactics, because Bai Yunlong was right next to them.

But Guard Bai was speechless.

Bai Yunlong was born in Bayara of Jianzhou tribe and was nicknamed Bai Xiazi, where Xiazi means guard in Manchu.

He had an armed force of less than 200 men in Liaoyang City, scattered among the guards and servants of all the generals.

But he wanted to surrender.

Because the Jianzhou Jurchens did not have a good time during Huang Taiji's era. They were originally the Plain Yellow Banner in Nurhaci's era, but Huang Taiji changed them to the Plain White Banner. They should have been made a general long ago, and were paired with a surrendered general like Kong Youde, who changed his Chinese surname to serve as a guard.

The key point is that Bai Yunlong is a guard. It would be fine if he was assigned to be a guard beside Dorgon.

Kong Youde, the surrendered general, could not stand up at all. If any Manchu Niulu Zhangjing came through Liaoyang, he would hold a banquet to entertain him lavishly. He was very servile.

What kind of future can I have following a master like this!

With such a small number of defenders in Liaoyang City, why not surrender if you can't hold the city? Are you just waiting to die?

But the Han generals in front of him obviously did not want to surrender. They offered suggestions to Dai Qing on how to resist the nomadic invasion, and their enthusiasm was higher than that of him, who was from the upright Zhenghuang Banner.

What could Bai Yunlong say? He was at a loss for words. He could only spit on the ground with a stern look on his face, and stand aside with his arms folded as he watched them brainstorm.

However, his unfriendly look was interpreted by Kong Youde and others as a suspicion that they were about to surrender, and they became even more enthusiastic in offering advice.

Quan Jie clapped his hands and said, "If the king doesn't reply to his letter, let the commander of the North Gate send a message to surrender. The city wall of Wudi Gate is big, let hundreds of people in and kill them with the Portuguese cannon on the city wall!"

This was Geng Zhongming's secret weapon in Dengzhou. He opened the water gate to let the Ming army's ships enter Dengzhou, and then the ambushed troops killed the soldiers and seized the ships.

Bai Yunlong couldn't stand it anymore: "Hey, generals, let's defend the city well, don't do that stupid thing, if the barbarians come in and massacre the city, your families are all in the city, aren't you afraid at all?"

My goodness! Several generals patted their chests loudly and made all kinds of assurances, seeming to be in high spirits.

Bai Yunlong thought to himself: "Fuck these damned traitors."

He waved his hands and said, "You are not afraid, but I am. If we lose the battle, the worst that can happen is that we can wait for the barbarians to leave the country and flee back to Shengjing. We will just be whipped. Don't make the city undefendable and slaughter all the people."

Xian Guoan and Quan Jie looked at each other and they both thought that this bastard is talking nonsense. If you run back after losing the city, you will be whipped. Anyway, it was not you who fought the war, but we will die.

The commander guarding the Wudi Gate in the north city was named Sun Long, an old subordinate of Kong Youde who had participated in the Denglai Rebellion. After surrendering to the Jin army, he was awarded the rank of guerrilla general.

After hearing the false surrender order, Sun Long sent someone with a letter to contact the cavalry outside the city.

Gao Yingdeng's main army camp buried stakes in the river, and those wandering outside the city were soldiers from Zuo Guangxian's First Travel Cavalry Battalion.

Zuo Guangxian received the good news that the defenders in the city were planning to surrender, and immediately sent it to the central army. Liu Chengzong was overjoyed when he saw the letter of surrender.

Compared to Kong Youde, who had already been crowned king, what he actually looked forward to most was the surrender of middle-level generals like Sun Long.

After all, the purpose of a person like Kong Youde's surrender is to win over a group of his subordinates to surrender and give him a high official position.

Mid-level generals like Sun Long are experienced and have direct control over skills and soldiers. They are the ones who can really do the work.

"Write him a reply, this is the first surrender from Liaoyang, directly appoint him as the Lieutenant General of Liaoyang Camp, and all the surrendered soldiers after conquering Liaoyang City will be assigned to his subordinates. As for opening the city gate... don't open it, tell him to be very careful, and directly lead the soldiers to protect his family and escape. The officers and soldiers who come out with him will be promoted one level, and let Zuo Guangxian be ready to receive them."

Liu Chengzong didn't realize the trap.

But he had already obtained the map of Liaoyang City, and the North Gate of the North City was not important in the entire Liaoyang defense system.

This is a city in the shape of a Chinese character "日". Even if the northern wall of the northern city is taken, there is still the northern wall of the southern city in the middle, and it is not easy for military weapons such as artillery to bombard the northern wall of the southern city from inside the city.

Besides, most of Liaoyang’s wealth is concentrated in the south city.

Therefore, his siege plan was to attack the west gate of the South City, occupy the South City, and force the enemy troops in the city into the North City.

This is the fastest way to raid a city and get the most loot.

There was a Zizaizhou and a Dongningwei in the north of the city. When the Ming army ruled Liaodong, they were poor places where the surrendered barbarians from Jurchen and Goryeo were settled.

Nurhaci ruled Liaodong and drove the Han people to the north city. He was plundered by Jianzhou and became a pauper.

Even if he took the North City and the defenders retreated to the South City, he would still attack the South City.

It would be better to attack South City directly.

This plan will not change because of the surrender of a northern city defender.

As a result, the letter he sent into the city fell on deaf ears. Looking at the troop movements, the defenders of the north city wall were withdrawn to other places for a rotation of defense.

Liu Shizi figured out that something was wrong.

"It's a false surrender."

Liu Chengzong did not think that the enemy wanted to trick them into the city and kill them. He just ordered Gao Yingdeng to bring the camp back and prepare for the siege: "They want to delay time."

Gao Yingdeng was on his way back and brought back a letter, which made Liu Chengzong applaud and laugh.

Gao Yingdeng's camp not only buried stakes in the northern river to prevent warships from approaching Liaoyang, but also buried minefields at several ferry crossings and shores suitable for landing.

Especially near the waters where stakes are buried, when a warship sails there, the bottom of the ship will come into contact with the hidden stakes, and if a small boat is dropped on land, it will be hit by mines.

However, because they did not bring mines, the mines were just wild ones made of thousands of pounds of field artillery powder and shotgun shells and gravel, so they also buried dozens of rockets, scattered at several landing sites, and connected them in series with thin ropes soaked in saltpeter water as fuses.

Without steel wheels, naturally a few people had to be left in the reed marsh on the shore to watch over the manual fire.

This set of traps made Liu Chengzong very happy. Rockets are really good things. They can cause higher damage by temporarily transforming mines on the battlefield. This method is worth promoting vigorously.

Gao Yingdeng is quite good at making small inventions.

Of course, the greatest invention was what Gao Yingdeng said in the letter, that his men pulled back hundreds of trimmed wood.

Gao Yingdeng was the commander of a brigade, responsible for the attack on Liaoyang City. Based on the disadvantage of Liaoyang City's large number of soldiers and small number of troops, the tactic was to hide the intention of the attack and further divide the defenders, dispersing them to the four city gates on the north, west and south sides to create opportunities for breaking the city in one blow.

Artillery was of paramount importance in siege, so he took the opportunity of burying hidden stakes upstream and specially cut hundreds of wood of similar thickness to that of a thousand-jin field cannon, and installed them on a chariot to pretend to be a gun carriage.

The plan was to place these gadgets in siege positions outside the four-door drawbridge to trick the defenders into thinking they were preparing a full-scale assault.

As for which side of the city wall to actually attack, Gao Yingdeng disagreed with Liu Chengzong. He suggested following the defenders, making several tentative attacks, moving the defenders around, and then attacking whichever side was easier to attack and had fewer people, and try to capture Liaoyang within three days.

Liu Chengzong approved the plan.

Soon, on Zhang Xianzhong's side, several arson teams from Li Hongsi's special forces camp returned with hundreds of prisoners.

After a brief preparation, Gao Yingdeng launched the first exploratory attack on Liaoyang City. His target was the northeast corner of the city near Taizi River.

As the heavy cannons and rifles gathered outside the city toward the northeast corner, the defenders inside the city were also mobilized.

However, the army did not go to the northwest corner, but instead dispersed and gathered in the middle of the north city and on the Invincible Gate, guarding against the drawbridge while facilitating the movement of the army.

Kong Youde's generals all had experience in defending Dengzhou City for several months and were very experienced in defending cities. They were not confused by the mobilization of the Marshal's troops.

After all, there is a moat blocking the city. Even if guns and cannons flatten the battlements and parapets, the enemy will eventually have to fill the trenches and set up ladders to climb the city.

When climbing the city wall, the corner of the city sandwiched between two walls is obviously not a good choice.

Therefore, Kong Youde believed that this was just a tentative attack and should not be taken seriously.

But soon he became stupid.

This was indeed a test attack. When the attacking army saw that he did not take it seriously, more than a dozen field guns and several large cannons on the city wall fired two rounds to suppress the defenders' artillery. Then the captured civilians were immediately pushed to dig trenches and pile up earth hills a hundred steps outside the city.

As soon as several trenches several dozen steps wide were built, heavy gun teams entered the trenches and began to fire accurately at the defenders who showed their heads.

Their precision shooting was not the accuracy of hitting the target from a hundred paces away, but rather ten heavy guns aimed at a battlement from more than a hundred paces away, ensuring that one head would be blown off with one volley.

If you show your head, you will die.

A total of two rounds of gunfire were fired, killing eight defenders who showed their heads, including a centurion. The more than 300 defenders on the city were so frightened that no one dared to show their heads.

The defenders in the north of the city already had many strong civilians in the city, and they all relied on the regular soldiers who dared to peek out to see the situation outside the city. Suddenly, several regular soldiers and officers who dared to show their heads were killed, and the rest did not dare to show their heads either.

At this point, the civilians who were driven and captured outside the city became bolder and began to push carts to fetch earth and rocks to fill the moat.

The defenders on the city did not dare to move. It was Kong Youde who stood at the northwest corner of the city and saw that the trench outside the city had begun to be filled. He quickly dispatched troops from inside the city and ordered the artillery on the city to counterattack.

But the cannon could never hit the target, and the trajectory of the bullet always deviated into the Taizi River.

Because the civilians below the city were filling the trenches while shouting at the people on the city walls not to fire cannons at them. They were all civilians from outside the city who had not evacuated into the city, and they were related to the defenders.

The North City was in a stalemate of filling the trench, and Kong Youde suddenly heard his subordinates report: "Your Majesty, the southwest Suqing Gate has been opened, and someone has escaped from the city!"

"Who, who ran out of town?"

"It's... it's General Sun. He led more than 300 small subordinates and escaped from the Suqing Gate!" (End of this chapter)