The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 701 Burning all the way
"Where are Wang Pu's people?" Liu Zhaoji said in a deep voice at this time: "He still has five thousand soldiers, Mr. Xu, you can't take it all by yourself."

It turned out that Liu Zhaoji also took a fancy to Wang Pu's people. Wu Sangui was right, he must have soldiers and horses in hand.

Datong Town, where Wang Pu lives, is actually better off than Shanhaiguan and Ningyuan. There is money and food there, and they can secretly do business with the Mongolians outside the pass. Most of the things that Shanxi merchants transport out of the pass go there. I don't know how much money Park has earned in the past few years.

So he raised two thousand elite soldiers and horses, but he was useless, so the soldiers below did not dare to fight.

Xu Fuzuo glanced at him calmly: "We just checked, and there are still more than 5000 people and more than 4000 horses in Datong Town."

"Do you want people or horses? You can only choose one."

Wu Sangui and Liu Zhaoji almost said in unison: "I want a horse."

Of course they want people first, but if they can only choose one of the two, they must choose horses. In the late Ming Dynasty, war horses were too expensive and too rare to come by.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty launched the Songjin War with the power of the whole country, and first brought out more than 4 horse mules from the pass. Chen Xinjia later added [-] troops to Hong Chengchou, and brought out thousands of horse mules, bringing out a total of about [-]. (Not counting Xu.)
After being defeated by the Man Qing, the Man Qing robbed more than 1 horses.

There are tens of thousands of people who died in the sea and on the road, plus those who were injured and unable to use them.

There were more than 2 of them, and they brought back nearly [-] horses. None of the [-] troops were there. Basically, only those who had horses could run back, and those who had no horses must have died outside.

So of course they know the importance of horses.

Xu Fuzuo chuckled, and immediately decided to give [-] to each of the [-] horses and take about [-] for himself.

In this way, all the armor of Wang Pu's soldiers and horses belonged to Liu Zhaoji and Wu Sangui, and they were given [-] horses each.

All five thousand soldiers and horses belonged to Xu Fuzou.

Xu Fuzou distributed the 2000 troops from Datong Town to [-] soldiers from Cao Bianjiao, and the other [-] soldiers were collected by Xu Fuzuo, brought back to Ji Town, trained in a unified way, and finally redistributed.

Then the three of them went to the court at the same time, first reporting that Wang Pu ran away before the battle, and then said that after returning to Ningyuan, some defeated soldiers broke out, angrily scolded Wang Pu for harming others, ambushed soldiers, and killed Wang Pu in the chaos. The three desperately suppressed, and finally put down the chaos.

A few days later, it was September [-]nd, which was also the day when the soldiers and horses of Lushun in Dongjiang Town were paid.

Xu Fuzuo paid the original Datong soldiers and horses, and everyone got the actual salary, and the morale of the army immediately stabilized a lot.

At this time, they had crossed the Shanhai Pass and entered the range of Ji Town.
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When the news of Songshan's defeat reached the Ming court, Chongzhen was furious, angry and afraid, but unable to support him.

After the Battle of Songshan, most of the generals and troops trained in the past ten years of suppressing the bandits were lost, and the remaining Ming soldiers were restrained by Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others, unable to rush to help.

In order to rescue Hong Chengchou, Chongzhen ordered Yang Shengwu, the governor of Shuntian, and Fan Zhiwan, the Minister of the Ministry of War, to lead the army to Songshan to rescue the siege. However, "they all dare not go out."

He also ordered Wang Weiguo, the commander-in-chief of Shandong, to rush to Songshan, but Wang Weiguo was in the process of destroying Li Qingshan. He called Ding Yi, the commander-in-chief of Denglai, but got the news that Ding Yi had gone to fight Gaizhou.

Chongzhen was ashamed and angry, and found that no one in Ming Dynasty listened to him. At this time, the only hope was that Ding Yi could take down Gaizhou and prompt Huang Taiji to retreat.

Hong Chengchou, who was trapped in Songshan, organized several breakouts, but was blocked by the trenches of the Qing army, causing heavy casualties. The Qing army not only dug the trenches, but also placed wooden stakes and bells on them, and arranged for trained war dogs to squat. (This is the original history.)
I don't know if the Qing soldiers used dogs, did they learn from Ding Yi? If Ding Yi knew, he would probably vomit blood.

Huang Taiji didn't want any more casualties, so he besieged and didn't attack. Not long after, the Ming army in the city was so hungry that they began to eat human flesh, repeating the Daling River tragedy.

The siege lasted until the night of February 15 in the 1642th year of Chongzhen (2), Xia Shu, the son of Xia Chengde, the deputy general of Songshan who had contacted the Qing army in advance, took the initiative to open the city to welcome the Qing army. Captured Hong Chengchou, Wang Tingchen, Zu Dale and others.

At this time there were probably more than 4000 people in the city.

The Qing army killed more than 100 officers including Wang Tingchen and more than 3000 soldiers, leaving more than 1000 soldiers who surrendered, and sent Zu Dale back to Jinzhou to persuade him to surrender.

On March 3, Zu Dashou, who had been surrounded for more than two years, saw that there was no hope of escape, so he had to lead his troops out of the city and surrender.

After this battle, the Qing soldiers seized 5 Hongyi cannons, 2 Falun cannons, 146 general cannons, 737 second general cannons, 1237 third general cannons, 200 battalion cannons, and 33 Frangji cannons from Songshan.

Jinzhou seized 7 Hongyi cannons, 1 Falun cannon, 3 parent-child cannons, 18 general cannons, 147 second general cannons, 176 third general cannons, 33 camping cannons, and 12 Frangji cannons.

Tashan seized 1 Hongyi cannon, 2 Falun cannons, 409 large and small general cannons, and 37 Frangji cannons.Xingshan seized 2 Hongyi cannons, 6 general cannons, 122 second general cannons, 182 camping cannons, and 65 Frangji cannons.

It took more than two months to transport more than 3000 cannons, plus other supplies, back to Shengjing.
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Back to mid-August.

When the Qing army was fighting the Ming army in Songjin, Ding Yi's three-way army set off from Lushun and Pidao at the same time.

Ding Yi personally commanded the West Route Army, leading Zhang Jing's 1 battalion of cavalry with 1 troops, Ma Yue's infantry battalion with 3 soldiers, Xu Bicheng's 12rd infantry battalion with 3000 soldiers, the 500th Battalion of Xianghuailai with [-] soldiers, and [-] auxiliary soldiers for a total of [-] troops. People, [-] horses and mules, and [-] large carts, went north from Beigou City to Gaizhou.

Unexpectedly, just after leaving Beigou City, Ding Yi was about to vomit blood.

Ding Yi chose Beigou to build the city at the beginning because this road was the only road that could take the artillery.

Ding Yi built a city here. Before the Manchu Qing Dynasty captured Beigou City, it would be difficult for heavy artillery to enter the south of Fuzhou.

So Huang Taiji had no choice but to start the Beigou War with Ding Yi.

After the defeat, Huang Taiji learned from the painful experience. It is very difficult to take down Beigou City now, but he must prevent the Ming army from coming out to attack him.

So he immediately organized his manpower, and started digging a large number of pits ten miles north of Beigou City.

At the same time, within ten miles of Beigou, sentry cavalry were stationed all year round to prevent the Ming army sentry cavalry from leaving the city.

It is gratifying that Ding Yi's soldiers and horses are now guarding Beigou City.

He focuses on stability, and rarely sends sentry cavalry out, just let the sentry cavalry make the terrain of the nearby mountainous areas clear.

The first ten miles are regarded as clearing soldiers' territory, and his sentinel cavalry can rarely pass.

After that, the two sides basically remained on the Beigou line. The Qing soldiers could not come over, and Ding Yi couldn't go there either.

A few years have passed, this time Ding Yi wanted to send troops, damn it, he suddenly found that the outside was full of pits.

When the army arrived at the foot of Laomao Mountain, the area ahead was rugged and full of potholes. Huang Taiji imitated Ding Yi's skills and almost dug up the road.

Seeing him like this, he basically didn't intend to take the initiative to fight Ding Yi, but wanted to trap Ding Yi in Beigou City.

Ding Yi's more than 1 soldiers and horses, and with carts, filled the pits while walking, from Beigou to Laomao Mountain, a hundred miles away, and walked for half a month.

This is because he is smarter, sending an advance team to go first, which is equivalent to engineers paving the road ahead and a team of fusiliers protecting them.

The rear team went relatively smoothly.

The Lushun generals scolded as they walked, and finally felt the pain every time the Qing soldiers attacked Ding Yi's soldiers and horses.

"Has Huang Taiji gone crazy?" Zhang Jing scolded every day, "Have you been beaten crazy by Mr. Ding?"

The generals laughed every time they heard it.

Huang Taiji was really useless, he actually dug his way like this, made it clear that he didn't want to fight Ding Yi, so he trapped Ding Yi in Lushun, Fuzhou and Beigou.

The South Route Army was still happy, and he swept all the forts in Liaodong from Baiyun City to the north.

These forts were dug and built by Huang Taiji, and it was very difficult to replace them before.

The first city that Shang Kexi attacked was Xuancheng. There were less than [-] Qing soldiers in Xuancheng, and more than a dozen blockhouses were built, surrounding Xuancheng. It was difficult to destroy these blockhouses with artillery.

There are pits everywhere in front of the city, all within 500 meters, which is even more exaggerated than when Ding Yi dug Jinzhou.

After all, the two sides have not fought here for several years, and the Qing soldiers dug holes when they had nothing to do.

Shang Kexi was not in a hurry, first surrounded Xuancheng with the army, then filled in the pit slightly, within 300 meters, and then used a catapult to throw petrol bombs.

The most powerful weapon in the world finally showed his edge.

Before the expedition, many generals still wanted to win with artillery and firecrackers. Now that they have dug holes into such castles and bunkers, they understand that even with the strongest artillery in the world, if they want to storm a pier, they have to pay. Heavy casualties.

If there were no petrol bombs, it would take at least a few days for Ding Yi to hit each pier, and he would suffer a lot of casualties, so he might not be able to hit it.

Now that there are gasoline bombs, it is easy to say, Shang Kexi surrounded them and threw them away. As soon as more than two dozen gasoline bombs were thrown, Xuancheng was instantly engulfed in flames.

The Ming army watched from outside, and after a while, Qing soldiers came out by themselves one after another.

The fire inside couldn't be extinguished at all, and the houses in this era were made of wood and had a lot of materials, so everything was burned.

In the end, in addition to more than 80 people who ran out, more than 200 Qing soldiers inside were burned to coke.

When the Ming army went in to clean up the mess, many people vomited when they saw it. It was even more terrifying than the burning of Jinzhou back then.

Shen Shikui of the Eastern Route Army was the same as Shang Kexi. Both of them burned all the way through. None of the pier forts of the Qing soldiers in Liaodong survived, and they were all reduced to ashes.

In September, Songshan had already been defeated, and Ding Yi finally came to Gaizhou City.

They filled the hole all the way, even Ding Yi was angry and helpless.

In order to speed up, a lot of 24-pound cannons were also transported back to Beigou City. Anyway, Ding Yijue basically used less than 24-pound cannons now.

Even if there is, Ding Yi is now confident that he can destroy Hongyi Cannon.

After arriving five miles outside the city of Gaizhou, Ding Yi was not in a hurry. He first surrounded Gaizhou with a large army, then built a camp, and rested for two days before talking.

Gaizhou is a big city, first established in the fifth year of Hongwu, commanded by Wu Yu.

In the ninth year of Hongwu, the Marquis of Jingbian opened the south side of Guangguang to lay bricks.There are 88 steps in Fangwuli, one zhang five feet high, one zhang five feet deep, one zhang eight feet wide, five miles around and 120 seven steps, and there are three gates: Dongshunqing, Nanguangen, Xininghai, all with buildings .In Jiajing Jiazi, Guan Tun commanded Lu Pei to build enemy towers at the four corners of the city wall.

It was breached by Ding Yi once in the past, and it was completely burned. Later, Huang Taiji rebuilt Gaizhou. After several years of continuous work, Gaizhou expanded and increased, leaving two gates.

The current Gaizhou City has a circumference of seven miles and 300 meters and a height of three feet. There are Xining Haimen, Nanguangenmen, and the east gate is sealed.

There are pits within 500 meters outside the city, and the moat is six meters wide and five meters deep.

A blockhouse is built every 50 meters at the head of the city, and a cannon is arranged.

There are nearly a hundred cannons in the entire Gaizhou city, of course, most of them are general cannons, and there are only five cannons on the south side of the Franji and Hongyi cannons.

Gaizhou defender is Ding Yi's old opponent, Li Soltai.

Among them, the Han army was five thousand, the Mongolian army was one thousand, the Manchu army was one Niulu, and there were fifteen thousand civilians, for a total of 2 people.

The people here are basically old men who have shaved their hair for many years. Last time Ding Yi wanted to take them back, almost no one was willing.

It has been seven or eight years since the last time. It can be said that almost all the young people in their 20s in the city grew up under the rule of the Qing Dynasty and regarded themselves as Manchus.

This city can be said to be completely full of Qing Dynasty.

After Ding Yi surrounded Gaizhou City, Li Sutai was not in a hurry.

He had sent sentry cavalry to Shengjing to report the news two days ago.

He has been stationed here all these years, digging pits, building forts, and there is an inner city inside the city. He is confident that he has learned [-]% from Ding Yi. Back then, their [-] troops could not attack Jinzhou. no way.

But he was not proud. At the same time, he recruited civilian husbands and recruited young and strong people in the city. In one day, he recruited about 20 young and strong around [-] years old as auxiliary soldiers.

First block the two city gates in the south and west with huge stones and mud bricks, so that it will be useless for Ding Yi to bombard the gates with red cannons.

After doing all this, Li Shitai led people up the city wall and looked at the Ming army camp from a distance.

For some reason, although he had the bottom line in his heart, he still felt a little uncomfortable.

Ding Yi, who had only a few hundred soldiers in Xu Dabao back then, has now been able to raise tens of thousands of troops to attack the Qing Dynasty in more than ten years.

"Meilezhangjing, this little mouse really knows how to choose the time. Every time he stumbles into trouble and takes advantage of troubled waters, he is the worst general he has ever seen." Manchu Niuluzhang Jingdu Abo laughed.

Du Abo is from Zhengbai Banner. This time he did not follow Dorgon to the Battle of Songjin, but followed Li Satei to defend Gaizhou, mainly to guard against Ding Yi.

Huang Taiji knows Ding Yi too well, this group is the best at stabbing people in the back.

When they entered the customs for the first time, Ding Yi beat Jinzhou, and when they entered the customs for the second time, Ding Yi came to fight Fuzhou again.

After entering the customs for the third time, Ding Yi went to fight Yizhou again.

Huang Taiji was really speechless to Ding Yi, he could only ask him to guard against him.

This time they went to fight the battle of Songjin, and Ding Yi really came again.

Li Shuitai looked worried: "I heard that Ding Yi's army has become more and more powerful in recent years, with excellent soldiers and horses, and a large number of cavalry. In the past, if we were broken into the city, we could escape on horseback."

"If the city is broken this time, there is only one way to die."

Lazhang Jingsubbandai, the third-class Mongol, said in a deep voice: "I think Ding Yi's camp is only more than 1 people. As our city is impenetrable, he can't capture it even with 10 people."

In history, Subbandai was following Dorgon on the Songjin battlefield, and this time he was sent to Gaizhou, which is also the reason why he is a brave general. He is a member of the Mongolian Eight Banners.

The two yellow flags were the strongest in the Qing Dynasty, which naturally proves that his soldiers and horses are more powerful.

(End of this chapter)