Daming Yinghua

Chapter 466 Decisive Battle ()

Guangshun Pass is more than 60 miles away from Kaiyuan, an important city in the Ming Dynasty, and is under the jurisdiction of Jing'an Fort.

Jing'an Fort, which was later known as Shangyang Fort during the Qing Dynasty, was the place where political prisoners were exiled during the Qing Dynasty, just like the famous "Ningguta".

During the Taichang period, Jing'an Fort was still under the control of the Ming Dynasty and was the gateway to Kaiyuan.

At the turn of the afternoon, when Mu Zaohua arrived at the upper reaches of Qinghe River outside Guangshun Pass, the first thing that caught her eye was the bondservants from various banners, who were robbing people and livestock for their own masters, the soldiers.

May and June every year are the seasons with the most abundant grass and water in the Liaohe River area. Han herders from Liaohaiwei to Tielingwei would drive their sheep to the east to graze near the Ming military forts. After the Xiaoqing River area became a summer pasture with a concentrated population, some merchants from Fushun in the south came to do business.

On this originally peaceful and beautiful afternoon, the Later Jin Tartars suddenly arrived. The Ming people had no time to escape and were surrounded and blocked by dense cavalry. They became prey amidst their wailing and screaming.

The Tartars' baoyi, whether they were Jurchens or Han people, were actually slaves. But they had no sympathy for the Ming people, who were also at the bottom of society.

Not only because of the stern orders from their own masters, but also because they believed that only by abducting more Ming people to the Jin Dynasty to work as slaves, could the burden they had to bear in their days, where they were treated worse than pigs and dogs, be slightly alleviated, and they would have a chance to survive this year, next year, or even the year after if they were lucky enough.

Mu Zaohua had seen the brutal madness of the Tartars when they attacked Emao City, so she was not greatly shocked by the scene before her which was just looting and light killing.

But she quickly rode her horse to the front of the "Korean" musketeers sent by Daishan.

They were all Ming people recruited by Xu San in the Pi Island area of ​​Dongjiang in recent years. They could speak Korean. As members of the Zhengziying intelligence and special service front, they also learned to use matchlock guns during training. After Daishan was tricked into taking root in Huining, these special agents in the shadows put on Korean disguises and walked into the sun, until they have come step by step to this day.

Mu Zaohua was worried that these younger comrades would not be able to help but behave strangely when they first saw the Tartars' devastation of the Ming people.

Fortunately, her worries were unnecessary. The musketeers just sat down to rest, took out their dry food and ate it, looking at the miserable scene with eyes as cold as iron. Occasionally, a sergeant would stand up and chat with the Tartar gunners in their camp, speaking Korean and gesturing. In the end, the Tartars understood that they were asking how to distribute the spoils of war, including the men, cattle and sheep.

Only the captain of the musket team, Xu San's fellow villager named He Jinzhu, looked at Mu Zaohua with a look that conveyed a bit of silent anger.

Mu Zaohua looked at Aobai who was slaughtering a sheep and preparing to roast it not far away, then she dismounted from her horse, walked to Captain He, picked up his musket, seemed to be observing the situation of the firing port, and a word in Korean slipped from her lips.

"It will be returned double."

……

That night, the hustle and bustle of the grassland and river beach outside the Great Wall continued until dawn.

In accordance with the Jurchen custom of fighting and robbing, and taking the spoils away, Nurhaci ordered each banner to send out a small group of red-armored soldiers. The Jurchen nobles of the Yehe tribe in the north who had already surrendered also sent a number of baoyi as coolies. The armored soldiers drove the baoyi and escorted the first batch of spoils of cattle and sheep to transport them south to Hetuala as soon as possible.

In addition to doing odd jobs for the soldiers, the bondservants of the five banners had to cut down trees along the Xiaoqing River overnight and build shield carts and ladders for use in the upcoming siege battles.

Yue Tuo found some time to come to the firearms team and said to Mu Zaohua and Aobai: "You have seen it in the evening, seven or eight beacon towers outside the pass are burning smoke. The guards of Jing'an Fort must know we are coming. The Khan interrogated several herdsmen in the evening, and they all said that there are Ming soldiers in Jing'an Fort who can use fire guns, and there are cannons in the fort."

Mu Zaohua's eyes fell on a few Red Banner Baoyi not far away. They were skinny and in tattered clothes, and were putting up tree branches on both sides of the ladder and covering them with cowhide. When the hard cowhide was poured with water, it could reduce the damage of kerosene and stones to the attackers.

Mu Zaohua looked at it for a moment, then retracted her gaze and sneered, "We are too impatient to grab things."

Aobai asked in a gruff voice, "What does Master Ezhen mean?"

Mu Zaohua said, "We could have set up camp five miles away and sent out a group of elite soldiers to sneak into Guangshun Pass at night. Jing'an Fort is ten miles behind Guangshun Pass. It would take less than half an hour for our main force to go there and catch them off guard. But now, as soon as the beacon tower sounded the alarm, Jing'an Fort was prepared. Who knows, Kaiyuan City and Anle Prefecture are already on high alert."

In the light of the torch, Yue Tuo saw that Mu Zaohua had a serious and helpless look on her face. He felt that this woman was really thinking about the strategy of attacking the Jin Dynasty all the time, and it was worth it that he liked her more and more.

Yue Tuo then comforted him gently: "What you said makes sense, but there is no need to worry. From Jing'an Fort to Kaiyuan, there are Ming people who have surrendered to us."

Mu Zaohua's heart made a "boom".

The lady's prediction turned out to be correct. The Tartars used the same trick they had used on Li Yongfang in Fushun.

While Mu Zaohua was thinking secretly, she also saw Aobai glance at Yuetuo with an unfriendly look, and then quickly hid it. Obviously, this servant of Huang Taiji, regardless of whether he knew that the Jin Dynasty had bribed the generals of the Ming Dynasty, was very disgusted by Yuetuo's attitude of being unable to resist the beauty and not being wary of Nikan's women.

Mu Zaohua simply put on a show, frowning even more tightly, and said with some displeasure: "In that case, why did we go to so much trouble to push the cannon over here, with so many two or three jin iron bullets? Maybe before we even start the fire, the gates will be opened from the inside."

Yue Tuo didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and didn't care that Aobai was present. He said softly, "It's not as easy as picking vegetables or cutting melons. You are just afraid that you won't be the first to win."

"I want to be the first to achieve the first merit. Otherwise, I don't know which tongue will stick into the Khan's ear and say that I am a spy for the Ming Dynasty. Besides, I didn't rob anything or anyone. I don't have any military merit, so how can I get the reward? General Aobai, don't you think so? If our firearms team doesn't show off some skills, you won't be able to explain to the Fourth Prince!"

After Mu Zaohua pretended to be angry with Yue Tuo for two or three hours, the first iron bullet of the Jin army flew towards the stone wall of Guangshun Pass.

Then came the second and third.

Along with a loud rumbling sound, gravel and dust flew everywhere, startling many of the Jin army's own war horses, causing them to neigh and stamp their hooves restlessly.

Nurhaci, who was surrounded by Baijia Bayala like stars surrounding the moon, burst into a triumphant laugh.

Even the most battle-hardened wolf leader could not suppress his excitement at this moment.

Although he had seen no less than ten artillery test firings in Hetuala, today was the first time that the old chief saw with his own eyes in broad daylight that the iron lump flying out of the Great Jin's own artillery barrel actually hit the wall of the Ming military fort.

It should be noted that just three years ago, when attacking the two cities of the Yehe tribe, the Jin army could only send the Baoyi to rush to the city with ladders, and then the white-armored and red-armored soldiers climbed up the city despite the deadly attacks of bows, arrows, and thunderbolts. At that time, the ladders were like rain, and soldiers who were shot or hit kept falling. In the end, the Jianzhou warriors almost climbed over the wall by stepping on the corpses of their companions.

Things are different now!

The Ming army defending Guangshun Pass did not seem to expect that the Jin army also had such powerful firearms. After the ten bronze cannons were fired and entered a cooling interval, there was even an unusual brief silence on the city wall. It was not until the scolding, perhaps from the garrison and the captain, sounded one after another that arrows flew towards the Jin army camp, and one or two arrows were nailed on the wooden shields around the muzzles that protected the gunners.

"Reload and fire again!" Mu Zaohua gave the order to the gun crew that had completed cleaning the chamber.

Fires lit up one after another, and there was another burst of continuous cannon fire like thunder, which was illuminated by the June sun and turned into golden smoke. When it dissipated for a while, Huang Taiji, who was beside Nurhaci, said excitedly: "Father, a corner of the wall has collapsed."

"Dismount and attack the city!" Nurhaci roared with a volume no less than that in his prime.

……

"Get on the horse and head east at full speed!"

On the same morning, near the Xiushui River, more than 100 miles west of the Liaohe River, Ma Xianglin issued instructions to the soldiers who had rested for a night.

In order to speed up the march and avoid being discovered by the herdsmen of the Khorchin tribe in the north, Ma Xianglin's team of nearly 6,000 people was not encumbered by baggage. It consisted of 4,000 veteran white-pole spearmen from Shiqun, 1,000 elite cavalrymen from Jizhen who had been recruited and trained by Ma Xianglin in Shanhaiguan after the Battle of Fushun, and 700 to 800 young and strong men from the princes of the county trained by his deputy general Man Gui. Almost all of them rode two horses each.

Last year, the silver that Zheng Haizhu sent directly from Luoyang to Daning was exchanged for a large number of fine horses from Chahar in a transaction that was personally supervised by Lady Su Tai. The quality of the horses was no less than that of the horses sent by Khorchin to the Later Jin.

As soon as they received the urgent message from the Ministry of War, Ma Xianglin's troops immediately set out eastward. As Su Tai and He Zhuo had estimated in advance, it took them three days to cross the left wing of Mongolia south of the desert and arrive at the Liaohe River.

The length of this journey was about twice that of the Later Jin's journey from Hetuala to Kaiyuan, but because the latter brought a large number of bondservants, which affected the marching speed, it took the same amount of time as Ma Xianglin's cavalry.

"Damn, these women are really good at calculating."

When the wide Liao River came into view, Man Gui caught up with Shangguan who had slowed down his horse and exclaimed loudly.

Feeling Ma Xianglin's sharp gaze, Man Gui quickly grinned and changed her words: "Husband, Madam, not woman, I call her Madam respectfully. Well, there is more than one. Madam Zheng is needless to say, she is very cunning. She was wasted in the battle of Luanhe. She is very satisfied with the battle this time. But that Madam Sutai from Mongolia is not bad either, right, General Ma? Hehe."

Ma Xianglin lightly pulled the reins and changed the horse. When he looked back at Mangui, his eyes narrowed.

Man Gui was frightened by the look and asked, "Master Ma, are you smiling at me or glaring at me to scold me?"

Ma Xianglin said, "I'm not like you. I never scold my lieutenants before a big battle. I was laughing, but you don't even know that your bride has also come with me."