The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 476 Overwhelming Pressure
March 17th, the sixteenth year of the Chongzhen reign.

The setting sun, like blood, soaked the tattered flags atop the fortress.

The cracks in the city wall resembled wounds torn apart by a giant beast, the result of the Qing army's heavy artillery bombardment for over ten days.

Where the bricks and stones collapsed, the corpses of Ming soldiers were mixed with the broken blades of Qing soldiers, and blood seeped into the scorched soil, congealing into purplish-black mud.

On the plains beyond the Great Wall, the corpses of Qing soldiers lay scattered haphazardly, their limbs and torsos shattered by heavy artillery fire strewn everywhere.

The corpses piled up like mountains at the edge of the city wall, much denser than those at the rear.

The area beneath the city walls was littered with the corpses of Qing soldiers, pierced by muskets and killed by crossbow bolts.

There were also many escapees who had their chests pierced by spears and their bellies ripped open by sabers. These were soldiers who died tragically while being pursued and killed by the Guan Ning cavalry in the city during their retreat.

Their faces, filled with despair and fear, were forever frozen in their final moments, never again displaying the ferocity they once showed when facing the people within the Great Wall.

Crows swooped down in flocks, pecking at the still-warm eyeballs.

The Qing army's cannons were still roaring, but the cannonballs hitting the collapsed ruins of the barbican only stirred up clouds of gray-yellow dust.

The garrison at the pass, armed with weapons, hid behind the ruins and waited quietly.

Accompanied by the muffled, continuous bugle calls and the low, melodious sound of conch shells from the Qing army ranks, shouts of battle arose.

Like a tidal wave, the Qing army surged once again toward the dilapidated city of Shanhaiguan.

The volley of flintlock muskets exploded like popping beans, and as white smoke rose, the Green Standard Army infantrymen charging forward fell like wheat being harvested.

At the breach in the fortress, a laborer carried sandbags on his back and filled them into the gap that had been breached by artillery fire.

But suddenly several tiger-shaped spears emerged from the gap and pierced through his chest.

The Qing army had already arrived close by.

Several Qing soldiers in cavalry crossed the low wall made of sandbags, shouting fierce Manchu words as they drove the surrounding Green Standard Army and Han Bannermen forward.

But with a series of popping sounds, the dozen or so Qing soldiers who had just climbed over the low wall all fell down on the gap.

Inside the fortress, a group of about thirty musketeers, arranged in three rows, had all pulled their triggers.

These gunners were all dressed in long cloth-covered iron armor, with arm guards and red-tasseled helmets.

The armor they wore was all dyed crimson, a stark contrast to the Guan Ning garrison troops constantly being mobilized within the city walls.

These musketeers were the Jingnan Army musketeers who had traveled by ship with Zheng's fleet to provide support some time ago.

Just as a heavily armored Qing army commander climbed over the breach and killed a Guan Ning garrison centurion who was trying to resist, several loud gunshots rang out.

Three streaks of blood suddenly appeared on the chest of the Qing army's Niru Ejen.

Fragments of the armor, mixed with broken bones and flesh, splattered on the brick wall like a basin of hot, pungent lacquer.

The Qing army commander swayed slightly, his expression still fierce, his eyes wide open, muttering as if he wanted to curse something.

But large gulps of blood kept gushing from his mouth, silencing his last words.

The wind whipped up smoke as it swept across the city walls. A centurion of the Jingnan Army, clad in bright armor, coldly kicked aside a corpse riddled with arrows and hoarsely ordered, "Load!"

Half an hour later, as the sun rose higher, the Qing troops below the city gate retreated again, like the waves of the receding tide.

Huang Taiji's face was ashen. He gripped the reins tightly, staring at the dilapidated fortress in the distance, his eyes filled with a chilling killing intent.

"How could the Jingnan Army's troops be inside Shanhaiguan Pass!"

No one could respond to Huang Taiji's roar.

They attacked for nearly a month, almost destroying Xiluo City to the west of Shanhaiguan, as well as the North Wing City and the South Wing City.

Shanhaiguan is located at the eastern end of the Ming Great Wall and is the only place where the Ming Great Wall meets the sea.

To the north lies the western section of the Liaoxi Corridor, a strategically important location and the site of the ancient Jieshi, hence historians also refer to it as the "Jieshi Road".

The fortress is located north of the Yanshan Mountains and south of the Bohai Sea, hence its name, Shanhaiguan.

The pass was surrounded by outer walls on the east and west sides, namely the East Outer Wall and the West Outer Wall. The East Outer Wall was located outside the pass, while the West Outer Wall was located inside.

Winged cities were built to the north and south, and smaller cities were built around them, forming a defensive triangle to protect the main city.

In response to this situation, Huang Taiji adopted a tactic of repeated bombardment with heavy artillery and mass infantry attacks, launching simultaneous attacks from three points. He even had Mongol cavalry dismount to participate in the attack and suppress the firepower on the city walls.

At the same time, a considerable number of troops besieging Ningyuan were also transferred to attack Dongluocheng of Shanhaiguan from outside the pass.

On the southern wing of the city, the Ming navy was lingering on the flank, preventing them from deploying their forces.

The defenders of Xiluo City fought tenaciously, and with the support of cavalry within the city, they found it difficult to capture the city quickly.

The troops attacking Dongluo City were only used for diversion, and therefore did not achieve much.

However, the attack on the North Wing City went very smoothly.

After several days of fierce fighting, Huang Taiji ordered a force to be dispatched from outside the pass to attack the northern wing city, thus flanking the defenders of the northern wing city from both sides.

The defenses of the North Wing City quickly collapsed.

But just as they were about to breach the northern wing city...

The Jingnan Army has appeared.

Along with the Jingnan army, there was the continuous sound of gunfire and cannons, as well as the melodious calls of swans.

Taking advantage of the situation, the Ming cavalry inside Shanhaiguan launched an attack, and the attacking forces outside the northern wing of the city suffered a major defeat and returned in disarray.

In the end, during the nearly month-long siege, the soldiers left behind nearly six thousand corpses below the Shanhaiguan Pass, but failed to save any of them.

No one could answer Huang Taiji's questions, but at dusk after the troops returned to camp, Huang Taiji got the answer he wanted.

Ajige's eastern army captured Changyi in Laizhou Prefecture, and learned about it from local prisoners and civilians.

Not long ago, a troop carrying the banner of the Jingnan Army marched rapidly from the south through Laizhou, seemingly heading towards Dengzhou and Laizhou.

"Damn Chen Wang."

Huang Taiji crumpled the military report in his hand into pieces.

The Jingnan Army inside the city gate was undoubtedly the same force that had recently passed through Changyi.

Chen Wang had long anticipated that he would attack Guan Ning, and also anticipated that Guan Ning's troops alone would be unable to defend it, so he sent troops in advance.

This force of the Jingnan Army traveled by sea from Shandong all the way across the ocean.

Huang Taiji's conjecture was not wrong.

The Qing army amassed a force of over 80,000 men, and transferred all the troops under the command of the three Shun princes, including Kong Youde, who were skilled in attacking fortified positions, from Shandong.

How could such a large-scale military mobilization possibly escape the notice of the Jingnan Military Intelligence Division?

The Guan-Ning region was extremely important, and Chen Wang naturally could not allow Huang Taiji to easily capture it. Moreover, Chen Wang had long anticipated that Huang Taiji, under such circumstances, would inevitably summon the Mongol vassals for assistance.

Wu Sangui's rebellion was entirely within Chen Wang's expectations.

The Qing army captured the capital, and Wu Sangui's father and a group of relatives were taken hostage.

With the Qing army pressing in, and given Wu Sangui's consistent behavior, surrendering was only a matter of time.

Therefore, Chen Wang had the intelligence department strictly monitor Wu Sangui's camp and residence from the beginning, and sure enough, they intercepted the correspondence between Wu Sangui and the Qing court.

What followed was that Zu Zefu was informed in advance, Ma Jinzhong revealed the truth, and Wu Sangui was forced out on the city wall.

The internal threat of surrendering faction led by Wu Sangui has been eliminated, but the external threat remains unresolved.

Whether Liaozhen fights or surrenders, the troops stationed there alone will soon be enough to cause the fall of Guanning and Ningzhou.

Therefore, Chen Wang immediately ordered Hui Dengxiang to lead the First Division of Shandong Garrison, with 12,000 troops, to march north to reinforce Guan Ning.

The First Division of Shandong Town suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Yangzhou, but after heading north, Chen Wang transferred elite troops from Pingnan, Henan, and Shandong to fill the gaps and replenish the numbers.

The commander of the First Division of Shandong Town was General Gao Jie.

However, Gao Jie was seriously injured in the Battle of Yangzhou. Although it was not fatal, he was temporarily unable to travel long distances or personally participate in battles.

Therefore, Chen Wang temporarily swapped the command of troops between Gao Jie and Hui Dengxiang, with Hui Dengxiang leading the troops northward and Gao Jie leading the Second Division of Shandong Garrison to garrison Haizhou.

Huang Taiji was naturally unaware of all this. The Qing court had infiltrated the Ming court, but it was only the Ming court, only the northern country.

While the area controlled by the Jingnan Army could not be described as monolithic, under the supervision of the intelligence bureau and the troops of various garrisons, the Qing army's informants could not obtain much information.

Huang Taiji's expression involuntarily darkened once again.

The reason why we were able to win many victories when attacking the Ming court was largely due to our advantage in reporting and requesting information.

The Ming court's nine border regions were like sieves, with countless people offering intelligence in exchange for information, and Shanxi merchants were one of their biggest helpers.

They had a clear understanding of the Ming army's movements and even some knowledge of the Ming court's strategies, which enabled them to easily achieve successive victories.

However, at present, the Jingnan Army holds the advantage in intelligence.

They have no secrets and are no longer their enemies.

They have now become themselves.

"What's the situation to the south?"

Huang Taiji put down his teacup, which landed on the table with a dull thud.

All the Qing army officers and generals in the central command tent lowered their heads at the opportune moment. At this time, no one dared to provoke Huang Taiji.

Baiyintu glanced around. He didn't want to step forward and answer at this moment, but he was currently assisting in the management of military affairs.

Baiyintu took a deep breath and replied.

"Chen Wang, the general of the puppet Ming dynasty, led 130,000 troops northward from Xuzhou, taking advantage of the navy, and proceeded to Jining via the Grand Canal."

"Prince Rui has led his troops back from Pei County to Jining City to defend the city, temporarily cutting off the northward advance of the puppet Ming Jingnan Army."

"The puppet Ming army launched an attack on the second day of the third month, deploying heavy artillery..."

Baiyintu paused for a moment, then slightly raised his eyes to observe Huang Taiji's expression.

Sure enough, Baiyintu saw that Huang Taiji's expression had darkened considerably. He groaned inwardly, but dared not remain silent.

"...The Jingnan Army deployed about forty heavy artillery pieces to attack Jining. The heavy artillery of the Jingnan Army roared like thunder, and its power was astonishing. Within ten days, many sections of the outer city collapsed."

“The Jingnan Army’s various battalions are equipped with artillery, and the total number of them should be over six hundred. They have a large number of muskets and advance step by step. When our army attacks, they form ranks on the spot, and the continuous barrage of gunfire makes it difficult to get close.”

The once quiet central command tent was suddenly filled with commotion.

The news of over forty heavy artillery pieces and hundreds of infantry guns was like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, stirring up ripples.

The Qing army also possessed heavy artillery for sieges.

However, even including the spoils from the Battle of Songjin and the capture of the capital, only seventy of the heavy artillery pieces could be considered usable for siege warfare.

Of these cannons, only half were used in field battles; the rest were originally siege cannons mounted on the city walls.

Now, the Jingnan Army has deployed more than forty heavy artillery pieces at once for field siege warfare.

Such a foundation undoubtedly represents the formidable strength of the Jingnan Army.

It should be noted that even in the Battle of Songjin, the Ming army that rushed to the aid of the Nine Border Garrisons and Eight Towns did not carry that many heavy artillery pieces.

The hundreds of infantry guns were also an extremely alarming number.

It should be noted that these hundreds of cannons belong to the Jingnan Army.

It wasn't one of those guillotines in the Ming army's inventory that couldn't even penetrate shield carts, nor was it one of those crudely made general cannons.

The artillery of the Jingnan Army had standard specifications; it was actually the same as the Hongyi Cannon, but it was much larger than the commonly known Hongyi Cannon and could not be considered a heavy artillery for sieges.

The Qing army also had its own cannon factories, and had begun to imitate cannons as early as the fifth year of the Tiancong reign, so they were no strangers to the red-coated cannons.

The formation of the Han army's Wuzhen Chaoha was a product of the successful imitation of the first red-coated cannon.

After facing the Jingnan Army during the Wuyin Incident, Huang Taiji realized the role of the Red-Clothed Cannon in field battles, and the Qing court's cannon factories subsequently began to manufacture the lighter Red-Clothed Infantry Cannon.

It was precisely because they knew the power and function of infantry artillery that the generals in the tent turned ashen-faced.

Over the course of three years, the Qing government devoted all its efforts to casting just over two hundred infantry cannons.

Now, the Jingnan Army has directly deployed more than 600 infantry cannons.

How can we prevent fear from arising in people's hearts?

"I don't want to hear any of this. Just tell me directly, what's the situation in Jining?"

Huang Taiji interrupted Baiyintu, speaking in a cold voice.

Baiyintu lowered his head, steadied himself, and reported.

"The fortresses, outposts, and camps surrounding Jining have all fallen..."

Huang Taiji's expression suddenly darkened.

However, just as Huang Taiji angrily stood up, a commotion suddenly broke out outside the tent.

Huang Taiji's face instantly turned ashen. Just as he was about to erupt in anger, a commotion of footsteps suddenly came from outside the tent. Before he could vent his rage, a dusty courier stumbled into the tent.

"Urgent report from Shandong Province and Qingzhou Prefecture!"

"On March 12th, a large number of Ming troops were discovered in the southern part of Yidu, the seat of Qingzhou Prefecture!"

(End of this chapter)