serious man in the red chamber

Chapter 4 The Battle of Ningyuan
Shoushan is located five miles east of Ningyuan City, backed by the sea, and facing Luofeng Mountain on the northwest side. There is only a passage of more than [-] meters in the middle. The natural barrier of the city.

Although the mountain is not high, it is very dangerous. If you want to defend the city, you must kill the mountain.

There is a beacon tower built on the top of the peak, but unfortunately it has been abandoned.

Since the Zhou army formally declared war on the second day of September, the vanguard army has broken through more than ten Manchu Qing forts, including Xianlingsi Fort and Tuanshan Fort, and annihilated the reinforcements of the Tartars in Xingshui County Fort. There are 710 heads, [-] stones of grain and rice, and more than [-] horses.

Li Chengyang, the commander-in-chief of Shanhaiguan, led an army of 100 to attack Ningyuan City. This place is so important. It happens to be in the middle of the entire Liaoxi Corridor. It is two hundred miles away from Shanhaiguan, and Jinzhou is more than [-] miles ahead, and Guangning is further ahead. , the northeast of Guangning is Shengjing, the capital of Manchu Qing.

If you win this city, you can overwhelm Jinzhou City in the front, and guard Shanhaiguan in the back, further consolidating the capital.

The Manchus garrisoned [-] heavy troops here for defense, consisting of [-] Manchu armored soldiers and [-] Mongolian and Han green battalion soldiers. Although the Zhou army was superior in numbers, it was very difficult to attack the city. The two sides fought for several days without success. Attack the top of the city.

A battle had just ended, and the Manchus once again thwarted Zhou Jun's plan to capture Ningyuan City.

The setting sun was like blood, and the attacking Zhou army retreated like a tide, leaving thousands of corpses on the ground. There were puddles of dazzling blood everywhere, blazing siege vehicles and ladders.

The camp of the Zhou army was set up next to the fort in Xingshui County, covering an area of ​​several tens of miles. Li Chengyang ruled the army extremely strictly. Two watchtowers are distributed around the camp, defended like iron barrels.

On an archery tower, Li Chengyang stared blankly at Ningyuan City in the distance. Today is September [-]th. Although Zhou Jun has not climbed the city wall yet, he is confident that he can take Ningyuan City and fight against it. To win this battle, according to the plan, the eleven general cannons that should have been brought in yesterday had just been transported into the camp. He planned to bombard Ningyuan City at five o'clock tomorrow and break through the city in one fell swoop.

For this battle, Li Chengyang gambled everything. He attached great importance to these general guns, and personally brought his own soldiers to inspect them. A battalion of soldiers guarded, and told the guarding officer: "You must be careful tonight, no matter who you are, without the commander's warrant, as long as you approach here, you will be killed!"

"promise!"

Li Chengyang nodded, turned around and continued to inspect. Just after walking a few steps, he saw Cao Yi, the former guard general, hurried over, "Marshal."

"what's up?"

"Jia Hu sent someone to report that they still need five hundred catties of gunpowder."

Li Chengyang frowned, "What is he going to do?!"

Cao Yi: "He wants to blow up the top of Shoushan Mountain when the Manchu reinforcements pass by the mountain road."

Li Chengyang took a breath: "Is he sure?"

Cao Yi thought for a moment and said, "Seven days have passed, and the Tartars from Jinzhou will definitely arrive tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. As long as he can stop it for a day."

Li Chengyang nodded: "Okay! Send it to him immediately."

Under the watchful eyes of hundreds of Zhou troops, two soldiers placed a huge firecracker in a rock crack on the top of the first mountain, and fixed the fuze on a wooden board according to Jia Hu's instructions. Everything was ready and stood Jia Hu, who was a hundred steps away, slowly pulled the bow away. Once the string was loosened, the rocket was precisely nailed to the wooden board. The arrow fire ignited the fuse. Jia Hu hugged his head and hid in the trench dug in advance. There was an earth-shattering explosion, and the whole mountain seemed to shake. Dense stones flew over the sky and covered the sky, crackling and hitting the surrounding trees. The huge impact force of the explosion broke the cliff into huge cracks.

With these cracks, those specially made artillery battles are enough to blow up the cliffs. The rubble produced by the explosion can not only cause huge damage to the Tartars, but also delay their reinforcements to Ningyuan City.

These big firecrackers use paper to wrap the gunpowder layer by layer. A certain amount of black gunpowder is added to each layer to ensure that it has a great impact. Wrapped up.

Soon, the specially made five huge firecrackers were carefully placed in the cracks of the cliff, leaving a team of soldiers to guard, and Jia Hu led Zhou Jun to the mountainside.

In the battle of Xingshui County Fort, Jia Hu led his soldiers to capture the fortress and withstood the attack of the Tartar reinforcements from Ningyuan City. Therefore, he was promoted to the commander-in-chief. He ordered himself to replace the guerrilla general Wang Zhenbang to defend Shoushan, and gathered 3000 people for himself. A new military order came in the afternoon to intercept the Tartar reinforcements from Jinzhou for one day. Tied for the first time.

Jia Hu's heart was moved. This meant that he could be conferred a title. Even a third-class viscount would make Jia Zhen wary of using the military connections of the Ningguo Mansion to suppress him.

Hundreds of soldiers were busy halfway up the mountain. They used felled trees to build simple trebuchets. After testing, the Thunderbolt could throw [-] or [-] steps, and the gunpowder bag with crushed stones was about [-] steps. This distance covers almost the entire trail.

Jia Hu walked up to General Manager Yang Dayong and asked, "How is it?"

Yang Dayong hurriedly got up and saluted, and replied: "Mr. Qian, in half an hour, 150 dynamite packets can be completed, which is definitely enough for a dog to drink a pot."

Jia Hu nodded, "Not only must the speed be fast, but the quality must also be guaranteed. Also, the mountains are highly humid, so be sure to pay attention to the dampness of the gunpowder."

"Absolutely no problem!"

"Okay. Take a good rest tonight, maybe there will be a fierce battle tomorrow." After speaking, Jia Hu got into the tent.

While Jia Hu's army was preparing for the big battle, an army composed of [-] Manchu armor soldiers and [-] Mongolian and Han green battalions marched forward. In the middle of the team, four white horses pulled a An apricot-yellow carriage surrounded by a guard of fifty white armored soldiers.

Inside the carriage, a young man was sitting upright with his eyes closed, his body shaking slightly as the wheels rolled.

I saw him wearing a white fox cloak, a golden ribbon around his waist, a golden melon cap with rubies on his head, and a pair of golden leather boots on his feet. This man was the emperor of the Qing Dynasty Qianlong's fifth son Aixinjueluo.Yongqi, who has learned horse and archery since he was a child, is very skilled in martial arts, erudite and talented, and is loved by the fourth grader. In March, he was canonized as the king of Heshuo County. In June, he married the granddaughter of Ertai, the late important minister of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. , in the eyes of the Manchu officials, he is the prince, the future emperor.

Ningyuan City was very important to the Qing Dynasty. It was the bridgehead for attacking Shanhaiguan, and it was also a barrier for Jinzhou, Guangning and other places. The Qing also lost its pressure on the capital of the Great Zhou, and the Great Zhou could deploy more troops to fight in the Hetao area.

August 22 is the 15th anniversary of Yongzheng's death. Yongqi returned to Shengjing to pay homage on behalf of Qianlong. Three days ago, he came to Guangning to inspect military affairs. The news that Ningyuan City was besieged by the Zhou army made him unable to sit still. Come to the front line to supervise the battle in person.

It was already dawn, but it was gray.

The drums roared, and the muffled blast of horns rang through the sky.

Less than four miles below the city of Ningyuan, the Zhou army has built a mountain with earth and rocks, and set up artillery on the mountain.

On the open space in front of the camp, there were densely packed Zhou troops, arranged in several huge formations.

On the high platform, Li Chengyang sat on the commander's seat, and picked up his clairvoyance to observe the defense situation on the city wall. It can be seen that the Tartars are well prepared and have a lot of defensive equipment. Today will be another bloody battle.

Li Chengyang put down his clairvoyance, and ordered loudly: "Order the gunners to fire and smash Ningyuan City to me. In addition, let the army prepare to attack the city."

"promise."

"boom!"

The eleven general cannons on the earth mountain let out a roar, and the shells whizzed away one after another, hitting the wall of Ningyuan City, and bricks and stones flew across.

On the first mountain, Jia Hu listened to the thundering drums and artillery, and slowly revealed a smile on his face. In the former Ming Dynasty, Yuan Chonghuan built the city with bluestone strips and a layer of blue bricks, which was very strong. However, after several battles, The city wall was severely damaged. The Manchus used rammed earth to build the city, and wrapped it with a layer of green bricks. Such a city wall could withstand siege engines, but it could not stop the continuous attacks of artillery.

Tomorrow at the latest, the walls of Ningyuan City will be blasted open.

At this moment, someone suddenly shouted: "Wolf smoke!"

Jia Hu followed the prestige, and saw a puff of smoke rising straight into the sky at the end of the first mountain. It was a beacon tower five miles away, and everyone's hearts tightened suddenly!
Tartar reinforcements are coming!
(End of this chapter)