Desert Eagle Suletan Khan

The battle in the Imperial City of Beijing was in full swing! The guards pushed the cannons to the Tianan, Di'an, Dong'an, and Xi'an gates and fired at the city walls. However, they found that the Imperial City was even stronger than the Inner City. Since the last time the guards attacked the capital, the Qing government had been reinforcing the walls of Beijing. The outer and inner cities were too large, and the treasury could not afford so much money, so they focused on reinforcing the Imperial City and the Palace City. At the critical moment, this measure worked, and no matter how loud the guards' cannons were, none of the four city gates were broken.

"Enemy reinforcements have arrived, and time is running out. Concentrate all artillery fire in front of Xi'an Gate and bombard it day and night. I don't believe that we can't destroy this small imperial city!" Lianhua Khan gave a fierce order. He did not choose the target randomly, but after careful observation, he found that the defense of Xi'an Gate was the weakest.

Upon receiving the military order, the veteran general of the Guard, Tarhun, did not dare to delay and concentrated eighty heavy artillery and more than two hundred small cannons to fiercely bombard Tiananmen Square.

"Boom~Boom~Boom~Boom~" "Boom~Boom~Boom~" After three days of continuous bombardment, a gap was really blasted out.

"Warriors, follow me!" Galdama, the chief of the capital of David, led 4,000 elite soldiers on horseback and rushed towards the gap. Most of his men were from the Oirat Mongols and the Khoshut tribe, and they were all the most precious imperial guards of the Great Khan Lianhua. In order to break the city as soon as possible before the Qing reinforcements arrived, Sultan no longer conserved his strength and began to use his own soldiers.

"Haorui~Haorui~Haorui~" The guards rode their horses and rushed in, but they found that there was a thick fence behind the city wall. To strengthen the defense, under the command of Prince Kang Jieshu and Minister of the Imperial Guard and Minister of State Affairs Sony, the Qing army planted two layers of fences inside the imperial city. The wood used was mostly door panels removed from the houses in the inner and outer cities before retreating. If it weren't for the shortage of wood and the need to keep some for cooking, Sony would have planted another layer. Behind the fence, there were gunners and archers.

"Shoot!" Xi'an Gate garrison commander Ebilun gave the order, and the gunners and archers behind the fence began to shoot. If you look closely, you will find that there are actually many female soldiers among these archers. In order to increase the number of soldiers defending the city, the Qing court summoned 20,000 strong women from the Eight Banners, many of whom were good at shooting.

"Bah~bah~bah~"

"Whoosh~whoosh~whoosh~"

Gunshots and arrows flew everywhere, instantly knocking down all the guards, including their horses.

"Not good! Retreat quickly!" Galdama was young, but he had experienced many battles and was very experienced. The Mongols who grew up on horseback never thought retreating was shameful. In fact, running away when you can't win is a tradition on the grassland. Only by maintaining strength can you better destroy the enemy. Although the guards retreated quickly, they still left behind more than 300 bodies.

"I am incompetent. I did not expect there was a fence behind the city wall. Please punish me, Khan," Galdama knelt in front of the horse of Great Khan Padma and pleaded guilty.

"This is not your fault," Sultan looked at Galdama's heroic face kindly, and suddenly remembered the face of his adopted daughter Princess Shuji. He generously pardoned his "grandson"'s crime, and suddenly gave a fierce order: "Order Zhou Youde's troops to attack the city from the gap." In the heart of the Great Khan, the imperial guards were precious, and the death of one of them was painful; while the surrendered soldiers were just consumables, and it didn't matter how many died. Since the city was dangerous, the surrendered soldiers had to be sent.

After receiving the military order, Shandong Governor Zhou Youde led 5,000 surrendered soldiers to rush towards the gap, and met Sun Ta, the Manchu governor of the Bordered Blue Banner, who was leading his men to push knife carts to block the gap. Sun Ta was also a veteran general, and his 3,000 Bordered Blue Banner Manchus were the elite of the Qing army, and they fought with Zhou Youde. "Dong~Dong~Dong~" Outside the Xi'an Gate, the guards beat the marching drums, allowing them to advance but not retreat.

"Soldiers, follow me to capture the imperial city, and we will be awarded titles for our meritorious service." Tang Shiliang, a guerrilla under Zhou Youde, shouted as he led 500 sharp soldiers to rush towards the Sun Tower, but was shot by the Qing army's musketeers and archers on the city wall. A feather arrow pierced his forehead, ending Tang's dream of meritorious service and being awarded titles.

Although his subordinates suffered heavy losses, Zhou Youde dared not retreat even a single step. The Great Khan’s military law was strict. Who would dare to retreat before the drums of march?

"Kill~ Kill~ Kill~" The Qing infantry commander Tong Huinian led 5,000 green troops to reinforce Xi'an Gate. The morale of the Qing army was greatly boosted after receiving the reinforcements, and they killed Zhou Youde's troops in pieces. Although Governor Zhou did not dare to retreat, he was still forced to retreat step by step.

"Dong~Dong~Dong~" The Great Khan Lianhua finally showed mercy and ordered his men to beat the drums to retreat. Zhou Youde led his men out of the imperial city as if he had been pardoned, and counted the number of people. He found that there were a thousand casualties.

"Long live the emperor~Long live the emperor~" Deafening cheers suddenly rang out from the city wall of Xi'an Gate. It turned out that Prince Zhuang Bogoduo was ordered by Emperor Shunzhi to go to Xi'an Gate to reward the troops. The encouraged defenders couldn't help cheering.

"Hmph!" The Great Khan of Lotus, who was watching the battle outside the gate of Xi'an, snorted coldly with a gloomy face, but he was muttering in his heart that the morale of the defenders was still there. It seemed that it would be difficult to seize the imperial city before the enemy's reinforcements arrived! Indeed, despite the use of elite imperial guards, the 75,000 guards suffered another 7,000 casualties in the siege of more than ten days, including 3,000 imperial guards. How could the Great Khan not feel distressed! "Have Toroshihu and Chen Shikai's troops arrived?" Si Ren suppressed his anger and asked the Minister of War Harahul who was accompanying the expedition. In view of the fact that the guards had already taken Tianjin and the lack of troops to attack Beijing at the same time, he ordered the transfer of 2,500 Mongolian soldiers and 6,000 Han soldiers from Toroshihu, the defender of Tongzhou, and Chen Shikai, the general of Hangzhou, to Beijing; ordered the deputy general of Tianjin Navy Camp Seter, the lieutenant general of Jinzhou Navy Camp Ayuqi, the general of the Korean Han Brigade Pei Sansheng, and Zheng Xianjia to lead troops to garrison Tongzhou; and ordered the general of Tianjin Town Niu Wancai to guard Tianjin.

"Toroshihu sent a messenger saying that he will arrive early this morning," Harahuri replied respectfully.

"Well," Sultan replied with satisfaction. After ordering King Zhao to lead 30,000 men to intercept the Qing reinforcements, the army that could be used to attack the imperial city, including the surrendered army, was only 75,000. Seven thousand were killed or wounded in recent days. With these 8,500 men, his siege force not only did not decrease, but increased by more than a thousand. However, the imperial city was very strong. I wonder how many soldiers would be lost if I wanted to capture it?

"His Royal Highness Prince Zhao's military report: Shijingshan has been lost, and our army has retreated to Lugou Bridge." Just as the Great Khan Lianhua was thinking hard about how to break the city, the news he least wanted to hear came from the rear. Trying hard to suppress his disappointment, he murmured, "Why can't Xiao Wuzi hold on for a few more days?"

"Khan, the military order you gave to His Royal Highness Prince Zhao was to hold on for ten days. His Royal Highness persisted for twelve days and has completed the order. Moreover, he was able to stop 200,000 troops with only 30,000 troops and hold on until now, which is commendable!" Harahuri said something fair.

"Well, I know that Xiao Wuzi has tried his best, but I didn't expect the imperial city to be so strong and the defenders to fight hard. It will take a while to take it down. It seems that we need to change the battle strategy, first repel the enemy reinforcements and then seize Dadu." Sultan sighed and suddenly ordered: "I will lead 40,000 cavalry to Lugou Bridge, and the remaining troops will be handed over to Tarhun to continue to besiege Dadu. Tell Tarhun to bombard the city every day and bluff. Never let the Qing army in the city know that I have left Dadu." (End of this chapter)