Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 244 No chickens or dogs left behind
During the Battle of Lang Son, our army possessed 300 powerful artillery pieces. At an average rate of 12 rounds per minute per piece, they fired 10,000 shells in just three minutes, totaling more than 400 tons of shells, which almost leveled Lang Son to the ground.

This time was even better than that time. Although the firing rate was not as fast as our army, the advantage was that there were enough artillery pieces. In just one minute, nearly 10,000 shells fell into Shenyang.

After the first round of artillery fire, the gunpowder depot inside the city was ignited. The Qing dynasty had a considerable stockpile of gunpowder, which caused an extremely terrifying explosion.

A mushroom cloud rose into the sky, and thick smoke covered the entire city of Shenyang, which spanned more than ten square kilometers.

The drone could see nothing but billowing black smoke.

But drones were no longer needed. The artillery positions readjusted their muzzles and began a carpet bombing of Shenyang. Flames surged up, turning the city into a sea of ​​smoke and fire.

The explosions continued.

Ten minutes later, the seven or eight hundred tons of shells they brought were all poured out.

The reason why the Ming army had seven or eight hundred tons of artillery shells was because their artillery caliber was 75 mm rapid-fire cannons, which was not comparable to the caliber of the Type 66 152 mm howitzers used by our army in the Battle of Lang Son.

The shells alone weighed 40 kilograms, so the total weight of the more than 10,000 shells was over 400 tons.

The Ming army's small-caliber rapid-fire cannons carried shells weighing only six kilograms each, with a capacity of around 100,000 shells. This reflects the rapid industrialization achieved by the Ming Dynasty during the Hongwu reign, thanks to the combined efforts of the entire nation and the support of modern industry.

Even with a small caliber, the shells were still relatively weak. However, in the late Ming Dynasty, this was already a devastating blow, especially considering the carpet bombing and the gunpowder depots within the city, which created an environment comparable to the aftermath of a nuclear explosion.

The smoke of battle never stopped, and no one was seen leaving the city. Inside the city, it was so quiet that the only sounds could be the roar of flames.

A fierce wind howled, a raging fire burned high in the sky, and thick smoke filled the entire sky above Shenyang. The southern city wall almost completely collapsed.

Beneath the ruins, countless mangled corpses lie buried.

"Your Majesty, we've run out of ammunition."

Jiang Huan reported to Zhu Yuanzhang.

Old Zhu looked into the distance.

At this time, Shenyang was in complete ruins.

The city walls collapsed, dust billowed, flames burned, and explosions could be heard from time to time.

Apart from the desolate scene, there seemed to be no living creatures left.

"Ah."

Zhu was very satisfied with this and said, "Have people surround Shenyang. After the smoke and dust clear, enter the city to search and arrest them. I will not allow any Jurchen to leave alive."

"Yes."

Jiang Huan then relayed Zhu Yuanzhang's instructions to Wang Jiayan and others; this task was naturally carried out by soldiers from the Chongzhen era.

The Ming army immediately began to encircle the city from both sides, waiting for the smoke and dust to clear.

The entire city of Shenyang was shrouded in Ming troops and smoke.

And this moment.

About seven or eight miles northeast of Shenyang, on a hillside cliff, Dorgon rode a tall warhorse, staring blankly at the city of Shenyang.

His cloak fluttered and swayed in the wind.

The guards around him were trembling all over, some even wetting their pants.

The scene in the distance was so terrifying that it made them feel horrified.

The vast city of Shenyang vanished right before their eyes, razed to the ground in an instant.

Even from such a distance, you can feel the ground trembling beneath your feet.

Humans are always filled with fear of the unknown.

Such methods have far exceeded their imagination.

In that instant, someone broke down and cried out, "It's the gods! The gods are angry!"

“They, they’re all dead. There were hundreds of thousands of our people in the city, and they’re all dead.”

"Oh God, what's happening? What's happening? Merciful God Oren, why don't you protect us? Why?"

Cries and fear quickly spread among Dorgon's guards, also startling Dorgon, who was still in shock.

He didn't know what was happening in Shenyang, nor did he know how it all came about.

Those short ten minutes felt like a nightmare to him.

It's so unreal.

Dorgon had considered that the Ming army might capture the city very soon.

Even the fact that the Ming army attacked Shenyang immediately upon arrival, and that Jirhalang and Hauge were unable to resist and ultimately failed, did not surprise him at all.

But the fact that the entire city was razed to the ground in such a short time was far beyond their comprehension.

Dorgon had only witnessed the power of automatic rifles, not the power of rapid-fire cannons. Even small-caliber cannons, not the super-large caliber howitzers, were enough to make him remember them for the rest of his life.

"go!"

Once he regained his senses, Dorgon turned his horse around and galloped northwards.

He had actually deployed troops in the north, led by Dodo and his brother Ajige. At that moment, Dorgon was extremely glad that he had assessed the situation carefully.

If he had been pressured by the council of princes to leave all his troops in Shenyang, he would probably be overwhelmed by that terror by now.

After more than an hour, they finally returned to the Two White Flags camp outside the city.

At the initial meeting of the princes, the members granted Dorgon's request to take a large amount of supplies with him and allowed him to send the supplies to the Puhe and Fushun areas in the north.

However, supplies and slaves could be kept away from the battlefield, but the army could not. Therefore, it was hoped that Dorgon and Dodo would set up camp more than ten miles outside the city so that they could provide support to Shenyang at any time.

However, after Dorgon and Dodo fled, they were like fish leaping into the sea, running directly to a place more than 50 miles away, almost reaching Tieling.

At this moment, on the distant plain, the soldiers of the two white banners stood ready, awaiting the orders of Dorgon and Dodo.

From afar, Dodo and Ajige saw Dorgon returning from his observation mission and went to greet him.

In their minds, Dorgon shouldn't have returned so quickly. Could there have been some new changes on the battlefield?
Before they could even ask any questions, they saw Dorgon approaching, looking somewhat lost and absent-minded.

The two were quite puzzled.

Dodo stepped forward and asked, "Brother, what's wrong?"

This place is too far from Shenyang, more than 20 kilometers away as the crow flies. Even if a huge explosion were to occur in Shenyang, they wouldn't be able to hear or see it.

But Dorgon saw it with his own eyes, and his expression turned somewhat grim. He shook his head and said, "We have lost."

"So fast?"

Ajige and Dodo were both terrified.

They had guessed they might be defeated, but they didn't expect it to happen so quickly. According to the scouts, the Ming army should have only just arrived in Shenyang.

"How is Shenyang? Have they breached the city?"

Dodo asked hastily.

Shenyang?

Dorgon's face was slightly pale, and he said with a bitter smile, "Shenyang is gone."

"Ugh."

Ajige and Dodo both believed that the Ming army had already entered Shenyang, and they both sighed deeply.

“We told them before that the Ming army was invincible, but they refused to believe us. Now look what happened.” Ajige spread his hands and complained, “Those muddle-headed bastards in the court can’t accomplish anything great. They didn’t retreat when they should have, and they’ve squandered Father’s legacy.”

Dodo remained relatively calm and said, "Since the Ming people have breached the city, surely some of our people must have escaped. Shouldn't we go and help them?"

"Yes."

Ajige hurriedly said, "Send someone to bring them back immediately."

"No need for backup."

Dorgon shook his head again.

Dodo asked in bewilderment, “Brother, I know you’re worried about the Ming’s strength, but our supplies have already been sent away, and we’re already quite far from Shenyang. We’re moving with light cavalry, so the Ming definitely can’t catch up. Besides, we’re about to migrate north, and the two White Banners are weak and isolated. I don’t know when they’ll be able to grow strong again. If we can gather the remnants of the other six banners, the foundation of our Great Qing will not be damaged, and we will still have a chance to make a comeback in the future.”

"What I mean is, the entire city of Shenyang is gone. No one escaped; they're all probably dead. There's no need for any more help."

Dorgon's bitterness deepened. He spoke sorrowfully.

'The entire city... is it all gone?'

Ajige and Dodo looked horrified and hurriedly asked, "What exactly happened?"

"I don't know either. I only saw the entire city suddenly explode, followed by a loud roar, like an earth dragon turning over, with billowing smoke. After that, the whole city was gone, razed to the ground."

Dorgon said blankly, "When I left, the Ming army had already surrounded the entire city, and I could only vaguely see some ruins left."

"."

Both of them fell silent.

They knew that the Ming army was powerful and ruthless.

But no one knew that it had become so powerful, and even more ferocious.

A city, gone in an instant?
This has far exceeded their understanding, reaching a level they could not even imagine.

'Gods.'

Only a god could do that.

The thought popped into both of their minds at the same time, and immediately a deep sense of fear arose.

"let's go."

Seeing the terrified expressions on their faces, Dorgon sighed and said, "The farther you go, the better. Fortunately, we took a lot of supplies and slaves with us, as well as the two White Banners. There are still some tribes and clans in the north. We will be able to survive in the future."

At that time, the entire Manchu population was only around 300,000, and the total number of male soldiers in the Eight Banners was only 60,000. The soldiers of the Two White Banners numbered just over 10,000, and with their families, a total of only over 80,000 people escaped from Shenyang.

The remaining six banners and the rest of the Manchu population perished in Shenyang, a near-devastating blow to the entire Qing Dynasty.

However, over the years, the Manchus had repeatedly raided and plundered the Central Plains, accumulating a considerable fortune.

In addition to a large amount of supplies, there were also hundreds of thousands of Han Chinese slaves, most of whom he has now taken away.

As long as there are people and supplies, even as the north grows colder, it is not impossible to continue living.

Zhu Yuanzhang will leave sooner or later, and they will return sooner or later.

soon.

Amidst low morale, Dorgon led the remaining Jurchen troops northward.

Meanwhile, in Shenyang...

The bombardment of the city took only about ten minutes, but it took from morning until evening for the aftershocks to subside.

The city's large stockpile of gunpowder was set ablaze, with explosions echoing and billowing black smoke billowing out.

Since the houses were all made of wood at the time, after the shockwave from the bombardment subsided, a large amount of splintered wood caught fire, setting the surrounding houses ablaze.

The city was engulfed in flames, turning it into a living hell.

The Ming army surrounded them, and even from a distance, one could smell the burning flesh and the thick smell of gunpowder.

When the Ming army attacked, all the city gates of Shenyang were closed and locked by the guards inside with huge bolts, turning the huge city into a closed environment.

Under the bombardment, most of the people in the city did not survive.

They would either perish under carpet bombing, die in a raging inferno, or suffocate in the swirling smoke.

The surrounding Ming soldiers could not see anyone running out of the other city gates, but they did see black spots, covered in flames, falling to the ground like raindrops from the other city walls.

However, according to the "Shengjing Tongzhi", after Huang Taiji succeeded to the throne, he carried out a large-scale renovation of Shenyang. The city wall of Shenyang after the renovation was 35 feet high.

At a height of nearly twelve meters, even if one doesn't fall to their death, they would essentially lose the ability to escape.

However, the Ming army did not approach.

The fire was still burning, and unless there was a heavy rain, it would be impossible to enter the city anytime soon.

By evening, after more than four hours of hellish chaos in the city, the flames were still burning, but they were no longer as exaggerated as they had been during the day, and the smoke and dust had lessened considerably.

Old Zhu observed through the drone that many places in the city had been reduced to ashes. Although smoke continued to rise, obscuring the drone's view, many areas could still be seen.

Amidst the swirling smoke, one could vaguely see some survivors among the ruins, crying out and howling in a scene of utter devastation.

But most of them were mangled corpses.

Corpses were everywhere—on the cobblestone streets, in the burned-out houses, and beneath the collapsed city walls.

There were charred remains, broken arms and legs, a lower body missing half of the torso, and some shattered intestines, internal organs, skull and other body tissues.

There was hardly any blood to be seen, because the blood that flowed out was quickly evaporated by the flames or buried by the dark gray.

A large amount of gray debris filled the air, floating in the air and dissipating with the smoke and dust.

The biting north wind howled, swallowing them all up in the dust.

"We can go into the city now."

Seeing that most of the flames near the city gates had dwindled to almost nothing, with only embers remaining, Zhu said to Jiang Huan, "Go and relay the order. Do you remember what I said before?"

"I remember."

Jiang Huan bowed in acceptance and then rode away.

The army during the Chongzhen reign was not equipped with walkie-talkies, so orders were still transmitted in the old way.

Not far away, Wang Jiayan, the Governor-General of Jiliao, Yu Anxing, the Governor of Shanhaiguan, Zhu Guodong, the Military Commissioner of Shanhaiguan, Zhou Yuji, the General of Shanxi, and others were leading their troops.

He rode up to Wang Jiayan and the others and said to them, "His Majesty has given an order!"

Everyone hurriedly bowed and greeted him.

Jiang Huan grinned, revealing a mouthful of menacing white teeth, and continued, "Enter the city! Leave no one alive!"

"Yes!"

The crowd responded enthusiastically.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"

A mournful bugle call sounded.

The sound of drums continued incessantly.

Ming troops enter the city!

(End of this chapter)