The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 249 Battle of Guangning
On September 15, the third year of Taichang, the Kaiyuan army continued to advance westward, crossed the Liaohe River, and entered the Liaoxi Corridor.

The 350,000 soldiers and civilians were invincible.

On the 19th, the Haizhou defenders killed their main general, surrendered the city gate, and surrendered to the Third Guards Army.

On the 21st, Xiping Fort was captured by the Second Guards Army, and the commander fled to Guangning.

On the 25th, Liu Zhaosun received a report from Wu Ahengtang that Wu had led 12 warships and 2,000 naval forces from Pi Island, Korea to reinforce the battlefield in southern Liaoning.

It is estimated that the fleet will arrive in Lushun in early February and will then cooperate in the battle against Liaozhen.

At Jiudi, another 20,000 soldiers and civilians joined, and nearly 400,000 troops set out from Haizhou and attacked western Liaoning and southern Liaoning in two routes.

The Liaonan direction was led by Yuan Chonghuan, Qiao Yiqi and Wang Erhu, mainly including the Third Guard Army, the Fourth Guard Army and 50,000 foreign Han people, totaling 120,000 troops.

They will move south from Haizhou and Yaozhou, and launch an attack at the same time as the Fifth Army in Kuandian, encroaching on southern Liaoning from the east and west.

The combat order Liu Zhaosun gave them was: make a big fanfare to distract the enemy's attention, attract Zu Dashou to rescue southern Liaoning, and reduce the pressure on the main attack direction.

The east and west sides quickly advanced towards the seaside in a pincer attack, and finally met in Lushun.

Capture Jinzhou and Lushun as quickly as possible, thus cutting off the enemy's retreat in southern Liaoning and preventing Zu's army from escaping to Shandong by boat.

Liu Zhaosun specifically reminded Yuan Chonghuan that Wu Aheng had led his division out of Korea and would soon arrive in Lushun to join them. The Third and Fourth Armies must annihilate the enemy forces in southern Liaoning as soon as possible, then cross the sea by boat and land in Weihaiwei, Shandong.

Therefore, this time Yuan Chonghuan not only had to capture southern Liaoning, but also had to command a landing operation of 10,000 soldiers.

After the three guards landed in Weihaiwei, they had to go to Wendeng as soon as possible to rescue General Anyuan and the Sixth Guards Army - if Jin Yuji was still alive - in addition, several county magistrates and prefects in Dengzhou, as well as Yuan Keli himself, also needed to be protected.

Kang Yingqian judged that the court would soon begin to purge Shandong officials, and those officials who had exchanged interests with the Liao Hou would be retaliated against, especially Yuan Keli, the governor of Denglai.

Yuan Keli would definitely not be able to become the governor. It was possible that this brother would be sent directly to the Zhenfu Prison. Given Emperor Taichang's personality, Yuan Keli would probably have to experience all the restricted packages of the East Factory.

If we ignore these officials, I'm afraid no one will be willing to cooperate with Kaiyuan in the future.

Therefore, people must be saved.

The battle in western Liaoning was commanded personally by Liu Zhaosun.

The Liaoxi Corridor was the main attack direction of the Kaiyuan Army and the main battlefield for both sides.

The Kaiyuan Army deployed its main forces, the First and Second Guard Armies, former members of the Jianzhou Bordered Blue Banner and Plain White Banner, as well as the Mongolian Uriankhai, Doyan and other tribes, and Korean volunteers to western Liaoning, with a total force of more than 250,000.

After capturing Xiping Fort, scouts began to frequently scout towards Guangning. Guangning City sent out Night Troops to fight back, and the two sides engaged in several fierce scouting battles in the Liaoxi Corridor.

However, since the Kaiyuan Cavalry Battalion joined yesterday, Liaozhen's night battle gradually became unsustainable and was forced to retreat to Guangning.

Xiping Fort was one of the most important forts in western Liaoning. After Xiping Fort was captured, the Liao garrisons in the surrounding forts surrendered one after another.

Liu Zhaosun continued to attack westward without stopping and soon approached Guangning.

When Zu Dabi, the general of Guangning, heard that his third brother and his entire family were killed, he was filled with anger.

He had witnessed the bloody battle of Hunhe River by Kaiyuan Army, had a clear understanding of Liu Zhaosun's combat capability, and hated and feared Kaiyuan Army.

Seeing that Liu Zhaosun led hundreds of thousands of troops westward and was about to attack Guangning, in order to prevent him from repeating the fate of his third brother, Zu Dabi spent a large amount of money to urgently strengthen the defense of Guangning city.

Guangning City was first built during the Hongwu period and has rarely been renovated. The most recent renovation was in the 15th year of the Wanli period.

The city walls on all four sides are full of potholes like a pockmarked face, and half of the cannons on the top of the city walls have rotted away.

Zu Dabi saw the power of Kaiyuan artillery and did not dare to be negligent. He immediately sent people to check for gaps and repair leaks around the city walls, repair the battlements of the city walls, and strengthen the city defenses.

Thanks to his efforts, the north and south walls of Guangning were raised to 40 feet high, with a second layer of square bricks paved over the roof, and gradually reinforced with buttresses. With the addition of a moat, the city gradually became impregnable.

Because Shenyang fell too quickly, Zu Dashou did not have much time to carry out construction. He had to mobilize tens of thousands of laborers to work day and night, and often whipped them. For a time, complaints arose in the city.

Zu Dabi didn't care about this at all. In his opinion, there was no need to worry as the peasants would never amount to anything.

In addition, he sent his servants to Ningyuan to ask for help, and asked Zu Dashou to come to reinforce as soon as possible.

He also laid mines and set up camps and artillery at key points near Guangning, such as Huangtuling and Yixiantian. The five red-barbarian cannons shipped from Shanhaiguan had all arrived in Guangning.

Ping Liaohou sent Liu Xingzuo to sneak into Guangning early on to help attack the city as an insider when necessary.

Liu Xingzuo was originally a Han Chinese from Liaodong and was quite familiar with the customs and landscape of Liaodong. This time he would lead his death squad to sneak into Guangning. After the two sides started fighting, Liu Xingzuo and others would set fire to the city. Several guards at the city gates were bribed by Liu Xingzuo. When the opportunity was right, Liu Xingzuo would set off a big fireworks display for the soldiers and civilians of Guangning City.

Zu Dabi and his generals also had serious disagreements on the defense arrangements for Guangning.

Guangning guerrilla Sun Degong, lieutenant general Jiang Chaodong and others suggested concentrating troops in the city and implementing the strategy of fortifying the city and clearing the countryside, so that the Kaiyuan army would not gain any benefits and would naturally retreat.

All troops and defensive equipment outside the city must be withdrawn into the city to prevent them from being used by the Kaiyuan army to attack the city.

In addition, Liaozhen also moved the red cannon to Chengshang, placed it on the four sides of the city wall, and set it up above the main city to bombard the Kaiyuan army from a high position.

However, Zu Dabi thought that the Ming army should use its usual tactics, dividing the troops and setting up camp outside the city to form a corner with the defenders on the city wall, so that the Kaiyuan army would not be easy to capture.

Sun Degong was scolded by the commander-in-chief for being cowardly and afraid of the enemy and was humiliated in public.

Faced with so many dangerous places, Zu Dabi still felt it was not enough and felt that he might not be able to stop the Kaiyuan army.

Unlike his third brother Zu Dale who was violent, Zu Dabi was cautious and hesitant. Until the Kaiyuan army scouts crossed the Sancha River, the decision to defend Guangning was still undecided.

In early October, the army of Ping Liaohou arrived at Dongchang Fort. On the second day, the main force crossed the Sancha River.

The Kaiyuan army was large in number and deployed in the wilderness.

Later generations recorded the situation of Kaiyuan Army in the Battle of Guangning:

"South to the coast, north across the land of Quang Ninh, it flows forward and backward like a stream, with no end in sight, and its flags, swords, and spears form a forest."

On October 15, the Kaiyuan army officially besieged Guangning.

The Second and Third Guards Armies launched a strong attack from the east, south and north gates. Just like in Shenyang, the Mongols, Jurchens and Koreans served as the vanguard.

After the Kaiyuan army's half-hour artillery preparation, the foreign tribes pushed huge shield carts and approached the main city of Guangning wearing armor.

The artillery on the city wall fired slowly and often misfired unexpectedly, which was far inferior to the Kaiyuan Army's new field artillery.

After several rounds of shooting between the two sides, the Liaozhen artillerymen stopped firing first. If they continued like this, all the artillery on the city walls would be destroyed by the Kaiyuan army.

The Liaozhen artillerymen hid behind the battlements of the city wall.

Just when everything was returning to calm, nearly a thousand divine fire swallows slowly rose from the sky and smashed towards the Guangning North Gate Wengcheng like meteors in the dark night...
Just when the Kaiyuan army was attacking with all its might, fires suddenly broke out on all sides of Guangning City, and the gunpowder was ignited by spies.

After a huge explosion, Guangning City fell into chaos. Countless Liao people followed the Zu family army, shouting "Defeated! Defeated!"

Zu Dabi was furious and ordered his servants to go out into the streets and kill those who spread rumors.

Zu Dabi led his servants to the top of Guangning City. The top of the city was covered with a dense layer of corpses. The soldiers burned by rockets let out inhuman howls, which made Zu Dabi feel numb.

"Marshal, look! Sun Degong!"

Following the servant's finger, he saw Sun Degong, a general under Zu Dabi, leading his troops slowly towards the north gate. None of the soldiers had any weapons in their hands.

This is clearly to offer the city.

Zu Dabi hurriedly said to the servant:

"Quick, take me out of the city!"

~~~~
Seeing that defeat was inevitable, guerrilla Sun Degong prepared to capture Zu Dabi alive and present him to Ping Liaohou along with Guangning City.

With the help of Lieutenant General Jiang Chaodong, Zu Dabi rushed out of the door in a panic.

At the end of October, the remnants of Sun Degong's army surrendered to the Kaiyuan army.

From then on, Liu Zhaosun occupied Guangning City and approached Ningyuan at the cost of 600 casualties among foreign tribes.

(End of this chapter)