The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 447: Fortress Attack and Defense

At midnight, more than a dozen divine fire crows were launched from the Qi army fortress group. The rockets dragged long tail flames and fell into the opposite artillery position, exploding brilliant sparks and setting several Baoyi tents on fire. The Qing army's red cannons were moved away in advance, and only dozens of Baoyi on duty were killed.

The Qing army symbolically fired a few artillery shells at the opposite side. Because it was a temporary launch and the direction of the artillery fire was not marked in advance, no one knew where the iron balls flew after leaving the barrel.

Perhaps it was because they wanted to hide their strength, but on the first night of the war, neither Qi nor Qing launched a night attack. The Korean commander Li Shunyi asked the Qing emperor for battle several times, requesting that he lead the Korean soldiers to pursue the victory, but was decisively rejected by Du Du.

Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Qianlong were very observant and knew the intentions of these Koreans very well. They thought that their night attack was fake and they were really trying to fish in troubled waters. When the Bordered Blue Banner retreated yesterday evening, the Qi army had left behind food and supplies at Laohutai and had not had time to move them back. Li Shunyi had always been interested in food.

In the second half of the night, the artillery fire from both sides finally stopped, the battlefield returned to tranquility, and tens of thousands of soldiers fell asleep.

~~~~~
Jin Yinghe opened the window of the room in the city wall and rubbed his sleepy eyes. The waning moon slowly sank, and a hint of paleness appeared in the eastern sky.

He walked down from the attic and leaned on the railing of the south gate wall to look into the distance. At some point, a thin layer of mist rose from the fields. From the Zhenghongqi camp of the Qing army opposite, the noisy sounds of the bondservants making fire and cooking came.

"The Tartars are about to attack again."

Jin Yinghe witnessed the entire process of the fall of Laohutai with his own eyes. Although Kang Yingqian had repeatedly ordered the defenders of the city walls to hold the city firmly and not attack without authorization, this Korean general could not help but want to take his archers to fight against the Qing army.

After witnessing the power of the Wuzhenhachao artillery, Jin Yinghe gave up this idea. Jin Nige told Jin Yinghe, Zhao Lujiao, Qi Jin and other generals:

The many independent small forts in the fortress group can force the Qing army to disperse their ranks and prevent the Qing army's infantry and artillery fire reinforcements. The soldiers guarding the small forts will die one by one.

The guards on the city wall belonged to Shenyang's second line of defense. Only when the Qing army, trapped in a fierce battle in the fortress group, showed signs of collapse, could the defenders of the city wall consider attacking, switching from defense to offense, and thus reversing the situation on the battlefield.

Jin Yinghe could not understand this defensive fortress tactic. He felt that with the current field combat capability of the Qi army, they could send their main force to the outskirts of Shenyang, leaving only a small number of troops to guard the city. The main army could then fight the Jiannu in the open field, defeat them in one fell swoop, and decide the outcome in one battle.

The fortress complex designed by Jin Ni Ge, Xu Guangqi and others is actually equivalent to a giant meat grinder. In terms of killing, its efficiency is comparable to the most perfect war machine.

Of course, everything needs to be tested in war.

Jin Yinghe inspected the defenses of the South Gate once more and sent three messengers to inquire about the status of the garrisons at the other gates. At that moment, the deep blasts of conch shells rang out from all directions outside Shenyang City. Then, the muffled thunder of artillery fire suddenly erupted, so dense that the noise was difficult to distinguish.

Before daybreak, the Qing army artillerymen, having finished their breakfast, immediately began bombarding the Qi army fortresses.

The large-caliber 42-pound naval gun tore through the morning light, and the shells hit the spider-web-like fortress trenches with thunderous force, stirring up large amounts of mud. Several breastworks in front of the trenches were penetrated by the shells and collapsed.

Jin Yinghe put down the telescope in his hand, held the battlement with his hand, and felt the city wall under his feet shaking slightly.

The 42-pound cannon began to dissipate heat after two rounds of bombardment, and the remaining red cannons continued to bombard. The shells hit the surface of the Qi army fortress like raindrops, making dull banging sounds. Bricks and rubble continued to fall off the piers. Dust flew where the shells fell, and some low fortresses were almost submerged in ruins.

After half an hour of bombardment, the huge cannons provided by the red-haired barbarians finally stopped firing.

Accompanied by the crackling sound of muskets, two thousand Wu Zhenchao musketeers formed a horizontal line. Amid the roar of the red-haired barbarian instructor, all the Han Eight Banners musketeers pointed the bayonets of their muskets diagonally into the sky and marched in relatively orderly steps towards the distant fortress group.

The weapon Wuzhenhachao wielded was the Type 22 flintlock rifle, a weapon long obsolete by the Qi army. Despite Dudu's desperate urging, the Hetuala craftsmen had managed to replicate it to this level. The Type 22 flintlock rifle's maximum range was slightly inferior to the Type 25 (by twenty steps), but the Qing army possessed superior artillery and manpower, so the outcome of a true infantry clash between the two sides was uncertain.

Five hundred Baoyi Aha, armed with hoes, axes and baskets, rushed to the front of the musketeers and hurriedly cleared obstacles on the battlefield. They had to use these simple tools to remove mines, breastworks and fill trenches.

Two thousand infantrymen of the Zhengbai Banner followed Wuzhenhachao. The Zhenyi of the Zhengbai Banner were all equipped with cold weapons. Each of them held a long spear and a long sword, and more than half of them were equipped with bows and arrows. Their mission was to wait for Wuzhenhachao to break through the outer perimeter of the fortress, take advantage of the chaos to rush into the interior of the defenders, and launch a fatal attack on the defenders in the fortress.

Twelve hundred cavalrymen of the Zhenghong Banner were responsible for covering the Qing army's flanks. These skilled riders were now faced with a serious problem. The horse-holding devices and caltrops deployed by the Qi army on both wings of the fortress group seriously hindered the cavalry's advance. Deer horns and horse traps made it impossible for the cavalry to form a formation. The Qing cavalry had to gather in twos and threes to avoid those deadly obstacles. The originally crescent-shaped attack formation became uneven, as if it had been gnawed by a dog.

boom! boom! boom!
The Baoji Ahas who were wading through the mines in front successfully stepped on the mine cannon and turned into a cloud of blood mist in the thunder-like explosion.

The remaining cannon fodder were so scared that they ran around everywhere. Only after several of them were shot dead by the white-armored soldiers following behind did they gradually regain their senses.

"Fill the trenches, knock down those breastworks, kill all these Nikans, and you can raise the flag!" A burly soldier in white armor shouted at them in stiff Chinese behind the cannon fodder. After that, he pulled the bowstring and shot at a cannon fodder who was screaming and running around.

Wu Zhenhachao slowly approached to about 300 steps of the fortress. The red-haired instructor who was observing nearby immediately blew the whistle, and all the musketeers stopped moving forward and waited quietly for orders.

"Woo! Woo! Woo!"

Suddenly, everyone's attention was drawn to the conch shells that suddenly sounded from both wings.

It turned out that Sahalian, the leader of the Zhenghong Banner, loudly commanded his cavalry to attack the Qi army's fortress.

Sahalian was Daishan's youngest son and also his most beloved son. Perhaps in order to avenge his father, or perhaps to seize the first credit, this fifteen-year-old prince could not contain his enthusiasm and took the lead in launching an attack.

The two British instructors who were directing the Uzhenhachao formation to attack immediately started cursing.

"Asshole, this madman, he'll kill us!"

"Fuck!"

The two English knights were shocked by this unauthorized Eastern action.

There were about 500 Zhenghongqi cavalrymen attacking, and their horses began to accelerate after entering the fortress within 200 steps.

The front coat Aha had cleared the obstacles for his masters, and Sahalian's horsemen made quite smooth progress. They shot light arrows at the Qi army behind the battlements.

The top of the fortress was soon filled with dense arrow feathers. Five hundred armored cavalrymen shot thousands of light arrows, turning the two fortresses in front into hedgehogs.

Sahalian looked at the Qi army's musketeers who kept falling from the pier, with a smug look on his face. He smiled and said to Dorgon, the leader of the Plain White Banner,

"Nikan is vulnerable. Wuzhenhachao has been firing artillery for so long, but they didn't dare to return fire. They are so scared. Dorgon, you want to conserve your strength, but I don't! I'm here to fight! If the emperor had ordered the Zhenghong Banner to fight earlier, the army would have entered Shenyang City by now!"

Dorgon sneered twice and retorted harshly:
"Sahalian, you forced Elli away, and now you want to harm our Zhengbai Banner? The emperor said that in today's battle, we must obey the orders of the red-haired barbarians and not act on our own."

After Dorgon finished speaking, he no longer asked questions about this unruly younger brother. He turned his horse around and went forward to explain to the red-haired instructors what had just happened.

Sahalian looked at Dorgon's attentiveness in front of the red-haired barbarians and became even more angry. He spat and said angrily:

"Slave! Liu Zhaosun is dead, and you're still so scared!"

As soon as the leader of the Zhenghong Banner finished speaking, there was a crackling sound of musketry in front of him, followed by a deafening roar of artillery.

The Qi army's infantry field artillery, which had been silent for more than half an hour, all began to speak at this moment. Dozens of two-pound iron balls swept across the running war horses, tearing the horses and riders running thirty steps away into pieces. The morale of the Zhenghong Banner vests seemed to be cut in half, and a large number of people and horses fell down immediately.

"Retreat quickly! Retreat three hundred steps!"

The surviving riders turned around and ran wildly, not caring about avoiding the densely packed Wuzhenhachao musketeers in front of them, and crashed into them head-on. Immediately, the horses and men were trampled, and countless Wuzhenhachao who were still standing in line to load ammunition were trampled to death or injured.

Teams of Qi army musketeers filed out of the fortress, formed neat rows, and fired at the buttocks of the running horses in front of them.

Under the counterattack of the Qi army's field fortifications, new rifles, bayonets and artillery support, the 500 Qing army cavalry quickly collapsed. The surviving cavalry tried to launch a counterattack, hoping to penetrate the junction of the two forts, where the Qi army seemed more dense.

As expected, these vests were trapped in the fire network and suffered heavy casualties under the joint siege of the two fortresses.

(End of this chapter)