The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 97 Fatal Bombardment
Shenyang, north bank of Hunhe River.

Nurhaci sat under a 16-foot-long golden dragon banner, wearing iron unpainted armor with cloth ear and neck guards, which was a typical style of armor for the Ming Dynasty border army.

Nurhaci looked at the shimmering river surface. The river breeze blew through his gray hair and beard, revealing his axe-cut and resolute face underneath.

In late autumn, the Hunhe River is full of plump fish and the rice paddies in the distance are undulating, creating a pastoral scene.

However, just a hundred steps away from both sides of the Hun River, arrows were raining down, iron hooves were clattering, blood was flowing like a river, and shouts of killing were constant, as if it were the Shura Hell.

The bloody battle of Hunhe, which determined the fate of millions of Liao people, entered its most brutal and bloody stage.

Suddenly, two Goshas rushed to the Khan and covered him tightly with long shields.

The atmosphere around suddenly became tense. The white-armored soldiers who were running to deliver the message in the distance saw this scene and also whipped their whips and rushed over here.

Two light arrows whizzed past the golden dragon banner and shot into the crystal clear Hun River.

I don’t know which reckless archer shot the arrow over here.

An unlucky koi fish was shot by an archer, dragging the long arrow feathers and struggling and tumbling on the water surface.

"The city gate is on fire, which affects the fish in the pond."

Nurhaci looked at the koi struggling in the water and blurted out.

The Khan of the Later Jin Dynasty just turned sixty this year, which is what the Han people call the age of sixty.

Over the years, Nurhaci was busy with military affairs, but he always insisted on studying the laws and regulations of the Ming Dynasty, constantly improving his cultural literacy, and was quite respectful to several Han ministers around him.

When he came across an allusion he didn't understand while reading, he would humbly ask Han Chen for advice.

Yesterday, the Khan learned from Fan Wencheng that "a fire in the city gate affects all fish in the pond," and he applied it here today.

In fact, he really wanted to tell this story in front of the burning Shenyang city gate.

Unfortunately, the city gates were captured by the army before they caught fire.

There were no dead fish in the moat in front of the city gate.

In the moats of Shenyang's gates, there were only the rotting bodies of Ming soldiers killed by the warriors. Among them were white-pole soldiers, Zhejiang soldiers, Liao soldiers, and standard soldiers.

With Ding Bi's perfect cooperation, the Zhenghong Banner and the Yinbai Banner rushed into Shenyang City at lightning speed. Xiong Tingbi's standard-bearing battalion was wiped out, and Xiong Jinglue was also captured by the Later Jin.

Nurhaci felt quite proud when he thought that this was the highest-ranking official he had captured from the Ming Dynasty since he started his rebellion.

However, Mao Wenlong and the Zhejiang soldiers were still resisting.

And this white-pole soldier in front of me,
After some thought, Nurhaci decided to deal with the White Spear Soldiers first, and then concentrate his forces to deal with the Zhejiang Soldiers.

"Li Efu went to the north gate to recruit the gunners, why hasn't he returned yet?"

Nurhaci withdrew his gaze from the Hun River and re-examined the battlefield in front of him.

His most trusted Han minister, Fushun Prince Consort Li Yongfang, volunteered to go to the north gate to persuade the enemy to surrender, hoping to bribe the Ming artillerymen with a large sum of money to help the army break the white-pole shield formation.

Li Yongfang has been gone for more than half an hour and has not returned yet.

A thin-faced Han official nearby heard the Khan's question and quickly said:
"Master, the gunners at the city gate are all Xiong Tingbi's men. I'm afraid Li Efu won't be able to persuade them, just like when he tried to persuade the White Spear Soldiers and the Zhejiang Soldiers last time, and ended up injuring many servants."

Three days ago, Nurhaci sent Li Yongfang to recruit the generals of Sichuan and Zhejiang to surrender. The Later Jin Khan had high hopes for this, hoping to occupy Shenyang without bloodshed.

Qi Jin, Qin Bangping and others refused to surrender. Not only did they not surrender to the Jin Dynasty, they also cut off the ears of several high-ranking bannermen sent by Li Yongfang.

When two countries are at war, they do not kill envoys, but it does not say that cutting off ears is not allowed.

After the blood-stained envoy returned to the Later Jin camp, Nurhaci was furious and immediately ordered an attack on the Zhejiang troops.

Since Huang Taiji and Jirgalang went to Kaiyuan to encircle and annihilate Liu Zhaosun, the remaining six flags were divided into two parts to attack the Zhejiang soldiers and the White Spear soldiers respectively.

Among them, the Bordered Red Banner and the Plain Red Banner led by Daishan, and the Bordered White Banner led by Dudu attacked the Zhejiang troops;

Nurhaci personally led the Bordered Yellow Banner and the Plain Yellow Banner to besiege the White Spear Soldiers.

Manggurtai's Zhenglan Banner was used as a reserve.

The Mongolian Khorchin tribe and the Haixi Yehe tribe were on guard outside Shenyang.

The Khorchin and Yehe tribes have low combat effectiveness and have recently surrendered. They can fight in a favorable battle, but if they are sent to attack the White Spear Shield Formation, with thousands of casualties, they will probably mutiny immediately.

Hearing Tong Yangxing's insinuation and slander against Li Yongfang, Nurhaci was somewhat displeased and glanced at the servant:
"Have all the Bayala in the shield formation withdrawn?"

Tong Yangxing already knew the answer, but he still tiptoed over there to look, and then said to Nurhaci:

"Reporting to the Khan, they have all withdrawn. There are still a dozen white-armored soldiers and the Yellow Banner archers are still providing cover. They should be able to break out."

Nurhaci nodded. Two hours ago, more than 200 Bayara soldiers of the Bordered Yellow Banner rushed into the shield formation of the White Spear Soldiers. After a fierce slashing and killing, they were surrounded by the enemy. The White Spear Soldiers used large iron rings to hammer open the Bayara heavy shields and killed them one by one.

Nurhaci's expression remained unchanged. The lives of more than a dozen people were not his concern. He could only let these Bayara fend for themselves.

We must organize the next round of offensive as soon as possible and not give the White Spear Soldiers any chance to breathe.

"The Sichuan soldiers were almost exhausted. The rattan shield weighed three or four pounds. They couldn't bear to hold it for two days."

"Tell Manggurtai to have the Zhenglan Banner prepare to charge. This time we will definitely break through the Baigan Army camp."

Goshiha took the order and left. Nurha looked gloomily at the white-pole soldiers' shield formation two hundred steps away.

Two days ago, the 4,000 White Spear Soldiers who retreated to the north bank of the Hun River temporarily built a horse fence defense line.

They surrounded the horses in a large circle, blocked the outside of the circle with ox carts, and buried a large number of caltrops between the horses and the fence.

With powerful enemies in front and pursuers behind, the White Spear Soldiers only took half an hour to build these simple fortifications. Their efficiency was so high that the Later Jin Army was quite surprised.

It was such a crude position, coupled with the short arrows and long spears of the white-spear soldiers, that actually withstood the attacks of 30,000 Jiannu twice, killing and wounding more than 2,000 Zhenyi armored soldiers, and countless Baoyi soldiers were killed and wounded.

Nurhaci led a large army to attack Shenyang, carrying only a small number of Grand General cannons, which weighed two to three thousand kilograms and were extremely difficult to transport. He did have a large number of French cannons, but after the battle began, they were used to attack the city gates. Nurhaci and Daishan believed that such weapons were more necessary for sieges than for field battles.

As a result, from the three days since the battle until now, the East Gate has not been captured, and the artillery ammunition has been used up. That is why Li Yongfang was ordered to go to the North Gate to recruit the Ming artillerymen to fire at the shield formation.

In the shield formation, the last twelve Bayala were surrounded by angry white-pole soldiers.

The blood-thirsty white-pole soldiers were like angry hungry wolves. Seeing that this group of Bayara had been abandoned by the Later Jin soldiers, some brave chieftain soldiers simply dropped their white spears and rushed towards them, waving their heavy swords.

Bayala held a round shield in one hand and chopped and killed fiercely with a mace, a club, a heavy sword, and a long axe with the other hand, desperately charging into the shield formation of the white-pole soldiers.

These Jurchen hunters were skilled in tactics. They smashed their axes and clubs against the swarming White-Pole Soldiers, chopping and smashing five or six of them who had abandoned their spears and charged forward. The front row of enthusiastic White-Pole Soldiers retreated slightly, and the spearmen behind them took over. Rows of sharp and ferocious spear points stabbed at them, forcing Bayala to retreat, raising his round shield to try to block the aggressive White-Pole Spears.

Behind Bayala was the shield line of white-pole soldiers. These most elite warriors of the Bordered Yellow Banner were so excited about killing that they were completely unaware of the danger behind them. They took a few steps back and bumped into the shield line behind them.

More dense rows of long spears came out from behind. Bayala was attacked from both sides and had no time to withdraw the shield in front of him. His waist and back were pierced by the sharp spear tips. The sharp spear tips carried the brute force of the chieftain soldiers and fiercely penetrated into Bayala's waist and back.

The spear tip hit the fine chain mail, and the silver-white armor plates made an unsettling metallic friction sound.

The white-pole soldiers behind the shield formation straightened their backs and exerted force suddenly. The white-pole spears in their hands were like dragons emerging from water, piercing through the Bayara armor and piercing into the backs of these barbarians.

The white-pole soldiers in front of the shield formation rushed forward at the same time, kicked over the round shields in the hands of the enemies, and slashed at Bayala's neck with their heavy swords. The armor on Bayala's neck was easily broken by the heavy swords, and heads flew high into the air.

The scene of Yala being beheaded was seen by the Yehe cavalry who were cruising outside the shield formation, and they were all terrified.

Suddenly, a gap appeared in the shield formation of the chariot camp. Some white-pole soldiers wearing heavy armor, under the dense rain of arrows, threw the enemy corpses to the side of the chariot camp and built a half-person-high breastwork with the corpses of the Jiannu.

As the last twelve Bayara were all killed by the White Spear Soldiers, more than 500 warriors' bodies were added to the banks of the Hunhe River. The fried noodles and drinking water they carried were looted by the Sichuan soldiers, marking the failure of the all-out attack of more than 6,000 people of the Bordered Yellow Banner.

Nurhaci's face was gloomy. This was the first fierce battle he had fought since he started his army. It was even more dangerous than the decisive battle between him and Buyanggu's father against the nine tribes.

The main weapons used by the Later Jin soldiers to deal with the Ming army were bows and arrows and long swords. Facts have proved that these cold weapons were not very effective when facing the white-pole soldiers who were defending in formation.

When the Eight Banners Army besieged Shenyang, they actually brought a lot of firearms.

In addition to the Dajiangjun cannon and the French machine, the Later Jin was also equipped with fire guns, three-barreled guns, mine cannons, etc.

Most of these firearms were captured from the Battle of Sarhu and were originally used by the Ming army under the command of Du Song and Ma Lin.

Due to Liu Zhaosun's intervention, it took only seven months from the end of the Battle of Sarhu to the outbreak of the Battle of Shenyang.

During these seven months, Nurhaci was full of martial virtue and led the Later Jin army to fight east and west, sometimes attacking Yehe, sometimes opening up the Yuan Dynasty, sometimes allying with Mongolia, and sometimes threatening Liaozhen. He had no energy or time to engage in independent firearms research and development.

Coupled with the newly gained confidence of the Later Jin soldiers in the Ming army, they felt that they could easily capture Shenyang and destroy Liu Zhaosun without firearms.

Due to the combination of multiple factors, most of the firearms carried by the Later Jin soldiers during the attack on Shenyang were actually dangerous goods.

The artillery was better. The muskets they seized from the Ming army were of extremely poor quality and were more efficient in killing their own people than killing the enemy on the battlefield.

Out of ten muskets, two would often explode and one would misfire.

However, the quality of gunpowder produced by the Later Jin Dynasty was extremely good. Whenever it exploded, the power would be enough to take the lives of one or two musketeers every time.

These weapons were not equipped to the bannermen, let alone the most fearless Zhenyi armored soldiers. They did not even dare to use them.

Although the Later Jin soldiers had the advantage in manpower, in close combat, their heavy swords and long spears were no match for the Baigan soldiers. Nurhaci also did not want to exchange the precious lives of the Zhenyi armored soldiers for those of the Tusi soldiers.

In this case, they could only use bows and arrows. Since most of the bannermen Aha could not shoot arrows, they could only rely on the real Yi armored soldiers to attack the white-spear soldiers.

Of course, during the two-day battle, the most important role played by the Baoyi Aha of the Bordered Yellow Banner was that they used their flesh and blood to consume all the poison arrows of the chieftain's soldiers, allowing their masters to stand twenty steps away from the chariot camp and shoot those white-pole soldiers who dared to show their heads with heavy arrows.

After the white-spear soldiers had finished shooting their poisonous arrows, they no longer showed their heads easily, but hid in the shield formation behind the chariot camp.

The Later Jin had an absolute advantage, but they wanted to win the battle quickly. The White Spear Soldiers were in despair, but they became more calm and unhurried.

Nurhaci certainly thought about a long-term siege, but at present Kaiyuan and Tieling were occupied by Liu Zhaosun, especially Tieling, which was only a hundred miles away from Shenyang. Although Liu Zhaosun had now gone to Hetuala, the meticulous Later Jin Khan was still vaguely worried.

Nurhaci had not received the military intelligence sent to Shenyang by Huang Taiji and Jirgalang for a whole day, which further exacerbated his anxiety.

It should be noted that in every major battle, the Tangma of each Later Jin tribe had to report the battle situation on the front line to the Khan every hour.

This was the case in Fushun and also in Sarhu. This is one of the reasons why the Later Jin Dynasty had effective intelligence and was invincible.

Nurhaci withdrew his gaze from the white-armored soldiers and shields and turned to look at the north gate of Shenyang. The north gate was quiet, with only corpses scattered all over the ground. He was a little surprised.

"Go call the Fourth Prince over. Why hasn't he organized the Zhenglan Banner to attack yet?!"

A personal guard, Goshiha, said quickly:
"Great Khan, the Fourth Prince has gone to the north gate."

Nurhaci was slightly stunned. With a powerful enemy at the door, why did the leader of the Zhenglan Banner run to the city wall instead of organizing his soldiers to charge?

The city wall has been captured, it is enough for Li Yongfang to persuade them to surrender, why should Manggurtai join in the fun?
This Goshiha beside the Great Jin Khan was usually quite close to Huang Taiji. He knew that this was an opportunity and quickly added:
"Master Manggurtai said that the Zhenglan Banner had just attacked the Wengcheng and suffered heavy casualties. He couldn't let the warriors of the banner be lost in vain, so he led the white-armored soldiers to the Wengcheng to supervise the Nanman artillerymen to fire their cannons and break the white-armored soldiers' shield formation before attacking again."

After hearing this, Nurhaci frowned slightly and said angrily:

"Five to six thousand men from the Zhenghong Banner and Zhenglan Banner attacked from both inside and outside, assaulting a city wall guarded by a thousand men, and they claim they suffered heavy casualties!"

"Li Yongfang is enough to bombard the shield formation. Let him come back and immediately organize the Zhenglan Banner to attack the formation!"

A barely perceptible smile appeared on the corner of Goshiha's mouth, and he knelt down quickly and said:
"twitter!"

Goshiha called his companions, jumped on his horse, and galloped towards the north gate.

After watching Geshiha climb up the north gate, Nurhaci stood up, looked ahead, and said to Tong Yangxing who was standing next to him:

"Go and gather the Yehe cavalry and have them continue shooting arrows."

Tong Yangxing was stunned for a moment and whispered:
"Great Khan, the Yehe people are not very eager to fight..."

Before Tong Yangxing could finish, he was interrupted by the Khan of the Great Jin Dynasty:
"We didn't send them to Shenyang just to watch the fun. The troops of each flag are currently under strain, so it's time for them to join the fight. We'll just shoot arrows and won't let them charge into the battle line. What's the problem? Go!"

Tong Yangxing turned around and was about to leave, but for some reason he felt a little uneasy. His left eyelid was twitching and he felt like something was going to happen.

Tong Yangxing, a traitor as famous as Li Yongfang, was originally born into a wealthy merchant family in Liaodong. He lived a very comfortable life and his family wealth was comparable to that of the richest man Ding Bi.

After meeting his basic material needs, this Liaodong businessman began his spiritual pursuits:
Surrendered to the Later Jin and massacred the Liao people.

In the 42nd year of the Wanli reign, Tong Yangxing was imprisoned because his collusion with the Qing army was exposed.

The then Liaodong Governor, Guo Guangfu, had a sudden inspiration: since Tong Yangxing could provide intelligence to the Jiannu, he could also be used by the Liaodong government. So, using threats and inducements, he sent Tong Yangxing to the Later Jin as a spy. Upon entering the Later Jin, Tong Yangxing immediately surrendered to the Jiannu and began slaughtering the Liao people without stopping.

In the original history, in the fifth year of Tiancong (1631), Tong Yangxing was appointed by Huang Taiji as the commander-in-chief of the Han army (Wuzhenchao Hagushan Ezhen), which was a high position for a minister. He also supervised the casting of red cannons and formed the first artillery unit of the Qing Dynasty.

This artillery later made great contributions to the Qing Dynasty's conquest of the country, such as the famous Tongguan bombardment of Li Zicheng's army and the blasting of the Yangzhou city wall, which were their masterpieces.

Of course, due to Liu Zhaosun's intervention, Huang Taiji is now dying and it is unknown how long he can hold on. The fate of Tong Yangxing, the commander-in-chief of the Qing artillery, will also undergo profound changes.

Of course, there are more important changes coming.

Tong Yangxing jumped on his horse and headed north to inform the Yehe cavalry who were not working hard. He accidentally looked up at the north of the city and saw a black dot passing through the white-pole soldiers' formation and rushing towards the woven gold dragon flag where the Khan of the Later Jin Dynasty was.

"Khan! Khan! Get out of the way!"

(End of this chapter)