Back to the end of the Ming Dynasty when the emperor

Chapter 424 Selecting Baoding Mansion

Baoding Mansion is the southern gate of the Qing court's capital, so there are heavy soldiers hoarded here, the city is high and the pool is deep, and there are several general cannons on the top of the city, and the defense is very strict.

After Dorgon lost the Zhending Mansion, he felt that the situation was even more serious. Zhu Yousong's men and horses were in dire straits, which meant that Baoding Mansion would not be able to last for a long time.

Therefore, the two princes did not dare to stay longer in Baoding Mansion. Together with the original defenders of Baoding Mansion, a total of [-] elite soldiers were left to Sony to guard Baoding. He and Prince Zheng Jierhalang returned to the capital with more than [-] troops. went.

It's urgent!He had to discuss with Dai Shan and other ministers of civil and military affairs in the court how to resist Zhu Yousong, how to call in teachers from all over the country to defend Beijing, and so on.

As soon as Dorgon left, Zhu Yousong's men drove to the outside of Baoding City, and found a suitable terrain ten miles away from the city to set up camp. Then Zhu Yousong took two beauties and the imperial guards to inspect the military situation in Baoding Mansion. .

After a lap, Zhu Yousong felt that this was a city stronger than Daming Mansion, and the Tartars were defending behind closed doors without fighting, and the only way to quickly take Baoding Mansion was by force.

But a strong attack is not a hard attack, and some strategies must be paid attention to.

Otherwise, if it is far away, the Qing army on the city will bombard it, and if it is close, it will serve it with bows and arrows and rolling wood and stones. Even if it can take Baoding Mansion, it will cost a lot of casualties.
After discussing with the generals, Zhu Yousong felt that it was time to use the engineering battalion.

Engineers are an important branch of the imperial battalion. Like the cavalry battalion, artillery battalion, and horse infantry battalion, they are an important part of the new army of the imperial battalion.

At the beginning, Zhu Yousong asked Liu Zhaoji to be in charge of training the imperial camp. Although there were not many troops, only 5000, they had a complete range of troops. According to Zhu Yousong's preliminary design, this army should be able to carry out field battles after training.

Now the iron cavalry of the imperial battalion has become an ace division through experience, and the artillery battalion in the imperial battalion has performed relatively well. So far, the engineering battalion (including the demolition soldiers) has only made a head start once, and that was when they captured the fortified city of Jiujiang. At that time, Jiujiang City was surrounded by water on three sides, which was easy to defend but difficult to attack. The engineering soldiers and the artillery battalion cooperated to send the city gate to the sky in one fell swoop.

That beautiful battle not only won Jiujiang City, but also killed the two great Berenikan and Boluo of the Qing court. That battle made Zhu Yousong more confident in fighting against the Tartars, although it has been almost two years , Zhu Yousong is still fresh in his memory.

Since the Battle of Jiujiang, the 600-man engineer battalion seems to have been forgotten by Zhu Yousong.

Their usual task is to set up camp, dig trenches, and arrange defenses for Zhu Yousong's imperial camp.

According to Zhu Yousong's will, now Liu Zhaoji has found the leader of the engineering battalion, and Li Zhushi, the commander of the artillery battalion, is sitting there. First achievement.

The leader of the 600-person engineer battalion is a thousand general position.

The surname of Qianhu in the engineering battalion was Ma. After hearing this, Ma Qianhu saluted Liu Zhaoji, saying that he would resolutely complete the task and live up to His Majesty's entrustment.

After two days, everything was ready.A relatively hidden area four or five miles away from Baoding Mansion is Li Zhushi's artillery barracks. Hundreds of red cannons have been aimed at the top of the city.

Commander Li Zhushi, as usual, personally inspected each cannon before the battle, from loading ammunition to adjusting the front and rear sights, and then to calculating the range, he did not miss any detail, and did not miss a single cannon.

The [-] soldiers of the engineer battalion were divided into four groups, each group consisted mainly of engineers and had several blasters.

The engineer held a shovel, and the demolition man carried the explosives wrapped in tarpaulin. Ma Qianhu inspected the equipment of each demolition man.

Not all blasters have explosives. After all, the ammunition is limited. They just need to use the spirit of one after another during the charge.

"Brothers, don't forget the battle of Jiujiang, and make another glory, let's go!"

Everything was ready, and with an order, Ma Qianhu took the lead and led four groups of soldiers to rush towards the moat.

Before rushing to the vicinity of the moat, the Qing army on the city found them, and the red cannon roared.

Several engineering soldiers were blown to the ground, and a blaster was blown up, detonating the explosives on his body. There was a loud noise, and the blaster was smashed to pieces, leaving a deep crater on the ground.

The impact of the explosion caused several engineering soldiers and two blasters nearby to fly far and fell to the ground.

The other group was also hit by the shells flying from the top of the city. The blaster flew far away with blood on his face and stopped moving. Another blaster rushed up, took the explosives from the dead warrior and continued to move forward.

"Scatter! Stop!"

The four groups, each of which is headed by a small leader named Banner Chief or General Banner, ordered the four groups to disperse, lie on the ground, and suspend their charge.

"fire--"

At this time, Li Zhushi yelled and dropped his big hands from the air on the artillery camp.

"Boom, boom, boom, boom..."

All the cannons of the Ming army fired at once, and the shells roared and landed accurately on the top of the city, filling the air with gunpowder smoke and flying bricks and stones.

Many Tartars were blown to pieces under the roar of artillery fire, some flew into the sky, and some fell to the top of the wall.

The artillery fire on the city head was suppressed.

"rush!"

The four groups of engineers and blasters got up and continued to run forward despite the artillery fire.

Under the cover of artillery fire, they swam across the moat, and soon came to the bottom of the city wall to start their work.

The engineering soldiers drilled holes at the base of the city wall with spades and picks. Four teams worked in groups about 20 meters apart, and they had to drill four holes.

Of course, the Qing army on the city would not let them succeed easily. Bows and arrows, stones, and rolling logs poured down like raindrops.

The engineers and blasters working in the four groups kept falling down, but they did not stop working.

Li Zhushi sent several shells to the top of the city, and the city stopped for a while.

In this way, half an hour later, all four holes were drilled, the explosives were put in, and the four groups of engineers and blasters withdrew.

"Wang Qiang, Zhang Dong, turn down the ten cannons in your group, aim at the four targets on the city wall, and fire!"

Soon ten shells roared and flew out through the air, and landed precisely at the root of the city wall and exploded.The explosion of these shells ignited the explosives in the four holes at the base of the city wall.

"Boom boom boom boom..."

The sky collapsed, and Zhu Yousong, who was several miles away, felt the ground under his feet tremble a few times. A section of the city wall of Baoding Mansion flew into the sky. After the thick smoke and flames dispersed, a large gap tens of meters wide was opened in the city wall there. .

Zhu Yousong was overjoyed.Immediately afterwards, amidst the earth-shattering shouts, the [-] Ming troops rushed across the moat and rushed into Baoding Mansion with overwhelming momentum.

What followed was a fight in the city. After more than an hour, the Ming army drove the Tartars out of the city with an overwhelming advantage, and Sony fled away again with the defeated army.

After taking down Baoding Mansion, Zhu Yousong led an army of [-] without hesitation, and went straight to the capital of the Qing court to kill him.

(End of this chapter)