On the third day of November in the third year of the reform, the Praetorian Guard Division of the Fu Han Army landed in Jinzhou, and tens of thousands of Fu Han troops launched an attack on Shanhaiguan with the help of hundreds of artillery.

The Guancheng of Shanhaiguan is square and square, there is a moat of five zhang wide around it, especially the city wall is as high as four zhang, although the inside is rammed earth, but the outside is wrapped with a layer of bricks and stones, the thickness of the city wall is more than two zhang, like the commonly used siege means whether the ladder and the wall are extremely difficult to work, it can be called solid.

In addition, the Shanhaiguan defense line is not an isolated city, it has an acropolis on both sides of the city, including Dongluo City, Xiluo City, South Wing City, North Wing City, Weiyuan City, Ninghai City, Laolongtou, South Water Pass, North Water Pass, Hanmen Pass, Jiaoshan Pass and a series of castle communities that complement each other, which can be described as complex in depth and closely connected.

Because of this, the Qing army did not dare to fight the idea of Shanhaiguan at all, and repeatedly chose to march from the direction of Xifengkou, Gubeikou and Juyongguan, and in this way, even if the Qing army looted money and population in the pass, it was difficult to maintain food and military supplies in the pass, and did not dare to stay in the pass for a long time to prevent being cut off by the defenders of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, in the end, the Qing army really mastered Shanhaiguan through Wu Sangui's surrender, and Ning Chu now chose to raid Shanhaiguan in the hope of being able to quickly occupy Shanhaiguan in the case of fighting quickly.

"Boom—"

Under the roar of hundreds of artillery pieces in unison, hundreds of projectiles made a curve from the air and smashed into the walls of Shanhaiguan, although a large part of them accurately hit the target, but only smashed some small craters into the walls of Shanhaiguan.

Of course, there were also some projectiles that smashed the Qing troops on the city wall to break their tendons and fractures, and the subsequent explosion took many lives, so the artillery on the Qing army city wall was not to be outdone, and they also fired actively, but because the range of the artillery was not enough, coupled with the poor accuracy, there were not too many results.

For a time, the roar of artillery, the sound of explosions, and even the whispers of pain of wounded soldiers resounded, and the war showed its cruel side from the beginning.

In the sound of artillery fire, flying projectiles can be seen everywhere, almost forming a curtain of death, hanging over the heads of soldiers on both sides, perhaps when the development of firearms enters a rapid period, its lethal efficiency on human beings is not expected by anyone.

The artillery battles on both sides had their own advantages and disadvantages, among which the artillery of the Fu Han army was dense and the rate of fire was faster, so in a short period of time, a large number of projectiles were poured out, so the Qing artillery positions on the city wall were constantly being hit. As for the Qing army, it occupied the terrain of Shanhaiguan, and under the protection of the city wall, the artillery positions were not destroyed in large numbers.

Seeing that the role of artillery was affected, the Fu Han army did not continue to insist, but began to ponder the plan of directly attacking the city, the main purpose was to use the momentum of this surprise attack to launch a suppressive attack on Shanhaiguan.

"Fill the moat with me!"

After the artillery battle, which lasted for more than half an hour, Zhao Zhiguo, the commander of the first battalion of the first regiment of the Praetorian Guard Division, as the battalion commander of the sharp knife battalion, led hundreds of soldiers of the Fu Han Army under his command to prepare to do the first thing, that is, to fill the moat outside the Shanhaiguan with soil.

The five-zhang wide moat is by no means easy to cross, fortunately, it is now the winter moon, and the water level of the moat is low, so Ning Zuyi chose to fill the river with negative soil, and this problem can still be solved.

However, as the siege shield vehicles of the Fu Han army marched slowly, the artillery on the head of the Qing army also began to exert power, although their rate of fire was very slow, although the accuracy was also very poor, but under the continuous blows, there were still more than ten shield vehicles were crushed one after another, and the soldiers of the Fu Han army below were killed and injured for a while.

Ning Zuyi held the clairvoyant mirror, looked at the moat in front of Shanhaiguan, as well as those enemy artillery positions, and couldn't help but sigh deeply, he knew from the beginning that Shanhaiguan was difficult to fight, but he didn't expect it to be so tricky.

In order to achieve a rapid siege of the city, the Fu Han army built a total of only 100 shield cars, but now more than 10 have been destroyed, if it continues to fight like this, even if all the shield cars are piled up, I am afraid that it will not help.

What's more, the battle was not fought like this at all, even within the Fu Han Army, which took sacrifice as its honor, would never allow the commander to consume human lives like this, this is not courage, but outright stupidity.

"The first level in the world, it really lives up to its name......."

Chief of Staff Yan Zhiyi nodded lightly, his voice was a little solemn, "Division commander, we don't have much time, like the Qing army in the direction of Ningyuan and Jinzhou, I am afraid that after getting the news, we will come soon, and if we don't take Shanhaiguan at that time, I am afraid that we will face a two-sided attack......"

Ning Zuyi nodded, Shanhaiguan is located at the throat of the Qing court, even if they react again, they will not be unaware of it at all, as long as they have suspicions, and then go all the way down, they will find that the Fu Han army in the direction of Shanhaiguan will probably have the first reaction to organize a large army to attack.

However, the rapid attack on Shanhaiguan, I am afraid that there was a slight problem with the original estimation of Shanhaiguan, which is more difficult to bite than imagined, like the cave siege method used in the past can not be used at all, and the siege of the city with artillery, the great battle just now has shown the effect, and it will not have much effect.

"The number of Qing troops in Shanhaiguan will never be large....... The Manchurian soldiers plus the green battalion have four or five thousand people in the sky, and if they grit their teeth and fight down, it is not that they will not be able to take it down at all, but I am afraid that by then nine out of ten in the Praetorian Guard Division will have to die......."

Yan Zhiyi nodded slightly, he still recognized Ning Zuyi's judgment very much, if he wanted to fight this kind of fortified city, he relied on sacrifice, paved a way out with human lives, and then with the help of the powerful firepower configuration of the Fu Han Army, coupled with the brave and good soldiers, it was not impossible to take Shanhaiguan.

It's just, isn't it a pity to fight like this? You must know that the soldiers of the Praetorian Guard did not fall from the sky, they were all the elites of the former army, and they had fought at least two major wars, so it can be said that their combat effectiveness ranks first in the whole army.

"No, you must not attack brutely!"

Ning Zuyi shook his head slightly, and then slowly spoke: "The real purpose of our battle is to intercept the main force of the Qing army that may flee eastward, so we need to ensure our own combat effectiveness, in this case, we may not need to take Shanhaiguan." ”

Yan Zhiyi's eyes lit up, he quickly understood what Ning Zuyi meant, and said with a smile: "We can't take down the Shanhaiguan, but we can dig trenches and build a Shanhaiguan by ourselves, and we will still be able to block the Qing army at that time." ”

"That's right. This is my idea, after all, we have to deal with the war in the pass, once Your Majesty leads the army to level the country, Shanhaiguan is only in the bag after all, it is nothing. ”

Ning Zuyi waved his hand lightly, "Let's not fight Shanhaiguan, just take the Zhongqian City, and then dig trenches around the Zhongqian City, and use the trenches to block the roads inside and outside the Guanguan, and completely block the Shanhaiguan." ”

After making a decision, Ning Zuyi no longer hesitated at the moment, and directly Mingjin withdrew his troops, and after all, he did not send too many soldiers and horses out, so it was very quick to take it back, but this scene made the Qing army on Shanhaiguan feel greatly confused.

What's the situation, after a while, I won't fight now?

Looking at the Fu Han army that had retreated into the distance, Nadu felt extremely confused, but he soon realized a problem, no matter what, this was his battle achievement!

Repelled the invincible Chu Wei and defended the key Shanhaiguan City, which was originally a great credit! Even if the emperor Lao Tzu comes, then you have to admit it!

Thinking of this, Nadu hurriedly sent someone to recover the messenger who asked for reinforcements, and then rewrote the second note, and this letter was directly presented to the emperor himself, and he wrote the beginning and end of this battle with enthusiasm, of course, there are naturally many places in this place with moisture, which is also a routine operation.

After Nadu finished writing, he was still a little cautious in his heart, and after the Fu Han army had completely disappeared into the sky, he opened the gate and pulled the broken shield carts outside into the pass, as a trophy, as for the corpses of the Fu Han army, they were taken away by the Fu Han army early, but Nadu felt quite regretful.

If there is still some decapitation credit, then he is really developed this time!

In fact, when Nadu was overjoyed, the advance guard of the Praetorian Division soon arrived at the nearby Central Acropolis and took the Central Acropolis without even fighting a single battle.

In the narrow corridor of western Liaoning outside Shanhaiguan, there is not only a strong city in Shanhaiguan, in fact, there are dozens of small cities densely packed in the periphery, and these small cities themselves can play a role in defense and vigilance, among which the city of Zhongqiansuo, which is not far from Shanhaiguan, is such a model.

Zhongqian Suocheng was originally a thousand-household house, not a big city, smaller than Ningyuan City, but it also belongs to the brick building, and there are only a dozen Qing soldiers stationed there, as well as three earthen cannons, after the arrival of the Fu Han army, these Qing soldiers quickly chose to surrender with knowledge.

After taking the middle front acropolis, Ning Zuyi immediately began to build a large number of buildings, and began to dig trenches with the soldiers of the whole division, build artillery positions, and also use the barbed wire he brought, and in just three days, a solid defense line has been built along the middle front acropolis.

This defense line is supported by the middle acropolis, and begins to expand along the north and south directions, consisting of three trenches and barbed wire, and the soldiers of the Fu Han army also prepared many grenades and mortars in front of the formation, it can be said that only in terms of lethality, it is even stronger than Shanhaiguan, if the Qing army wants to break through, it will have to pay the price of blood.

According to Ning Zuyi's thoughts, he actually still hopes to use the defense line of the middle acropolis to give the Eight Banners soldiers who stayed in Liaotu out of school, you must know that the current elite of the Qing army are all in the Guan, and there are not many Eight Banners outside the Guan, only about less than 30,000 people - like Shengjing, who is the most important, it is estimated that there are only 10,000 Eight Banners soldiers.

What are 10,000 Eight Banners soldiers enough for? They can't do anything, even if the Shengjing Tartars expand their forces like they want to play with their lives, it doesn't make much sense, the defense line of the middle and front acropolis is not something they can shake at all, once they win a big victory in the direction of Ningjin, then the entire Liaodong will be ripe.

The more he thought about it, the more Ning Zuyi felt that he had a clever idea, and if he successfully turned passive into active, he could kill two birds with one stone, and even if he was the emperor at that time, he would not blame him for not being able to take Shanhaiguan.

.......

For a few days, naturally they couldn't hide the Shanhaiguan defenders who were close at hand and the Qing army in the direction of Ningyuan, although the two sides could not sit together to communicate, but they both confirmed the fact that if the Fu Han army was allowed to build like this, I was afraid that the Liaoxi Corridor would be completely cut off, which was no different from the occupation of Shanhaiguan.

The Qing army naturally did not feel willing to do this, but Nadu, as the head of Shanhaiguan, had limited troops in his hands, and he had to guard the Shanhaiguan defense line, and it was impossible to go out of the pass to hit the opponent's defense line - that was almost equivalent to looking for death, but if he wanted to send troops from the pass, he had to wait for his merit to arrive in front of the king.

Therefore, Na did not make any other moves, but he did not move, but the deputy capital of Jinzhou was in a hurry, on the one hand, he hurriedly reported to the Shengjing general Yi Libu that he knew, and on the other hand, the Eight Banners troops gathered in Jinzhou were always ready to counterattack the Zhongqian City and pull out the nail of the Ningchu Praetorian Guard Division.

Shengjing, as the land of Longxing in the Qing Dynasty, actually has its own team, with five departments of Shengjing - the household department, the rite department, the military department, the criminal department, and the Ministry of engineering, each with a squire, in addition to the Shengjing garrison general, there are four subordinate deputy capitalists, and there are also the ministers of the prime minister of Sanling and the minister in charge of Fengtianfu, which are basically led by the general of Shengjing.

Although there is still a prince Hongli in Shengjing at the moment, he is still young after all, so the real person in charge is still Shengjing's general Yi Libu, like the following Shengjing deputy capital, Jinzhou deputy capital, Xiongyue deputy capital, Jinzhou deputy capital, Xingjing deputy capital, all have to obey Yi Libu's orders.

Fortunately, Jinzhou is not particularly far away from Shengjing, only more than 500 li, and under the courier sent by Ruilin to expedite 600 li day and night, just the next day, Shengjing's general Elibu has already received the news.

"What? Chu Wei appeared near Shanhaiguan? ”

This news was like thunder, and the Shengjing general Yi Libu was blown up in a daze, he really couldn't believe it, so he had to ask again: "Is Shanhaiguan still in my hands of the Qing Dynasty?" ”

Where did the messenger sent by Ruilin know the news, so he had to whisper: "Back to the general's words, the slave really doesn't know....... Ruilin's deputy capital sent the small ones here, mainly to find a countermeasure. ”

"Countermeasures...... Countermeasure...... What the fuck is the bullshit countermeasures? ”

Elibu is really angry, he doesn't know any news now, and his heart is really a little chaotic, if the Fu Han army captures Shanhaiguan and then appears in the middle of the acropolis, then it shows that the emperor's army has been wiped out in the pass!

This is no joke, and if so, what to do next? Support Hongli to be the emperor? Or do you choose to lead the army to attack Chu Rebellion?