On the second day of the seventh month of the seventh year of Chongzhen, Huang Taiji's army arrived in Shuozhou City.

There are a total of 20,000 soldiers in this army, in addition to the Zhenghuang Banner and the Qiding with the Yellow Flag, there are also 1,000 Wuzhen Chaoha soldiers, led by Angbang Zhangjing Shi Tingzhu, as well as Wang Shixuan, Bao Chengxian and other Han army generals.

Huang Taiji was not in a hurry to march to Ningwu Pass, and began to tentatively attack Shuozhou City.

In the original history, Shuozhou City was captured by Dai Shan and Huang Taiji after the joint army, but now the defenders in the city are nearly doubled, and there are a lot more firearms, and they are fully prepared, and there are enough materials such as stone rolling wood, gold juice and oil, and dozens of catapults made in the past few days, which can be described as solid, and if you want to capture Shuozhou City, I am afraid it will not be so easy.

After only tentatively launching a round of attacks, Huang Taiji's brows furrowed.

He could see that the city was very difficult to fight.

It's not that it can't be defeated, but the cost is too great.

There was no internal response in the city, so it could only be stormed, and it was inevitable to pay a lot of casualties in order to take this fortified city.

After careful consideration, Huang Taiji decided to abandon Shuozhou City.

Because, he wants to reserve his troops to attack Ningwu Pass and destroy Qinchuan.

However, Shuozhou City is on the edge of the Hui River, and the army must march along the Hui River to obtain sufficient water nearby, that is to say, when the army of the Derge class arrives, it must pass outside the city of Shuozhou, and when his army retreats, it must also pass through the city of Shuozhou.

Therefore, Huang Taiji simply sent a thousand soldiers to camp at the south gate of Shuozhou City to prevent the Ming army in the city from coming out to attack.

After the arrangements were made, Huang Taiji led the army to continue in the direction of Ningwu Pass.

……

When Huang Taiji marched, Ning Wuguan had already calmed down from the noise of his triumphant return.

Qinchuan also completed the mobilization of all armies and the arrangement of defense.

Garrisoned at Ningwu Pass were Li Dingliang's trap camp and Liu Youzhu's Wudang battalion, of which there were a total of 7,000 troops in Guancheng, 500 troops in Hongchikou Military Fort 50 miles east of Guancheng, and 100 troops in Yangwukou.

Liao Sangun's 1,500 tiger and leopard battalion did not enter Guancheng, but hid in the mountains twenty miles east of Guancheng, and responded at any time.

Shenchikou was garrisoned by Luo Daniu, because there was no time to replenish the casualties of the previous battle, so there were only 3,500 troops left in the first camp, but it was more than enough to garrison Shenchikou.

Feng Yilong's Fengshan battalion still had 2,300 troops, stationed at Limin Fort and Octagonal Fort.

Luo Ba's Shifang Battalion also had 2,300 people, stationed at Daworm Ridge Fort and Laoying Fort, and the other battalion head defense areas remained unchanged.

In addition to mobilizing defense, Qin Chuan is also tossing several things: explosives, earth-shattering thunder, and 10,000 enemies.

Explosives are also mines, and sky-shaking mines are grenades.

The 10,000-strong enemy is also a giant grenade, but strictly speaking, it should be called a deflagration bomb, because the shell is a clay cylinder, and when the gunpowder is ignited, it will crack early, and the gunpowder inside has no sealed space to store energy, resulting in a small explosion power.

This thing is found in many cities and military forts of the Ming army, and when Li Baba and He Qizheng returned to obedience, they turned out more than a dozen of them from the armory of the Yatou Pass and the old camp fort, the big one was eighty pounds, almost the size of a grinding plate, and the small one was six or seven pounds, which was about the same size as a human head.

The number of explosive cannons and earth-shaking thunder in the Ming army was relatively small, because they were all made of iron shells, and the former also needed a delicate receiver to ignite the fire, and it was difficult to manufacture them in batches.

Chen Zhan and Li Xuejing didn't make these two things, but coincidentally, Zhao Mancai knew how to make them, and he had made a batch for the border army when he was in Wang Gong's factory before.

Long before the Northwest Raiders, Qin Chuan asked Zhao Mancai to start tinkering with these two things, and asked Yan Sanqi to help him make an iron shell.

Today, Zhao Mancai has created 2,000 earth-shattering thunderbolts and 500 explosive cannons.

The shape of the earth-shaking thunder was made according to Qin Chuan's drawings, that is, the enlarged version of the grenade of later generations, of course, it was exploded by the fuse index.

The explosive power of black powder is far inferior to that of later generations, and if it is small, the power of the explosion is pitiful, and it may not kill anyone.

Therefore, Zhao Mancai's earth-shattering thunder is very large, thicker than a fist, and the iron shell alone weighs one and a half catties, and it is filled with one and a half catties of black gunpowder and half a catty of iron balls, and there is a wooden handle behind it, with a total weight of four catties.

In later generations, the wooden-handled grenade weighed only one pound, and the soldiers of the army had to throw thirty meters away to pass, and fifty meters was considered to be excellent, but this grenade made by Zhao Mancai, even if there was a wooden handle to borrow power, it was already very good to be able to throw ten steps away.

Qin Chuan didn't ask how far he could throw it, anyway, this thing was very unrealistic in field warfare, it could only be used to defend the city, and it was enough to throw five or six steps.

A pound and a half of black powder exploded, and the scattered iron balls could inflict lethal damage on enemies within three steps.

As for the explosive cannon, it was nearly twice as large as the earth-shaking thunder, and it was a large black iron ball, which contained four catties of black powder and one catty of iron balls, and a small piece of flint and a small iron wheel at the primer port, and led a shaft to the receiver.

When the enemy stepped on the pedal of the bomber, the falling stone in the receiver suddenly fell, driving the small iron wheel of the shaft to rotate rapidly, rubbing the flint to produce sparks, and igniting the explosive.

When the explosive cannon was first built, Qin Chuan had tried the effect, and the result made him very satisfied, when this kind of explosive cannon exploded, it could lift a hundred-pound sack into the air, causing fatal injuries to the enemy within five or six steps around.

The 10,000 enemies still followed the style of the Ming army, using clay jars and the remaining gunpowder of the Ming army from many military forts to make as many 10,000 enemies as there was gunpowder, and the best formula of Qinchuan was never wasted.

After these things were made, they were quickly sent to several passes and military forts on the inner Great Wall.

Among them, Laoyingbao and Limin Fort were each given 200 earthquake thunder and 50 explosives, Shenchikou was allocated 400 earthquake thunder and 100 explosives, and the rest were sent to Ningwu Pass.

Under the command of Qin Chuan, the Guan Emperor soldiers carefully buried the 300 explosives outside the north gate and the east gate, covered with a thin layer of soil, and waited for Jiannu to knock on the easter eggs.

The earth-shattering thunder and the 10,000-strong enemy were transported to the city walls and turrets, and when the Jiannu approached, they were allowed to taste the thunderstorm.

Everything is ready, just wait for Jiannu to come to the door.

……

Two days after Huang Taiji's army drove from Shuozhou, it finally arrived at Yangfangkou.

But he did not rush to march, but rested for a day at Yangfangkou and waited for the Derge class.

The Derge class department has 8,000 soldiers with blue flags and blue flags, 4,000 Mongolian soldiers, a total of 12,000 soldiers, and 8,000 banners.

Because they were afraid that the Ming army would attack halfway, they also transported the stolen population and money, grain, and silk, and captured more than 30,000 young and strong people, and the mule and horse-drawn carts that transported money, grain, and wealth stretched for several miles.

After the two armies joined forces, Huang Taiji was still not in a hurry to march, but sent a line of soldiers and horses to explore all the way north along the inner Great Wall, looking for weak points in the garrison, and wanted to send a partial division to dig the wall and enter.

It's just that his wishful thinking failed, and most of the inner Great Wall with a total of 200 miles of length from Ningwu Pass to Laoyingbao was built on top of the mountains, and there were only three entrances for the army to accompany them.

Among them, the Shenchi not far from Ningwu Pass, there is a towering military fort built at the mouth, and there is also a dangerous terrain in the Shuanghua Linggou forty miles to the north, and the Limin Fort is strong and towering.

That place was two hundred miles away from here, and the garrison there had not yet been detected, but Huang Taiji knew that the military fort would only be more difficult to attack than the Shenchi Pass.

The rest of the Inner Great Wall was built on a steep hill, which was impassable for the army, so a small number of troops had to climb to the top of the mountain, and the Great Wall had to be excavated to enter.

However, not only can you not use large siege equipment when you climb over the mountains, but it is also easy to be ambushed, and the lack of troops is easy to be broken by the opponent.

So, there are no other places to go, only those few entrances.

Limin Fort is built in a narrow valley, the terrain is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, the old camp fort is too far away, only Shenchikou and Ningwuguan are left to choose from.

After letting Tanma carefully reconnoiter the size, height, orientation, and surrounding terrain of Shenchikou Fort and Ningwu Pass, Huang Taiji asked Dege to lead his troops to attack Shenchikou, and he himself led the main force of Zhenghuang Banner and Yellow Banner to Ningwu Pass.

On the seventh day of the seventh month of Chongzhen, Huang Taiji's army arrived outside the city.

On the day when the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl met at the Queqiao Bridge, Qin Chuan and Huang Taiji met in Ningwuguan.