From the sea surface of Weihai to Laizhou, the distance is more than 130 nautical miles, the sea breeze on the nearby ocean surface is three to five levels, the fleet arrived at the waters of Laizhou lasted nearly two days and one night, when it arrived at Laizhou Bay, the sky was raining, all the ships dropped their sails, anchored on Furong Island in Laizhou Bay and waited for the rain to stop, there were no residents on Furong Island, and the Ming army did not land, and there was nothing to say this night.

Towards noon on the second day, the rain finally stopped, the cold wind on the sea was weak, the sky was clear, and the autumn sun was high and high.

Li Yuanyin's fleet finally began to set sail again and rushed to the battlefield. When the fleet arrived at the harbor of Taiping Bay, it was found that there was no Qing army stationed here, and then Li Yuanyin ordered the vanguard to land and search inland along the harbor.

Soon after receiving a reply from this thousand-man team, convinced that there was no enemy ambush nearby, Li Yuanyin immediately ordered 8,000 men and horses from his headquarters to land, and then ordered all the Western mercenaries to land, and ordered another 1,000 men and horses from his headquarters to land at the end.

After arriving at the city of Laizhou, he immediately set up camp, and ordered 500 soldiers to attack the city of Laizhou at night that night. After encountering the stubborn resistance of the Qing army, these 500 soldiers retreated to stop the battle.

Laizhou has been a military center since the Sui and Tang dynasties, and Yang Guang's three expeditions to Goguryeo have sent troops here.

In the Ming Dynasty, it was expanded and repaired twice, and now the city is three zhang and five feet high, two zhang thick inside and outside, and the moat under the city is two zhang deep and four zhang wide.

It can be called the first fortified city in Shandong, and because of its control of Liaozuo and Gongwei Jingshi, it can be described as a major place in Beihai Bend.

At the turn of the night on the second day, Li Yuanyin summoned all the generals and once again determined the final attack plan before the battle.

According to the information provided by Jinyi Wei Xizuo, Laizhou City has 2,000 regimental training soldiers, 500 green battalion soldiers, and the guard will be Di Yingkui of Qianhu. In today's battle, do you have a good plan? After Li Yuanyin's words were finished, the mercenary commander Gonzalo. Morality. Córdoba was the first to express his opinion when he saw that the other Ming generals were gossiping but did not really come up with a useful plan.

Of course, at present, he still does not speak Chinese, and can only rely on the translation of Bi Fangji and others.

"General, General Gonzalo thinks that the enemy situation in this battle is not complicated, as long as your troops are divided into four parts, with two men and horses to protect the two wings of the Western army and one men and horses to protect the rear. Our Western army only needs to use artillery to wipe out all the Qing troops hiding behind the battlements, and then the fourth part of the master army will be responsible for climbing the city wall of Laizhou, even if the city is occupied, don't you think so? Bi Francis spoke out of the mercenary commander in Gonzalo's place.

Li Yuanyin knew that the combat effectiveness of the mercenary army sent to him by Zhu Si could not be underestimated, but he had not learned exactly what the magic method was.

He only knew that the salaries of these mercenaries were five times that of the standing army of the Ming army, and all these mercenaries had their own weapons, and the minimum monthly income per person was more than fifteen taels of silver, which was not the income of gunners and officers, and the whole army also had additional performance bonuses, and there was a lot of compensation for the war dead.

If the money distributed to the Westerners is taken and the standing army of tens of thousands of people can be expanded.

The standing army of the Ming army is a professional soldier of the Ming army, except for the compulsory soldiers who joined the regular Ming army step by step from the township Yongzhong, and belonged to the part of the veterans before Zhu Si changed the military service system.

These veterans are paid about three taels a month, while the conscripts only receive basic living expenses.

Li Yuanyin also wanted to touch the true strength of this Western army in today's battle, so he said to Gonzalo: "General Gonzalo, I agree with you very much, and I will also support your plan with the greatest strength." So then, when we start attacking, it's up to you to decide and I'll cooperate. After asking Gonzalo, Bi Fangji said to Li Yuanyin: "Commander Gonzalo is very grateful for your trust, we will prepare immediately, and we will be ready to fight later." Soon after, the Western army completed the assembly, and the assembly time was three quarters of an hour less than Li Yuanyin's Ming army, that is, forty-five minutes, this speed has already made Li Yuanyin admire from the heart.

Li Yuanyin arranged 2,500 Ming troops on each wing of the 3,000 Western Army, 1,000 Ming troops behind the Western Army, and behind the 1,000 Ming troops was the 4,000 Ming troops preparing to enter the city.

After the formation was arranged, Gonzalo ordered the 400 cannons equipped in the Western army to shoot at the Wuding Gate of the West Gate of Laizhou.

There were soldiers of various nationalities in the Western army, and many of them were former pirates and may return to their old jobs in the future.

The soldiers in this army even had different skin colors, there were a certain number of blacks and even Indians, and there were some Nanyang Chinese and more than 200 Macao people, making it a veritable international column.

No matter what nationality or skin color, they are all strictly screened, and there must be brave men under the heavy reward.

At this time, their technical movements were carried out in an orderly manner under the orders of the commander. In particular, the accuracy of artillery firing, the military formation is about 800 meters away from Laizhou City, and most of the shells fired will accurately fall on the city.

This made the Qing army, which had never experienced such a dense artillery fire, suffer a big loss, and Di Yingkui, the Qing army defender who wanted to wait for help, looked at the severed arms and stumps flying up on the city, not only did he immediately lose the courage to fight to the death, but he was also unable to stop the retreat of the remnants of these soldiers defending the city.

At this time, neither the green battalion nor the regimental training soldiers wanted to stay in the city for even a minute.

"Master Di, the enemy's artillery is too accurate, and the brothers have suffered heavy casualties, we can't stand it!" A soldier lay on the steps to the city gate tower and shouted to Di Yingkui.

"What do you say? I can't hear you. "Under this fierce artillery fire, perhaps only by sticking it to your ears can you make what you say clear to adults.

Thinking of this, the soldier stood up and ran to Di Yingkui's side, wanting to get closer to him and speak. Suddenly, two shells fell almost at the same time, and the figure of this person was no longer found, and he must have disappeared into thin air.

That thought just now became the last wish of the soldier's life, and this wish was out of reach.

Everyone in the city was either running down the city or looking for a place to hide, and Di Yingkui's figure had just appeared in the city tower when he was caught by Gonzalo, who was searching around with a telescope.

Despite the smoke of gunfire in the city, Gonzalo was able to use every gap between the smoke to provide the gunners with a primary target.

"Enemy officers were found in the pillboxes at the city gates, and Pete's ten guns were ordered to shoot there." Almost as soon as Gonzalo's order was given, the leader named Pete led the gunners to turn the muzzle of the gun and aim for the fire.