In the eighth year of Hongxing in the Ming Dynasty, August 20.

Eight artillery forts two feet high, made of rammed earth and sandbags, have been spread out in an arc and appeared outside the Chaoyangmen fortress.

Amid the sound of labor trumpets and the neighing of horses, eight 48-pounder bronze cannons were pushed into the gun position by the joint efforts of dozens of Persh horses and hundreds of Ming soldiers with great strength. The muzzles of the eight giant cannons were all aimed at the outer wall of the fortress of Chaoyangmen Urn City. The so-called Chaoyangmen fortress is not the original urn city, but a prismatic fort located outside the Chaoyangmen urn city. The north and south sides of this prismatic fort are about two miles apart, and there are two other prismatic forts of the same appearance, one is called Dongzhimen Fortress, and the other is called Xiaodongmen Fortress. The Dongzhimen Fort is just outside the urn city of Dongzhimen, while the Xiaodongmen Fort is located outside a newly opened small city gate called the Xiaodongmen.

The reason why the Qing army defending the city opened a new small gate on the eastern wall of Beijing was to build another prismatic fort between the Chaoyangmen fortress and the southeast corner fortress (that is, the fortress outside the southeast corner of the Beijing city wall). In this way, the small east gate fortress can support each other with the Chaoyangmen fortress and the southeast corner fortress. Without this fort, the distance between the Chaoyangmen fort and the southeast corner fort would be too far, reaching a distance of five miles. It is already beyond the effective range of the Hongyi cannon, so it is impossible to support each other. So it was necessary to build a new fortress between the two, and in order to support this fortress, a small east gate was opened.

In addition, the Qing army also opened three new small gates on the northern wall of Beijing, and built three prismatic forts. A small gate was also opened on the western wall of Beijing, and a prismatic fortress was built. In this way, the city of Beijing has fourteen gates and eighteen fortresses.

If the besieging Ming army could not destroy at least one of the eighteen forts, they would not be able to allow the infantry to launch a strong attack from the crossfire of the two forts, even if they destroyed a section of the wall.

Therefore, Emperor Zhu's 48-pounder cannon could not bombard the city walls at present, but could only bombard the fortress during the day and indiscriminately bombard the city at night - the purpose was to reduce the morale of the defenders.

Zhu Cihong and Emperor Chongzhen had already gone to the front line together and entered a former enemy command post built of civil engineering. This command post was located on the south side of the arc-shaped fortification line, just five miles outside the city walls directly from the two fortresses of Xiaodongmen and Chaoyangmen. Although the Hongyi cannon could barely reach it, by the time the cannonball reached this distance, the remaining strength was exhausted, and it could not penetrate the civil fort.

However, Zhu Cihong and Chongzhen still did not dare to enter the civil fort during the day, but chose to enter in the early morning when visibility was poor. It was not entered from the ground, but from a traffic trench that stretched for three miles in the direction of Tongzhou.

There were already many officers waiting inside the fortress, all in one place. When they saw Emperor Zhu and Emperor Chongzhen coming in, they all bowed and saluted. Senior generals such as Wu Sanfu, Shi Kefa, Yan Yingyuan, Feng Sizhong, and Zhu Chunchen, as well as foreign generals such as Kong Dai and Shi Ruien, were all waiting for the shelling to begin.

About a hundred paces in front of the fort, a parallel trench and several communication trenches were being dug. Countless Ming army infantry and soldiers and civilians have been busy for several days, and they don't know how long they will be busy?

Emperor Zhu was not so naïve as to think that he could destroy the huge Beijing Citadel with eight 48-pounder cannons, which had not only been transformed into a fortress, but had also been reinforced and fortified with sandbags that were excellent against artillery. It's not at all something that 17th-century artillery could destroy!

Therefore, in order to capture this fortress, in addition to besieging and attacking the heart, Emperor Zhu had to personally go out to do math problems.

How to calculate dead ends, how to dig parallel trenches, where to deploy 48-pounder mortars and 24-pounder mortars, how to fire ricochets from cannons...... These are basically math problems, and you also have to test measurement skills. Of course, Emperor Zhu would not have done the surveying work himself, because it was too dangerous, and the engineers had to get close to the enemy's fortress, and they could easily be killed by their cannons!

In order to capture the fortress of Beijing, Emperor Zhu also ordered the establishment of a special type of troops that used hand-thrown grenades - grenadiers! And a wooden-handled grenade was specially designed - this wooden-handled grenade is much larger and heavier than the wooden-handled grenade that people later knew about it! Because there is no explosives, the warhead of the grenade can only be filled with gunpowder, so it has to be made larger, otherwise it will not be powerful. The wooden handle of the grenade is hollowed out, and it is also a woodpipe fuse. When throwing, you need to light the fuse first, and then throw the grenade vigorously in the rain of enemy bullets.

Since the density and speed of the grenadiers were higher than those of the artillery, and the bombs were dropped at close range, the accuracy was also high, so theoretically, as long as the parallel trenches that advanced inward layer by layer were dug under the enemy's out-of-fort, they could rely on mortars and grenadiers to blow up the defenders on the out-of-fort.

In addition, using a cannon to reduce the charge and raise the angle of fire is also a good way to deal with the bastion...... Cannonballs can jump over the walls of the bastion and then jump behind them, with a chance to explode in the air and cause massive damage!

Zhu Cihong held the telescope and looked through an observation port, silently looking at the huge castle in front of him, which made him both familiar and unfamiliar. The brain doesn't know why, but it always goes somewhere else...... After taking back Beijing, it's the turn of Kanwai and North Korea! It is estimated that Li Hao will not be able to hold out in the mountain city of Nanhan and not be rescued by the Ming soldiers, and even if Duoduo resurrects Goguryeo at that time, he will still have Risi Bania behind him, and he will also be a great enemy!

In addition, the Northern Expeditionary Army of Dashun also released pigeons, and the Northern Expedition went to Burma!

This is very unexpected, Burma is a vassal of Dashun! Li Guo actually didn't even care about the friendship between the clan and the clan, what a robber!

The current Donghu Dynasty has weakened, and it is estimated that Dashun can't beat the strong soldiers, and the question now is how to deal with the aftermath of Dashun?

When he was pondering, Feng Sizhong's voice had already come: "Your Majesty, the artillery is ready, please give an order!" ”

Emperor Zhu glanced back at Chongzhen, who was frowning, "Emperor, you can give an order!" ”

Emperor Chongzhen nodded his head: "Hit, hit hard!" ”

Just after the twentieth day of August, with an order from Emperor Chongzhen, eight 48-pounder cannons let out a roar and fired eight flowering catapults at the Chaoyangmen fortress three miles away.

The battle of Beijing has officially begun!

......

Thundered...... The earth shakes and the mountains shake!

In the mountain city of Namhan, the body of the Korean king Yi Hao trembled again!

It's really uncomfortable to hide in Namhansan Fortress and be bombarded!

Nineteen years ago, when the Bingzi Rebellion occurred, Li Hao, who was still the prince of Fenglin at the time, did not enter the mountain fortress of Namhan with his father, King Yi Liang, but was sent to Ganghwa Island for refuge. Therefore, he did not personally experience the last battle of Namhansanseong, so he could not understand the despair and helplessness of his father in the past. On the contrary, after the news of his father's surrender came, he felt extremely humiliated and unwilling.

It is precisely because he has not experienced the thrill of being besieged and attacked by the Qing army that Li Hao came up with the idea of confronting the Qing Dynasty after he ascended the throne, and did everything possible to expand the armament war, and after the news of the first destruction of the Qing Dynasty came, he resolutely raised troops against the Qing Dynasty.

The Qing Dynasty is gone, and there is no risk in opposing the Qing Dynasty, right?

But he never imagined that the new army that he had worked so hard to save up for so many years would be vulnerable when it collided with Jin Duoduo's army on the north bank of the Yalu River. 1,000 cavalry of the forbidden army and 21,000 people of the Imperial Camp Hall Army, plus 10,000 training capital supervision troops, a total of 31,000 infantry troops and 1,000 iron cavalry, were actually defeated by the Qing army of less than 20,000 people, and the Northern Expeditionary Army of more than 30,000 people, in the end, less than 1,000 people returned to Hanyang alive!

What's even more terrifying is that the Japanese also took the opportunity to invade the southeast, first taking Jiulongpo, then Ulsan Fortress, and then marching into Gyeongju Fortress......

This is the Qing Dynasty to carve up Korea with Japan!

Thundered...... Another 24-pound cannonball hit the walls of Namhansan Fortress, and needless to say, a large section of the wall must have collapsed.

Unlike nineteen years ago, the current Qing Heavenly Soldiers have received the help of the Japanese Banian State, and with the invincible large-caliber artillery, it is no longer something that a mere North Korea can confront it.

Li Hao finally shed tears of remorse, and issued the king's order in a trembling voice: "Let them stop firing, the lonely king is willing to surrender to the Qing Dynasty!" ”

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