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The joy brought by the victory in Texas to the entire Ming Empire is difficult to describe in words. However, Zhu Cihong did not immerse himself in it all the time.

As a time-traveler whose soul came from later generations, he knew very well that the Manchu Qing sent to recover Shandong this time was just a partial division.

If Dolgon, stimulated by this defeat in Texas, changed his overall strategy and tilted his forces towards the eastern front, the Ming army would be under tremendous pressure.

Of course, Zhu Cihong did not have any illusions about the Manchus, all he had to do was to take precautions and take all possible scenarios into account.

Since Nurhachi raised his army, the Manchurians have been lacking in the ability to attack the city, so they mostly use the space, rely on the internal should create chaos to open the city gate, and take the city bloodlessly.

This tactic naturally has limitations, and it is precisely because Huang Taiji saw this that he formed Wuzhen Chaoha, an army equipped with a large number of artillery.

Huang Taiji's strategic vision is still very vicious, he knows that the advantage of the Ming army lies in artillery, so as long as the Eight Banners Army can catch up with the Ming army in this item, it can be in a full-line advantage in the duel with the Ming army.

The Ningjin defense line had created a great shadow for Huang Taiji, and he was naturally extremely eager to have a heavy artillery army to blast through the strong city walls.

It is a pity that only the Manchurians in Liaodong lack artillery-making technology, and even if Huang Taiji invests a lot of manpower and material resources, he cannot make Wuzhen Chaoha's artillery comparable to that of the Ming army.

Until the Dengzhou Rebellion, Kong Youde rebelled against the Ming Dynasty and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, bringing a large number of Dengzhou artillery.

These cannons were all Franc cannons brought by Portuguese mercenaries from the trenches (Macau), which belonged to the most advanced artillery of their time.

With these sample cannons, Huang Taiji can order the craftsmen of Liaodong to imitate them. Although the imitation heavy artillery is not as good as the original Franc Man, it is still much stronger than the original rough artillery.

At this point, the artillery of the Manchurians was no longer inferior to the Ming army.

In the original history, in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Kong Youde and other Sanshun kings entered the customs with the Qing army, and the main role they played was to attack Li Zicheng.

Together with Wu Sanguibu, they were the vanguard of the Manchurian charge.

Among them, Wu Sangui, Shang Kexi and other armies followed Azig from Datong to Yulin and went south to Xi'an from northern Shaanxi. Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming and other troops, under the leadership of Duoduo, attacked Tongguan from Huaiqing, Henan.

Li Zicheng's response was to send Li Guo and Gao Yigong to defend northern Shaanxi, and he personally led the army to defend Tongguan.

In the end, Tongguan was lost, and Li Zicheng knew that Xi'an could not hold it, so he made the decision to retreat again. After that, he was chased and beaten by the Qing army all the way, and finally died in Jiugong Mountain.

According to the original historical development, the Manchu Qing Dynasty's use of troops against Shaanxi occurred in late October of the 17th year of Chongzhen, and it was impossible for Kong Youde and other Han troops to threaten Shandong before that.

But Zhu worries that the butterfly effect of the Texas victory will affect Dorgon's decision-making.

If Dolgon had sent Kong Youde and other troops to Shandong, the situation would have been completely different.

Although Dezhou is a fortified city, it may be under great pressure in the face of the heavy artillery bombardment of Kong Youde's Han army. Perhaps these heavy artillery could not directly collapse the walls of Texas, but they could seriously damage the battlements and defensive equipment, causing the Ming army's casualties to rise sharply.

Of course, this is not what Zhu Cihong wants to see.

After thinking about it again and again, Zhu Cihong decided to build a fortress in the northern part of Shandong, that is, on the first line of Wucheng, Dezhou and Leling.

The so-called fortress is essentially to change the fortress from a convex polygon to a concave polygon, so that no matter what point is attacked in the castle, the besieging side will be exposed to several fortress faces, and the defender can use crossfire to strike multiple blows against it.

The existing cities of the Ming Dynasty, including the fortress group built by Sun Chengzong in Liaodong that year, are all traditional Sifang cities.

If such a city is built strongly, it may not have any problem facing ordinary artillery, but its biggest weakness is that it will require more soldiers to defend the city.

Imagine that even if 1,000 men were to defend each of the four walls, the entire city would need to be garrisoned by at least 5,000 men. Five thousand people are five thousand mouths, and even if there is not a single common man in the city, all the food is supplied to the soldiers, and the consumption is staggering.

At that time, Huang Taiji's strategy to take the Daling River was to besiege but not attack. Even if the Qing army could not directly capture the city, it could surround it and starve the ancestral army to death. The siege of the city is the consumption, although the consumption of the Qing army is very large, but the consumption of the ancestral army in Dalinghe City is even greater, and it is sitting on the mountain.

In the end, Zu Dashou ate all the people in the city and surrendered, and Huang Taiji took Daling River without much effort.

What if the Daling River was replaced with a Western-style fortress group?

There is no doubt that the results will be very good!

One of the great advantages of the fortress is that it requires very few defenders. A small bastion only needs a few hundred, if not a few dozen, to withstand thousands of siege soldiers. These small bastions, though small in size, are like a nail in the ground. Do you pull it out or not?

If you don't pull it out, he'll be there to disgust you.

If it is pulled, the ability of the fortress to resist artillery attacks is much higher than that of ordinary cities, and the city will eventually have to be besieged.

But how can the fortress of dozens or hundreds of people be stationed? How many people are sent around?

If there are fewer people to be sent, they can't be surrounded, and if there are more people sent, food consumption is a big problem.

If the besieging side sends tens of thousands of people to surround a fortress defended by hundreds of people, how much will it cost to surround the grain and grass for half a year?

And the defenders in the fortress can fully reserve rations for hundreds of people for a year or more.

No matter how you look at it, it is the besieging side that suffers.

If it is a fortress group, it is even more terrifying, which can effectively stop the cavalry from advancing. If we want to pull out all these nails, I am afraid that we will have to exert the strength of the whole country.

Of course, the strength of the bastion is based on specific historical conditions.

Only with a sharp musket can the fortress maximize its advantages.

This is also the reason why Zhu Cihong is so anxious to set up a firearms department to create high-quality firearms.

The bastions can provide crossfire, and if combined with a sharp firebolt, it can undoubtedly play the role of cross-fire from machine guns.

The fortress and the fire gun are indispensable. If you replace the firebolt with a crossbow, the effect will be greatly reduced.

Of course, the fortress cannot be absolutely invincible.

It was born because of the appearance of old artillery, and its disappearance was due to the widespread use of flowering shells.

Zhu Cihong can't develop a flowering bomb by himself now, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty naturally can't make it.

Therefore, the bastion is invincible in this era.

The most important thing is that the cost of building the fortress is too low.

A fort garrisoned by dozens or hundreds of people costs less than one-tenth of a county seat, and with the current economic strength of the Ming court, it is completely possible to build a group of forts in northern Shandong and completely block the Manchu army.

If the Manchus did not uproot all these fortresses, it would be impossible to loot the villages and towns behind the fortresses!

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