After capturing the Jurchens' mountain set of hoarding forage, Liu Xingzuo discussed with Geng Zhongming how to successfully take Sarhu City, because it was a long-distance sneak attack and there was no follow-up support, so it was necessary to fight quickly, once the enemy noticed that the battle would only fall short. In the evening, Zhang Liang and Shi Quan brought Liu Xingzhi and Liu Xingxian together, and they were very happy to see their brother Liu Xingzuo, holding hands and saying goodbye.

Geng Zhongming looked for a moment and asked, "The two of you have been in Salhu for so long, what good advice do you have for us to quickly capture Salhu?" ”

Liu Xingxian said: "The city wall of Salhu is very tall and strong, although there are only more than 3,000 people in the city, they are all Jurchens, how are you going to fight?" My brother has told me that you are going to let me send wine in advance to trick me into opening the city gates, but I am afraid that this method will not work. ”

Geng Zhongming asked, "Why?" ”

Liu Xingxian said: "Although the Jurchen general who defended the city likes to drink, he is very shrewd and not prone to any loopholes, just take the matter of me giving him wine every ten days, he will enthusiastically pull me to drink two bowls with him every time, in fact, he asked me to drink first to see if there is any poison." Every time I enter the city, I open the door quickly and close it quickly, and there are dozens of people guarding it every time, and there is no way to prevent the door from closing, and if you want to enter the city, you have to think of other ways. ”

Geng Zhongming pointed to the simple map drawn and said, "We know this, we are beginning to prepare for you to send wine in advance to deceive you into opening the city gate, and then let the ambushed people rush in from the woods." Later, we calculated that the people who were ambushed in this forest would have to run half a mile to rush over, and you alone probably couldn't stop the gate from closing while the ambushers were rushing over, so we wondered if there was any other way. ”

Liu Xingzuo also said: "Today we caught some Jurchen captives in the mountain set next to us, and one of the captives said that the Sarhu city gate was very loosely defended and could enter without a password to see someone, and then asked the others to say that they had not returned to the city privately, and every time they got an order to go back to change their guards, it seems that what this person said is not reliable." ”

Geng Zhongming said: "Another way is to dig the city wall overnight, but there are thousands of people living in a small city, I am afraid that there is no secluded place to live, no matter how light the digging will alarm the people inside, this thing is really difficult to do." ”

Seeing that Liu Xingzuo and Geng Zhongming didn't have good ideas, Shi Quan, who didn't leave on the side, said: "General Geng, General Liu, I have a question I want to ask, why do the Jurchens live so crowded?" It is said that there are still people who have just withdrawn, so isn't it even more crowded? ”

Liu Xingxian said at this time: "This brother is right, they all live in the city because they can't live outside the city in winter, and there are many villains in Salhu City. Every time I go to deliver wine, I think about how to help my eldest brother make meritorious contributions, so every time I listen to what the people inside say, to see if there is any valuable information to help my eldest brother enter Shenyang. From the intelligence analysis I heard, there is really no way to enter Shenyang, but it is not a big problem to enter Salhu City, because they live in a crowded place. ”

Liu Xingzuo and Geng Zhongming looked at him when they heard Liu Xingxian say this, Geng Zhongming said: "We captured Fushun Pass yesterday, and the enemy in Shenyang will have doubts if they don't get the news of the past within three days, so the capture of Salhu City is only one day tomorrow at most, what good way do you have to capture it in one day?" ”

Liu Xingxian said: "I happened to hear some Jurchens complaining, saying that there was no extra forage in the city and they needed to go outside to get it after a while, so I wondered why the Jurchens didn't put the forage that the horses ate in the city. Later, when I looked closely, I realized that it was because the city was too small to fit. General Geng said that some Jurchen captives were caught in the mountain loop, and I wonder if a large amount of forage was found? If anything, we can besiege the city overnight, and then help the Jurchens carry all the fodder to the city, but just light it and throw it in. ”

Liu Xingzuo nodded and said, "Burn Salhu?" This idea can be tried. ”

Geng Zhongming also nodded and said happily: "The city villain is crowded just to set fire, and there is so much forage prepared in the mountain loop in the spring when there is no fire, isn't this God helping us?" Since we only have one day tomorrow, we will immediately besiege the city tonight, and it will not be easy for us to get in, and it will be difficult for them to come out, so we will dig some horse traps and trenches overnight to prevent the enemy from breaking through. ”

Everyone agreed to start the action immediately, and this time seven or eight thousand people came in several batches, and after receiving the order to besiege the city, the soldiers began to move quietly. The guards around the gate first moved to the four city gates to set up an ambush, and the person responsible for digging pits and ditches did not shy away from picking up a hoe and began to dig the soil, and the person responsible for transporting firewood and grass was even more blatant to start carrying torches, and it didn't take long for the Jurchens in the city to be alarmed.

In fact, when the Ming army first started, it was not impossible for the Jurchen soldiers to immediately organize a breakthrough, and the Ming army only had about 2,000 people in each of the four gates, and the problem of organizing a surprise attack was not very big. But there was a lot of food hoarded in the city, and it was for the army to go south and north, and it would be a capital offense for the garrison to lose it and go back. And the guards in the city also had a fluke mentality, thinking that your Ming army is not only short of food, but also has no backup, I have enough food here, and there is no problem with the strong city wall for three years, can you attack for three days? In this mentality, the Jurchens stood at the head of the city and watched the Ming army toss.

The Ming army first aimed at the city gate with a strong bow and crossbow, and at the same time asked people to start digging a ditch in front of the city gate to pose a long-term siege posture, and later saw that the Jurchens did not come out to stop and continued to approach the trench with a shield, digging out the trench and scattering the soil to prevent the Jurchens from rushing through on horseback□ Xingzuo wanted to dig and attack again at dawn after dug up, who knew that a few letter cannons sounded on the city, which was obviously the Jurchens in a hurry to fire the cannon for help.

The sound of the Jurchens' cannons is not very large, and it is estimated that Shenyang Fushun can't hear it, even if Shunfeng hears the black light in the middle of the night, no one knows what happened, but the matter is not afraid of 10,000, just in case, in order to avoid a long night and many dreams, Liu Xingzuo decided to attack immediately. He first sent 2,000 soldiers to the four ditches closest to the city gates, each with a bow and arrows and spears, which meant that whenever the Jurchens came out, they would release arrows, and if they ran near, they would stab men and horses with spears. Because people are not afraid of the Jurchens being cut and shot in the trenches, it is equivalent to no one being protected by earth shields in front of and behind them.

The soldiers who were in ambush in the trenches were to hold on and kill the enemy, and the attack required another man to attack with fire. I saw a group of soldiers on horseback running past the city gate, holding a shield in one hand and a bundle of straw lit with fire in the other, and when they passed the gate, they threw the straw bale by the city gate, and then ran back with their shields. When the Jurchens reacted and began to shoot the Ming army with arrows, a fire had already broken out around the four city gates.

In fact, this is just the beginning, after all, the grass burns quickly is nothing, and the Jurchens in the city are not very panicked, and some people still want to carry water to fall down from the city wall to extinguish the fire, and the general who defends the city ordered more people to go to the city to kill the enemy with arrows. The first bale of hay was actually just a fire, but the later action was the real fateful step, only to see the bales of hay kept being thrown from back to front, like a relay race, throwing the outer bales into the front trench. The last of the 2,000 men in the front ditch outside the four gates were the last construction team, and they threw the bales of straw that they had brought from behind to the city gates, and then piled them up next to the city walls, and the fire slowly burned in a circle.

At first, I didn't feel anything, but when the four sides of the city wall were on fire, the people on the city wall couldn't stand it at first, the fire couldn't burn but the smoke could go up, and they coughed and felt difficult to breathe, and they didn't hold on for long before they had to go down to the city to avoid it temporarily. Seeing that the people who shot arrows above were less than the Ming army's horse team and was energetic, he rode a horse and lifted the lighted straw bales and threw them on the city wall, although the city wall was high but the straw bales were light, and for a time a lot of lighted straw bales were thrown into the city, and the smoke drifted everywhere in the city. If it was just smoke and nothing, the Ming army had already found a big wood on the north gate and started to bang on the door, and there was no way for the Jurchens to start breaking through.

It was indeed a little late to break through now, and as soon as the hundreds of people who were exploring the way out of the house encountered a rain of arrows, and they could not rush forward because there were trenches and mounds of earth to dig trenches. Running sideways is ready to protrude in the corner of the city wall where there is no trench, but this is equivalent to letting every soldier walk in front of every Ming army ambushed in the trench, where is the Ming army polite in this situation? The arrows and spears were stabbed, and the Jurchens were all killed before they could reach the corner of the city wall.

In the fear of the Jurchen generals, the north gate was knocked open, and the Jurchens of the Ming army were completely desperate in the face of the tide pouring in, and after making some fearless resistance, they were all captured□ Xingzuo was a little dissatisfied at this time, he brought Liu Xingxian and Zhang Liang over and asked: "Didn't the news you found say that there were more than 3,000 Jurchens?" How come there are only more than a thousand dead and alive? ”

Liu Xingxian said: "More than 3,000 refers to everyone, not that there are more than 3,000 soldiers. ”

Zhang Liang also said: "Yes, the Jurchens are all soldiers, and women can also use knives to cut people if they are in a hurry, unlike our women who can't kill a chicken." At first, a few hundred people were wiped out when they broke through the siege, and hundreds more died in the battles in the city, and now there are not two hundred wounded soldiers and more than a thousand people who are still caught? ”

Seeing that the sky was already dawning, Geng Zhongming asked Liu Xingzuo: "This Jurchen is really tough, as long as he doesn't cut off his hands and feet, he won't give up resistance, what is General Liu going to do with these people?" ”

Liu Xingzuo gritted his teeth and said: "How they deal with my Ming people, I will prepare how to deal with them!" It's called an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth! ”

Hearing him say this, the surrounding Ming soldiers all raised their swords and guns, ready to burn them all, kill them all, and loot them all↓At this time, a person kneeling in the captives shouted loudly: "The general spares his life!" I have a message to report! ”