The Eight Banners of Manchuria were the most efficient armed groups in East Asia in this era, and at the same time, because the Manchurian aristocracy had just entered the Central Plains and had not yet been corrupted by the corrupt living habits of the Han people, their combat effectiveness was still at its peak.

Duoduo's military order, the next morning, more than 100,000 people who had already crossed the river, left Zhenjiang Mansion for Nanjing.

At the same time that the Qing army left Zhenjiang, Ma Cheng, who was in Nanjing City, already knew the news. In addition to training the army in the past six months, Ma Cheng has set up a large number of secret piles and secret agents around Nanzhili, who are like flies who always pay attention to the movements of the Manchu army, and transmit the news to Ma Cheng through independent channels.

On May 15, Ma Cheng received the news that Duoduo had finally left Zhenjiang and was coming to Nanjing, Ma Cheng knew that what was waiting in front of him was a vicious battle, and Duoduo who came was not a stupid person like Zhang Tianlu, and he would not easily fall into his trap. Therefore, after Ma Cheng received the news, he immediately mobilized the whole city and prepared for the arrival of the Qing army.

On 18 May, Duoduo led more than 100,000 Qing troops to the outskirts of Nanjing. Of course, this is not Duoduo's passive sabotage, the Manchu army at this time is completely different from the TV dramas in later generations. Later TV series have undergone artistic processing, and the Manchu army is completely skilled in arches and horses, and invincible in cold weapons. In fact, the real Manchu Eight Banners were a composite army of half-firearms and half-cold weapons, and the number of firearms in the army was even higher than that of the Ming army.

From Zhenjiang to Nanjing, a distance of more than 120 miles, Duoduo marched with his army while building siege equipment. The Manchu army accompanied the army with a large number of craftsmen, and made hundreds of vehicles of various kinds in these three days.

Ten miles away from Nanjing, Duoduo stopped the pace of marching and rode a horse with hundreds of generals to a small hill next to the official road to carefully observe the capital city of the Southern Ming Dynasty.

Duoduo had a natural sensitivity to war, and when he saw the strange terrain of Nanjing, he frowned, and felt that this Nanjing was going to have a hard battle.

The city of Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty was built in the 26th year of the Yuan Dynasty, when Zhu Yuanzhang used a total of 280,000 migrant workers in one of the country, three guards, five provinces, 37 prefectures, 152 prefectures and counties, and about 400 million city bricks, which lasted for 28 years, and finally completed the pattern of the four city walls of Beijing and Tianfu.

The site of this Nanjing city is very tricky, Zhu Yuanzhang did not completely build Nanjing City according to the ruins of the Song Dynasty city, but built the city according to the direction of Nanjing's mountains and water systems. In this way, Nanjing City has become a natural moat with the Qinhuai River in the south, Zhongshan Mountain in the east, Houhu Lake and Xuanwu Lake as the barrier in the north, and the Yangtze River as a defense in the west, forming a three-dimensional military fortress with unique defensive characteristics.

The only weakness is in the south city, but Zhu Yuanzhang set up three city gates here, namely Jubao Gate, Tongji Gate, and Zhengyang Gate. Among them, Jubaomen, Tongji Gate or the inner and outer three-layer urn city, Zhengyangmen is the inner and outer two-layer urn city, this kind of defense means not to mention the 100,000 army brought by Duoduo, that is, the 230,000 army is brought, and it may not be able to attack it.

But what kind of person is Duoduo, he found a weakness at the first glance when he climbed the mountain to see the city defense of Nanjing, and this weakness is actually not a weakness, at least it was not a weakness in Zhu Yuanzhang's era, this is the Yuhuatai two miles away from Jubaomen.

Yuhuatai is a small hill outside the city of Nanjing, in the period of the Three Kingdoms, because the mountain is full of colorful stones, also known as Shizigang, Agate Gang, Jubao Mountain.

During the period of Emperor Wu of Liang in the Southern Dynasty, Buddhism prevailed, there was a high monk Yunguang Master who often set up an altar to preach on the top of the mountain behind the high temple in this place, there were more than 500 monks, sat down and listened, spoke wonderfully, listened to the spirit, the grand occasion was unprecedented. Legend has it that this event touched the Buddha, and then the flowers fell like rain, turning into gorgeous stones everywhere, and Yuhuatai got its name from this.

From the Three Kingdoms period Sun Quan built the capital here, Yuhuatai this small hill has become a place where soldiers must fight, the Eastern Jin Dynasty Yuzhang Taishou Meiyi once resisted foreign invasion here, the Southern Song Dynasty Jin soldiers invaded, and the famous anti-Jin general Yue Fei attacked the Jin soldiers here. Since then, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Tianjing Defense Battle, the Xinhai Revolution crusade against the Qing soldiers, and the "Capital Defense Battle" in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression have all set off a beacon fire here.

Zhu Yuanzhang also considered the military value of Yuhuatai when building the city, but the artillery at that time did not have such a long range, and the role of Yuhuatai was far less important than that of later generations.

However, with the development of firearms, the firing range of artillery became longer and farther, and by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the new 10,000-jin Hongyi cannon had been able to reach the firing range of three miles. In this way, if someone set up an artillery position in Yuhuatai, they could completely condescendingly use fire to crush the heavy Nanjing city wall.

Duoduo saw Yuhuatai, smiled and said to Kong Youde, the king of Gongshun, behind him: "King Gongshun, seeing that the hill in front of you is not, your artillery team will set up camp on the hill, and then use the red-clothed cannons to bombard the city wall continuously, so that the city wall can be broken today, and you will be the first merit at that time!" ”

Kong Youde looked at the small hill outside the southern city, it was two miles away from the city wall, and the heaviest 5,000-pound red-coated cannon on his side should be able to hit it. But yesterday Kong Youde heard that the army also has red-coated artillery, and the red-coated cannons on his side are bulky, and they can't repair their positions in two days.

"Ten kings, the last general commands! But the last general heard that the army also has artillery, what if we take advantage of our army's unpreparedness to fire first? ”

Duoduo smiled and said: "This Gongshun King can rest assured, after a while, this king will order people to storm Zhengyangmen and Jubaomen, and attract the firepower of the Ming army, and then the Gongshun King can take the opportunity to set up camp!" ”

After Duoduo finished speaking, he said to Liu Liangzuo and Li Benshen beside him: "General Liu, you take 30,000 people from the headquarters to feint to attack Zhengyangmen. General Li Bing, you take the 20,000 horses of your headquarters to feint and attack Jubaomen, and buy time for Gongshun Wang to set up camps! "I love Search.com

Duoduo completely used these Ming Dynasty troops as cannon fodder, but Liu Liangzuo and Li Benshen had no choice but to bow down and receive the order.

The Qing army was preparing to attack the city here, and Ma Cheng, as the defender of the city, was also nervously watching the movements of the Qing army.

Knowing that the Qing army had arrived ten miles outside the city, Ma Cheng put on his armor and came to the watchtower on the city of Jubaomen. The city wall is more than 50 meters high with the watchtower, and it is easy to see the Qing army ten miles away with the blessing of clairvoyance.

Seeing the dense columns of the Qing army, Ma Cheng said that it was false that he was not nervous, after all, a year ago he was just a third-rate college student who delivered couriers, and now he is facing the most effective Manchurian Eight Banners in East Asia, which is really a little unbearable.

At this moment, the Qing army on the opposite side blew the horns, and the sound of hundreds of horns was really deafening, and Ma Cheng, who had an experience, knew that the Qing army was going to attack the city.

Ma Cheng stood on the watchtower and saw that the Qing army brigade was divided into two groups, one rushing to Zhengyangmen and the other coming to Jubaomen.

Ma Cheng hurriedly came down from the watchtower, and then called the herald and asked him to send a letter to Zhang Guozhu in Zhengyangmen to get him ready.

After arranging for Ma Cheng to come to Ma Bao's side, he patted Ma Bao's shoulder and said, "Sixth Uncle, it's up to you and your brothers to take the next step!" ”

Ma Bao had already put on a full set of armor, and when he saw that Ma Cheng was still on the city wall, he frowned and asked: "My lord, there is danger on the city wall, you better go back, and the last general can send someone to report the military situation in time!" ”

Ma Bao is also for Ma Cheng's good, fighting is not a home life, and the enemy doesn't care whether you are the first assistant or not. But Ma Cheng shook his head: "No, Lao Tzu and you are both brothers, and now the brothers are desperate, how can Lao Tzu escape?" ”

Ma Cheng's words moved the surrounding soldiers very much, there was a senior general who lived and died together, and the morale of the surrounding soldiers was slightly improved.

This time, the speed of the Qing army was not as fast as last time Zhang Tianlu and them, and they climbed in the distance for a long time before they reached three miles outside the city. At this point, there is no need to use clairvoyance, and you can already see every move of the Qing army with the naked eye.

The Qing army discharged hundreds of meters of horizontal lines, and at the front were dozens of various equipment, including ladders like fire trucks in later generations, trench and bridge cars that were convenient for building bridges on the moat, and building cars that were higher than the city walls, and of course, there were also rushing cars and carriages that Ma Cheng knew. Of course, Ma Cheng didn't know the specific names of these vehicles, but later generations watched movies to know the purpose of these special vehicles.

Some of these vehicles were several meters high, others tens of meters high, and had a great impact on the soldiers on the city walls. Ma Cheng pulled one of the hundred households of the artillery team and shouted: "Defeat these big guys in a while!" ”

When these vehicles approached, Ma Cheng found that a large number of Qing troops followed by the vehicles were holding all kinds of firearms in their hands, and at the same time, there were large and small artillery pieces behind the Qing army, all kinds of varieties, including self-made guns, and short-barreled Franc machine cannons.

Damn, this is the Manchu Iron Cavalry that started from riding and shooting, and this equipment is not inferior to his own Shenji Battalion! Ma Cheng used to make firearms for himself, so he had some understanding of the firearms of the Ming army, and the equipment of the Qing army on the other side was exactly the same as that of the Ming army.

"Damn, that bastard said that the northern captives all ride horses and shoot arrows?" Ma Cheng felt that he had been deceived when he saw the equipment of the Qing army, and stood on the city wall and scolded.

Ma Bao looked at Ma Cheng very strangely, and quickly explained: "My lord, who said that the northern captives are all riding horses and archery? The number of firearms in the North is not less than ours, and the Ningyuan City outside the gate was bombarded by the artillery of the North Captives! ”

Ma Cheng didn't dare to say that he was watching movies from later generations, and he didn't care about explaining at this time, the Qing army had advanced to a mile and a half outside the city and had already entered the range of artillery.

Ma Cheng looked at the artillery on the city wall at a distance of thirty meters, in order to prepare for this big battle, Ma Cheng has opened the production capacity of the Weapons Bureau to the maximum, and now there are more than 100 artillery pieces on the entire southern city wall, which is enough for the Manqing to drink a pot.

"All gunners prepare, aim at the siege engines outside the city, and open fire!" With Ma Cheng's order, the most arduous and bloody battle for the defense of Nanjing officially began!