Haizhou was originally the state capital under the political envoy of Shandong Chengxuan, and the ninth year of Hongwu was changed to Haizhou Wei, which was subordinate to the command of Liaodong, and in the first year of the Apocalypse, because of the Liaodong Jingluo Xiong Tingbi was impeached and dismissed by the eunuch Yao Zongwen, the Ming army was defeated for thousands of miles, and Haizhou Wei was also taken by Houjin.

Haizhou City is located more than 50 miles east of the Liaohe River, east of the watershed, north of Liaoyang, south of Gaizhou, is the throat of the whole southeast of Liaoning, has always been the place where soldiers must fight.

Yuan Chonghuan's first target was Haizhou City, at this time, he didn't have much information about Haizhou City, because crossing the Liao River was the territory of Houjin, and Huang Taiji's investigation and prevention of scouts was very strict, no matter who it was, as long as it was from the west of the Liao River, it would be one word, kill!

Yuan Chonghuan once sent people disguised as refugees, traders, Mengyuan refugees and other identities to investigate, but without exception, none of them returned, so he knew almost nothing about the situation in Haizhou City.

However, this does not deter him from advancing, anyway, Haizhou City is more than fifty miles away from Da Liaohe Fort, and it doesn't take a day for the army to advance, and it only takes about an hour for the cavalry to attack, he is afraid of a fart!

He believes that the more closely the emperor Taiji guards, the more it proves that the Houjin army is empty, and he is afraid of the Ming army attacking, so he has no scruples at all, in early May, the pontoon bridge was repaired, and the earth was rejuvenated, and he immediately led an army of 90,000 to cross the Liao River and go straight to Haizhou City.

This road is more than fifty miles, he is not in a hurry, let alone recklessly moving forward, but marching in a neat formation at a uniform speed, and the reconnaissance and cavalry are scattered, putting all the ten miles within the monitoring range.

As a result, without any obstacles, they set out at midnight, and before midnight, the 90,000-strong army came to Haizhou five miles west of the city, and along the way, not even a single civilian was encountered!

It seems that Huang Taiji is really out of soldiers, Yuan Chonghuan is very determined, after the army came to the west of Haizhou City, he ordered He Kegang and Zu Dashou to divide the troops and set up camp, and took out a telescope to carefully observe the situation in Haizhou City, looking, looking, he couldn't help frowning, this is trouble.

There are not many Jiannu soldiers on the west wall of Haizhou City, about three or four thousand people, but he saw the traces of artillery, and there are many trenches outside the city, which is completely the arrangement when he was stationed in Ningyuan City!

Does Jiannu have artillery?

Yes!

There is no doubt about this, because Shenyang and Liaoyang were both important towns in Liaodong, and the Ming army set up more than ten artillery pieces in Shenyang City alone.

This is really troublesome, you can see from the shape of the muzzle, it is a Hongyi cannon, yes, and there are almost ten of them on the western city wall!

Ten Hongyi cannons, one round can cause hundreds of casualties, if it is encountered in the field, it is just that, directly rush over in a wave, they have the opportunity to fire two rounds of shells at most, but this is a siege, a wave of attack is basically impossible, a day to attack two waves of four or five rounds of shells, casualties at least four or five hundred, ten days is four or five thousand, if half a month can not capture Haizhou City, artillery alone can bombard his men half a cripple.

There were so many Hongyi cannons on the west city wall, and the moats outside the city were dense, which was not suitable for attack at all, Yuan Chonghuan thought about it, and simply took the risk of taking more than 100 personal guards, and rushed to the south and north of the city to investigate, and as a result, the situation in the south and north of the city was exactly the same as that in the west of the city, with three or four thousand people, ten Hongyi cannons, and dense trenches!

As for the east of the city, there is no need to look at it, there is a mountainous area, and the army cannot be spread at all, and there is no way to attack.

It's really a big trouble now, Huang Taiji actually moved all the captured Hongyi cannons to Haizhou City!

Yuan Chonghuan wants to give up Haizhou City and go straight to Liaoyang, of course, this can only be thought about, because whether it is to attack Liaoyang in the north or Gaizhou in the south, Haizhou City is a hurdle that cannot be bypassed, if he does not let Haizhou City fight, there will be huge hidden dangers in the transfer of grain and grass, look at this, there are at least tens of thousands of garrisons in Haizhou City, will they watch you transfer grain and grass from under their noses, it is obviously impossible, this alone, he can't let go of Haizhou City.

What should I do now, hard attack?

It is not advisable to attack hard, he is an expert in defending the city, and naturally knows that with the help of artillery, it is difficult to capture a city, when Nurhachi led more than 100,000 troops to attack Ningyuan City, the defenders under him were less than 20,000, but Nurhachi retreated after attacking for three days, why?

Mao Wenlong's attack on Yongning made the rear of Jiannu unstable is a reason, and more importantly, it is because Nurhachi feels that Ningyuan City is too difficult to take, and he doesn't want his soldiers to eat cannonballs!

Does Yuan Chonghuan want his soldiers to eat cannonballs?

Of course he didn't want to, but this Haizhou city must be beaten down, otherwise, his rhetoric about recovering Liaodong in a year will become a joke, and if he withdraws his troops, the emperor will not be able to get around him!

It is definitely not possible to take Haizhou City, but he doesn't want his soldiers to suffer too many casualties, thinking about it, he can only order He Kegang and Zu Dashou to hurry up and make siege equipment, and send people back to Da Liao River Fort, and order Hong Chengchou to dismantle twenty thousand catties of Buddha Franc from Da Liao River Fort and send it over, he wants to bombard with the Jiannu in the city, only in this way can he reduce the casualties of the soldiers and take Haizhou City in a short time!

His idea is indeed very good, but Hong Chengchou has a moth at this time.

Da Liao River Fort is more than 50 miles away from Haizhou City, how long does it take to transport the thousand catties of Franc machine, this question does not need to be thought, the thousand pounds of Franc machine is lifted on the grain truck, and it will be transported in one day.

However, a day passed, but there was no news from the Da Liao River Fort.

Two days have passed, and there is still no news from the Da Liao River Fort.

Three days have passed, and there is still no news from the Da Liao River Fort.

Yuan Chonghuan is inexplicable, the siege equipment on his side is almost ready, and the twenty artillery pieces have not been sent yet, what is going on?

He hurriedly sent a fast horse to investigate, and in less than two hours, the horse came back, it turned out that the pontoon bridge was crushed by the cannon, and Hong Chengchou was leading people to repair the pontoon bridge desperately.

Is there something wrong with this, there is nothing wrong with it, at least Yuan Chonghuan can't see the problem, because the pontoon bridge can only pass people, horses and empty cars, and even the grain is carried to the opposite bank one by one and then loaded, and now it is normal to load more than 1,000 catties of artillery on the truck and crush it.

Yuan Chonghuan had no choice but to continue to wait.

However, four days have passed, and the artillery has not yet arrived.

Five days have passed, and the artillery has still not arrived.

Six days have passed, and the artillery has still not arrived!

What's going on, he had to send a fast horse to inquire again, and in less than two hours, the horse came back, or the pontoon bridge was crushed by the cannon, Hong Chengchou was broken and repaired, repaired and broken, and it was a mess!

Yuan Chonghuan only remembered at this time that the original transportation of a thousand catties of Franc machine was used by Zhang Bin's wheels, although the wheels are small, they can sit thirty or forty people, and there is no problem at all in transporting a thousand-pound Franc machine, this pontoon bridge can not become, the Franc cannon and the carriage will be broken as soon as it is pressed, so, six days, he still hasn't seen a Franc cannon.

This seems to be not to blame Hong Chengchou, because Zhang Bin's wheel boat was withdrawn last year, and this year, even the wheel of contact has been removed, just for fear of being caught by Hong Chengchou, Yuan Chonghuan can only order someone to notify Hong Chengchou and ask him to find a way to borrow a big fishing boat and use the fishing boat to transport a thousand catties of Franc machine across the river.

As a result, after waiting for another three days, he still didn't wait for the artillery, and this time, Hong Chengchou sent someone to report, saying that he couldn't find a big fishing boat at all.

This is unlucky, Yuan Chonghuan can only order someone to inform Hong Chengchou, send someone to take a small boat to Phi Island, and let Mao Wenlong drive a few Cangshan boats to help, Mao Wenlong has a lot of Cangshan boats under his hands, and there is absolutely no problem with the Cangshan boat to transfer thousands of catties of Buddha Lang machine, he is still quite clear about this.

Phi Island is more than 500 miles away from the Liaohe Fort in a straight line, and you have to bypass the entire Liaodong Peninsula by sea, and you have to gather more than a thousand miles, row a small fishing boat to go over, plus Hong Chengchou deliberately delays, even if Mao Wenlong receives the news and sends a boat, the Cangshan boat is far from being as fast as the wheels.

This delay, half a month has passed, not only Yuan Chonghuan is anxious, but also Qierharang in Haizhou City, Huang Taiji in Liaoyang City, Dolgon in Gaizhou City, Azig in Fuzhou City, Duoduo in Jinzhou City, etc.

Qierharang is worried about the food problem, because Haizhou City does not hoard much food, he has 30,000 troops under his command, plus more than 100,000 civilians, within two months, Haizhou City will run out of food, Yuan Chonghuan is surrounded outside, fighting and not fighting, walking and not leaving, and the people who are really waiting are anxious.

Huang Taiji is in a hurry to pit Yuan Chonghuan, he has gathered 160,000 troops in Liaoyang City, once Yuan Chonghuan puts on a posture to attack Haizhou City, he can pounce on it, give Yuan Chonghuan a big surprise, the problem Yuan Chonghuan is not to attack the city, all the troops are gathered there to standby, if he rushes over, people receive the news and run, then the army will be assembled in vain, because Haizhou City is only more than 50 miles away from Da Liaohe Fort, if people run away like crazy, they will not even take an hour to flee back, He can't even eat the ashes of his butt!

As for the three brothers Dolgon, Azig, and Duoduo, they are purely afraid that Huang Taiji will yin them, it has been half a month, and there is no movement at all, if Huang Taiji suddenly brings the Ming army over, they will be in danger, 30,000 people defend three cities, and Gaizhou Wei only has ten Hongyi cannons, they have no confidence at all in the face of nearly 100,000 Ming troops.

There is also a limit to this delay, Hong Chengchou grinded and grinded, grinding for nearly a month, and finally transported twenty thousand catties of Buddha Franc machines, Yuan Chonghuan immediately launched an attack on Haizhou City without hesitation.

This is said to be an attack, in fact, at the beginning, it was like the offensive and defensive battle of Xining Fort, Yuan Chonghuan couldn't even touch the walls of Haizhou City, because there were too many trenches dug by Jiannu, starting from about four miles outside the city, there were trenches all over the ground, Yuan Chonghuan could only set up artillery, while bombarding with the artillery in the city, and ordered people to slowly fill these damn trenches.

Fortunately, Jiannu did not set up an ambush in the trench, rockets, ordinary arrows or anything, the only threat was the artillery on the city wall, at the beginning, Yuan Chonghuan in order to prevent Jiannu from learning from him, ambushed archers in the back trench, and specially let people push siege vehicles to transport earth and stone to fill the trench.

However, after trying a few rounds, he found that people did not ambush the archers at all, and the target of the siege vehicle was still very large, a round down, there were always one or two siege vehicles were hit by shells, and the Ming soldiers hiding below did not have time to escape, and the casualties were still quite heavy.

As for the bombardment between the two sides, Yuan Chonghuan found that he still looked a little too high on the accuracy of the Jiannu artillerymen, when he was in Ningyuan City, the artillerymen under his command were all veterans who had been trained by the Francophiles, and even Nurhachi was almost bombarded by him with a cannon to the western sky, but the Jiannu gunners in Haizhou City were not accurate at all, it was purely a random bombardment, and if it hit, it was hit, and if it didn't hit, then you can only be considered lucky.

Of course, at this time, the artillerymen under him are not very dripping, time has passed, the group of artillery men in Ningyuan City died dead, scattered, and there is no trace of them for a long time, and now the artillery men under him are all trained by the Qi family army, and the time of contact with artillery is less than a year, and a total of a few cannons have not been fired, that quasi-head, can only be said to be slightly stronger than Jiannu, they adjusted for a long time to bombard the cannonball on the city wall, but they have never been able to lock the position of Jiannu's artillery.

Yuan Chonghuan saw this situation, he could only shake his head and smile bitterly, no way, this artilleryman is not something that can be practiced in a day or two, let them bombard, everyone is not familiar with it, at least it can reduce losses a little when attacking the city.

The trench outside the city of Haizhou was still very easy to fill at the beginning, the only threat was the artillery in the city, there was no accurate artillery for the Ming army scurrying around, the lethality can be imagined, basically a round of ten shells can hit one or two people is good, so, the Ming army did not have many casualties, and the progress is quite fast, basically a day a mile, a day a mile, less than four days, it was filled less than half a mile away from the city wall.

Fill in here, the Ming army finally encountered trouble, half a mile is about one hundred and fifty steps, although it is said that a hundred steps through Yang is the accurate head of the archer, but, dense projectile does not need to be accurate at all, plus the height difference of the city wall, the defenders in the city, it is easy to throw arrows to a distance of about one hundred and fifty steps.

This is really troublesome, because Jiannu will also release rockets, even if they push the siege vehicles to fill up slowly, they will lose a lot of siege vehicles in a day.

However, at this time, Yuan Chonghuan and Qierharang were quite calm.

Yuan Chonghuan was calm because he still had a lot of killer tricks to use, and Qierharang was calm because he had one of the biggest killer moves, that is, Huang Taiji's 160,000 reinforcements!