Human beings are like a school of fish swimming in the waters of a river, and everything we know and see is limited by this river. When we encounter scenery beyond the river, we often either make a wrong judgment or choose not to believe that there is something other than the river.

Although before Huang Taiji arrived at Yingkou, he had heard that the Ming army's firearms were quite fierce, which led to several defeats in the attack on Yingkou. However, after Huang Taiji climbed the high platform built by Dolgon outside Yingkou City and observed several forts in the city that could not be completely covered, he thought that the artillery of the Ming army might not be able to match his own red-coated cannons.

Since Huang Taiji ordered Tong to supervise the construction of cannons, he has been extremely concerned about the matter of casting cannons. However, after all, the Jurchens were a nation at a relatively low level of civilization, and being able to change from a slave republic to a feudal state was already a great leap in civilization for the Jurchens.

It is undoubtedly a fool's dream to make this nation go beyond the feudal civilization of the Middle Ages and directly enter the era of scientific enlightenment. Until now, the craftsmen of Shenyang have not been able to scientifically distinguish between the three types of iron-carbon alloys, namely wrought iron, steel, and pig iron, let alone let them understand the principle of artillery firing.

Yes, the craftsmen of Shenyang, through countless practical tests, understood that in order for a cannon to shoot smoothly, the cannon body must be able to withstand the force of explosion in the chamber. However, they do not understand what the power of a standard* explosion is, how to calculate the pressure that the chamber can withstand, and use this pressure as a standard to design the thickness of the barrel wall of the gun.

It was the lack of such scientific precision measurements and mathematical stress calculations that made the best gunners of the Qing army unqualified in the eyes of the engineers of the Ming Ordnance Superintendent. Because they still use empirical casting cannons, rather than using scientific data to control the casting of artillery.

In order to improve the success rate of cannon casting, the gunsmiths of the Qing army did not hesitate to cast the cannon large and thick. And this also gave Huang Taiji and other people in the upper echelons of the Manchurian people an illusion, making them think that if the artillery wanted to hit far, and the more powerful the shells, they had to build as big as possible.

Most of the guns placed by the Ming army on the forts in Yingkou City were small cannons, and there were only two long-barreled cannons similar to the Hongyi cannons. In Huang Taiji's view, this battle should have an advantage in artillery.

Moreover, in order to guard against the shells that exploded in the air of the Ming people, he also specially brought a number of improved shield carts from Shenyang, which not only used thick pine wood of more than three inches as a shield, but also installed a layer of iron sheet on the outside of the pine, and added defenses on the sides and top, which looked like a small house with wheels.

Such a shield cart could cover 35 people, and Huang Taiji planned to wait until the artillery blasted the wall of Yingkou open, so he ordered 12 of these special shield carts to occupy the gap in the city wall for the vanguard, and the rear was followed by a large number of men covered by ordinary shield carts, so as to rush into the city in one fell swoop.

For Huang Taiji, this was also the first time that the Manchus adopted a new siege method of combining artillery and infantry, and it was undoubtedly a good time to test new tactics. The reason why he was willing to make peace with the Ming Dynasty for several years was that he saw the destructive power of artillery on the fortified city, and hoped to use this new tactic to restrain the defense line connected by the forts and fortified cities built by the Ming army in Yizhou and Jinzhou.

Huang Taiji believed that as long as this new method of warfare could really be used in actual combat, then the Ningjinyi defense line built by the Ming State in western Liaoxi would be reduced to ruins one by one in front of the red-coated cannons of the Qing Dynasty. Without these fortified fortresses to rely on, what else could the Ming army use to resist the attack of the Qing army?

With the Mongols' tendency to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, once it is discovered that the Qing army can directly enter the pass, then many of them will inevitably change their stance and move closer to Shenyang in order to seek their own safety. In this way, the northern defense line that the little emperor of the Ming Kingdom had painstakingly managed was also broken without attacking.

Huang Taiji endured for a long time, hoping to surprise the Ming people with this battle, so that they would know that there would be no strong fortress in the Ming Dynasty from now on, so that the Ming army, which seemed to have recovered its morale, fell into a panic about the Qing army's force again. Once the Ming army lost the confidence to fight against the Qing army, then the next war against the Ming State would bring great convenience to the Qing army's actions.

But when the war really broke out, Huang Taiji did not reap any surprises. On the contrary, he and the Manchurian nobles around him were struck by the current war scene.

At about one o'clock in the afternoon, the artillery of the Qing army finally made a gap of nearly 5 meters on the east wall of the north gate of Yingkou, and the Qing army, which had already been prepared, suddenly pushed the iron shield cart towards the gap, and just as the artillery of the Qing army tried to continue firing at the city walls on both sides, the artillery of the Qing army finally counterattacked.

With two 18-pound guns as the lead, four 12-pounder field cannons followed, and six iron bullets burned to a dark red color grazed over the low city walls, and then flew towards the artillery positions of the Qing army. The estimates of the Ming observers were quite accurate, and the first round of fire was only half missed, and although one of the shells passed through the artillery positions of the Qing army, it happened to hit a group of Qing cavalry lined up behind the artillery positions.

This 18-pound cannonball pierced the cavalry, and half of Niulu's cavalry disappeared under this cannonball, and some of the cavalry were even beaten into pulp with men and horses, and they didn't even have time to shout out a single scream. But compared to their companions who had been grazed by the shells, these people were undoubtedly lucky, because at least they didn't have to feel any pain.

And the shells that fell into the artillery positions, one fell into the earth; One just smashed a miscellaneous servant who couldn't dodge in half, and the cannonball wiped out his entire upper body; The last one crashed into the wheels of a red-clad cannon cart, causing the cannon to become crooked.

Just when the artillerymen of the Qing army were still watching where these shells were flying from, the second round of shooting of the Ming army arrived. After adjusting the angle of the Ming artillery, this round of shooting only missed one shell, and the remaining five fell into the Qing artillery position.

After receiving such a fierce artillery bombardment, Tuna who managed the artillery team was the first to react, and he pulled the Gushan Ezhen Shi Tingzhu, who was still a little dazed, and said: "We must withdraw the * and the generals on the position, otherwise once they are damaged by the artillery of the Ming army, we can't afford to bear this responsibility." ”

Only then did Shi Tingzhu react, and quickly called the guards around him to drive the Han soldiers who were fleeing everywhere to tow the cannon. And Tuna glanced left and right, and found that the high platform where Huang Taiji was located was actually not out of the range of the Ming artillery, but the shooting of the Ming artillery was too sudden, and everyone didn't expect it for a while.

Even though Tuna is still on an errand for the Ming Dynasty, he doesn't want Huang Taiji to die so inexplicably at this moment, after all, since he returned to Shenyang, he has still been taken care of by this Great Khan, and those grievances in the past have also dissipated a lot. What's more, the artillery position is too dangerous at the moment, God knows when these damn Ming artillery shells will ignite the random piles on the position*, he decided to take the opportunity to report to Huang Taiji and stay away from here first.

And when Tuna ran to remind Huang Taiji to evacuate, there were also generals of Wuzhen Chaoha who seemed to have been hit by the artillery bombardment of the Ming army, and at such a moment, they also grabbed their men to load ammunition, intending to return fire at the Ming army in the city.

However, just as the gunner was charging, a Ming artillery shell finally hit the * barrel in a corner of the position, and the violent explosion lifted up the three or four red-coated cannons nearby, and some shells piled up on the side were also shaken out. The soldier who was reloading the muzzle* happened to be hit in the skull by a shell flying sideways, and lay directly on the ground, not knowing whether he was dead or alive.

Although the nearby gunners took the opportunity to run away, the Qing general, who urged the artillery to return fire, still refused to give up, and ran over to reload*. This man did not understand firearms, and the Qing army did not implement the fixed loading*, in his opinion* naturally the more the better, so he poured five or six spoons of the original two-and-a-half-spoon charge, not counting the previous soldier's *.

After the Qing general had loaded*, he returned to the back of the gun, picked up the iron stick that had been red-hot in the charcoal stove, and pressed it down on the gun door. Maybe it's because this loaded * is too much, maybe it's that the life of this red-coated cannon is almost over, maybe it's both, and the cannon lit by this Qing army general didn't fire out, but caused an explosion.

Compared with the explosion caused by the Ming army's hit on the * barrel just now, the damage of the cannon explosion to the surrounding personnel and nearby artillery this time is also not much smaller.

Huang Taiji, who was fleeing to the safety of the rear by Hauge and Dolgon, was still reluctant to look at the artillery position behind him that was constantly exploding and wailing. Although he has always been calm in front of people, and can charge when the battle situation is unfavorable to urge the generals to use their lives, in the face of this force that cannot be disobeyed by manpower, he cannot refuse to let his subordinates carry him to escape to safety.

It's just that Huang Taiji still hasn't figured out why the power of the Ming artillery is so great, this is simply witchcraft. If it weren't for the fact that ordering the withdrawal of troops at this moment would cause the morale of the army to be shaken, Huang Taiji couldn't help but order the siege troops to withdraw first and then make calculations.

At this moment, he could only hope that those reinforced shield carts could withstand the shells of the Ming army, so that he could withdraw his troops with dignity.

It should be said that the defensive performance of these shield cars with roofs and iron sheets is quite good. The Ming army's three-pound cannon and six-pound cannon basically couldn't penetrate these shield cars, and the 12-pound * cannon could only destroy part of the shield surface, but it still couldn't stop the entire shield car from moving forward.

And the * itself has a low success rate, and with the blocking of the roof, the damage to the soldiers under the shield cart is also minimal. It wasn't until these shield carts were concentrated in the gap in the city wall that the 12-kilogram cannon and the 18-kilogram naval cannon could be directly aimed at these Qing soldiers that these Qing soldiers quickly understood why the Ming Emperor would call the artillery the king of war.

ps: I barely finished this chapter, I really can't be distracted, we'll see you in three days, dear readers.