Although Ningyuan City is not too big, it is very strong. The city wall is as high as three zhang, and there is a moat outside the city to protect it.

In the past two decades, Liaoxi was the border between the Ming and the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and wars were extremely frequent, and Ningyuan was on the front line of the war, and was besieged by the Manchus many times.

The fierce combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners and the strong mobility of the cavalry, the Ming army had no possibility of victory in the frontal battle, whether it was the Battle of Salhu or the later Battle of Tashan, the frontal battlefield field battle, the Ming army ended in failure.

Even if Yuan Chonghuan won the great victory of Ningyuan by becoming famous, he only captured more than 100 heads of the Eight Banners, repelled the Eight Banners with the strong walls and sharp artillery of Ningyuan, and also paid the huge price of the capture of Juehua Island and the burning of military rations.

Field warfare was not possible, in order to prevent the Qing army from attacking, the Ming Dynasty desperately built the side wall of the fortress. Dozens of fortresses were built in the entire western part of Liaoning, and a complete defense line was formed by the fortresses.

Therefore, even if Liaodong was lost, relying on Jinzhou, Ningyuan, Guangning and other fortresses, the Manchu Qing Dynasty could not cross the Liaoxi Corridor, the most convenient passage from outside the customs to inside the Guan. The Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs and looted five times, all of which were over the mountains and detoured to Mongolia, choosing to break the border wall between the mountains and mountains of Jizhou.

Although the Ming army was repeatedly defeated in the Liaodong battlefield in western Liaoning, it never let the Eight Banners fight to the last line of defense, Shanhaiguan. It can be seen from this that these fortresses in Ningyuan are strong!

Therefore, when he saw Ning Yuan's tall and sturdy city wall, Wu Ping knew that it was very difficult to easily break through Ning Yuan.

From the mouths of the captive people, it was learned that although there were only 1,000 troops in Ningyuan City, there were more than 30,000 people living in it. These people used to be military households in the Guanning Army, and as long as the men had received military training regardless of whether they were old or weak, most of them had served as soldiers.

When Wu Sangui just surrendered to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, he had more than 40,000 troops in his hands, and the total strength of the Eight Banners Army that entered the customs at that time was only 100,000. So after some reduction, most of the army was dismissed, and Wu Sangui only retained more than 10,000 elites in his hands.

These retrenched soldiers have all become peasants, cultivating the abandoned military fields in the Ningyuan area. Therefore, if the Manchu Qing government in Ningyuan was urgently mobilized, there would be no problem in recruiting four or five thousand people who had served as soldiers to re-enlist in a short period of time. Therefore, it is very difficult to lay down Ningyuan City.

After discussing with Li Yanzhi, Wu Ping decided not to rush to attack the city, first to surround Ningyuan City, block the connection between inside and outside the city, and then calmly send troops to arrest the people in the villages outside the city.

"The Qing army outside the city only has about 1,000 people, that is, they hurriedly recruited the people in the city to join the army, but the army that has not been trained for a long time can be used to defend the city, and it is not enough to attack our army when they go out of the city. Therefore, as long as we build a military camp at each of the four gates of Ningyuan, block the city gates, and block the people outside the city from escaping to Ningyuan, we can arrest the people outside the city. First clear the outside of Ningyuan City, and then attack Ningyuan City. Wu Ping said his plan.

"General, you also need to pay attention to the fact that if Ningyuan is besieged, it will inevitably ask for help from neighboring cities, such as Jinzhou, such as Shanhaiguan." Li Yanzhi reminded.

Wu Ping said with a smile: "It is precisely to let them reinforce me, and now I have the advantage of sea ships, and I can throw the army to all parts of western Liaoning at any time." As long as you can detect the location of enemy reinforcements, you can send troops to reach the rear of enemy reinforcements by boat and attack from the flank.

How many Manchu troops could there be in Liaoxi? Let's just use Ningyuan City as bait to force them to come to the rescue, eat them all one by one, and then attack Ningyuan City! “

"Wait for work with ease, surround the point to help, great goodness!" Li Yanzhi smiled.

Wu Ping said again: "I will be responsible for the war, and Juehua Island will be handed over to Mr., and in the future, there will be captured people on the island every day, and it is up to Mr. to settle them." ”

Li Yanzhi nodded: "General, don't worry, I will isolate the captured adult men, women, children, old and young." There are women, children, old and children in our hands, and these captive men will never dare to be disobedient. Just use them to build houses, transport food, and serve our army as people! ”

Wu Ping praised: "Mr. thinks of Zhou Xiang." ”

Wu Ping immediately issued an order to send three armies to camp three miles outside the three doors of Ningyuan, east and west, each with 2,000 men, led by a guerrilla general. Wu Ping himself took the main force to set up a village at the south gate of Ningyuan. Build a fort on a high post five miles away from Ningyuan City, set up 30 artillery pieces and start shelling Ningyuan City.

The cannon rumbled and shook the sky, and the cannonballs smashed towards Ningyuan City across the sky. Cannonballs crossed the city walls and fell into the city, smashing houses and collapsing, and the people screamed and screamed. There were cannonballs falling on the top of the city, the battlements that smashed straight into the building were broken, the bricks and stones flew together, and the Qing soldiers defending the city screamed and dodged again and again; Cannonballs fell on the walls, and the entire wall shook violently, and debris of masonry rained down from the walls.

Thirty red-clothed cannons fired at the same time, and their power was earth-shattering, and the soldiers and civilians in Ningyuan City were shocked and colorless.

The former Ming Liaodong Governor Yamen in the city is now the county government of Yuanzhi County in Qingning. In the county office, listening to the rumbling cannons, Ning Yuanzhi County Ma Dayuan's face was pale and trembling.

He turned out to be the lord of Yongping County in the Ming Dynasty, and after surrendering to the Manchu Dynasty, he relied on the Manchu Dynasty to get a Baylor in the Manchu Dynasty and was promoted to Ningyuan Zhi County.

I thought that I could rise to the top by voting for the Qing Dynasty, but I didn't expect that after only two years as a peace officer, a large number of Ming troops were killed in Ningyuan.

When the news of the Ming army's floating sea slaughter reached Ningyuan, Ma Dayuan immediately sent someone to call the guerrilla general Meng Yong to deploy Ningyuan's defense. There are only 1,000 troops in Ningyuan City, and this is because Ningyuan is an important place in western Liaoning, so there are so many soldiers, and in the other counties occupied by the Qing army, it would be good to have two or three hundred soldiers.

Although I don't know how many Ming troops came, a thousand soldiers didn't help at all.

Soon, the intelligence of the Ming army came into the city, and when he heard that the Ming army had 20,000 or 30,000 troops, Ma Dayuan was shocked beyond measure.

After discussing with the county lord Bo, Ma Dayuan immediately decided to recruit the young and strong people in the city to join the army, and sent all the officials in the county to mobilize, and drove all the young and strong people in the city to the city to defend the city.

For the people in the city, most families have children serving as soldiers under Wu Sangui, and they absolutely do not want to see the Ming army enter the city, so they also responded to the call of the government.

Looking at the dense crowd of soldiers and strong men standing on the city wall, Ma Dayuan's heart was slightly settled. There are four or five thousand people recruited, so they should be able to hold Ningyuan, right?

As long as he guards Ningyuan, he can save his official position and net worth, as for the villages outside the city that were looted by the Ming army, Ma Dayuan really can't take care of so much.

Who knew that the Ming army would carry so many cannons! Listening to the rumbling cannon, Ma Dayuan was really afraid. If the city wall is bombarded by artillery, no one in the city will be able to escape!