Garrisoned in Gaizhou City was Mang Gurtai, who was the fifth son of Nurhachi, one of the four Great Baylors of the Later Jin, and was the commander of the Zhenglan Banner at that time. Mang Gurtai's fame in later generations can be said to be more than 108,000 miles worse than Huang Taiji, but at that time, especially in the early days of the Later Jin Dynasty, his fame was even greater than that of Huang Taiji, because when he was young, he followed Nurhachi to fight in all directions, fought bravely and well, and made many military exploits.

The reason why he was named one of the four great beylers by Nurhachi was because of his bravery, his exploits; And although Huang Taiji is also one of the four great beylers, he is only deeply loved by Nurhachi because of his cleverness, and then he is more outstanding in strategy, that's all, compared to his military exploits, he is far inferior to Mang Gurtai.

After talking for a long time, I haven't said what the four Baylors do, these four Baylors are not ordinary princes, they are actually the names of the highest authorities in Houjin, Nurhachi "ordered the four Baylors to be divided into monthly branches, and all the machinery in the country was ordered to be in charge of Zhiyue Baylor." It can be seen from this that their power is as great as that of the first assistant of the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, Huang Taiji is only the last four Baylors of the Four Baylors, so even if he inherits the position of Houjin Great Khan, he will preside over the government with the other three Baylors. In other words, the power of this Mang Gurtai and Huang Taiji is not less than that of Huang Taiji, at least in the early days of Huang Taiji's succession.

However, since Huang Taiji established the six ministries in imitation of the Ming Dynasty, the power of the Later Jin Dynasty was gradually monopolized by him, and at this time, the four major Baylors actually existed in name only.

Needless to say, Da Beile Daishan is that he supported Huang Taiji to inherit the Han throne, and he has been towards Huang Taiji from the beginning;

Erbel Amin didn't have to worry about it, because he was only Nurhachi's nephew, not Nurhachi's son, and at this time he had been imprisoned by the Emperor Taiji for being unruly and disrespectful to his orders;

The only one who can still compete with Huang Taiji is the three Beile Mang Gurtai, originally, if it weren't for the big Baylor favoring Huang Taiji, the one who inherited the Han throne should be his Mang Gurtai.

Seeing that Huang Taiji is powerful, he is not a stupid person, on the surface, he did not sing against Huang Taiji, but behind his back, he kept making small movements, and there was a faint sense of wanting to regain the Han throne.

In fact, Huang Taiji knows all his small actions, but because he has always held the power of the army, Huang Taiji really has nothing to do with him, and this time he just needs someone to guard Gaizhou, so he was kicked to Gaizhou by Huang Taiji.

Huang Taiji didn't want his life, he just wanted him to be exiled to Gaizhou in disguise, just don't make trouble for him in Shengjing all day long. Therefore, Huang Taiji not only let him bring 10,000 elite Blue Banners, but also equipped him with 20,000 Jurchen infantry, and even Weiyuan General Cannon gave him 20 guns.

Mang Gurtai just didn't want to stay by Huang Taiji's side, looking at his face every day, he was also very happy to have the opportunity to come out and dominate one side. So at this time, Mang Gurtai was in a good mood, so he thought about when the army of the Ming Dynasty would retreat and lead people to fight the autumn wind. It seems that it has not been looted for more than a year, gold, silver and jewelry, Han women, I really miss it.

What he didn't expect was that the army of the Ming Dynasty not only did not retreat, but also surrounded Gaizhou City, which looked like it was going to attack the city. You don't care about repairing bunkers, you dare to run over and attack the city, it's really upside down.

Is Mang Gurtai afraid? He is really not afraid at all, counting the Ming army outside the city, it is only more than 100,000 to die, and he can't remember how many Ming troops were defeated under him, but he defeated no less than 100,000 Ming troops in the Battle of Salhu alone. That was defeated in the wilderness, and now he is guarding a city, and he still has 35,000 men and horses under his command, and he will be afraid of more than 100,000 Ming troops?

If someone asks him, "Are you afraid?" ”

He would definitely laugh and say, "Ha, ha, ha, ha, I, yes, I'm afraid, ah!" ”

Whether he is afraid or not, Zhu Cijiong and Sun Chengzong have conquered this Gaizhou city, and they must be captured.

Therefore, on the first day of arriving outside Gaizhou, Zhu Cijiong and Sun Chengzong came to a small hill more than two miles north of Gaizhou to observe the city defense situation of Gaizhou with a telescope.

After looking at it for a while, Sun Chengzong took the lead in putting down the binoculars, and said with a solemn face: "Zhenglan Flag, it's Mang Gurtai, it's troublesome." ”

Zhu Cijiong also put down the telescope when he heard this, and asked curiously, "Mang Gurtai?" Isn't it amazing? ”

Sun Chengzong replied worriedly: "This Mang Gurtai can be said to be the first fierce general of Jiannu, Huang Taiji is very good at intrigue and tricks, if he is put on the right side, he is definitely not Mang Gurtai's opponent." ”

Zhu Cijiong was taken aback when he heard this, it was so fierce, it was really troublesome.

He couldn't help asking: "Taifu Ke has any good strategy to deal with him?" ”

Sun Chengzong shook his head and sighed: "Mang Gurtai has been in battle for a long time, and these little tricks such as sneak attacks, feints, and temptations are useless to him. ”

Zhu Cijiong thought for a while, shook his head and said, "I can't think of it now, so I can only try the range of the artillery on the city wall first." ”

When Sun Chengzong heard this, he proposed: "Why don't you build some siege equipment first, and send someone to try it in two days?" ”

Zhu Cijiong continued to shake his head and said: "Even the minimum range of fire is not determined, and sending someone to test it may cause a lot of casualties!" ”

Sun Chengzong said resolutely: "Your Majesty, Weichen is courageous, the so-called mercy is not in charge of the army, how can there be immortals in the war, as long as you can win, no matter how many people die, it is worth it!" ”

In terms of commanding operations, Zhu Cijiong sent Sun Chengzong more than 108,000 miles, since Sun Chengzong insisted, there must be a certain amount of truth, Zhu Cijiong couldn't bear it, and he could only agree.

Therefore, the Ming army besieged Gaizhou for three days, and Sun Chengzong gathered 50,000 infantry in the north of Gaizhou, lined up in a serious position, carried a ladder on his back, pushed the well and attacked the city wall.

Of course, this is just a feint, but the Houjin defenders in the city don't know, the army just rushed into the city wall within two miles, "boom boom" five cannonballs flew up from the city wall, fell into the siege army, because the siege team stood relatively scattered, but did not cause too many casualties, each shell at most smashed to death and wounded more than a dozen Ming troops, some even a Ming army did not hit, directly fell on the open ground.

Still on the small dirt bag, Zhu Cijiong nervously asked Sun Yuanhua: "How is it, what is the range, can you see it?" ”

When Sun Yuanhua heard this, he put down his binoculars and said worriedly: "It's almost 600 steps, and the range of the 518 howitzer is almost the same, they should still use a 4-inch gun, but they have the advantage of the height of the city wall, and the range has increased by almost 100 steps." ”

Zhu Cijiong saw that the range had been calculated, and hurriedly said loudly: "Quick, Mingjin withdraws his troops." ”

Soon, the sound of a gong sounded in the Ming army's array, and the besieging soldiers immediately turned around and ran, and the Mang Gurtai on the city wall was dumbfounded, and the first temptation ended.

Zhu Cijiong saw that he had only lost more than ten soldiers in total, and said with a little joy: "It seems that their cannons still can't be moved, just now there are only five shells, that is to say, five cannons on each city wall, as long as they don't charge intensively, they won't cause too many casualties." ”

Sun Chengzong next to him reminded: "The problem is, you can't attack it at all if you don't charge intensively, there are more than 30,000 people in Jiannu, and it's useless to rush up like this." ”

When Zhu Cijiong heard this, he couldn't help but be stunned, he found that he still underestimated the difficulty of attacking the city, thinking that there would be no difficulty in attacking the city with artillery, and when he arrived at the scene, he knew that just more than forty cannons, facing the city wall several miles wide, the significance is really not very big, there are no armor-piercing shells in these years, and the power of gunpowder explosion has almost no damage to the city wall, and it is simply wishful thinking to collapse the city wall. At most, artillery can provide a little fire support, and if you really want to attack it, you have to rely on human lives to pile it up.

Now your own artillery has no advantage in range, what should I do? Could it be that if you just put on a posture to bombard, whoever is hit by the bomb will be unlucky?

He couldn't help but raise his binoculars again and look at the opposite city wall, "Huh", he suddenly realized that he had always been able to see the defenders on the city wall clearly, didn't this mean that the place where he stood was higher than the city wall!

I'm really stupid, what is the height of the city wall, no one stipulates that the besieging party can't build a mound of earth of the same height! He couldn't help but ask excitedly: "Taifu, how long will it take to build a slope as high as forty-five city walls?" ”

Sun Chengzong estimated it and replied, "It will take about ten days." ”

Zhu Cijiong slapped his face and said: "Okay, just build a row of earth slopes six hundred steps away from the city wall, or I will order the Ministry of Industry to build another hundred cannons, then it will be much easier to attack the city." ”

Sun Chengzong already understood what Zhu Cijiong meant, if more than a hundred cannons could be bombarded on the city wall at the same time, it would naturally be much easier to attack the city, and he couldn't help but ask excitedly: "How long will it take to build a hundred cannons?" ”

Zhu Cijiong calculated for a moment and immediately replied: "About a month is enough." ”

Sun Chengzong immediately stopped being excited when he heard this, he shook his head and sighed: "It's not in a hurry, it will snow in Liaodong in more than a month, and the heavy snow will definitely not be able to transport the cannons to the road, even if they are transported to this city, they can't attack it, as long as they pour some water on the city wall, we can't climb up if we all fall to death." ”

Zhu Cijiong said with some hesitation: "Then you want to attack again in the spring of the unknown year, right?" ”

Sun Chengzong said anxiously: "Your Majesty, we can't wait any longer, we can build cannons, they can also build cannons, next year there will be how many people and horses in this Gaizhou city, how many cannons are still unknown, attack it, this time even if the casualties are large, we will capture this Gaizhou." ”

Zhu Cijiong thought about it, it does make sense, the so-called opportunity must not be lost, and it will not come again, in case there is any accident, this Gaizhou does not know when it will be taken.

So, he gritted his teeth and nodded: "Okay, the siege will start in ten days, no matter what, we must take Gaizhou this time!" ”