Sun Chuanting's self-examination and taking the initiative to take responsibility for the problems in the reform of the battle plan finally suppressed the dissatisfied complaints among the guards.

However, this review also brought an end to the General Staff's attempt to expand the war and restore the southern Liaoning region. The war once again returned to the goal described in the previous battle plan, which was to attract the main force of Shenyang to the south, so as to give the imperial court time to solve the problem of Chahanhot.

It should be said that the Ming army's attempt to encircle and annihilate the Qing army in Gaizhou and Fuzhou had successfully angered Shenyang, and before they could return to Yingkou, Huang Taiji had already sent troops from Shenyang. This also means that although there were some mistakes in the process, the Ming army had achieved the operational purpose of this expedition.

The next question is, how long should the Guards hold out at Yingkou? Some Ming merchants in Yingkou believed that the Ming should be withdrawn before the port was frozen, and a small number of guards and soldiers also held this view. However, most of the officers and soldiers of the Guards hoped to rely on Yingkou City to have a good battle with the Qing army to make up for the regret of failing to capture Xiongyue Town.

And people like Huang Degong and others went a step further, they believed that the geographical location of Yingkou at the mouth of the Liaohe River was important, and if the Ming could keep this stronghold, they could threaten the enemies of Gaizhou and Fuzhou to the east, echo the Jinzhou and Yizhou defense lines to the west, and reach Shenyang directly to the north.

Therefore, as long as there is a glimmer of possibility, we should stick to this place and create a favorable base for the Ming Dynasty to restore the whole Liao land in the future. However, Sun Chuanting did not support this radical opinion, believing that the situation between the Ming and the Manchu would not change much in the short term, and that holding on to Yingkou would become a burden for the Ming rather than the Manchus.

After all, the Manchu Qing Dynasty only needed to build a few fortresses on land to block Yingkou, and the Yingkou side of the ice period of up to 2 months every winter would become the most unfavorable natural conditions for the defenders of Yingkou in the Ming Dynasty. In these two months, the defenders of Yingkou will not get any support from the rear, if the Qing army gathers a large army to attack, it is of course a good thing to hold it, if it can't hold it, it will be too big a blow to the morale of the Ming army.

For the current Ming army, maintaining the morale of the army and daring to compete with the Qing army in the field is more important than holding a Yingkou city. Therefore, Sun Chuanting decided not to give the Qing army a chance to besiege Yingkou with the help of the natural conditions of winter. Before the freeze period came, the Guards and the inhabitants of Yingkou were to withdraw to Qinhuangdao or Lushun, leaving an empty city for the Manchus.

Of course, before this, if the main force of the Qing army arrived at Yingkou City first, then the Ming army should still fight with the main force of the Qing army to test the real combat strength and combat characteristics of the Qing army.

Although Sun Chuanting's proposition was opposed by some officers of the Guards, a large number of officers such as Li Yan and Li You chose to support his proposition, believing that Sun's proposition was the most in line with His Majesty's instructions before sending troops. With the support of these officers, a resolution was finally passed at this meeting, that is, the Guards should hold out until the freeze period arrived, and evacuate the Ming people and the pro-Ming Manchu people in Yingkou City.

Because of the lack of transportation capacity, Sun Chuanting, at the prompting of the naval representatives, revised the decision to evacuate all the residents of the city, and decided to leave most of the Manchus and Han Chinese who were unwilling to leave at Yingkou.

For the residents of the city, the decision of the Ming army made them both happy and a little overwhelmed. Some Han Chinese want to stay, after all, their property is here. They didn't know how to survive after leaving here, but they were afraid that the Qing army would retaliate against them when they entered the city. Some Manchus wanted to leave, after all, their first act of surrendering to the Han people was seen by the residents of the city, but they were a little worried that they would be discriminated against by the Han people when they went to the Han people.

Since the Ming army announced the evacuation plan, the people of Yingkou have become a little confused, and a few Manchus thought that the Ming people wanted to escape, and actually took to the streets openly to call on the Manchus to take up arms to attack the Ming army, so as to cooperate with the Qing army outside the city to take Yingkou.

For these hot-brained Manchurians, they were naturally suppressed by the Ming army at the first time. The Manchurians, who had long been confiscated by the Ming army, were almost powerless to resist in the face of the muskets and cannons of the Ming army. When the blood of hundreds of young people stained the whole street, this can be regarded as making these people in the city honest.

However, with the outbreak of this incident, the Ming army also accelerated the evacuation of the people in the city, and began to physically block the neighborhoods inhabited by the Manchus to prevent them from continuing to make trouble.

Two days after the Ming army withdrew to Yingkou, the army led by Huang Taiji finally arrived at Yaozhou City. Soon Huang Taiji personally led his troops to Yingkou City, and at this time he had received a joint letter from the generals led by Ye Keshu. Although Dorgon had tried his best to absolve him of the responsibility for the siege, Huang Taiji called him to reprimand him as soon as he arrived at the city, and although he did not deal with him immediately, he still deprived him of the command of the army.

Although Dolgon presided over the siege battle, it was a huge momentum, but there was no progress, but the morale of the siege Qing army recovered a lot, and Huang Taiji did not use this to reprimand him, but by the way, he took back the command of the siege troops.

On October 23, the artillery of the Qing army finally arrived at Yingkou, and more than 70 large and small artillery pieces were placed in front of the north gate of Yingkou. Among them, there are as many as 28 red-coated cannons with a body length of about three meters and a body weight of more than two tons.

These red-coated cannons, which were given the name of the Great General Cannon, have been cast with cylindrical lugs near the center of gravity of the gun body, and tail beads for hanging at the tail, and their effective firing range has also been increased from about 500 meters to 8 or 900 meters, while the maximum firing range is still less than 2 kilometers.

Although these red-coated cannons looked huge, when they fired at Yingkou City, the officers of the Ming army quickly discovered that the power of these cannons did not seem to be commensurate with their individuality.

To put it bluntly, this is also the first time that the Ming army defending the city has been attacked by the Qing army's artillery group, and it is also a very beneficial battle for the officers of the Ming army. Studying the power of artillery on the training ground, so as to conceive of how to conduct anti-artillery combat, is never better than being attacked head-on by enemy artillery in front of enemy artillery.

Of course, at this time, the officers of the Ming army, who knew more about the principles and power of artillery shooting than the Qing army, naturally did not stay on the city wall to face the fire of the Qing artillery. In order to alleviate the damage caused by the splashing of debris when the solid bullets fired by the Qing army destroyed the masonry of the city wall, the Ming army also filled the city wall with sacks of sand and erected small shelters to accommodate certain personnel on the city wall to monitor the movements of the Qing army.

Facts have proved that this kind of sandbag position set up by the Ming army is indeed very effective, even if the iron cannon directly hits this double-layer sandbag wall, it rarely causes any damage to the Ming soldiers in the bunker. The impulse of the shell basically stopped working under the cushion of the earth.

Li Yan observed the artillery shooting of the Qing army for a long time, and roughly understood the power of the Qing army's artillery and the training degree of the Qing army's artillery units. He reported to Sun Chuanting like this, "... The performance of all kinds of artillery of the Qing army, except for the Hongyi cannon, is roughly similar to the performance of the Franc machine gun that was eliminated by our army.

The Franc cannon is fine against a backward army that is not equipped with artillery, but if it encounters our field artillery in the field, it will be powerless, so this type of artillery is basically not to be feared.

As for the Qing army's Hongyi cannon, the cannonballs fired were about ten catties of iron bullets or lighter stone bullets. The firing standard iron bullet is more powerful and has a longer range. However, when firing stone projectiles, the power and range are reduced.

Based on my separate observations with other members of the General Staff, we believe that the Qing army's Hongyi cannon was similar in shape to the 16-18-pounder naval guns equipped with European merchant ships, but the effective range was less than half that of these naval guns. If we compare it with our field artillery, the firing range of these Hongyi cannons is roughly equivalent to the firing range of our army's 12-kilogram howitzers, and their power is comparable to that of our army's 12-kilogram cannons.

As for the shooting literacy of the gunners of the Qing army, it can basically be described as uneven. Of course, judging from the arrangement of the opponent's artillery positions, it is quite organized, but it has not been carefully calculated, and there is no certain rule on the distance between the left and right front and rear of the artillery..."

After hearing this, Huang Degong on the side immediately said with disappointment: "In this way, the two 18-kilogram guns that we took a lot of effort to get from the navy ship before, this is a waste of effort?" In fact, the artillery of our army alone is enough to shoot at these Hongyi artillery? ”

Before Li Yan could answer, Sun Chuanting had already cut off and said: "How can it be regarded as a waste of effort, if you can reduce the number of casualties and a few soldiers of the Guards, it is worth wasting your strength." So now, Staff Officer Li, when do you think it's better for us to launch a counterattack? ”

Li Yan's attention immediately turned back, and after pondering for a moment, he said, "The Qing army has been shooting for a morning, and cracks have appeared in the city wall near the North Gate Tower. Xia Guan thought that when this city wall was bombarded with a gap, it must be the time when the Qing army attacked on a large scale, and this was a good time for our artillery to counterattack. But there is one thing that is very strange, it is difficult for the lower officials to be sure for a while..."

Sun Chuanting suddenly asked, "What's strange?" ”

Li Yan immediately said: "It stands to reason that our army has used a large number of artillery shots when defending the city before. Although the artillery of the Qing army could not shoot over the city wall, there was no reason not to be wary of our artillery launching a counterattack when they attacked the breach in the city wall, so Xia Guan always felt a little unsure. ”

Sun Chuanting lowered his head and thought for a moment, then made a decision: "The sea passage is always in my hands, and the east and west sides of Yingkou City are not conducive to the attack of most of the Qing army, even if the Qing army has any conspiracy, it can only come from the front. Li You guards the west gate, Huang Degong guards the east gate, you and I guard the north gate together, no matter what the Qing army wants to do, we must first smash this attack and artillery positions of the Qing army..."

PS: On the 14th-16th, I will take three days off, please bear with me.

(. = )