The time for the autumn harvest is gradually coming. In the second year of Chongzhen, in the second year of the old calendar, in the late September of the old calendar, after nearly three months of repair, Sun Chengzong and even Yuan Keli and others said that the Ming army outside the city was re-recruited from all over the city, and the team replenished was able to achieve the minimum familiarity and run-in in a short period of time under the new military training methods and severe pressure, and re-familiarize themselves with the orders. In the case of the main use of firearms and basic melee weapons, it barely made up for the huge losses suffered in the consumption from late June to early July of the old calendar. At the same time, with the addition of the remnants of the troops led by Zhu Xieyuan and others, not only ordinary soldiers, but also many elites who had lost before have also been replenished.

What's more, the gunpowder and ammunition have not only made up for the previous losses through several months of preparation, but the foundation is to a large extent much stronger than when the Guanning Army first entered the customs. In addition, after learning that the main force of the Manchurian Army had launched an expedition to the west, and that many Mongol servants had also sent the main force to the west, the total number of remaining forces in both the Shanxi and Guanning directions was reduced to a theoretical establishment of only 70,000 or 80,000, of which the Liaodong Army only had 20,000 or 30,000 troops inferior to those in 1644 in history.

In this way, the strength of the Ming army outside the capital suddenly increased to as many as 270,000 people, and if you include some reserve servants who are cannon fodder forces, it will be as much as 300,000. What made Sun Chengzong, who had always been conservative, somewhat confident: although the inner wall fortifications of the defenders had become a dirt slope like a dike, the Ming army outside the city also mobilized a large number of manpower to build perfect defensive fortifications at a distance of fifty or sixty miles outside the city. On the one hand, this made it more difficult for the defenders to break through, and to a large extent, it also allowed the Ming army outside the city to concentrate more elite main forces to attack in key directions.

Of course, Sun Chengzong remembered that since the seventh year of the Apocalypse, the Son of Heaven in the army had been using various methods one after another, but in fact, he still did not have the certainty of completely breaking through the city defense in the climax of the attack prepared in the autumn. In anticipation of the attack, if you can occupy part of the inner city, breaking the outer defense of the defenders is already quite unnecessary. The reason why it was necessary to launch an all-out offensive again before the onset of winter was, of course, based on the combat experience in many places in eastern Liaodong. If the time comes for the midwinter to freeze, the defenders only need to pour water on the slope to turn it into frozen soil, and let the entire city form a halo of ice by splashing water, then the attack will undoubtedly face greater resistance. If the problem cannot be fundamentally solved in this winter, and by the spring of the following year, the 270,000 regular troops and even 100,000 auxiliary soldiers and civilians who have gathered together will undoubtedly have major problems due to the problems of financial resources and food.

There is no doubt that King Gui of Nanjing, who intends to watch the lively Romance of the Three Kingdoms, will not continue to support the northern army to continue to attack the capital after the beginning of spring, and it is obviously in the interests of many people in the south of the Yangtze River to let the north fall into a mutual containment and separation.

Therefore, for this attack, Sun Chengzong of course made full preparations. In the temporary military meeting, the plan for the siege of the city was also finalized. The first step, of course, is to rely on the superiority of troops to engage the defenders in all directions throughout the city, and only by attacking with all their strength can the defenders be tested in a real sense. After that, under the cover of the Hongyi artillery group, which had already been deployed at an angle and position, and even at least 1,200 other large and small general guns, the main attacking force would first launch a frontal attack combining artillery bombardment, blasting, and strong attack from the northeast scorched heights between Andingmen and Dongzhimen, which were formed by the two sides piling up earth on each other, and strive to attract the main forces in the entire city.

Last but not least: if a frontal assault fails, the defenders will make the final move: use two giant demolition trucks to cover up the fifteen newly built giant counterweight trebuchets and attack the city walls, and use the cover of a night battle with counterweight trebuchets to close the city walls and blast them. Through the reverse operation of the lever principle like a counterweight trebuchet, at least 30,000 catties of Western black powder mines were concentrated together to detonate, which was estimated according to a previous blasting test south of Tongzhou. About 30,000 catties of decent black powder is enough to directly blow up a gap at least forty or fifty meters wide. If combined with some other rapid blasting methods, it is not impossible to expand this gap to a frontal of about sixty or seventy meters, and the shock caused by the huge explosion will undoubtedly make the defenders within a radius of 100 steps temporarily lose their combat effectiveness, and the defenders in a larger area will also be affected by the earth and rocks falling from the sky. In addition to these, there were many prepared siege methods to prepare, which gave Sun Chengzong the certainty of making a breakthrough in the autumn offensive.

This time, Cao Wenzhao and He Renlong's subordinates, who had not received much loss in the previous battle, had to be prepared to fight for attrition as the vanguard of the attack under the pressure of everyone. This also made the two feel a lot of pressure and dissatisfaction from the lower levels at the beginning. If it weren't for the fact that many powerful people in Shandong, Henan, and other places that had suffered heavy losses had generously spent a lot of financial resources to settle the army's morale under pressure, this offensive would have encountered many problems in morale and organization in the first place.

In this way, with the rumbling of artillery coming from the northeast of the capital, the defenders' seemingly long-planned preparations for the attack began again. This time, because the two sides of the battle in the northeast corner had formed a small dirt hill that lasted 200 paces and was about 10 zhang high, the night of the artillery fire was no longer a full-charge live ammunition, but a continuous and continuous artillery bombardment carried out by projecting live ammunition under the standard of a quarter or even less of the charge.

Tian Xiuying, Zhou Yuji, and others, who were in charge of commanding the defense of the city, certainly knew that when such an artillery bombardment lasted for more than two hours, the opponent's preparations would certainly not be in vain, and they would inevitably brew a long-planned attack. Fortunately, in the past few months, the defenders have not been completely unprepared. At least not as in the past, just under the tentative attack of the other party, it suddenly becomes dangerous. It's just that many people, including Xiao Xuan, also roughly expected that the defenders' attack would not be as simple as a strong attack, and there should be some innovations that may not be expected under the inspiration.

(End of chapter)