The siege cannons of the Ming army are now in Ansan Lake, because the light enemy of Emperor Zhu Hongsan was ambushed by the Qing army in Ansan Lake, and the loss of personnel is acceptable, that is, these siege mortars have sunk to the bottom of the lake. If it is a small cannon of less than 1,000 catties in the army, it can still be salvaged, but the siege heavy artillery weighs seven or eight thousand catties each. At that time, for the convenience of transportation, the gun carriage was removed and fixed on the bottom of the ship, which could play the role of some ballast stones and prevent the flat-bottomed canal ships from being blown over by strong winds.

But this is now troublesome, after the ship was burned by the Qing army, those heavy artillery did not lose anything, just sank to the bottom of the lake five or six meters deep, but because there was no gun mount, there was no place to salvage in the lake, and over time the heavy artillery slowly sank into the silt in the lake, and now it is even more difficult to salvage.

Although everyone knows that the logistics fleet was attacked by a sneak attack, Zhu Hongsan, who was so happy, bore the main responsibility, if Zhu Hongsan had not played something to lure the snake out of the hole, the fleet would not have been able to go on the road under the escort of just one division. Now something went wrong, making the Ming army preparing to attack Jinan very passive.

In fact, when he was in Suqian, Zhu Hongsan's main generals opposed the emperor's schemes, and now the Ming army has the main advantage, so there is no need to engage in those fancy work, just fight steadily and steadily, and push it over smoothly, what Jinan and Beijing are all crushed into powder under absolute firepower. However, Emperor Zhu Hongsan was very stubborn, and Qian Yong, Zhao Guodong and others did not dare to oppose the emperor's intentions, so they listened to the emperor's suggestion to divide the army.

Although the generals knew what was going on in their hearts, they still had to protect the emperor's face on the surface, and now the generals of the whole army listened to Jiang Pengju's question about the cannon, and none of them said a word.

Zhao Guodong glared and scolded: "Your mother, why don't you fight without artillery?" Lao Tzu told you that even if you pick it up by hand, you will also collapse the Jinan city wall to Lao Tzu! ”

Jiang Pengju was most afraid of Zhao Guodong in the army, and now he didn't dare to ask when he heard what the commander said.

Zhao Guodong looked at the division commander and deputy division commander under his subordinates, and said: "Lao Tzu told you that His Majesty the Emperor has issued a strict order to attack Jinan Mansion within a month, and His Majesty will enter Beijing before the Spring Festival!" So no matter what tricks you use, if you haven't taken Jinan City within the specified time, you will make Lao Tzu unable to explain in front of the emperor, and Lao Tzu will pick your skin when he comes back! Tomorrow, all divisions will form a team and set off for Jinan! ”

It is now July 28, four months before the New Year, and in the Ming Dynasty, due to the influence of the Xiaoice River, the Shandong boundary was already very cold at the end of July, although there was no snow, but it had dropped to zero degrees at night in the mountains. Most of Zhu Hongsan's soldiers were southerners, and many of them had no experience of fighting in cold areas at all. Although the Ming army was well supplied, Zhu Hongsan was still afraid that if there was a mistake in winter, he ordered that Jinan must be taken before the end of August, and then immediately march north to take Beijing. Zhao Guodong's subordinates heard what the commander said, and breathed a sigh of relief, and they had no choice but to go down and prepare for tomorrow's army.

In the Ming Dynasty, Jinan Mansion was the first of the six prefectures in Shandong, and Jinan Mansion governed the city, leading four prefectures and 26 counties, and the territory was vast and unprecedented. As the provincial capital, Jinan's level of social and economic development is second to none, even if it is not second to none among the six prefectures, it is also at the upper middle level. In view of the status of Shandong Province in the country at that time, it can be said that in the northern region, the level of social and economic development of Jinan Province can be called moderately developed.

However, this is before the apocalypse year of the Ming Dynasty, in the late Ming Dynasty in the huge peasant uprising, Shandong, which is close to Henan, was also affected, but the chaos in Shandong did not have much impact on Jinan City, and it was the Qing army in Liaodong that directly caused fatal damage to the Jinan city wall.

In the eleventh year of Chongzhen, Huang Taiji sent Dolgon to lead the army into the pass, and the soldiers were divided into two roads, respectively from the wall of Ziling and Qingshan Pass to destroy the side wall and enter, and the soldiers went until Jinan. The two armies moved to An, crossed Fengrun, met in Tongzhou, along the Taihang Mountain and the canal, divided the troops into eight routes, and attacked westward. The six towns and cities that passed along the way were all plundered. The Qing army penetrated deep into the southern part of Hebei, connected Guangping, Shunde, Daming and other places, and then turned to Shandong, bypassed Dezhou, and rendezvoused under the city of Jinan, and within one day, broke through the city of Jinan. Jinan was plundered, and then moved on to 16 other towns in Shandong. After that, Dolgon led his army to Tianjinwei, crossed the canal and returned to Liaodong.

In this battle, the Manchu Qing Dynasty killed two governors and more than 100 generals above the garrison, captured Zhu Youshu, the king of Germany, Zhu Ciying, the king of the county, Zhu Cisheng, the general of Fengguo, and Feng Zhu, the eunuch of the supervising army, and obtained 462,300 men and animals, 4,000 taels of gold, and 977,400 taels of silver. So far, Jinan Mansion, which is known as "lotus flowers on all sides and willows on three sides, a city with mountains and half a city lake", has completely become another scene in the late Ming Dynasty. Originally, there were more than 600,000 people in the city, but there were less than 100,000 left, and in recent years, Shandong was full of anti-Qing forces, and everyone wanted to come to Jinan to take a bite, and now Jinan has completely become a dead city.

He had never been to Jinan, he had only heard of the reputation of this important town in Luzhong, and originally thought that even if it was broken, there were hundreds of thousands of people, and he was wrong to develop himself here.

But there is no regret medicine in the world, and after Jinan, there is no big city to defend, and the defensive line can only retreat to the front line of Tianjin. Tianjin in the Ming Dynasty was not the municipality with a population of tens of millions in later generations, Tianjin Wei in the Ming Dynasty was only a county-sized health station, and it became a city because the Manchu Qing Dynasty ceded Tianjin to the foreign powers as a concession, and Tianjin became a city with the efforts of foreigners.

It is simply unrealistic to use the county city wall in Tianjin to deal with the Ming army, and there is no way to mobilize manpower to renovate the city wall of Jinan.

Jinan Mansion City was formed in the Song Dynasty, it was originally a rammed earth city, starting from the four years of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, after five large-scale construction in the Ming Dynasty, there was a high and majestic and magnificent Jinan Mansion City Wall. In the early years of Hongwu, the urn outside the earth city was made of bricks and stones, and it was transformed into a brick city. Jinan Ming Dynasty city wall six more than 1,000 meters, 10 meters high, 16 meters wide, west gate, south gate, east gate outside also built urn city, the city pass built with four city towers, three arrow towers, the city wall built with corner towers, enemy platforms, shop houses and other defense facilities, more than 3,000 battlements, the lower part of the green square stone base, about two meters on the ground, the upper part of the blue brick masonry, each brick weighs 30 catties, can be described as solid.

Of course, Jierharang now has limited resources at hand, and he can't repair the Jinan city wall as before, so he can only fill the gap and wait for the arrival of the Ming army.

In the Ming Dynasty, Tai'an was under the management of Jinan Prefecture, and there was an official road connection between the two places, although it passed through the mountainous area, but the marching conditions were still relatively good. The Ming army led by Zhao Guodong set out from Tai'an on July 29 and came to Jinan on the fifth day of August.

At this time, Jierharang had already received a report of the annihilation of Yue Le's entire army, although Yue Le still had 20,000 people left, but was the cavalry without horses still considered cavalry? Zilharang didn't expect that the fighting power of the Ming army was so strong, only 15,000 people could block 100,000 people for a day, so what should he do with the 45,000 people in front of him?

Jierharang stood on the Luoyuan Gate of the West Gate and looked at a large number of Ming troops who walked in from afar, Yi Yonggui, the chief soldier of Baoding beside him, was stationed in Shanxi before, and was guarded against Jiang Yang in Datong, and had not yet fought with the army of the Southern Ming, and now he saw that the Ming army wanted to make a first contribution in front of the leader, so he stood up and said: "Prince Zheng, my subordinates think that while the Ming army is not firmly established, going out to fight can weaken the morale of the Ming army, please allow the prince!" ”

Jierharang is an old fritter, he knows the strength of the Ming army, and the army opposite is led by Zhao Guodong, the second general of the Ming army, Zhao Guodong has been confronting the Manchus in Yangzhou, and has fought countless battles in recent years, and the Manchus still know Zhao Guodong's prestige.

"No, this time the Ming army is leading the troops is the fierce general Zhao Guodong, this person was in Jiading to fight against my Qing Dynasty soldiers, it is very difficult to deal with, no one is allowed to go out of the city to fight, and those who violate the order will be beheaded!" Jilharang rejected Yi Yonggui's order to ask for battle, and then said to the prefect of Jinan: "The city wall must be strengthened, there are several places where the construction progress is lagging behind, and the foreman will be beheaded, and this king must see the completion of the city wall at dawn tomorrow!" ”

It's right that Ji'er Harang didn't send someone out, how could Zhao Guodong not know this truth after a long battle. The Ming army had already prepared, waiting for the Qing army to come out to pick up the bargain, and then took advantage of the Qing army's carelessness to attack the city in one fell swoop. As long as the Ming army enters the city, everything will be closed, the Ming army's super combat effectiveness and rich experience in street fighting, Zhao Guodong believes that as long as he is given two days, he will definitely be able to seize Jinan from the hands of the Manchus.

But who knew that Zilharang was shrewd, and knew that he had a second-rate army in his hands, and only relying on the city wall was the right way, so he was not fooled, but hid in the city with peace of mind and watched the Ming army camp.

The camping of the Ming army is also very strange, it stands to reason that the army belongs to the besieging side and should surround Jinan. But Zhao Guodong went the opposite way, only camped here at the West Gate, and there was no one to guard the other three directions, as if he was not afraid of the Qing army taking the opportunity to break through. In fact, Zhao Guodong was really not afraid of the Qing army breaking through, because the 50,000 cavalry of the Ming army had already arrived in Dezhou, and the Qing army in Jinan wanted to retreat to Beijing, and there was only such a way. Yue Le's 150,000 cavalry can't do it, and Zhao Guodong doesn't believe that Ji'er Harang's 70,000 second-rate Han Army Eight Banners can break through the cavalry blockade?

And Zilharang had no intention of escaping at all, but closed the four gates tightly and actively prepared in the city, just waiting for the siege of the Ming army.

Zhao Guodong was very depressed when he saw that the Qing army was not in the trap at all, and now it seems that he can only wait for the Jinyi guards in the city, hoping that these guys can bring him good news.

On the first night of the Ming army's encampment in Jinan, Zhao Guodong waited for news from Jinyiwei. In the middle of the night, a soldier came in to tell him, saying that a person came out of the city, claiming to be Jinan Jinyi Wei Baihu, and came out to send a letter to Zhao Guodong.