"What to do? What to do? Ma Dayuan was like an ant in a hot pot, moving around the lobby.

"County Zun, I'm afraid I can't hold it with just these thousand defenders and thousands of people, I have to ask for reinforcements!" The county man suggested.

"Yes, I have to ask for help. But where to go for reinforcements? Ma Dayuan looked at the county man blankly.

There must be soldiers in Shanhaiguan, but at most two or three thousand people, the regent is leading a large army to fight a decisive battle with the Ming people in Linqing, the army in the pass is almost requisitioned, half a month ago Ning Yuan also transported a batch of military rations into the customs, and Ma Dayuan still understands the situation on the front line. As for Jinzhou City, Jinzhou's army may not be as much as Ning Yuan.

So I was very unconfident that Ma Dayuan could find reinforcements.

"County Zun, there are not many troops in Shanhaiguan, but Beijing City has it, Jinzhou has no soldiers, but Shenyang does. As long as there are two or three thousand True Man Eight Banner warriors, it is not difficult to defeat the two or thirty thousand Ming troops outside the city. Ningyuan is located on the throat road leading from outside the pass to the inside of the pass, and the imperial court will definitely not let the Ming army capture Ningyuan and occupy the western Liaoning corridor! "County Cheng Road.

Ma Dayuan nodded again and again when he heard this, as a former Ming official, he naturally knew that the combat effectiveness of the Ming army was not very good, and the army of Chen Yue, the king of Qi, was strong in combat, but how many Chen Yue did the Ming Dynasty have? As long as Beijing or Shenyang can send two or three thousand Zhenman Eight Banners, there should be no problem in defeating the Ming army outside the city!

Therefore, Ma Dayuan immediately wrote a letter asking for help, asking people to find the guerrilla general Meng Yong, and ordering him to send people to Shanhaiguan and Jinyang for help.

Most of the Qing troops in Ningyuan were infantry, but Meng Yong's men had dozens of personal soldiers with war horses. Looking at the original more and more Ming troops outside the city, Meng Yong did not have the confidence to hold Ningyuan, so he naturally hoped that reinforcements would arrive.

But yesterday, because they were in a panic and were busy recruiting people in the city to help defend the city, Ma Dayuan and Meng Yong didn't expect to send people to ask for reinforcements. And today, the Ming army has approached the city of Ningyuan, and there are large groups of Ming troops camping outside the four city gates.

Meng Yong gritted his teeth and sent twenty cavalry to divide into two teams, leaving the northwest and going to Jinzhou and Shanhaiguan respectively.

Seeing the cavalry galloping out of the city, the Ming army immediately met the two gates in the northwest, and the cavalry horses asking for help galloped and tried to bypass the interception of the Ming army on the plain. However, the sound of firearms like popping beans sounded again and again, and Meng Yong in the city saw that from time to time, his own soldiers were shot off his horse by the Ming army.

Fortunately, the Ming army did not have cavalry, and the infantry could not catch up with the gallop of the cavalry, and after paying almost half of the casualties, the cavalry finally avoided the interception of the Ming infantry and galloped towards the Shanhaiguan and Jinzhou defense lines.

The artillery of the Ming army roared, the bombarded southern wall trembled, and large swaths of masonry fell from the wall.

Ma Dayuan and Meng Yong knew that when the city wall was breached, it was the time for the Ming army to attack the city. With the huge strength of the Ming army outside the city, the defenders inside the city could not stop it at all.

"My lord, we must organize the people and build a sub-wall in the city." Meng Yong proposed.

Ma Dayuan asked, "What is a sub-wall?" ”

"Just to see that section of the city wall will be collapsed by the Ming artillery, let's build a section of the wall behind this section of the city wall, and the two ends of the wall are connected to other parts of the city wall to block the Ming army attacking the city." Meng Yong explained.

Ma Dayuan glared and asked, "Is it too late?" ”

"If you could give the order that all the men and women of the city be mobilized to tear down the bricks and stones of the houses in the city, and to use the courtyard walls of the houses near the southern city to seal off the streets, and to connect the walls of the houses to the walls. It shouldn't be a problem to build such a low wall. Meng Yong explained.

Ma Dayuan shook his head and said: "Such a high and thick city wall can be collapsed by the Ming army, what is the use of you building such a thin low wall?" ”

Meng Yong said: "With such a low wall, the Ming army will not be able to rush into the city along the gap that has been opened. And our army can attack the Ming army entering the city from the city wall inward, and then let people defend within the low wall, and it should not be a problem to block one or two Ming attacks.

If you can delay for a few days, you may be able to wait for reinforcements to arrive. And with such a low wall, Ningyuan City would not fall, and the people in the city would not lose confidence and despair. ”

Ma Dayuan's eyes lit up when he heard this, as if he saw the hope of defending Ningyuan City.

"I'm going to issue a proclamation, ordering the people of the whole city to build this wall, and whoever dares not to listen to my lord, I'll put them all in prison!"

......

When the city of Ningyuan was urgently mobilized to build a defensive line. The Ming army outside the city was not idle either. Leaving 10,000 troops to besiege Ningyuan, Wu Ping sent the remaining troops along the Liaoxi Corridor to the north and south to begin a dragnet clearance.

There are many small castles in the north and south of Ningyuan, which were the fortresses built by the Ming Dynasty to block the Manchu cavalry. Now these forts are not deserted, but have become villages where the people live. Unlike ordinary villages, there are no walls, and soldiers can rush in from any direction.

These fortresses are generally only a few dozen zhang wide, but they have two or three zhang high city walls, as long as the city gate is closed, if you want to enter the fortress, you must storm it.

Of course, these forts focus on strong defensive functions, and are not too suitable for the common people to live in.

After the surrender of the Manchus, Ningyuan and the Manchus in Liaodong were already one family, and there was no longer a hostile relationship. Without the war, most of the people near Ningyuan did not live in the fortress, but built houses in the field to form villages, which was more convenient for cultivating the nearby fields. Because it had only been two years since the surrender of the Manchus, most of the castles had not yet had time to be demolished.

But now the Ming army has come over and frantically attacked the village to capture the people. Many villages were sacked by the Ming army, and groups of people dragged their families and mouths to Juehua Island. This situation frightened the people around Ningyuan, and the people who were close to those castles fled into the castles one after another to avoid the Ming army's soldiers.

For these people who fled into the castle, the Ming army of the squad had no choice. When the news was sent back to the camp, Wu Ping decided to send troops to clear the castles one by one.

The artillery was too slow to break through the castle, and the casualties of the cloud ladder siege were too great, so Wu Ping decided to use the method of bombing the city. Hit gunpowder with a coffin, bury it under the walls of the fortress and blow up the fortress.

Of course, it takes a lot of gunpowder to blow up the city, but don't worry. For the Northern Expedition, Chen Yue almost emptied the gunpowder from the Nanjing arsenal, and even transferred the gunpowder from the Dongfanzhoushan Workshop. In Wu Ping's fleet, there was a three-masted sailing ship specially used to load gunpowder, and the amount was as much as 100,000 catties!

The people who fled into the fortress were civilians, with no firearms, bows and arrows, and no artillery, and at most they threw bricks and stones from the walls. As long as the people on the city walls were blocked from attacking with firearms and crossbows, the Ming army could easily get close to the city walls and bury gunpowder, and it was not difficult to break through these fortresses at all.