In Ningyuan City, the artillery was still roaring, but the frequency of fire was much slower than at the beginning. After all, for the artillery of this era, it will become very hot after firing a dozen or so cannons, and it must be cooled before being used, and it is impossible to fire non-stop.

The walls of the southern city have been bombarded with holes and crumbling, and no one knows if it will collapse at the next moment.

The Ming army outside the city did not have any other siege actions except for artillery bombardment, but the Qing army in the city was worried, and no one knew whether the Ming army would have other actions. But what everyone knows is that the moment the city wall was collapsed by artillery was when the Ming army attacked.

Looking in the direction of the Ming army camp in the distance, it was very noisy, countless people were busy, and they couldn't see what they were doing for miles, as if they were digging a trench, and the identities of tens of thousands of people who were busy with their work were the people who were arrested in the village castle outside the city, and they were being forced to work by the Ming army.

The Qing army in Ningyuan City did not pay attention to the attack out of the city, and Meng Yong's relatives of 200 elite soldiers took advantage of the night to attack out of the city at night, trying to destroy the artillery of the Ming army. Who knew that as soon as it approached the artillery position of the Ming army, it was detected, countless rockets flew into the attacking Qing army array, thousands of Ming troops guarding the fort were killed, and only more than 20 people could escape back to Guangning alive after a fight.

Since then, Ningyuan City has broken off its plan to go out of the city to fight, and no longer dares to send people out of the city, and Guangning City has completely become an isolated island.

Ningyuan's Qing army waited tremblingly, waiting for the end to come. But what they didn't know was that the Ming army outside the city did not plan to attack the city at all, but used Ning Yuan as a bait, and was ready to deal with reinforcements from all over the city.

In a few days, Wu Ping already knew about the situation in various parts of Liaoxi. Jinzhou didn't have many troops in the first place, so it was impossible to send reinforcements to come, and he still had 5,000 troops in Fuzhou, and he was threatening Gaizhou under the leadership of Sima Nan. There were not many Qing troops outside the Guan, and the possibility of rescuing Ning Yuan was extremely small. Therefore, if there are reinforcements, they can only come from the direction of Shanhaiguan.

Sure enough, on the sixth day of encircling Ning Yuan, news came that Shanhaiguan sent troops.

"Lord Commander, it is reported that in the early morning of this day, about 4,000 Qing troops came out of Shanhaiguan, including 1,000 cavalry and 3,000 infantry, who are heading towards Ningyuan, and now it is estimated that they have arrived at the front of Guangning." The staff officer in charge of intelligence reported to Wu Ping.

On the day after the siege of Ningyuan, Wu Ping sent a large number of sentries to Shanhaiguan to investigate, each of them riding a war horse captured from the fortress outside Ningyuan, and the news could be transmitted quickly.

"What happened to the army that our army sent to clear it?" Wu Ping asked in a deep voice.

"Back to the general army, our army has sent a total of six battalions of soldiers to clear all places, and four battalions have returned, and the two battalions of Liang Jing and Feng Yishan have not returned.

At present, we have broken through fifteen castles and more than 80 villages, and more than 72,000 people have been arrested, most of these people have been sent to Juehua Island, and the young and strong people have been sent to Ningyuan City after being organized by Li Jianjun......" Another staff officer reported to Wu Ping.

After several days of purging, a large number of forts near Ningyuan were broken, and more than 70,000 people were captured on Juehua Island. The farthest fortress to be breached was the Sanshan Camp Fort of the Guangning Avant-garde Station, which was only sixty miles away from Shanhaiguan, and it was the battalion led by Liang Jing who was responsible for breaking through the Sanshan Camp Fortress.

Now, from the Qiantun guard of Guangning to the Liaoxi corridor of more than 100 miles from Ningyuan City, a large number of villages and castles have been breached, and the people have been arrested. Of course, there may be many villages near the hills to the north that have escaped the attack, after all, it is too difficult to capture all the civilians in just five or six days.

The reason why this feat was accomplished in a few days was, of course, due to the fact that there were ships that could freely transport troops everywhere and bring back captured civilians.

Now, the corridor hundreds of miles southwest of Ningyuan has almost become a no-man's land, even if the Qing army from Shanhaiguan attacks, it is impossible to get supplies, and grain must be transported from Shanhaiguan.

After listening to the staff officer's report, and then looking at the rudimentary map in front of him, the situation was already under Wu Ping's control.

"Give Liang Jing an order, ordering him to lead the army to find a fortress near the sea to hide, make way for the official road to Ningyuan, and wait for the Qing army in Shanhaiguan to come over, and then lead the army to cut off the back road of the Qing army!" Wu Ping said.

A staff officer quickly wrote Wu Ping's words into a military order, and after reading it, Wu Ping stamped his own general seal, and then the herald rode away from the camp on a fast horse.

Shanhaiguan to Ningyuan is only two hundred miles, and the Qing army can reach it in three or four days if it marches in a hurry. Before that, the Ming army had to be ready for battle.

Outside Ningyuan City, more than 10,000 captured men were digging trenches under the custody of the Ming army, and the crooked trenches surrounded Ningyuan City in the middle, and the excavated soil was piled up into a wall.

The trench was not too deep at a foot wide, but with the piled up earthen walls, the cavalry could not easily cross it.

Relying on the captured men to make the rugged terrain that is not conducive to the galloping of the cavalry, this is the way for the Ming army to prepare to deal with the cavalry of the Qing army.

Outside the four gates of Ningyuan, a camp was built in each of them, a trench was dug outside, and an earthen wall was built inside, and 2,000 soldiers were deployed in each camp. The four camps were connected by moats, trapping Ningyuan City to death. Ningyuan's defenders couldn't come out, and the reinforcements from outside couldn't enter the city.

Ningyuan City is not big, it is a small city with a length and width of two miles, but if you dig a trench two miles away from Ningyuan, the amount of work is very large, and you need to dig a trench of more than 20 miles. Even if more than 10,000 men were arrested, they had only completed the excavation of the trenches on both sides of the southwest, far from the point of blockading Ningyuan City.

"Mr. Li, isn't it too troublesome for us to spend so much effort digging a trench. The Qing army is only 4,000 people, can it be so troublesome? At the beginning, Wu Ping was very puzzled by Li Yanzhi's proposal to dig a trench to besiege Ningyuan City.

"Digging trenches is not just about dealing with the reinforcements at Shanhaiguan," Li Yanzhi explained, "the army at Shanhaiguan is only 4,000 people, how can we deal with them."

But General Wu, the enemy of Shanhaiguan is just a small enemy, have you ever thought about it? If the Qing soldiers were defeated by the prince in Liaocheng, they would inevitably lose their foothold in Beijing and would definitely have to flee back to their hometown outside the Guanwai.

Taking the West Liaoning Corridor from Shanhaiguan is the most convenient passage to go outside the customs, and the road is smooth and conducive to peers. And as long as Ning Yuan is in our hands, this road will be broken. Therefore, in order to escape back to their hometown outside the Guanwai, the Qing soldiers will inevitably launch a frantic attack on Ning Yuan, trying to open up this road! ”

"However, they can also choose to go over the mountains and go around Mongolia to go outside the border." Wu Ping frowned.

"Of course, it is possible to make a detour to Mongolia, but the mountains and mountains of that road are too difficult, and people can go over, but it is difficult to transport materials when there are pursuing soldiers behind. Even if the Qing army wanted to flee, they were reluctant to loot the vast amount of wealth, and they would definitely try to empty the city of Beijing before leaving. As long as we get stuck in Ning Yuan, the Manchu court will not succeed! Let them climb over the mountains and roll back to their homeland from Mongolia! Li Yan said coldly.

......

Murcha was depressed, and he led 4,000 troops out of Shanhaiguan all the way to the east. The first day was better, but on the second day, I found that the road was empty, and the place I passed was empty.

The people in the village fortress were gone, and green smoke was rising everywhere, which was the remnant of many villages that had not yet been extinguished.

When I stopped to rest and cook, I found that the well in the village had been filled up, and it was too wasteful to dig the well again, so I had to endure hunger and thirst and eat dry food.

So, when it comes to rest, Murcha will choose to rest by the river.

Fortunately, there are many rivers in western Liaoning, and many rivers originate in the mountains of the northwest and flow through the corridor of western Liaoning into the Bohai Sea.

There were 1,000 cavalry in the Murcha army, and a large number of sentinels were sent to investigate the situation, so Murcha knew that from the sea to the mountains in the northwest, it was like this, countless villages were looted by the Ming army, and the people were captured and did not know where they went. And from the Sanshan Camp Fortress all the way to Ningyuan City, I'm afraid this is the case!

Fortunately, Murcha carried some food with his army, which was enough for the army for ten days, and there was no need for supplies for the time being.

And there are ten days, which is enough to defeat this hateful Ming army and enter Ningyuan City! The cavalry sentry reported that except for a Ming army found in the Heizhuang Nest Fort near the sea, no trace of the Ming army was found anywhere else.

Do you want to attack Heizhuang Wobao? After thinking about it for a while, Murcha gave up the idea of attacking this Ming army. Because he knew that the Ming army had a fortress to garrison, and his army had no artillery or other siege weapons, and it was not possible to break through the fortress in a short time.

The most important thing now is to reach Ningyuan City as soon as possible and defeat the Ming army outside the city to hold Ningyuan. However, the Ming army in Heizhuang Wobao could not be ignored, because Murcha knew that he had taken 4,000 of the 5,000 troops from Shanhaiguan, and the troops were very empty, and he did not know whether the reinforcements from Beijing could arrive in time. If this Ming army raided Shanhaiguan, it would be very troublesome.

Therefore, Murcha left 300 cavalry, led by a Niu Lu, approached Heizhuang Wobao to see this Ming army.

There are 3,000 infantry in the Murcha army, and there are some food baggage, and the march cannot be too fast, forty or fifty miles a day is already the limit, so the order he gave to Niu Lu is to monitor Heizhuang Wobao for two days, and after two days, march quickly to Ningyuan, which should be able to join the main force in Ningyuan.

And in two days, the reinforcements of the imperial court must have arrived at Shanhaiguan.

Niu Lu was ordered to take three hundred cavalry in the direction of Heizhuang Wobao, and Murcha continued to move forward with his brigade.

Because the wells in the village fortress were filled by the Ming army, Murcha had to choose to camp in the open air at the river, but fortunately, for some reason, the Ming army did not destroy the bridge on the river, which also made the Qing army advance much faster.

......

Heizhuang Wobao, the section of the city wall that was blasted by gunpowder was hurriedly filled, because of the relationship of time, it naturally could not be the same as the original, but the original collapsed rammed earth blocks were piled up again, several houses in the fortress were demolished, and the dismantled bricks were transported to the gap, and the mud was tired into a thin city wall.

Of course, this thin wall could not stop the army's attack, and I am afraid that it only takes a slight bump to collapse the wall. However, Yingzheng Liang Jing knew that the Qing army should not stop and attack Heizhuang Wobao.

Sure enough, standing on the top of the castle, you can see a large group of Qing troops passing by several miles away. But a cavalry of 300 men stayed, and pressed towards the castle.

It was naturally impossible for three hundred cavalry to attack a castle garrisoned by more than two thousand people. But the Ming army in the fortress couldn't go out to do other things, and even Liang Jing couldn't guarantee that his army could deal with the attack of three hundred cavalry in the field.

What to do? Thinking about the task given to him by the general soldier Wu Ping to cut off the back road of the Qing army, Liang Jing made it difficult.

If you want to cut off the back road of the Qing army, you naturally can't hide in the fortress and not come out. But looking at the three hundred cavalry not far from the fortress, how should the Ming army in the fortress get out?

"Yingzheng, not during the day, we can go out at night. The Tartar cavalry will definitely camp at night, let's choose the brothers who are not blindfolded to go out of the city at night and attack the Tartar cavalry camp! The boss said.

Liang Jing nodded: "That's all it can be......"

At night, the sky was full of stars, but the moon was looming in the clouds, and when I stood at the castle and looked out, it was infinite darkness, and the whole earth was dark.

Suddenly, a large bonfire lit up on the northern wall, and the night sky was lit up with a roaring flame. There was a noise inside the fortress, and the sound of gongs and drums rang out.

The slight sound of horses' hooves sounded, and four or five horsemen galloped in from the darkness, stopping at the intersection of fire and darkness. The Qing army sentry on the horse looked towards the fortress and probed the movements of the Ming army.

"What is the Ming army doing, why don't you send troops?" After waiting for a while, he still didn't see the Ming army coming out of the city gate, and a cavalryman of the Eight Banners couldn't help but say.

"Maybe it's a bluff, trying to play this little trick to exhaust us." The other cavalryman laughed.

Several other horsemen nodded, agreeing with his analysis. Even if they were illiterate, these cavalrymen had heard of the Three Kingdoms and knew the routines of the tired enemies in the Three Kingdoms, so they were not much surprised by this.

"Leave two people here, and the others go back, and come back in two hours to change shifts." The leader of the sentinels commanded.

However, before he could turn his horse back with two of his men, there was a "snap" sound, as if something had fallen near the horse's hoof.

"Be careful!" The leader of the sentries drew his saber and looked to his side with great effort, but it was so dark that he could not see anything at all.

"Boom, boom, boom" exploded several times one after another, dazzling fires flashed, war horses neighed, and the cavalry on horses let out screams.

The leader of the sentry felt a strong rush at him, and he could no longer sit on the back of his horse, no, not that he could not sit steadily, but that the horse under his crotch staggered and fell to the ground. He tried to jump to avoid being pinned down by the horse's body, but found that his right thigh was so hot that he was unconscious......

More than a dozen torches were lit, illuminating the ground nearby, and twenty or thirty Ming soldiers appeared, looking at the few Qing army sentries wailing on the ground with a smile.

PS: The two chapters are one, and they are no longer taken apart.