Outside the city of Ningyuan, the camp of the Houjin army. Bayi Middle School? Wenwang ? ＝≤≈．

When Yuan Chonghuan convened the generals of the Ming army, Nurhachi and his party who had rushed from Jinzhou were greeted into the tent by the Houjin generals in the camp.

Since Nurhachi has arrived, the offensive on Ningyuan City is about to begin, in order to worry that the generals of Houjin are greedy for merit and go all out to attack Ningyuan, Dai Shan, who acts steadily among the four major beylers, is specially selected to command this siege battle, and Li Yongfang is the deputy general to assist Dai Shan.

This siege was naturally the vanguard of the Han army in Houjin, with a total of more than 15,000 people, and Nurhachi did not want the Jurchen soldiers to die in the siege, and the advantage of the Jurchen soldiers was to fight in the field.

Moreover, the Han soldiers had more experience and experience in siege than the Jurchen soldiers, so they could avoid greater casualties.

The next day, Dai Shan and Li Yongfang held a pledge meeting in the camp, and then launched an offensive towards Ningyuan City with great momentum.

In this siege, the Houjin used artillery for the first time, and the artillery captured from Shenyang, Liaoyang, and Quang Ninh came in handy, and Nurhachi was ready to see how powerful these firearms were.

Of course, before the start of the war, there was a psychological contest, Nurhachi deliberately sent a Han Chinese captured during the southward journey into the city with his letter to persuade him to surrender, but Yuan Chonghuan burned it on the candle flame without even looking at it, vowing to live and die with Ningyuan City.

Nurhachi knew that Yuan Chonghuan would definitely not surrender, so he signaled Dai Shan and Li Yongfang to start the siege of the city, and the Han soldiers pushed the carts and transport hook ladders, and swarmed to the southwest corner of the siege.

Seeing this, the Ming army on the city wall immediately met with long-range weapons such as artillery and arrows, and for a while the arrows rained down, and the Han soldiers fell down with screams, but the Han army behind took advantage of the situation to rush to the city and began to attack the city.

Guarding the southwest of Ningyuan City was the Ming army's general Zuo Fu, who led the army and civilians to rely on the fortified city to fight to the death, and the battle was fierce.

Yuan Chonghuan then ordered Zu Dashou to lead the army to support, because the Guanjin defense line was used for the attack of Hell Houjin, so there were many defensive weapons in the city, such as medicine jars and thunder stones, etc., with the arrival of Zu Dashou The Han army besieging the city suffered heavy casualties.

Seeing this, Nurhachi ordered to attack the south of Ningyuan City, and with the support of artillery, he used the chariot as a cover to storm the weak point between the two corners of the city gate, and as a result, he actually chiseled a large hole five or six meters wide, and the situation in Ningyuan City suddenly became critical.

Yuan Chonghuan and other generals of Ningyuan City never expected that Nurhachi would use artillery, and they were caught off guard for a while.

Therefore, in order to plug the gap at the city gate, Yuan Chonghuan personally went to reinforce the south of the city, made every effort to plug the gap, supervised the army and civilians to bind firewood and pour oil and mixed with gunpowder to hang down the city with iron cables to burn, and used cotton gunpowder and other materials to burn the Houjin chariots that arrived close to the city, and successfully blocked the four gaps in the south of the city by using the advantage of defense.

Nurhachi, who was supervising the battle outside the city, was originally worried that those Han troops would rush into the city, in which case his plan would be abandoned, but when he saw that the Ming army in the city had reinforced and blocked the gap that had been chiseled, he was immediately relieved.

For Nurhachi, he couldn't let the officials of the Ming Dynasty see his plan, so this siege of Ningyuan City had to really besiege the city, so as to make people believe that the Ming army in Ningyuan City defeated the menacing Houjin Dajun with fewer victories, so that the Ming court could not give up those territories outside the pass.

The fierce battle in Ningyuan City lasted for three days, and the Han troops who participated in the siege suffered as many as six or seven thousand casualties, and the Ming army in the city also suffered thousands of casualties, and the tragedy of the battle can be seen.

Although he withstood the fierce offensive of the Han army for three days, Yuan Chonghuan was not happy at all, because he noticed that the siege was all Han troops, and the Mongol soldiers and Jurchen soldiers in Houjin did not move at all.

Yuan Chonghuan was taken aback by the fierce offensive of those Han troops, originally he thought that those Han troops were just a rabble, who knew that they were fighting one by one without fear of death, desperately attacking the city, causing a lot of trouble to the Ming army defending the city.

Yuan Chonghuan felt a little incredulous about this, as far as he knew, the Han army of the Later Jin was formed on the basis of the Ming soldiers who had been captured before, and those soldiers had no morale when they fought with the Later Jin, greedy for life and afraid of death, but now they were completely different people, it was really incredible, and I don't know what the Later Jin did to make them so fierce.

"My lord, when will you use the Hongyi cannon?"

On the evening of the third day, after the retreat of the Han army besieging the city, Zu Dashou went to see Yuan Chonghuan and asked with a puzzled expression.

It turned out that since the start of the war, the Ming army only used the original firearms, and did not use the Hongyi cannons on the forts in the four city corners, which made Zu Dashou and other generals very puzzled by this.

If the Hongyi cannon is used, it will undoubtedly cause greater losses to the Han army besieging the city and ease the offensive of the Ming army defending the city.

"It's not time yet, we only have more than ten Hongyi cannons, and only half of them can come in handy at that time, so we must use them on the blade, if you don't make a sound, you can give it a fatal blow!"

Yuan Chonghuan was looking at the map of Liaodong hanging on the wall, and when he heard this, he turned to Zu Dashou and said, these Hongyi cannons are for the Jurchen soldiers, and Jin will only retreat after the Jurchen soldiers are hurt.

"The people of Shanhaiguan should already know about the siege of Jiannu, aren't they going to send reinforcements here?" Zu Dashou hesitated for a moment when he heard this, and then asked worriedly.

He estimated these days that the Houjin army outside the city should have as many as forty or fifty thousand people, and the soldiers and civilians who could fight in Ningyuan City were only more than 20,000 people, relying on the city defense of Ningyuan City, once the city defense of Ningyuan City was broken through, then they would suffer a catastrophe.

"We can't count on others, even if there are no reinforcements, as long as Jiannu is beaten, they will withdraw their troops."

Yuan Chonghuan didn't expect Gao Di to send troops to come at all, and when he heard this, he looked at the map on the wall, and said with a serious expression, "Ning Yuan can be said to be the center of the Guanjin defense line, and it must not be lost!" ”

In fact, Yuan Chonghuan knew that it was not Gao Di's idea to collect troops at Shanhaiguan, Gao Di was just the governor of Jiliao, and the consent of the imperial court was needed to give up such a major matter outside the pass.

In other words, Gao Di is just a microphone sent by the Emperor of the Apocalypse, and the Emperor of the Apocalypse wants to give up the territory outside the Guan, so how dare Gao Di send troops to rescue Ning Yuan, wouldn't that be against the Holy Will of the Emperor of the Apocalypse?

Therefore, Yuan Chonghuan can only hope to save himself now and defeat the Houjin army besieging Ningyuan City, then the Ming Dynasty will definitely be shaken, and after such a big victory, the Emperor of the Apocalypse will no longer be able to collect troops and enter the customs, otherwise what will the people of the Ming Dynasty think?

"Alas, it would be nice if Master Young Master sat outside the gate, why would there be today's crisis!" Zu Dashou knew what Yuan Chonghuan meant, and couldn't help but sigh and say.

In Zu Dashou's opinion, they violated Gao Di's military order and stayed in Ningyuan City, which can be said to have offended Gao Di to death, so Gao Di must have wished they had died, how could he send troops to save them?

Yuan Chonghuan suddenly flashed a wry smile at the corner of his mouth when he heard this, Zu Dashou's complaint was exactly what he thought in his heart, Sun Chengzong was a civilian official who had never been on the battlefield before, although he had the ambition to exterminate Houjin, but his ability to command troops was inferior to Li Hongyu after all.

If Li Hongyu had been operating the Guanjin defense line for all these years, perhaps he would have begun to cross the Liaohe River and move to Houjin to attack, and "attack is the best defense" was a phalanx of Li Hongyu to destroy Houjin, so he would definitely not let Houjin settle down.

Due to the sharp offensive of the Han army in the past three days, Yuan Chonghuan couldn't help but have some doubts in his heart about his previous speculation, stumped that Nurhachi would suffer heavy losses in order to take Ningyuan?

However, according to the exchange between Yuan Chonghuan and Li Hongyu, Li Hongyu believes that the Houjin will not be able to swallow Liaoxi within ten years, don't look at the Houjin army's bravery, but in the battle with the Ming army, it is at a disadvantage because of its weak national strength, and it will definitely not fight with the Ming army.

This is also why after the Battle of Guangning, the Houjin army did not enter the Liaoxi Corridor to pursue the fleeing Ming soldiers and civilians, and the disadvantage in national strength inhibited the strategic choice of the Houjin.

At the same time, Nurhachi was also thinking about the siege of the city, and after three days of bloody battles, it was enough for the outside world to think that Houjin was thinking about those Ningyuan cities.

Therefore, after the end of the war tomorrow, you can pull out the camp and return to the village, which is enough for the Ming generals in Ningyuan City to boast to the imperial court, and the more those Ming generals boast about their military exploits, the more the Ming court will not be able to give up the territory outside the pass.

For Nurhachi, Juehua Island is much more harmful than Ningyuan City, it can be attacked, retreated and defended, and it can also continuously transport materials to the city of the Guanjin defense line through water transportation, so it is natural to take the opportunity to get rid of it.

In order to show the Ming army in the city that he must win the city of Houjin and Ningyuan, Nurhachi decided to come to the front of the battle the next day to command.

At this moment, Nurhachi would never have imagined that his decision would give Houjin an excellent excuse to retreat, and also forced the Emperor of the Apocalypse to temporarily abandon his plan to withdraw troops in Guannei.

Early the next morning, under the command of Nurhachi, the Han army and Jurchen soldiers who participated in the siege formed a formation outside the southern city of Ningyuan.

This was the first time the Jurchen soldiers had participated in the siege of the city in these days, and in Nurhachi's opinion, this was the only way to convince the Ming army in the city to retreat after the siege failed.

In order to boost morale, and also to let the Ming soldiers on the city wall see his arrival clearly, Nurhachi moved the place of the battle forward, just outside the range of the Ming artillery.

"Your Excellency, General Zu has asked you to come over, it seems that Nurhachi, the chief of Jiannu, has appeared." In Ningyuan City, when Yuan Chonghuan was practicing swords in the courtyard, a military attache hurriedly came, bowed and reported in a deep voice.

"Nurhachi is here!" Yuan Chonghuan's eyes flashed when he heard this, and he was quite surprised by this, but he didn't expect Nurhachi to come to Ningyuan City in person.

Then, a sneer appeared on the corner of Yuan Chonghuan's mouth, threw the sword in his hand to the entourage on the side, and hurried to the south of the city to see Zu Dashou.

(End of chapter)