Chapter 464: Cleverness and self-knowledge, a hundred cannons thundered

The Chahar tribe is the orthodox place in the steppe, and the Khan of Chahar claims to be the heir of the golden family, and has natural dominion over the Mongol tribes in the steppe.

Before the last Lin Dan Khan converted between the Red and Yellow Sects, even several large tribes in Mobei were nominally subservient to him.

However, Mongolia that dominated the world in the past, or Mongolia, which dominated the world, has been in decline, even when the last Lin Dan Khan was the most powerful, it was beaten by the Manchu Eight Banners that had not long begun, and even the Golden Tent had to be relocated again and again.

The current Chahar Khan Ezhe was invited back from Ordos a few years ago by Huang Taiji to send Dolgon and Duoduo and others to settle near Yizhouwei, which the Manchus could control nearby.

The various Mongolian tribes attached to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, at present, only part of the Dingkou have accepted the establishment of the Eight Banners, and the tribe's Taiji and Nayan are still the population under their own control, at this time, after all, it is not the complete control of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, or the alliance between the two sides, and many things may not be too desperate.

The Chahar Department is a complete Eight Banners system, and the most effective thing for the Chahar Department to speak at present is not the Chahar Khan Ezhe in this area, but the Manchu Qing Dynasty stationed in the Chahar tribe, which is the so-called Zalu Huachi, as for the Shengjing side, the name is directly called Chahar Dutong.

The Chahar tribe had lost any autonomy and was completely in the hands of the Manchus, and a large number of young tribes served in Liaodong as soldiers of the Eight Banners of the Mongols.

On the tribal side, almost all of them were women, children, old and young, who existed to produce livestock and provide all kinds of necessities for the Manchu Dynasty, and lost their semi-nomadic and semi-military characteristics, and the defense of this part of the Manchu steppe was entrusted to the Horqin Mongols and the Harasan Mongols.

The Tumut Brigade led by Chen Yongfu and others after defeating the grassland coalition forces of Korqin and Harashen. didn't take too long to rest, and directly drove most of the people eastward.

The advantage of the nomads is that here, in the vast grassland, cattle and horses can be grazed while moving, and the herders and warriors get supplies from these cattle and horses, which is a great advantage over the march of the troops of the agricultural countries.

Because the men and horses of the brigade have always maintained a state of eastward movement, and several of the landed nobles have been mercilessly killed, the highest level of command that the defeated herdsman cavalry can find is Qianhu. This kind of small group of cavalry, but few leaders, and it is difficult to gather noble people with appeal.

Taking advantage of this scattered situation, and after that battle, the prestige of the Tumut tribe is already able to deter the entire grassland, and at present, these people will only flee far away, and will not rely on them to harass.

Of course. After the defeat, there were also scattered cavalry who went to the Chahar Department and the Manchu Qing Dynasty to report the news, but because the Tumut Brigade was also heading east, they had to make a considerable detour, which also delayed a lot of time.

Therefore, most of the men and horses in the Tumut Department arrived at the Xingzhong Fort. The Jurchen capital of the Chahar Department only knew the news for four days.

Looking at these panting and panicked herdsmen, the nobles of the Chahar Department and the real master sent by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, could not believe that such a thing could be done under any circumstances.

The conflict between East and West Mongolia in the steppe has been quiet for decades. In several expeditions of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the farthest frontier of the troops reached the Hetao area, and Western Mongolia was also far away from the wind and did not dare to engage in battle, and the entire Mongolian steppe was subjugated to the prestige of the Manchu Dynasty.

Tumut, Korqin, Harashen, and this Chahar, although they are strong and weak, their overall strength is constantly declining, and they no longer have the ability to wage a large-scale war. It is precisely because the Manchus made such a judgment that they dared to focus their forces on the direction of the Ming Dynasty with confidence.

It was unbelievable to hear that the Tumut tribe had launched a war of this magnitude, but they also believed that these lowly herdsmen and cavalry would not have the audacity to report false news.

The only remaining forces of the Chahar Department cooperated with Ding Zhuang of those small tribes around him, and this Jurchen capital also gathered more than 5,000 cavalry, plus 1,000 Jurchen soldiers and horses with red flags placed here, ready to find out the specific situation first. Then inform Sheng Jing again.

Even at this time. The Chahar people don't think that they should pay much attention to it, and he thinks very confidently. With more than 1,000 Jurchen cavalry as the core troops, it is enough to deal with those troops on the grassland that seem to be huge, but in fact they are scattered.

At this time, the grassland is already the beginning of June, and the previous ten years of bitter cold is different, the grassland of these two years has recovered, June is already a green ocean, in the past, everyone will sigh that this is a good year, cattle and horses will become extraordinarily fat in autumn and winter, and then ride horses to Daming to loot.

Now it is a big war imminent, scattered families everywhere, fragmented tribes everywhere, beacons everywhere on the grassland, not only the Eastern Crusade of the Tumut Department driven by Chen Yongfu and Zhang Kun and others, after these big tribes are defeated, those scattered cavalry and forces want to annex each other, and some well-informed Mongolians in Western Mongolia and Mobei want to take advantage of the fire to rob, which is the root cause of the war.

In the Ming Dynasty, agriculture after the cold period is also recovering, provided that there is an environment that can be safely restored, the territory controlled by Li Meng, the Duke of Qi, is becoming prosperous, the territory controlled by the Shun army, the output of Tuntian is expected to increase a lot, and all parts of the south of the Yangtze River are still struggling to maintain.

The territory controlled by the Ming Dynasty is desperately increasing food and salaries and arresting Ding Zhuang, which is all the soldiers and horses of the governor Hou Sui who wants to win the victory, and the word "people's livelihood" is already rotten.

Korea was a different story, with Seoul as the boundary, and the part south of Seoul was where the landlords and peasants were working their land with trepidation, waiting for news from the north, and if the army came south, they would immediately flee to the mountains.

In the fields north of Seoul, there are already barren fields, because there is no one to take care of them, because the peasants who cultivate the fields have been captured by the soldiers and horses of the kingdom and taken to the city of Seoul, and some of the people who are afraid of being caught have fled to the mountains in the east, and those who have scattered to resist have been exterminated.

The old people of the village looked at the fields in despair, they had already foreseen the disaster in autumn and winter......

Relatively speaking. The city of Seoul was very quiet, except for the continuous artillery roar at the north gate, except for a few real battles between the two sides on the first day, there was no battle between the two sides in the following days, and Wang Hai also organized several infantry and cavalry attacks.

However, Duoduo and Ao Bai had made up their minds to become shrunken turtles, and under the constraints of military law, even the most reluctant soldiers were driven to build large buildings, digging trenches and low walls. Set up a variety of horses and antlers, it looks like they are going to completely mimic the defenses around Seoul.

For the Jiaozhou battalion troops, which rely very much on formation, after passing through these fortifications, they will become scattered, and it will take time to rearrange the formation. Take advantage of this gap to attack and inflict damage.

The two sides set up the main battlefield of the conquest in the area of the north gate of Seoul, and the more than 30 artillery pieces brought by the Manchu soldiers and horses were all placed in a flat firing state on the side of the two passages.

Although this kind of artillery is cumbersome, it can fire more than a dozen or dozens of shells horizontally, and it is also extremely dangerous and powerful. It is already impossible to launch artillery from these two places to bombard the Tartar fortifications.

Bypassing the gates in the other directions was too time-consuming, and the Manchu cavalry had enough time to react. In fact, in such a confined space, as long as the cavalry can maintain several waves of separate attacks, the risk of artillery is great.

The road was crooked and narrow, making it impossible for the musketeers to deploy as quickly as possible to protect the artillery......

In the first ten days of offensive and defensive battles, the more than 10,000 soldiers and horses of the Tartars were partly building fortifications and camps, and partly harassing the defenders in the defense city. The number of troops stationed in the DPRK is not large, and they are completely at a disadvantage, and the situation is very embarrassing and cramped.

However, after the arrival of the follow-up soldiers and horses, the situation began to change, in fact, if this kind of battle does not require a quick victory, the besieging side can fight very calmly.

In addition to the circle of fortifications around Seoul, the construction of trenches in Changwei began, and the cavalry of the brigade was on constant alert around Seoul. The slightest movement is immediately concentrated on the superior soldiers and horses. Push the defenders back inside the city.

There was nothing beautiful about the battle, and the defenders of the castle built defenses and fortifications that looked like turtle shells. Then the siege soldiers and horses outside the city began to build larger turtle shells, to wrap the people inside can not get out, when defending Jinzhou, the Manchu Qing repeatedly attacked and could not attack, is to rely on this long siege to die, until the city is exhausted of ammunition and food, helpless surrender.

As soon as the Korean men arrived here, they were immediately driven to build fortified barracks, and more people went to the edge of the fortifications to clear and fill in the fortifications in the north, and the artillery on the top of the city could not reach the outer areas, and these terrified Korean men went to fill in the trenches, and then knocked down the low walls, and some people accidentally fell into the traps, and the howls were earth-shattering, but no one cared about the life and death of these people.

At first, the progress was quick, but the rest of the time was not good, because the men advanced to the range of the artillery at the head of the city, and there were special batteries in the earthen enclosure outside the city walls.

Compared with the Manchu artillery guns placed in the outer area as a deterrent, these artillery guns in Seoul are much more powerful, with a fast rate of fire and accurate landing.

Ten days ago, these captured people were just farmers farming in the fields, and they had seen artillery there, and after being blown up two or three times, they were frightened to hide everywhere when they heard the whistling of cannonballs in the sky, and even if the soldiers behind them whipped and slashed and slashed, it was useless.

What really gave Duoduo a headache was that only three of these cannons in his hands could hit the edge of the earthen fence, but the opponent's artillery could also hit these artillery, and with the speed at which his artillery was erected, I am afraid that the cannon would have been crushed by the opponent's artillery if it was not supported.

In desperation, the only way to do this is to surround the city first, and take it slowly, no matter how many things are stored in the city, as long as they are not replenished, there will be a day when they will run out of supplies, and the day when the ammunition and food will run out, it will be the day when the city will collapse in a panic.

Looking at the long fence that was built up bit by bit outside, compared to the inside of Seoul, it was already panicked, and the morale of the people began to be chaotic.

The atmosphere in Seoul was completely different from what Duoduo and Ao Bai expected, whether it was the royal family or the ministers. Or the local yamen in Seoul are calm and abnormal, and everything is going according to normal conditions.

Wang Hai's current command post is on the edge of the Joseon Palace, and the official name of the Jiaozhou Battalion here is Yamen, the commander of the Korean garrison army in the Jiaozhou Battalion, but it is called the Metropolitan Protectorate in Seoul.

Although the upper echelons of Korea were all proficient in Chinese, no one called Wang Hai a commander, and they all became the Metropolitan Protectors, which was equivalent to the so-called governors of the West and the envoys of the Tang Dynasty. That is to say, the Seoul has recognized the legitimate occupation of this Ming general.

"My lord, the king of Korea has sent a message to ask if we need help, and the Korean city can also mobilize soldiers and horses to help. ”

A secretary of the army reported respectfully to Wang Hai at the next head, Wang Hai was looking at the drawings of the city defense of Seoul, and every day, in various positions, there were soldiers looking at the lookout platform and transmitting the movement of the periphery. Wang Hai's own soldiers will change the mark on this drawing, Wang Hai's soldiers and horses are only 6,000, and Seoul is such a large city, and a reserve of 2,000 people must be left to prepare to suppress the civil strife.

Therefore, the use of troops must be precise and rational. The current situation is that there is no big movement of soldiers and horses outside the city.

Attacking and defending the city, Korea is a vassal state that the Manchu Qing has been operating for a while, but this army in Seoul is a lone army. No matter how you look at it, the initiative is on the Duoduo side, he can calmly besiege the city and dig a ditch, and slowly go under the city wall, not to mention that with his current more than 20,000 soldiers and horses, it is impossible to attack all over Seoul, he can only maintain one or two sides, and look at the firearms and fortifications on the city, which will inevitably suffer heavy losses.

It's better to adopt this one-size-fits-all strategy. Take it easy.

Wang Hai took the charcoal in his hand and marked a few places on the map, and said to the following book office with a smile:

"Go back to the words of the king of Korea, and say that we thank him for his kindness, but in this kind of defense and battle, the common people are afraid that they can't help but be killed and injured, so let's do some auxiliary work under the arrangement!"

The clerk naturally understood what Wang Hai meant, and led the order out with a smile, if these Koreans were to send troops to assist in the defense. It's okay to say when the wind is down. If the battle situation is slightly unfavorable, the place where they send troops to defend is the biggest hole in the defensive circle. When the time comes, the gains outweigh the losses.

The arsenal of Seoul is now under the control of the Korean garrison, and even the palace guards and local officials are holding wooden sticks, and there are no swords and firearms, so they are afraid of temporary chaos.

However, in the past six months, the Korean garrison has moved all the households in the city that lack Ding Zhuang to the south of Korea, including some similar large clans, and at the same time, they have consciously introduced civilians with many men outside the city, so it is needless to say that they have accumulated grain and grass.

There is no problem with all kinds of materials in the city for a year, which is also one of the reasons why the Korean noble people in Seoul can maintain such a peaceful state of mind under the siege of the Tatar soldiers, and the other reason is the first day of the battle, those Koreans who watched the battle went home and said that the battle was magical, beheading nearly a thousand, and several sorties were calmly returned This kind of strong style is really confident.

When the bookstore went out, only Wang Hai and a few guards standing in the distance were left in the room, Wang Hai showed a wry smile on his face, and said self-deprecatingly:

"I was thinking of building fortifications so that the enemy couldn't get in, but who thought that I wouldn't be able to get out, it's so troublesome!!"

The besieging troops driven by the Tartar soldiers and horses worked day and night, and the fortifications became more and more large-scale, and the calm atmosphere in the city also became more and more serious when the Korean garrison troops defending the city had not attacked.

Although the Joseon king's request to send troops to help defend the city was denied, half a month after the arrival of the Tartar army under the city, a large-scale requisition of people began in the city to carry the artillery from the city.

The twelve-pounder cannon was initially put at the head of the city as a city defense gun, but because of the tactical changes of the Tartar soldiers and horses outside the city, the city also had to make corresponding adjustments, and at present, the artillery could only be taken outside the earthen fence to hit the opponent's fortifications and artillery, and in terms of range, the twelve-pounder cannon had an advantage.

But before the artillery could be pushed outside the city, the Manchu camp outside the city was in chaos at first, and the large army was stationed, and both men and horses needed a lot of water. So the camp is almost close to the edge of the Han River.

Although there are many fishing boats and ships that transport people and goods here on weekdays, the Tartar soldiers and horses are stationed here, and who dares to wander here, they have already run far away, and the river is quite deserted and quiet.

But today, there was a fleet swaggering from the direction of Incheon, a sea port like Inchon was insignificant in the concept of Manchu generals, even if there was Wang Hai's troops and horses in the city, they would not think that the enemy would transfer many soldiers and horses from the sea.

Duoduo released 500 cavalry men at Incheon. Anyway, the cavalry between Inchon and Seoul could arrive in a day and could support at any time, of course, the Manchus did not have any naval arrangements.

Seeing this fleet coming, many of the Manmeng soldiers and horses in the camp were curious to see, for them, they had never seen such a ship since they were young, and many people had never even seen a ship.

Huge sails. The high side of the ship and the patches of wood on the hull are really fresh, and they seem to be very different from the fishing and cargo ships on the North Korean side.

But apart from the man who turned the rudder and sailed, he could not see the appearance of anyone else. There were almost two dozen ships in this fleet, all of which were of the kind of big ships, and on the side of the Manchu barracks, there were those large ships with hulls that seemed to be "patched".

After the initial excitement and curiosity have passed. Immediately, someone shouted loudly for the people on the boat to answer, it was rainy in Korea in May and June, the Han River was in the flood season, and the river was also wide, perhaps the people on the boat did not hear the shouts from the shore, and immediately a leader who came to the ship gave an order.

Shangguan's orders could not be ignored, and dozens of reluctant Han soldiers found a few abandoned sampans. Paddled towards the big boats, ready to board for questioning.

Together, the small sampan rowed into the middle of the river, and when they saw which big ships were about to get closer, the boats with "patches" on their hulls suddenly turned.

The Han River is very wide, and with the distance between Seoul and the Yellow Sea, the sea breeze is not small, and the speed of these big ships is very fast. At least much faster than the sampans below.

Although the Han soldiers on the small sampan shouted in panic. paddling desperately, but was still hit by these big boats. Whether in terms of size or other aspects, the sampan and these big ships were too far apart, and they were suddenly knocked over and broken, and the people on board fell into the river.

Fortunately, these people are a little watery, they are all scolding and fluttering in the river, and the Manchurian soldiers on the shore saw this scene, but laughed and looked lively.

For them, the threat of the fleet is nothing more than the soldiers and horses on board, these ships heading towards the shore will not be too many even if they are loaded with soldiers and horses, how many people are on the shore, afraid that he will do something, five big ships are coming this way, the speed is very fast, but it quickly slows down, as if adjusting the direction, as far as possible to keep the hull parallel to the river bank.

Everything on the water and sea was unfamiliar to the Manchu soldiers and horses, even the Han soldiers of the Sanshun King who came to Guanwai on a sea ship that day.

At the shouting of the officer, the Tartar soldiers on the shore, who were still looking at the diorama, took up their swords, guns, and shields, and the shields were in the way, and in their minds, when the men of the ship were about to attack, they would shoot arrows from behind the high side of the ship or attack with firearms.

As the boats approached the riverbank, the people on the shore became quieter, while the rest of the boats stopped in the middle of the river and stopped moving.

"Ready~~~~"Ready~~~"......

The ship near the shore suddenly heard a hearty shout, and the Tartar soldiers on the shore immediately became nervous, raised their shields and bent their upper bodies.

When we got closer, we could see that the patches on the hull of the ship were large thick planks, and after the "ready" shout, these "patches" were lifted from the inside out, revealing the swarthy muzzle inside.

The double-decker gunboats of the Jiaozhou battalion, with fifty guns on each ship, had twenty-two guns on each side of each of the two layers of the hull, the smallest being a three-pounder gun and the largest being an eight-pounder gun.

Now facing the artillery on the shore, there are a total of one hundred and ten, the barrels of the ship guns are long, the firing range is long, and many Tartar soldiers on the shore are within the firing range.

"Cannon !!"