The offensive against Liao has begun, and Zhao Yan has also moved the military headquarters to Longkou, always paying attention to the news coming back from the front. On the seventh day of March, the fleet transporting the first infantry battalion of the Liaodong Army returned home, bringing back nearly 10,000 prisoners.

Although these captives had braids, they were all Han Chinese. According to the rules set by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, one of the twenty households was to join the army, and the weapons and armor were purchased by the twenty households.

These Han people were also forcibly dragged in, and Zhao Yan immediately ordered these captives to be screened and then dragged to labor reform.

Many of these captives were taken captive by the Manchu Qing Dynasty to Liaodong, and they still remember where their hometown was, and such captives could be released after only a few months of labor reform, and then arranged a field in Qingzhou to be cultivated, and if they wanted to return to their hometowns, they would first work on the construction site in Shandong for some time, and then release them after the war.

Others were born in Liaodong, and their parents were Han Chinese, but they did not necessarily have much sense of identity with the Han people, so such captives had to be deeply reformed and inculcated with national ideas while working.

The thirty ships that returned, at the suggestion of the General Staff, Zhao Yan asked them to transport the Shandong Army artillery battalion and Lin Yi's cavalry battalion to Zhenjiang, the siege plan had been launched, such an obvious motive, it was impossible for the Manchus not to see it, and they would first gain a firm foothold in Zhenjiang.

The artillery battalion can be used not only for defense, but also for attacking Zhenjiang. Although the cavalry battalion was of little use in defense, it could cover the actions of the infantry battalion during the attack on Zhenjiang.

On the morning of the eighth day of the first lunar month, the 40 ships that had been sent to the third battalion had also returned, and the first battalion of the Shandong Army immediately received the order to board the ship.

"Assuming that Hwang Tae-gil has received the news now, the Qing army in Korea will inevitably retreat quickly, and it will take about three days to get from Namhansanseong to Uiju. So we have to take Zhenjiang in five to six days. Or occupy the banks of the Yalu River, and not let the Qing troops in Zhenjiang cooperate with Huang Taiji to break through the encirclement. ”

"Tomorrow the artillery battalion and cavalry battalion will land, but we have to wait until the day after tomorrow when the first battalion arrives to have enough troops to attack Zhenjiang, so the siege time is only three to four days, and you can also choose to build a defensive line on the bank of the Yalu River."

The staff was very busy, calculating the time, maps, the number of supplies needed, etc., and the work never stopped.

…… In fact, Hwang Tae-gil only received the news on the tenth day of the first month, and at this moment he was condescendingly accepting the submission of the king of Joseon, a small country that had always despised them as savages, and finally completely conquered.

Hwang Tae-gil began to hit the population of North Korea, and tens of thousands of Han Chinese died of exhaustion last winter, causing serious damage to production.

Huang Taiji is a person who attaches great importance to production, he knows what the meaning of production is, and population has become an important factor restricting their development at present.

Originally, there was nothing, as long as they entered the pass and plundered, but damn it, they were defeated in the pass, and for the time being, they no longer had the ability to enter the pass to loot wealth, silk, people and animals.

So he could only target North Korea, but just as Hwang Tae-gil was about to order a search for the Han Chinese who had fled into Korea, news of a major defeat came from Phi Dao.

This made Huang Taiji extremely angry, but the news that came next made Huang Taiji break out in a cold sweat.

"Damn, the warships of the Ming people actually blocked the Yalu River, and even transported seven or eight thousand people to Zhenjiang by sea!" Huang Taiji cut his teeth.

"The emperor doesn't need to worry, even if the road in Zhenjiang is not passable, there are three other roads, now that spring has begun, the snow has melted, and those three roads are not very easy to walk, but they can also return to Liaodong." Dorgon was calm.

Zilharang suddenly remembered something, and said after half a sound: "Your Majesty, according to the King of Joseon, the Ming people have sent people to block those three routes last year, and they have also built passes. ”

"What!" At this time, Dolgon's face also changed suddenly, and Huang Taiji yelled at Zilharang, "Why didn't you report it earlier? ”

"The minister thinks the emperor knows about it......" Zilharang replied.

"At this time, the situation is sinister, so I won't care about you for the time being, so I will return to Beijing tomorrow, and order the people and horses to prepare, and I will start early tomorrow." Huang Taiji is not good at thinking about anything at this time, and it is important to return to Liaodong.

On the morning of March 11, Hwang Tae-gil hurriedly marched with more than 50,000 troops, and the king of Joseon did not know why, but he was very respectful and sent ten miles away.

Li Zong then ordered the stonemasons to create an inscription here to praise the merits of the Qing Dynasty, and he was very glad that he finally sent this group of savages away.

Li Zong would never have thought that Shangguo was planning to block Huang Taiji in North Korea, which he couldn't send away if he wanted to............ Haoge led 90,000 people to Zhenjiang, immediately strengthened the defense of Zhenjiang, and stationed 20,000 people in the city, he felt that he had been secured.

Then with 60,000 people, he rushed to the south of Zhenjiang and joined forces with Duoduo and Daishan.

In the camp tent, Hauge, Daishan, and Duoduo took a group of Gushan Ezhen and Meler Ezhen and began to discuss the attack plan.

Huang Taiji was not there, and Dolgon was not there, so it was naturally Huang Taiji's eldest son Haoge who presided over it, and I saw him ask Dai Shan: "What is Prince Li's opinion?" ”

"Prince Huisu, now that our army is gathered in Zhenjiang, it is advisable to launch an offensive as soon as possible and drive those Ming dogs into the sea. If it is delayed for a long time, the required grain and grass will have to be transported from all over the country. Dai Shan replied, and he put his seat very low, looking like he was obedient. It is also Dai Shan's interest that has created his success, and among his descendants in history, there are three iron hat kings.

"Grain and grass are indeed a problem, if they can't be attacked for a long time, transporting grain from all over the country will hurt the country." Hauge nodded in agreement.

If the army breaks into the Ming Kingdom, there is no need to worry about the food, and there is nothing to rob. But in Liaodong, it was different, and the army needed a lot of food supplies to fight.

At this time, when the grain is scarce, there is not much grain, and the consumption of grain will inevitably be caused in transportation, and the only way to eliminate the consumption of grain transportation is to improve the road and have efficient means of transportation.

"How many days is enough food for your troops?" At this time, Dodor asked the Gushan Ezhen and Meler Ezhen in the camp.

"There are three days of food left with the white flag."

"Two days ......"

"One Day ......"

"Four Days ......"

There were different opinions, and Duoduo was dizzy when he heard it, and with his almost illiterate arithmetic level, ten fingers could not be broken at all, and I saw him roar, and the scene suddenly fell silent.

Then he called a Han cultural official and asked him to count.

According to statistics, the food of more than 70,000 people is only enough to consume for three days, and there is not much food in Zhenjiang City, which is only enough for the 23,000 people who defend Zhenjiang to eat for seven or eight days.

"We only have three days, and we have to drive Minggou into the sea within three days." Hauge shouted: "Tomorrow morning, we will attack." ”

"Yes!"

…… The second day is the eighth day of the third month.

Early in the morning, the sky was still bright, the low horn sounded, and more than 75,000 Qing soldiers got up, took out [***] dry food and gnawed it.

In contrast, the soldiers of the third battalion were much superior in food, not only hot steamed dough cakes (which were steamed in the Ming Dynasty), but also dried meat, dried fish, and horse meat, and many dead horses could be found on the battlefield yesterday.

Li Ran looked at the Qing army camp three miles away, the camp that stretched for four or five miles was densely packed with Qing soldiers, and he didn't know how many people there were.

"That's at least 50,000 or 60,000 people." Deputy battalion commander Qian Zhengguo estimated.

"One will let people continue to dig deep trenches, and then pull another barbed wire fence between the second trenches." Li Ran ordered, "Set up the smoothbore gun." ”

"Battalion commander, it's not very convenient for us to act on our own." Qian Zhengguo said. Li Ran raised his hand and said, "It's okay, leave three gaps in the barbed wire, use the portable barbed wire, and then close it when the Tartars attack it." Li Ran said.

"Yes."

After the meal, the soldiers of the third battalion continued to hurry up to build the fortifications, and after a day's construction, the five trenches had been dug to a depth of more than two meters.

Each one was five meters wide and two meters deep, and unless the Manchus built a bridge with wooden planks, they had to fill it with their lives. However, if you want to put a plank bridge under your nose, it is obviously not as simple as words. Carrying a five- or six-meter-long plank, it is definitely a conspicuous target on the battlefield.

At the same time, behind the low wall, a row of smoothbore guns was mounted. This smoothbore cannon is an improved version of the Tiger Squat Cannon, which is specially used to fire stones and shrapnel, and when fired out with one shot, the firepower within 100 meters can cover seven or eight meters wide.

This kind of artillery is very lightweight, weighing only a hundred pounds.

…… At the hour (7~8), the low horn sounded again, and more than 70,000 Qing soldiers stepped on their horses and went out of the camp to assemble, and there were so many people that they seemed to be unable to see the edge.

Wearing a shiny cotton armor and a tasseled helmet, Duoduo proudly looked at the Ming army who was still digging fortifications in the distance, and said with confidence: "We have an army of 70,000, and we can drive those Ming dogs into the sea in just one morning." ”

"What Prince Yu said is extremely true, the Ming people did not hold on to the city, and driving them into the sea was as simple as a child's house." Gu Shan on the side really smiled.

"Having said that, death and injury are inevitable. The blood of our Qing Dynasty disciples can no longer be shed. Dai Shanyan said, Haoge nodded and said: "Let the Mongolian Eight Banners and the Eight Banners of the Han Army go into battle, and our Manchurian children can supervise the battle on the side." ”

The Qing troops came to a stop at a distance of 800 meters from the fortifications, and in their experience, at this distance, although the artillery could be hit, it was not very powerful. If you want to hit middle and high-level personnel, the odds are very slim.

The horn sounded again, and I saw a Mongolian red flag rushing out of the formation, and then the white flag of the Han army also rushed out in formation.

Most of these Menghan Eight Banners have no armor on their bodies, after all, they are just formed troops, although the Manchu Qing Dynasty has been stepping up to build armor all winter, but they can't equip these Menghan Eight Banners with armor.

However, there are horses, there are many horses in Mongolia, and the horses ridden by the Han army were purchased by twenty households, and everything was provided by themselves.

Under the shouts of the war supervisors, these 15,000 people all dismounted, carried various equipment, and pressed towards the position of the Ming army, and the next wave of men and horses had already begun to take place.

On the position of the third battalion, the soldiers of the third battalion had already stopped their digging operations, took their respective weapons, and were ready for battle.

The Qing soldiers of the two flags entered within two hundred meters on foot.

The musketeers behind the low wall opened fire one after another, and against such an unarmored enemy, the bullets still had enough lethality at a distance of two hundred meters, but they did not die completely after being hit, but they were wounded if they did not die, and such gunshot wounds generally did not go untreated. If you enter within 170 meters, you can shoot you directly.

Row after row, 900 musketeers divided into three teams, pulled the trigger forward one after another, and fired a salvo in an average of four seconds, killing and wounding nearly 200 people with 300 rounds each time.

The Qing soldiers who walked in front kept being shot and fell to the ground. The terrible consequence of being unprotected was that each salvo could inflict massive casualties on the approaching Qing army.

It was a long road for the soldiers of the former Qing Army, and watching the people around them continue to be killed and injured, a great fear permeated their hearts.

However, the Qing army in the back is relatively calm, anyway, it is the one in front who dies, and a lot of meat shields are blocking it! It's safe to be in the back.

One hundred meters away, the Qing army suffered a total of thirteen volleys, nearly more than 2,000 Qing troops fell on this road, although the casualties were heavy, but those Qing troops still silently gritted their teeth and moved forward, advancing is death, retreating is the same death, but there is still hope for advancement.

Finally, the Qing army entered within a hundred meters, and they suddenly let out a loud roar, and their pace began to pick up. In the shouting of the earth-shattering, after all, the Qing army a hundred meters away launched a charge.

The shooting continues! When the Qing army rushed to sixty meters away, they encountered an iron thistle terrestris, and the momentum of the charge suddenly stopped, but the Qing army behind did not care about the situation in front, but pushed the meat shield in front of them forward, hoping to exchange the death of the cannon fodder in front for their safe passage.

During the pushing, many Qing soldiers stepped directly on the thistle terrestris, and immediately fell to the ground, letting out a heart-rending howl. Some of the Qing soldiers figured out a way to move forward with their feet on the ground, but they soon kicked the special thistle.

Not all Qing soldiers can think of walking with their feet on the ground, after all, in this era of information blockage, these Menghan Qing soldiers have never seen this thing, as long as their thinking ability is a little worse, they will look at the ground in the push, and scream in panic in an attempt to step on those places where there is no thistle.

But thistles are everywhere.

The advance speed of the Qing soldiers in front directly dragged down the entire charging team. Although this kind of thing can't cause much damage, it seriously slows down the infantry's advance.

This gave the musketeers an opportunity, and the distance was so close that 2,000 musketeers were all in the firing queue. The musketeers who joined in the fire were distributed on both sides, firing diagonally at the Qing troops who had advanced to the area sprinkled with thistles.

Oblique firing led to an increase in distance, so at first it was impossible to shoot at the approaching Qing troops, but now that the Qing troops were so close, they had already entered the firing range.

Bang bang bang...... The gunfire continued one after another, and the Qing soldiers in front fell row after row, and the smoke of gunpowder filled the battlefield under the breeze, reflecting the gray sky, and the smell was very bleak.

Wang Er, who was nervously reloading, was a small platoon commander, only to see him reload quickly, and then stepped forward in the commander's order, and pulled the trigger with a slight aim at the Qing soldiers who were fifty meters away.

That shot passed, and a platoon of Qing soldiers fell to the ground, and he couldn't tell which one was fought by himself, Wang Er, who had participated in many battles, had never shot so refreshedly as he did today.

The unarmored Qing soldiers on the opposite side were all shot and would fall. It's much cooler than fighting thieves and those plain soldiers in armor.

The thieves were largely defeated without a few rounds of fire, and generally did not actively bump into the muzzle of the gun, and only the cavalry were very dashing when dealing with the thieves.

And to deal with the armor-piercing Qing soldiers, it is necessary to enter a hundred meters away, and the musket will have enough lethality. And even if you get closer, you won't die as cleanly as you see.

At this time, some of the charging Qing troops collapsed, screaming and running towards the back, but they were immediately slashed and killed by the Qing cavalry who were flying behind to supervise the battle.

More and more soldiers turned and fled, and the overseer cavalry began to slash and slash wildly.

"Those who retreat will be decided~!"

"Whoever dares to retreat will end up like this." The cavalry overseeing the battle shouted, and one of them cut off the head of a deserter and held it high in his hand.

The frenzied slashing and slaughter finally stopped the trend of turning around and fleeing, and those Qing soldiers saw that there was no hope of escaping, so they could only rush forward with a frenzied roar, shouting to cover up the fear of death.

Finally, the corpses of the Qing army paved a passage and rushed to the barbed wire.

"Boom! ~", a tiger squat cannon in front of him suddenly became powerful, and scattered bullets mixed with stones and iron beads blasted out of the barrel with the sound of the cannon and fanned out.

Twenty or thirty Qing soldiers were shot with many bullet holes, and some Qing soldiers were even torn apart by scattered bullets, and then fell to the ground with a bang.

"Boom~!"

"Boom~!"

The other four or five tiger squat cannons on both sides also launched their power one after another, hitting the charging Qing army from the side. With each shot, swaths of the Qing army were killed, like a bite of bread.

The bullets and scattered bullets fired from muskets and tiger squat cannons formed a terrifying meat grinder. Although the killing speed is not as good as that of mature firearms, in the state of the Manchu Qing Dynasty without firearms to fight back, it has never stopped!

"What a sharp firebolt." Hauge, who was in the distance, couldn't help but exclaim when he saw this. At the same time, he realized that he had forgotten to place his archers to suppress the opponent's firearms.

At this time, Haoge saw that most of the Ming army was concentrated on the left side of the current attack, and the right side was relatively empty, so he immediately ordered the two Han army and eight banners that had been prepared to form an infantry formation and attack the right side.

At the same time, he said to Duoduo: "Uncle Fifteen, you send a team of soldiers to shoot the Ming army with arrows behind your back. ”

"Hmm!" Duoduo nodded, just now he had already seen the omission of Hauge's attack, but he didn't bother to remind him, just to make this nephew suffer a little.

In order to pass the throne to Hauge, Huang Taiji has begun to suppress many people, such as the Great Belle Amin, and Duoduo naturally does not like Hauge.

However, since Hauge opened his mouth, Duoduo naturally would not shirk it, and immediately asked Melle Ezhen, who was inlaid with white flags, to lead 1,500 soldiers to cover the eight banners of the Han army.

Haoge ordered two Mongolian Eight Banners to prepare, and asked Daishan's Zhenghong Banner to send out 1,500 soldiers in the back, ready to enter the battlefield at any time, only to see him say very proudly: "Although the Ming Dog's firearms are sharp, but my Qing Dynasty's offensive is like a tide, and I see how long the Ming Dog can hold on." ”

(To be continued)