Jinzhou.

Early in the morning, Dolgon mobilized the elite of the two white flags to advance outside the north gate of Jinzhou. A large number of soldiers wearing white cotton armor and two white flags with red trim in white made the city seem to be covered in snow overnight.

The loud trumpets resounded across the wilderness, and the drums of war shook the heavens and the earth.

Dolgon's banner was no more than two miles from the city, and Dolgon stood there, surveying the city across from him with a clairvoyant mirror.

Jinzhou, which is the focus of the battle for many years in the Ming and Qing dynasties, is the core city. Especially since the Qing army won the battle of Guangning and the battle of the Daling River, the Qing army has advanced the battle line to the line of the Xiaoling River, and the city of Jinzhou, located on the east bank of the Xiaoling River, has become the east gate of the Ming army guarding the western Liaoning corridor.

Because the moat around the city had been dug and the earthen wall had been built during the previous siege of Jinzhou, it was very convenient for the Qing army to besiege Jinzhou again this time. Jinzhou City, also known as Guangning Zuotunwei, used to be a prosperous city, but these years the war in western Liaoning, from the apocalypse to the present, back and forth to urge the disabled, the city has long ceased to be prosperous.

At this time, there were 50,000 soldiers and horses in the city, and Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, Sun Chuanting, the governor of Shaanxi, and five general military officers were trapped in the city. Although there are many soldiers and horses, many soldiers and horses can only be regarded as the clothed Aha slaves carried by the Eight Banners compared with the Qing army.

In fact, after Wu Sangui relieved the siege of Jinzhou at that time, the Jinzhou soldiers in Jinzhou City went north to Yizhou, and then Hong Chengchou rushed to Jinzhou with a batch of grain and grass materials.

Because Zu Dashou also pulled the cannons to Yizhou when he went north, there were only a few Hongyi cannons in the city defense of Jinzhou City, and they were all old-style Hongyi made in the early years.

Originally, with these cannons, plus 50,000 horses, it would still be possible to defend Jinzhou for a year and a half.

But now Dolgon is facing the city of Jinzhou, where the gates are closed, but he is full of confidence. The batch of Ming artillery captured under the city of Yizhou has been transported to the city of Jinzhou. There are thousands of large and small artillery, and even if you don't count the small cannons such as tiger squats, there are more than a hundred.

In particular, one of the new cannons, which is said to have been purchased by Wu Sangui from the Chu army, is extremely powerful. During the Battle of Uiju, several large holes in the city of Uiju were opened.

But now. These sharp artillery pieces are all owned by the Qing army. With this batch of cannons, Dorgon was confident that he would be able to take Jinzhou City quickly.

Dolgon had personally seen the test firing of these cannons, which were lighter than the Hongyi cannons that the Qing army had only copied in recent years, but they shot farther. In particular, the siege mortars are light and easy to transport, but they can fire huge stone projectiles, which are extremely powerful for siege.

Right now. In Dolgon's hands, if all the cannons above 1,000 catties are called Hongyi cannons, then he has at least a hundred Hongyi cannons of different sizes in his hands.

Huang Taiji and Dai Shan successively led 5,000 soldiers and horses back to reinforce Liaoyang, and now Dolgon commands the soldiers and horses under the city of Jinzhou, Jierharang leads the Qing army in Yizhou, and Duoduo leads the soldiers and horses in the outer cities of Songshan.

Among the three Qing armies, Dolgon was the main commander.

Huang Taiji explained the situation very clearly before leaving, and let Liu Jun in Liaodong run rampant for a while. As long as Liaoyang is not lost, Liu Jun temporarily occupies Haizhou, Gaizhou and other places. Winter is coming. At that time, the Liaohai Sea froze, so the role of the Chu army's sea control was greatly weakened, and their naval divisions could not project troops everywhere. And from the land maneuver, many of the artillery pieces that the Chu army has, will become a drag on them.

The Qing army first concentrated its forces to take Jinzhou, and then defeated the Ming army in Songshan and Xingshan and other places in western Liaoning. At that time, Liu Jun's lone army in Liaodong would also be isolated, and the Qing army would have time to exterminate them.

As for how to attack Jinzhou City, it turned out that Huang Taiji's plan was to use the method of attacking the Daling River. Long siege, siege to send reinforcements. However, now that there is a large amount of artillery, Dolgon plans to imitate the method of Wu Sangui attacking Yizhou and Liu Jun attacking Gaizhou, using artillery to concentrate on breaking through the city wall, and then capture the city.

As long as there was no city wall to rely on, Dolgon believed that the Ming army was simply not enough to fight the Qing army.

Not to mention that there are 50,000 Ming troops in Jinzhou City, even if you add another 50,000, Dolgon is not afraid. Under the city of Jinzhou, Dolgon led not only the soldiers and horses of the two white flags, but also the soldiers and horses of other banners and the banners of Han and Mongolia, adding up to 50,000 people.

Half of the elite of the Qing army was in the hands of Dolgon, and he was now full of self-confidence.

The Ming army did not have the courage to go out of the city to fight now, and there were trenches and earthen walls to besiege the city, and there were trenches to cut off the connection between Songshan, Xingshan and Jinzhou.

Gushan Ezhen Shi Tingzhu and Ma Guangyuan proposed that there was no need to besiege on all sides like Wu Sangui did when he attacked Yizhou, and only concentrated heavy troops to attack one side. Anyway, there are besieged moats and earthen walls outside the city, and you only need a small number of cavalry to keep an eye on the overall situation. If the Ming army wants to escape, it can also be intercepted immediately.

Because there are urn cities at each gate of Jinzhou City, Dolgon plans to directly bombard the walls of the gate city and attack the city gates, but he is ready to directly blast the city walls open. Avoid fighting for the city gate of the Ming army's key defense, after all, the city gate still has the urn city, and if the city gate is broken, you have to attack the city gate again, and the urn city is narrow, and there are jack gates and gates, which are easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Hundreds of large and small artillery pieces were transported to the north of the city, with more than 100 shield carts in front, and under the impetus of the captured Han prisoners of war, covering the gun carriages behind.

Originally, the Qing army could only besiege a fortified city like Jinzhou, or it was attached to the ants to attack the city, or dig tunnels, but now, with many cannons in hand, the Qing army has also learned a new way to siege the city.

Especially the Qing army that came down from the south of Yizhou City, they really appreciated the power of artillery siege that day. Now that the cannon is in hand, they don't even bother to build a ladder.

The Ming army on Jinzhou City also discovered the intentions of the Qing army, and hurriedly let the artillery on the city bombard.

As soon as the shield cart and the gun carriage entered about two miles, the Hongyi cannon on the north gate made a loud noise, and a large iron ball flew out with a roar, flying high into the formation of the shield cart.

The shell landed directly in the clearing, bounced a few times, and finally hit a shield cart. The newly built shield car shattered directly, and the prisoners of war next to them ran fast and were not injured.

But before they could get there and rejoice that they had escaped, the Qing army, who was supervising the battle, shot arrows at them on their horses, shooting them all to the ground. For the Qing army, the role of these prisoners of war was to push the shield cart gun cart, and since the shield cart was gone, they were useless. Shooting them on the spot can also deter other prisoners of war from escaping.

The shield cart continued to push forward, covering the gun carriage behind.

The cannon at the head of the city fired again, but this time it didn't hit anything, and it was far away from the convoy.

The Hongyi cannon fired several times, but all of them missed the target. At this time, the convoy of the Qing army had been pushed four or five hundred steps away from the city, and the Hongyi cannon was more and more missable.

In the end, the Hongyi cannon stopped firing altogether, but then the cannon fire of the general's cannon and the jack franc machine, which were closer in the city, rang out again.

These cannons were regarded as the main artillery in the previous Ming and Qing wars, but compared with the batch of artillery in the hands of the Qing army now, they are greatly backward, not to mention compared with the artillery of the Chu army, it is even more obsolete equipment.

However, although this kind of cannon has a short range and poor accuracy, it still has a lot of power when fired from the head of the city at a distance of several hundred paces.

A company of several shield wagons was hit, dozens of prisoners of war were killed, wounded, and an artillery carriage was also hit, which was blown up and temporarily unusable.

Fortunately, the ballistic trajectory of the Hongyi cannon at the head of the city was straight, and after the artillery team approached the city wall, it entered the dead corner of the Hongyi cannon on the city, making this most powerful artillery an ornament.

"Three hundred steps, stop!"

The Qing army officers who led the team kept resisting the sparse artillery fire at the head of the city and entered about 300 steps in front of the northern city before stopping, which is also the location where they found the Ming army's artillery array placed away from the city in Yizhou. This position can basically ensure that all large and small artillery can attack the city wall, and it can ensure accuracy.

"Reload!"

Dolgon sent Shi Tingzhu to personally command this artillery array, many gunners are from the Han Four Banners, many Han soldiers of the Han Four Banners were originally Wuzhen Chaoha's soldiers, at that time Wuzhen Chaoha was also a large number of troops equipped with firearms, they are the most proficient in firearms, originally there were Kong Youde and others in the Qing army The troops were the best at firearms, but unfortunately now they are all down to Ming.

Fortunately, after the Battle of Shitingzhu Yizhou, many original Ming gunners were collected from the prisoners of war, and these gunners were reorganized into this new artillery, which also greatly increased the strength of this Qing artillery unit.

Three-, six-, nine-, and eighteen-pounder long and short cannons, as well as large-caliber mortars of several sizes. Although there were no cannon howitzers, no howitzers, and no grenades, solid iron bullets alone were enough to deal with the not very thick city wall.

Use mortar cannons to directly smash the defenders on the head of the city, use Hongyi cannons to directly smash the city walls, and small cannons to protect the artillery array.

"All the red cannons will stare at that section of the city wall for me, don't hit the city gate, just hit the section of the city wall on the side of the city gate. Boom until the walls are collapsed! Shi Tingzhu ordered loudly.

The horn sounded, and hundreds of Hongyi cannons of various sizes opened fire almost at the same time, and large iron balls roared and smashed towards Jinzhou City. These guns were not only made by the Ming army itself, but also purchased from Macao, as well as made by the Qing army itself, as well as the obsolete goods of the Chu army bought by Wu Sangui from Hubei, some of these guns were naval guns of the Dutch, some were naval guns of the British, Spanish, and Macao people, and some were field short cannons of the army.

At this time, all kinds of cannons of different calibers and sizes were called Hongyi cannons by the Qing army, and they bombarded the north city wall of Jinzhou in one fell swoop.

After only half a day, by the afternoon, the battered city wall finally collapsed with a bang, and a section of the city wall several zhang wide collapsed.

When Dolgon saw the big gap looming in the smoke, he was so excited that he laughed loudly and shouted, "Blow the trumpet, charge, and take Jinzhou!" (To be continued.) )

PS: Thank you linzhimin, 灬丿天下ya, Ice and Fire Ji for your support, thank you!