Liaoyang.

Liaoyang City was the capital of the Manchu Qing Dynasty for a while, called Tokyo, but later moved the capital back to Shenyang. However, Liaoyang City has always been an important town of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but at this time, Manchurian Tokyo was occupied by the Chu army. Haoge, who was stationed in Tokyo at the beginning, heard that Huang Taiji was killed in battle, and after the defeat of Daishan's soldiers, he fled in panic, allowing the Ming army to take Liaoyang without blood.

This city was built on the ancient city of Liaoyang in the Yuan Dynasty, and the Taizi River flowed north from the south along the east wall. The circumference of the city is 24 miles, divided into two cities in the north and south, and the two cities are connected in the shape of a Japanese character.

In the five years of Hongwu, the Ming army conquered Liaoyang two years after the construction, the city wall bricks and stones are built together, the inner stone and the outer bricks, the rammed earth in the center of the wall, the upper narrow and the lower width are trapezoidal, the bottom of the wall is nearly three zhang wide, and the height is three zhang three. Among them, the south city is larger than the north city, the city is sixteen miles around, the north city is slightly smaller, and the city is eight miles around.

There are six city gates in the south city: Anding, Taihe, Pingyi, Guangshun, Suqing, Zhenyuan, there is an urn city outside the east gate, and there is a moat outside the city. In the north city, there are only three gates: Yongzhi, Wujing, and Invincible.

After the Qing army occupied Liaoyang, the name of the city gate was changed to Pu'an and Suiyuan in the east gate, Shun'an in the west gate, arch pole in the north gate, and Fengle and Wenchang in the south gate; The door is full of Chinese books.

Liaoyang can be called second only to Shengjing and Shenyang in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and its status is extremely heavy.

Liaoyang City in the cold winter looks more and more tall and majestic.

This year is the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, Chinese New Year's Eve, and it is also a day of reunion. However, the 10,000 Chu troops of the two associations in Liaoyang City could not reunite with their families for Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. In this cold northern ice city, they can only spend Chinese New Year's Eve with their comrades.

The night was very quiet, although it was Chinese New Year's Eve, Fu Shan did not let the soldiers relax. The logistics brothers prepared the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner early, specially killed a hundred fat pigs, slaughtered many fat sheep, and broke the ice to catch fish from the river.

The dish was hearty, but there was no alcohol.

Because the vanguard of the Qing army, the sentinel cavalry, had already appeared outside the city. Therefore, even on Chinese New Year's Eve, the soldiers are all armored, and everyone cannot drink alcohol.

As the commander-in-chief of the Liaoyang garrison, Fu Shan did not drink either, and he also did not leave his body. In the silence of Liaoyang City, there was a stir, and everyone was waiting for the Qing army to appear and wait for them to attack the city.

The night passed, and the Qing army did not appear.

The first rays of dawn in the east have appeared, and the vast snow outside the city has been revealed.

On the twenty-four-mile-long city wall of Liaoyang City. Outside the original gate towers and corner towers of Zhucheng, a lot of new forts were added, and the Chu army, who was on duty all night, yawned to welcome the brothers who had changed shifts.

The night is finally over, and you can have a hot breakfast after the shift change, and then sleep soundly on the big pit.

The two divisions of the city were divided into four divisions, which were rotated in three shifts, and one of the men and horses was used as the general reserve, so that the soldiers could get more time to rest. Keep enough energy up at all times.

On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, Fu Shan got up early, and last night he went to the city twice to check the sentry and found that the soldiers were very dutifully on duty. And no one deserted. Another group of soldiers on standby also slept in the caves in the city walls.

The pro-soldier had already boiled the hot water, Fu Shan had finished washing, and another pro-soldier had already brought breakfast.

The steaming big meat buns have always been Fu Shan's favorite. You can never get tired of eating. While he was eating the buns, his soldiers draped a bearskin over his armor.

While eating steamed buns, Fu Shan walked towards the east gate and the upper floor of the Pingyi Gate. After the Ming army captured Liaoyang. He immediately changed the name of the East Gate from Pu'an back to the original name.

Since Fu Shan came to Liaoyang to take over the position of commander, he had to discuss the general's affairs on the tower of Pingyimen every morning, rather than in the general's mansion in the city.

Standing on the Pingyi Gate, you can clearly see the outside of the city. After Fu Shan arrived, he immediately ordered the young and strong people and captives in the city to build fortifications in every open space outside the city.

Sharp stakes were planted in the arid moat, and on the side of the moat near the city wall, a wall of sheep and horses was erected. Then a heavy and sharp rejection horse was erected on the other side of the trench.

These horses are all sharp horns, and they are connected together, which is an excellent obstacle against war horses.

Every once in a while, there would be a row of horses that were rejected, and within three hundred paces outside the city, there were horse pits dug everywhere, the pits were not large, almost enough for a horse's foot, and not too deep, but they could make the galloping horses fall and break their legs after stepping into them.

Matching the trap are the calf-high deer foot stakees, which are inserted into the ground, disorderly but densely packed, and can definitely slow down the attack of the besieging side. With these piles, the shield cart and cart can move forward, and the war horse can run even more, even ordinary infantry can hardly let go of running.

What's more, within a hundred paces of the city, in addition to the horse pits and horses, deer feet, and long pointed piles, there are many strings of thistles.

These fortifications were simple but effective, costing only the time and energy of the captives, but they were of great help to the defense of the city.

The main effect of these fortifications was to slow down the besiegers, so that they could be within 300 paces of the city walls, and the artillery fire in the city had more time to attack.

Fu Shan even planned to have the craftsmen make a batch of mines and bury them underground outside the city, so that those attackers could explode when they stepped on them. The idea was good, but the craftsmen couldn't make such a mine for the time being, because there was no way to solve the problem of triggering the fuse.

This trigger fuse has actually been studied by the artillery shell workshop for a long time. If a touch fuse can be developed, it will be possible to make the shrapnel more powerful, but I haven't found a suitable way yet.

When the enemy stepped on the motor, the falling stone in the box fell, driving the steel wheel to rotate, and the flint was sharply rubbed against the fire, detonating the mine.

However, this kind of mine has a very low fire rate and limited power, and was finally abandoned by Fu Shan.

However, the most powerful defensive weapon in Liaoyang City is not these fortifications outside the city, but the artillery on the head of the city.

The fortifications outside the city are at best auxiliary, and the real killer is still artillery. The two associations in Liaoyang City have four artillery battalions and more than 200 artillery pieces of various types, not counting the light mountain grenades equipped by the companies below.

In order to make the cannon fully powerful, Fu Shan built turrets on the city walls, each with nine cannons on two floors. The most powerful is. These gun positions were not fixed, he adopted the design of the bow gun on the Chu warship, with a track that could rotate 180 degrees, adjust the firing position according to demand, and hit the enemy in a wider direction.

The turrets at the head of the city are designed to form crossfire with nearby turrets to further increase their firepower.

Although those long and short cannons of heavy artillery regiments and field artillery regiments, due to the straight ballistics. The range is long, and it is not very suitable for defending the city. But Fu Shan still hoisted these cannons on the head of the city, and for Fu Shan, these cannons were also useful. It was possible to bombard the Qing army while they were assembling in the distance, and even bombard their rear positions.

After all, a long cannon with a range of one or two miles or even several miles has a range that is not vegetarian, and if it is used well, it can also perform miracles.

Of course, Fu Shan relied on howitzers, howitzers and mortars and even mountain grenades the most. Although these cannons are not as fierce as cannon guns in field battles and sieges, their larger firing angles can play a greater role in defending cities. Better at killing and damaging enemy troops close to the city.

For the traditional defensive equipment, Fu Shan has not forgotten.

Rolling wood, rolling stones, and even boiling water, hot oil, and boiling dung juice, Fu Shan even had craftsmen improvise a batch of wooden catapults. Although catapults were far inferior to artillery, he was not too much. Catapults are simple anyway, and some wood can be made. And it doesn't cost gunpowder shells, you can just throw stones. There is no need for professional gunners, not even soldiers, just let the Han people in the city operate it strongly.

In addition, a number of knife carts were built, which were the same width as the city gates. Once the gates were breached by the enemy, a large crowd of soldiers pushed and blocked the gates. Once the gate is knocked open, this is the movable gate, and the front knife wall is equipped with 24 steel knives, which can be used to push the cart to the gap in the gate, which can not only kill and injure the enemy, but also block the enemy's arrows and stones. In this way, it is difficult for the other party to climb and form a barrier to activity.

Fu Shan also strengthened the city gates, which were wrapped in a layer of iron sheets and inlaid with many large copper nail bubbles, and once the enemy attacked, he pasted the mud on the city gates, which could protect the city gates from being burned by rockets and other attacks.

He also dug holes under the walls of the city and buried many large urns, covered with raw cowhides, and appointed soldiers with a keen sense of hearing to listen to the movements of the underground to prevent the enemy from digging tunnels to break the city.

In addition, there are many defensive equipment used for defending the city, including wooden curtains, cloth curtains, and leather curtains hanging on the outside of the battlements, and there are bamboo stands, wooden stands, grate fences, leather bamboo fences, and city protection shields erected on the city walls, so as to block the arrows and stones shot by the besieging enemy.

There are also plugs, secret doors, chacha signs, wooden female heads and wooden female walls used for the defense of the city gate like the Saimen knife cart, so that when the city gate and female wall are destroyed, these instruments can be used for emergency remedies to prevent the enemy from rushing into the city from the breakthrough.

There are also fork poles and resistance poles that support the enemy's ladders near the city.

In order to meet the Qing army, Fu Shan made great efforts, in addition to the artillery fire of the Chu army, even the fortifications outside the city and the traditional defensive equipment on the head of the city did not give up.

Now, everything is ready, only the east wind is owed.

Fu Shan prepared a luxury package for the 50,000 Qing troops of Dolgon and Daishan, and waited for them to come.

On the tower of the city gate of Pingyi Gate, a group of officers had already arrived first. Everyone talked to each other in twos and threes, and even joked, and everyone did not have the slightest tension before the war.

Zhang Guozhu held Qianli Town and looked out of the city, the dog remnants of the year have now become a general of the First Association and are included in the list of senior generals of the Chu Army. And everyone believes that Zhang Guozhu has a bright future, and it won't be long before he will become a deputy general like his brother Zhang Guodong.

After all, they were all well-known confidants of Chu Gong's disciples in the army.

In the clairvoyant mirror, a team of cavalry is galloping, with blue robes and red liveries, which are the scout cavalry of the Chu army.

"Here comes the Tartars!"

The knight ran to the bottom of the city, began to slow down, carefully bypassed the traps, walked along the vacant path to the city gate, and when he gave the order, showed his waist card, and when the drawbridge was lowered, he alouded to the officers of the city the news that the army had arrived.

"The Tartars are coming, and the striker is twenty miles away."

Fu Shan, who had just ascended the Pingyi Gate Tower, heard the news, smiled slightly, and finally came.

"Ring the alarm and get ready to fight!" (To be continued.) )