At the beginning of late April, 100,000 Qing troops surrounded Gaoyou City.

The artillery battles at the head of the city and outside the city blinded the eyes of the Qing soldiers.

Before that, the power of the iron cannon was well known, but this was the first real artillery battle, not the crushing of one side against the other.

There was no high ground outside Gaoyou City, and when the Qing prisoners were arranging the artillery array, Yan Yingyuan watched very insidiously until half of the Qing prisoners' iron cannons arrived at the predetermined position. When the Qing gunners were preparing to test the guns, the iron cannons at the head of Gaoyou City rang out.

Seeing the iron cannon outside the city rolling everywhere, Chen Ming smiled treacherously, but he didn't expect Yan Yingyuan, who had a righteous face, to come up with such a trick.

People should not be disgraced, and the ancients did not deceive others.

Yan Yingyuan was a pawn who often dealt with all kinds of thieves, how could he not understand fraud, but he just disdained to use it on weekdays.

Those iron cannons were painstakingly transported from all over the north, and Dolgon witnessed the barrels of more than two dozen iron cannons being deflated, and with great thunder, he killed the commander in charge of arranging the artillery camp on the spot.

After two days of tossing, the Qing finally set up the artillery position in a dark night, and the confrontation began.

The Ming army occupied a high place at the head of the city, and the advantage of the Qing captives was more in the iron artillery.

The iron balls jumped back and forth outside the castle, and the iron cannons of both sides turned into scrap metal in turn.

After a few days of back and forth, the huge cannons at the head of Gaoyou City were basically destroyed, and the iron cannons outside the city also lost more than half. The Qing soldiers finally took advantage of the artillery fire and began to ravage the weak city of Gaoyou.

Yan Yingyuan's corporal was familiar with artillery siege, they had been suppressed in Jiangyin City for half a year, and iron artillery was just a common thing for them.

In the current way of defending the city, the four gates are the most vulnerable under the iron cannons. Yan Yingyuan learned from the experience of defending the city in Hangzhou, built a screen wall behind the city gate, and arranged a hidden platform behind the city wall, making the most adequate preparations.

He and Chen Mingyu both remembered the words that King Jin specially came to Gaoyou to instruct, "There are no reinforcements in Gaoyou City"

Gaoyou City did not have reinforcements, and Dolgon did not have the patience to delay too much time under this small city, and led the cavalry south to pounce on Yangzhou City.

The Grand Canal is still a month away from the most turbulent time of the year, and the water in several tributaries is not small. Light cavalry could wade across rivers, but cavalry in thick armor could not.

Feng Qin did not cower in the camp, but led 5,000 foot soldiers to confront the Qing cavalry across the river. Of course, he didn't dare to go too far from the camp.

"What a bold man" Dolgon was not going well for days, and when he saw that the Ming army's foot soldiers dared to be so arrogant, he ordered: "Order Li Chengdong to cross the river to drive away the Ming army"

The Ming army did not bring iron cannons, and he wanted to see what the power of the legendary ingenious bird gun was.

Li Chengdong did not dare to disobey the order, and led the light cavalry to disperse across the river. The Han soldiers had no armor, and after crossing the river, they were soaked from chest to chest.

The Ming army was divided into units of 500 people, wearing flowers and butterflies along the river, and aimed their flint guns at the soldiers wading in the river.

After a few sporadic skirmishes, Dolgon finally got a glimpse of the sharpness of the Ming army's new firearms.

When Li Chengdong personally led 2,000 cavalry to cross the river seven or eight miles downstream, Feng Qin led the infantry to slowly retreat to the camp.

Li Chengdong only dared to follow and bluff.

Seeing that the Ming army was quickly withdrawn, Dolgon understood that Feng Qin's move was a demonstration to him, as if showing him the sharpness of firearms.

"Gather the iron cannons, mobilize the iron cannons," he shouted, waving his arms. After shouting, he immediately noticed that his recent situation had fluctuated very much, and the Ming army was provoking him intentionally or unintentionally.

This is a battle related to the fortunes of the Qing Dynasty, and he must remain calm no matter what.

The Qing soldiers brought more than 200 iron cannons to the south, and lost half of them under Gaoyou City. The location of the Fengqin camp was quite cleverly chosen, facing the lake on one side, and if you want to shell the Ming army camp, you must set up an artillery position against the water.

Putting yourself to death and not being able to ensure the safety of the river behind you

difficult

With the experience of Gaoyou City, Dolgon knew that there were iron cannons in the Ming army camp, and he did not dare to approach too closely. He has just appeared, and the cavalry is useless for the time being.

If he did not break through the camp of Ailing Lake, he did not dare to go south to attack the camp of the Ming army outside Yangzhou.

The camp of the Ming army under the city of Yangzhou and the barracks of Ailing Lake are one and the other, and they are in harmony with each other. When the Qin barracks is in danger, the Yangzhou battalion will definitely send troops to rescue. On the contrary, the Qing court had to suffer from the enemy on its back and its tail.

Dorgon struggled to suppress the irritability in his heart.

There are often small boats in the canal, there are many soldiers who are good at water in the government soldiers in the south of the Yangtze River, and the Qing soldiers are powerless to compete with the Ming army in the water, and the Ming army can rely on the canal to transport materials and inform the news.

The battle between Gaoyou City and Ailing Lake was reported to Zhai Zhe's desk every day.

He looked absent-mindedly.

Fang Jin peeked at his movements at the door and whispered, "Report that General Li is here, saying that he has something to report."

"Let Him In"

Li Zhi'an rushed into the big tent of the Chinese army and arched his hand: "Lord Wang, it's through, the tunnel has been dug through." ”

"Is there anything in the city?"

"The miners were digging during the shelling, and the sound was thundering, and there was nothing unusual in the city."

Zhai Zhe was overjoyed, quickly restrained his excitement, and said: "Okay, don't dig for the time being, cover the entrance, and the miners are not allowed to go out in the barracks."

"Obey" Li Zhi'an agreed in his mouth, puzzled in his heart, don't you want to break the city as much as possible?

A small half of the Ming army under the city of Yangzhou came from eastern Zhejiang, and most of them were miners. Miners have been mining ore in the mountains all year round, and some people have used gunpowder to blast stones, and Zhai Zhe has proposed that he can dig tunnels to the city and use gunpowder to blast the city walls and attack the city.

After Zhai Zhe carefully inquired about the details, he felt that it was very feasible, and immediately dismissed the order of all military camps to dig tunnels in the city at the same time, and only ordered Li Zhian to secretly dig tunnels in the army.

The defenders of the city often used tanks to cover cowhide to monitor the movement underground, and this was done precisely to ensure that a tunnel could be dug and not allowed to be captured. In order to cover up the sound of digging tunnels, the miners in the battalion only started construction when the Ming army's huge artillery bombarded them, so it took a month to complete the digging of a tunnel

"This is the use of gunpowder to blast the city wall, how effective it is, it is not yet known" Zhai Zhe's tone sounded like there was a major matter that was difficult to decide.

Li Zhi'an said: "The last general understands that the last general is not just counting on here"

"Okay, you don't have to say anything to anyone about this matter, don't keep the secrets in the army" Zhai Zhe suddenly got up from his seat and said: "Tomorrow I want to go back to Nanjing, all the soldiers and horses under Yangzhou City are under your control, the siege of the city is slightly slowed down, and the large camp is prepared to prevent the Qing captives from raiding." ”

"Obey" Li Zhi'an knew that King Jin must have a plan that he didn't want to be known.

Not long after Li Zhi'an returned to the camp, the king of Jin sent an order to summon the generals, and several general soldiers hurried to the Chinese army. Zhai Zhe ordered to give Li Zhian an an account of the affairs of the army, and he led Fang Jin and other 200 people to return to Jiangnan by boat.

The war had just begun, and the general left suddenly, and the officers and men in the army kept their duties, waiting for the day when the general returned to Jiangbei.

Zhai Zhe told Yan Yingyuan that there were no rescuers in Gaoyoucheng, he wanted to force him to death, but after he returned to Jiangnan, Gaoyoucheng really became a place of death, because no one dared to rescue Gaoyou without his order.

Except for Feng Qin, who vaguely guessed Zhai Zhe's thoughts, all the generals just acted according to orders.

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