Huang Taiji spent half a month, detoured a lot of detours, and finally led the main army to arrive at the Horqin grassland, Yue Tuo also basically raised the grain and grass, and all the large and small tribes also came to assemble one after another, and the momentum was extremely huge.

The patriarchs and elders of the various tribes hate and fear the emperor, but they are still full of expectations for this military operation, because the hunting failed last autumn, and the winter is very hard.

Huang Taiji appeased a group of patriarchs and elders, rested for two days, and then led the army to the foot of Shanhaiguan City, set up camp, and quietly dug three tunnels leading to Shanhaiguan City on the grounds of building a watchtower.

Digging tunnels straight into the city, there are ancient and modern examples of attacking and seizing the city in the middle of the night, and the defending side also has the equipment to listen to the movement underground, but it is just simple, such as listening to urns, listening to tubes or something, the main general and soldiers guarding the city are not careful, and there is no neglect of duty.

There is no excavator in this year, the excavation tools are backward, all rely on manpower to dig hard, fortunately, there are many people, a group of people are tired, and then another group of people take over, twelve hours of non-stop digging, plus good luck, did not touch the hard stone layer, the excavation progress is OK.

In order to avoid being discovered by the Ming army, the excavated soil was piled up on the side of the camp fence, looking at the posture of building a large earthen fortress-style military camp and besieging Shanhaiguan for a long time, the Ming soldiers patrolling the city saw it, but it really didn't take it seriously, even Lu Hongniang didn't care about it at the beginning, just held a monocular and observed for a while, and felt nothing abnormal.

The three tunnels are still desperately digging, and the laborers are those slaves who have been plundered, most of them are the people of the Ming Dynasty, and there are also some small tribesmen who have been exterminated, and they have to dig day and night under the pressure of the sword, and some of the slaves who are weak can no longer stand up after falling.

After digging in the tunnel near the city, in order to avoid being heard by the Ming soldiers to avoid too much movement, Huang Taiji ordered that no more hoe digging was allowed, and that he could only use sharp tools similar to steel drills to dig slowly little by little, and only when the army feinted to attack the city could he use a hoe to dig vigorously.

During this period, the Jin army was ordered to launch more than a dozen feints on Shanhaiguan City one after another, each time the intensity of the attack was not very large, and the siege time was short, and they retreated after dropping dozens of cannon fodder corpses, but it took a long time to fight under the city, and only launched two attacks in one day, and one day to fish for two or three days to dry the nets, one day to rest for two or three days, more than a dozen sieges took half a month.

She stood behind the battlements, holding a monocular to watch the battle, confirming that the Jin army was only a feint and did not really attack the city, and immediately sent fast cavalry to notify the surrounding border fort defenders, so that they could be vigilant and strictly prevent the Jin army from attacking the city.

But more than ten days have passed, the news from the fortresses of each border fort has not found that the Jin army is attacking the city, and the defenders have also taken the risk of sending a large number of scouts out of the pass to reconnoitre, and the army of the Jin army has not been found within a hundred miles, only some scouts and scouts, and the scouts on both sides have had some encounters, and there are casualties among each other.

Based on all kinds of information in her hands, Lu Hongniang frowned, which play was Yue Tuo playing?

The Jin army camp and the main formation did not hang the sweat flag of Huang Taiji, but hung the battle flag of the little Belle Yuetuo, which did succeed in confusing the Ming army scouts who ventured out of the customs to inquire about the military situation, and the generals of the forts such as Lu Hongniang and Li Xin were also deceived.

Lu Hongniang racked her brains and couldn't guess which play Yue Tuo was playing, so she had to order the whole city to be on strict guard, out of prudence, she ordered the people in the city to pile up two rows of mud and sand cloth bags at the entrance of the street near the city gate, and the newly made iron plate car was placed at the end, building three simple lines of defense.

On the same day, the Jin army launched two waves of feints and withdrew early, under the supervision of Lu Hongniang, the soldiers and civilians defending the city did not dare to be sloppy, and were strictly guarded, and Zhao Shujiao, who was the chief military officer, personally patrolled the city.

After nightfall, the soldiers patrolling the city threw torches down from time to time to check whether the Jin soldiers used the night to cover the sneak attack, but they found nothing unusual.

Zhao Shujiao also sent a team of scouts to risk taking a hanging basket from the head of the city to go down to the city, and went out to reconnoitre, but they did not find anything abnormal, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

At this time, the Jin army really didn't move, all of them fell asleep, recuperated, and waited for the assault before dawn.

It was almost dawn, there was movement in the camp of the Jin army, the sleeping soldiers were woken up by the officers, after they were full of wine and food, dressed neatly, quietly left the camp, stumbled forward in the dark, and only stopped until they were half a mile away from the Shanhaiguan City, during which there was no major movement, and even the war horses did not neigh, this military discipline is still quite admirable.

Zhao Shujiao personally patrolled the city all night, to see that the sky was about to dawn, he also breathed a sigh of relief, and after explaining to the officers on duty, he returned home, he was a little hungry, he planned to eat a meal and then lie down to rest.

"Why is there no water? What's going on? ”

Zhao Laodao, the chef in the house, cooks and cooks, using the water in the water tank, and the next person has to draw water from the well to fill the water tank, but he finds that the water level in the well has dropped sharply, and the rope is not long enough to draw water, so he shouts loudly.

"What's going on out there?" Zhao Shujiao was taking off his armor, and when he heard the shouting, he couldn't help frowning and asking.

A soldier ran to the backyard to inquire and then came back to report.

"Hmm...... Broken ......"

Zhao was stunned at the beginning, and suddenly shivered, there is little rain in winter, and it is normal for the water level of the well to drop, but now it is spring, there is a lot of rain, and there was a heavy rain a few days ago, how can the water level of the well drop so much? The only explanation is that the Jin army was secretly digging tunnels, causing the water level of the well to drop.

"Quick, horses."

Zhao Shujiao ordered loudly, his personal guards were all elite in a hundred battles, and they reacted very quickly, one team escorted him to the camp of the Phoenix Legion, and the other team rushed to the head of the city, reminding the soldiers guarding the city to be vigilant, and at the same time listening to what happened to the urn.

"Yo, careless......"

Lu Hongniang did not rest, Jin Jun's abnormal behavior made her uneasy, she always felt that something was wrong, but she couldn't catch it, and after listening to Zhao Shujiao's report, she immediately understood.

With her order, all the officers and men of the Phoenix Legion, the five thousand soldiers under Zhao Shuojiao's command, all rushed out and hurriedly entered the preset defensive position under the command of the officer.

Surrounded by their own personal guards, Lu Hongniang and Zhao Shujiao rode their horses to the head of the city, and when they were still about 100 meters away from the city gate, they suddenly heard a loud bang that shook the sky, and the solid and sturdy city wall collapsed.