The night was like ink, and Yan Yingyuan was standing on the edge of the Wei River looking at Tianjin Wei.

The Wei River in the Ming Dynasty was actually the Haihe River in later generations, the one that flowed into the Bohai Sea from Tianjin through the mouth of Dagu.

On the ice surface of the Wei River, Chen Mingyu and hundreds of new troops were digging ice caves, digging the ice holes, and then burying ceramic jars from the ice caves, and then digging a shallow ice pit horizontally on the ice, and then burying the lead wrapped in oil paper into the ice pit, and then pulling the lead to the shore.

Once this is done, cold water is poured over the ice pits and ice caves.

After a few moments, the cold water froze, and the ice pits and ice caves froze.

At this time, even if you look closely, it is difficult to see the abnormality.

Dare Yan Yingyuan wanted to repeat the old trick, and used the routine used in Shanyang City the year before last in Dagukou again.

Sun Fanzhi was skeptical about this: "Brother Wanheng, you have already used this road once under Shanyang City, it is already an old routine, can it work?" ”

"The number of roads is not afraid of getting old." Yan Yingyuan waved his hand and said, "It's easy to use." ”

"I think it's a little hanging." Sun Fanzhi shook his head and said, "Jiannu has already suffered a loss in Shanyang City, how can he make the same mistake again in Dagukou?" In my opinion, it's a waste of landmines. ”

"Let's see." Yan Yingyuan just smiled and didn't argue with Sun Fanzhi.

While speaking, Chen Mingyu was already busy, and went up to the shore and said to Yan Yingyuan: "Wan Heng, according to your meaning, a thousand ceramic mines have been buried in the ice of the Wei River, and all of them have been laid with double lines, once these thousand ceramic mines are detonated, they can blow up the ice surface with a length of more than three hundred steps." ”

The Wei River is sixty paces wide, and if you multiply it by three hundred paces, it is a large piece of ice.

Such a large surface of ice is enough to hold tens of thousands of people, or thousands of ice climbing plows.

"Good." Yan Yingyuan pointed to the ground under his feet, and said to Chen Mingyu, "Gongchen, I have to continue to work hard for you, and lead the troops to bury mines on both sides of the Wei River." ”

"Bury on both sides?" Chen Mingyu couldn't help but be stunned.

"Bury." Yan Yingyuan nodded heavily and said, "And bury a thousand on each side!" ”

"Huh? A thousand each? Chen Mingyu hesitated for a moment but persuaded him, "Ji Heng, although we have carried a full 20,000 mines this time, but now that the battle has not been fought, we will use up 3,000 mines, isn't it too much?" ”

Sun Fanzhi also persuaded: "Yes, Brother Wanheng, we will guard Dagu this time, not for a month or two months, but for a year or even two years." ”

"No, you're wrong." Yan Yingyuan said.

"Whether it's a year or two years, the most important thing is the first month."

"As long as they withstood the previous month, when Jiannu realized that it would take an unimaginable price to recapture Dagukou, they would no longer attack needlessly."

"Then the battle will be easy to fight."

"You just need to watch out for Jiannu's sneak attack later."

After saying this, he said to Chen Mingyu: "Gongchen, just do what I say." ”

"Yes, I'll go back and move the mines." Chen Mingyu immediately turned around and returned to the river, and then led a team of new troops to pull the ice climbing plow back to Dagukou to pull ceramic mines.

Yan Yingyuan turned back to Sun Fanzhi and said: "Liufu, it should be time now, you should lead the troops to replace Pei Qing (Feng Houdun), remember, in addition to the patrol posts, we must arrange more hidden posts to ensure that the perimeter is blocked, otherwise let Jiannu's night not accept our actions, all the arrangements will be in vain, but when the mines are finished, you can deliberately put some of the Jiannu in the night, so that they think they will see through our reality." ”

"Yes." Sun Fanzhi said solemnly, "I promise that not even a single mouse will run in." ”

After speaking, Sun Fanzhi immediately summoned the 500 new troops who were sitting on the ground to rest and took advantage of the night to march.

Yan Yingyuan returned to the bunker outside the mouth of Dagu and fell asleep.

At this time, there are still two days and nights before the arrival of the Jiannu army.

These two days and nights must hurry up and eat well and sleep well.

There is likely to be no time to sleep for the next month.

……

The twenty-sixth day of March in the twentieth year of Chongzhen (1647).

As soon as the sky brightened, Yan Yingyuan climbed the watchtower.

The watchtower is made of wood and is ten zhang high.

This is not only a watchtower, but also Yan Yingyuan's command tower.

Instructions can be accurately conveyed through signal flags during the day and signal lights at night.

Because the Dagukou area is a plain, the view from the watchtower is excellent, and Yan Yingyuan can easily see the general scene twenty miles away from the tower when he stands on the top of the tower and looks at the bucket.

Of course, if you want to see clearly, you have to use a telescope.

Yan Yingyuan took out the telescope from the leather bag around his waist and opened it one by one.

This is a monocular, three-section telescope, a product of the Nanjing Telescope Workshop.

The glass industry is also one of the industries driven by Chongzhen through the military industry, in order to promote the great development of the glass industry, Chongzhen placed an order for 10,000 telescopes for two glass workshops in Nanjing at one time.

Of course, it is unlikely that these 10,000 three-section telescopes will be delivered in a short period of time.

Before there was no mechanical power, hand grinding was really labor-intensive and time-consuming.

Yan Yingyuan opened the telescope one by one, and slowly glanced around.

Suddenly, Yan Yingyuan's gaze froze, and then he began to adjust the focus of the telescope.

After adjusting the focal length, Yan Yingyuan clearly saw that a group of Jiannu was marching along the banks of the Wei River, and on the ice of the Wei River, there were continuous ice climbing plows.

Many of the ice climbing plows also carried Hongyi cannons.

came, the corners of Yan Yingyuan's mouth hooked slightly.

I wonder if it's an old rival Dordor or Dorgon this time?

However, no matter who comes, I hope you will like the greeting gift I prepared for you, after all, the Huaxia people have been a country of etiquette since ancient times, and they are the most hospitable.

Soon, Jiannu's forward cavalry was less than five miles away from the outer positions.

Yan Yingyuan had already asked the new army to set up stone markers marking the distance on the periphery, and set up markers every other mile within five miles, which was also to facilitate the artillery to adjust the pitch angle.

Because in this way, the distance measurement link can be omitted.

Of course, in order not to be discovered by Jiannu, the distance marker is disguised.

This distance has actually entered the range of the 20 4-inch guns deployed in the forward position, because the maximum range of the 4-inch guns is five miles.

It's just that firing at this distance is a waste of shells and gunpowder.

However, Yan Yingyuan put down the binoculars, pointed his probe at the bottom and said, "Give the artillery on the periphery an order, halve the charge, and carry out ten rounds of shooting at Jiannu." ”

"Huh?" The heralds below suspected that they had misheard.

Jiannu's forwards were still five miles away, and at this distance, there was no hit rate at all, but Lord Yan actually had to halve the charge, he must have heard it wrong.

"What are you doing?" Yan Yingyuan shouted, "Hurry up and give the order." ”

"Yes." Only then did the herald realize that he had heard correctly, and that Lord Yan's order was like this, and immediately raised the signal flag and gave the order to the position in front.

……

Forward artillery positions.

The herald in charge of communications said to Sun Fanzhi, who was in the command position: "Lord Sun, the charge is halved, and ten rounds of fire are fired." ”

"All of them, halved charges, ten rounds of shooting!" Sun Fanzhi did not hesitate at all, and immediately gave orders to each artillery, and the 20 4-inch guns deployed in the peripheral positions began to be loaded.

The gunners first adjusted the pitch angle of the cannon to a 45-degree angle, and then locked it.

After nailing the tail seat of the cannon to the ground with an iron drill, it began to load ammunition from the muzzle of the cannon, first with gunpowder in a half-paper shell, almost three catties, and then stuffed the iron bullet weighing 16 catties to the end.

"One is good, two is good, and twenty is good......"

"Fire!" Sun Fanzhi's raised right hand fell suddenly.

The 20 gun commanders immediately inserted the red-hot iron chisel into the gun door.

The next moment, there was a huge explosion of continuous "bang bang bang".

At the same time, there was the screeching sound of the cannonballs tearing through the air.

With the piercing scream and the huge explosion, even the cannon with a full 1,600 pounds jumped up, thanks to the iron drill to fix the tailstock, otherwise it had to slip back.

……

The screeching of cannonballs tearing through the air also alarmed Jiannu.

One of the shells landed on the ice of the Wei River, instantly smashing a white dot on the ice, bounced a little and then landed on the ice, and then rolled forward for a long time before stopping.

When the projectile came to a complete standstill, it stopped right in front of an ice climbing plow.

At this time, dozens of ice plows in front had stopped, but the ice plows in the back were still sliding forward, and the ice surface of the Weihe River immediately seemed a little crowded.

"Phew." Dolgon, who rode along the south bank of the Wei River, drank his horse.

Fu Lin, Hong Chengchou, Fan Wencheng, Ning Wanme, Hou Fangyu, Cao Eryu, Ah Shan and others who followed behind Dolgon also followed and stopped by the river.

Dolgon held up his binoculars.

After observing for a while, he asked disdainfully: "Ah Shan, can you estimate the range of the Ming army's red-coated cannon?" ”

"Yes." Ah Shan also had a telescope in his hand, and after observing it for a while, he said, "Master, the range of the red-clothed cannon of the Ming army is only more than two miles, which is not as good as the red-clothed cannon of our Qing Dynasty. ”

When Fulin heard this, he wanted to ask how far the red-clothed cannon of the Great Qing Dynasty could reach?

But thinking of Eniang's instructions before leaving, she swallowed it raw and swallowed it back into her stomach.

Soon, the Zhengbai Banner Han Army's Gushan Ezhen Shi Tingzhu continued: "After Tang Ruowang's improvement, the firing range of our Qing Dynasty's red-clothed cannons has increased from more than two li to nearly four li!" ”

[Note: Ming Dynasty 1 li = 180 zhang = 360 steps = 576 meters]

Fu Lin thought to himself, sure enough, what Eniang said made sense.

Dolgon smiled, "It seems that Nanming's cannon casting technology has not improved in the slightest. ”

Hou Fangyu wasted no time in saying: "Tang Ruowang was once the Qin Tianjian of the Ming Dynasty, but such a talented Chongzhen, the dog emperor, did not know how to reuse, which shows that the Southern Ming Dynasty has exhausted its qi, and it is in accordance with the will of heaven to replace me in the Qing Dynasty." ”

Dolgon was very comfortable with this, nodded and said, "Shi Tingzhu, you can let the red-clothed cannon come ashore." ”

"Huh." Shi Tingzhu agreed, and then hit his horse and came to the river and shouted, "The imperial father and the regent have a decree, and the Han army of all banners will immediately drag the red-clothed cannons ashore, hurry up." ”

"Boom!" However, as soon as Shi Tingzhu's words fell, a loud noise was heard in his ears.

This was followed by a continuous burst of explosions, and large expatriates of broken ice were splashed on the surface of the river.

"This ...... What's the situation? Shi Tingzhu was a little confused, is this an ice collapse?

However, it should not be, although the strength of the ice after the beginning of spring is not as strong as in winter, it is still a few feet thick, and the Wei River is not very wide, so it is said that the ice should not disintegrate anyway.

When he was confused, Shi Tingzhu faintly heard a crisp click.

This click, like a pebble thrown into the lake, instantly broke the peace.

In the next moment, the ice surface of the Weihe River, which was almost 300 paces long, suddenly cracked, and hundreds of iron climbing plows and Han soldiers and mules and horses that were originally parked on the ice immediately fell into the water like dumplings.

Followed by dozens of red-coated cannons carried by the Eight Banners Han Army.

"Huh?" Seeing this scene, Shi Tingzhu was stunned all of a sudden, what did you say?

Not only Shi Tingzhu, but also Fu Lin, Hong Chengchou, Fan Wencheng and Ning Wan and others were also stunned.

Is this too pitiful, actually buried gunpowder under the ice, waiting for them to step into the trap?

This wave of losses is not small, not to mention that there are five or six hundred ice plows that have turned into the Wei River, and the tens of thousands of stone grains loaded on the ice ploughs are considered to be blind, and even if they are scooped up, they will quickly become moldy and rot.

In addition, dozens of red-coated cannons also fell into the Wei River.

Although the Wei River is not very deep, these red-clothed cannons will definitely be able to catch up in the end, but this battle of Dagukou will definitely not be able to catch up, which is also too cunning.

However, it's not over yet.

Nearly 1,000 Eight Banners Han troops on the plow fell into the water one after another, but fortunately, the Wei River was not deep, and there were many mules and horses floating on the river, so the Eight Banners Han Army who fell into the water swam to the shore with mules and horses.

Soon, the north and south banks of the Wei River were crowded with the Eight Banners Han Army.

At the same time, the follow-up Eight Banners Han Army and Green Battalion soldiers also arrived.

This makes the north and south banks of the Wei River more crowded and almost like a busy city.

Dolgon frowned, and was about to let Shi Tingzhu step forward to control the situation, when he suddenly heard a boom in his ears.

This was followed by a continuous explosion that nearly shattered Dorgon's eardrums, and he felt the ground tremble violently beneath his feet.

"Master, be careful!" Hou Fangyu lunged over and threw Dorgon to the ground.

Su Moer also took Fulin into her arms, trying to use her weak body to protect Fulin's safety.

But this was redundant, because the explosion did not reach Dorgon's side, it was just a false alarm.

But the successive accidents made Dolgon's mentality collapse a little, pushed Hou Fangyu away and sat up and roared, "Who is this person? Who is this person? Who? ”

"Master, don't ask, it must be Yan Yingyuan!" Ahsan said with a dark face.

As the Gushan Ezhen of the Zhengbai Banner, Ah Shan has participated in the Shanyang War, and he can be said to have a fresh memory of Yan Yingyuan's endless conspiracies and tricks.

"Master, it must be Yan Yingyuan."

Ah Shan gritted his teeth and roared, "It must be Yan Yingyuan!" ”

"Yan Yingyuan?" Hong Chengchou and others were awe-inspiring.

(End of chapter)