Chapter 451: Soldiers are coming to the city

On the fourth day of the fifth month of the second year of Shengwu, Chen Cao led hundreds of thousands of troops to Tianjin Wei, and as Li Yan had predicted, the entire Tianjin Acropolis had been burned to the ground, leaving only ruins.

On the ninth day of the first month of May, all the ministries arrived in Tongzhou, so that Chen Cao did not expect that Huang Taiji did not set up any obstacles for Chen Cao in Tongzhou, Tongzhou is only fifty-six miles away from the capital, and it can be reached on foot for a day, which is also the last barrier in the capital.

Now, Tongzhou is unfortified.

Generals at all levels are gearing up one by one, Beijing City, is the capital of the Ming Dynasty since Emperor Chengzu, but in the fifth year of Chongzhen was occupied by the Tartars, and all parts of Beizhili were enclosed by the Eight Banners and became a slave.

The status is not as good as that of the landlord's maid in the Ming Dynasty, but now...

"The people of Tongzhou, the Ming Dynasty has not died, and your emperor has returned..."

"Long live Your Majesty, long live, long live..."

"Daming Wansheng..."

The shouts of one after another were staged in the small county of Tongzhou, the people of Tongzhou County are only more than 30,000 people, but the floating population is very large, but at the moment it is particularly deserted because of the upcoming war, the Tartars did not burn down Tongzhou City when they evacuated Tongzhou, after all, the Tongzhou warehouse here is the grain base that supports the operation of the entire capital, if this battle is won, the reconstruction of Tongzhou warehouse will not be possible for three or five years.

"The more you go to the hinterland of Gyeonggi, the more Tatars cherish the locality..."

Chen Cao sneered, and then got off the city wall amid the cheers of the people, came to the county government and sat down, and after all the generals entered, Chen Cao asked Song Che first: "Are the various departments of the Dingwu Army ready?" ”

Song Che nodded and clenched his fists: "Your Majesty rest assured, except for the 5th Division, the rest of the Dingwu Army has been assembled, just waiting for Your Majesty's order." ”

Chen Cao nodded, then looked at Wang Xiaojie and said, "Your task is the focus, how is the preparation of the Tianxiong Army?" ”

Wang Xiaojie stood up and saluted: "Your Majesty, rest assured, my Tianxiong Army will definitely complete the combat mission." ”

Li Yan interjected and added: "Commander Wang must let go of Dongzhi Gate and Chaoyang Gate, even if the Tartars finally break through these two gates, don't stop them." ”

Wang Xiaojie nodded: "Your Majesty, rest assured, the minister will not be confused." ”

Chen Cao said again: "The Jinyi Guards from all over the capital and the spies of the East and West Factories have arrived in Tongzhou to report to me, the Tartars are indeed ready in the capital, and they want to fight to the death with us, the number is no less than 350,000, and it is reported that there are no less than 200,000 people in the Eight Banners and the Mongol soldiers together, as well as 50,000 Han Army Banners.

Not only that, but let me tell you another piece of news, the Tartars have ambushed a lot of heavy soldiers in the market town outside Guang'anmen, including Yang Lian Maha and their clansmen and the Han army banner, all of which are brought by Haoge from Xuzhou, with no less than 100,000 people, so our army has to face at least 450,000 Tartar troops. ”

"Your Majesty, why don't we ambush the soldiers first?"

"The advantage of the Tartars is to fight outside the city, engage in large-scale maneuvers, and the people who defend the city and hand over the Han army banner are enough, what we have to do is to contain them and wait for reinforcements."

As soon as Chen Cao finished speaking, Zhao Xin ran into the county office, judging from his outfit, he had just made a long journey.

"Emperor, the minister is back..."

Zhao Xin was sent by Chen Cao to contact the Shence Army in person before he set off from Dezhou, and now that he has joined Tongzhou, he must have brought a lot of news.

"How's it going?"

After Zhao Xin stood still, he saw that the commanders of each division were there, and said loudly: "The minister went to Mongolia according to the emperor's order, and after going north, he rushed to the high mountain acropolis non-stop, and entered Mongolia from there, two days later, the minister met the scouts of You Shiwei's subordinates, it turned out that ten days ago, Hong Chengchou led three divisions of troops to unite with Chahar 100,000 cavalry in Xinghe Fort to defeat the Horqin Mongols, and besieged the Bahrain Department in the north of Xinghe Fort in the sand castle, after the battle, both Mongolians were defeated, and our army won a great victory, At present, Hong Chengchou ordered You Shiwei's troops to sweep the two Mongolian nests of Bahrain and Horqin, and he asked his ministers to come back first, saying that he would lead the army to enter Wanquan through Zhangjiakou Fort before May 25 and rush to the capital;

In addition, when the minister returned, Li Shaokuan had already led his army to break through the Bauhinia Pass, and counting the days, the seven divisions under his command should now be about to arrive in Fangshan. ”

Chen Cao breathed a sigh of relief, as long as Hong Chengchou defeated the two Mongols, then Huang Taiji would undoubtedly be defeated, and compared to now, it was only a matter of time.

"Well... Zhao Xin, your credit is not small, you go to rest first..."

Chen Cao said and looked at Li Yan: "The forward of the Longwu Army has arrived in Gu'an, surrounded by the west, south and north, and under the heavy encirclement and suppression, the day of the success of the Northern Expedition is just around the corner." ”

After some arrangement, Chen Cao took the two female dependents to the rear office to rest, and two days later, the army set off and headed for the capital not far away.

May 20 of the second year of Shengwu, outside Beijing

Chen Cao didn't know how many years he hadn't been to the capital, but this time he came to the world, in the clairvoyant mirror, he looked around the outer outline of Yongding Gate, only to see the banners waving, swords and guns, guarding the city not only the eight banner soldiers, but also a lot of Han army flags.

"When the order is given, the artillery units are immediately in position, and the units enter their respective positions to form positions according to the predetermined plan before the battle, dig deep trenches, and prevent the Tartar cavalry from attacking."

Beijing city repaired and repaired, the outer outline city is not big, but it also belongs to the structure of the urn city, break through the outer outline city, is the real Yongding Gate, but if the city of Beijing with high walls and thick walls can not be attacked at all if it only relies on artillery, it is the technology of sapper blasting, and it is not a one-time success, so to hit Beijing City, you can only use Shenwu cannon to fire shells directly to bombard the city gate at close range, which is also the most effective way.

Without waiting for Chen Cao's order, he came on a fast horse, and saluted after arriving: "Your Majesty, the vanguard of the Longwu Army was ambushed by the Tartar Army in Huangcun, and the follow-up troops have already started a battle in Huangcun after they arrived. ”

Another fast horse arrived: "Your Majesty, the vanguard of the Shence Army is engaged with the Tartars at the Lugou Bridge. ”

The distance was too far and the battlefield situation was unclear, so Chen Cao ordered Zhao Xin to scatter all the Dongchang spies brought by Jinyiwei and Gao Chong around him, the purpose was mainly to monitor the battle between Huangcun and Lugou Bridge, and send people to Badaling to wait for Hong Chengchou's news.

An hour later, all the artillery positions were in place, and before Chen Cao could give the order to open fire, he heard the sound of artillery coming from far and near.

The forward artillery positions were attacked by shells, and although most of them were solid shells, the power was still not small, and the artillery positions caused considerable casualties.

"The Tartar artillery hit so far?"

Chen Cao raised his hand and looked over with a clairvoyant mirror: "It seems that I have received the help of the Portuguese, these people, after suffering losses in the Hao Realm, do not have a long memory, and after the world is settled, they are the first ones I will clean up." ”

Having said that, Chen Cao couldn't help but worry at this moment, the Tartar garrison artillery hit so far, the weight of the cannon was 5,000 jin or more, and although the field artillery on his side hit far, the number was not as large as the Shenwu artillery, so he could also place the Shenwu artillery in the forward artillery position and the field artillery in the second position.

This is a big battle for the whole country, Chen Cao has mobilized all the artillery of each unit in one place to use, and all the troops can now use is a small number of mortars and tiger squat artillery.

"Order forward artillery positions to fire back ...

"All the ministries and all the yuan quickly loaded, Your Majesty has an order, beat him and said..."

"Your Majesty has an order, beat him and the dog said..."

'Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock... Knock knock knock...'

Fierce artillery fire spread out on the respective positions of both sides, the smoke of explosions and artillery fire filled the entire Yongding Gate, from the beginning of the battle in the morning to noon, the artillery of both sides did not stop, even if the intensity of the artillery was reduced because of the cooling of the barrels, but the sporadic sound of artillery still proved that the two sides did not let the opponent stop.

The artillery battle lasted until dark in the evening, and the two sides withdrew their troops, and Chen Cao received statistics in the military tent.

"On the first day, the number of broken Shenwu cannons alone has reached seventy," Chen Cao said with a little heartache: "Although this batch of artillery is about to be eliminated, after all, it is money, so the Tartars don't know how many artillery stocks they bought from the Portuguese or Spaniards." ”

Song Che said: "They are trapped and used, and they will be used up one day sooner." ”

Li Yan clenched his fists: "Your Majesty, from tomorrow, even if the Tartars do not act, we will also take the initiative to attack the city, Yongding Gate is not the outer city gate, and we will strive to take it tomorrow." ”

Chen Cao nodded: "What you said is reasonable, but it is not too realistic to take me tomorrow, but you can take this opportunity to force the Tartars to use all their strength, so that our army can deal with it calmly." ”

"Emperor..."Zhao Xin walked into the county hall: "Two news, the Long Wu Army confirmed that they met a large number of Tartar soldiers and horses in Huang Village, they buried a lot of earth mines on the official road of Huang Village, the vanguard of the Long Wu Army was defenseless, and the casualties were quite large, and now they are circling around Huang Village and the Tartars, waiting for the large army of the Long Wu Army to arrive;

In addition, the Tartars destroyed the Lugou Bridge, and the large force of the Shence Army was blocked to the west of the Lugou Bridge, and the battle was underway, and the minister estimated that the results should be available tomorrow afternoon. ”

"I originally thought that the end of the war would be at the end of the year, so I tried to put an end to the rebellion in early August;

Generals, go back and have a good rest, starting tomorrow, it will be a bloody battle. ”