"Fixed firing loading, target Quang Ninh east city wall, self-adjusting angle, pre-firing three rounds...... Put!! ”

"Boom! Rumble! Boom ......"

When the rhythmic sound of field artillery sounded outside the city of Guangning west of the Liao River and north of the Bohai Sea, a hundred field guns lined up in a row and launched an artillery bombardment on the low city of Guangning City.

One hundred six-pound iron bullets were shot like a shower and landed on the city wall and women's wall of Guangning, breaking down one wall buttress after another, and shattering pieces of wall tiles.

"Fire!"

"Bang Bang Bang ......"

At the head of Guangning City, the artillery of the Ming army in western Liaoning also began to respond, but its range was not satisfactory, but after flying a distance of about a mile, the granite stone bullets fired fell and stopped after rolling more than ten steps.

"It's too far to hit!"

In the gate tower of Guangning Dongcheng, looking at his own powerless stone bullets, Wu Sheng, who was stationed here, gritted his teeth.

At present, he has four guards in his hands, but there are only 15,000 soldiers available, and he is also divided into Yizhou Wei, Zhongzuo Tunwei, Zhongzuo, and Right Guards, and there are less than 7,000 people stationed in Guangning City.

At present, it is already June 27, and the center, left, and right guards have been broken one after another, and only the Guangning Zhongtunwei, Yizhou, Guangning Zuotunwei, Ning Yuanwei and Shanhaiwei in his hands are left in the entire Liaoxi.

It is not so easy to hold more than 500 miles from the north and south of southwest Liao, not to mention that there are a lot of field battles in the Bohai Navy at present, all of which are elite horse infantry.

In the face of the Bohai offensive, Wu Sheng could only defend and wait for reinforcements.

"Set the angle, hit a cardinal card."

Outside the eastern city of Guangning, in the continuous Bohai naval array, Meng Zhang and Xu Sheng looked at the nearby Guangning City with a monocular, and put it down with a smile on their faces.

At the moment, they had 6,000 musketeers, 1,000 artillerymen, and 3,000 pikemen, totaling 10,000.

In the previous attack on several cities in western Liaoxi, as long as the artillery broke the city wall, or was about to break the city wall, the defenders of those cities would surrender directly, so they did not suffer too many casualties.

Meng Zhang's style of play is very simple, that is, the artillery hits first, and after the artillery hits the musketeers, the musketeers attack under the cover of the horse infantry pikemen, and the attack is unfavorable, they will withdraw, continue to fight with artillery, and so on.

The cavalry of the officers and soldiers of Liaoxi had been transferred to Wu Gao, and Wu Gao gave the military power to Liu Zhen, who withdrew to Jiulian City with 6,000 cavalry, a thousand miles away from the post road in Guangning, not to mention the patrol horse infantry of the Bohai Navy along the way.

Liu Zhen could not rush to the aid of Wu Sheng in Guangning, so Wu Sheng would not have enough mobility to fight with the Bohai Navy out of the city.

"When do you think Daning's soldiers and horses will arrive?"

Meng Zhang put down the monocular in his hand, looked at Guangning City with interest, and asked Xu Sheng.

Xu Sheng grinned: "According to what His Highness said, if the imperial court doesn't want to abandon Liaoxi, it will definitely transfer troops to rescue Guangning within less than half a month of us crossing the Liao River, and it is now the eighth day." ”

"Boom, boom, boom......"

The conversation between the two was mixed with the sound of cannons, and there was a feeling of sitting firmly on the Diaoyutai platform.

"How much gunpowder and shells are there in the army?" Meng Zhang looked back at a commander of the Shenji Battalion, who also replied in Beishan Jurchen language: "About twenty bases, Haizhou is still being transported. ”

A base of Bohai artillery is 12 shells, which can be prepared according to the time when one needs a word, and one base number can be completed in half an hour.

Right now, Meng Zhang and they have twenty cardinal numbers here, which is enough to play for ten hours in a row.

Hearing this, Meng Zhang also looked at Xu Sheng and said with a smile: "After taking Liaoyang and Liaonan, this cannonball and gunpowder are not worried." ”

Xu Sheng also echoed: "I heard that His Royal Highness ordered people to mine in the area of Dong'anshan and Gongchangling, and I think that our iron materials can be obtained from Liaodong, and there is no need to transport them from Jilin without much trouble." ”

"Taking the whole of Liao, it's just around the corner." Meng Zhang also calmly watched the artillerymen load the shells, calmly.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

The dull sound of cannon fire was repeated, and each time it sounded, it represented the flight of five hundred catties of iron and the disappearance of fifty pounds of iron.

As soon as the cannon sounded, the gold was not a boast, and without a strong national strength, it was simply impossible to prohibit the large-scale use of iron shells by artillery.

Bohai did not have to worry about these problems, because they seized the treasury of southern Liaoning, northern Liaobei and Liaoyang, among which in addition to money and grain, the most were iron and gunpowder.

The siege effect of the iron cannonballs is self-evident, but after four hours, the eastern city of Quang Ninh has become dilapidated, there is not a single one of the wall buttresses, the soldiers standing on the city wall are difficult to find even a bunker, and the city gate tower has even been broken in the continuous cannonball attack and all the beams and pillars have collapsed.

During the Hongwu period, the Guangning Wei was protected by the Daning Dusi, Yizhou, Guangning Central, Left and Right Guards, so its construction was completely incomparable with Shenyang, Liaoyang and other cities.

Under the artillery of the Bohai Navy, the horse road of the city wall could no longer stand people, and the Ming army's own artillery was abandoned on the city wall.

The walls of the city wall, the bricks wrapped in rammed earth, had begun to fall off in large pieces, and it was only a matter of time before Quang Ninh was lost.

As the sky gradually darkened, Meng Zhang ordered the whole army to stop the shelling, bury the pot and prepare for rest.

Now they are not in a hurry to capture Quang Ninh, because their task is to attract reinforcements from Daning.

They can't act like they're not in a hurry, and they can't be really too anxious, and the extent of this needs to be grasped by Meng Zhang.

The next day, the city of Quang Ninh was again shelled for a whole day, and at the same time, ten base shells and gunpowder sent by Haizhou also arrived at the Bohai naval camp.

After two consecutive days of shelling, it was difficult for Guangning City to maintain its defense, and even Wu Gao's eldest son, Wu Sheng, could only resign himself to his fate and pray for Daning reinforcements to arrive as soon as possible.

Perhaps hearing his prayers, Daning's reinforcements finally appeared northwest of Quang Ninh on June 29.

This trace was quickly obtained by the Tang cavalry of the Bohai Navy, and was quickly sent back to the Bohai Navy camp.

"Commander, seventeen miles northwest of the discovery of Daning soldiers and horses, according to the scale of the banner should not be less than 20,000."

In the Bohai camp, hundreds of households in the pond rode to make a statement, and Meng Zhang and Xu Sheng, who were eating breakfast, also looked at each other and smiled when they heard this.

"Good!" Meng Zhang responded, and then said to Xu Sheng: "You send Tang Qi to report to His Highness." ”

"Wait for my news!" Xu Sheng got up without thinking and immediately sent a small flag horse infantry to Shenyang as a Tang cavalry.

Two hours later, the Daning reinforcements approached from the northwest under the banner of 'Liu', half of them poured into the city of Quang Ninh, and half of them camped in the west of the city, building fortifications for the army in the city to retreat calmly.

"You see, they are only 10,000 men in size, but their artillery can fight two miles away, and they also have powerful firearms, and our men will be attacked by their firearms as long as they get close to fifty paces, powerful enough to pierce the armor."

At the head of Guangning City, Liu Song looked at the Bohai Navy three miles east of Guangning City, and Wu Sheng's explanation was in his ears.

In fact, there is no need for Wu Sheng to explain, just looking at the situation in Dongcheng, Guangning, Liu Song can judge that this Bohai Navy is not a good existence.

"Didn't you try to fix the battlements?"

Liu Song asked Wu Sheng, who was a few years younger than him, and Wu Sheng also shook his head and sighed: "It's not that I didn't try, but even if it is repaired, it will be destroyed in the next round of artillery attacks." ”

"It's so powerful?" Liu Song was very surprised, and at the same time understood why Wu Gao and his father were defeated so quickly.

In the case of the cities in eastern Liao, the two cities of Liao and Shen may be able to withstand this level of shelling, but the other cities are very difficult.

During the Hongwu period, the city was not repaired without considering the problem of defending the city, but because the Northern Yuan Dynasty mainly used Huihui cannons and iron cannons, they only built walls that were enough to defend against these two siege weapons.

No one expected that there would be artillery in Bohai that could hit Erli and break wall bricks.

"I brought 20,000 people with me this time, but one-third of them were garrison soldiers, and there were only 12,300 capable fighters."

"Leave Guangning City to me, and take your people to withdraw from here to the Zhongzuo Station west of the Daling River, and strengthen the city wall there in advance."

Liu Song instructed Wu Sheng, he knew very well in his heart that Guangning City had been beaten into such a virtuous manner, and he would definitely not be able to defend it, so he could only lead people to delay time as soon as possible and put the battlefield in Guangning Zhongzuo, which relied on the Daling River.

The center left is not a large city, easy to reinforce, and easier to defend.

As long as there is enough food in the city, Liu Song is sure to hold on for three months.

"Guangning will be handed over to you, Brother Wude!"

Wu Sheng didn't say much polite words when he heard this, just bowed, and then evacuated Guangning City with his own people.

Because of the obstacle of the Daning Sentinel Cavalry, the Tang Cavalry of the Bohai Horse Infantry was blocked in the east of the city, and it was impossible to detect the news for a while.

However, this no longer meant anything to Meng Zhang and the two of them, and their goal had been achieved.

With the news that their mission had been completed, the Bohai Navy Pond Cavalry finally delivered the news to the Bohai Navy camp outside Shenyang in the early morning of the first day of the seventh lunar month.

Another 12 days have passed, and there is almost no life in Shenyang City, that is, the city gate tower has been demolished by Geng Zhen, and there is no food but no firewood.

"Twenty thousand? Good! ”

On the bank of the Hunhe River, Zhu Gaoxu, who had just caught a one-foot "big fish", got up happily and put the big fish into an empty wooden barrel.

He took the military information sent by Tang Qi, and after looking at it at a glance, he looked at the two people standing behind him.

Needless to say, Zhao Mu, who has been stationed in the camp, is standing beside him Chen Chang, who has already finished attacking Fushun and arranging the defenders to do a good job in the relocation of half of the people in Fushun.

His appearance here means that Anton Wei in his hands has also returned here.

Now there are 6,000 cavalry and 3,000 horse infantry outside Shenyang, but I don't know how many soldiers Geng Zhen in the city can dare to fight.

His tenacity exceeded Zhu Gaoxu's estimate, so after taking a look at the two of them, he set his sights on Shenyang City, which was three miles away.

"It's been forty-three days, and Geng Zhen is even more difficult to deal with than I thought."

Zhu Gaoxu looked at Shenyang City, and while speaking softly, he couldn't help but admire him.

There was no hot water, only food, and they lasted for at least ten days, but even now, there was no one in the city who wanted to surrender, and Zhu Gaoxu didn't know whether to say that Geng Zhen was tenacious or that he was stupid and loyal.

It's just that if he drags it out like this, he will only drag himself to death, and it won't affect Zhu Gaoxu at all.

"Give orders to Haizhou and Gaizhou respectively, and let them each transfer 1,000 people north to Shenyang."

Zhu Gaoxu spoke softly, and at the same time looked at Chen Chang: "These two thousand people will be handed over to you, I want you to take your headquarters and these two thousand people to guard the periphery of Shenyang, and don't let Geng Rong go out of the city." ”

"The last general commands!" Chen Changzuo responded, and at the same time inevitably asked; "Your Highness, do you want to ......?"

Halfway through his words, Zhu Gaoxu interrupted: "Now that Daning's soldiers are either in Yanshan or in Songting Pass and Guangning, how many soldiers and horses do you say Daning still has to garrison the city?" ”

Saying this, Zhu Gaoxu put the fishing rod on his shoulder: "The troops in the Daning area are empty, don't take it now, let alone when!" ”

"There are 6,000 cavalry in the herald camp, everyone will go to sleep at 19 o'clock today, get up at night and leave the camp, and go straight to Daning with me."

"The last general commands!" Zhao Mu responded without thinking, thinking that he finally had a time when he could go to the battlefield.

After instructing Zhao Mu, Zhu Gaoxu also looked at Chen Chang: "Wang Yuan, where have they arrived?" ”

"I just arrived in Fuzhou yesterday, and I should be able to reach Jinzhou tomorrow." Chen Chang responded and told the situation in Golden State:

"More than 24,000 people from Wang Yi and Cui Jun's two departments have already distributed the Jinzhou field measurement to the people left, and sent 1,000 people to escort 16,000 people north to the Puhe River."

"In their spare time, they also cut down and concocted timber from the mountains to the north, and there were more than 50 large and small ships captured by Cui Jun in the seaport of Jinzhou that had not been evacuated, which was enough to transport 9,000 troops."

"Okay" Zhu Gaoxu responded simply, and continued to instruct: "Let Wang Yi immediately divide 3,000 troops to go north to Shenyang after preparing enough timber for the construction of the warship and transporting it to the Jinzhou Shipyard, and not let Geng Rong escape from Shenyang." ”

"When you are here, if he wants to go out of the city to meet him, look at the state of his troops, and if you have confidence, you will fight them, and if you have no confidence, use your horsepower to exhaust them and then surrender."

Zhu Gaoxu said with great interest about the arrangement he expected, but Chen Chang looked embarrassed: "What if they don't want to surrender......

"I don't want to ......" Zhu Gaoxu's expression froze, and he was silent for a moment before he slowly responded: "Then I will allow you to act cheaply." ”

"Yes!" Chen Chang responded, and Zhu Gaoxu also carried his wooden barrel containing the big fish to the barracks.

At his time, in front of the gate tower at the head of Shenyang, a tall but very thin figure was leading a group of thin figures to look at the Bohai camp in the distance.

"Governor, can we still wait for reinforcements......

A commander who often followed Geng Cheng's side slowly spoke, he used to be fat and strong, but today, after 43 days of sticking to Shenyang, he has a vegetable face, and his figure is more than 20 pounds thinner than before.

Not only him, but also many of the soldiers who followed him.

Not far behind them, a group of soldiers were making lunch, and their lunch consisted of crushing unpeeled rice wheat into powder with a small stone mill, then pouring cold water and stirring it to solidify into dough.

After them, the city of Shenyang after the horse road was almost in ruins, and there was not a single igniter that could ignite the flames everywhere as far as the eye could see, only bricks and earth remained, and all the houses were demolished.

"It's coming."

Geng Xuan, who was emaciated by more than 20 pounds, had sunken cheeks, and long-term malnutrition caused him to have an abnormal complexion.

He didn't know how many times he repeated the words in his mouth, and now he didn't know whether they had become words of hope or comfort.

He glanced back at the emaciated and terrifying crowd, and also saw the people lying in the city under the horse road.

He didn't know how long such a day would last, but he knew that if that day really came, he would definitely not sit still......

"Sigh the law ......"

Night soon fell, and under its cover, Zhu Gaoxu led 6,000 cavalry on horseback and led the war horse to the southwest.

Around their waists were bags of military rations, which contained a bucket of military rations, but enough to feed for a month.

He had to take Daning within a month, so that the war outside the gate could end as soon as possible.

In the darkness of night, they headed southwest, and after crossing the Liao River, they diverted to the northwest.

After Zhu Gaoxu left with 6,000 cavalry, Chen Chang had his soldiers and horses ride out of camp from the north in the early morning, and then returned in large numbers from the east, west, and south, creating a lively scene.

This scene successfully confused the officers and soldiers defending the city, and Zhu Gaoxu himself had already led his troops to Daning.

It was only at the same time as he was rushing that a large army was also successfully assembled south of the Yellow River.

The rolling Yellow River, like countless dragons twisting together and flying down, hanging high between the plains, roaring and galloping, from time to time rushing up yellow-white waves.

On the banks of the Yellow River, which stretches for more than ten miles, hundreds of thousands of troops have been gathered, and the "Xi" character banner waving in the wind almost obscures the sky.

At the crossing of the Yellow River, hundreds of rafts and boats had been arranged, and countless soldiers were ordered to board the boats and cross the banks of the Yellow River.

The soldiers on the south bank are ready to go, serious and determined to face the Yellow River in front of them, as well as the unknown battle.

Bearing the honor of each capital and the mission sent by the imperial court, they stood on the south bank of the Yellow River in a down-to-earth manner, with their hometown and country behind them.

"Woo woo woo ......"

On the official road, horns sounded, and dozens of generals rode horses from south to north, checking the equipment and morale of each army along the way.

The commander and the officers of the thousand households stood solemnly with the soldiers, their eyes were firm, and they did not relax at all.

As the horn sounded, the procession walked up to the ferry in an orderly manner, onto the ferry, and marched towards the unknown war in the north.

Their steps are in unison, their posture is upright, and their sonorous footsteps are sonorous and powerful, as if they are announcing their determination and courage to the world.

In a short time, they crossed the Yellow River, and more than 100,000 people gathered on the north bank, and after a night's rest, the army marched north, stretching for more than 20 miles, like a red fire dragon swimming northward.

"The barbarians in the north have made a big deal out of it, but they themselves can't hold it down, and we have to take action from the soldiers in the south."

"South? You Henan soldiers can also be called southern soldiers? ”

"Which team are you from, what Lao Tzu says matters to you!"

"Directly subordinate to Pizhou Wei, what are you going to do!"

"Shut up and go honestly!"

"What kind of birdman are you?"

"Dingyuan Fei Xiong Wei, how are you going?"

"Huaixi's, don't mess with them......"

During the march, the soldiers sometimes whispered and talked, sometimes silently thought, and of course, they also despised and ridiculed each other.

It's just that among the armies, the soldiers of the two Huai, especially Huaixi, have the most lofty status.

It is not an exaggeration to say that this whole great tomorrow was fought down by the children of Huaixi, and most of the military attaches in the guards around the country were born in Huaixi, so they naturally did not lose the soldiers of any of the capitals.

After a small episode, all the soldiers hurried on their way in silence.

Even if they were just ordinary soldiers, they knew that the battle ahead was not easy.

The road is boring and the most painful.

As the sunset gradually rose, the army heading north stopped in the wilderness north of Weihui Mansion and began to use all the camping tools on the baggage carts.

As the night rose, the soldiers lost their daytime fire, and sat by the campfire, cooking and exchanging experiences in various places, and the morale of the whole army was high.

At this time, they feel closer and more united with each other.

Night gradually fell, and in the barracks, which covered an area of more than ten miles, a gray-haired veteran was also leading dozens of generals to inspect the camp.

The dozens of generals who followed him, the lowest rank were also the commanders, this was the counterinsurgency team of the Marquis of Changxing of the Ming Dynasty.

"The most taboo for camping is no water, don't be greedy for cheap to grab water with other troops to drink, digging a well by yourself is more useful than anything, and don't be afraid of being tired, this north of the Yellow River can be watered by hitting two or three zhang a little down, and it tastes sweet."

On the way to inspect the camp, Geng Bingwen, Marquis of Changxing, taught the generals who followed him, and none of the generals dared to despise him.

Although he is sixty-six years old, as one of the twenty-eight marquis of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Geng Bingwen's military exploits have always been at the forefront.

Whether it is stationed in Changxing in the early stage, guarding against Zhang Shicheng, or the Northern Expedition with Xu Da in the middle stage, and the great victory in fishing with Lan Yu can be praised.

Even if he is old, Geng Bingwen is often given the task of local counterinsurgency by Zhu Yuanzhang, such as now he has just ended the war with Shu Kou Gao Fuxing, captured Gao Fuxing, and captured more than 3,000 thieves.

"The last time I came to Beiping, it was ten years ago when I was preparing for the Northern Expedition, and now I have returned to my hometown, but things are very different."

After inspecting the camp, Geng Bingwen, who returned to the camp, wiped the sweat from his forehead, although he had the heart to do it himself, but at this age, coupled with the dark injuries of fighting when he was young, he was still a little tired after walking half of the camp.

Along with him are Wu Jie, Li Jian, Ning Zhong and other second-generation generals, although they have good ability in the second generation, but if they really take the turn, they are only at the midstream level, far less than the current second-generation Southwest Corps.

"This place is still two hundred and forty miles away from Zhending, and with the speed of our army, we can rush to Zhending on the fourth day of the seventh month to set up camp."

Ning Zhong and the three of them are all in their forties, although they have not participated in major battles, and they are not as good as second-generation generals such as Mu Chun, Ping'an, Wu Gao, Geng Xuan, Yang Wen, and Chen Xuan, but at least they have also participated in military training and coordinated marching matters, so there is no problem with basic marching.

Looking at the three of them, Geng Bingwen sighed in his heart.

In this northern expedition, due to the rebellion of the southwestern sword and Meng, many of his favorite generals could not be transferred to the north, so he had no choice but to accept Ning Zheng and a few people as deputies.

On the march these days, Geng Bingwen has almost figured out their personal abilities.

If they are allowed to command a few thousand men, it is fine, but if they exceed 10,000 people, they will be in a hurry.

Such an ability really made it difficult for Geng Bingwen to put his mind at ease about this Northern Expedition to counterinsurgency.

"The old man is not familiar with the father and son of the Yanshu people, but he also knows that they have a lot of animal power, and their march is much faster than our army."

"You are stationed in the camp, and you need to guard against night attacks."

"Yes!" Ning Zhong and the others responded, and Geng Bingwen also waved his hand when he saw this, signaling that they could retreat.

Seeing this, Ning Zhong and the three of them could only turn around and leave.

But after they left, Geng Bingwen inexplicably felt a worry in his heart.

This kind of worry gradually arose when he led his troops north.

The war in Yunnan has restrained too many outstanding second-generation generals in the Hongwu period, and the military talents of Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu, father and son, do not need to be repeated.

Geng Bingwen has seen Fang Zhao and Wu Gao, compared with the generals of the Ming Dynasty, the former is at most a middle-class person, and the latter is barely middle-class.

Overall, they were not bad, but they were still beaten by Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu.

Now that he has no good people in his hands, he wants to use these second-generation generals who have not experienced the war to fight against these two people, Geng Bingwen is not panicked, but it is strange.

He got up and looked at the map of Hebei hanging behind him, and muttered in an old voice: "I hope it's okay......"

"Fengtian Jing Difficult Record": In July, the Son of Heaven took Geng Bingwen as the general, raised 200,000 troops to the north, and settled in Zhending.

"Bohai Chronicle": "In July, the suspicious soldiers confused the bell, and personally led the cavalry to gallop to Daning. ”

(End of chapter)