The straight-line distance between Hetuala and Chahanhot City, the capital of Lindan Khan, was more than 1,100 miles. However, because Jiefan City and Tieling were both occupied by the Ming army, Jianzhou's spies could not walk in a straight line at all.
They had no choice but to bypass Kaiyuan from Chahanhot City, go north from Horqin Grassland, and then venture through Yehe's territory, and finally return to Hetuala in a big circle.
Not only was the risk extremely high, but the actual distance was more than 1,800 miles.
Fan Wencai's mission to Chahanhot took twenty days alone.
This is because the Ming army's sentinel "released water" along the way, otherwise he would not have been able to complete this mission.
In addition, Li Xianzhong deliberately lingered under the city of Chahanhot for many days. When Nurhaci led the three-banner elites north to Gule Village, the Ming army had already been building the bastion for a month.
Thanks to the help of cement and the hard work of tens of thousands of North Korean workers working day and night, the bastion defense system in Gule Village has now been completely completed.
This month has been difficult for Mang Gurtai in Gule Village. Although the Ming army did not formally attack the city, dozens of Hongyi cannons continued to bombard the walls of Gule Village.
The wall of the East City has been almost completely destroyed.
At first, Mang Gurtai organized people to repair the city wall at night, but he gave up within a few days.
The speed of his repairs could not match the speed of destruction by the Ming army's shelling. Now the entire east city wall is almost in ruins.
Although the Ming army's artillery had destroyed the outer city wall of Gule Walled City, Li Sanshun was not happy.
I originally thought that with Mang Gurtai's fiery temper, he would definitely not be able to bear the bombardment and eventually chose to go out of the city to attack his own artillery position.
But he didn't expect that he was still as stable as a mountain, hiding in the city and refusing to attack.
Mangui also said worriedly: "The Tatars have a lot of troops in Gule Village. They have been huddled in the city like this. If we attack by force, we will probably have to pay a high price."
Now the news of Ning Yuanbo's great victory over Lin Dan Khan in the grassland should soon reach Hetuala. If Mang Gurtai in Gule Village cannot be severely damaged as soon as possible, he will definitely be attacked from two sides by the Tatars.
Although this so-called bastion looks quite powerful, no one is sure how long it can hold on.
In order to reduce the pressure on the bastion later, Li Sanshun decided to change his tactics.
Originally, Mang Gurtai was very confident in the walls of Gule Walled City. The city built by the Koreans was extremely strong.
Unexpectedly, the Ming army's Hongyi cannon directly destroyed the city wall. The grumpy Mang Gurtai wanted to lead his army to attack several times, but was persuaded by his subordinate Jia La'e Zhen.
After all, the Great Khan strictly ordered Gule Village to hold on and not attack.
In the end, Mang Gurtai, who really had no choice but to "out of sight, out of mind", asked Han Niu Lu to hold on to the outer city and Jianzhou Niu Lu to hold on to the inner city.
The extremely depressed Mang Gurtai could only hide in the inner city and drink. Anyway, the Ming army did not attack the city. They only used artillery and Rumi guns to wait for opportunities to kill their own bannermen.
As time went by, the Han troops guarding the city also learned to be smart and never showed their heads easily to avoid being shot by the Ming army's gunmen.
The daily casualty figures have actually come down.
Mang Gurtai had just fought three hundred rounds with several Korean women who were sleeping with him last night. He was sleeping soundly when he was suddenly awakened by the roar of shelling!
At this time, Niu Luerzhen ran in in a panic and said: "Master Qi, it's not good! The Ming army has begun to attack the city!"
This startled Mang Gurtai, who quickly put on his armor and led Jianzhou Niulu of Zhenglan Banner to the inner city wall.
It should be that the Ming army pushed the artillery positions forward a lot overnight. Originally they could only bombard the surroundings of the outer city, but now the shells landed directly inside the city.
Some even exploded very close to the inner city walls.
What's even more frightening is that the Ming army seems to have adopted a brand-new artillery shell, which explodes directly after landing, creating a huge air wave and destroying everything around it.
The Han army Niulu's losses in the outer city suddenly doubled several times, and even the buildings in the city were on fire due to the Ming army's shelling.
Fortunately, the fire was not big, otherwise there would not be enough water in the reservoir.
This made Mang Gurtai no longer calm.
Although there are still 7,000 defenders in the city, if the Ming army moves their artillery forward tonight, they will be able to directly bombard the inner city tomorrow.
This new type of artillery shells of the Ming army is astonishingly powerful, and the space in the inner city is even smaller. If it is bombarded by the artillery of the Ming army for several days, even if the entire army is not wiped out, there will only be a few people left alive.
Mang Gurtai said sternly: "Kill the injured horses to reward the soldiers. We will go out of the city tonight to destroy the Ming army's artillery."
Although he knew that the Ming army would be on guard, he had no choice.
If we don't take advantage of the fact that we have enough troops now and the morale is not too low to go out of the city to fight, we will be bombarded for a few days in Gule Village and our morale will be completely gone.
He knew that the Ming army's artillery guns were sharp, so he directly chose to use the cavalry to attack and advance to the Ming army's artillery position as quickly as possible.
Now their position is only 2 miles away from Gule Village, and the cavalry will arrive in an instant.
In order to boost morale, Mang Gurtai decided to personally lead the troops to attack the camp.
However, the number of horses in the city is limited. If all the horses are gathered together, they can only gather 3,000 people.
Moreover, there is only one mountain road in Qinglong Mountain leading to the bottom of the mountain. At this time, Mang Gurtai's only choice is probably the time for a sneak attack.
If it were normal times, he could still choose a rainy day. Although the rain would make the road muddy and difficult to move, it would also limit the use of the Ming army's firearms to a great extent.
But this year, the entire Liaodong is experiencing a severe drought. Even the rainy season in April and May in previous years has not rained at all. It is impossible to expect rain.
In the end, he chose the time of the sneak attack at three o'clock in the morning, which was around 1:45 in the morning.
The defenders are more tired at this time, making it easier for sneak attacks.
At this time, the city wall of the east city of Gule Village was already a pile of ruins composed of broken bricks and rammed earth.
After clearing some passages, the cavalrymen of Zhenglan Banner began to sneak out of the city under the cover of darkness.
Fortunately, the moon is dark tonight and the wind is high. There is no moonlight, and the visibility of the Ming army is very low.
Moreover, the Ming army had already filled in the two trenches he had deployed outside the city, which made it much easier for him to leave the city.
However, it was impossible for a large number of cavalry to leave the city without making a sound. After all, the Ming army's artillery position was only 2 miles away from the city.
So he simply rushed towards the Ming army's artillery position in a big way. After all, it only took a blink of an eye.
Soon a loud arrow left a long tail in the night sky.
As fireworks bloomed in the night sky, the Ming army's Lumi gun began to fire.
"Bang, bang, bang"
Although they couldn't see the target clearly, the Ming army's gunmen divided into three groups and fired at the narrow front one after another.
Soon came the painful wails of the enemy and the neighing of war horses.
Mang Gurtai shouted excitedly: "The white mist ahead is the Ming army's position. Warriors, charge forward."
At this moment, the gunmen of the Ming Army had completed a round of "three-stage attack" and were nervously loading gunpowder and bullets.
The large shield soldiers and spearmen of the Pinglu Guards had already appeared in front of them.
The endless darkness made everything unknown, but the clear sound of horse hooves told the Ming army that Zhenglan Qi would soon enter their trap.
Soon there was a loud sound, first the sound of the land in front collapsing, and then the wailing of the Jianzhou cavalry after falling into the horse pit and being stabbed by the trap, and the neighing of the war horses.
In this dim environment, the Ming army could only see the situation near the torch, so hearing became their main means of judging the enemy's location.
Mangui shouted: "The enemy's cavalry has fallen into the horse trap, and the crouching tiger cannon is ready to fire."
The Ming army knew that after they moved the artillery positions forward, Mang Gurtai, who couldn't stand the blow of explosive shells, would definitely attack, so they had already adjusted the artillery positions.
The Ming army's large shield bearer was not actually to prevent the impact of the Jianzhou cavalry, but to prevent accidental damage from the lead of the squatting tiger cannon.
These horse traps are located about 50 steps away from the Ming army's positions. Although they have adjusted the shelling range of the Crouching Tiger Cannon to about a hundred steps behind the horse trap.
The distance of 150 steps should be very safe, but in this dark and windy month, no one can guarantee that the scattered bullets of the Crouching Tiger Cannon will not accidentally damage their side.
Soon, more than thirty tiger squatting guns behind the position roared towards Zhenglan Banner.
The bullets they fired were originally shotguns, and they did not need to aim too accurately. As long as they fell roughly within this range, they could deliver a fatal blow to the densely formed Jianzhou cavalry.
Sure enough, after the Tiger Crouching Cannon was fired, the Jianlu in front let out a roar like a ghost crying or a wolf howling.
A group of soldiers stood firmly in front of Mang Gurtai, and the lead shot from the Crouching Tiger Cannon even directly penetrated their shields.
However, Mang Gurtai did not retreat. He knew that the Ming army's Tiger Crouching Cannon must have adjusted its position in advance. They would no longer be able to aim after rushing here.
He drew his sword and shouted: "The warriors crossed directly over the Ming army's horse trap. We must destroy their artillery."
At this time, the Ming army's Lumi gunfire sounded again. The sound of the gunfire directly took away Zhenglan Qi, who had fallen into the horse pit and survived by chance.
Unwilling to give up, Mang Gurtai urged the frightened Zhenglan Banner to directly attack the Ming army's artillery position.
Although the huge casualties made the cavalry of Zhenglan Banner hesitate, in the end the master's order defeated the fear in their hearts.
Under Mang Gurtai's constant urging, they still mustered up the courage to step on the corpses of their companions and attack forward.
This time they succeeded, because at this time the Ming army had withdrawn from the so-called artillery position along the trench in an orderly manner.
But at this moment, Mang Gurtai discovered that there were no powder barrels or shells at all in this artillery position.
What should I do?
Without gunpowder and cannonballs, there was nothing they could do against these iron guys.
The angry Mang Gurtai directly slashed at these Ming army's Hongyi cannons.
However, there was no sound of the machete breaking. On the contrary, it was deeply embedded in the artillery.
Damn, these cannons are just wood covered in ink.
At this time, Li Sanshun, who was several miles away, said: "The brothers on the artillery highland should be safe now. Let's just call Mang Gurtai."
This time it's not the squatting tiger cannon, but the red barbarian cannons equipped with explosive shells.
The terrifying scene in the city during the day reappeared, and the huge shock wave directly knocked Mang Gurtai off his horse.
Although nearly half of the shells missed, it was enough to severely damage Zhenglan Qi who was attacking.
All Mang Gurtai's soldiers were killed in battle at this time. In their panic, they didn't even bother to take his body back to Gule Village.
Of the three thousand Zhenglan Banners who finally attacked, only about five hundred people who fell behind ran back to the city.
Soon the Ming army found Mang Gurtai's body. Fortunately, his chest was only penetrated by a explosive bullet, otherwise it would be difficult to identify.
Man Gui said: "Most of the main force of Zhenglan Banner was wiped out in this battle, and even their Sanbeile Mang Gurtai was killed by us. Tomorrow we should be able to conquer Gule Village in one fell swoop."
Li Sanshun said with a smile: "No, there are still several higher mountains in the south that are under the control of the Tatars. If they find out that we have captured Gule Village, they will definitely not attack the bastion."
"Now that the Zhenglan Banner in Gule Village has suffered more than half of its casualties, the threat to the flanks of the fortress has been greatly weakened. We can safely deal with the main force of the rebels in the direction of Hetuala."
Since there is only one road down the mountain in Gule Village, and the other three sides are cliffs, Nurhachi knows nothing about the specific conditions in the city.
However, the news of a fierce battle outside the Gule Walled City last night still reached his ears.
Huang Taiji sighed and said: "It was not easy for Sanbeile to hold on to Gule Village for a month in the face of the main force of the Ming army; now the walls of the outer city have been blown down by the Ming army, but fortunately there is an inner city there."
"Sanbeile took the initiative last night and probably won't be able to hold on much longer, so he sent us a signal for help!"
Fan Wencai took the opportunity to say: "Thanks to the great Khan's clever calculation, the main force of our army arrived at Gule Village in time, otherwise it would be really dangerous!"
Nurhachi originally wanted to consume the strength of the Ming army by holding on to the city, but he did not expect that he would become the attacker again.
The city built by the Ming army at the foot of Gule Mountain looks weird no matter how you look at it.
Although the scale of its main castle is not large, it is not composed of one main castle, but forms a pentagonal fortress group.
In addition to the main castle, there are a lot of tunnels, defenses and small triangular bastions.
Nurhachi said: "I didn't expect that in just one month, the Ming army could actually build such a huge fortress complex."
Du Du said: "Although this castle is built in a weird shape, you see, the Ming army actually left us slopes to climb the city. This is much more labor-saving than using ladders to climb the city directly."
After Du Du finished speaking, the generals of Jianzhou laughed and asked for battle!
Huang Taiji said: "Their fortress has three floors. Although each floor is connected by slopes, it is easily attacked by the surrounding small fortresses. If the Ming army is equipped with a large number of firecrackers, I am afraid our casualties will be very high." .Everyone must not underestimate the enemy!"
Nurhachi said: "Sibeile is right. Since Li Xianzhong dares to move the main cavalry force to the grassland, he must have someone to rely on. We still need to be careful!"
Naturally, matters such as road exploration were left to the Han army.
Soon three thousand Han troops pushed their carts and launched a tentative attack on the strange fortress of the Ming army.
Li Sanshun knew very well that this was just a tentative attack by the Tatars, so they did not go all out.
The Hongyi cannon in the fort did not fire, but used the Franco machine gun to fire some solid bullets at the Tatars.
Soon these Han troops continued to push these carts to the moat about 80 steps away from the bastion.
Facing the criss-crossing tunnels ahead, they had two choices. They could either start filling the tunnels and fill them directly; or they could jump into the tunnels and continue to advance towards the bastion.
At this moment, they were actually within the firing range of the Crouching Tiger Cannon, but in order not to expose their firepower, the Ming army directly chose to shoot with the Rumi gun.
In fact, as early as Nanguan, the Ming army's Rumi gun shot through the Tatar carriage at a distance of 80 steps.
However, the number of Lumi guns equipped in the Ming army's formation was limited at that time, and it did not arouse the vigilance of the Tatars.
They did not think that the Ming army could completely shoot through the carriage at this distance.
But soon these Han soldiers were dumbfounded, and saw that the Ming army's firecrackers easily penetrated the thick wooden boards above the carriage, and then penetrated their bodies.
In a short time, hundreds of people fell to the ground and started wailing in pain!
The Han army knew that they could not retreat at this time. Since the carriage could not withstand the Ming army's firecrackers, they simply jumped into the tunnel.
The Han troops who jumped into the tunnels quickly discovered the benefits of these tunnels.
Although you stand in the tunnel at a certain angle, you will still be hit by the Ming army's cannons on the city.
But as long as they squat or lie down, I can perfectly avoid the Ming army's firecrackers.
So more and more Han troops jumped into the tunnel.
But they soon discovered the cunningness of the Ming army.
These winding tunnels seem to be very long, but the final exits are very narrow, and there are only a few of them.
The Ming army on the city could easily block the exit. After a while, the exit of the tunnel was filled with corpses of Han soldiers.
Fortunately, the Han army behind did not rush forward. Now they would die if they rushed forward, and they would be killed by the Ming army's firecrackers if they retreated.
On the contrary, squatting in the tunnel can save your life!
Of course, they can't raise their heads. As long as they raise their bodies a little, the Ming army's gunmen will kill them with one blow like a "whack-a-mole".
Huang Taiji said: "The Ming army is very cunning. They dug the tunnel 80 steps away from the city. Our bows and arrows cannot hit them at this distance, but their fire muskets can directly penetrate our carriages."
At this time, they discovered a problem. The carriages they were accustomed to using in Jianzhou had completely lost their effect at this time, because as long as they reached the Ming army's moat, they could not stop the Ming army's firecrackers with or without this thing.
After all, Nurhachi has rich combat experience. He said: "We cannot attack the Ming army's fortress through the tunnel. First, the entrance of the tunnel is narrow and easily blocked by the Ming army's firepower; second, the troops in the tunnel cannot be deployed at all. In this way, we Unable to take advantage of the large number of people, it became a wave of killings for the Ming army!"
After listening to what the two said, everyone took a deep breath.
However, the Ming army's gunfire can easily penetrate the carriages. If they did not attack the fortress through the tunnels, but chose to fill the tunnels, how many casualties would it cost?
To put it nicely, this is like using human lives to fill the soil; to put it worse, it is equivalent to filling the hole with corpses!
At this time, Nurhachi's eyes were extremely firm, and he looked at the people around him.
It was obvious that the Great Khan had decided to pay for it with his life, but he could not say this.
In the past, this kind of thing was usually done by the impulsive Sanbeile, but at this time Mang Gurtai was in Gule Village.
Soon Nurhachi's eyes rested on Fan Wencai.
Fan Wencai understood it quickly and said with a smile: "We Han people have a saying: 'Don't talk about the matter of ennobling a marquis when you follow the king.
One general's success will cause thousands of bones to wither; how can anyone survive in a war? "
"For our victory in Dajin, it is inevitable to sacrifice some auxiliary soldiers."
"My slave suggested that after dark, let the Korean auxiliary troops fill the holes quickly, so that tomorrow we can successfully capture the Ming army's fortress."
Nurhaci was originally a ruthless executioner. Historically, he "killed the poor" and "killed the rich" in Liaodong and carried out inhumane massacres against the Han people who had defected to Hou Jin. How could he pity the lives of these Korean auxiliary soldiers?
But at this time, he was already sweating. Although he had no benevolence at all, he had watched "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and began to act hypocritically.
He pretended to be embarrassed and said: "Will doing this hurt Tianhe?"
Fan Wencai knew that Nurhachi was pretending to be hesitant and unwilling to bear this bad reputation. He had no choice but to be the villain.
So he knelt down and said: "For the sake of Dajin, please don't hesitate and give the order quickly?"
Du Du and others also knelt down quickly and said: "Please give the order from the Great Khan!"
The Han army who was trapped in the tunnel finally waited until dark, so they quickly climbed out of the tunnel.
After all, the Ming army's shooting points on the city were limited, and the loading of Lumi gun was still relatively slow. The Han army still escaped after being shot and killed nearly a thousand people.
Nurhachi was really depressed about this result. The three thousand Han army was almost half destroyed. As a result, he could not even touch the wall of the Ming army's fortress.
That is to say, if they ran away in time, the North Korean auxiliary soldiers would have buried them alive in the tunnel if it had been later.
Soon thousands of Korean auxiliary soldiers pushed the carts towards the Ming army's tunnels.
Li Sanshun understood that they wanted to fill the hole at night, and soon the Ming army's Lumi guns were fired at them.
This kind of shooting can train soldiers' shooting speed and become familiar with the shooting angle on the bastion, which is definitely much more effective than usual target training.
The moonlight was good tonight, and the Ming army could roughly see the enemy's situation with the help of the moonlight. After a round of "three-stage attack", hundreds of Korean auxiliary soldiers fell in front of the tunnel.
Soon they receded like the tide, but behind them was the supervisory team of the Han army.
The ranks of the Hou Jin army are now also clearly differentiated. Under the butcher's knife of the Han army, these Koreans had to return to the tunnel again.
At this time, the Ming army was no longer polite to them. Dozens of squatting tiger cannons on the city blasted them to the point of crying for their fathers and mothers. After a while, the three thousand Korean auxiliary soldiers were completely wiped out.
Just when the second batch of North Korean auxiliary soldiers were about to be sent up, Huang Taiji stopped them and said: "There is no need to sacrifice any more Koreans, I have already thought of a way to break this tunnel!"
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(End of chapter)
