Hearing that there was no need to go and die to fill the hole, these Korean auxiliary soldiers felt like they had been granted amnesty, and they expressed their gratitude to Huang Taiji profusely!
Huang Taiji did this not because his conscience found out, but he did not expect that the Ming army equipped the fortress with so many squatting tiger cannons.
If it were just Lumi Gun, this group of Koreans would still be able to fill up this tunnel with their lives.
But if you add the Tiger Crouching Cannon, it might be difficult.
Although Dajin has forcibly expanded its army to 80,000 soldiers and 20,000 auxiliary soldiers, it consumes huge amounts of food.
One hundred thousand horses consume more than 100,000 shi of grain in one month.
The large amount of grain snatched from North Korea last year has almost reached its bottom. This year's summer grain harvest has been almost wiped out due to drought, and there will probably be no autumn grain harvest either.
In addition, Li Xianzhong cut off Horqin's grain trade, so Daikin had no choice but to strengthen its exploitation of North Korea.
Nowadays, North Korea's Ping'an Road and Hamgyong Road are on the verge of collapse. The population of the two roads has dropped sharply, and Koreans continue to have uprisings.
Although Daishan's excessive taxation temporarily alleviated Daikin's crisis, it did not last long.
He and Daishan have differences on this point. Now the Ming army is getting stronger and stronger. He felt that North Korea should be managed well so that there would be a way out in the future.
It's a pity that the Ming army put too much pressure on Jianzhou, and the Great Khan currently agrees with Daishan's approach of killing the goose to obtain the egg.
However, his method of rescuing these Korean auxiliary soldiers this time can still increase his reputation a lot.
Everyone is now very concerned about how to break through the tunnel in front of the Ming army's fortress.
In fact, the moat of the bastion is not essentially different from the moat outside the ordinary city.
It's just that the moat here can lead directly to the wall of the bastion, which adds to the confusion.
It's just that the firearms equipped by the Ming army are too powerful now, making it difficult for them to fill the trenches.
But Huang Taiji had already thought of a way to deal with it.
If you want to fill in the tunnel in front of the Ming army's fortress, you will definitely need to modify the existing lair trucks.
The most effective way is naturally to change the wooden boards in the front row of the carriage to iron plates, so that the Ming army's muskets cannot penetrate the carriage even at a very close distance.
However, although there is no shortage of iron ore in Jianzhou, it will still take a lot of time to complete such transformation.
So they had to settle for the next best thing and rebuild a batch of wooden carts. These carts had two layers of wooden boards, leaving some gaps in the middle for placing stones.
In this way, these carriages can definitely block the Ming army's cannons.
But it also takes a whole day to rebuild the car.
Huang Taiji thought of another temporary method to deal with this tunnel.
I saw thousands of Han troops holding long shields rushing towards the bastion quickly.
The Ming army on the city was amused by the actions of these Han troops. The carriages could not stop Lumi's blunderbuss, so could these shields be enough?
"Bang, bang, bang"
As Rumi's gun sounded again, the charging Han troops fell to the ground one after another.
However, the following Han troops continued to pick up the shields on the ground and quickly rushed into the tunnel.
There was only a short distance of 40 steps from the maximum range of the Rumi Gun, 120 steps, to the tunnel about 80 steps away from the bastion. After paying the price of hundreds of people, the Han army easily jumped into the tunnel. middle.
So far there is actually not much difference from yesterday. It is not difficult for them to rush into the tunnel.
But it was impossible to rush out from the tunnel's exit.
Because no matter how much troops the Han army invested, they could only advance towards the city wall through the two narrow passage exits.
With hundreds of firecrackers in each direction, it would be too easy to block these two narrow exits.
Moreover, the bodies of the dead Han soldiers in front would soon block the exit, affecting the progress of the soldiers behind.
However, the Ming army ignored the long shield held by the Han army this time.
These shields were not used to block the Ming army's Lumi gunfire, but were used to lay plank roads between the tunnels.
When they encountered a narrow place, they placed their shields across the top of the tunnel; when they encountered a wider place, beyond the length of the shield, they directly raised the shield with their hands.
In the blink of an eye, these Han soldiers used their long shields to build passages for advancement.
In this way, the Han army behind could rush towards the bastion directly from the top of the tunnel.
Soon the following Han troops shouted slogans and rushed towards the bastion.
"Bang, bang, bang"
As the soldiers of the Pinglu Guards pulled the trigger, bullets were fired from the barrel.
They passed through the Han army's body easily, and bursts of blood mist filled the air.
Although many people were not killed on the spot, they just fell to the ground and howled in pain.
However, the following Han troops did not stop. They stepped on the bodies of their companions and continued to advance. At this time, being injured and falling to the ground was almost equivalent to being shot to death.
Although the barrels were blown to prevent prolonged shooting, the civilian guards responsible for guarding the bastion each carried two Lumi guns and fired in turn.
However, since the loading of Lumi Gun takes a long time, it will take more than 30 seconds at the fastest to complete the second launch.
Let the Han army continue to advance on the corpses of their companions. Under successive charges, they finally reached the bottom of the fortress wall!
Huang Taiji, who was watching the battle from the rear, was very excited. The Han army finally broke through the Ming army's tunnel.
However, the casualties were also huge. In just a quarter of an hour, two-thirds of the attacking three thousand Han troops had been lost.
In addition to the hundreds of Han troops holding shields in the tunnel, only a few hundred people came to the slope at this time.
But they soon discovered that the long slope leading to the second floor was at the angle of a polygon.
Here, you will be attacked by crossfire from the Ming army's second-story triangular fort and third-story concave-corner fort, as well as the shooting holes of the main fort.
This is the most terrifying place. The hundreds of them were all knocked down by the Ming army's firecrackers before they even climbed up to the second floor.
The air was filled with the smell of blood and sulfur, as well as the painful groans of the injured Han soldiers!
This test by the Han army still made Huang Taiji see the horror of this kind of fortress.
His efficiency in killing siege soldiers has been greatly improved. In the past, even if the attackers killed thousands of soldiers, it would take at least an hour or two, and sometimes it could even last a whole day.
But now it only took less than three quarters of an hour for the Han army to kill 2,500 people!
It seems that the number of troops invested is still a bit low!
However, it turns out that as long as there are enough troops, they can break through these trenches of the Ming army and attack that strange fortress.
Huang Taiji did not want to give the Ming army a chance to rest.
He said to the Han army: "This fortress of the Ming army just looks fancy, but it is actually not much different from an ordinary city. If there were sufficient troops just now, the Han army would have already entered the city!"
"Now Ben Beile promises you that as long as you kill on the city, everyone will reward you with a Korean beauty, two wrapped aha, and 10 acres of arable land."
These Han troops are now considered the Eight Banners. Once they have fields, women and slaves, they will be the real "masters"!
Huang Taiji's words aroused huge cheers, and the remaining Han troops asked for battle!
Soon the 5,000-strong Han army with high morale was thrown into the attack.
This made the Ming army in the city become nervous.
According to this situation, the enemy is likely to attack the second floor of the bastion.
The Rumi Gun's rate of fire is too slow. If it could be twice as fast, it would be difficult for the enemy to break through the crossfire blockade.
Therefore, among the 3,000 civilian guards stationed here, in addition to 2,000 gunmen, there are also 300 gunners and 700 spearmen.
Spearmen can join in hand-to-hand combat at any time.
The Han army advanced very quickly, but as soon as they entered the range of 200 steps from the fortress, they were attacked by the Ming army's Crouching Tiger Artillery.
Although the lead fired by the Crouching Tiger Cannon was not as powerful as the explosive bullets, it obviously still slowed down the speed of the Han army's attack.
At this time, the Ming army's Lumi guns had also opened fire, and they used their long-range advantage to continuously harvest the lives of the Han army.
However, all this can only increase the casualties of the Han army, but cannot prevent them from approaching the bastion.
The Han army also understood that time is life. The faster they ran, the shorter the shooting time left for the Ming army.
So they charged forward as hard as they could.
After only suffering over a thousand casualties, they rushed to the slope of the bastion.
This time it was not the hundreds of lone Han troops who had penetrated deeply, but nearly 4,000 elite Han troops.
Li Sanshun and Man Gui looked at each other, as if to say it was too late to shoot him!
Due to the limited space in the bastion, some of the Hongyi cannons were arranged on the hillside behind the bastion. If the Tatar offensive was too fierce, the Hongyi cannons on the hillside would bombard those in front of the bastion.
In addition to killing a large number of enemies, it can also block subsequent enemy charges.
At this moment, Jianzhou's main force had not yet been dispatched, and Li Sanshun did not originally intend to use the Hongyi cannon.
But based on the current situation, if the Hongyi artillery is not used, I am afraid that the Ming army will have to fight hand-to-hand with these Han troops on the second floor of the bastion!
So soon the bastion was lit with smoke!
The Ming army's gunners on the hillside could no longer hold their position any longer, and the gun positions had been adjusted, so after receiving the order to fire, they fired immediately.
A moment later, shells exploded near the tunnel.
The dense charge formation of the Han army was instantly blown to pieces by Hongyi cannon.
The huge shock wave directly threw the shields used for laying and the bodies of the Han soldiers into the air, and then scattered them all over the ground.
There were stumps of limbs and broken arms everywhere on the ground, and the air was filled with the smell of blood mixed with sulfur.
This huge sound immediately alarmed Nurhaci, and soon he came to the formation with Fan Wencai.
At this time, Nurhachi's face was livid and his brows were furrowed. It was obvious that they did not expect that the Ming army actually deployed artillery on the hillside behind them.
This burst of shelling not only directly killed hundreds of Han troops, but also interrupted the passage built by Huang Taiji with his shield.
Of course, Nurhachi felt a little lucky in his heart. Fortunately, it was the Han army that was attacking the city. If it were replaced by the main force of the Jianzhou Eight Banners, the Jurchens in Jianzhou would probably be exterminated within a few days!
At this time, there were about a thousand Han troops in front of the Ming army's bastion, and the subsequent Han army was once again blocked from the tunnel by the Ming army.
Li Sanshun quickly ordered the Ming army on the triangle fort to continue blocking the tunnel with Lumi guns, while other Ming troops worked together to kill the Han army on the slope.
"Bang, bang, bang"
As the Ming army's Lumi gunfire sounded again, the Han army was continuously killed.
But at this moment, those Han soldiers didn't care at all whether they were fighting alone. At this moment, they only had eyes for the Korean women that Huang Taiji had promised.
They brandished their sabers and roared like wild beasts.
Although their companions continued to fall down, they still rushed upward firmly stepping on their companion's corpse.
It seems that we will soon reach the second level.
At the end of the slope, a group of Ming troops wearing heavy cloth masks were already in full formation.
Mangui said calmly: "Get ready to release the rolling logs!"
As the Ming army pulled away a wooden stick, a pile of rolling logs on the top of the slope jumped and hit the charging Han troops.
The slope itself was not spacious, and the inclined slope increased the kinetic energy of the rolling logs. When the thick rolling logs hit them one after another, these Han soldiers had no way to avoid them.
Although they tried to block it with the weapons in their hands, the result was in vain.
These rolling logs hit the Han army hard, bringing down a large number of people at once.
Although they also wear heavy cloth armor, how can they withstand such a heavy blow?
Soon Mangui raised the sword in his hand and shouted: "Brothers, follow me and kill these 'two Tartars'."
I saw the spearmen of the Ming army, led by Man Gui, rushing down the slope like a group of tigers descending from the mountain.
The Han army, which had just been smashed by the rolling logs, was in disarray. They were no match for them. They collapsed immediately after the encounter.
I saw Mangui quickly charging into the enemy army, constantly waving the sword in his hand, and almost every time the sword fell, a Han soldier was killed by him.
After a while, the slope was covered with the corpses of Han soldiers.
The two thousand Han troops blocked by the tunnels had lost all morale at this time. Although Huang Taiji did not issue an order to retreat, their survival instinct drove them to stay away from this terrible fortress.
The army was defeated like a mountain, and Huang Taiji could only let them withdraw at this moment.
The civilian guards on the bastion were extremely tired at this time, even though most of them did not participate in the fight with these Han troops, but continued to use Lumi guns and artillery to shoot at long distances.
However, the high-intensity operations and nervousness still made them physically and mentally exhausted.
At this moment, most of them were slumped against the wall, breathing heavily, and didn't even have the extra energy to cheer for this victory.
Yesterday the Tatars only made a tentative attack, today is indeed a test.
Everything is difficult at the beginning. I believe that after the baptism of this battle, Pingluwei will fully grow up.
But tomorrow's battle will definitely be tougher.
Li Sanshun said: "The brothers performed well today. They slaughtered 50 fat sheep in the evening and gave everyone extra food. I hope the brothers will continue their efforts. Tomorrow we will encounter real Tatars."
When they heard that there was meat to eat in the evening, the soldiers who had just been lying down suddenly burst into cheers!
At this time, Li Sanshun finally understood why Governor Yan had to make the soldiers eat meat and drink a bowl of broth every time before fighting such a difficult battle to defend the city!
Eating meat can not only replenish physical strength, but sometimes is even more attractive than money.
At this time, good news also came from Kaiyuan Guerrilla Yu Hualong.
The Tatars who were huddled in Gule Village couldn't help but leave the city when they saw their main force arriving.
Just when the Pinglu Guards were fighting with the Han army, they also came out in full force to cooperate with the main force of the Tatars to attack from both sides.
In the end, Yu Hualong, who was ambushed, took advantage of him and fled back to Gule Village, leaving behind more than 1,700 corpses.
Originally, the number of Tatars in Gule Village was less than 5,000, but now there are only 3,000 at most, and the threat has been greatly reduced.
However, the inner city wall of Gule Village is still intact, and the artillery must be used to defend the bastion, so the only choice is to let them go first.
Nurhaci and Huang Taiji are now on pins and needles.
This time, although they brought the 36,000 main force of the two yellow flags and the white flag, they also had 20,000 Korean auxiliary troops.
But now two days have passed, and they still can't do anything to the Ming army's fortress.
The elite Han army, which was the main force, also suffered losses of more than 7,000 people.
Now that the morale of the Han army is completely depleted, tomorrow they will have no choice but to send out the main force of the Eight Banners to attack the city.
However, before that, the Ming army's tunnel problem still needs to be solved. If the tunnels cause the troops who rushed to the city to become a lone army without support like today, it will be difficult to handle.
Fortunately, after a whole day of hard work, the new type of truck has been built.
Soon the North Korean auxiliary soldiers came pushing carts to fill the hole.
Due to the dark moon and high wind tonight, the visibility was very poor, so the Ming army did not start and did not notice that the Tatars had modified the carriage.
Still shooting in the dark with Rumi guns, they had already advanced a dozen steps forward when they discovered that the Tatars were pushing a cart and continuing to fill the hole.
The visibility at night was really low. Although the position of the Hongyi cannon was adjusted, there was still an error.
During the insurance period, Li Sanshun still did not let the Hongyi cannon fire.
It would be a huge loss if the bastion was accidentally blown up.
The light was not good, and they could not clearly see the situation out of the tunnel, and it was impossible for them to risk an attack.
In the end, the North Korean auxiliary troops quickly filled in most of the tunnels after thousands of people were killed.
Of course, the reason why they were able to fill up so quickly was because they used local materials and used a large number of Han army corpses during the day.
When Nurhachi learned that these Korean auxiliary troops actually filled the tunnels of the Ming army, his confidence increased greatly.
He actually said that during the day, he would directly send out the yellow flag and the white flag together.
They decided to invest 6,000 Jianzhou Eight Banners at a time to avoid the recurrence of the previous failure due to insufficient troops, which resulted in the attacking troops not receiving support.
Soon a group of Eight Banners soldiers wearing yellow and white armor pushed their modified carriages towards the Ming army's fortress.
Although these carriages can be used to defeat the Ming army's Lumi guns after modification, they also have a big problem.
The two layers of wooden boards and the stone in the middle made these carts much heavier, and they were "top-heavy" and very inconvenient to push.
This gave the Ming army's artillery more shooting opportunities.
The Ming army in the bastion was equipped with various types of artillery, ranging from the Crouching Tiger cannon that could only fire 100-250 meters, to the 6-pound Franco machine gun that could fire 800 meters, and the 12-pound Hongyi cannon with a range of 1,500 meters. Cannons are all available.
Of course, there is also a 15-pound Hongyi cannon with a range of more than 2,000 meters, but the data of this cannon is not stable. It was just made by the artillery factory in Pinglubao, and was taken to the bastion by Li Xianzhong for actual combat testing.
Because Jianlu had a relatively good understanding of the Ming Army's artillery range and knew that the Ming Army's Hongyi artillery could hit 3 miles away, he usually arranged his assembly area 4 miles away.
At this time, the Eight Banners soldiers pushing the carts were in dire straits. They were beaten all over by Ming army's various artillery shells with explosive shells.
Not only were more than 300 people killed, but several carriages were also destroyed.
If you don't push the cart, you will be hit by fire when you get to the city. If you push the cart, you will move slowly along the way and you will be bombarded by several rounds of shelling.
But in the end, these Eight Banners soldiers gritted their teeth and pushed hundreds of carts to a place a hundred steps away from the bastion.
At this time, the Ming army's Lumi guns began to shoot, but the bullets only made some noise when hitting these carriages, and were not able to penetrate Jianlu's carriages.
Seeing that the Ming army's muskets could not penetrate the carriages, the Tatars became even more energetic and hurriedly quickened their pace.
At this time, the Hongyi artillery on the distant hillside of the Ming army began to fire, but today's bombardment was a bit off. Most of the shells fell nearby, and only 3 shells fell in the middle of the marching Tatars.
Although several carts were destroyed, they could not stop the Tatars from continuing to advance like a bastion.
Li Sanshun said loudly: "Get ready to throw thunder!"
The Ming Army's Tianlei was made on the basis of explosive bombs. In fact, it was similar to the hand grenade of later generations. In order to facilitate throwing, Li Xianzhong specially requested to install a wooden handle.
At present, the Ming Army's Hongtian Lei has two specifications, one is a light one weighing about 2 kilograms, and the other is a heavy one weighing about 6 kilograms.
The fuse needs to be lit before throwing, and it takes about 6-7 seconds to detonate.
The light ones can attack farther targets. The Ming soldiers of the Pinglu Guards all have throwing assessments. An ordinary Ming army can pass the test if it takes more than 30 steps. Some excellent Ming soldiers can even take more than 40 steps.
One step in the Ming Dynasty was almost equivalent to 1.6 meters, so this distance was already very far.
The heavy thunderbolts are used to attack targets close to the city, so they only need to be thrown 15 steps away.
As a large number of thunderbolts were thrown, the advancing Tatars were as if they had been hit by a round of precise artillery fire. Even though the Tatars hiding behind the carriages were wearing heavy armor, they could not stop the approaching Tatars. The thunder that exploded into the sky.
In an instant, hundreds more people were killed.
What was even more serious was that many of the carriages were blown up by the Ming army. The Eight Banners soldiers who lost the cover of the carriages were instantly shot by the Ming army's Lumi gun.
And their Sauron soldiers, who are best at shooting, have little room to display at this time.
The gunmen of the Ming army were either hiding in various small fortresses or shooting through the shooting holes in the city. Their bows and arrows could not find the target at all, but they themselves became the target of the Ming army.
At this time, Anfeiyanggu, one of the five founding ministers, quickly ordered the soldiers of the Eight Banners to charge towards the Ming army's castle.
I have to say that these Eight Banners soldiers are much stronger than the Han army in terms of speed and resistance to attack.
Many Eight Banners soldiers were still able to move forward after taking one shot. They did not fall until they were hit by the second shot. Soon they rushed up the slope.
Nurhachi, who was watching the battle from behind, was also very excited when he saw this scene, so he rode forward to get a clearer view.
At this time, Li Sanshun discovered that there were cavalry moving forward in the Jianlu formation, and quickly ordered the 15-pound red cannon to open fire.
The last shell exploded directly four or five meters away from Nurhachi. After the smoke dissipated, everyone found that Nurhachi had been knocked off his horse!
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