On March 2nd, at 9 p.m., 30,000 foreign Liao people who crossed the river to attack the city were repulsed by the Ningyuan defenders.
After the fire attack, the defenders used Hongyi artillery to bombard the defeated troops under the city.
Finally, the sound of gold came from the Chinese army formation on the east bank, and the surviving Kaiyuan soldiers and civilians immediately retreated eastward like a tide.
Zu Dashou sent his elite servants to lower the city and hunt down the fleeing enemy troops. The servants wielded their waist knives to kill the lone foreign Liao people behind them, from Wengcheng to the other side of the river.
It wasn't until the Guards' gunfire sounded and more than a dozen murderous servants were knocked off their horses that the remaining servants reluctantly retreated back to the city wall.
After dark, the blazing fire trucks, hook-ladders, and trench-filling trucks under the city illuminated half of Ningyuan City.
The disgusting stench of the charred corpses attracted flocks of crows, and tens of millions of large birds ate leisurely among the corpses everywhere.
The siege equipment abandoned by the foreign Liao people was piled up into a mountain, with no end as far as the eye could see.
The servants returned to the city wall and used cotton, gunpowder and other materials to burn all the chariots, carriages and hook ladders abandoned by Kaiyuan's army.
The northwest wind blew loudly, as if describing the sadness of the battlefield.
It was night, and the shrill bamboo flute resounded through the Ningyuan battlefield.
I don’t know if the performer is the defender inside the city or the Liao civilians from outside the city opposite.
The sound of the flute is like weeping and complaining.
Across the shallow moat, tens of thousands of people were listening quietly.
After nightfall, rice grains fell from the sky, and the snowflakes became heavier and heavier, soon covering the corpses everywhere.
The wilderness in western Liaoning turned into a vast expanse of white. Under the tranquility, it seemed as if nothing had happened.
Marquis Ping Liao ordered all ministries to count the number of casualties, and soon learned that less than 23,000 Liao civilians were finally withdrawn to the east coast.
In other words, on the first day of fierce fighting, Kaiyuan lost more than 7,000 people.
The defenders were more tenacious than he had expected. Liu Zhaosun was secretly grateful that he had a backup plan.
If we were to go forward with these hundreds of thousands of people at all costs, we would probably end up with a bloody head and a miserable defeat in the end.
In addition to the loss of personnel, the loss of siege equipment was also very serious. More than half of the combat equipment such as carts, hooks and ladders were lost and had to be rebuilt.
All tribes and Niulu suffered casualties, and Mongolia and Jianzhou suffered particularly heavy casualties.
After the failure to dig out the city, more than ten Niulu Ezhen were trapped in the cart and burned to death.
Liu Zhaosun was worried whether these newly attached foreigners would collapse.
He summoned Dudupur Hangu and the two men overnight, asking the two confidants to reassure people as soon as possible.
The two told the crowd:
The Marquis of Ping Liao will spend a lot of money to pay for the casualties.
Tomorrow the Han people will be the main force in the siege, so they no longer have to worry about becoming cannon fodder.
In order to prevent the defenders from leaving the city for night attacks, each battalion braved the snow to strengthen their fortifications, trenches were dug wider and deeper, and hidden sentries were added outside.
In the far northwest of Ningyuan, there is a large tent of the Chinese army in Kaiyuan.
After Liu Zhaosun inspected each camp, he returned to the Chinese army's tent. Without a chance to rest, he asked the guards to recruit Deng Changxiong and Wang Erhu.
The three of them carefully reviewed the battle during the day. Finally, Liu Zhaosun concluded:
"At present, the people in Ningyuan City are available. The Hongyi cannon is very sharp. It is reasonable for our army to be frustrated."
Deng Changxiong and Wang Erhu both looked ashamed.
In today's siege, neither of the two Guards soldiers participated directly. However, the attack on the city by 100,000 foreign Liao people was commanded by two generals. Their troops far exceeded their opponents and they had siege equipment. However, in the end, the attack ended like this. Both of them felt that it was unjustifiable.
After all, it only took the Kaiyuan Army one day to capture a fortified city like Hetuala.
Liu Zhaosun shook off the snow on the fish scales, ordered the guards to make two cups of hot tea, and handed them to the two of them with his own hands.
"Two generals, cheer up! Victory or defeat is a matter of military strategism. Ningyuan is the most fortified city in western Liaoning. Zu Dashou has been operating here for many years. Now there are elites from nine sides to help defend, with sufficient food and salary, and sharp firearms. Of course, it is not that easy. It can be captured."
Liu Zhaosun raised his tea cup and said with a bamboo in his chest:
"If we follow today's progress, we will be able to break the city in no time."
After hearing this, Deng Changxiong put down his tea cup and said worriedly:
"Sir, there is nothing wrong with the soldiers. You saw it when you were patrolling the camp just now. The morale of the soldiers has not been affected much. However, it is just those foreign Liao civilians who participated in the war with the army. The general will be worried that if the war drags on for a long time, things will inevitably change. .”
Liu Zhaosun leaned his head on his head, with a thoughtful expression on his face, and turned to look at Wang Erhu.
The commander of the Third Guards Army said solemnly:
"Sir, if we take the current situation today, fifty or sixty thousand people will die if we capture this city. The general is worried that within a few days, the Mongols will not be able to bear it any longer."
Liu Zhao, Sun Wang and Erhu nodded and agreed.
It's no wonder that these foreign troops who accompanied the army in the expedition to western Liaoning came to rob things. After all, they were not soldiers. Letting them fight Zu Dashou was obviously forced.
The Liao people fought with great momentum and were extremely brave. Once the attack was thwarted and casualties occurred, there was an immediate danger of collapse.
From Shenyang to Ningyuan, they were invincible all the way. No city could hold out for more than half a day, and almost all of them were captured in one attack.
A terrible thought suddenly flashed through Liu Zhaosun's mind. Could it be that he really wanted to make the same mistake as Nurhachi and sink into the sand under Ningyuan City?
He quickly dismissed this strange idea.
"Don't worry, the earth wall can be built tomorrow night, and the tunnels can be dug to the city the day after tomorrow. They have dug more than a hundred tunnels. As long as one of them can blow up the main city, we will win. By the way, tonight Wang Zengbin will attack Jue Hua Dao, at this moment, we should have succeeded."
At the end of the sentence, Liu Zhao and Sun Huoran stood up, pointed at Ningyuan City under the snowy night, and said with emotion:
"The earthen city is built and the tunnels are dug. First attack the people's hearts and then break the city wall. Within three days! Ancestor Dashou will be beheaded."
~~~~~
On the evening of March 2, the first year of Chongzhen, Wang Zengbin led a cavalry battalion to attack Juehua Island at night.
Juehua Island is located sixteen miles south of Ningyuan City. It is surrounded by the Liaohai Sea on three sides and faces the Liaoxi land across the sea to the west.
Before the Ningyuan War, Zu Dashou hoarded some grain and grass on the island, planning to have the Ming army on the island attack the flanks of the Kaiyuan Army to contain Liu Zhaosun from attacking Ningyuan.
The garrison on the island has about five thousand troops, with a commander from the Zhongqian Post (see Note 1) as the chief general.
When the defenders learned that the Kaiyuan Army had arrived in Ningyuan, they immediately stepped up defense, set up fortifications on the coast, and increased artillery.
In previous years, sowing has begun in western Liaoning in March, and the temperature is gradually rising. However, the weather was extremely cold this year. By the end of February, the seaside in western Liaoning had not yet melted, and a thin layer of ice had formed on the sea surface near the island.
In order to prevent the original army from crossing the sea to attack, the defenders built trenches and gullies on the shore, placed strongholds and iron caltrops, and fortified themselves layer by layer. Chariots were connected behind the trenches to form a car camp for tight defense.
Unexpectedly, it was snowy and cold on March 2nd, and the wind was biting. The trenches dug by the Ming army to hold horses were quickly filled in by heavy snow. The sea ice was deep enough for pedestrians and horses.
The defending general urgently ordered the navy to go to sea to intercept the original army. However, the naval warships docked at Juehua Island were all frozen by the sea ice and could not go to sea.
The defenders had to endure the cold wind and heavy snow and cut through the ice all night long. The soldiers' fingers were frostbitten, which was terrible.
Juehua Island is in danger.
Wang Zengbin was riding high on a cold-resistant Horqinliang horse.
Under the illumination of the guard's torch, groups of fine cavalry passed by under the banner. They were quickly landing on Juehua Island along a newly formed ice road.
In the early morning of the third day, a flood of Kaiyuan Jingqi suddenly appeared on Juehua Island.
The fingers of the Ming army's musketry trapped in the carriage camp were frozen and unable to fire. The cavalry quickly broke through the carriage camp with the assistance of portable tiger squatting cannons and divine fire flying crows.
A steady stream of cavalry marched through the thick snow, sweeping across the entire island like a black iron stream.
They first rushed to the middle road, then turned to attack Dongshan, and then joined forces to attack Xishan in general.
Most of the defenders on the island were sailors, who were not good at hand-to-hand combat. In addition, the enemy suddenly attacked and was caught off guard.
Under the siege of the well-equipped and fierce tiger-like Kaiyuan Jingqi, the five thousand Ming army only resisted for half an hour before they all collapsed and surrendered.
Wang Zengbin ordered the first battalion to clear the battlefield, the second battalion to guard the perimeter, and the third battalion to guard the captured Ming army merchants and civilians.
There are seven to eight thousand merchants on Juehua Island, who come from all over western Liaoning. After the Ningyuan War broke out, they heard that the Kaiyuan Army and Jiannu were equally evil, and that Marquis Pingliao himself liked to eat human flesh, so these people retreated to Juehua Island with the Ming Army.
"General Liu never kills people indiscriminately. The Han people in eastern Liaoning regard him as a god, and every family has his memorial tablet. You fools in western Liaoning are actually slandering Lord Liu!"
When Wang Zengbing heard the confessions of the captive merchants and civilians, he couldn't help but became furious. However, in the end he strictly abided by military discipline and only beheaded a few stubborn generals and ordered to treat other soldiers and civilians on Juehua Island well.
On the same day, the cavalry battalion cleaned up the results of the battle.
In this battle, more than 2,000 ships were captured on Juehua Island, more than 82,000 stones of grain and grass stored on the island, and countless types of gunpowder, firearms, and ordnance were seized.
The official hall of Tunbao, Xishan, Juehua Island.
Next to a blazing bonfire, Wang Zengbin, along with two civil affairs officers and town and military officers, were counting the captured money and grain against the ledger.
A Ming army officer was kidnapped by Wu Huada and brought to the crowd.
"Sir, I caught a big fish! It's a commander!"
Wang Zengbin put down his account book and glanced at the commander.
Wang Zengbin saw that the man was wet and had ice on his chin and beard, so he asked what was going on.
The flag captain had multiple wounds on his face. During the attack on Xishan, their flag team suffered heavy casualties.
"This turtle grandson and his servants are guarding the back mountain. He killed several of us. If he can't beat us, he will jump into the sea and commit suicide. Mr. Wang, we can't let him die so easily..."
Wang Zengbin waved his hand to interrupt and asked the guards to lift the prisoner's head.
An angry and tired face, with bloodshot eyes.
"May I have your name?"
"I am... the envoy Zhao led by Zhongqian. If you want to kill, just kill. Don't say more..."
Zhao Shujiao was soaked all over, shivering from the cold, and spoke stumblingly.
Wang Zengbin was amused by him and laughed:
"It's such a cold day. Do you want to jump into the sea and swim back? Kaiyuan won't kill the prisoner. Come here, change him into clean clothes and escort him back to Ningyuan! Give him to Pingliao Marquis for punishment!"
Note:
1. It was first built in the third year of Xuande in the Ming Dynasty (1428). The full name of "Zhongqian Suo" is "Zhongqian Qianhu Suo". Suo City is slightly square in shape, measuring 510 meters from east to west and 502 meters from north to south. Qian Suo City has a long history and is the first city outside Shanhaiguan. Historically, it has been a battleground for military strategists.
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