August 20, the eighth year of Hongxing reign in the Ming Dynasty.
Eight forts, two feet high and made of rammed earth and sandbags, had already spread out in an arc and appeared outside the Chaoyangmen Fortress.
Amidst bursts of labor chants and the neighing of horses, eight 48-pound bronze cannons have been dragged and pushed by dozens of Perch horses and hundreds of tall and strong Ming army soldiers. emplacement. The muzzles of the eight giant cannons were all aimed at the outer wall of the Chaoyangmen Wengcheng fortress. The so-called Chaoyangmen Fortress is not the original Wengcheng, but a prismatic fortress located outside the Chaoyangmen Wengcheng. On the north and south sides of this prismatic fort, about two miles away, there are two other prismatic forts with the same appearance, one is the Dongzhimen Fortress and the other is the Xiaodongmen Fortress. Dongzhimen Fortress is located just outside the Wengcheng of Dongzhimen, while Xiaodongmen Fortress is located outside a newly opened small city gate called Xiaodongmen.
The reason why the Qing army defending the city opened a new small gate on the east wall of Beijing was to build this gate between the Chaoyangmen Fortress and the Southeast Corner Fortress (that is, the fortress outside the southeast corner of the Beijing City Wall). Build a prismatic castle. In this way, the Xiaodongmen Fortress can support each other with the Chaoyangmen Fortress and the Southeast Corner Fortress. Without this fort, the distance between Chaoyangmen Fortress and Southeast Corner Fortress would be too far, reaching five miles away. It has exceeded the effective range of the Hongyi cannon, so it is impossible to support each other. Therefore, a new fort had to be built between the two, and to support this fort, a small east gate was opened.
In addition, the Qing army also opened three new small gates on the north wall of Beijing and built three prismatic forts. A small gate was also opened on the west wall of Beijing and a prismatic fortress was built. As a result, Beijing City has fourteen city gates and eighteen fortresses.
If the Ming army attacking the city could not destroy at least one of the eighteen bastions, then even if they destroyed a section of the city wall, they would not be able to allow the infantry to launch a strong attack under the crossfire of the two prismatic forts.
Therefore, Emperor Zhu's 48-pounder can't bombard the city wall yet. It can only bombard the bastion during the day and randomly bomb the city at night-the purpose is to lower the morale of the defenders.
Zhu Cixiang and Emperor Chongzhen had already arrived at the front line together and entered a former enemy command post built with civil engineering. This command post is located to the south of the curved fort line, just five miles outside the direct walls of the Xiaodongmen and Chaoyangmen fortresses. Although the Hongyi cannon could barely reach it, when the shells were fired at this distance, their remaining power was exhausted and they could no longer penetrate the earthen fortress.
However, Zhu Cixiang and Chongzhen still did not dare to enter this earthen fortress during the day, but chose to enter in the early morning when visibility was poor. It is not entered from the ground, but from a communication trench extending three miles towards Tongzhou.
There were already many officers waiting inside the fort, all gathered together. When they saw Emperor Zhu and Emperor Chongzhen coming in, they all bowed and saluted. Senior generals such as Wu Sanfu, Shi Kefa, Yan Yingyuan, Feng Sizhong, and Zhu Chunchen, as well as foreign generals such as Kong Dai and Shi Ruien, were all waiting for the bombardment to begin.
About a hundred steps in front of the fortress, a parallel trench and several communication trenches are being dug. Countless Ming army infantry and accompanying soldiers and civilian servants have been busy for several days. I don’t know how long they will be busy?
Emperor Zhu was not so naive as to think that he could destroy the huge Beijing Castle with eight 48-pound cannons - because this castle was not only transformed into a bastion, but also made extensive use of sandbags with excellent anti-cannon performance for reinforcement and fortifications. . It is simply not something that can be destroyed by 17th century artillery!
Therefore, in order to capture this fortress, in addition to siege and psychological attack, Emperor Zhu had to do math problems himself.
How to calculate blind spots, how to dig parallel trenches, where to deploy 48-pound mortars and 24-pound mortars, how to use cannons to launch ricochet... These are basically mathematical questions, and in addition, measurement skills must be tested. Of course, Emperor Zhu would not do the surveying work himself because it was too dangerous. The engineers had to be close to the enemy's fortress and could easily be killed by their cannons!
In order to capture the Beijing Fortress, Emperor Zhu also ordered the establishment of a special unit that uses hand-thrown grenades - grenadiers! And a specially designed wooden handle grenade - this wooden handle grenade is larger and much heavier than the wooden handle grenade that people will be familiar with in later generations! Since there is no explosives, the warhead of the grenade can only be filled with gunpowder, so it must be made larger, otherwise it will be ineffective. The wooden handle of the grenade is hollowed out and is also a wooden tube fuse. When throwing, you need to light the fuse first, and then throw the grenade vigorously against the enemy's bullets.
Since the density and speed of grenadiers' bombs are higher than those of artillery, and the bombs are dropped at close range with high accuracy, so in theory, as long as the parallel trenches that advance inward layer by layer are dug below the enemy's exit, they can rely on Mortars and grenadiers blasted the defenders out of the fort.
In addition, using a cannon to reduce the propellant charge and raise the firing angle to launch explosive shells is also a good way to deal with the bastion...the shells can cross the wall of the bastion and then jump behind the wall. There is a certain chance that it can It exploded in the air, causing huge damage!
Zhu Cixiang held up the telescope and looked through an observation port silently at the huge castle in front of him, which was both familiar and strange to him. I don’t know why, but my mind always goes to other places... After taking back Beijing, it’s the turn of the customs and North Korea! It is estimated that Li Hao could not hold out in Nanhan Mountain City until the Ming Dynasty soldiers came to rescue him. By then, even if Duduo had resurrected Goguryeo, he would still have Risbania behind him, who would also be a formidable enemy!
In addition, the Northern Expeditionary Army of Dashun also released their doves and went to Myanmar for the Northern Expedition!
This is quite unexpected. Myanmar is a vassal of Dashun! Li Guo actually didn't even care about the friendship between clan and vassal. He was really a gangster!
The Toungoo dynasty is now weakened, and it is estimated that it cannot defeat the powerful Dashun. The question now is how Dashun will deal with the aftermath?
While he was thinking about it, Feng Sizhong's voice came: "Your Majesty, the artillery is ready, please give the order!"
Emperor Zhu looked back at Chongzhen, who was frowning, "Your Majesty, please give the order!"
Emperor Chongzhen nodded heavily: "Hit, hit hard!"
Just after midnight on August 20, following an order from Emperor Chongzhen, eight 48-pound cannons roared and fired eight shells at the Chaoyangmen Fortress three miles away.
The battle for Beijing has officially begun!
...
Rumble...the earth is shaking!
In the Nanhan Mountain City, the body of the Korean King Li Hao trembled again!
It’s really uncomfortable to hide in Namhansan Fortress and be bombarded!
When the Byeongja Rebellion occurred nineteen years ago, Li Hao, who was still the Lord of Bonglin at the time, did not enter Namhansan Fortress with his father, King Li Jian, but was sent to Ganghwa Island for refuge. Therefore, he did not personally experience the last battle of Nanhan Mountain City, so he could not understand his father's despair and helplessness in the past. On the contrary, after the news of his father's surrender came, he felt extremely humiliated and unwilling.
Precisely because he had never experienced the danger of being besieged and attacked by the Qing army, Li Hao came up with the idea of fighting against the Qing Dynasty after he came to the throne. He did everything possible to expand his army and prepare for war. After the news of the first demise of the Qing Dynasty came, he resolutely raised his troops to rebel. Cleared.
The Qing Dynasty is gone, so there is no risk in rebelling against the Qing Dynasty, right?
But he never expected that the new army he had worked so hard to save for so many years would be vulnerable when it ran into Jin Duoduo's army on the north bank of the Yalu River. One thousand Forbidden Army cavalry and 21,000 imperial camp troops plus 10,000 training supervisors, a total of 31,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry, were unexpectedly defeated by less than 20,000 Qing troops. After defeating the Northern Expeditionary Army of more than 30,000 people, less than 1,000 people returned to Hanyang alive!
What's even more frightening is that the Japanese pirates also took the opportunity to invade the southeast, first taking Guryongpo, then Ulsan City, and then marched into Gyeongju City...
This is the Qing Dynasty trying to carve up Korea with Japan!
Boom, boom... Another 24-pound cannonball hit the wall of Namhansan Fortress. Needless to say, a large section of the wall must have collapsed again.
Different from nineteen years ago, the Qing Dynasty's heavenly soldiers now have the help of the Japanese State, and have indestructible large-caliber artillery, which is no longer something that mere North Korea can fight against.
Li Hao finally shed tears of regret and issued the king's order in a trembling voice: "Let them stop firing. The lonely king is willing to surrender to the Qing Dynasty!"
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