When Huang Taiji's soldiers and horses arrived at Gaogang, Tanqi came to report that there was a Ming army cavalry not far away.
He immediately ordered Yue Tuo to lead five thousand bannermen to annihilate them, and he himself began to plan the siege.
Although Fengji Fort is just a military fort, it is not a small household. This is a strategic focus that the Ming Dynasty attaches great importance to. It is probably not much smaller than some state cities in the pass.
There were seven to eight thousand Ming troops defending the city alone, with dozens of cannons. The city had high walls, thick walls, and was heavily armed.
This was originally an important armament fortress of the Ming Dynasty in Liaodong, especially after the rise of Hou Jin and the Battle of Saarhu. As a connection point to support the Liaoshen defense network, the Ming army has been strengthening its city defense and military strength.
For this reason, Huang Taiji had to bring heavy ladders and siege vehicles, and even brought thousands of Han military camps and wrapped aha. He was reluctant to send flag men to serve as cannon fodder to attack the city.
No matter how careless Li Bingcheng was, he still had basic precautions. When he was mobilizing troops and horses, he came to report that slave soldiers were found five miles north of the city.
He did not hesitate to lead three thousand cavalry out of the city to prepare for the battle. However, he only knew that slave soldiers were invading, but knew nothing else.
Not long after he left the city, his servant came in a hurry to report.
"General, there are a large number of slave soldiers in front of us, tens of thousands of them. They are coming towards us. It looks like they are carrying a red flag. It is not appropriate to stay here for a long time!"
Li Bingcheng was dumbfounded. He didn't explain it clearly. He thought it was a small army, but it turned out to be Jianzhou's elite bannermen? Tens of thousands more? Then if you lead 3,000 people out of the city, aren't you going to die?
He immediately ordered the troops to turn back quickly, and he took the lead and left without a trace!
When Yue Tuo arrived with his troops, he could no longer even see the Ming army's flattery, and he did not dare to pursue them to the city, so he had to return.
As soon as Li Bingcheng returned to the city, he took a gulp of water to relieve the stress just now, and shouted to his servant:
"Bring that night to this general and tie him up!"
As soon as he saw this man, Li Bingcheng became so angry that he kicked his foot and cursed:
"Bitch, I think you are that old slave's spy. You almost killed this general. Someone come and chop off his sacrificial flag!"
"General, have mercy on me, general, have mercy on me. I was so anxious just now that I forgot about this matter. I beg you, general, to have mercy!"
In fact, he had no idea how many invading slave soldiers there were. He had only seen Jianzhou's military flag from a distance before. He only knew that their direction seemed to be Fengji Fort, and he did not dare to get close for reconnaissance.
But Li Bingcheng escaped from death, so naturally he couldn't let him go easily. He had to be killed!
"It's useless to say anything, just pull it down and chop it off!"
Li Bingcheng originally thought that he could use his superior strength to behead several Tatars when he left the city this time, but he encountered a tough fight, which frightened him!
After killing this man, Li Bingcheng's anger was relieved a lot. He quickly began to set up defenses, set up all the artillery and calibrated the gun positions, sent messengers to Liaoyang quickly to report the news, and ordered the whole city to prepare for war.
Zhigaogang is a high slope located three miles north of Fengjibao City. Huang Taiji will direct this battle from here!
"We can't give Xiong Manzi time to support us. Let the Han camp push their chariots and ladders to start attacking the city. Baoyi Aha is ready!"
"Du Du led all the men and horses with the white flag to block the other three sides. If the Ming army breaks through, let him go. The purpose of this battle is to capture Fengji Fort!"
"The other two flags all attack and capture Fengji Fort. Ben Beile will be rewarded heavily!"
Fengji Fort has high walls and thick walls, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack. Huang Taiji knew very well that if he wanted to take it as soon as possible, he could only rely on a strong attack, so he brought nearly 10,000 Han military camps and Baoyi Aha.
And it must be captured as quickly as possible, without giving Xiong Tingbi time to react!
After issuing several military orders, Yue Tuo took his three thousand bannermen and began to supervise the battle on the front line.
Other flag soldiers also spread quickly, swarming them, but they would not actually attack the city. They would only draw their bows and fire arrows from a distance to build momentum.
The Han military camps were all surrendered Ming troops. Most of them were people who were greedy for life and afraid of death, and lived in an ignoble way. The reason why Nurhachi recruited them was because he had too few flag soldiers.
He couldn't afford to hurt the flag soldiers. He happened to have a lot of cannon fodder, so he simply arranged it casually to ensure that they would not starve to death, and let them attack the city!
Nearly 30,000 slave soldiers were all spread out in the front, and the Ming army felt their mouths were dry. After all, the old slaves had brought too great a shadow to them.
Li Bingcheng had no choice but to send his servants to stabilize the various places. After the slave soldiers entered the shooting range, he shouted:
"fire!"
The cannons on the city began to make loud noises, violently bombarding the Han military camps that came to attack the city. However, these surrendered Han military camps were forced to move forward under the gunfire under the butcher's knife of the Jianzhou soldiers.
When they got closer, the Ming army's muskets and crossbows also began to fire, but except for the artillery, other attacks had little effect.
Although the Han military camp did not have armor, most of them held wooden shields. The Ming army's crude firearms and weak bows and arrows could not penetrate at all!
The Jianzhou soldiers at the back were very good at bows and crossbows. Their strong bows and arrows were not comparable to the weapons of the Ming army. They hunted all year round and their arms were very strong.
The Han camp suffered heavy casualties. Many people put down their weapons and ran back, but the Jianzhou soldiers behind them turned around and shot bows and arrows at them.
A Jia La Er Zhen cut off the heads of two Han military camps and warned loudly:
"Those who run away will be punished!"
"Hurry back and conquer the city. Lord Beile will reward you heavily!"
Faced with Jianzhou's coercion and inducement, these people did not dare to have the slightest idea of resistance.
Seeing that the Han military camp had rushed to the bottom of the city, Li Bingcheng no longer had the mind to care about Jiannu in the distance, and ordered the Ming army on the city to aim their artillery at the Han military camp and bombard them indiscriminately.
"Aim at the ladder of Jiannu's chariot and concentrate the fire on it!"
Upon seeing this, Yue Tuo, the leader of the Zhenghong Banner who was in charge of the command, quickly ordered:
"Follow all the coated Aha, conquer this city, and be promoted to Aha. The first one to attack the city, raise the flag!"
For these slaves, raising the flag is a very precious opportunity, an opportunity to change their destiny.
The other Jianzhou soldiers also followed the pace of the siege cannon fodder. As the Han camp took a step forward, they also took a step forward. This sense of oppression was already overwhelming for the Ming army defending the city.
"General, Jiannu has increased its troops!"
Li Bingcheng shouted:
"Hurry up and fire off the cannon!"
"General, you can't fire any more, otherwise it will explode!"
This is the shortcoming of the iron cannon. After firing continuously for a period of time, the barrel must be cooled down, and the reloading is extremely slow.
Seeing that Jiannu had begun to set up ladders, except for a few Folan cannons of the Ming army, which could continue to fire, the other artillery pieces were mute.
When he was about to set up a ladder, Huang Taiji also knew that the city was about to be destroyed. He hurriedly ordered all the flag men to rush forward, and even asked Bagala, who was holding a white flag, to charge at the front!
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