Zu Dashou would naturally not say that the Chu thieves' shelling was actually not that violent, at least not as violent as the shells fired by the Chu thieves in the Battle of Tianjin. The fall of Shanhaiguan was more due to the lack of armored soldiers among the Chu thieves. Continuous assault as if destined...
This is the most critical factor in the fall of Shanhaiguan.
However, there is no need to tell these Eastern captives about these things. Although his ancestor Dashou temporarily expressed his surrender to the Eastern captives, he even knelt down and worshiped them.
But if there is a chance, Zu Dashou doesn't mind, and is even willing to trick the Dong captives in order to weaken the Dong captives as much as possible.
In this way, after entering the customs, the division of the Yellow River will become a reality!
Otherwise, given the current situation where the strength gap between the two sides is too large, what can he do to ensure the smooth implementation of the partition along the Yellow River?
They are not fools to rob!
After hearing this, Huang Taiji said: "There are really more than a hundred red cannons?"
Without waiting for Zu Dashou's answer, he continued to mutter to himself: "I have long heard that the Chu thieves are good at making guns and have many guns in the army. From this point of view, the Chu thieves may have more guns than the rumors say. More is needed!”
"With only 40,000 to 50,000 troops, there are hundreds of red-coated cannons. Gee, that's a lot more than us!"
Huang Taiji brought a lot of artillery with him on this expedition, more than 80 artillery pieces!
But compared with the Chu army's more than 100 artillery pieces, these sixty-odd artillery pieces seemed to have little numerical advantage.
In fact, the Dongji people also attach great importance to artillery. In the early years, they relied on capturing the artillery of the Ming army and manufacturing some old artillery for use.
Later, craftsmen were gradually collected to build Hongyi cannons, and these Hongyi cannons were installed on lightweight two-wheeled gun mounts and brought to the battlefield for field use.
When entering the Pass to fight two years ago, the Dongji troops encountered the Qin army led by Hong Chengchou.
At that time, the Qin army under Hong Chengchou had followed the example of the Chu bandits and equipped them with many two-and-a-half kilogram field cannons. As a result, the Eastern Capture Army suffered a head-on attack.
After returning to Liaodong, the Dongdu people brainstormed and inquired extensively to collect intelligence. Finally, they learned that a small, lightweight red-coated cannon was widely used in the battle between the Chu thieves and the Ming army.
This two-wheeled cannon of the Chu thieves is called a field cannon. The barrel is shorter than the traditional Hongyi cannon of the same caliber. It seems to be less powerful, but the weight is greatly reduced. This maneuverability Sexuality has accordingly improved a lot.
In the end, Dongli decided to imitate this kind of field cannon. In the past two years, they also accumulated a batch of two-and-a-half-pound field cannons and five-pound field cannons made of iron, plus a batch of long-barreled Hongyi cannons for sieges. This formed the artillery force in the hands of the Eastern captives.
During this expedition, Huang Taiji brought out most of the field artillery and some of the Hongyi cannons, more than eighty in total.
Among them, there are more than 20 Hongyi cannons with larger caliber and longer barrels, as well as more than 20 five-pound field cannons, and the remaining half are two-and-a-half-pound field cannons.
Huang Taiji was already extremely proud of this artillery strength, but after learning that the Chu thieves at Shanhaiguan used hundreds of long-barreled artillery, as well as at least hundreds of mortars of various calibers, he was completely distraught. alright……
The Chu thieves opposite are only more than 40,000 people. Strictly speaking, this is just a partial force among the Chu thieves.
It was just such a partial division, but it had more than a hundred long-barreled artillery pieces, which was incredible to Huang Taiji.
If this were the total strength of the Chu bandits in the entire Northern Zhili region, wouldn't they have more than two hundred long-barreled artillery pieces?
Well, he actually underestimated the number of Chu army's artillery!
The Second Army and the Third Army in the North Zhili region have a total of five divisions, plus several cavalry brigades, as well as independent artillery units, various types of two and a half catty field artillery, five catty field artillery, nine catty field artillery and nine catty field artillery. Adding up to 14 pounds of heavy artillery, the total number reached more than 300...
In the Chu army, a first-class division had fifty or sixty field cannons of various types... Although most of them were two-and-a-half-pound field cannons, they were not field cannons.
The total artillery under the control of the Second Army and the Third Army of the Northern Expedition was basically more than the total artillery of the original Ming Army's frontier army and the Dongji people!
In addition, in order to support the army's operations, the navy will temporarily dismantle the naval guns and move them ashore to be used as heavy siege artillery. Especially in the Battle of Shanhaiguan, several warships of the navy directly dismantled more than 20 naval guns on the ship. It was moved ashore, and then moved to the Shanhaiguan city head gun position to be used as a fortress defense artillery.
If Huang Taiji and Zu Dashou rushed over and attacked Shanhaiguan rashly, they would probably be attacked head-on.
As for the attacking side, they don't even have as many artillery pieces as the defending side, so it would be very embarrassing to fight.
However, no one dared to say anything until they had fought, so the next day, Huang Taiji and Zu Dashou led their armies to the outside of Shanhaiguan City.
——
Lieutenant General Zhu Xingfa was a little disappointed when he saw the enemy troops actively camping a few miles away...
He also hoped that the other side would deploy the camp closer, and then he would be able to use a group of nine-pound field artillery and heavy artillery troops deployed at the protrusion to clear the ground of their camp with artillery shells...
Even if it can't severely damage the enemy, it can still kill a group of enemy troops, create some chaos for them, and damage the opponent's morale.
But the other party was more cautious and did not give himself this opportunity.
Well, since the other party is more cautious, let's spend it slowly. He still doesn't believe that the other party can fly through Shanhaiguan...
With more than a hundred long-barreled artillery pieces of various types and dozens of large mortars in hand, Shanhaiguan's firepower density is very high. If the opponent wants to storm Shanhaiguan, it will have to pay the price of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
And he didn't believe that the other party could bear such a price!
——
On that day, the Eastern Capture Army and Liao Army outside the city did not launch any attacks, but honestly built camps several miles away.
There was no attack on the second and third days. Instead, they were cutting down trees and preparing to build some siege equipment, such as long ladders, shield carts and the like.
It was not until the fourth day that the Dongli and Liao coalition forces outside the city began to leave the camp in large numbers and began to form formations and march towards Shanhaiguan.
Looking at the densely packed enemy troops in the distance, Lieutenant General Zhu Xingfa did not show any panic. Instead, he smiled: "They are looking for death!"
Major General Kang Hongbao on the side also said: "It seems that they have never been severely beaten by intensive shelling before. But if they were beaten once, they would never come forward in a dense phalanx so carelessly!"
"And I see that they have not prepared tools such as hoes and shovels for digging fortifications. Looking at them like this, it seems that they are going to come directly to fight us!"
"Get the artillery troops ready and give them a big gift so that they won't say our Chu army is not hospitable!"
At this time, Huang Taiji was dressed in military uniform, riding a war horse, and under the protection of a group of personal guards and generals, he gradually led his army closer.
Of course, he would not walk at the front. In fact, Huang Taiji was slightly further back and only walked halfway. He stopped when he reached a slightly higher hill and started to set up a tent on this hill. In order to take command.
In Huang Taiji's sight, all around him were his own troops!
More than 100,000 Eastern Route Army troops plus 40,000 to 50,000 Zu Dashou's troops spread out, almost filling most of the open space east of Shanhaiguan.
Among the large number of infantry formations, there are also batches of cavalry providing cover, as well as batches of artillery.
This is the first time Huang Taiji has seen such a large army in all his years of fighting!
"I think back many years ago when I went to war with Emperor Ama, I could only mobilize tens of thousands of troops, and the number of armored soldiers was only a few thousand. During the march, we often lacked food, so we had to fight in the field. It was very difficult to attack fortresses. Even so, we He also fought in the north and south, and gradually established the huge foundation of Liaodong."
"Now, 200,000 troops have gathered at Shanhaiguan, with 80 cannons, more than 30,000 elite cavalry, and 100,000 armored soldiers!"
“It’s just a matter of time to break through Shanhaiguan, and it’s just around the corner to send troops into the Central Plains of Dingding!”
Looking at the spectacular scene of his own army in front of him, Huang Taiji couldn't help but feel a burst of heroism, and immediately said loudly: "Send the order, today's battle to break the city, the merit will be counted three times, the first meritorious person will not be awarded a title, and if there is a title, one will be added." wait!"
Merit represents position, title, glory and wealth. After the order was conveyed, bursts of cheers suddenly erupted in the Eastern Capture Army!
The first few East-capture vanguard troops accelerated their pace towards Shanhaiguan!
At the same time, on a prominent high-altitude fort in Shanhaiguan City, an artillery colonel was squinting at the approaching Japanese army in front of him.
The artillery staff officer next to him constantly reported the distance of the opponent's forward army based on the distance mark marked before leaving the city, either a tree, a big stone, or simply a wooden stake, etc.
"Two thousand meters."
"One thousand nine hundred meters"
"One thousand eight hundred meters!"
"One thousand seven hundred meters!"
In order to simplify measurement, Luo Zhixue took the lead in promoting the metric system in the arsenal, adopted the decimal system, and formulated the measurement units of millimeters, centimeters, meters, and kilometers. (Mainly for description and convenience, no need to go into details)
When the artillery staff shouted 1,500 meters, the artillery colonel on the side said loudly in time: "Every gun is ready, the scale is 1,300 meters, and the solid bullets are loaded!"
"1,400 meters"
"Thirteen hundred meters!"
The colonel, commander of the 1st Heavy Artillery Regiment, pulled out the front finger of his command knife and said loudly: "Fire!"
Immediately afterwards, the eighteen nine-pound or fourteen-pound long-barreled heavy artillery under his command opened fire one after another!
The rumble of cannons began to ring out at the majestic pass of Shanhaiguan. While the smoke rose, it also announced that this offensive and defensive battle had officially begun.
As the heavy artillery unit of the Chu army took the lead in opening fire, and took advantage of its commanding height advantage and the shooting points planned in advance, more than a dozen solid artillery shells streaked across the sky, and then fell in a forward formation of Dongli...
