It was raining and there was a strong wind.
Nurhaci, who led his army to the west, was not worried but happy.
Today's attack on Fushun was his first direct battle with the Ming army. Although Li Yongfang had already been persuaded by him, the last information coming out of Fushun in early April was that a thousand bosses and several bosses under Li Yongfang were still opposed to allowing a large number of Jurchens to enter the horse market in mid-month.
Therefore, when Nurhaci announced the "Seven Hatreds of the Ming Dynasty" in his hometown two days ago and took the banner leaders to the expedition, he told the Jurchen warriors that there might still be head-to-head fighting in Fushun.
However, there were companions who had sneaked into the city disguised as businessmen in advance to assist them, and there were bribed city soldiers to open a city gate. Their numbers and combat power were far superior to the Jurchens who were defending the army, so they would not be afraid of being controlled by General Qian.
Now when it's windy or rainy, it's even better. I heard that those firearms called blunderbuss made by the Japanese were very poorly made. The gunpowder was easily blown away by the wind, and the fuses were even worse when they were exposed to rain.
Nurhachi looked at the infantry and archers in the front row of the battle line, as well as the hundreds of elite silver-armored Bajala warriors in each banner, as well as the coated minions carrying the tools for climbing the city, and looked at them with great satisfaction as they followed closely Huang Taiji, his son, said: "I will make sure that your Ba Ya La will be well fed today!"
"Ama is wise and brave!" Huang Taiji said excitedly.
Huang Taiji was also in a very good mood.
The leader of the Zhengbai Banner, who is as ambitious and cunning as his father, has been divided into two parts since last year. One is used for fighting, and the other is used to deal with his two brothers. The leader of the Zhenghong Banner, Dai Shan, , and Mang Gurtai, the leader of the Zhenglan Banner.
At least for now, it seems that he has the upper hand.
This time to attack Fushun, the Eight Banners troops were divided into two groups. Nurhachi ordered Huang Taiji to accompany Bagala and Jiabing personally, while he sent Mang Gurtai to attack Magendan, the fortress in the southeast of Fushun, and placed Daishan in the rear army. As support.
Speaking of which, it's because Mang Gurtai is brave and calm.
In fact, even a fool can see that Nurhachi gave Huang Taiji a big favor, and he was able to immediately let his Niu Luzhen people grab the best goods and treasures in the Ming Dynasty, as well as the strongest and most fertile women. livestock.
The father and son, who were bound to win, and the leader of the Xianglan Banner, Amin, led more than 10,000 troops, successfully broke through the Fushun Pass, crossed the Hun River at the narrowest point, and arrived at Cao Cao, which is only more than a mile away from Fushun. On the slope, the horse paused.
Nurhachi took Huang Taiji to the array of forward Amin and looked around.
The rain has subsided, and in the large carriage and horse shops outside the city, people are constantly coming out, leading animals or pushing trucks, like chickens and ducks looking for food, gathering in more than a dozen dense crowds.
The situation of Liaodong’s largest Malaysian market is beginning to show.
Compared with the business atmosphere, military vigilance is much weaker.
On the long city wall, there were soldiers walking back and forth on the front urn and the main city tower, but they were just like ants crawling along the mud marks, sparse and small.
Nurhaci looked at the sky. Although the clouds are overcast and there is no shadow of the sun anywhere, experienced hunters can still estimate the approximate time from the changes in light and shadow.
"Ama! Over there, it's coming!" Huang Taiji raised his finger and pointed to the right.
A large group of cavalry appeared on the ridge of Mount Gaoer in the grassland north of the city.
The cavalry array came south at a slow pace and spread out on the green carpet of the slope. Relying on the light, Nurhaci and his nephew could clearly see the totem of the Khalkha Mongolian Warm Rabbit Tribe erected by the forward knight: large group. The horsehair holds the symbol of the trident.
"It's that boy from Zaisai," Nurhaci turned to his son Huang Taiji, with a sarcastic look in his eyes and mouth, "Look at the spears in their hands. The Mongols are not like our Jianzhou warriors who can fire a walking bow. No matter how good they are in riding, , I can only use a small bow and light arrows, so I can only rely on a wooden pole with an iron head to break armor."
Huang Taiji also expressed disdain.
The iron spears in close combat were poking one by one, but their heavy bows and arrows were not as effective as they were.
However, my father was right to ask Zaisai to get a share of the pie. With two to three thousand Mongolians, there would be no problem in containing the Ming army's rescue forces in the surrounding fortresses.
"Dang, bang..." Several loud rales came from the top of Fushun City.
The city gate slowly opened.
The Fushun Horse Market started in the spring of the 46th year of Wanli Period.
However, in a moment, there was chaos at the city gate.
The loud voices were obviously not the noise of merchants coming in, but the wild shouts of people trying to escape.
Nurhachi looked ferocious, everything was under his control. The Jurchen warriors who entered Fushun as horse dealers with Li Yongfang's permission the day before yesterday took action in the city.
Opportunities are fleeting. Nurhaci was not worried that the wolves under his command would not be able to deal with the weak soldiers defending the city. What he was more hungry for was robbing things and people.
"Amin, attack the city!" Nurhaci ordered his nephew.
Amin rushed forward and came to the front line of the wolves.
He suddenly shrank.
The hunting instinct inherited from his father, Shuerhaqi, made him keenly aware that the crowds of people pushing trucks pouring out of the city gate like a flood were arranged in a strange way.
"Amin, are you a stupid roe deer? Attack the city!"
The cruel and suspicious uncle shouted from behind.
Amin shook his shoulders and gestured to the soldiers beside him who were giving orders.
"Woo..."
The sound of conch shells sounded like wolves howling, rushing straight into the leaden sky.
The command flags inlaid with blue flags were raised one after another. Niu Lu'erzhen immediately commanded the armored soldiers to drive away the low-ranking soldiers and rush forward.
The Bagala warriors with shining silver armor gripped their swords tightly on their horses and pushed against the front line at a slightly slower horse speed.
The bagaras of each banner are the best of the best. After the armored soldiers shoot down a target with their rifles and bows, the bagara warriors will rush forward to add icing on the cake.
At the same time, they are also the executors of military orders. Any armored soldiers or soldiers who turn around and run away during the fierce battle without receiving orders will be mercilessly chopped in half by Bagala who is guarding the formation.
However, these Bagala warriors could not have imagined that in a moment, they would become the first dead bodies outside Fushun City.
…
"boom……"
The first six-pound iron bullet hit Bagala's line with a blue flag.
With the help of high-speed power, the hard metal mercilessly crushed a piece of human flesh, then ejected and continued forward, cutting a path of flesh and blood like a devil's finger.
Baya La, who was hit by the iron bullet first, was actually lucky. Several people fell into pieces and became ghosts without any precautions.
The real pain was for those Hou Jin soldiers who were affected by the broken but still terrifying iron pieces.
At this time, Nurhaci's strength was that the so-called "armor" given to ordinary Houjin soldiers was definitely not as good as the armor of the Bajalas, which was just a back armor of cowhide with some iron pieces.
So, after the second, third, and fourth iron bullets flew, they hit the target and then bounced on the ground. The dense rain of iron flakes, like the evil locusts from hell, either scratched half of the Jin soldiers' faces or chipped them off. Half an arm and half a leg.
A slightly larger piece of iron can directly penetrate their cowhide protective gear.
Dark red with white small intestines, or rectums with yellow-green feces, flowed out from the bodies of Hou Jin soldiers who screamed and fell to the ground, making them look better than their companions whose arms or thighs were bleeding profusely. Even more shocking.
A soldier in front of Amin was also hit in the eye by a small piece of iron, and the knife fell. He covered his face and screamed in pain.
The war horses even slowed down and neighed.
The Jurchen hunters trained their war horses in the cruel climate of heaven and earth, thinking that they would train them into warriors as powerful as Bagala.
But the loud noise they had never experienced made these four-hoofed warriors confused for a moment, and then they screamed and raised their chests high, then swung their backs in panic, stepped on the ground to retreat, and were scolded and even killed by their masters on their backs. Only after being beaten was he unable to turn around.
Less than a mile away from this tragic scene, at the head of Fushun City, white smoke billowed out from the muzzle of the falcon gun. On the ground beside the gun, there were cowhide for rain protection.
After each falcon has fired three rounds, it will pause. The Guangdong gunner hired by Zheng Haizhu was using a long wet wool brush to quickly clean and cool down the gun barrel.
Sun Yuanhua handed the telescope to Mao Wenlong.
It was after meeting Sun Yuanhua in Liaoyang that Mao Wenlong came into contact with a telescope for the first time. When several people arrived, at the military meeting between Zhang Quan and Zhang Chengyin, Mao Wenlong saw that Marshal Ma Xianglin of the Shilichuan Army also brought a telescope. , couldn't help but become more greedy.
This thing is very useful for fighting. You can see fresh things from the West in the south. I have to ask Zheng's niece to get a batch for herself later.
But at this moment, Mao Wenlong waved his hand to Sun Yuanhua and laughed loudly: "No need, it must be your cannon that made this man fall on his back."
Sun Yuanhua said seriously: "General Mao, you can still see clearly through the telescope. Miss Zheng told us before that every flag of the Hou Jin Army has a bagara, which should be at the back of the array and covered with full armor. The gunners' calculation just now was quite accurate. After adjusting the elevation angle, seven of the twelve iron bullets from the four cannons hit the Bagala team in the vanguard. Unfortunately, they were still some distance away from the flag owner, and they couldn't hit Nurhachi's camp."
After hearing this, Mao Wenlong finally picked up the telescope and muttered while looking: "This foreign artillery is quite skillful in using it."
Putting down the mirror, he sincerely praised the two female students brought by Zheng Haizhu: "The little girls are amazing."
The two female students only gave Mao Wenlong a quick blessing, then turned around and stared ahead.
Miss Zheng said that if they dared to go to the tower with the gunners, they would be rewarded with a small reward. If they could use the blunderbuss with the Cantonese gunners to calculate the angle of elevation of the cannon, and hit the enemy's silver-armored soldiers, they would be rewarded with a big reward.
The grand prize is actually twenty taels of silver!
The two thirteen-year-old girls calculated that their parents could not save even five taels of silver even if they farmed and spun cloth in Songjiang for a whole year, and they immediately became exhausted.
I don't want to let this General Mao delay my money making.
Seeing that there are so many soldiers in the field, two rounds of artillery will be fired later.
…
When water and fire blend together, the play is beautiful.
When artillery shells flew out of Fushun City, the faces of Ma Junhe and Magendan Fortress, more than ten miles away, also began to change.
When Mang Gurtai led his troops to look at the Ma Jun River in the distance, he saw scattered Ming troops hurriedly dismounting their horses by the river, galloping across the river beach towards the Magen Dan Fortress.
Fire arrows while running.
Several shining fire bombs took off across the river with crisp crackling sounds.
Mang Gurtai smiled ferociously and said to the two Niu Lu Ezhen beside him: "Is it still too late to report the news at this time! Stupid Nikan."
The two Niulu Ezhen were a little lonely at first, chattering all the way. Their flag owner fell out of favor with the Khan, so Zhenglan Banner could not go to Fushun City, which was full of Ming Dynasty goods, but now they saw Ma There were also many Zhuangzi behind Gendan Fortress. There were herds of cattle and sheep in the wilderness, and their spirits were lifted again.
They were eager to charge and took the lead in occupying the Magendan Fortress. Although the master Mang Gurtai has a bad temper, he has always been generous to his subordinates who have made meritorious deeds when dividing the spoils of war.
The two Niulu Ezhen then waved their flags and ordered the coatmen to carry various wooden instruments across the river first, and then led the armored soldiers to step into the river with their horses.
It was late spring and the water was not cold. The well-trained war horses exchanged hooves and tested the depth of the water while heading to the other side of the river.
Suddenly there was a loud bang of firecrackers in the forest on the right, and Mang Gurtai instinctively pulled the reins of his horse.
Soon, as if in response, many soldiers rushed out of the Ming Army fortress on the other side, and those in the front row began to set off firecrackers.
Mang Gurtai smiled instead.
Those three-eye blunderbuss firearms of the Ming Army and Liao soldiers are indeed similar to firecrackers, they just make a sound.
No, it's not even as good as firecrackers. Firecrackers explode into the sky anyway. It is said that the Ming Army's firearms often explode, causing harm to themselves.
Mang Gurtai and several tough Niulu Ezhen all shouted at the top of their lungs: "Charge over, don't be afraid of those rags. Warriors, use your bows and arrows to shoot through the chests of the Nikans and rip them off." their robes, and robbed their cattle, sheep and women!”
"Ah wow wow..."
The Hou Jin soldiers howled.
They were inspired not so much by their generals as by survival and reproduction.
The desire to kill burst out from their wild bodies, driving them, like wild beasts, to rush forward without thinking and relying solely on primitive instinct.
The beasts who were eager to cross the river did not realize that the river was rising.
The Jurchens who were charging only stared ahead. The first batch of companions had already stepped on the land on the other side of the river, so they had no doubts.
Until the first horse suddenly submerged into the water, and the armor on its back slipped off unprepared.
Before more people and horses could react, suddenly the river roared.
A large stream of water rushed out from the direction of the mountain forest, rushing forward with excitement.
The men and horses in the river could not stop the water. Instead, they seemed to offend the river god. They screamed and fell into the turbulent waves while struggling.
Mang Gurtai, who was guarding the formation, and his own soldiers had not yet stepped into the Majun River.
He stared in confusion at the sudden deterioration of the situation.
"Peng..." The familiar crackling sound in the forest sounded again.
Mang Gurtai turned toward the mountains and forests, and he suddenly realized that the sudden flood was a trap set by the Ming army.
His rage had just rushed to his head when more Ming troops rushed out of Magendan Fortress in front.
They passed over their comrades who were the first to fire guns and arrows. They held a shield in one hand and a knife in the other, like another flood, rushing towards the first batch of Houjin soldiers who came ashore.
Mang Gurtai's back spine felt cold. He was convinced that his father had miscalculated, and the Ming army had obviously known about their attack.
Not to mention the water breakthrough, just looking at the formation, archery skills and infantry desire of these Ming troops who dared to take the initiative to attack, they are by no means comparable to the old and weak soldiers who only dared to huddle behind the fort wall when faced with temporary provocations.
The coated soldiers who were the first to come ashore in Houjin were no match for these Ming troops, and they all screamed and died under the sword.
The armor soldiers behind the armor were not weak, but even if they crossed the waves and landed, many of their bows and quivers were washed away by the river, and Hou Jin's advantage of the most lethal heavy arrows was completely lost.
The Ming army put down their muskets and stepped forward with their guns to stab. The armored soldiers were immediately at a disadvantage.
Behind the armored soldiers were more than 300 Bagala warriors of the Zhenglan Banner who were still struggling to cross the river.
This force, which was originally the trump card of the Jianzhou Army, encountered the strongest torrent today.
Wearing full armor suddenly became a fatal burden.
Mang Gurtai watched helplessly as dozens of bagaras led by the two bulls in front fell from their horses and were rushed downstream to the east like dead pigs with white heads.
…
On the hillside, Zhang Fengyi exclaimed with satisfaction the joy of watching a drama.
She turned to Zheng Haizhu and said, "Your method of storing water and discharging floods is really interesting."
Then he asked: "The Ming army that is approaching the enemy is so fierce. Is it General Zou from Qinghe Fort?"
Zheng Haizhu nodded: "General Zou's fighting style is the same as that of Jiannu. There is no need for car formations or firearms. He shoots with bows and arrows first, and then rushes directly to engage in close combat with swords and guns. Although the two armies are about the same number today, we have the upper hand. , I will definitely not lose. But..."
She turned to Kong Youde and said: "Ma Gendan's own garrison is not bad. Although he does not have strong soldiers, he has not leaked the news these days, and he has done a smooth job of responding to General Zou in the middle of the night. We have to report his merits to Zhang Shilang . In war, military merit is not only counted by stabbing someone with a knife or beheading someone."
Hearing this, Zhang Fengyi smiled and said, "General Qin also said what Miss Zheng said."
Zheng Haizhu smiled: "No wonder General Qin and General Ma brought out such outstanding stone soldiers. By the way, Miss Fengyi is also a meritorious person who is an effective sentinel, so she should be credited."
Zhang Fengyi clapped her hands and said: "I'm going to capture the village owner Tong now. With the dozens of elite soldiers Xianglin gave me, there is no problem in capturing the village."
As soon as Zhang Fengyi finished speaking, the sound of conch shells from the Hou Jin Army sounded again from the river below the mountain.
"Mang Gurtai will not cross the river anymore. He will retreat with the remaining Niulu." Zheng Haizhu said.
The military drums sounded loudly on the mountainside. An ambush force left by Zou Chuxian on the Majun River last night climbed over the grass slope and, with the advantage of shooting down, released a rain of arrows at Mang Gurtai's team, and wiped out many of them. The post-Gold Knights in rout.
Zhang Fengyi stamped her feet: "Hey, I can do this, it makes my hands itch."
Zheng Haizhu lamented that in different situations on the battlefield, hot and cold weapons have their best times to use them. In the situation like this, artillery and muskets are not as effective as bows and arrows.
I don’t know what’s going on over there in Fushun City.
…
"Wenlong, these various firearms are really useful, they can suppress the Tatar bows and arrows!"
The deputy commander-in-chief of Liaodong, Po Yanxiang, climbed to the top of Fushun City and said to Mao Wenlong.
Mao Wenlong leaned over to the superior officer to respond.
He knew that the fun was not over yet.
After three rounds of long-range artillery strikes, Nurhachi did not immediately cease his troops. Instead, he and Huang Taiji led nearly 10,000 armored troops from the Zhenghuang, Xianghuang, and Zhengbai flags to make up for the loopholes of the Xianglan flag, which suffered heavy losses.
The dark Hou Jin army quickly galloped out of the range of the cannon and approached the city gate in front of Fushun.
On both sides of the city, where caravans had previously gathered, the mules and horses dispersed, revealing the Crouching Tiger Cannon embedded in the ground.
These traditional artillery pieces used by Qi Jiguang to attack Japanese pirates in hilly areas were quite powerful when bombarding Jiannu knights at close range.
In the open space two hundred steps outside the city gate, the Hou Jin army once again fell on their backs.
But it wasn't the last time.
When the unwilling invaders approached the city wall fifty or sixty steps, Qi Jin's chariot soldiers began to show off their power.
Nurhaci didn't know that what he thought was one of his own who opened the city gate a moment ago was actually a guest soldier from the Zhejiang Army. And his Houjin warriors who entered Fushun City disguised as horse traders were already in the city last night. , became the target of Mao Wenlong's army.
At this moment, the leader of the Jianzhou Jurchens will taste a completely different style of fighting from the Liaodong soldiers, bringing a new level of cruelty to themselves.
Following Qi Jin's order, the Zhejiang soldiers in the car formation raised their muskets that had been used for several months and fired fiercely at the foreign knights who were running towards them.
The sound of explosions was endless. Although it did not shake the ground as much as the previous cannons on the city head, it was more powerful due to its density.
Nurhachi could only see the main entrance of Fushun City and the walls on both sides, which were soon submerged in thick white smoke, and the Jianzhou warriors he was proud of fell one after another in front of this terrifying white smoke.
The splashing blood mist, mixed with gray and yellow dust, reflected the white smoke, like a painting on silk.
This round of fire attack, combined with the squatting tiger cannon on both sides and the machine gun in the middle, killed many more Houjin elites.
Nurhaci and Huang Taiji, father and son, both had eyes that were about to burst.
They didn't believe what they saw and experienced. They couldn't accept the effort of a stick of incense. The attack they had planned for a long time failed completely.
Attack, keep attacking!
You must not run away with your tail between your legs because of long-range strikes from firearms before a close encounter.
The best range of the infantry bow is within fifty steps, but the Ming army hiding behind the chariot, using machine guns, was able to suppress the charging Hou Jin army from fifty steps away.
The Houjin soldiers of the four banners exchanged their lives for opportunities and rushed through the death zone. Bagala and the soldiers were like violent beasts, pounced on the Qi Jiajun and Mao Jiajun below the city.
The two Ming armies were also jealous.
The close-quarters attacks of Qi Jin's men were still in neat mandarin duck formations, while the soldiers of Mao Wenlong's men had extremely strong individual combat capabilities.
Regardless of the fighting style, the well-matched troops, sophisticated equipment, and the courage to fight in hand-to-hand combat have caused the Houjin Army, which was instilled by Nurhaci with the concept that "the Ming army cannot fight", to lose the victory they had hoped for half an hour ago.
When the first Bagara was pierced through the silver armor by a spear thrust out of the Yuanyang Formation of the Qi Army, and when another Bagara was slashed in the neck by a strong soldier under Mao Wenlong's command, the momentum of the Ming army continued to rise, and then Among the Jin army, not to mention the ordinary armored soldiers and coats, even among the iron-tower-like Bagara, there were also many Hailuoyin who were beginning to look forward to withdrawing their troops.
"If you can't kill the people, you can't enter the city." Nurhachi felt that part of his soul flew out of his body and lingered in his ears, making this judgment.
"You can't back down. This is the first battle for Fuming. You can't back down." Another voice sounded in his ears again.
Nurhachi was in a daze when suddenly, on the hillside north of the city, Zai Sai's cavalry rushed down the mountain, shouting to kill.
Nurhachi was overjoyed for a moment, but then felt frightened.
No, those were not Zai Sai's men and horses. He was too familiar with the Mongols. When their men and horses attacked, they would not use drum beats, but the sound of horns.
Nurhachi's doubts were quickly answered.
Huang Taiji, the leader of the Zhengbai Banner who was responsible for attacking the northern city wall, obviously saw clearly that the cavalry were Ming troops disguised as Mongols, and quickly ordered the horses to turn around and prepare to form a formation to attack.
