Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 438 Who is this person?

The night was dark, and Yan Yingyuan was standing on the bank of the Wei River, looking towards Tianjin Wei.

The Weihe River in the Ming Dynasty is actually the Haihe River in later generations, the one that flows from Tianjin through the Dagukou into the Bohai Sea.

On the ice of the Wei River, Chen Mingyu led hundreds of new troops to dig ice holes. After digging the ice holes, they buried ceramic jars into the ice holes, and then cut a hole horizontally on the ice. Shallow ice pit, then bury the lead wire wrapped in oiled paper into the ice pit, and then pull the lead wire to the shore.

After doing this, pour cold water on the ice pit and ice cave.

Moments later the cold water freezes, and the ice pits and caves are frozen.

At this time, even if you look closely, it is difficult to see the difference.

Daringly, Yan Yingyuan wanted to repeat the old trick, and used the routine used in Shanyang City the year before last in Dagukou again.

Sun Fanzhi was skeptical about this: "Brother Boheng, you have already used this method once in Shanyang City. It is already an old routine, can it work?"

"The number of roads is not afraid of old age." Yan Yingyuan waved his hand and said, "It's as long as it's easy to use."

"I think it's a bit confusing." Sun Fanzhi shook his head and said, "Jiannu has already suffered a loss in Shanyang City, how can he make the same mistake again in Dagukou? In my opinion, it is a waste of landmines."

"Let's see." Yan Yingyuan just smiled and did not argue with Sun Fanzhi.

While talking, Chen Mingyu had finished his work, and he went up to the bank and said to Yan Yingyuan: "Juheng, according to your intention, we have buried a thousand ceramic landmines in the ice of the Wei River, and all of them are covered with double lines. Once these thousand ceramic landmines are detonated, they are enough to collapse an ice surface that is more than three hundred paces long."

The Wei River is sixty paces wide, and if multiplied by the length of three hundred paces, it would be a huge ice surface.

Such a large piece of ice is enough to accommodate tens of thousands of people, or thousands of ice sledges.

"Very good." Yan Yingyuan pointed to the ground under his feet, and then said to Chen Mingyu, "Gongchen, I have to continue to work hard on you, and lead the troops to plant landmines on both sides of the Wei River."

"Both sides are also buried?" Chen Mingyu couldn't help being stunned.

"Bury." Yan Yingyuan nodded heavily and said, "And bury a thousand on each side!"

"Ah? One thousand each?" Chen Mingyu hesitated for a moment before persuading him, "Yu Heng, although we carried a full [-] landmines this time, we have used up [-] landmines before a battle has been fought." , isn't it too much?"

Sun Fanzhi also persuaded: "That's right, brother Boheng, this time we are guarding Dagukou, not for a month or two months, but for a year or even two years."

"No, you are wrong." Yan Yingyuan said.

"Whether it is one year or two years, the most important thing is the first month."

"As long as they stand up to the previous month, when Jiannu realizes that it will take an unimaginable price to regain Dagukou, they will no longer attack needlessly."

"Then the next battle will be easier to fight."

"In the future, you just need to be careful of Jiannu's sneak attack."

After saying this, he said to Chen Mingyu: "Gongchen, just do as I say."

"Yes, I'll go back and move the mines." Chen Mingyu immediately turned around and returned to the river, and then led a team of new troops back to Dagukou to pull the ceramic mines with ice sledges.

Yan Yingyuan turned around and said to Sun Fanzhi: "Liufu, it's time to go, you should lead your troops to replace Peiqing (Feng Houdun's character). Remember, in addition to patrol posts, you must arrange more latent sentries to ensure the blockade. On the periphery, if the Yebu Tiao of Jiannu saw our actions, all the arrangements would be in vain, but after the mines are planted, some of them can be deliberately placed in the Yebu Tiao, so that they think they can see through We are false."

"Yes." Sun Fanzhi said solemnly, "I promise not even a mouse will come in."

After finishing speaking, Sun Fanzhi summoned [-] new troops who sat on the ground and took advantage of the night to set off.

Yan Yingyuan went back to the Guntai bunker outside Dagukou, and fell asleep.

At this time, there is a high probability that there are still two days and nights before the arrival of the slave building army.

During these two days and nights, you have to hurry up to eat and sleep well.

There will likely be no time to sleep for the next month.

……

Chongzhen 20th year (1647) March [-]th.

As soon as the sky turned bright, Yan Yingyuan climbed up the watchtower.

This watchtower is built of wood and is ten feet high.

This is not only a watchtower, but also Yan Yingyuan's command tower.

Through signal flags during the day and signal lights at night, instructions can be accurately conveyed.

Because Dagukou is all plains, the view from the watchtower is excellent. Standing on the top of the tower, Yan Yingyuan can easily see the general scene twenty miles away.

Of course, if you want to see clearly, you must use a telescope.

Yan Yingyuan took out the binoculars from the leather pouch on his waist, and pulled them apart one by one.

This is a monocular three-section telescope, a product of Nanjing Telescope Workshop.

The glass industry is also one of the industries promoted by Chongzhen through the military industry. In order to promote the great development of the glass industry, Chongzhen placed an order for [-] telescopes to two glass workshops in Nanjing at one time.

Of course, these [-] three-section telescopes cannot be delivered in a short period of time.

Before there was no mechanical power, manual polishing was really labor-intensive and time-consuming.

Yan Yingyuan opened the binoculars step by step, and slowly scanned the surroundings.

Suddenly, Yan Yingyuan's gaze stopped moving, and then he began to adjust the focus of the telescope.

After adjusting the focal length, Yan Yingyuan could clearly see that teams of Jiannu were advancing along the banks of the Wei River, and on the ice surface of the Wei River, there were continuous ice sledges.

Many ice sledges also carry Hongyi cannons.

Here it comes, Yan Yingyuan's mouth twitched slightly.

I don't know if it's the old rival Dodo or Dorgon who came this time?
However, no matter who is here, I hope you will like the meeting ceremony I prepared for you. After all, the Huaxia people have been a country of etiquette since ancient times, and they are the most hospitable.

Soon, Jiannu's forward cavalry was less than five miles away from the outer positions.

Yan Yingyuan had already asked the new army to set up stone markers marking the distance on the periphery, and set up markers every one mile within five miles. This was also to facilitate the artillery to adjust the pitch angle.

Because this can save the distance measurement link.

Of course, in order to prevent Jiannu from finding out, the distance markers were disguised.

This distance has actually entered the range of the 20 4-inch guns deployed in the forward positions, because the maximum range of the 4-inch guns is five miles.

It's just that firing at this distance is a waste of shells and gunpowder.

However, Yan Yingyuan put down the binoculars, turned his head to the bottom and said, "Send an order to the artillery on the periphery to halve the charge and shoot ten rounds at Jiannu."

"Ah?" The orderly below suspected that he had misheard.

Jiannu's striker was still five miles away, and there was no hit rate at all when firing the cannon at this distance, but Lord Yan wanted to halve the charge, he must have heard it wrong.

"What are you doing in a daze?" Yan Yingyuan shouted, "Hurry up and order."

"Yes." Only now did the messenger realize that he had heard correctly, Lord Yan's order was just like that, so he immediately raised the signal flag and issued an order to the front position.

……

Forward artillery positions.

The messenger in charge of communication said to Sun Fanzhi who was in the command position: "Master Sun, halve the charge and shoot ten rounds."

"There are all of them, the charge is halved, and ten rounds are fired!" Without any hesitation, Sun Fanzhi immediately gave orders to the guns, and the 20 4-inch guns deployed in the outer positions began to reload.

The gunners first adjusted the pitch angle of the cannon to a 45-degree angle, and then locked it.

After nailing the tailstock of the cannon to the ground with iron brazing, the gunpowder was loaded with ammunition from the muzzle. First, the gunpowder with a half-shell was about three kilograms, and then the iron bullet weighing 16 kilograms was also stuffed to the bottom.

"One is good, two is good, twenty is good..."

"Fire!" Sun Fanzhi's raised right hand suddenly fell down.

20 gunners immediately inserted the red-hot iron braze into the gun port.

The next moment, there was a continuous "bang bang bang bang" explosion.

At the same time, there was the screeching sound of shells tearing through the air.

Accompanied by piercing screams and huge explosions, even the 1600-jin cannon that carried the cannon jumped up. Thanks to the iron brazing that fixed the tailstock, otherwise it would have to slip back.

……

Jiannu was also alarmed by the screeching sound of shells tearing through the air.

One of the shells landed on the ice of the Weihe River, instantly smashed a white spot on the ice, bounced a little and landed on the ice again, and then rolled forward for a long distance before stopping.

When the projectile came to a complete standstill, it stopped right in front of an ice sledge.

At this time, dozens of ice sledges in front had stopped one after another, but the ice sledges behind were still sliding forward, and the ice surface of Weihe River immediately seemed a little crowded.

"Hoo." Dorgon, who was riding along the south bank of the Wei River, stopped his horse.

Fulin, Hong Chengchou, Fan Wencheng, Ning Wanwo, Hou Fangyu, Cao Eryu, Ashan and others who followed Dorgon also reined in their horses and stopped by the river.

Dorgon even raised his binoculars.

After observing for a while, he asked disdainfully: "Ah Shan, can you estimate the range of the Ming army's red cannon?"

"Yes." Ah Shan also had a telescope in his hand, and after observing for a while, he said, "Master, the range of the red cannons of the Ming army is only a little over two miles, which is not as good as our red cannons of the Qing Dynasty."

When Fulin heard this, he really wanted to ask how far the red cannons of the Qing Dynasty could shoot?
But thinking of Er Niang's instructions before leaving, she swallowed it back into her stomach again.

Soon, Zhengbai Banner Han Jun Gushan Ezhen Shi Tingzhu went on to say: "After Tang Ruowang's improvement, the range of our red cannons in the Qing Dynasty has increased from more than two miles to nearly four miles!"

[Note: 1 mile in the Ming Dynasty = 180 feet = 360 steps = 576 meters]

Fulin thought to himself, sure enough, what Er Niang said makes sense.

Dorgon laughed and said, "It seems that Nanming's cannon-casting technology has not improved at all."

Hou Fangyu said without losing the opportunity: "Tang Ruowang used to be the chief inspector of heaven in the Ming Dynasty, but such a talented Chongzhen emperor didn't know how to reuse it, which shows that the Southern Ming Dynasty is exhausted, and it is the will of heaven to respond to the people's will to replace it with the Qing Dynasty. "

After saying this, Dorgon was very comfortable, nodded and said: "Shi Tingzhu, you can let the red cannon go ashore."

"Hey." Shi Tingzhu agreed, and then rode his horse to the riverside and shouted, "The emperor's father and regent have ordered that the Han troops of all banners drag the red cannons ashore immediately, hurry up."

"Boom!" However, as soon as Shi Tingzhu finished speaking, a loud noise was heard in his ears.

Immediately afterwards, there were continuous explosions, and large pieces of crushed ice were splashed on the river.

"This...what's the situation?" Shi Tingzhu was a little confused. Is this the collapse of the ice?
But it shouldn't be. Although the ice layer after the beginning of spring is not as strong as in winter, it is still several feet thick, and the Wei River is not very wide. Normally, the ice layer should not disintegrate no matter what.

When he was at a loss, Shi Tingzhu faintly heard a crisp sound.

This click, like a stone thrown into the lake, instantly broke the calm.

In the next instant, the ice surface of the Weihe River which was almost [-] steps long in front of it suddenly cracked, and the hundreds of iron sledges parked on the ice, as well as the Han army, mules and horses driving the plows immediately fell off like dumplings. into the water.

Dozens of red-clothed cannons carried by the Eight Banners Han Army followed and fell into the Wei River.

"Ah?" Seeing this scene, Shi Tingzhu was stunned. What do you mean?

Not only Shi Tingzhu, Fulin, Hong Chengchou, Fan Wencheng, Ning Wan and I were also stunned.

This is too pitiful, actually buried gunpowder under the ice, just waiting for them to step into the trap?

This wave of losses was not small, at least five or six hundred ice sledges overturned into the Wei River, and the tens of thousands of grains loaded on the ice sledges were considered in vain, and even if they were picked up, they would soon become moldy and rot.

In addition, dozens of red cannons also fell into the Wei River.

Although the Weihe River is not very deep, these red cannons will definitely be fished up in the end, but this time the battle of Dagukou will definitely not be able to catch up, which is too cunning.

However, things are not over yet.

Nearly a thousand Eight Banners Han soldiers on the sledge fell into the water one after another. Fortunately, the Wei River was not deep, and there were many mules and horses floating on the river, so the Eight Banners Han soldiers who fell into the water carried their mules and horses to swim to the bank.

Soon, the north and south banks of Weihe River were crowded with Eight Banners Han troops.

At the same time, the follow-up Eight Banners Han Army and Green Battalion soldiers also arrived one after another.

This made the north and south banks of the Wei River more crowded, and it became almost like a busy city.

Dorgon frowned, and when he was about to let Shi Tingzhu step forward to control the situation, he heard a bang in his ear.

Immediately afterwards, there were continuous explosions, and the huge explosion almost shattered Dorgon's eardrums, and at the same time felt the ground under his feet tremble violently.

"Master, be careful!" Hou Fangyu swooped over and threw Dorgon to the ground.

Su Moer also hugged Fulin into her arms, trying to protect Fulin's safety with her frail body.

But in fact, this is redundant, because the explosion did not affect Dorgon, it was just a false alarm.

But the successive accidents caused Dorgon's mentality to collapse a bit. He pushed Hou Fangyu away and sat up and roared, "Who is this person? Who is this person? Who?"

"Master, don't ask, it must be Yan Yingyuan!" A Shan said with a dark face.

As Gu Shan Ezhen of Zhengbai Banner, Ah Shan participated in the Shanyang War, and he can still remember Yan Yingyuan's endless plots and schemes.

"Master, it must be Yan Yingyuan."

Ah Shan gritted his teeth and roared, "It must be Yan Yingyuan!"

"Yan Yingyuan?" Hong Chengchou and the others felt awe-inspiring.

(End of this chapter)