Daming Military Empire

Chapter 116 Bloody Battle in Gaizhou
Mang Gurtai was stationed in Gaizhou City. He was the fifth son of Nurhachi, one of the four great Baylors of the Later Jin Dynasty, and was the governor of Zhenglan Banner at that time.Mang Gurtai’s reputation in later generations can be said to be far worse than Huang Taiji’s, but at that time, especially in the early post-Jin period, his reputation was even greater than Huang Taiji’s, because when he was young, he casually Nurhachi fought in all directions, was brave and good at fighting, and made many military exploits. It can be said that he has a great reputation and unparalleled scenery. At that time, Huang Taiji could follow behind him to make suggestions.

The reason why he was named one of the Four Great Baylors by Nurhachi was because of his bravery and meritorious service; and although Huang Taiji was also one of the Four Great Baylors, he was only loved by Nurhachi because of his cleverness. The strategy is more outstanding, that's all, compared to the military exploits, he is far inferior to Mang Gurtai.

I have talked about the Four Great Baylors for a long time, but I still haven’t said what the Four Great Baylors do. These Four Great Baylors are not ordinary princes. Zhi, Zhiyue Baylor is in charge of all the maintenance in the country."It can be seen from this that their power is as great as the chief assistant of Ming Dynasty.

In fact, Huang Taiji is only the last four of the four beiles, so even if he inherits the position of Houjin Dahan, he must preside over the government together with the other three beiles.That is to say, the power of Mang Gurtai and Huang Taiji is no less than that of Huang Taiji, at least in the early days of Huang Taiji's succession.

But since Huang Taiji established the six ministries in imitation of the Ming Dynasty, he gradually monopolized the political power of the Later Jin Dynasty. At this time, the four major Baylors have actually existed in name only.

Needless to say, Da Bei Le Daishan, he supported Huang Taiji to inherit the throne of Han, and he was toward Huang Taiji from the very beginning;

There is no need to worry about Erbeile Amin, because he is only Nurhachi's nephew, not Nurhachi's son, and at this time he has already been imprisoned by Huang Taiji for disobeying his orders;
The only one who can compete with Huang Taiji is Sanbeile Manggurtai. Originally, if Dabeile hadn't favored Huangtaiji, Manggurtai should have inherited the throne of Han.

Seeing that Huang Taiji is so powerful, he is not a fool. On the surface, he did not sing against Huang Taiji, but behind the scenes, he kept making small moves, faintly wanting to regain the Han position.

In fact, Huang Taiji knew about his little tricks, but because he had always held the military power, Huang Taiji really had nothing to do with him. This time, he just needed someone to guard Gaizhou, so he was kicked to Gaizhou by Huang Taiji.

Huang Taiji didn't want his life, but just wanted to exile him to Gaizhou in a disguised form, so that he wouldn't make trouble for him in Shengjing all day long.So Huang Taiji not only asked him to bring [-] Zhenglan Banner elites, but also equipped him with [-] Jurchen infantry, and even equipped him with [-] cannons from General Weiyuan.

Mang Gurtai just didn't want to stay by Huang Taiji's side, and he was very happy to see his expression every day, and he would be very happy if he had the opportunity to come out and dominate.So Mang Gurtai was in a good mood at this time, thinking about when the army of the Ming Dynasty would retreat, and lead people to fight the autumn wind.It seems that there has been no wanton looting for more than a year. Gold, silver and jewelry, Han women, I really miss it.

What he didn't expect was that not only did the army of the Ming Dynasty not retreat, but they also surrounded Gaizhou City. The posture seemed to be about to attack the city.It's fine for you to repair the bunkers, but you dare to come over to attack the city, it's really a big surprise for you.

Is Manggurtai afraid?He is really not afraid at all. Counting the Ming army outside the city, it is only more than a hundred thousand. He can't remember how many Ming troops were defeated by him. However, in the battle of Guangsarhu, he The defeated Ming army was no less than 5000.That was defeated in the wild, and now he is guarding a city, and there are [-] troops under his command. Will he be afraid of a mere [-] Ming army?

If someone asks him at this time: "Are you afraid?"

He would definitely laugh and say: "Ha, ha, ha, ha, I, well, afraid, ah!"

Regardless of whether he is afraid or not, Zhu Cijiong and Sun Chengzong of Gaizhou City are determined to attack, and they must be attacked.

So on the first day after arriving outside the city of Gaizhou, Zhu Cijiong and Sun Chengzong came to a small hill more than two miles north of Gaizhou city, and observed the city defense situation of Gaizhou with binoculars.

After looking at it for a while, Sun Chengzong put down the binoculars first, and said solemnly: "Zhenglan Qi, it's Mang Gurtai, this is troublesome."

Zhu Cijiong also put down the binoculars after hearing the words, and asked curiously: "Mang Gurtai? Is it very powerful?"

Sun Chengzong replied worriedly: "This Mang Gurtai can be said to be the most powerful general in Jiannu. Huang Taiji is very good at playing tricks and tricks. If he is right, he is definitely not Mang Gurtai's opponent."

Zhu Cijiong was taken aback when he heard the words, it was really troublesome if he was so fierce.

He couldn't help asking: "Does the Taifu have any good strategies to deal with him?"

Sun Chengzong shook his head and sighed: "Mang Gurtai has been in battle for a long time, and such little tricks as sneak attack, feint attack, and seduction are useless to him. If you want me to tell you, then the only way is to attack hard. I wonder if the emperor has a good strategy?"

Zhu Cijiong thought for a while, then shook his head and said, "I can't figure it out now, I just have to try the range of the artillery on the city wall first."

Sun Chengzong heard the words and suggested: "Why don't you build some siege equipment first, and send people to try it in two days?"

Zhu Cijiong continued to shake his head and said: "I can't even determine the minimum shooting range. Sending someone to try it rashly may cause a lot of casualties!"

Sun Chengzong said resolutely: "Your Majesty, my ministers are bold. The so-called kindness does not command soldiers. There is no one who will not die in a war. As long as you can win, no matter how many people die, it is worth it!"

In terms of commanding operations, Zhu Cijiong was far behind Sun Chengzong by more than a hundred and eight thousand miles. Since Sun Chengzong insisted, there must be a certain reason. Zhu Cijiong could only agree if he couldn't bear it.

Therefore, the Ming army had only besieged Gaizhou for three days, and Sun Chengzong gathered [-] infantry in the north of Gaizhou City, lined up in a serious manner, carried the ladder on his back, pushed the well rail, and attacked the city wall.

Of course, this was just a feint attack, but the Houjin defenders in the city didn't know it. The army had just rushed into the two-mile range of the city wall, and five shells flew up from the city wall and fell into the siege army. The team stood relatively scattered, but did not cause too many casualties. Each shell killed and injured a dozen or so Ming soldiers at most, and some even fell directly on the open ground without hitting a single Ming soldier.

Still on the small soil bag, Zhu Cijiong asked Sun Yuanhua nervously: "How is it? What is the shooting range? Can you see it?"

Hearing this, Sun Yuanhua put down the binoculars, and said worriedly: "It's about 4 paces, and the range is almost the same as that of the [-]-type howitzer. They should still use [-]-inch guns, but they take advantage of the height of the city wall, and the range is also increased. Almost a hundred paces."

Seeing that the shooting range had been calculated, Zhu Cijiong hurriedly said loudly: "Hurry up, Mingjin withdraws."

Soon, the sound of "bang bang bang" gongs sounded in the formation of the Ming army, and the siege soldiers immediately turned around and ran away. Mang Gurtai on the city wall was stunned, and the first trial was over.

Zhu Cijiong saw that only a dozen or so soldiers had been lost in total, and said a little fortunately: "It seems that their cannons still can't be moved. They only had five shells just now, which means that there are five cannons on each wall. As long as they don't charge intensively, they won't be able to move." There would be too many casualties."

Sun Chengzong next to him reminded: "The problem is that if you don't charge intensively, you won't be able to attack at all. There are more than 3 people in Jiannu. It is useless to charge up like this sparsely."

Hearing this, Zhu Cijiong couldn't help being taken aback. He found that he had underestimated the difficulty of attacking the city. He thought it would be easy with cannons. Only when he arrived at the scene did he realize that with only forty or so cannons, facing a city several miles wide The meaning of the city wall is really not very big. There are no armor-piercing bullets these days, and the power of gunpowder explosion can hardly do any damage to the city wall. It is wishful thinking to want to blow down the city wall.Artillery can only provide a little fire support at most, and if you really want to attack, you have to rely on human lives.

Now our own artillery has no advantage in range, what should we do?Could it be that they just put on a posture and confronted each other, whoever gets hit will be unlucky?

He couldn't help raising his binoculars again, looking at the opposite city wall, "Hey", he suddenly realized that he had been able to see the defenders on the city wall clearly all along. Doesn't this mean that he was standing higher than the city wall!

I am really stupid, what is the height of the city wall? No one stipulates that the attacking side cannot build mounds of the same height!He couldn't help asking excitedly: "Teacher, how long will it take to build 45 slopes as high as the city wall?"

Sun Chengzong made an estimate and replied, "It will probably take about ten days."

Zhu Cijiong slapped his hands and said, "Well, let's build a row of earth slopes [-] steps away from the city wall, or I will order the Ministry of Industry to build another [-] cannons, then it will be much easier to attack the city."

Sun Chengzong already understood what Zhu Cijiong meant. If more than 100 cannons could be fired at the city wall at the same time, it would be much easier to attack the city. He couldn't help asking excitedly, "How long will it take to build a hundred cannons?"

Zhu Cijiong did some calculations, and immediately replied: "About one month will be enough."

Sun Chengzong immediately lost his excitement when he heard the words, he shook his head and sighed: "There is no hurry, there will be snow in Liaodong in more than a month, and the heavy snow will block the road and the cannons will definitely not be transported, even if they are transported to this city. Attacked, they only need to pour some water on the city wall, and we will all fall to our deaths and we will not be able to climb up."

Zhu Cijiong hesitated and said, "Then why not attack again in the spring of next year?"

Sun Chengzong said anxiously: "Your Majesty, we can't wait any longer. We can make cannons, and they can also make cannons. I don't know how many people and how many cannons there will be in Gaizhou City next year. Let's attack, this time. No matter how heavy the casualties are, this Gaizhou must be captured."

Zhu Cijiong thought about it for a while, and it really made sense. The so-called opportunity cannot be missed, and it will never come again. In case of any accident, Gaizhou does not know when it will be taken down.

So, he gritted his teeth, nodded and said, "Okay, the siege will start in ten days, no matter what, Gaizhou must be taken down this time!"

(End of this chapter)