Ming Empire

Chapter 227 The War Begins
In the blink of an eye, at the beginning of July, the army led by Dorgon arrived at the front line of Liaocheng and confronted Cao Yue's [-] Ming guards.

Cao Yue's army arrived in Liaocheng before Dorgon, but the Ming army did not take the initiative to attack the city, but took a defensive position.This puzzled the defenders of Liaocheng. In order to test the reality of the Ming army, the defenders of Liaocheng took the initiative to attack several times, but they were all defeated by the Ming army. With huge losses, they had to stay behind closed doors.

When the news reached Dorgon, Dorgon immediately understood Cao Yue's strategy.

However, Liaocheng was not captured by the Ming army, and Cao Yue waited for the arrival of the army he led before the decisive battle, which was quite in line with Dorgon's wishes.

Although Dorgon was a little apprehensive about the large-scale firearms shooting of the Ming army, the area around Liaocheng was a plain, which was very suitable for large-scale cavalry operations, and the Ming army did not have a strong city to defend, and the Qing army had an absolute advantage in numbers. He still believes that the balance of victory in this battle will be biased towards the Qing army.Therefore, after Dorgon led his army to Liaocheng, without much delay, he immediately commanded the troops and launched a large-scale active attack on the Ming army's positions.

In mid-July, it is still the midsummer season, and the weather is still very hot.But it's autumn, and the weather is a little bit cooler in the morning and evening.

In order to keep the soldiers and horses in the best state of mind, Dorgon chose to start fighting in the morning.

The deep and high-pitched sound of horns sounded in the camp of the slaves, and then the trembling drums began to beat rhythmically.Accompanied by the sound of horns and war drums, groups of Jian slaves lined up from the camp and quickly headed towards the Ming army's position on the bank of the canal.After gathering a few miles away from the Ming army's position, the Jiannu of each tribe slowly pressed towards the canal under the command of their respective generals.

The Ming army's position was built on the canal, and the Jiannu's attack direction came from both sides of the canal. There were densely packed Jiannu troops on the left and right banks of the canal.The lineup of the slave-building army in both directions was well-organized, with banners of various colors facing the wind and bills, looking like they could block out the sky and block out the sun.The swords and spears shining in the sun exude the smell of death, and endless murderous intent spreads and wreaks havoc in the wilderness.

As the attack order personally issued by Dorgon was passed on, the sound of war drums and horns became louder.The Jiannu who were waiting in line began to move slowly towards the Ming army's position under the orders of countless hundreds and thousands of households, and then began to speed up.

The Han army, the Korean army, and the Ming army still act as cannon fodder, and they will be the first wave of attacking troops.

As the sound of horns and war drums became louder and louder, the three thousand Eight Banners of the Han Army, the Eight Banners of the Three Thousand Koreans, and the three thousand Ming surrendered troops began to accelerate towards the Ming army's position from the formation of the slave-building army on the left bank of the canal. .Similarly, on the right side of the canal, the same number of Han and North Korean troops started the first wave of charge.

In order to prevent being shot and killed by the dense muskets of the Ming army, the Jiannu rushing to the front all carried a large scull shield, and they would use the thick scull shield to shield the bullets for their companions behind.Immediately behind the scull shield soldiers were archers. They hid behind the scull shield and could use the parabolic shooting of bows and arrows to attack the Ming army from behind the scull shield.

In order to better observe the situation on the battlefield, Cao Yue boarded the watchtower of the largest warship moored in the middle of the canal to command the battle.He boarded the watchtower together with Huang Degong, Gao Jie, Liu Liangzuo, and several soldiers of Cao Yue.Everyone held a telescope. When the Jiannu army began to charge, except for a few soldiers, everyone else held the telescope to watch the battlefield.

"The war of building slaves is the same as before. Dorgon can't think of a new way of fighting. Today he has a heartache!" After Cao Yue laughed and threw out a joke, he immediately ordered the soldiers moored in the canal. Ship, ready to shoot.

On the shore, each Guards division had artillery positions, but the first wave of artillery shooting Cao Yue did not let the artillery of the Guards division fire, but let the artillery on the warship fire first.This is mainly to confuse Jiannu and make them confused about the situation.The first wave of attacks were all the servants, followed by the Jurchen Eight Banners and Mongolian soldiers who were the main force of Jiannu.These cannons on the shore were used by Cao Yue to attack the main force of slavery.

The range of the artillery on the warship is relatively short, which can make Jiannu make a wrong judgment. As long as their army dares to push forward, the artillery on the shore will pour revenge shells on the head of Jiannu who thinks it is safe , hit them by surprise.

Following Cao Yue's order, except for the big ship he was staying at, other warships equipped with rifled artillery started firing one after another.

With the sound of the roaring cannons, black smoke immediately rose from the battleship, and after a burst of roar, the solid shells with a huge whistling sound flew towards the Jiannu formation charging at a very high speed.

The range of solid bullets can reach more than four miles, and the range of the artillery equipped on the warship is slightly worse, but at least about three miles.This range is what Jiannu dreamed of. Dorgon believed that the artillery range of the Ming army was at most two miles, so the charging queue assembled at about five miles, and began to accelerate at about three miles.What he didn't expect was that when the charging Qing army had just started, the howling shells fell down.

When the high-speed flying solid bullet fell, it directly smashed a group of people and horses into a pulp. After landing at a high speed, it opened a bloody passage in the Jiannu formation.Dozens of solid bullets inflicted great damage on the Jiannu attacking from two directions. At least hundreds of Jiannu were killed by the solid shells with huge kinetic energy.

Dorgon, who witnessed this tragic situation, took a breath. He knew that the range of the Ming army's artillery had improved a lot, and its power must also be greater.However, he didn't intend to change the order. He knew that what the Ming army was going to shoot next would definitely be explosive bullets.

The lethality is greater, but the lethality of the explosive bullets with a relatively short range is what he is most concerned about.There is also the time between the two firings of the Ming army's artillery. With this information, he can adjust the subsequent attack plan.

The Jiannu servant army who served as cannon fodder suffered a lot of losses under the two rounds of powerful bullets, but no one dared to retreat except the Ming Jiang army.Some of the Ming troops who retreated and fled were quickly shot and killed by Jurchen cavalry who enforced battlefield discipline.The other Ming troops did not dare to retreat and escape, so they could only bite the bullet and charge forward.

"Boom!" There was another loud noise that shook the mountains, and the warships of the Ming army moored on the canal fired shells again.This time it was a flower bomb. With a series of screams, one after another shells fell into the charging Jiannu formation. With the explosive airflow rising into the sky, countless Jiannu were blown to the sky. , There are stumps, broken arms and other fragments of various explosions flying across the sky!
(End of this chapter)