Guangshun Pass is more than 60 miles away from Kaiyuan, an important town in the Ming Dynasty, and belongs to Jingan Fort.
Jingan Fort was later known as Shangyang Fort during the Manchu and Qing Dynasties. Like the famous "Ning Gu Pagoda", it was the place where political prisoners were exiled during the Qing Dynasty.
Today, during the Taichang period, Jingan Fort is still under the control of the Ming Dynasty and is the gateway to Kaiyuan.
When Mu Zaohua rushed to the upper reaches of the Qinghe River outside Guangshun Pass around the turn of the Shen Dynasty, the first thing she saw was the captains of various banners, robbing people and livestock for their warrior masters.
May and June every year are the seasons when water and grass are most abundant in the Liaohe River Hetao. Han herdsmen from Liaohaiwei to Tielingwei will drive their sheep to the east to graze near the Daming Army Fort. The Xiaoqing River area has formed a densely populated area.
After the summer pasture, some businessmen from Fushun in the south came to do business.
On this originally peaceful and beautiful afternoon, the Houjin Tatars suddenly roared in. The people of the Ming Dynasty had no time to escape, and were surrounded and intercepted by dense cavalry. They became prey amidst the wailing and screaming.
The Tatar slaves, whether Jurchens or Hans, were actually slaves. But they had no sympathy for the Ming people who were also at the bottom.
Not only because of the stern exhortations of their own warrior masters, but also because they believed that only by taking more Ming people to Daikin to work as cattle and horses could the burden they endured in the days when pigs and dogs were inferior be slightly alleviated.
, they are likely to survive this year, next year, or even be lucky enough to survive the year after that.
Mu Zaohua had seen how frantic the Tatars were when they attacked Goose Fei City, so the scene before her, which was just looting and not heavy killing, did not have much psychological impact.
But she quickly rode up to the "North Korean" musketeers sent by Daishan.
They are all Ming people that Xu San has recruited in the Dongjiang Pidao area in recent years. They can speak Korean. As members of Zhengziying’s intelligence and special service front, they also learned to use matchlock guns during training. Daishan was tricked into meeting
After Ning took root, these secret agents in the shadows put on the disguise of North Koreans and walked into the sunshine, until the camp reached its present day step by step.
Mu Zaohua was worried that these junior colleagues would not be able to help but behave strangely when they first saw the Tatars ravaging the Ming people.
Fortunately, her worries were unnecessary. The musketeers just sat down to rest, took out their dry food and ate, looking at the miserable scene in the world with cold as iron eyes. Occasionally, some of them would stand up and strike up a conversation with someone from the same camp as her.
The Tatar gunner spoke in Korean and gestured, and finally the Tatars understood that he was asking how to distribute the trophies, cattle and sheep.
Only the captain of the musketeers, a fellow countryman of Xu San, named He Jinzhu, looked at Mu Zaohua, conveying a bit of silent anger.
Mu Zaohua looked at Obai who was slaughtering a sheep not far away and was eager to roast it for dinner. She got off her horse and walked to Captain He, holding up his matchlock gun as if observing the situation at the fire gate. A Korean word came out of her mouth.
The edge slides by.
"I will pay you back twice as much."
…
That night, the hustle and bustle of the grassland and riverbank outside the pass continued until dawn.
In accordance with the Jurchen custom of fighting and robbing, Nurhachi ordered each banner to separate small groups of red armored soldiers. The Jurchen nobles in the north of Yehe tribe who had surrendered also sent many armored soldiers as coolies.
The packmen were sent out, carrying the first batch of cattle and sheep as spoils of war, and transported them south to Hetuala as quickly as possible.
In addition to doing chores for the soldiers, the soldiers of the Five Banners also had to cut down the trees along the Xiaoqing River overnight and build carts and ladders for the upcoming sieges.
Yue Tuo took the time to come to the firearms team and said to Mu Zaohua and Ao Bai: "You have seen it in the evening, right? The seven or eight beacon towers outside the pass are all burning up. The guards at Jingan Fort must know that we are coming. The Great Khan
I interrogated several herdsmen in the evening, and they all said that some of the Ming troops in Jingan Fort were able to use firecrackers, and there were cannons in the fort."
Mu Zaohua's eyes fell on a few people wrapped in red flags not far away. They were as skinny as firewood and in tattered clothes. They were erecting tree branches on both sides of the ladder and covering them with cowhide. After pouring water on the hard cowhide, it was somewhat
It can reduce the damage caused by some kerosene stones to attackers.
Mu Zaohua looked at it for a moment, then withdrew her gaze and sneered: "We are in a hurry to grab something."
Oboi asked in a rough voice: "Um, what do you mean, Master Zhen?"
Mu Zaohua said: "Originally we could have the army camp five miles away, and first send a group of elite soldiers to attack Guangshun Pass at night. Ten miles behind Guangshun Pass is Jingan Fort. Our main force will go there, and we won't even need it for half an hour.
You can catch them off guard. It's better now. Once the beacon tower calls the alarm, Jingan Fort will be prepared. Maybe Kaiyuan City and Anle Prefecture are already ready."
By the light of the torch, Yue Tuo saw the serious and helpless look on Mu Zaohua's face, and felt that this woman was really thinking about the plan of Dai Jin's attack all the time. It was not in vain that he fell in love with her more and more.
she.
Yue Tuo then comforted him with gentle words: "What you said makes sense, but don't worry too much. From Jingan Fort to Kaiyuan, there are wise people who have submitted to us."
Mu Zaohua's heart made a "boom" sound.
Madam's prediction was indeed correct. The Tatars repeated their old tricks just like they did to Li Yongfang in Fushun.
While Mu Zaohua was thinking to herself, she also caught a glimpse of Obai glancing at Yue Tuo with an unkind expression, and then quickly hid it.
Obviously, this Huang Taiji's domestic slave, whether he knew that Dai Jin bribed the Ming generals or not, was very resentful of the hero Yue Tuo's attitude of being a beauty and not being wary of Nikan women.
Mu Zaohua simply finished the show, frowned even more, and said with some displeasure: "In that case, we bothered to push the cannon over, and there are so many two or three kilograms of iron bullets, why bother?
What? Maybe before the fire was started, the closed city gate was opened from the inside."
Yue Tuo didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and regardless of Obai's presence, he said softly: "It's not as simple as picking vegetables and cutting melons. You're just afraid that you won't get the first prize."
"I just want to win the first prize. Otherwise, I don't know which tongue will stick out to Dahan's ear and say that I am a spy of the Ming Dynasty. Besides, I don't rob things or people. Without military merit, how can I get rewards?"
?General Obai, don’t you think so? If our firearms team doesn’t show some skills, you won’t be able to explain to Sibeile, right?”
Two or three hours after Mu Zaohua pretended to be angry at Yue Tuo, the Jin army's first iron bullet flew towards the stone wall of Guangshun Pass.
Then came the second and third.
Accompanied by loud rumblings, gravel, and dust were scattered in all directions, causing many of the Jin Army's own war horses to neigh and tread uneasily.
Nurhachi, who was surrounded by white-armored stars like a moon, burst into triumphant laughter.
Even the battle-hardened alpha wolf could not suppress his excitement at this moment.
Although he has seen no less than ten artillery test firings in Hetuala, today is the first time that the old chief saw with his own eyes the iron particles flying out of the barrel of Daikin's own artillery, and they really hit the ground.
On the wall of the Ming Dynasty military fortress.
It should be noted that just three years ago, when they were attacking the east and west cities of Yehebu, the Jin army could only send Bao Yi to carry ladders and rush to the city. Then white-armored and red-armored soldiers carried bows, arrows, thunderwood and other deadly weapons.
Attack and climb up the city. At that time, the ladder was like rain, and soldiers who were shot or hit kept falling down. In the end, the Jianzhou warriors almost stepped on the piles of corpses of their companions and climbed over.
city wall.
Things are different now!
The Ming army defending the city at Guangshun Pass did not seem to expect that the Jin army also had such powerful firearms. After the ten bronze cannons were fired, they entered a cooling interval. There was even an unusual brief silence on the city wall until perhaps the defenders came from
Commander He Ba's scoldings sounded one after another, and then arrows flew towards the Jin army's camp, and one or two were nailed to the wooden posts around the muzzle that protected the gunner.
"Load and fire again!" Mu Zaohua ordered the gun crew that had finished clearing the barrel.
The fires lit up one after another, and there was another burst of continuous thunderous cannon fire, which was illuminated by the June sunshine into golden smoke. As soon as it dispersed, Huang Taiji beside Nurhachi said excitedly: "Ama, a corner of the wall
, collapsed.”
"Dismount and attack the city!" Nurhaci burst out with a roar that was as loud as when he was in his prime.
…
"Get on your horse and head east at full speed!"
On the same morning, near the Xiushui River, more than a hundred miles west of the Liaohe River, Ma Xianglin issued an order to the sergeants who had rested for the night.
In order to march quickly, and to prevent the herdsmen of the Horqin tribe in the north from discovering it, Ma Xianglin's team of nearly 6,000 people was not encumbered by baggage. There were 4,000 white-gun veterans with Shilu nationality. After the Battle of Fushun, Ma Xianglin was
The elite Jizhen cavalry recruited and trained by Shanhaiguan, plus the young and strong men of the Seven and Eight Hundred Generations County Zongfan trained by Lieutenant General Mangui, almost all have one person and two horses.
Last year, the silver that Zheng Haizhu sent directly from Luoyang to Daning was exchanged for a large number of fine horses from Chahar in the transaction that Su Taifujin personally watched. The quality was not inferior to the horses sent by Horqin to Houjin.
As soon as they received the urgent message from the Ministry of War, Ma Xianglin's troops immediately set off eastward. As Su Tai and He Zhuo had estimated in advance, it took them three days to cross the left flank of Monan Mongolia and arrive at the Liaohe Hetao.
The length of this journey was about twice as long as that from Houjin Hetuala to Kaiyuan. However, because the latter brought a large number of wrapped slaves, which affected the marching speed, it took the same length as Ma Xianglin's cavalry.
"Damn, these women are really accurate in their calculations."
When the broad Liaohe River appeared in the field of vision, Mangui caught up with Shangguan who had slowed down his horse and sighed loudly.
When receiving Ma Xianglin's knife-like gaze, Mangui hurriedly grinned and changed his words: "Husband, madam, not a woman, I am respectfully addressed as madam. Well, there is more than one, Mrs. Zheng needless to say, eight hundred minds
, Luanhe was overqualified that time, and this time she was satisfied with the battle. But Mrs. Sutai in Mongolia is not bad, right, General Ma? Hehe."
Ma Xianglin lightly pulled the reins and changed horses. When he stared back at Mangui, his eyes narrowed.
Man Gui was horrified by the sight and asked: "Ma, Mr. Ma, are you smiling at me, or are you staring at me and wanting to scold me?"
Ma Xianglin said: "I'm not like you. I never scolded my lieutenants before the war. I was laughing. You didn't even know I was laughing. Your bride also came with me."