In the sixth year of Longwu, on the first day of August, Shanhaiguan.
Since the end of July, the war clouds in western Liaoning have become dense again. After five months of lull, the Ming and Qing parties each gathered heavy troops and came to this area.
Hauge initially just planned to grab a handful. He took advantage of the fact that Shanhaiguan was still in the hands of the Qing army and it was easy to enter. Once he crossed the Great Wall, he could break it into pieces and go back to other directions. He would attack wherever there was no space and the main force of the Ming army would catch up.
Just run.
As for the main force of the Ming army in Yongping Prefecture, Hauge had no intention of touching it. When he abandoned Beijing half a year ago, he didn't dare to touch it. What else is there to touch now? That would be uncomfortable!
Unfortunately, Hauge planned to take a roundabout way, but his opponent did not want to let him go.
Before he had time to send troops, Zhang Huangyan increased his troop garrison in Yongping Prefecture in advance and moved the camp further forward, allowing the Ming army to arrive directly in front of the Shanhaiguan Pass, which was only a few miles away from the Guanqiang Tower.
In other words, it could barely avoid the firing range of the heaviest Hongyi cannon on the wall.
The Ming army was not stupid either. Even if they wanted to block the door, there was no need to really confront them. It was still necessary to leave a distance covered by the firepower of the heavy artillery. This small gap was not enough for the army to take a roundabout way.
Seeing that the Ming army was prepared and that Hauge had many princes under his command, Baylor began to retreat. The shadow of the Qing Dynasty's consecutive defeats in the past few years has not dissipated, and no one wants to risk their lives anymore.
So some people advised Hauge not to give up, but if it didn't work, he could also consider changing the direction and breaking in from other places. At the worst, he could forcefully attack a section of the Great Wall where the Ming army was empty.
The people who persuaded were not only princes like Manda Hai and Yue Le (Bolo was injured in the Neihuang War and died after returning, the title was inherited by his brother Yue Le), but also Hauge's absolute confidant like Ao Bai.
, it has to be taken seriously.
It is not that Hauge cannot consider the suggestion of finding another empty hole. But he is definitely not willing to give up Shanhaiguan.
So Hauge reluctantly encouraged his subordinates: "Don't be afraid of being beaten by the Southern Barbarians! The Qing Dynasty has failed one after another before because it fell into the Han people's trap of attacking and defending the city! We think we have won the world and are unwilling to lose the land. The Ming army wants to occupy us.
We will bleed and fight for the city we have occupied!
Now we are no longer bound by the city and have returned to the situation of the late emperor's dynasty. We can grab and leave. The Ming army is not as mobile as our army and cannot catch us! Victory must belong to me, the Qing Dynasty, again! The Ming army wants to annihilate us.
That's a fool's dream!
The current Shanhaiguan is surrounded by mountains and the sea. It is no ordinary city. If it were a city, the Ming army could besiege it from all sides, surround our army and try to annihilate it. With the sharp artillery of the Ming army, our army may not dare to defend it.
But there is an open road behind Shanhaiguan. As long as the Ming army does not cross Yanshan, our army can consume the Ming army here, damage the morale of the Ming army, and stop the momentum of the Ming army with a great victory, so that they will not dare to underestimate us again.
Qing Dynasty! If we don't create peace here for a few years, the Ming army will continue to despise the Qing Dynasty and harass us every year, and there will never be peace!"
The generals were persuaded by Hauge's reasoning, and then they reluctantly raised their will and decided to fight a defensive battle at Shanhaiguan with the Ming army.
After all, after a series of defeats, you have to win a battle to stop the enemy's covetousness and not to be underestimated. This is not only for the gains and losses of a city and a place, but also for long-term peace.
Moreover, there is another pressure within the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and that is their current ruling structure. They may be able to survive without looting for a while, but if they do not loot for a long time, they will definitely collapse.
When he withdrew from Hebei in a planned manner half a year ago, Hauge was not completely careless. While taking away the Manchus, he also took away hundreds of thousands of Han people - this kind of plundering of the population gradually allowed them to The affairs of Manhua have always been done from Nuerhachi to Huang Taiji.
On the one hand, the Manchu population is too small. If we can assimilate some people who are loyal to them and carry the flag as a covering, we should carry as many as possible.
On the other hand, the Manchus lacked craftsmen and technicians. When they retreated from Hebei, they naturally took away as many technicians as they could from the Northern Central Plains. Only in this way could they continue to build muskets and cannons after leaving the border, and also maximize their own skills. Imitate and learn from the progress of the Ming army so as not to fall too far behind.
To support so many craftsmen, a large amount of money and food were needed. These people were recruited not to engage in agricultural production, but to engage in professional and technical work or to serve as soldiers for the Han army.
Without taking money and food to stabilize their loyalty, if changes broke out from within, combined with the external pressure from the Ming Dynasty, it would not be the Manchus assimilating them, but the Manchus themselves being assimilated by the Liaodong Han people.
The entire Manchu clan has been severely damaged many times, and now there are only more than 400,000 people left, including men, women, old and children.
There were only 70,000 to 80,000 core Manchu males over the age of 15 left, and almost all the people needed to be soldiers. They were pushed back to the difficult conditions of the Nurhaci era.
There are hundreds of thousands of children under the age of fifteen, regardless of gender. The remaining two to three hundred thousand are women over the age of fifteen.
Such a severe situation left Haug with no other choice.
…
With this attitude of not giving in, the two sides began the offensive and defensive battle at Shanhaiguan.
On the fourth day of August, after several days of simple fortification preparations, the Ming army began to adopt the simple Wouban siege method. They began to dig trenches three or four miles away from the Shanhaiguan Pass Wall and extended towards the Shanhaiguan Pass Wall.
Historically, it took a few years for Vauban to gradually emerge on the battlefield of the French Civil War, but now that Zhu Shuren has used the fleet of the Dutch navigator Tasman to recruit relevant talents from Europe with huge sums of money, it is logical that he can be recruited as soon as possible. He served the Ming Dynasty.
Janssen, Tasman and Descartes came to Asia a year and a half ago, while Vauban was brought by Tasman's second fleet, exactly one and a half years later. As soon as they arrived in the Ming Dynasty, they were put into great use by Zhu Shuren.
At first, many generals of the Ming army were still dissatisfied, but considering that the prince only asked this Hongyi man to be responsible for the technical work of trenching during the siege and had no other authority, they turned a blind eye and slowly watched and learned from the enemy. , no one gave Vauban any trouble.
The purpose of the Ming army's front was to contain and delay it. It was necessary to give a reasonable excuse so that the Qing army would not doubt "why the Ming army fought so slowly", so just dig the trench slowly, for half a month and a month. It doesn't matter.
The Qing troops on the Shanhaiguan Pass wall were very alert at first. Seeing that the Ming army had dug for three days and there was no movement, they let the only remaining Hongyi cannon on the pass wall bombard the trench——
After the loss of 130 heavy artillery pieces in the Neihuang Battle at the beginning of the year, fortunately, the Qing army did not lose any more cannons when they defended the city of Beijing. They withdrew early and moved all the artillery pieces, so now the Qing Dynasty still retains about 80 cannons across the country. With multiple heavy artillery, it was still a usable artillery force. At this moment in Shanhaiguan, the Qing army also invested a defensive force of thirty heavy artillery.
Unfortunately, these thirty cannons were of course completely useless against the professionally designed Vauban siege trenches. They were bombarded here and there, and even if they counted on the ricochet to kill, they would never hit the trenches.
Each of the trenches designed and dug by Vauban can accurately hide the advancing routes of soldiers and artillery in the absolute blind spot of the enemy at the top of the city. Even if they are only two miles away from the city wall, one mile away, the Shanhaiguan Pass Wall
The cannons still failed to hit valuable targets.
The price of all this is that the soldiers dig deeper trenches and do more soil work, but they can save their lives.
The soldiers were hesitant at first, but later found out that they could save their lives, so they no longer cared about digging in the soil and sweating.
After the stalemate lasted until mid-August, as the Ming army's trenches got closer and closer to the Shanhaiguan Pass wall, the Ming army moved some heavy artillery with relatively curved ballistics, especially heavy siege mortars that fired explosive shells, into Woban.
Gun emplacements in the siege trenches.
Then, by taking advantage of the high-throwing characteristics of the Ming army's artillery ballistics, you can hide on the reverse slope where the Qing army's direct artillery fire cannot hit, and use the drop shot to whitewash the damage and attack the Qing army on the wall.
The ballistic tables used by the gunners were calibrated by the Ming Dynasty's own mathematicians, artillery experimental observers, colleagues from the Netherlands, and the great mathematician Descartes himself.
With the blessing of the most advanced mathematics of this era, the curved ballistic efficiency of the Ming artillery was of course astonishing to the Qing army.
Within a few days, more than a dozen Hongyi cannons on the Shanhaiguan Pass wall were blown up, and hundreds of Qing artillerymen and crossbowmen were killed. The Qing army's counterattacks were completely invisible.
As for the direct effect, I don’t know if it hit or not, it really hurts morale.
In fact, it was thanks to the fact that the Qing army's artillery could not observe the effects of their own bombardment that they were able to consume each other for so long. The Ming army's artillery positions were all in pits and could not be seen from the top of the city. It was not known whether the bombing had hit or not. At most
It can only be seen that some of the shells actually fell into the pit.
It was this kind of psychological comfort that caused the Qing army to fight for many days, and was wasted for many days unilaterally. If it had known that it was a useless effort, I am afraid that just after mid-August, the Qing army's artillery itself
Morale collapsed in advance.
Even now, in late August, Hauge finally couldn't hold it any longer. He ordered the cavalrymen of the Eight Banners to take advantage of the dark and windy days at the end of January to open the Shanhaiguan gate and leave the city to attack the Ming army's artillery positions at night.
Hauge estimated that he had been bombarded in vain for less than half a month and had never fought in a battle. The Ming army would probably relax their vigilance, allowing him to succeed in a sneak attack and annihilate part of the Ming army's artillery in close combat.
But unfortunately he met Zhang Huangyan, who had strict military orders, and also met Li Dingguo, who was responsible for carrying out front-line security tasks.
Li Dingguo's rigor in running the army was unparalleled at that time. Even if he was asked to stay vigilant for a month or two, Li Dingguo could take the lead and implement orders and prohibitions.
So the Aobai commando sent by Hauge ran into Li Dingguo's pocket. They had the opportunity to rush into several large artillery positions. However, they were plotted by the Ming army's musketeers who were ambushing and guarding on the left and right. Thousands of dollars were spent in vain.
Manchu cavalry casualties!
If Ao Bai himself hadn't been so brave, he might have been shot to death by Li Dingguo.
This time the battle between the surprise attack and the ambush and counter-surprise attack was over. Li Dingguo himself was surprised by the decline in the combat effectiveness of the Qing cavalry, and couldn't help but report his doubts.
Finally, it was delivered to Zhang Huangyan. Zhang Huangyan did not find it strange, but commented confidently: "This is normal. The Tatars have failed so many times in a row. How many veterans are left? It is said that there are less than 100,000 Manchu adult males. Well, it’s no wonder that all the cats and dogs have been recruited as soldiers. How can their combat prowess be comparable to that of the real Tatars five or ten years ago?”
After hearing what the Governor said, the generals of the Ming army became more and more morale-increasing and were full of confidence in victory.
…
On the other hand, the Qing army failed in the artillery battle for half a month. The attempt to let the cavalry sneak out to attack the Ming army's artillery positions failed again. Two consecutive battles were damaged, which greatly depleted the morale of the Qing army.
Even though there are tens of thousands of Manchu troops and tens of thousands of Han troops in the Shanhaiguan war zone, people are still panicked.
If it weren't for the Shanhaiguan Pass wall, which was imitated by the Qing army's fortifications and reinforced with tiger-like dogs, it would have been destroyed long ago.
But even the reinforced city wall was finally completely destroyed in several gaps by the repeated bombardment of the Ming army's heavy artillery one day at the end of August.
The Ming army sent death squads, wearing full-body forged steel armor and holding large steel-clad shields, to slowly but firmly step forward to seize the gap.
The Qing army's crossbows and muskets were completely unable to harm the Ming army's death squads. The Hongyi artillery was destroyed by the explosive bombs of the Ming army's siege mortars in the multi-day war of attrition. They had to rely on the temporarily dispatched Folangji to lift the guns. , and even the older Tiger Crouching Cannon to counterattack.
However, the long-range firepower of the Ming army was stronger, and there were a large number of musketeers on both sides of the death squads, pressing the formation from a distance, crossing and firing at the gaps in the wall, so that the Qing army, which was trying to block the opening, could not lift its head.
Under such a combat situation, the Qing army could only let the Ming army's death squads climb over the gap and then engage in hand-to-hand combat. Any attempt to resist the enemy outside the gap would be wiped out by the Ming army's rifle fire.
Most of the long-distance combat methods have been abolished, and they can only engage in hand-to-hand combat with heavy armored soldiers in the gaps. This style of play is of course miserable. The mobility advantage that the Qing army is proud of, and the advantage of concentrating local superior forces, are completely He couldn't perform well, he just exchanged lives in a dull manner, but he couldn't replace the well-equipped dead soldiers of the Ming army.
After two days of bloody fighting, the Qing army, as the defender, actually suffered far more casualties than the attacking Ming army. The Ming army suffered thousands of casualties, while the Qing army already numbered tens of thousands.
All aspects were completely crushed, and the battle had reached such a point that the Qing generals could only persuade Hauge to withdraw his troops, and everyone knew that they could not hold on even if they wanted to.
Hauge had no choice but to obey the public opinion. However, before leaving, he still ordered the division of troops. He allocated part of the troops to cross the Yanshan Mountains to the north, walk through the prairie, and find other Great Wall passes to harass and share the pressure.
The remaining main force is preparing to retreat slowly along the Western Liaoning Corridor.
However, Hauge's imminent retreat was not only known to him, but also to his enemies.
The gaps in the Shanhaiguan wall were blasted to such a degree that Hauge would die if he didn't leave! Before the breach, the Ming army had already made preparations.
Therefore, before Haug's decision to withdraw troops was issued, and the ministries were still packing their luggage and preparing to leave, on the second day of September, an urgent report suddenly came from the rear.
"Report! Your Majesty, Ming Army Zhang Mingzhen's troops suddenly landed in Ningyuan in the rear, and they have already sent out heavy troops to attack the city. Ming Army Zheng Chenggong's troops landed on Bijia Mountain, and then attacked Tashan and Jinzhou!
The Ming army also had the flags of Wu Sangui, Li Fuming and other old Liaodong generals, which were brought across the sea by Zhang Mingzhen and Zheng Chenggong! There were not enough defenders in Ningyuan and Jinzhou, and some Han people were seduced by Wu Sangui and others and chose to become internal agents. Today, Tashan Jinzhou I don’t know whether the land will live or die, please make a quick decision, Your Majesty!”
Hauge has a completely nomadic mentality on the grassland. The Qing army has been defeated in succession, and most of the Han civilian elites have been lost. The Qing army's own high-ranking generals have also suffered heavy losses, so no one is wary of cross-sea landing operations. There is no way.
I didn't expect that the Ming army would dare to cut off the return route of the Liaoxi Corridor.
"What? The Ming army actually dared to land behind our army? Are Zhang Mingzhen and Zheng Chenggong seeking death? Are they not afraid of going deep alone and being surrounded by our Qing army?"
——
PS: Sorry, I originally wanted to rush out a new book outline this morning and submit it for review before the holidays, but it still hasn’t been completed. I’m stuck on both ends.