On this day, the 70,000 Ming army led by Wang Huazhen advanced in three ways. The main force of the Chinese army, more than 35,000 people, crossed Pingyang Bridge in the morning. At noon, the forward Chinese army Zu Dashou's troops had approached Xining Fort. In the evening, General Jiang Chaodong

He commanded the private battalion of Liaodong Governor Wang Huazhen and escorted Wang Huazhen to a small village three miles west of Xining Fort.

The 20,000 troops of the Guangning Army's right wing set out from Thirteen Mountain Station, seventy miles southwest of Guangning Guard, and it would take three days to reach the vicinity of Xining Fort.

The left army of the Ming Army, which also numbered 20,000 people, set out from Zhenwu Fort, a hundred and fifty miles east of Guangning, and marched along the original Great Wall of the Liao River and Hetao. It was estimated that they could reach the north of Xining Fort in one day.

In fact, nearly 80,000 Ming troops were deployed on the road from Shanhaiguan to Guangning, dividing their forces to guard this long supply line. On this most important supply line of the Ming Army in western Liaoning, the Chinese Navy's Beiyang Fleet was still launching

Small-scale landings and sneak attacks were carried out, and guerrilla harassment was carried out continuously.

Wang Huazhen, the governor of Liaodong, rode on horseback, surrounded by a group of staff and scribes. As soon as he arrived at the battlefield, he urged the Ming army to attack the fortress. He believed that the Ming army suddenly arrived at Xining Fort to launch an attack in one go.

Fearful and uneasy, he captured Xining Fort in one fell swoop, then marched east across the Sancha River and headed straight to Haizhou.

Regarding this order, forward guerrilla Zu Dashou was helpless. His deputy general Qi Bingzhong was impatient and bluntly cursed Wang Huazhen as a fool. The Chinese infantry brothers had been marching for a whole day and were now exhausted. How could they attack the fortress.

Zu Dashou is not a good-tempered person, but as a member of a prominent family in the original Liaodong Town, he knows a little bit about the ways of the officialdom. He said to Qi Bingzhong: "Our chief military officer Liu Qu hasn't arrived yet, and we haven't arrived either.

I have to go to the local place to plead for mercy. After all, Mr. Wang is the leader of an army. Since he has given the order, he must be given some face. Send out two battalions of brothers, with heavy thunder and light rain, and attack for a while."

Wang Huazhen didn't know that in fact, last night, Zhang Pan had learned about the Ming army's march schedule and all the deployment of the Ming army through the Military Intelligence Department. This was the masterpiece of Zeng Jiuye of the Liaodong Branch of the Military Intelligence Department: he bribed

He recruited several middle and lower-level generals of the Ming army in Guangning City, and also planted hidden insiders in Wang Huazhen's staff.

At this time, Zeng Jiuye was on the Ximen Bastion of Xining Fort, together with Lieutenant Colonel Zhang Pan of Xining garrison. Also with them was Captain Guo Yun of the Supervisory Army. At this time, the sun had not yet set below the horizon.

In the afterglow, Guo Yun held up his telescope to observe the Ming army on the opposite side, silently estimating the number of Ming troops. After a moment, he said: "Lieutenant Colonel Zhang, the Ming army has already appeared 180 Baihu flags, and the official army has a company of soldiers and generals under the command of Baihu."

, the real number should be one hundred and twenty, and more than 20,000 officers and soldiers of our army have arrived."

"They don't seem to have any plans to set up camp. What's going on?" Zhang Pan held up his telescope, leaned on the cannon placed in the corner of the fort, and asked doubtfully: "Could it be that they want to attack the fort overnight?"

"Really, they really put up an offensive formation. The shield soldiers lined up in front, and even the carts were pushed out." Guo Yun sneered: "These guys are just confused, do they think we are easy to bully?

?Zhang Defei, how about we fire a cannon? Their forward is already within the range of our thirty-six-pounder cannon."

"It's boring, let's wait until they take action." Zhang Pan shook his head: "Wait a minute, don't fire the five heavy artillery in the west, let them camp within the range of our heavy artillery..."

During the day, the Mongolian cavalry posts constantly monitored the Ming army's advance and promptly reported the situation to the Xiningbao fortress area. Now, most of the civilians in the original fortress had been evacuated outside the fortress a few days ago, leaving more than a thousand young adults.

They were willing to contribute to the Chinese army and were organized as a logistical auxiliary force to carry arms and ammunition for the garrison at the top of the city.

The Chinese army in the fortress not only knew the Ming army's attack plan in advance, but also did not appear panicked at all as Wang Huazhen expected.

When the Ming Army brigade arrived at Xining Fort, all the Chinese defenders had already entered the fortress area and were ready for battle. The Ming Army's first attack on Xining Fort launched by Zu Dashou soon ended in tragedy.

Under the blood-red sunset, 2,000 Ming infantrymen from two battalions launched an attack on the strong and high walls of Xining Fort without artillery cover.

They launched an attack about two miles west of the fortress. As soon as the attack began, they were bombarded by the Chinese Army's Thunderbolt rockets, six-pound light field artillery, and bombardments. Less than one mile away from the fort, there were already

Hundreds of Ming army soldiers were killed.

At this time, Zhang Pan transferred five field guns from other directions of the fortress and joined the ranks of the Ming army firing to the west. The pull-type flintlock ignition shells were fired at the maximum rate of fire and fell on the dense

Among the crowd of Ming soldiers.

Therefore, less than 300 steps away from the fortress, the Ming soldiers could not withstand the bombardment of explosive shells and dispersed in droves.

The Chinese soldiers cheered, and then someone complained loudly: "You bastards, why did they collapse before we had a chance to shoot!"

"Coward, you're too coward, let's go out of the city and chase him for a while?"

"Go to hell and stay still. It's up to those Tatar cavalry to chase them."

"Who are you talking about as a Tatar? My mother is a Mongolian..."

"Shut up, everyone, the garrison master gives the order, and all soldiers are on standby!"

…

Zu Dashou, who was stout and short and fat, shook his big head, became furious, pointed at his nose and scolded several generals from the forward camp. He did not expect this attack to be effective, but he did not expect these two

The battalion leader didn't give him face so much that he collapsed halfway. The soldiers at the camp leader were from the original soldiers of the Ming Army Guards east of the Liaohe River. They were veterans of Zu Dashou's army, but they completely disgraced him.

Some of the surviving soldiers threw away their weapons and equipment and fled back empty-handed. They had never fought with the Chinese army, so they had no idea about the legendary "sharp firearms" of the Chinese army. As a result, they were repeatedly beaten as soon as they started.

The bombs were bombarded fiercely, and the charge took less than ten minutes before the entire army collapsed, with more than 300 casualties.

At this time, bursts of explosions came from far east of Xining Fort. This was the sound when the Sancha River pontoon bridge was blown up.

Wang Huazhen rushed to the front line of Xining Fort with great interest, hoping to see a hearty victory, but what she saw was the tragic scene of 2,000 Ming soldiers fleeing under the artillery fire of Xining Fort.

Immediately afterwards, he received a report from the Chinese cavalry battalion: the Sancha River pontoon was blown up by the pirates, and the cavalry commander was killed.

Wang Huazhen's face was ashen. The governor of Liaodong, who had been shaking his goose feather fan like Zhuge Kongming, got off his horse and strode to where Zu Dashou was.

"Zu Guerrilla, add more troops and fight again! We must capture this small fortress tonight. If we succeed, I will serve you well to the court."

Zu Dashou was really a little angry at this time. News of the failure to cross the Sancha River had come. The ancestor who was killed at the end of the pontoon bridge was his cousin from a branch of his ancestral family. Moreover, two of his battalions collapsed.

He was unwilling to do so too quickly. Therefore, when he heard what Wang Huazhen said, he immediately agreed: "I obey your orders. Wang Junmen, the young general asked me to lend me the cannon from the Beijing Camp."

The so-called cannons of the Beijing camp were imitated by the Ministry of War based on the Western cannons obtained by Xu Guangqi, and distributed to the Beijing camp for use. The total number of cannons in the entire army was only ten, and now five of them have been transported to Xining Fort.

At that moment, the Beijing artillerymen brought by Wang Huazhen from the capital used ox carts to drag the imitation version of the Hongyi cannon and advanced towards the front line of Xining Fort. At this time, night had fallen on the land of Liaodong, and a bright crescent moon hung in the sky.

The light of the torches lit by the Ming army allowed the Chinese soldiers on the fortress to vaguely see the movements of the Ming army.

During this era, most of the Ming army did not fight at night. The main reason was the lack of communication tools at night and the inability to organize effective military operations. Stealing camps and robbing villages at night mostly appeared in romance novels, and actual combat examples were relatively rare. Unless it was

Elite troops who are well-trained and fearless of death generally do not adopt night fighting tactics.

Therefore, the Ming army prepared to attack the city with great fanfare at night, which was beyond Zhang Pan's expectation.

However, he was not worried about this. Within 300 steps of the fortress wall, a circle of flint mines was laid. Zhang Pan had already deployed ten honeycomb guns on the west wall, and was confident that before the Ming army approached the wall

, killing them in large numbers.

The result was everything as he expected. The Ming army's artillery did not give much help to Zu Dashou's newly organized attack. These five cannons could only fire solid bullets. Their range was about the same as that of the Chinese army's light field artillery, but their firing speed was faster than that of the Chinese army's light field artillery.

The gun was three times slower.

The imitation Western artillery fired only two rounds, and the Ming army's artillery position was covered by Chinese artillery fire. Seven or eight gunners died, and the Ming army's artillery support was suspended.

This time Zu Dashou sent a group of troops from his standard battalion to urge the three battalions of the Guangning Army to attack the west wall of the fortress.

Intense artillery fire made gaps in the attacking Ming army crowd. Amidst the flames and black smoke, severed limbs flew in the air and disappeared into the night.

Then, the Ming army stepped on the landmines, and more people flew into the air at the last moment of their lives. Then, manual rapid-fire repeaters began to harvest the lives of the Ming soldiers. All the Ming soldiers in the first row were mowed down by rapid-fire repeaters.

Behind the ground, the Chinese army relied on artillery fire, rockets, landmines, and manual machine guns to once again disrupt the Ming army's attack.

This time, Wang Huazhen witnessed the hot and fierce firepower of the Chinese army at close range. Her face was pale, her lips were trembling and she was speechless.

The Ming army's first attack on Xining Fort ended with more than 1,300 casualties.
Chapter completed!