In accordance with the established strategy, Li Songping led an army of 40,000 people to march towards Sarhu Pass unhurriedly.
Because his headquarters, the Left Guard Army, had three thousand cavalry in the town, he left one thousand cavalry on standby in the central army, and he sent out the other two thousand.
A team of fifty people formed a fan-shaped formation and advanced ahead of the army to serve as outposts and for exploration.
In addition, Li Songping also wanted to catch Jiannu by surprise.
He has been in Liaodong for more than a year, and as a general with the highest military rank, he naturally has a deep understanding of Jiannu.
The great victories during the Wanli period had already made many slaves look down upon the Ming army to a greater or lesser degree.
And since the implementation of the strategy of strengthening the walls and clearing the country, there has been no large-scale battle between the two sides.
But there are many small-scale encounters.
Jiannu killed many elite scouts, but later found out that no practical information was found. In addition, the road was blocked by heavy snow in winter, so Jiannu no longer sent scouts to conduct reconnaissance.
This information was not only discovered by the Ming army itself, Amin also revealed military information to support it.
Therefore, Li Songping believed that by seizing the weak point of Jiannu's laxity, he could launch a surprise attack.
After leaving Fushun, we arrived at the area controlled by Jiannu. Along the way, we encountered three small groups of Jiannu scouts.
However, their team of detective cavalry only consisted of three or five people. They were no match for the Ming cavalry, so it was no surprise that they were all eliminated.
After walking less than ten miles from Sarhu Pass, they suddenly encountered a group of hundreds of Jiannu cavalry, and they were on the flanks, avoiding the search range of the Ming army's outposts.
Although the encounter was too sudden, Li Songping did not panic and sent a thousand cavalry to surround and kill the opponent.
In this small-scale encounter, the Ming army naturally won.
But the other party discovered the Ming army first, and Li Songping immediately realized that the so-called surprise attack was no longer possible.
After a brief discussion with several generals, he made a decisive decision and ordered the entire army to speed up, trying to break through Sarhu Pass before the Jiannu army gathered.
As for establishing slaves, when Du Du learned that tens of thousands of Ming troops were coming to invade, he showed no fear at all.
After sending fast horses to Hetuala, he summoned Jia La E Zhen and Niu Lu E Zhen with white flags, claiming that they would kill the Ming army and pay the price for their boldness.
But he also understood that he only had more than 4,000 soldiers in full force. If he was about to face a head-on confrontation, he would definitely suffer a loss.
After thinking about it, I decided to hold the pass for the time being, waiting for the Ming army to attack, and then make other plans.
Although his idea was good, he did not understand that the troops coming this time were not Liao soldiers who did not like and were not good at using firearms.
When Li Songping arrived at Sarhu Pass, he first ordered the two thousand heavily armored sergeants of the Taishan Battalion to go to the pass first, that is, outside the attack range of Jiannu, and set up military formations to prevent Jiannu from launching a surprise attack while his own foothold was not stable.
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He looked around with a telescope and found that Jiannu had already made preparations and was probably waiting for the Ming army to attack.
Li Songping would naturally not do such a stupid thing. Although it was a small pass in front of him, it was far inferior to some of the passes in the Ming Dynasty.
But the advantage is that the terrain is good, it is condescending, and it is surrounded by mountains on both sides. There are also large trees and jungles as natural barriers, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack.
Forcibly attacking a city is nothing more than lining up soldiers to die.
Chen Guang, the general of the Shenji Battalion, observed carefully and then said with a smile:
"General, this barrier is made of earth and stone. The artillery of our Shenji Battalion is enough to break the barrier."
"Okay, just do as General Chen said."
Chen Guang's views coincided with Li Songping's and he immediately agreed.
Although due to the poor terrain, the Shenji Battalion did not even bring a large Folang machine gun weighing a thousand kilograms this time.
The main bombardment force was the small Fo Lang machine gun weighing 500 kilograms, but the gate city of Jiannu was nothing more than built with earth, stone and grass.
Therefore, even though it was only a 500-pound cannon, Li Songping and Chen Guang were extremely confident and were able to blast through this barrier.
After the siege tactics were determined, Li Songping immediately summoned the generals of each battalion and issued an order:
"Every battalion in the army, listen to my general's orders."
"The soldiers of the Left Guard Army and the sergeants of the Huben Battalion stood in formation on both sides and were on standby. The cavalry retreated to suppress the central army."
"The Shenji Battalion belongs to the Chinese army, forms a formation, bombards Sarhu Pass, and blasts the gap. As long as the Chinese military command flag is waved, Taishan Camp, Zuowei Army Town, and Huben Camp will attack in batches in sequence. They must attack in one fell swoop.
Break through this barrier."
Then he said to Qin Bangping:
"General Qin, the officers and soldiers of Taishan Camp are all heavy armored infantry and are equipped with horses. You will bring a thousand sergeants to make up for them later. This important task of attacking the enemy will be entrusted to you."
"General, don't worry. The last general and his subordinates have been transferred to the north. They are just waiting for this day. No trace of the slaves left behind will be left behind."
After cupping his hands and cupping his fists, Qin Bangping ordered the remaining three thousand soldiers of the Taishan Battalion to rush to the front line.
Naturally, the movements of the Ming army could not be hidden from the condescending Jiannu.
Du Du watched the Ming army mobilize and set up formations on the top of the city, and said to his slaves with a slight sarcasm:
"Minggou didn't come to attack the city, but instead set up military formations, thinking that we would go out of the city to fight with them? It's really fantastic."
All the slaves burst into laughter and mocked the Ming army in unison for being as timid as mice and not knowing how to fight.
But it didn't take long for them to stop laughing. When they vaguely saw that the Ming army had a large number of artillery, they realized that this Ming army was completely different from what they had encountered before.
Before they could adjust their deployment, the Ming army had already set up the artillery and adjusted the direction of the muzzle. Under the command flag of General Chen Guang, a hail of gunpowder pellets rained down on Guancheng like a rain of arrows.
On the wall, they were thinking about how to kill the slaves who came to attack the Ming army. They only heard roaring sounds. Before they could react, there were sudden explosions around them.
Du Du was also shocked. Just now, gunpowder projectiles detonated not far behind him.
Looking back, I saw several of his loyal minions, some lying on the ground wailing and shouting, and some half dead and silent, but vomiting blood.
Fortunately, there was someone behind him who blocked the first wave of air for him, and he was wearing cloth armor. The power of the sporadic projectiles was not enough to hurt him, otherwise he would have been lying on the ground.
How could the Ming army care about their life and death? The first wave of bombing was just for them to check the distance and direction. It was just an appetizer at most.
The Ming army had one hundred and fifty Fo Lang machine guns, divided into more than a dozen columns. Under the methodical flag waving of several assisting generals, they bombarded the earth wall in front of them in batches with great rhythm.
At this time, inside and outside Sarhu Pass, in addition to the continuous sound of artillery and explosions from the Ming army, the only sounds left were the various types of wails and screams of the slaves on the pass wall.