While the emperor and courtiers in the capital were discussing the post-war disposition, Liu Yuanbin, Ma Xu and others were leading 30,000 troops to attack Shanhaiguan.
The atmosphere of the new army heading to Shanhaiguan this time was particularly different. The whole army held their breath! Guan Ning now had a life-and-death feud with them. In addition to betraying the emperor and becoming a swordsman, they beat him to death in the capital.
The act of injuring thousands of young soldiers made the entire New Army have a sworn personal feud with these thieves.
Many children in the Yongwei Battalion Young Army are children of the New Army's Paoze. In particular, many of the orphans of their comrades who died in the First and Second Divisions of the New Army are among the Young Army. Guan Ning's army killed so many
How can you, a young army boy, as an uncle and uncle, bear such a tone?
The young ones are coming, the old ones are coming, this is the mood of the New Army officers and soldiers heading to Shanhaiguan on the front line at this time.
"Commander-in-Chief, we are still fifty miles away from Guancheng! Can the army rest for a while and attack Guancheng tomorrow morning?" Ma Xu is the vanguard of this battle to seize the pass. He is already here with his cavalry waiting for the army to launch.
They had been advancing for quite some time. To be honest, he admired the speed of the new army's horses and horses. For a distance of about 600 miles, relying on the mules and horses under him, the new army's advancement speed was actually no faster than that of the old cavalry's Yongwei camp.
The cavalry under Yingying and Ma Xu were slow, and in only five or six days, the army was not far from Shanhaiguan.
"General Ma is familiar with this area. After the army rests, he will send more people to investigate the military situation and geography of this place, and then we will decide on a military strategy. Since we have arrived near Guancheng, we don't need to rush forward and are fully prepared.
, it is appropriate to capture Guancheng in one fell swoop." Liu Yuanbin actually encountered a lot of stragglers from the Guan Ning Army along the way, but they were not strong enough to fight and collapsed at the first touch, so they retreated to Shanhaiguan to hold on. After approaching Shanhaiguan, Liu Yuanbin felt that he could no longer make such strides.
As the progress is being made, we need to be rational and it is not too late to tackle the problem after we are fully prepared.
Inside Shanhaiguan, Wu Sangui and other generals of the Guan Ning Army, as well as Shi Kefa and others, looked anxious! The emperor in the capital sent a large army to attack them so quickly, which was somewhat beyond their expectation. In their opinion, why would the capital prepare a plan?
It will take two months to organize a large army to come.
"Master Shi! Now our Guan Ning Army is in a desperate situation. If Guan City is not protected, Ningyuan, a small city, will definitely not be able to support the imperial army. What do you think we should do?" Wu Sangui asked Shi Kefa in a bad tone.
, what to do now.
It was only then that Lao Wu realized that his situation could not get any worse. This is the disadvantage of not having a strategic vision. From the time he was preparing to Qingjun until now, he did not have a clear strategic plan and had no idea what he should do next.
What.
Qingjun was deceived by people from Donglin. In addition, the emperor had not paid much attention to Guan Ning's army in the past two years and had a no-questions-asked attitude, which gave him a huge sense of crisis. He did not want to end up like Tang Tong and the others.
His end! When he encountered resistance in the capital, he retreated again, thinking of retreating to Guanning first. Halfway through, Shi Kefa's suggestions made Wu Sangui start thinking about the next step.
Before he could finish thinking, the army of the imperial court pressed towards the front line of Shanhaiguan. Only now did he truly understand what desperate situation meant, but it seemed too late to find a way out at this time.
"Wu Junmen, please be patient! Shanhaiguan is a fortified city, and the number of troops coming this time is only about 30,000. It shouldn't be difficult to defend it with Guan Ning's army."
"So what if we hold on? The imperial court will definitely cut off our food and salary. What will I, tens of thousands of men, have to eat by then?"
"General, don't worry about this matter! We are already preparing to crown the crown prince in Nanjing City. Who will have the final say in the world has not yet been decided." Shi Kefa was talking about the final plan of the Donglin Party. They originally planned to let Wu Sangui go to Beijing.
After forcing the emperor to abdicate, he allowed the prince to ascend the throne with good authority. After this plan failed, he had to settle for the next best thing and directly let the prince stand on his own in Nanjing.
"So what if the crown prince ascends the throne? Long live the capital, I have a large army in my hands. I, Guan Ning, am far away from Nanjing. Far water cannot quench my thirst for nearness."
"Even if the old king of the capital has a large army, he has no food and salary! How can he raise so many soldiers and horses relying on the province of Beizhili? Therefore, as long as Wu Junmen holds on, the situation will change
.”
Hold on? That sounds nice! Due to the failure of Qingjun's side, Guan Ning's army is almost losing morale, and people are in panic. How can they hold on?
When the time came on May 12th, Liu Yuanbin saw that the army was almost rested, so he decisively decided to officially start the battle to win the battle.
Thirty thousand troops pressed under the Shanhaiguan Pass. Looking at the heroic pass in front of him, Liu Yuanbin was a little worried. Since the establishment of the new army, it seems that it has never really fought a battle to seize the city. The soldiers and horses of the old camp of Yongwei Camp and the Ma Xuu tribe
, I guess it’s not very effective. There are heavy artillery above Guancheng, so this battle is a bit difficult to fight.
"Everyone, now that our army is under the Guancheng, it is imperative to fight to seize the Pass. But we have no heavy artillery and no experience in attacking the city. How should we fight this battle?"
"Commander-in-Chief, the only way to deal with Xiongguan, which has a fortified city and heavy artillery, is to rely on civil engineering work. Your Majesty mentioned this method of warfare during the lecture in the General School." Chief of Staff Xiang Chengrong proposed to Liu Yuanbin
recommendations of the staff committee.
"Civil engineering work? Chief of Staff, please tell me in detail, the specific tactics."
"Dig several zigzag trenches to Guancheng and dig under the city wall. Then dig a small gap under the city wall, make a square box out of wood, put half of the gunpowder in it, ignite it with a fuse, and blow up Guancheng."
"Dig trenches? I seem to have heard your Majesty talk about this method of warfare. When the Jianlu soldiers were besieging Jinzhou, they seemed to have dug several trenches to counteract the heavy artillery in the city! It's just that using wooden boxes to put gunpowder to blow up the city wall can
Can’t do it?”
"Your Majesty said that this method is feasible and the principle is similar to the Fengbeng method. There have been experiments in Jingli, so there should be no big problem."
"In that case, let's attack the city according to this method. Arrange people to start digging trenches early tomorrow morning."
Ma Xu gained a lot of experience watching Liu Yuanbin hold a military council meeting. It turns out that being the commander of a large army is so simple? Just ask a question, let his staff discuss it, come up with a plan after the discussion, and make a decision.
The army braved the artillery attack from the city head and dug trenches for four days before reaching the bottom of Shanhaiguan City. On the fifth day, the wooden boxes ready to blow up the city wall were put in place! As soon as the fuse was ignited, after a huge roar, the city was closed.
Ma Xu led his troops to rush into Guancheng first. The new army and the Yongwei camp filed in, and Xiongguan Shanhaiguan was breached by the army. After the city wall was bombed, the Guanning army dispersed and fled as if for their lives.
After leaving Guanning City, we retreated to Ningyuan.