Xiong Tingbi went all the way north along the Liaoxi Corridor, but it was difficult. He continued to encounter various difficulties from the third day after leaving Shanhaiguan. Countless refugees were growing explosively, crowding all the roads leading to Shanhaiguan. They dragged their families
Carrying mouths, supporting the old and the young, lugging their belongings on their backs, they swarmed southward. Not only did Xiong Tingbi and his party stop every step, but they also blocked the path forward of the team transporting various materials from the pass to the front line of Xining Fort on the Liaohe River.
It turned out that the pirates who captured Juhua Island two months ago suddenly launched a large-scale attack. Dozens of sailboats suddenly appeared along the coast of the Western Liaoning Corridor. After landing, the pirates rushed inland desperately, burning everything that could be burned along the way.
Any resisters were killed mercilessly. Their purpose was no longer to simply harass the Ming army's long logistics transportation line, but to cut it off.
This group of pirates has a small number of people, about two thousand, but they rely on their maritime transportation and maneuverability, their movements are fast, and they also have warships and cannons for fire support. Within seven or eight days, they reached Wanghai Platform and Seerzhai Fort in the north.
As far south as the Guangning Front Guards and Sheshanwu, they were all attacked by this group of pirates one after another. Except for the Guangning Front Guards, which had a larger castle and more troops stationed in it, all the other small fortresses and fortresses garrisoned by the Ming Army were attacked.
They were captured and then completely burned down by fire. Explosives were also used to blow up the gates of these fortresses. At the same time, deep trenches were dug out in various avenues, and sometimes large holes were created directly with explosives.
Making it impossible for large transport convoys to pass.
This group of pirates just drove away the people, but they showed no mercy when setting fire to their houses. Frightened people from all over the country fled in droves, and the refugees' goal was very clear: inside Shanhaiguan.
Xiong Tingbi witnessed the pirate attacks with his own eyes in Shaheyi.
There were four or five large sailing ships moored along the beach, all of which were rumored to be the two-masted plywood ships of the pirate army. From those ships, streaks of gray smoke rose, and thick rockets flew with smoke and sharp whistles.
Toward the land, countless small boats were scattered between these large ships and the coast. Soldiers with blue Chinese flags on the bottom could be seen everywhere paddling hard to land on the beach.
The Shaheyi garrison of the Ming Army has opened the fortress gate. They are not going to fight, but are escaping to the west.
Xiong Tingbi's face was ashen, and he wanted to rush forward as soon as he pulled the reins of his horse. His soldiers quickly stopped him: "Sir! You must not do this! There are more than a thousand pirates in the sea, and the local garrison only has a few hundred people. We can't stop them."
!”
At this time, Xiong Tingbi had already discovered that the Chinese pirates and the Chinese army had landed on the coast in many small boats, and nearly a thousand people had been well-trained and formed a team on the beach. They actually carried several small cannons to the coast.
The total number of Ming soldiers who escaped from Shaheyi Fortress was only three to four hundred.
Nearly half of the Ming army in the Liaoxi Corridor has been mobilized by Wang Huazhen, and they have to divide their troops to guard the thousands of miles of coastline. Specifically, there are very few defenders assigned to each fortress.
Judging from Shaheyi and the entire western Liaoning, it can be seen that the defensive force of the western Liaoning Corridor is already very empty.
Xiong Tingbi's soldiers quickly urged him: "Sir, let's go quickly. We will follow the defeated troops to Guangning Zhonghou Post, where there is a madman Zu Er guarding..."
The "Second Madman Zu" is Zu Dabi, the younger brother of Zu Dashou. He was extremely brave in battle and shouted joyfully, so he was nicknamed the "Second Madman Zu". Zu Dabi left Shanhaiguan three days earlier than Xiong Tingbi and escorted a batch of grain and grass north to Guangning.
Since the pirate army was frantically raiding various parts of western Liaoning, the food and grass guards were stationed at Guangning Zhonghou Post. The day before, he sent a courier to Shanhaiguan to deliver the Tang report. The courier met Xiong Tingbi and his party on the way, so Xiong Tingbi's soldiers knew
The location of Madman Zuer.
…
On the sixteenth day when the Ming army besieged Xining Fort, and on the eleventh day when Zhang Pan bombarded the Ming army camp, Mao Wenlong reported to Wang Huazhen that the general attack on Xining Fort was finally ready.
The next day, on the seventeenth day of the Ming army's siege of Xining Fort, the main force of the Ming army all attacked, and the second attack on Xining Fort began.
First, Mao Wenlong gathered more than a hundred heavy firearms of various types, and under the cover of the side vans of the Chinese military vehicle battalion, he began to fire at Fort Xining. Then, behind three rows of movable anti-gun barriers piled with earth and reeds, thousands of people opened fire.
The soldiers bent down and pushed hard against the artillery barrier, slowly approaching the wall of Xining Fort. Behind them, tens of thousands of Ming soldiers followed suit and slowly approached the wall of Xining Fort.
On the south road of the fortress, the Ming Army's Zhenwu Camp arranged more than a dozen infantry fronts ten steps apart, and slowly marched towards Xining Fort. Each line was a thin single-man line, striving to dilute the team to the greatest extent and reduce the number of Chinese troops.
The lethality of the army's artillery bombardment.
On the north road of the fort, the Guangning army concentrated all their cavalry, took advantage of the flat and dry terrain there, and spread out their cavalry ranks to attack Xining Fort, rushed to the bottom of the city wall, and then fired arrows at the top of the city.
The general attack carefully organized by Mao Wenlong showed its effect at first. On the wall of Xining Fort, if you look around, you can see that the north, south and west sides of the castle are all covered with black Ming troops. Everywhere you can see, there are Ming soldiers.
Wang Huazhen and Mao Wenlong planned to use the human sea tactic to bulldoze Xining Fort at once.
Although the 1st Regiment of the Fourth Division has entered Xining Fort to reinforce the defenders, they came from the sea and rowed boats through the swamps to reach Xining Fort. They were unable to carry heavy firearms and large amounts of ammunition. Therefore, Xining Fort's long-range firepower was not available.
How much strengthened.
The Ming Army of the West Route pushed under the city wall despite artillery fire. Those mobile anti-gun barriers can withstand ordinary solid artillery shells, but if a 36-pound heavy artillery shell directly hits the barrier, the barrier and the soldiers pushing behind it will be smashed into scum.
For explosive shells, this kind of barrier is actually of little use. Even if it is not a direct hit, the shrapnel thrown by the exploding shells will fly everywhere, mowing down the Ming army soldiers one by one. Especially the shrapnel and grapeshot that explode in the air.
, the Ming army soldiers had no way to hide and could only be beaten in vain. The artillery team organized by Mao Wenlong bombarded them. In addition to the red cannons, the range of the Franco machine guns and other artillery was only one mile, and their camp was five miles away. This
As a result, the Ming Army's artillery did not play a role in supporting the infantry at all. Before it could reach a firing distance, the infantry was already approaching Xining Fort City.
Wang Huazhen had regarded the capture of Xining Fort as his own honor project, and he had to defeat it no matter what. Therefore, he personally supervised the formation and regarded his Biao Battalion as the supervising team, and his confidant Sun Degong as the commander-in-chief issued a strict order: Anyone who fled
Anyone will be killed on the spot.
Zhang Pan's artillery firepower could no longer cope with the enemy's offensive. After all, his artillery fire needed to deal with the siege on three sides. Tens of thousands of Ming troops suffered heavy casualties under the Chinese army's artillery fire. It was only thanks to the strict military discipline of the supervising team that they could approach the city wall. A large number of ladders
Lifted up, close to the city wall...
"Kaka kaka kaka kaka kaka" a series of manual rapid-fire gun trigger sounds sounded, followed by bursts of continuous gunfire. At the same time, the Chinese army defenders on the city wall also began to attack the Ming army below the city.
Three rows of rounds of fire. Behind the shooter, the grenadier dropped the grenade for free.
Some of the defenders were constantly knocked down by arrows and projectiles fired from the city. Immediately, someone took up the positions of the dead and injured brothers and kept shooting. A large number of lives were consumed under the city wall, and a large amount of blood spattered out and gathered into a river of blood. Xining
The castle moat quickly turned into a bright red river.
Countless people died meaninglessly under Xining Fort. Soon, a pile of corpses half as high as a man was piled up under the city wall.
Before the Ming army had time to put the ladder up on the city wall, they fell down in a hail of bullets. Their morale suddenly dropped to the bottom, and they turned around and fled. Since they were close to the city wall, many people in the supervising team were killed, which led to the Ming Dynasty.
The defeated troops broke through the defense line of the supervising team and fled straight back.
At this time, the artillery team directly commanded by Mao Wenlong opened fire. Although most of the shells did not hit the city wall, the imitation Western red-coat artillery still hit the west gate of Xining Fort, killing and wounding dozens of Chinese soldiers.
The Chinese army's artillery had just been busy dealing with the Ming army's infantry, which was coming like a sea of people, and had neglected the opponent's artillery. Now the two sides began an artillery battle.
The Ming army from the north and the south also attacked the city wall respectively at this moment. The Chinese army now faced a full-scale attack by the Ming army on the city wall.
The second wave of the Ming army's offensive began only after noon, but the situation of this battle began to change.
The left cavalry of the Guangning Army on the North Road was shooting arrows at the head of Xining Fort. Suddenly, there was a burst of conch trumpets from behind them. In the blink of an eye, a Chinese Army cavalry unit magically appeared behind them, sweeping in like a whirlwind.
.This group of cavalry is a light cavalry wearing plate armor, armed with a flintlock lance and two flintlock pistols, and holding a Mongolian saber. It is a regiment of the Chinese Army Cavalry Brigade with more than 1,500 people. The commander is a cavalryman.
Li Jicheng, son of Lieutenant Colonel and Deputy Commander of the Cavalry Brigade, Major General Li Xiao.
Li Xiao was lucky enough to kill Nurhachi in the Battle of Hetuala, and received an exceptional promotion. Due to his merit, he also obtained a large piece of land near Haizhou in Liaodong and an island in Southeast Asia as private property. His son has been following him for a long time.
Dad also had a lot of meritorious deeds in fighting, and he was promoted very quickly. In fact, Li Xiao and Luo Quanxiu were both middle and lower-ranking officers of the original Ming Army. They are now the members of the original Ming Army who have joined the Chinese military system, with the highest positions and military ranks.
Two people.
Li Jicheng's troops waded across the Liao River from Huangniwa. In order to cross the river, they abandoned all their excess ammunition and baggage. They appeared on the battlefield like a whirlwind, completely disrupting the Ming army's offensive deployment.
Almost at the same time, a unit under the banner of the Second Infantry Division of the Chinese Army landed on the beach behind the Ming Army camp on South Road. There were only more than a thousand people, and they attacked the Ming Army camp regardless of the daytime.
Zu Dashou's troops, who were responsible for monitoring the patrol east of Xining Fort, discovered that large groups of Chinese army troops appeared one after another in Niuzhuang, Dongchang and other places on the other side of the Liao River.