Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 248 Battle of Yanzhou
The Palace Army was extremely efficient. On the fifth day after the army laid siege to the city, all preparations for the siege were basically completed.

Zhu Cilang rode his horse at full speed and personally went to the front of the battle to review the siege in the south of Yanzhou City. The shouts from the army shook the sky and the momentum was like a rainbow.

After the army demonstrated outside the city, the various battalions were deployed as planned, attacking from the east, west and south, and artillery began to bombard the city.

However, the walls of Yanzhou City are high and strong, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack. Even with more than 30 thousand-jin heavy cannons, it would be difficult to conquer it in a short time.

While Zhu Cilang was besieging the city and bombarding it, he was also closely monitoring the movements of the Qing troops in Jining and Jinan, ready to deal with Duoduo at any time.

Of course, on the first day of the official siege, the artillery only bombarded the city for a dozen rounds before the troops withdrew.

Zhu Cilang also immediately began to arrange the tasks for the second day's siege, especially the arrangements for the army to gather and march north to Jinan and Jining after the capture of Yanzhou.

After several days of intensive bombardment, the outermost walls of Yanzhou City began to show signs of loosening and collapsing, which meant that the infantry could launch an offensive.

On a new day, at the foot of Yanzhou City, thousands of cavalrymen of the Cavalry Corps set out, directly driving back dozens of Qing army scouts outside the city and blocking all battlefields outside the city.

At the same time, inside the various camps of the Ming army outside the city, flags were flying, horses and soldiers were shouting, and the sound of war drums and bugles was endless. A large number of siege weapons were also pushed out of the camps and placed about three or four miles away from the city wall.

On the city walls, the Qing troops were on high alert. The Manchu general sent by Duoduo to supervise the battle was in charge personally, and the Manchu soldiers under his command had a very tenacious will to resist.

On the city walls, there were earth, stones, battering rams, ropes, long hooks, as well as golden and shiny gold juice that emitted a terrifying smell.

However, looking at the Ming army's artillery positions outside the city, the defenders couldn't help but feel frightened.

After all, there were only five or six thousand Qing soldiers in the city. Facing a powerful enemy with a strength more than ten times their own, it would be impossible to fight if there were no city walls to isolate them.

They all knew the power of artillery, but they were not so confident about Duoduo's deployment.

The most important thing is that they are not sure whether the other party will come to rescue before the city is broken.

Zhu Cilang rode his horse to the front and personally commanded the siege. The dragon flag was planted in the center of the south of the city, which greatly boosted the morale of the attacking army.

At this time, Chang Denggui had already led several battalions of troops up the river, breaking through the obstacles set up by the Qing army in the canal, and marching triumphantly all the way.

Yanzhou and Jinan are not far away. Chang Denggui and Zhang Huangyan both received military orders from Zhu Cilang last night. They adjusted their armies overnight and prepared to speed up the pace of action.

However, Zhu Cilang never expected the firm determination of the Qing troops defending the city to resist.

He asked Zhang Huangyan to write a letter to persuade the Qing army in Yanzhou City to surrender, but the other party was dismissive and almost killed the messenger who delivered the letter. This made Zhu Cilang completely give up the idea of ​​persuading them to surrender and chose to attack directly.

It can only be said that after experiencing repeated betrayals by the Green Camp Army, the Tartars have learned their lesson.

Although the Qing army had a strong mentality of avoiding war and did not dare to engage in direct battle with the Palace Army, they rarely surrendered. Perhaps only when Zhu Cilang used cannons to blast open the Yanzhou City would they realize that the situation was irreversible!
Zhu Cilang withdrew his thoughts and turned to look at the artillery position to his right. There were more than thirty red-haired cannons weighing over 2,000 jin, and even more eight-pounders. Hundreds of artillerymen, under the command of their officers, were adjusting the angles and positions of the guns.

The artillery of the Palace Army had already begun the transformation to professionalization and standardized operations. Zhu Cilang organized officers at all levels through the Officers School to compile standardized operation manuals, which greatly promoted this process.

Now, every artillery officer has a copy of the "Practical Artillery Operation Guide", which records the characteristics of dozens of artillery pieces, angle adjustments, inspection procedures for explosive packs and shells, and loading requirements.

In this way, officers can use this manual to guide and check the operation of artillery and whether the operation is standardized.

In this era, artillery actually needed to use various tools to calculate distance and angle before firing shells.

In four years, the artillery units of the Palace Army have abandoned the old methods and started using relevant tools, greatly improving the accuracy of shooting.

Soon, several "boom" sounds were heard from the artillery position, and several iron bullets weighing more than ten pounds suddenly rushed out from the muzzle. A black shadow flashed in the air and slammed heavily towards the tall wall of Yanzhou City.

However, most of these shells did not hit the city walls. Several of them directly rushed into the moat, and with a "bang", they stirred up several splashes of water several meters high.

After the initial "gun test", after two rounds of adjustments, the artillery of the Palace Army quickly met the firing requirements for a salvo to bombard the city.

The command flag on the artillery position was waved, a loud bugle sounded, the gunners began to load ammunition, and the pyrotechnicians raised the ignition forks in their hands, waiting solemnly.

"Boom, boom, boom"

A burst of war drums sounded from the artillery position, followed by a deafening explosion.

In the thick white smoke, an orange-red flame flashed by, and dozens of iron bullets weighing more than ten pounds rushed out from the muzzle and hit the city wall directly.

On the outermost city wall of Yanzhou Prefecture, dust and rubble suddenly flew everywhere. Many wall battlements were directly knocked down by the powerful iron bombs, and the stone bricks of the wall were blown away, revealing the fresh soil inside.

The intensive attacks and indiscriminate killing by the rubble brought by the 8-pound cannon salvos made the Green Camp soldiers on this section of the city wall lose their fighting will in an instant. Some soldiers even fled screaming, while more people huddled together and hid behind the parapets, with the sound of collapsing bricks and stones constantly coming into their ears.

"Boom, boom, boom"

The second round of artillery fire began. In the artillery position filled with white smoke, dozens of artillery guns suddenly retreated, and then hundreds of iron and stone bullets of different sizes were fired, hitting the earth wall on the south side of Yanzhou City mercilessly.
Dozens of thousand-jin cannons and dozens of eight-pound cannons roared at the same time and concentrated their fire on the earthen walls on the west and south sides of Yanzhou City. The earthen walls were already filled with smoke and dust, and screams were everywhere.

A series of explosions were heard again from the Ming army's artillery positions outside the city.

After five rounds of concentrated fire, the outermost earth wall in the southwest section of Yanzhou City was already crumbling, and some of the wall battlements had even completely collapsed outside the city. The rubble fell into the moat, accompanied by the sound of "dong dong dong" splashing water.

After a while, another round of artillery fire was heard above the artillery position filled with thick white smoke, and a flash of orange-red flames passed by.

Under the bombardment of artillery shells, a large section of the earth wall in the southwest of Yanzhou City collapsed with a loud bang. The yellowish smoke and dust rolled up like huge waves, rising several feet and soon submerged the entire section of the wall.

Zhu Cilang was riding on his horse, watching the battle situation in the southwest corner of Yanzhou City. He couldn't help but feel happy. The army's artillery had not yet been fully deployed, but it was more than enough to deal with Yanzhou City.

Although Yanzhou City has been reinforced, it is not as strong as Jinan and Beijing.

As a gap of more than 20 steps long was blasted out in the earthen wall on the southwest side of Yanzhou City, war drums suddenly sounded above the Ming army positions that were on high alert.

In the wilderness, more than 3,000 soldiers were divided into two groups, forming a column behind hundreds of shield carts, trench carts, and ladder carts. The shield carts advanced rapidly and soon formed a formation through the horse-blocking ditch that had been filled in a few days ago.

However, the Qing army was also experienced. When the five vanguards arrived at the designated battlefield, the Qing army was already on high alert on the city walls. Arrows rained down and stray bullets flew everywhere. Many soldiers were killed as soon as they approached.

At this time, the Green Camp soldiers, with the Eight Banners soldiers supervising the battle behind them, relied on the advantages of the city walls and were fighting stubbornly, constantly firing cannons and arrows at the Ming army under the city walls.

In the wilderness outside the southeast corner of Yanzhou City, as the earth wall collapsed, the Ming army's war drums and bugles also sounded quickly, various flags fluttered, and more than 3,000 Ming army soldiers were already charging forward, pushing various siege equipment.

Behind the shield car formation, dozens of moat bridges were pushed to the front by the soldiers, followed by a larger number of ladders.

After the artillery bombardment, the Qing army on the earth wall seemed to have lost the ability to fight back and allowed the Ming army soldiers to build a bridge across the river. Only a few scattered arrows were shot from both sides from time to time, but they were unable to stop the Ming army's charge.

Soon, the soldiers responsible for the assault mission crossed the Hao Bridge over the moat in a column and rushed directly into the smoke and dust. Braving the arrows shot from time to time, they climbed up along the collapsed stones and earth piles.

At the same time, the troops climbing the city wall nearby also set up ladders, preparing to launch a strong attack.

The soldiers of the Palace Army who were responsible for the assault mission used shields as cover, and the pikemen and musketeers supported them from behind and quickly climbed up along the collapsed earth wall.

At the same time, the troops who climbed the city wall via ladders were equally impressive. They bravely took the lead and climbed up one after another.

But the Qing army did not completely lose its combat effectiveness. As soon as they saw the soldiers of the Palace Front Army just showing up, pots of boiling hot golden juice were poured on them.

Under such a vicious attack, except for those soldiers who held up shields and barely blocked the attack, or those who were still below and were blocked by their comrades in front, dozens of armored soldiers fell from the wall with screams.

After nearly a year of preparation, the defensive supplies in Yanzhou City were sufficient. Although a lot of earth, rocks and wood had been consumed in the rounds of harassment launched by Zhu Cilang's army, the warehouses in the city were still well stocked.

The Qing army had no shortage of gold juice. After all, there were tens of thousands of people in the city, and a huge amount of raw materials were produced every day. The Qing army planned to make full use of it.

The soldiers of the Palace Army on the ladders suffered heavy casualties. This weapon was extremely vicious. In this era, once you were injured, there was basically no hope of recovery. The wailing and screaming of the wounded soldiers could easily shake the morale of the army.

However, the Ming army that attacked from the collapsed earth wall did not suffer a big blow because of the protection of shields and armor. The first few soldiers had already fought fiercely with the Qing army defending the city. People kept falling down and were constantly replaced.

The battle between the two sides at the collapsed area was very fierce. With the advantage of terrain, the Qing army's defense force was not weak.

These Eight Banners soldiers were extremely formidable. Most of them were veterans who had fought in the Qing army for decades. Their combat skills were extremely advanced and were no worse than the elite troops under Zhu Cilang.

At this time, the Ming army also made a breakthrough in its attack on the collapsed earth wall outside Yanzhou City, and the Qing army gradually lost its support.

But soon more and more Qing soldiers appeared on the earth wall. The Ming army advanced quickly and soon occupied the area under the collapsed earth wall. The soldiers formed small formations and began to attack the top of the city wall.

This is just the beginning. There are two earth walls outside Yanzhou City.

Moreover, the Qing army would no longer take the initiative to attack, giving the Ming army an opportunity to take advantage.
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In Nanyang City, Ajige looked through the telescope and saw a Ming army camp stretching for several miles on the other side of the Baihe River.

Surrounding this camp are many newly built watchtowers and earthen walls. It seems that the Ming army intends to gain a foothold with the help of the navy.

However, Ajige did not care about this. He was about to march eastward to have a decisive battle with Emperor Ming.

The city of Nanyang Prefecture can now be said to be impregnable. Even if he withdraws, there are still thousands of soldiers and horses stationed there, most of whom are elite troops from the Eight Banners and Green Camp. Even if the Ming army has the advantage of artillery, it will definitely not be able to capture it easily.

Of course, after all the previous lessons, Ajige was not absolutely sure at this time and did not dare to attack casually.

He knew that the Ming army's defenses were very strict. The two trenches in front of each camp, the watchtowers, arrow towers, and chevaux de frise in front of the gates were enough to show how powerful the Ming army was.

If we take the initiative to attack and launch a night raid before we understand the situation clearly, I'm afraid that several thousand people will not be enough.

"The main force of the Ming army in Huguang should have arrived. They sent out more scouts than we do, but there's nothing to be afraid of."

Ajige sneered and then said:

"But if the Ming army wants to break into the city, they have to fill it with human lives!"

"Your Highness, you must be careful when dealing with the Ming army. Any negligence will be a problem."

Gao Di said this, then swallowed his words back, fearing that he would be too obvious.

After hearing this, Ajige put down the telescope in his hand, turned his head to look at Gao Di, squinted his eyes and said:
"Gao Di, are you so afraid of Emperor Ming's troops?"

Gao Di lowered his head and said nothing. In fact, his original intention was to ask Ajige to leave more troops for him to avoid any problems.

"The Ming army is indeed powerful. I have fought for decades, and I can tell the strength of the army at a glance."

Ajige narrowed his eyes. He knew what Gao Di wanted to say, but he absolutely could not agree. Shandong's military strength was insufficient. He shook his head and said:

"But Nanyang City was able to hold out for so long before, so why can't we do that now?"

"Yes, that's what the prince said."

Hearing this, Gao Di knew that the situation was hopeless, and quickly agreed:
"I am just worried that if Nanyang is lost, the situation in the entire Central Plains will be in jeopardy."

"Of course I know this, but Nanyang City will definitely be able to hold out for a year or two."

Ajige's expression changed, and he suddenly smiled:
"By that time, I will have already wiped out Emperor Ming's entire army in Shandong!"

　I have something to do tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, so I will ask for two days off from my fellow book friends. I will resume updating the day after tomorrow.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)