Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 227 Seizing the Opportunity to Counterattack the Jurchens (Part 2)

Liaoyang City is indeed a tough nut to crack.

This is because Liaodong was the largest of the nine border towns of the Ming Dynasty, and had the most troops. Liaoyang City, as the residence of the Liaodong Commandery, was the most formidable city among the nine border towns, without exception.

Zhu Jue had also checked the records. The city wall of Liaoyang was 33 feet high, which is about 11 meters, and the length of the city wall was more than 16 li, which was only about 1 li shorter than the inner city of the capital.

If we consider the number of residents in the inner city of the capital, Liaoyang could easily house hundreds of thousands of troops.

Moreover, the eleven-meter-high city wall was enough to inspire fear in the era of cold weapon warfare, making it extremely difficult to breach.

The reason why the Jurchens were able to conquer Liaoyang during the Tianqi era was not because they relied on their own abilities to take the city by force, but because they had planted spies in the city and with the assistance of Feng Quan's father, Feng Shengming, they were able to break into Liaoyang from within.

If they didn't have muskets, cannons, and ships, he wouldn't have been in such a hurry to send Sun Chuanting to tackle this tough challenge.

Upon hearing this, Sun Chuanting nodded solemnly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand. This year, I will do my utmost to capture Liaoyang City."

He wouldn't dare to guarantee that he could take Liaoyang City this year.

Zhu Jue, however, confidently pointed to the map and said, "Bo Ya, look, Shenyang is located in the middle reaches of the Taizi River. The river is quite narrow in some places, so we built bridges there before."

The section near Liaoyang is the widest part of the lower reaches of the Taizi River, and no bridges have been built there. Liaoyang City is located on the south bank of the Taizi River, and there are no fortresses within a hundred miles for defense. If we can mobilize enough chariots to block the Jurchens from the north towards Shenyang by using the Taizi River as a base, then Liaoyang City will be an isolated city.

The Jurchens had not yet realized that we would primarily use ships to transport troops and chariots, rather than building pontoon bridges to cross the Xiaohai River and attack Liaoyang by land.

In other words, as long as we don't build a pontoon bridge on the Xiaohai River, the Jurchens won't expect us to attack Liaoyang City. When that happens, if we suddenly transport our troops there with five or six hundred small Zhiyuan merchant ships, they definitely won't have time to react.

Didn't you just build Liaohe City at the confluence of the main Liaohe River and the Xiaohai River? From Liaohe City, it's only about 200 li to Liaoyang by taking the main Liaohe River and then turning onto the Taizi River. At the speed of a steamboat, it would take four hours to make a round trip, and you could make three round trips a day.

The Taizi River is a natural gap, which we can take advantage of to enter and use small Zhiyuan merchant ships to transport chariots and troops, cutting off the connection between Shenyang and Liaoyang.

The chariots and soldiers only take up space and are not too heavy. A small Zhiyuan merchant ship can easily carry five chariots and one hundred soldiers. In other words, we can transport at least 150,000 soldiers and 7,500 chariots over every day.

With so many troops and so many chariots, guarding the south bank of the Taizi River and preventing the troops from Shenyang from building a pontoon bridge to cross the river should be no problem at all.

Liaoyang is now an isolated city. You can attack it however you want; they're not going to get reinforcements anyway.

That makes sense, but I don't have enough men under my command.

Sun Chuanting thought for a moment, then carefully said, "Your Majesty, there are currently 80,000 chariot soldiers in Liaodong. If we add the 100,000 that I will train later, the total will be no more than 180,000."

If we use 150,000 chariots to block the Taizi River line, then we'll only have 30,000 chariots and 50,000 cavalry left. Cavalry certainly can't be used for sieges, and 30,000 chariots probably wouldn't be enough to breach Liaoyang, which is defended by at least 50,000 Jurchen infantry.

Oh, I forgot to tell you.

Zhu Jue shook his head slightly and said, "I will also send 100,000 cavalry from the capital to assist you in attacking Liaoyang City."

You've already visited the shipyard. Those five hundred small Zhiyuan merchant ships will definitely be completed within ten days. At that time, I will send chariot soldiers disguised as soldiers transporting grain to transport troops and chariots using the small Zhiyuan merchant ships.

This time, I am transferring not five thousand chariots, but ten thousand. Five hundred small merchant ships can transport two thousand five hundred chariots at a time. The capital is only a little over a thousand li away from Haichengwei. Three days is enough for a round trip. In twelve days, ten thousand chariots and one hundred thousand garrison troops from the capital can be transferred there.

"I will also order the chariot troops of the capital garrison to cover their chariots with grain, making them indistinguishable from grain transport ships. You should also keep an eye on things there. Ideally, you should blockade an area between Haizhou Garrison City and Liaohe City to train your chariot troops, so the Jurchens won't realize our intentions. Alternatively, the area between Liaohai City and Liaohe City would also work. If you feel the Jurchens along the Xiaohai River are watching too closely and might discover our chariot troop assembly and training, you can set the blockade area between Liaohai City and Liaohe City. The distance isn't that far, and it won't waste much time."

Do you want to send another 100,000 Beijing garrison troops to help?
This means the number of troops in Liaodong will now be nearly 400,000!
With so many men, so many chariots, and so many ships, how could I possibly fail to take Liaoyang?
Upon hearing this, Sun Chuanting nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise. This year, your humble servant will surely capture Liaoyang City."

Don't force it.

Zhu Jue nodded slowly and said, "We'll see how things go then. It's best for us to proceed cautiously and steadily."

The Jurchens and their traitors have been so eager to incite Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong to attack vassal states and slaughter vassal kings and their families in the Central Plains. I always feel that they have some kind of scheme.

In short, make thorough preparations first, and then lead your army to Liaoyang City to try. If you can't take Liaoyang City by force, or if you do take it but suffer heavy casualties, you can retreat or try to harass other places.

In short, don't worry. The Ming Dynasty is developing rapidly, and we will definitely become stronger and stronger. Delaying it for a few years won't do us any harm.

Uh, it seems like I'm not the one in a hurry this time?

If you hadn't said you wanted to use the small Zhiyuan merchant ships to seize the opportunity and rush into Liaoyang City, I was prepared to build a pontoon bridge to cross the river, use chariots and soldiers to slowly chip away at the enemy's strength, and build fortifications to advance gradually.

Sun Chuanting thought for a moment, then cautiously said, "Your Majesty, do you mean we should use small merchant ships to take advantage of the Jurchens' unpreparedness and launch a surprise attack on the Liaoyang City and Taizi River line?"

Yes, I didn't say you absolutely had to take Liaoyang this year.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then explained in detail: "Yes, I just wanted to see if the trick of taking advantage of an opportunity could have a miraculous effect."

Nowadays, we no longer rely primarily on cold weapons for warfare. Firearms, artillery, and even ships are all weapons and equipment capable of changing the course of war. Do we have any ready-made tactics that we can refer to?

Therefore, we can try all sorts of tactics. Of course, there are prerequisites for trying them out: we cannot lose too many men.

If this method doesn't work, we have other methods, such as using cannons to blast a breach in the city wall, or destroying the entire section of the city wall.

Lord Meng has already developed a 500-jin cannon with decent range and power. It can smash arrows with just one cannonball, and if enough cannonballs hit the city wall, they can blast a breach in it or even destroy it.

Now, Lord Meng is preparing machine tools for mass production of 500-jin cannons. It is estimated that we will be able to mass-produce 500-jin cannons this year. When that time comes, as long as we have enough cannons, we can try to bombard the city walls with them.

Therefore, you don't need to rush. I just think this is a rare opportunity. We can give it a try, and if it doesn't work out, then so be it.

Anyway, our main force is chariots. Once the chariots form a battle formation, the cavalry can only watch helplessly. Even if we retreat, we are not afraid of being pursued by the Jurchen cavalry.

Oh, it's a rare opportunity, so I'd like to give it a try.

That's no problem.

Upon hearing this, Sun Chuanting nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand. I will definitely give it a try."

If Huang Taiji knew that the young emperor of the Ming Dynasty was using him to test new tactics, I wonder what he would think.

(End of this chapter)