Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 231 Divine Power Aids the Bitterness of Being Surrounded (Part 2)

The Jurchens have already forged the Divine Might General Cannon, which is now a real problem.

Although the main hall of Yuxi Palace was unusually cool, Zhu Jue, Sun Chuanting, and Lu Xiangsheng all frowned.

They stood together, staring at the Liaodong map on the table, and remained silent for a long time.

Zhu Jue frowned and pondered for a long time before asking, "Bo Ya, just how crude were the Jurchen cannons? Do you think those cannons are even usable?"

That one is definitely usable.

Sun Chuanting explained in detail: "Your Majesty, before we had machine tools, the cannons we cast were actually a bit rough."

The range of that kind of artillery might be affected by the large gap between the shell and the barrel, but its power would not be much less. In addition, the artillery also had another use, which was to load shot.

This involved filling the bottom of the cannon barrel with a large amount of gunpowder, then sealing the gunpowder section with dried clay cakes. Small iron balls, iron slag, and even discarded arrowheads and gun tips were then poured in, compacted, and then ignited.

Although this shotgun has a range of only one or two hundred paces, its kill radius is astonishingly large, basically one shot can wipe out a large area, making it a powerful weapon for defending cities.

Your humble servant estimates that most of the Jurchen cannons are used to load loose shells. As long as our soldiers leave the protection range of the chariots and climb the city walls, one shot will be enough to wipe out a whole squad.

Legend has it that Nurhaci died from a back wound sustained during the attack on Ningyuan City when he was caught in a hail of bullets.

Isn't this just being a troll?

And it's an extra-large troll.

That thing, with its cannon barrel the size of a bowl, spewed out countless small iron balls, iron slag, discarded arrowheads, and spearheads, the kill radius of which was unknown.

If the soldiers were to launch a direct assault on Liaoyang, countless casualties would be incurred.

Is the tactic of taking advantage of an opening really that useless now?

To be honest, Zhu Jue was somewhat unwilling to retreat.

The problem is, they can't take Liaoyang City. What can they do if they don't retreat? Are they going to besiege Liaoyang City until they run out of food and force the Jurchens to surrender?
Oh, and there's also the tactic of encirclement!
This tactic may seem a bit unreliable, but it's actually better than a direct attack.

The Jurchens used this tactic before, not just once, but twice: once when they besieged Dalinghe Fortress, and once when they besieged Jinzhou City.

During both of these sieges by the Jurchens, the Ming army was commanded by Zu Dashou.

Although Zu Dashou eventually surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, it was not that he was incapable of fighting; on the contrary, he was quite skilled in battle, especially in defending cities.

He led over 10,000 men to defend the city on both occasions, while the Jurchens besieged Dalinghe Fortress and Jinzhou City with tens of thousands of troops. However, no matter how the Jurchens attacked, they could not capture the city he was defending.

He held out at Dalinghe Fort for several months, but the city ran out of food and the soldiers were starving to death, so he had no choice but to surrender.

He defended Jinzhou for more than a year, but when the city ran out of food and he could not break out, his soldiers were about to starve to death, so he had no choice but to surrender.

Zu Dashou was indeed besieged by the Jurchens and suffered terribly. He defended the city twice, and when the food ran out, indescribable inhuman tragedies occurred in the city.

This proves that the tactic of encirclement is indeed usable, and very effective.

He could even learn from Huang Taiji's follow-up tactics in the Battle of Songjin and use a strategy of besieging a point to attack reinforcements.

This is an example of using someone else's methods against them. If Huang Taiji dares to lead a large army to rescue Liaoyang, it will be like the Battle of Songjin in history, where the fate of the world is decided in one battle. However, in the past, it was the Jurchens who defeated the Ming Dynasty and left it with no hope of recovery. This time, he will defeat the Jurchens and leave them with no hope of recovery!
Zhu Jue thought about it carefully, and then decisively said, "Bo Ya, since we can't attack head-on, we'll choose to besiege the city until we run out of food, and then see if the Jurchens will surrender."

Uh, besieged?

How many troops would that require?

The key issue is that Liaoyang City is not easy to besiege.

Upon hearing this, Sun Chuanting cautiously reminded him, "Your Majesty, I dare to say that the Taizi River lies to the north of Liaoyang City, making it difficult to besiege."

What happened to the Taizi River?
Zhu Jue pondered, “Bo Ya, unless there are special circumstances, city walls are generally not built next to a big river, right? If they are built next to a big river, they will be full of water when they dig them up, and it will be difficult to dig the foundation of the wall, right?”

"Jinling City seems to be one of them. The Yangtze River seems to be several miles away from the outer city wall on the north side. And judging from this map, Liaoyang City shouldn't be built on the banks of the Taizi River either; there must be several miles between them, right?"

This is true.

Sun Chuanting nodded slightly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, the city wall on the north side of Liaoyang is about five miles away from the Taizi River."

The problem is that there are cannons in the city. It's not difficult for a 500-pound cannon to have a range of five miles, so it's impossible for us to set up a defensive line on the north bank of the Taizi River. Moreover, the Beisha River is directly north of Liaoyang City, and it extends for dozens of miles to the north. Even a 800-ton steamship cannot get through there, so it's impossible for us to completely blockade the Beisha River.

In this way, the Jurchens inside the city could potentially obtain supplies through the Beisha River and the Taizi River, making our siege seem pointless no matter how long we besiege them.”

Oh, the Jurchens in the city might still be able to get supplies.

That would be perfect for using the tactic of besieging the point and attacking reinforcements.

If the Jurchens in the city had no hope of obtaining supplies, Huang Taiji probably wouldn't have led a large army to their rescue.

Zhu Jue stared at the map and pondered, "This is not a big problem. We just need to send a fleet of small Zhiyuan merchant ships to patrol that section of the river day and night. Even if the Jurchens in the city have cannons weighing 500 jin each, it is unlikely that they can concentrate moving ships over such a long distance."

Even if you manage to hit them occasionally, it's not a big deal. Just tell the soldiers on board to be careful, and when they hear the Jurchens firing from the city, they should quickly take cover in the hold or behind the boilers.

Uh, aren't you afraid that the small Zhiyuan merchant ship will be smashed?
The north side can be sealed off.

The problem is that the river wasn't frozen over.

Upon hearing this, Sun Chuanting cautiously reminded him, "Your Majesty, if the river is not frozen, we can indeed use small Zhiyuan merchant ships to block the north side of Liaoyang City."

The problem is that it's less than five months until Liaodong is frozen over. If Liaoyang has enough grain to feed the Jurchens for five months, then we won't be able to seal off the north.

Once the river freezes over, our small merchant ships won't be able to patrol back and forth. The river is so wide, and we can't set up defenses on the south bank; the Jurchen cavalry could easily charge across.

That would make it even easier to besiege the enemy stronghold and attack their reinforcements.

Zhu Jue stared at the map for a while, then raised his hand and said, "Bo Ya, look, the Taizi River has many bends and turns, and there are two large river bends on both sides of Liaoyang City that go around to the north of Liaoyang City."

You can build two cities at these two river bends and garrison a large number of chariots and cavalry. When the river is frozen, the Jurchen cavalry can ride across the river, and our cavalry and chariots can also cross the river.

If the Jurchen cavalry dare to come, our cavalry will attack from the two cities to block their retreat, and our chariot troops will also surround them from both sides to form two lines of defense, annihilating the Jurchen cavalry in one fell swoop!

The entire pocket formation has an opening of less than fifty li (approximately 25 kilometers). Even in freezing weather, cavalry could complete the encirclement within half an hour, and chariots within an hour.

Surrounding the spot for support?

This tactic seems to be working fine.

The problem is, the Jurchen cavalry might not be able to surround them.

Upon hearing this, Sun Chuanting cautiously said, "Your Majesty, the Jurchen cavalry will definitely choose a point to break through. Even if they only have 50,000 cavalry, we may not be able to surround them."

Especially when our cavalry had just surrounded them from both sides, before the chariots caught up, the Jurchens could simply choose a spot without chariots and charge in. That would be tens of thousands against a few thousand. As long as casualties were disregarded, they could definitely break through in one fell swoop.”

Hmm, that's a problem.

Zhu Jue nodded slowly and pondered, "We can equip our cavalry with a large number of bombs. If the Jurchens try to break through before their chariots can form an encirclement, our cavalry will keep throwing bombs. As long as we can blow up the Jurchens' front-line cavalry, we can stop their charge."

Thunderclap?
This thing existed as early as the Song Dynasty.

If there were enough thunderclaps, they could indeed stop a cavalry charge.

The problem is that a thunderbolt needs at least ten pounds of gunpowder to be powerful, so ten thousand of them would require a hundred thousand pounds of gunpowder.

Sun Chuanting cautiously reminded him, "Your Majesty, the Thunderclap Bombs consume too much gunpowder. One Thunderclap Bomb costs more than ten catties of gunpowder. If we want to rely solely on Thunderclap Bombs to stop the cavalry charge, then tens of thousands of cavalrymen would have to throw tens of thousands of bombs. For fifty thousand Jurchen cavalrymen, we would have to throw fifty thousand bombs, which is five hundred thousand catties of gunpowder. We don't seem to have that much gunpowder, do we?"

There wasn't one before.

However, they soon did, as Zheng Hongkui and Wang Laipin both went to the Americas to buy them.

If a "cooperative development" agreement is reached with the Spanish, then we can have as much gunpowder as we want.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly and said, "You don't need to worry about that. I will give you enough thunderbolts when the time comes."

If there were enough thunderbolts, it would indeed be possible to annihilate the Jurchen cavalry in one fell swoop.

The Jurchen cavalry had cotton armor, so they might not be afraid of the bombs, but their warhorses were. If tens of thousands of bombs were thrown at them, the warhorses would definitely be so frightened that they would turn around and run away.

Upon hearing this, Sun Chuanting nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise. If there are enough thunderbolts, then besieging the point and attacking the reinforcements is indeed a brilliant plan."

(End of this chapter)