Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 517 Preparing for a General Attack
Five miles outside the south gate of Shengjing City, Sun Chuanting and the increasingly thin Lu Xiangsheng stood side by side on the tall building car platform, looking down at the deployment of the Qing army in Shengjing City, while discussing the next siege plan.

This building car is more than four feet high, and the height is just about five feet higher than the city wall of Shengjing. In addition to the height of the human body, standing on it can just observe the defense situation on one side of the city.

The Shengjing City Wall was rebuilt on the basis of the original Shenyang Wei City Wall. It was expanded from the fifth year of Huang Taiji Tiancong and basically completed in the eighth year of Tiancong.

After reconstruction, the city wall was increased from the original two feet and five feet to three feet and five feet, and it was as thick as one foot and eight feet.

The original city wall was made of bricks on the outside and soil on the inside, but the rebuilt city wall is based on stone, the inner and outer walls are made of bricks, and the inner wall is filled with rammed earth.

A turret was built on each side of the city wall, and there were more than [-] crenels. The circumference of the city was also expanded from the original nine miles to about ten miles.

After the reconstruction, the city wall was changed from four gates to eight gates, that is, eight gate towers.

Huang Taiji's personal edict named the gates: "The left of the south is called Desheng (Danan Gate), the right of the south is called Tianyou (Xiaonan Gate); the east of the north is called Fusheng (Dabei Gate), and the west of the north is called Dizai (Small North Gate); the south of the east is called Fujin (Dadong Gate), the north of the East is Neizhi (Small East Gate); Simon).

"Its connotation is quite adhering to the blessings of heaven, carrying down the feelings of the earth, cultivating civil governance inside, fighting against soldiers outside, appeasing the people who have already won, caring for the tribes outside the vassal, and using the prosperity of fortune to create the great ambition of the world."

"The slave chieftain of the East is good at learning and using it flexibly. This arrangement has fully learned the magic of our military fortifications. Unfortunately, the slave chieftain may have forgotten that our army is good at firearms, and it can easily destroy its elaborate planning without melee combat. The fortifications! The slave chief's vain attempt to use the mantis' arms as a cart will eventually be reduced to dust!"

After observing the fortifications arranged by the Qing army in the south gate, Sun Chuanting sneered and said to Lu Xiangsheng who was beside him.

"Brother Baigu's words are very true! The slave chieftain Hongtai wants to do what a trapped beast will do, and he is still stubbornly resisting in the end. For this kind of fierceness that has been rampant in our land in Liaodong for more than ten years, the only way to show it is to wipe it out in one fell swoop. The power of my emperor!"

After receiving Zhu Youjian's order, Lu Xiangsheng divided the more than [-] cavalry after the integration into several groups. Except for Luo Shifang who had already led the team diagonally to the east to meet Liu Zhang's troops, the rest of the brigade cavalry were handed over to Ma Ke, Cao Bianjiao, Li Chongjin and others led them, and after bypassing Shengjing City, they either headed north or west, sweeping and chasing them all the way.

In order to cooperate with the cavalry's pursuit, Sun Chuanting ordered the Beijing camp to allocate 1 people, together with more than [-] vans from the Yongwei camp, plus thousands of soldiers from the heavy battalion, to follow behind several cavalry. When the defeated and fleeing Qing army relied on fortifications to defend and the cavalry could not attack, they provided fire support to friendly troops, gathered prisoners and captured supplies.

The small Franco cannons in the car camp are suitable for field battles, and they are not very useful in the siege or break-up, so Sun Chuanting sent them all out this time.

Now the east, west and south sides of Shengjing City have been surrounded by the Ming army, leaving only the Great North Gate without the Ming army, but about ten miles to the north, there are 5000 Qin troops and [-] people from the Beijing camp responsible for intercepting the escape from the city. of remnants.

Shengjing must be broken.

This is the consensus of the Ming army from the decision-making level to the ordinary soldiers.

The main force of the Qing army, which is good at field battles, was able to collapse and flee. Now that the army has besieged the remnants of the Qing army in this small city, how can the defeated Qing army who are not good at defending the city defend?
No matter how sharp the bow and arrow are, can they withstand the bombardment of cannons?
Outside the city gates on the east, west, and south sides of Shengjing City, there are dozens of red barbarian cannons weighing more than a thousand catties delivered by the supply chain. It will collapse soon, even if there is a huge rock sandbag behind it, it is useless, at most it will add some work to the city after breaking it.

"Is Jiandou finished watching? If that's the case, how about we go back to the camp?"

Sun Chuanting looked at Lu Xiangsheng who was wearing a cloth robe beside him, both in his eyes and on his face, he was full of respect.

Sun Chuanting respected this loyal and brave minister who was six years younger than himself.

Over the past few years, it was precisely because of the hard support of this important minister that Daming's crisis did not turn into an irreversible defeat.

Although now because of the emperor's mandate and the governor's front-line war, he has to make decisions on his own, but Sun Chuanting has never had the airs of being an official in front of Lu Xiangsheng.Since the two joined forces, Sun Chuanting humbly solicited Lu Xiangsheng's opinions and suggestions for every major event.

"Good! Brother Baigu, please!"

Lu Xiangsheng, who doesn't like to talk too much, stepped aside and said that Sun Chuanting should go down the stairs first. Sun Chuanting bowed his hands slightly to express his thanks, and then walked to the stairs behind the platform first.

Lu Xiangsheng didn't have much interest in power at all. Although he had been an official to the high position of prime minister of five provinces, he didn't have any objection to Sun Chuanting's coming from behind. The rapid rise of the company is optimistic about its success.

Sun Chuanting's achievements have long been heard by Lu Xiangsheng through various channels. Lu Xiangsheng also admires this newcomer's courageous and responsible style, as well as a series of outstanding achievements made in the past few years.

He only hoped that there would be more able ministers like Sun Baigu in the court, and fewer moths who would sit idle and only care about their own interests. Then the future of Ming Dynasty would be promising.

The two got out of the building car and returned to Sun Chuanting's big tent in the camp under the guard of the soldiers. Sun Chuanting ordered them to go down, and the relevant officials sent by the Ministry of War immediately climbed up the building car with tools and drew the details of the defenses behind the east, west and south gates in the city. map for use in formulating a detailed strategy after breaking the city.

After the assignment was over, the soldiers brought tea, and Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng sat and chatted with each other. They waited quietly for the officials of the Ministry of War to survey the terrain and draw a map, and then summoned the generals from all walks of life to study specific tactics.

"Jiandou, the Holy Majesty's decree mentioned that in the future, Shenyang and other places will be set up as generals, and they will be under the jurisdiction of the army and horses to attack and defend various places. What do you think?"

After Sun Chuanting took a sip of the fragrant tea, he put the teacup on the low table beside him and said with a smile.

"The Holy Majesty's general strategy on this matter is completely correct, but because he has never been to the front line, there may be some deviations in the details. Since Brother Bai Gu asked, it seems that he also has some different opinions on this matter. I don't know what Lu guessed. right?"

Faced with Sun Chuanting's questioning, Lu Xiangsheng did not shy away from it, and expressed his views directly.

"Haha! Jiandou's words are right!
His majesty has great talents and strategies, and he always has a strategic plan in the overall situation. His layout is based on the next ten or decades. Whether it is related to the national economy and the people's livelihood, or the military and political strategies of the court, His Majesty's thinking is really amazing Endless!
However, in terms of the difficult conditions and the complicated situation in Liaodong, the number of soldiers and horses stationed in various places seems to be a little less.

Since Jiandou agrees with Sun, after the capture of Shengjing, you and I can write a special book on this matter and ask the admiral to make some changes to the charter. I wonder what Jiandou's intention is? "

"Good! This can be done!"

Lu Xiangsheng nodded readily and agreed.

The two important ministers discussed the topic of increasing the number of troops in the Liaodong garrison.

Considering that there may be a large number of Qing troops fleeing to the north in advance, Shenyang and Songyuan have too few soldiers and horses to take on the important task of the official army's attack on the north in the future. Appropriately increasing some is beneficial and harmless.

The number of soldiers and horses under the jurisdiction of the Shenyang General Army has increased to seven thousand, and the number of horses has three steps and four steps.

These [-] soldiers and horses will carry out targeted and regular raids on the Northeast and North, depending on the specific situation, to attack and wipe out the remnants of the Eight Banners.

At about [-] o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, the officials of the Ministry of War completed the map of the city's deployment. Sun Chuanting, Lu Xiangsheng, and Qin Liangyu immediately called the generals of the various ministries to attend a meeting to study and formulate relevant tactics. They decided to launch a general attack on Shengjing from the three city gates at the same time tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)