unclear

Chapter 797 Divine soldiers descend from heaven
The navy used armed cargo ships to transport a battalion of 4000 warriors to the seashore 40 miles north of Gaizhou Wei, and landed quietly in small boats at night without alerting the defenders of Gaizhou Wei. They marched 70 miles in a hurry and arrived safely near Haizhou Wei before dawn the next day.

In order to march quickly, the Warrior Battalion did not bring field artillery with them and chose another siege method, blasting. After dawn, the soldiers of the Warrior Battalion, under the cover of accurate muskets, suddenly launched a siege on the unprepared Haizhou City.

All the soldiers who could achieve excellent shooting results at a distance of 200 meters were equipped with a Yangyang Type musket, and aimed the bullets loaded with propellant at every Jurchen soldier who showed his head on the city wall, and launched an organized sniping operation.

Then, a team of five engineers approached the city wall wearing full armor and holding large shields inlaid with steel plates. They first used explosives to blow a small hole at the foot of the city wall, then stuffed more explosives into it to blast the city wall.

Haizhou City Wall was built during the Hongwu period. It was initially built with wooden walls, which were later changed to brick and stone. However, as a checkpoint on the post road, the thickness and height of the wall were far inferior to those of important military towns such as Liaoyang, Shenyang, Jinzhou, and Xiaolinghebao.

The sudden attack had already made the defenders somewhat panicked. They had to rush into battle without even figuring out the identity of the enemy. Then the Jurchen soldiers, who habitually adopted traditional methods of defensive warfare, began to suffer a tragedy.

As they did not understand the enemy's fighting style, they were shot down one after another on the city wall by long-range muskets. Neither iron helmets, iron armor nor shields could resist, causing great chaos.

By the time the Jurchen generals realized what was happening and figured out that the enemy might be the Ming army, which was good at using muskets, it was too late. With two earth-shaking sounds, the 20-meter-long city wall collapsed, and rows of Ming soldiers walked towards the gap under the cover of intensive musket fire.

They couldn't win in field battles, urban attack and defense battles, and street battles. The Ming army used the muskets to the extreme, with their strengths and weaknesses, each performing its own function.

When the two sides confronted each other in the open streets, the long spears with long range and great power were the main killers. Even before they entered the effective range of the bows and arrows, they had already begun to cause considerable damage to the Jurchen soldiers. Especially the generals with complete and bright armor, no matter they were standing in front of the team or behind, they would always be taken care of first.

When both sides entered the narrow courtyards and houses, the pistols, which were quicker to load and easier to carry, became the ultimate weapon. Don't show your head within ten meters. If you see a human figure, a swarm of iron sand will hit you in the face. If you don't kill them, you will be injured and basically lose your combat effectiveness.

But the most frightening and helpless ones are those soldiers wearing heavy armor and holding shields. Although they are not numerous, their destructive power can be as powerful as a hundred.

Whenever they encounter someone refusing to come out of a house, these guys wrapped in iron sheets will appear, holding up their shields and moving forward slowly and steadily. No matter how many arrows or crossbows they have, they cannot penetrate them, and if they are lucky enough to hit their bodies, their arrows will be bounced off by the iron armor.

When they approached, they would light a foot-long paper roll, throw it into the house, and immediately lie on the ground. In an instant, the house would explode, blowing all the people hiding inside into pieces. Those who were lucky enough to keep their bodies intact would be dizzy and vomit, and would die within a few hours.

The elite Eight Banners troops in Haizhou City resisted for less than half an hour before they were defeated and rushed to the east gate from all directions, trying to abandon the city and flee.

As a result, before they even stepped out of the city gate, they were hit by more intensive musket fire. It was not until then that the Jurchen defenders discovered that there was already a Ming army guarding the east gate. There were about a thousand people standing in three rows in a semi-arc, with the first row sitting on the ground, the second row half-squatting, and the third row standing.

They aimed their muskets at the city gate and fired repeatedly. Hundreds of bullets whizzed in within a breath, and no matter how thick the armor was, it was difficult to penetrate.

As a result, many sturdy Eight Banner soldiers had to choose to jump down from the top of the city wall, even if they broke their legs, they would rather not be stabbed with bloody holes from a distance. It is said that those who died in this way will never be forgiven by the Eternal Heaven. Unfortunately, the enemy did not intend to let go. There were still some Ming soldiers on horseback patrolling back and forth in the distance. As long as they found someone trying to get away from the city wall, they would urge their horses to chase them. They would either trample or shoot them, and it seemed that they did not intend to let any of the defenders escape.

"Father, my son is here... Changshengtian, please have mercy on your people and send down thunder to burn them to ashes!"

The Jurchen general who led the army to guard Haizhou City was Nurhaci's seventh son Abatai. Although he was nominally Huang Taiji's elder brother, he was born out of wedlock and had no hope of competing for the Khanate. When his father returned to Hetuala with serious injuries and died two years later, he stood firmly by Huang Taiji's side and supported his younger brother to become the regent.

In return, he was also named Beile and commanded the Zhenghong Banner. He had been stationed in Haizhouwei for many years. The responsibility was not too heavy, but the benefits were very good. Unexpectedly, the Ming army suddenly appeared under the city, and they were so determined that they didn't want to let anyone go.

It was a luxury to think so much at this time. Even if the Ming army could let him go, he would lose the Haizhou Weicheng, and his brother Huang Taiji would not show mercy. Rather than involving his family in suffering, it would be better to end it himself.

It’s a pity that Changshengtian didn’t hear his desperate pleas before his death. It might also be that there were too many pleas at this time and the bandwidth was not enough. Not only was there no thunder or lightning in the sky, but there were also thousands of bright lights.

"Hurry up and go to the north of the city to check, don't let those monkey cubs forget the important matter!"

It was Li Shi who led the Warrior Battalion in the cross-sea attack again. Seeing that more than ten columns of thick smoke had risen inside the Haizhou City Wall and the battle was coming to an end, his brows were still furrowed, and he whispered to the officer beside him to go to the North City to supervise the battle.

The surprise attack on Haizhouwei and the destruction of the baggage and food stored there was only half of the plan. In order to retaliate against the joint siege of Fuyu City by the Jurchens and Mongols, the General Staff also formulated a more complicated follow-up link.

The Warrior Battalion would quietly leave out some of the defenders when burning down the Haizhou Fortress, allowing them to escape the encirclement, but the direction must be to the north, with the aim of allowing these defeated soldiers to go to Jinzhou along the post road for help.

As long as the defenders of Jinzhou dared to come out, they would have no chance of returning. The Marine Corps had already landed on the north bank of Sancha River and moved to an ambush near the ferry. When the defenders from Jinzhou crossed the river and headed south, they would suddenly attack them halfway across the river.

The Warrior Battalion that was to launch a surprise attack on Haizhou would also wait on the south bank of the Sancha River and attack the Jinzhou defenders who had already crossed the river. Although the Warrior Battalion and the Land War Command had few troops, less than 6000 in total, they were still enough to set up an ambush and launch a surprise attack along the way.

If there are too many defenders in Jinzhou and we don't have heavy weapons, it doesn't matter if we can't defeat them all at once. Once we have gained enough advantage, we will immediately retreat westward along the Sancha River. The beach is more than 50 miles away.

There are naval warships and armed cargo ships there to support us. With the cover of naval guns, we can get on board safely and the losses will not be too great.

(End of this chapter)