Desert Eagle Suletan Khan

Yang Jie and Wu Liuqi gathered the defeated soldiers and led the troops to board the navy's warships. At this time, there were still 8,000 cavalry and infantry and 10,000 navy soldiers. The generals elected Yang Jie as the leader and led the army to retreat to Tianjin via the canal.

The name Tianjin originated in the second year of the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty (1404). In that year, Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan, led his army southward in the name of "pacifying the rebellion" and seized the throne. He renamed the place Tianjin, which means "the ferry where the emperor passes through." Because a fortress was built here, it was also called "Jinmen", which means "a gate set up at the ferry."

The water flow in the Hebei section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is gentle, and the number of locks is significantly less than that in Shandong. The fleet loaded with people and materials sailed along the canal, relying on sails when there was wind and oars when there was no wind, and quickly advanced towards Tianjin. On this day, it arrived 100 miles northwest of Zhigu. During the Jin and Yuan dynasties, the confluence of the Lu River (now the North Canal) and the Wei River (now the South Canal) was called Zhigu, and Tianjin Weicheng was built here; in addition, the Ming Dynasty also built a fort at Dagukou (Dagu River, now the estuary of the Haihe River), with more than 30 cannons and more than 2,000 defense soldiers, erecting the "screen of Tianjin Gate" to lock the key to the Beijing waterway. The Qing Dynasty established the Dagu Auxiliary Town Camp, which was under the jurisdiction of the Tianjin Town General with the Town Flag Second Camp and Hejian. However, after the Tianjin Town General Kede led his troops to Xuanfu and Datong under the order of the Qing court, Tianjin's defense became empty. The entire Hejian Prefecture, ten counties, plus Dagu and Zhigu, had less than 2,000 garrison troops in total.

"Young Master Yang, look, there is an army on the shore," Wu Liuqi said to Yang Jie with sharp eyes, pointing somewhere on the west bank of the canal.

Yang Jie took a look and saw a team of more than a hundred people, holding the Green Camp's flag. However, the flags were all tilted and listless, as if they had suffered a defeat.

"Send orders to prepare for battle and send someone to see what's going on," Yang Jie ordered calmly. Although Tianjin had always been in the hands of the Qing Dynasty, as a veteran general, he still did not dare to be careless.

The flag officer took the order and left, and soon brought back a military officer. The officer was wearing the uniform of a fifth-rank official, with a weathered face, eyebrows and beard covered with dust, and an attitude that was neither humble nor arrogant, "I, the humble Tianjin Guard Yu Changyou, come to see Yang Shaobao."

Yang Jie's heart skipped a beat. His intuition told him that something bad was going to happen. His face darkened. "Why is the Tianjin garrison commander coming to the canal instead of staying in Tianjin?"

Yu Changyou sighed, "Tianjin is lost~"
-
Great Khan Lianhua ordered Prince of Zhao Biligendalai and Deputy General of Tianjin Navy Camp Seter to advance by land and sea to intercept the Qing army reinforcements led by Cheke. At the same time, he sent Lieutenant General of Jinzhou Navy Ayuqi to lead the naval forces of Jinzhou and Haizhou to attack Tianjin Dagu Port.

In addition to the 2,000 Liaodong naval forces, Ayuki's army also had 2,000 Han troops from Pei Sansheng and Zheng Xianjia stationed in Yizhou, Joseon. At that time, Chu Wang Baoyin forced Zhao Wang Yi to agree to the Han troops to enter Yizhou, a major military town in Joseon. He also forced Zhao Wang to agree to promote Wang Yiwen, the chief general of the Han troops, to the position of training general (second rank), as the director (second rank), and Pei Sansheng and Zheng Xianjia as training generals, and to allocate military pay every year. After the Han people settled in Yizhou, with the support of Joseon military ministers such as Park Erzhao, the assistant minister of the Joseon military department, they gradually developed from 2,000 to 4,000 people, becoming a reliable force for the David Kingdom to control Joseon. This time, the Great Khan ordered Ayuki to lead the army to attack Tianjin and cut off the waterway to Beijing. Worried about the lack of Liaodong naval forces, he remembered this army and ordered Zhao Wang to transfer 2,000 Han troops to join the expedition. Zhao Wang did not dare to neglect it and ordered Pei Sansheng and Zheng Xianjia to lead 2,000 Han troops to join the expedition.

Although Dagukou is the gateway to Beijing and Tianjin and the throat of the sea route, the terrain is not steep, with an altitude of less than 20 meters, and there are many salt fields, depressions, and sandy beaches. A Yuqi first ordered Pei Sansheng to lead 200 soldiers and seven ships disguised as a Korean merchant fleet to enter Dagu Port. Without bloodshed, they disarmed the port defenders and then led the army into the port to attack the Dagukou Fort. The elite of Tianjin Green Camp were all transferred to Xuanfu and Datong. There were only 150 soldiers and 20 cannons in the Dagukou Fort. The guards came suddenly, and the defenders had no time to prepare and were quickly captured.

After easily taking Dagukou, A Yuqi immediately rushed to Tianjin from Dagukou. Yu Changyou, the garrison commander of Tianjin, had only 300 soldiers and horses, and could not defeat 4,000 enemies. He soon suffered more than half of his casualties and retreated to the canal. He was just about to rest for a while before escaping, but he encountered the defeated army led by Yang Jie.
-
"What! Tianjin is lost!" Yang Jie felt dizzy and almost vomited blood. He thought to himself that good fortune never comes alone, and misfortune never comes alone. Could it be that God wants to destroy me?
"Don't worry, Young Master Yang. The number of guards occupying Tianjin is not large, only about 3,000 to 4,000 people, and they have just entered the city and have not yet established a firm foothold. But you have nearly 20,000 soldiers. If you attack the city immediately, it will not be difficult to retake Tianjin," said Yu Changyou, the garrison commander of Tianjin. He was a military scholar in the Shunzhi Dynasty and had served as a blue-feathered guard in front of the emperor (rank 6). He was quite knowledgeable and knew that as the garrison commander of Tianjin, he might be punished by the court if he lost Tianjin. However, if he and Yang Jie recaptured Tianjin together, he would not only be innocent but also meritorious.

"Well, are you sure that the guards who captured Tianjin only had 3,000 or 4,000 people?" Yang Jie recovered and stared at Yu Changyou fiercely. "How dare I lie to the Shao Bao? There were indeed only 3,000 or 4,000 people," Yu Changyou still looked neither humble nor arrogant.

"Okay! You lead the way, and I will lead the army to retake Tianjin immediately!" Yang Jie made up his mind and led 8,000 land troops and 10,000 naval troops to attack Tianjin City.

"Sir, the Qing army has nearly 20,000 troops, while ours is only 4,000. Please order a retreat immediately." Seeing the enemy coming in an overwhelming manner, Pei San had the idea of ​​retreating by boat.

"Retreat?" A Yuqi glanced at Pei Sansheng, "Didn't you see the enemy warships on the waterway? If we retreat by boat now, we will be caught up soon. Now we can only defend the city and act according to circumstances. I heard that the Han army soldiers have a blood feud with the Manchus. What? The enemy is right in front of you, don't you want revenge?"

As soon as these words came out, they immediately aroused the hatred in the hearts of Pei Sansheng, Zheng Xianjia and other Han soldiers. As the remnants of the Ming Dynasty, almost every family had relatives who died at the hands of the Qing army, so they would rather flee to Korea than surrender to the Qing. How could they not avenge such a deep blood feud?

"Don't worry, Commander. We will fight to the end with you!" the two generals expressed passionately.

When Yang Jie led his army to the city of Tianjin, he faced 4,000 defenders who were united in purpose. Yang Shaobao did not realize this. With rich combat experience, he immediately judged from the flags on the city that Yu Changyou was not lying and that there were only 3,000 to 4,000 defenders in the city.

"Fire!" At the order, the Qing army's warships began to spit flames at the Tianjin City Wall, and the artillery in the cavalry and infantry also began to show their power.

"Fire!" A Yuqi ordered a counterattack without fear. There were many cannons on the top of Tianjin City. He also ordered people to unload a batch of cannons from the warships of Jinzhou Navy Camp and Haizhou Navy Camp to defend the city, which came in handy at this time.

The two sides fought an hour-long artillery battle, and then a fierce siege began. As soon as the battle started, Yang Jie frowned. He didn't expect that Tianjin, with only a few thousand defenders, would be such a tough nut to crack. After the defeat in Tongzhou, his army's morale had not recovered, but the defenders were brave and tenacious. This battle would be difficult to fight!
As if to prove his feeling was correct, after two days of fierce fighting, the Qing army suffered 700 casualties but failed to capture the city. (End of this chapter)

Read more latest popular novels at 6.9*shuba!