Ming Empire

Chapter 12 How to Break through Shengjing
There are only dozens of households in this Zhuangzi, and depending on the situation, there may not be many residents.However, Cao Yue was still very careful in the arrangement, he didn't want to cause some Jiannu who slipped through the net due to his negligence, and thus leak the news, causing troubles or even disasters.

In several directions outside Zhuangzi, he laid ambushes.Cao Jie and Zhao Liang each led two hundred soldiers and sneaked into Zhuangzi at night.

Soon, there were screams in the night, and the sound of heavy footsteps when someone was running.However, no one escaped from Zhuangzi. Cao Yue's ambush outside the village wiped out all those who tried to escape.

After only half an hour, Cao Jie sent someone to report that all the Jian slaves had been dealt with, leaving three alive, and killing all the other Jian slaves.Thirty Han Chinese were captured, and several Han Chinese who fled in a panic died unexpectedly.

After all the corpses of Jiannu were disposed of and the blood was removed, Cao Yue also entered the village, ordered the soldiers to rest in the village, and set up multiple bright and dark whistles outside the village.A few days after breaking out from Songshan, the brothers didn't have a good rest, and they didn't even eat a bite of hot food. There are ready-made houses and food here. Of course, Cao Yue chose to have a good rest here.

There are a lot of livestock and food in the village, Cao Yue ordered to slaughter a few cattle and sheep, cook a few pots of hot soup and hot rice, let the brothers have a full meal, and supplement the food that is not in surplus by the way.Occupying this Zhuangzi helped Cao Yue solve several problems.

Several sergeants under Cao Yue understood Manchu, and the three Jian slaves left alive were asked for their confessions.These sergeants who can speak Manchu are from Liaodong. Before joining the army, they had contact with the Manchus and even hunted together. They can speak Manchu and recognize Manchu.

He was very experienced in interrogating the prisoner Cao Yue. He asked the sergeant to interrogate the three Manchus separately and ask similar questions, so that the enemy's confession could be identified to a large extent.Cao Yue ordered Cao Jie to inquire about the Han people who were detained together.

How to deal with these Han people is a bit of a headache, killing them is too cruel, after all, it is not easy for these Han people to survive until now.But if they want to keep them, Cao Yue is also afraid that the whereabouts of his troops will be leaked out, which will bring disaster.A little headache.

After about half an hour, the three Jian slaves finally couldn't stand the torture and told all they knew.

This is the Zhuangzi of a slave-building nobleman named Balama. Balama is the son of Daishan, the Prince of Li, who is staying behind in Shengjing.One of the people who survived was a confidant of Zhuangzi under the management name of Balama.This Jiannu named Bama knew more about the situation in Shengjing City. After some torture, this guy also explained everything he knew.

Including the situation of the people left behind in Shengjing City, the garrison inside and outside the city, the defense of the palace, the closing and opening of the city gate, etc., Bama basically explained everything that Cao Yue wanted to know.By questioning the other two survivors, Cao Yue also basically believed that the situation explained by Ba Ma was true.

There are really only about 2000 left-behind people inside and outside Shengjing today. Most of the members are old and weak, and the left-behind minister, Prince Li, is in charge.Among them, 1000 people were stationed outside the city, 500 people each in the east and west barracks, only [-] people in each of the two yellow flag barracks on both sides of the imperial city inside the city, and even more guards in the palace, only a mere two hundred people.

Cao Yue was overjoyed that Shengjing City's defense force was so weak, but how to break through Shengjing City was quite a headache.

Shengjing City closed all the city gates after nightfall, and normally the city gates were not allowed to be opened without Huang Taiji's will.Now during the war, Huang Taiji is not in the city, so this power is handed over to Dai Shan, the left-behind minister.Without Daishan's defense, the gatekeeper Jiannu would not open the city gate.There is no way to trick the city gate into opening. If they attack by force, they will definitely not be able to break through the fortified city of Shengjing.

However, the guards in Shengjing City during the day are relatively lax. These years, the Ming army will lose every battle, and there is no way to fight the Liaohe River. North Korea and Mongolia have surrendered to Jiannu. Jiannu has never worried that Shengjing will be attacked by the Ming army. .

What's more, now that the last elite of the Ming army is trapped in Songshan, all the roads from Guannei to Liaodong have been blocked. No one would have thought that the Ming army would raid Shengjing.Also, there are Hongyi cannons at the head of Shengjing city.After the three big traitors Geng Zhongming, Shang Kexi, and Kong Youde surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, they gave Jiannu the powerful red barbarian cannons. Most of these red barbarian cannons were erected on the top of Shengjing City. After Huang Taiji lost the first battle against Songshan, Only then did a few cannons go over.It is not so easy for tens of thousands of people to attack the city of Shengjing with a strong city and red cannons.

There is no chance at night, so I can only think of a way during the day.But during the daytime, when an army of more than a thousand people appeared under the city of Shengjing, it was impossible for the defenders not to notice.How can we rush to the city without being discovered by the defenders?Cao Yue couldn't figure it out.

After asking the confession, Cao Yue also ordered these Jian slaves to be killed, and comforted the frightened Han people.

He told those Han people that the Ming army had defeated Jiannu in Songshan, and that Shengjing would be recaptured in a short time, and the Han people in Liaodong would no longer be oppressed and tortured by Jiannu.

Cao Yue also asked them to distribute the weapons left by Jiannu to them, and told them to find a safe place to hide quickly after his troops left here, and then find a way to contact other Han people, and be the internal response when the Ming army came.

These Han people who were bullied by Jiannu and had seen too many tragic fates of their compatriots, heard what Cao Yue said, and all of them burst into tears.They believed what Cao Yue said, that the Ming army would open here soon, and their fate changed from then on.

Seeing how excited these people were, Cao Yue couldn't bear to kill them all on the grounds of avoiding their whereabouts being exposed.

After appeasing these Han people, Cao Yue also immediately summoned several Qian Zongs under his command to discuss countermeasures.

"Jiannu is extremely guarded at night, and there is no way to trick the city gate into opening, so we can only attack by force during the day," Zhao Liang, the chief executive of Qian, said helplessly.

"Forcing the city is definitely not enough, we must be wise," Cao Yue denied Zhao Liang's suggestion, "If you want to break through Shengjing, you must find a way to deceive the city gate and capture the city gate at the lowest cost. With the power of more than 1000 muskets of my men, it is no problem to deal with thousands of Jiannu, old, weak and remnant soldiers. We have to find a way, how can we successfully capture the city gate."

It's just that no one can figure out how to get close to Shengjing City without anyone noticing during the day.

At this time, the sergeant came to report that the secret post lurking five miles away from the Zhuangzi had captured three Jian slaves who had delivered the urgent report.As soon as he heard that the Jiannu who sent the urgent report had been captured, Cao Yue immediately ordered several prisoners to be brought over.

Naturally, it was another torture. Cao Yue used some methods of interrogating captives he had learned in his later life to torture the three slaves until they were inhuman, and finally asked for a confession.It turned out that these three Jiannu were postmen sending urgent reports back from Songshan, and they carried urgent orders sent back from Songshan by Emperor Taiji of the Qing Dynasty on their bodies.Cao Yue's subordinates searched out the urgent report from Jiannu's carry-on package, and asked two sergeants who knew Manchu to read it over and over again, and finally understood the content basically.

It turned out to be the battle report from Matsuyama.According to the battle report, the Qing army defeated the Ming army at the foot of Songshan City. The Ming army suffered heavy casualties, and the remnants retreated to Songshan City.The battle report did not mention at all that Jiannu was severely injured by the Ming army on Ru*feng Mountain, and that the Ming army was killed in Huang Taiji's imperial tent during the counterattack. It seems that Jiannu also reported good news but not bad news.

After reading the battle report and interrogating them harshly, Cao Yue ordered the three slaves to be disposed of.

At this time, he has already made a new, very bold decision.While continuing to discuss arrangements with the main backbone of his subordinates, he also expressed his bold ideas.

"Everyone, Jiannu quickly sent the battle report back to the city. We already know the way they called to open the city gate. We have seized Jiannu's battle report and the letters they carried on their bodies. I would have believed that they did not lie," Cao Yue said very After scanning all the people in front of him with resolute eyes one by one, he said in a deep voice: "Therefore, the general decided to choose a clever and brave man, and bring a few soldiers who can speak Manchu to sneak to Shenglong before most of our army. When outside the capital, call to open the city gate at night, kill the city gate guards in the chaos, and when the city gate is opened, other people will take advantage of the opportunity to rush into the city."

Then Cao Yue also explained his plan in detail.When rushing out of the encirclement, the sergeants under him carried a musket and three times the standard ammunition.These muskets and ammunition have never been used, and Cao Yue plans to concentrate some of the ammunition and make it into a large explosive bag.He ordered several sergeants who could speak Manchu to dress up as Jiannu's postmen to send emergency military information, and tricked them into opening the city gate. When the city gate opened, these sergeants lit explosives when they rushed in, killing and wounding the guards at the city gate. , it is best to blow up the city gate.

In advance, the men and horses he personally led sneaked under the city of Shengjing in the dark of night, and waited to pretend to be postmen delivering urgent messages to call open the city gate.As long as the city gate is occupied, the follow-up troops can rush in. With the thousands of old and weak soldiers who built slaves in the city, it is difficult to resist the attack of more than 1000 elite cavalry troops of the Ming Dynasty when it is dark and they cannot see clearly.The two thousand slaves outside the city wanted to be rescued, and it would take a certain period of time before they could be easily intercepted with muskets.

If the trick to open the city gate is unsuccessful, or there is no way to succeed, then Cao Yue can also lead other troops to retreat and flee Shengjing, and at most lose the few sergeants who deceived the city gate.

After hearing what Cao Yue said, everyone felt that this plan was too risky. If they couldn't open the city gate, the plan would fail, and they could only return without success this time.But they couldn't think of a better way, so they could only agree to Cao Yue's proposal in the end.

Cao Yue also made the decision very simply, and immediately asked everyone to prepare urgently.

From the interrogation just now, I learned that when Jiannu sends an emergency military situation, there are two to five sergeants accompanying him, that is to say, up to five sergeants can pretend to be Jiannu postmen to call the city gate.As long as the five sergeants cooperate properly, when the city gate is opened, they can attack successfully.Cao Yue entrusted this very difficult task to Cao Qian, a general of his family's army.

Cao Qian is young, less than 25 years old, very smart, excellent in skill, very brave, and quite stable. Cao Yue feels that only Cao Qian can complete this task.He personally called Cao Qian to his side, and solemnly handed over the task to him.

Without any hesitation or evasion, Cao Qian readily took over the task and expressed some of his thoughts.

After a discussion between the two, Cao Qian immediately made preparations.Two sergeants who could speak Manchu, together with two other capable men of Cao Qian, were selected and dressed as Jiannu sergeants to call the city gate.Cao Yue will personally lead other troops to sneak under the city of Shengjing.

After everything was arranged properly, Cao Yue immediately ordered the sergeants who had rested for a period of time to assemble and prepare to act overnight.

(End of this chapter)