Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 503 Ping Liao (7)

Fan Wencheng has died. He lived from the period of Nurhaci to that of Huang Taiji, and witnessed the Qing Dynasty's entry into the Central Plains and then its withdrawal from the Central Plains. In his lifetime, he witnessed the rise and fall of the Qing Dynasty.

Jirgalang left Fan Mansion with a complicated expression. Fan Wencheng did not finish his last sentence. However, Jirgalang felt that Fan Wencheng wanted him to retreat to Hetunala.

But how could Jirgalang make this decision easily? If he lost Shengjing, Liaoyang, and even the Ningjin defense line, how long would it take for the Qing Dynasty to revive, or would the country be destroyed? Jirgalang now thought that when he went out of the pass, the Qing army was still planning to repeat the old practices of the Ming Dynasty and enter the pass to plunder. But it has only been a short time, and the Qing Dynasty has not recovered from its injuries, but Meng Jun has already sent a large army out of the pass. How ridiculous it is to think about it.

The Qing Dynasty was on the decline. Although the court officials in Shengjing were all located in different places, the ministers who were forcibly relocated from the interior were basically all in Shengjing. At first, Jirgalang thought that by taking all the court officials away, he could at least delay the time for Meng Jun to completely rule the north by one or two years. He didn't expect that this was a useless effort.

All the ministers in the court were silent on the current situation of the Qing Dynasty. If they spoke occasionally, it was just a bunch of useless empty words. Jirgalang knew that many of them were in collusion with the Qingluan Guards, but after killing dozens of collaborators, the activities of the Qingluan Guards became more secretive.

Time passed day by day. Mandahai and Suksaha tried their best to deal with the coalition forces of 16 tribes in the Dulubi area. Bolo was still holding on to Pyongyang and the Ningjin defense line was also quiet. At this time, something happened in Lushunkou.

Outside Lushunkou.

On the foggy sea, at the end of the sky, a group of masts and sails were visible. This large group of ships were sailing from the south. The masts were like a forest and the flags were fluttering. On a giant warship in the lead, a large flag with the word "Qian" was raised on one side and Zheng Chenggong's gold-rimmed royal flag was raised on the other.

The defenders of Lushun looked at the huge navy in the distance in panic, and hurriedly sent fast horses to Shengjing to warn and ask for help.

As they got closer, the sea fog dissipated a little, and the sunlight shone on the warships. Only then did the defenders see the true face of the fleet.

Most of the fleet were Fujian ships used to transport troops. The first two were giant warships with black hulls and densely packed gun holes on both sides of the ship. There were also several Western-style galleons. Guarding both sides of the troop transport ships were the Zheng family's tribute ships and the traditional warships of the Shen Tingyang Navy.

There were only 400 defenders in Lushun, and the navy had only two small boats. Seeing such a huge army, the soldiers on the two small boats had already abandoned their ships and went ashore.

Yu Youtian stood on the deck of a Fu ship, looking ahead. Yu Youtian had made many military achievements over the years. When the Firearm Town was expanded, Yu Youtian was promoted directly from a battalion officer to the head of a town.

The deputy general Ma Sanxi said to Yu Youtian: "General, this battle seems to be an easy one. Once the Tartars are defeated, you will definitely be awarded a title."

Yu Youtian laughed and said, "How did you say that? I don't want to be a marquis!"

Yu Youtian felt a little emotional. He had been in the army for nine years and had grown from a young man into an uncle. His original ideal was to be a shopkeeper and have his own store, but now nine years have passed and he has become a general with a large army.

My second brother Li, who joined the army with me, had already died on the city wall of Suzhou. Chang Yuanding was picked up by the Qingluan Guards and there has been no news of him since then. Thinking back on it, I feel a lot of emotion.

Just as Yu Youtian was daydreaming, the fleet began to slow down, the two leading giant ships began to fire, and the first wave of landing fleet began to move rapidly towards the shore.

Amid the rumbling of artillery fire, the small transport boat touched the beach and hundreds of soldiers poured out like a tide and quickly assembled. Holding swords and shields, they formed a military formation and advanced step by step to leave space for the landing troops in the rear.

The second wave followed by Yu Youtian's firearms soldiers. As Yu Youtian is now a senior general, he naturally would not be in the first echelon.

On the city wall, the soldiers who stayed behind witnessed all this with despair on their faces. Go out of the city to intercept them? The number of people transported in one trip was almost more than the number of people defending the city, not to mention that there were cannons covering the landing.

Everyone knew that the chances of winning were slim, but the defender of Lushun did not think so. He was a young member of the royal family named Sai'an, and was considered a distant branch of the Qing royal family.

Sai'an was in the city, constantly boosting morale. He didn't want to escape, he wanted a great victory and to become a famous general through the ages, just like the general in the military books who defeated a hundred thousand troops with only eight hundred men.

Sai'an knew that stubbornly defending the city would lead to a dead end. Only by taking the enemy by surprise and attacking them when they were unprepared could he achieve extraordinary success. Therefore, Sai'an only left a few people on the city wall to scout the distance of the landing Qian army. The rest gathered at the city gate. The gate was not locked and could be opened easily. He wanted to take advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness and defeat it in one fell swoop.

The Qingluan Guards had already gathered intelligence about Lushun. Although the exact number of defenders was unknown, the Qingluan Guards assured the military that the number of defenders would definitely not exceed a thousand.

Yu Youtian watched as wave after wave of transport ships brought troops to the beach. The defenders did not attack them halfway across the river. Yu Youtian thought it was safe. The defenders must be short of manpower. It seemed that the intelligence from Qingluan Guard was still very accurate.

By the afternoon, most of the infantry had landed and Yu Youtian had already set foot on the land of Lushunkou.

Yu Youtian took out a telescope, looked at the tower, and shook his head, "Why are there only two people on the tower? Is Sai'an playing the empty city trick?"

Ma Sanxi stood on tiptoe, looked around, and replied after a while: "No, General, the Empty City Strategy has people playing the piano on it, but there is no one here, so it should not be the Empty City Strategy."

Yu Youtian put down his telescope, glared at Ma Sanxi, and said, "It's a trick to use troops. Who said that the empty city plan must use the zither?"

Just as the two were talking, the gate of Lushun suddenly opened, and Sai'an took the lead, leading more than 400 cavalrymen, and rushed towards Yu Youtian's flag.

Yu Youtian was shocked and shouted urgently: "Prepare for battle! Form five formations and load ammunition!"

The army was approaching the enemy city. Both the soldiers and officers were not careless and the formation had been maintained. Suddenly, when they saw the city gates opened, all the soldiers became serious and the atmosphere of war emerged all of a sudden.

"The enemy is about 150 steps away, small artillery ready!"

"The enemy advances 120 steps, small artillery fire!"

Yu Youtian was startled at first, but then he felt something was wrong. Why was there no one behind the city gate? It seemed that there were only a few hundred people leaving the city, and definitely no more than a thousand riders, while there were over ten thousand people outside the city. There must be a conspiracy behind such a charge!

After firing two rounds in succession, row after row of muskets began firing when they entered the range of the muskets. There were five rounds of continuous firing. After three rounds of continuous firing, the officers in the front row saw that there was no movement in front, so they stopped firing.