September 5th.

There are still ten days left before the planned deadline to capture Jinzhou.

As time passed, Wang Yongji became more and more anxious.

If we cannot capture Jinzhou before winter, we will not be able to capture Jinzhou before spring.

After all...there are only a few ways to attack a city.

Bombardment, tunneling or ladders would all be ineffective in the bitterly cold winter.

The amount of supplies consumed every day by the Ming army of 100,000 was an astronomical figure.

In order to reduce the pressure on logistics, we can only retreat strategically.

As for where it is most appropriate to retreat to, no one can be sure.

If we retreat to Ningyuan, everything we have done before will be in vain.

The ministers in the court converted the loss of troops and the consumption of food and fodder in his attacks on Songshan and Nanshan into silver, and used this as the basis for impeachment.

Even if Wang Yongji had made great contributions, he could not withstand the impeachment of the civil and military officials in the court!

But what is worth being happy about is that during these few days of rest.

The Ming army found more than ten locations suitable for crossing the river and built a large number of river crossing equipment.

The Jiannu also have experts on their side.

While the Ming army was observing the terrain, they were also observing.

If the Ming army could find a suitable place to cross the river, they could find it too.

When the Ming army was making river-crossing equipment, they sprinkled water along the river bank to keep it slippery, increasing the difficulty for the Ming army to climb up after crossing the river.

At the same time, a large number of deer horns and artillery were deployed in advance at possible river crossing locations to prevent the Ming army from crossing the river.

September 6th.

The Ming army assembled two miles away from the river bank and prepared to cross the river.

Scouts from both sides kept going back and forth between the central army and the shore, informing the commander-in-chief of the situation on the other side of the river in a timely manner.

"Report!" The scout came to Wang Yongji, "The Jiannu have planted many flags on the other side of the river, and we can't see what's behind the flags."

"Well," Wang Yongji nodded and said to Wu Sangui beside him, "If nothing unexpected happens, Jian Nu has the same idea as us."

The reason why Wang Yongji said this was because he also planted a large number of flags on the shore.

There was nothing behind some flags, but behind some other flags there were a large number of artillery pieces for attacking when crossing the river.

"It should be!" Wu Sangui responded seriously, "There must be artillery behind the Jiannu flag."

"Then let's count the number of Jiannu artillery." Wang Yongji ordered: "Order the garrison soldiers to immediately enter the river to lay a pontoon bridge, and the artillery soldiers to hide behind the flags to observe the position of the Jiannu artillery on the other side of the river and wait for military orders."

Following Wang Yongji's order, the Ming army soldiers responsible for building bridges and roads rushed to the shore carrying tools, wood, and pulling ox carts and horse carts loaded with river crossing equipment.

After arriving at the shore, they began to unload the trucks and build a bridge.

The other side of the river was quiet and motionless.

"It's abnormal, too abnormal!" Wang Yongji couldn't help but frown.

The Jiannu should have stopped the Ming army from building a bridge.

What does silence mean?

But things have come to this, no matter whether the Jiannu make any move or not, the Ming army must cross the river today!

It was soon noon, and the Ming army had quickly built pontoon bridges to the other side of the river at more than a dozen locations.

"Order each unit to form a horizontal formation and cross the river!" Wang Yongji said cautiously.

The range of the Hundred-Shot Barrage Bullet was limited. If the Jiannu wanted to use artillery to fire at the Ming army across the river, they could only use large solid bullets.

Large solid bullets mainly rely on ricocheting to cause damage.

If they were arranged in a vertical formation, once they were hit by a large solid bullet, they would lose at least 20 to 30 people or even more each time.

There will be no such problem if the array is in horizontal position.

A horizontal formation has no depth, so even if it is hit, only a few people will be lost.

Thousands of Ming army vanguards formed a horizontal formation and rushed to the shore.

The number and width of pontoon bridges were limited, and could not accommodate so many Ming troops crossing the river at the same time.

then....

The Ming army inevitably crowded and waited on the shore.

At this time, the flag on the other side of the river moved.

In the field of vision, the flags of more than a dozen areas on the other side of the river suddenly fell down at the same time.

Revealing the artillery behind.

Zi——

The artillery fuse was burning at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Boom, a loud noise.

Huge artillery shells hit the Ming army that was waiting to cross the river.

Fortunately, the first shell missed.

Before the Ming army on the shore could begin to rejoice, intensive artillery fire was heard from the other side of the river.

One shell after another came crashing down.

Some of the shells missed the target and bounced off into the distance.

Some shells hit the Ming army who were waiting to cross the river, causing casualties.

The sudden change caused chaos in the Ming army, and they turned around and tried to escape.

"We can't run back. If you want to survive, quickly get into the river. The terrain there is low, and it is a blind spot for the Jiannu artillery!" A knowledgeable general shouted immediately.

But his voice simply couldn't reach everyone.

Some Ming troops listened to him, quickly entered the river, and stayed on the pontoon bridge waiting for the next instructions.

Some Ming soldiers turned around and ran back.

Wu Sangui personally took to the battlefield and stopped the escape trend after killing several deserters in succession.

"Tell the soldiers in the river to stay there and don't move." Wang Yongji ordered with a sullen face, "Order the artillery to bombard the Jiannu's artillery positions."

"May I ask how long the bombardment will last, Governor?" asked the herald.

"One blast!" Wang Yongji said with great domineering words.

The Ming army's artillery had long been impatient and immediately launched an artillery battle after receiving the order.

The two sides started fighting at noon and continued until the middle of the evening.

At first, the Eight Banners soldiers were able to fight against the Ming army, but as time went on, they gradually fell into a disadvantage due to the lack of artillery.

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!