Boom, boom, boom, boom! The successive loud noises made Tong Yangxing turn his head in fear. It was the roar of cannons that he was already familiar with. The range, power and accuracy all made Tong Yangxing tremble with fear.
After a while, no shells fell, obviously not aimed at here, Tong Yangxing breathed a sigh of relief.
But when he turned to look at Manggurtai's banner again, he was shocked. The banner was gone, or rather, it had fallen. The large group of cavalrymen had fallen to the ground in chaos.
Tong Yangxing suddenly understood. The loud noises from the cannons were the Ming army's concentrated fire on Manggurtai.
Tong Yangxing judged that there were at least four cannons, and an ominous feeling immediately emerged in his heart.
In fact, there were six cannons, almost all the red cannons deployed on the southern city wall. The overlapping of simultaneous firing caused Tong Yangxing to make a misjudgment.
But this is not important. What is important is that six artillery shells hit the hundreds of cavalry led by Manggurtai from different angles, not only causing heavy casualties, but also knocking down Manggurtai's flag.
The defenders on the city wall cheered in unison, and even the sound of gunfire stopped, making the sound even louder and louder.
But after a brief pause, the roar of gunfire continued to be heard from the top of the city wall, becoming more frequent and more violent.
The enemy troops below the city also noticed something unusual: the commander's flag had fallen or disappeared, which on the ancient battlefield meant low morale or even defeat.
Once morale changes, those who continue to attack regardless of their lives become a minority. It's like when it's almost dinner time, most workers will be distracted, waiting to persevere a little longer before they can eat and rest.
But it is not easy to survive. The firepower from the city is fierce, and it seems that they are also trying to kill as many enemies as possible and harvest more heads before the enemy retreats.
On one side, people were in a panic, just waiting for the end of the get out of class - well, to sound the retreat; on the other side, they intensified the killing, fearing that they would let more enemies escape.
The whistling bullets poured down like raindrops, some were fired from muskets, and some were shot from artillery. The enemy, who had no intention of fighting and was exposed, was killed crazily by the defenders.
The shrill sound of the bugle finally rang out, and the enemies who had been struggling in the hell of blood and fire finally felt as if they had been pardoned and quickened their pace to retreat.
But is it so easy to escape?
The muskets and artillery on the city walls began to extend their firing, knocking down the enemies who dared not even turn their heads.
Several falconets fired shotgun shells at the fastest speed. The gunners were sweating profusely as they bombarded a relatively fixed area repeatedly until no enemy could stand.
The order to retreat was issued by Nurhaci. It was a painful and helpless decision, which meant the complete failure of the attack on Ningyuan.
Although the formation was outside the range of the Red Cannon, Nurhaci's understanding of the battle situation was only slightly delayed due to the reports coming back from scouts one after another.
Nurhaci knew that the troops who rushed to the city suffered heavy casualties, but he was also mentally prepared for such a situation.
Once the artillery fire was pushed forward, perhaps things would improve; if we retreated, the casualties now would be meaningless. Having spent so much effort to attack the city, wouldn't all our efforts be wasted?
Under such psychological influence, Nurhaci gritted his teeth and persisted, still retaining a glimmer of luck and fantasy.
But Manggurtai's banner fell, and the suddenly increased fierce firepower on Ningyuan City finally shattered Nurhaci's last hope.
Although it was painful to admit defeat, the fact that both sons died in battle made it clear to me how heavy the casualties of the Later Jin army would be.
This fortress was stronger than Guangning, and many times more difficult to attack. Gazing at the city with flickering flames and rising white smoke, the old slave exhaled with difficulty.
What made the old slave feel even more desperate was the Ming army's sharp firearms. Not only were there cannons that could fire far and hard, but there were also muskets that could penetrate heavy armor.
The Ming army's possession of these two types of firearms had already broken the siege tactics that the old slaves relied on when they went on the expedition.
In terms of artillery battles, the Ming army had the advantage of being on high ground and had more powerful artillery; the heavily armored soldiers could not withstand the sharp muskets when attacking the city.
Therefore, issuing the order to retreat was very wise and the analysis and judgment were very clear.
But at the same time as the order to retreat was issued, Tong Yangxing's troops were ordered to bombard the city, which was somewhat surprising and astonishing.
Not far away, Fan Wencheng's face was expressionless, but his heart was filled with a sense of powerlessness. After seeing the Ming army's weapons and defenses, he came to the same conclusion as Nurhaci, although he wisely did not offer any suggestions.
He also heard the order Nurhaci gave to Tong Yangxing. After thinking about it for a while, he understood Nurhaci's thoughts.
In the eyes of others, Nurhaci did not care about the lives of the Han soldiers and did not care how many died. Regardless of the effect of bombarding the city, it was a way to vent his anger.
Fan Wencheng thought of a deeper level, that is, the changes in the situation after this setback and the actions of the Ming army.
Staying in Ningyuan all the time and waiting to consume the strength of the Later Jin army under the city was obviously not Xiong Tingbi's style, nor was it the result that the Ming court wanted.
It should not be surprising that they would take advantage of the victory, launch more powerful pressure on the defeated and weakened Later Jin, and cooperate with Dongjiang to attack the Later Jin.
Fan Wencheng saw clearly that although the Later Jin had failed in their siege, the Ming army was still no match for the Later Jin in field battles. Therefore, relying on guns and artillery, advancing city by city, was the most likely strategy and tactic the Ming army would adopt.
Nurhaci ordered Tong Yangxing to bombard the city with this in mind, and issued a warning to the Ming army in order to delay its advance.
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