In Liaoyang city.
Upon hearing that the Ming army was about to attack the city, Wakda of the Zhenghong Banner hid behind the battlements of the city wall and trembled.
Yesterday evening he was eating barbecue and humming a little tune in the tent.
Suddenly Man Dahai told him to guard Liaoyang!
He has not forgotten a word of the conversation between the two, and it still echoes in his ears.
He asked: "My Lord, how many soldiers will you give me to guard the city?"
“Three thousand!”
"Mr. Duo?" Wakda almost popped his eyes out.
"Three thousand!" Man Dahai said lightly.
"This number of people is not enough!" Wakda said sadly, "Wang Yongji has at least 70,000 to 80,000 soldiers and they are all veterans! What's more terrifying is that the Ming army has a large number of artillery, especially red cannons."
"Even if I risk my life, I can't defend Liaoyang City!"
"My order to you is to defend the city to the death. As for how to defend the city, you have to figure it out yourself!" Seeing that Wakda was in a low mood, Man Dahai decided to make promises for him.
So he asked, "Do you know Zhu Wenzheng?"
"I don't know." Wakda refused Mandahai's cake.
"Ahem," Man Dahai coughed awkwardly twice and continued to paint a rosy picture for Wakda, "In April of the 23rd year of the Yuan Dynasty, Chen Youliang took advantage of the war between Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Shicheng and sent 600,000 troops to besiege Hongdu."
"The commander of Hongdu was Zhu Yuanzhang's nephew Zhu Wenzheng. He resisted the siege of Chen Youliang's 600,000 troops for 85 days with only 20,000 soldiers!"
"The difference in military strength between the two sides was thirty times. What Zhu Wenzheng could do, you can do as well."
It would have been fine if the difference in military strength had not been mentioned. After that, Wakda was even more devastated. "The city wall of Hongdu is 14 miles long and is surrounded by water on three sides. Chen Youliang's army could not be fully deployed, so the battle mainly took place in the south where there is no water."
"But even so, there were always three to four thousand defenders climbing up the south wall during each battle."
"Liaoyang City is different. Liaoyang is nine miles long and only has water on one side! It's impossible for 3,000 to stop 60,000!"
Man Dahai snorted coldly and said unhappily: "Although I have only given you 3,000 soldiers, don't forget that there are still thousands of civilians in the city!"
"They..." Wakda wanted to say something.
"Okay, this is an order!" Man Dahai said coldly, "As long as you hold on for ten days or half a month, your mission will be completed."
Without waiting for Wakda to continue asking questions, Man Dahai took his troops and left Liaoyang.
Where did he go and when will he come back.
Wakda knew nothing.
Where did Mandahai go?
He simply gave up Liaoyang and returned to Shengjing.
His mission was to defend Liaoyang and Shengjing and delay the main force of the Ming army.
As for how to delay, Dorgon did not give any clear instructions.
Man Dahai has his own ideas.
Liaoyang had no strategic location to defend, otherwise Nurhaci would not have abandoned Liaoyang and established Shenyang as the capital.
So Man Dahai decided to let Wakda guard Liaoyang while he himself would guard Shengjing.
in addition...
He had no plan to save Wakda.
That is to say.
Unless Wakda surrenders, he will die.
As for what Wakda would choose, Mandahai no longer cared about it.
Because his attention should be focused on Shengjing.
Is Shenyang defensible?
Yes, but not many.
So he needed enough time to create a large number of obstacles to delay the Ming army's offensive.
The longer Wakda can hold out, the more time he will have to prepare Shengjing's defenses.
Looking at the Ming army gathering outside Liaoyang City, Wakda knew that a fierce battle was about to begin.
He hid behind the battlements of the city wall and watched for a while, then stood up and began to inspect the city wall.
After a round of inspection, he found the problem.
He was a general of the Zhenghong Banner.
The three thousand soldiers in the city now consist of two groups.
Some of them were his subordinates, and some were bondservants in the banner.
These people are both capable of fighting and loyal enough.
But these people alone cannot defend Liaoyang.
Therefore, the key to defending the city is the people in the city.
But after walking around, he found that not only did the people in the city have no fighting spirit, some of them were even talking about surrender.
"Sir," a general came up to Wakda and said, "I have already arrested all the civilians who were talking about surrendering."
"Bring them here!"
"yes."
Soon, a dozen civilians were brought to Wakda.
They cried out that they were innocent and begged Wakda to spare their lives.
"Actually... not only do you want to surrender, I do too!" Wakda said shockingly.
A dozen or so people did not dare to agree with Wakda's point of view, nor did they know whether they should refute it.
I could only kneel on the ground, at a loss.
"Well," Wakda continued, "the Ming army has been very unfriendly to surrendered soldiers since entering Liao, and has repeatedly killed surrendered soldiers on the battlefield. Since you are willing to surrender, please go out of the city and contact the Ming army and tell them that I also want to surrender."
"This..." The people became even more at a loss.
"Let them go," Wakda instructed a trusted confidant, "and take a few people with them out of the city to test the attitude of the Ming army."
After giving the order, he whispered a few words to a few of his confidants.
After hearing this, the faces of those close confidants became even gloomier than before.
Under Wakda's arrangement, more than a dozen civilians and four Eight Banners soldiers left the city.
They took a basket to the outside of the city, and after the defenders lowered the suspension bridge, they crossed the suspension bridge and ran towards the Ming army formation outside the city.
On the city wall, countless pairs of eyes stared at their backs without blinking.
Seeing people coming out of the city, a Ming cavalry squad consisting of 25 people took the initiative to meet them.
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