"Report! Your Majesty, we spotted an enemy force in the northwest. The word 'Shun' is written on the flag. It seems that the main force of Li Chuang's army has arrived!"
Without waiting for Chongzhen to explain, a scout came running over and knelt on one knee to report the news.
As soon as these words were spoken, the officials present and the soldiers guarding the city changed their expressions and all looked towards the northwest.
There had been no war in the capital for a long time, and the last war was in the second year of Chongzhen.
Too many people died in that battle.
Zhao Lushi, Man Gui, Sun Zushou, Ma Dengyun, Hei Yunlong, Zhu Guoyan, and Yuan Chonghuan who was tortured to death by lingchi.
More than a decade has passed, and these people seem to have been forgotten.
Also forgotten is the cruelty of war.
Chongzhen took the clairvoyance and looked towards the northwest.
As expected, a group of Shun cavalry were galloping towards the capital. In front of them, there were a few scattered cavalrymen galloping desperately. Needless to say, they were all scouts of the Ming army.
Soon, these cavalrymen were out of the range of the Ming army's artillery.
They did not march in a line, but spread out in large groups.
There was only one purpose for doing this: to reduce the damage caused to them by the Ming army's artillery fire.
The Ming army had many types of artillery, and there were two main types of shells: large solid shells or hundred-shot shells. The former had a long range, and the latter had a wide killing area. (There were also shrapnel shells, but only skilled gunners could fire them, and even then mistakes often occurred, so they were rarely used in actual combat.)
Among all the artillery, the Red Cannon has the longest range, which can reach about 2,000 meters. But this is only the maximum range in theory. The longer the range, the more gunpowder is used, and the more gunpowder is used, the greater the risk of explosion.
The "Wu Bei Zhi" written in the first year of the Tianqi reign period has strict quantitative requirements for the loading amount of artillery ammunition, which reduces the risk of bursting and increases the life of the artillery.
When they reached the range of the Ming army's artillery, the pursuers stopped chasing.
The defenders on the city wall were unwilling to give up, and someone fired a cannonball at the cavalry.
As expected, it failed.
Li Banghua put down his clairvoyance, frowned, pointed at the Shun army digging the soil and asked, "Your Majesty, why do you say they are not here to dig trenches?"
"It was dark and windy at night, and the people on the city walls couldn't see. If they were digging trenches, why didn't they dig them at night?"
"There is only one purpose for digging during the day, which is to use these lives to test the number of defenders and artillery at each city gate. When attacking the city, choose a city gate with the least artillery to attack, which will minimize casualties. If nothing unexpected happens, there are also bandits digging outside other city gates!"
Sure enough, intermittent artillery fire was heard from the direction of other city gates.
Through the clairvoyance, they could see that there was also a group of bandits digging the ground outside the West Gate, which was closest to them.
The defenders at the West Gate operated the artillery and fired. Some shells had insufficient range, some flew directly over the heads of those people, and some hit the bandits who were digging the ground. Blood splattered everywhere, and several people were killed or injured!
Li Banghua frowned, still somewhat puzzled: "Your Majesty, these people are only digging in the distance, and the defenders are only using a few artillery pieces to fight back. In this way, they have no way of judging the number of defenders and artillery pieces at each city gate. Aren't they sending themselves to die in vain?"
The other ministers had the same doubts as Li Banghua.
Just digging trenches far away won't test anything.
Chongzhen thought about it and shook his head: "No, it's not a waste of life, they will attack the city soon!"
"Attack the city?"
"Yes, those people are not bandits, but civilians who are being held hostage by the bandits!" Chongzhen said, pointing to the distance.
"The fortification and clearing of the countryside has deprived the bandits of supplies, and the camp is running low on food and grass. In order to save food and to test which city gates are short of troops, the best way is to let these civilians come and die."
Before Chongzhen finished speaking, the bandits who were digging the ground suddenly stopped. Holding adzes, chisels, axes and saws in their hands, they launched an attack on the city wall.
The sudden change surprised everyone, especially the guards at the city gates. Fearing that the gates would be lost, they immediately organized their soldiers to prepare to meet the enemy.
Cannons, muskets, falconets, falconets, and bird guns were loaded in advance and would start shooting as soon as the enemy entered the range.
The commander of Fucheng Gate was Lieutenant General of the Fifth Army Battalion. He was about to tell everyone to prepare to meet the enemy, but Chongzhen waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, I think they will turn back halfway! It won't be too late to open fire when they are halfway through."
The fighting spirit that had just been ignited in Lieutenant General Li was extinguished in an instant.
The other court officials looked at each other, and all of them had a bad feeling!
This feeling is so familiar...
Everyone knows that Chongzhen likes to make some moves in military operations.
It would be fine if he knew how to command troops, but he didn't and he pretended to be able to, causing heavy losses to the Ming army!
Compared with his ancestor, the Ming Dynasty's God of War Zhu Qizhen, they are simply a pair of a sleeping dragon and a phoenix chick.
In the 13th year of Chongzhen, the Eight Banners Army besieged Jinzhou.
Hong Chengchou knew that the Ming army's combat effectiveness was inferior to that of the Eight Banners Army and that a decisive battle could not be fought easily.
Chongzhen, who was far away in the capital, knew nothing about this. He only saw that the army made little progress and wasted food and money. He urged Hong Chengchou to lead his troops to a decisive battle and sent Zhang Ruoqi, the military supervisor, to urge the army to advance.
Hong Chengchou was forced to march his entire army to Songshan, but was eventually defeated and captured. Zu Dashou, who had been defending Jinzhou, ran out of food and aid and was forced to surrender to the Qing army.
In the 15th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng besieged Kaifeng.
Sun Chuanting wanted to train his troops for two or three months before rushing to Kaifeng for assistance, but Chongzhen disagreed. As a result, Sun Chuanting was defeated after leaving Tongguan.
In the 16th year of Chongzhen, Chongzhen again asked Sun Chuanting to lead his troops out of Tongguan, but he was defeated in Ruzhou and eventually died in Tongguan.
Now the bandits are going to attack the city, and the emperor still has to command the army! It's unbelievable!
Alas, Lieutenant General Li sighed and lowered his head silently.
Boom! Boom! Boom! The sound of artillery fire continued all around!
Every time the artillery was fired, it took the lives of several or even dozens of people.
Although there were not many bandits attacking the city wall, there were still two to three thousand of them, and they suffered heavy losses under the coverage of artillery fire.
Lieutenant General Li looked at the bandits getting closer and closer, and even hoped in his heart that they would open the city gate and rush in. Only in this way could he give the emperor a hard slap in the face.
However, reality slapped him hard in the face.
When the bandits were halfway through their charge, they immediately turned around and ran back.
The speed of returning was almost twice as fast as the speed of coming.
They came quickly and left even faster. If there were no corpses and bloodstains on the ground, it would be as if nothing had happened.
Lieutenant General Li stared blankly into the distance, his mouth twitching, "Your Majesty is so smart and resourceful, you are truly the modern-day Sleeping Dragon!"
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