On June 24, the 23rd year of Chongzhen, Huang Fei, the commander-in-chief of the Ming Dynasty's Guanliao Dengjin Navy, personally led 20,000 naval forces from Juehua Island.
They continued to move northeast on the sea, always keeping a certain distance from the coast.
The coast was vaguely visible from the boat, but it was difficult to see them from the shore.
With the help of the sea breeze, it took only more than half a day to reach the sea sixty miles away.
"Zeng Ying," Huang Fei called behind him.
"I am here." Zeng Ying, wearing rattan armor, stepped out and looked up, revealing his handsome face.
"At dawn tomorrow, you will lead two thousand naval forces to land from here," Huang Fei said, pointing to the faintly visible coast in the west. "After landing, you must make a big noise so that the Jiannu scouts can find your tracks."
"Our mission is to contain the Jiannu forces and create opportunities for Ningyuan's friendly forces."
"I will lead the main force to guard the sea to prevent the Jiannu navy from outflanking us."
"I obey your command." Zeng Ying saluted.
Huang Fei was a little worried, so he walked up to Zeng Ying and whispered, "I borrowed a few scouts from the Governor-General. They are all on a large ship at the back. I will assign them to you when the time comes."
"Let the scouts go ashore first. After making sure there are no enemy troops around, the main force will go ashore. While making a noise, you must also pay attention to safety. The Jiannu cavalry can come and go like the wind. Place as many chevaux de frise and antlers as possible, and dig as many trenches as possible."
"......"
Zeng Ying listened to the instructions patiently and bowed again: "I understand."
On the morning of the 25th, when it was just dawn outside, the warship set sail and headed towards the coast.
While the boatmen were steering the ship, the naval officers and soldiers began to eat.
They couldn't make a fire on the boat, so they ate fried noodles and boiled water and finished their breakfast in the sea breeze.
The fleet soon arrived near the coast.
Zeng Ying first sent out several patrol boats to survey the terrain and look for a suitable place to land.
After finding a suitable location, the fleet began to adjust its direction.
The transport ship carrying scouts was the first to dock. After landing, the scouts scattered in all directions to scout the surrounding enemy situation.
Immediately afterwards, the soldiers on the transport ship began to land on a small scale and moved the chevaux de frise and antlers on the ship to the shore to set up roadblocks.
Soon, the first wave of scouts returned: "No enemy was found within a three-mile radius."
"Go ashore!" After receiving the news, Zeng Ying waved the command flag, and two thousand naval officers and soldiers quickly went ashore, gathered, waved flags and shouted.
While observing the surrounding situation, they dug trenches on the north and south sides of the army formation.
at the same time.
The Ming army on the south bank of the Ningyuan River also began to move.
Wang Yongji shouted outside the tent, "Herald."
"exist."
"Send two messengers to convey the military order to Liu Zhaoji, Li Xingzhong, He Jin and others downstream, and have them pretend to cross the river." Wang Yongji ordered, "After conveying the military order, one messenger will go downstream and deliver a letter to the navy, ordering them to go upstream."
"Another messenger went up the river bank, first notifying Huang Degong to pretend to cross the river, and then notifying Wu Sangui."
"Yes, sir." The messenger took the order and ordered someone to send the message.
Li Xingzhong, Liu Zhaoji and others who were stationed downstream did not dare to delay after receiving the military order and immediately took action.
The first to go out was He Jin.
He waved his hand and shouted to his infantry: "Build a bridge!"
"yes!"
The soldiers worked in groups of two and first used logs to create a path leading to the Ningyuan River.
Then the simple floating boat built in advance was placed on the logs and pushed into the river.
thump.
After falling into the water, simple floating boats floated on the water.
The soldiers on the shore immediately hooked the pontoon with ropes with hooks, pulled it to the shore and fixed it to the wooden stakes.
The second boat is then secured to the first boat in the same manner.
The soldiers at the back held the wooden boards and fixed them to the pontoon with nails and ropes.
A flat but not wide floating bridge began to take shape.
The width of the Ningyuan River in the lower reaches is more than 100 meters, and it is almost impossible to build a floating bridge in a short time.
As the soldiers worked hard, the three pontoon bridges crawled towards the other side like greedy snakes, extremely slowly.
The Eight Banners scouts on the other side of the river soon discovered the situation.
"Report!" A mile north of Ningyuan City, a scout ran into Hauge's central military tent and said, "Prince Su, the Ming army is laying a pontoon bridge downstream, preparing to cross the river."
"What?" Hauge expressed doubt about the authenticity of the news: "You mean the Ming army is building a floating bridge in the lower reaches of the Ningyuan River?"
"Yes!" the scout replied.
"That doesn't make sense," Hauge walked to the table, pointed at the map and said to himself, "If you cross the river downstream, you will have to cross the river again if you want to attack the city. It's okay when you're advancing, but if you're not careful when you're retreating, it will cause trampling. If I were Wang Yongji, I would never do this."
Tong Tulai, the leader of the Han army of the Zhenglan Banner, thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, the Ming army downstream is most likely a feint attack."
"Feint?" Hauge blinked. "That makes sense, but we still have to be cautious."
He said to the messenger beside him: "Send a message to the downstream guards, tell them to keep a close eye on the river bank, and report immediately if there is any situation."
"Yes." The messenger left quickly.
After waiting for a while, there was a deafening sound of artillery fire outside.
Hauge stood up and put on his armor while shouting to the messenger, "Go and see who is firing and why."
Not long after the messenger left, a scout ran in and knelt on one knee: "Report! Prince Su, the Ming army in the middle reaches of the Ningyuan River is building a pontoon bridge to cross the river. In order to cover them, the Ming army on the earthen hill began to bombard Ningyuan City."
"What?" Hauge also doubted the authenticity of the news.
The Ming army had previously crossed the Ningyuan River several times, but was repelled each time by the Eight Banners cavalry.
Now they are doing the same thing again, aren’t they tired?
He was about to order Tong Tulai to go into battle when he suddenly felt something was wrong.
Judging from the difficulty of siege.
The most difficult part of the siege is crossing the river downstream.
Crossing the river and attacking the city in the middle reaches is the second most difficult.
The easiest way is to cross the river upstream and occupy the northwest corner before attacking the city.
In chronological order, the Ming army first launched an attack in the lower reaches, which was the most difficult, and then launched an attack in the middle reaches, which was of medium difficulty.
The upstream area, which is the easiest in terms of difficulty, has not seen any movement so far.
Is this normal?
Obviously not normal.
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