The auspiciousness of the Ming Dynasty also turned Xuzhou into a fruit, and the Ming army was also happily ready to eat this fruit. But when I held it in my hand, I suddenly realized that the fruit was not an imaginary strawberry or tomato, but a hard walnut. The Ming army prepared in front of this walnut for three days, and stormed for another six or seven days, using all kinds of siege equipment - there were ladders, crashes, and 500 artillery pieces of various kinds, but they failed to smash the walnut open. However, it was precisely because of the auspiciousness promulgated by the Empress Dowager Cisheng that the Ming army under the fortified city was not discouraged. They firmly believe that Xuzhou will at least be like the city of Nanjing, although it will be difficult to conquer, but it will be conquered in the end.

It's just that the walnut in Xuzhou is not only hard but also full of sharp thorns, and the Qing army defending the city is also equipped with artillery, and there are more of them, close to seven hundred. If you want to eat Xuzhou, you really need a good pair of teeth. After more than ten days of siege, more than 7,000 soldiers were lost, and Hao Yongzhong and Jiao Lian could only look at the city for the time being.

At this time, Dolgon, who had already been dispatched to support Xuzhou and had already arrived in Yucheng, was no better. The Qing army also attacked Yucheng for nearly ten days, losing thousands of soldiers and losing the same disgrace. The two cities and the two forces spent more than 10 days respectively, inside and outside the city, Xuzhou and Yucheng all had a considerable number of firearms, and these two battles were also the two largest artillery battles in scale and intensity since the two armies started the war. The battle scene can be described as magnificent, and it is simply indescribable.

But let's start with Yucheng, because the first to gain the advantage was Dolgon, who attacked Yucheng.

Inside and outside Yucheng, the sound of artillery shook the sky, the smoke of gunpowder filled the air, and the daily ammunition consumption of both sides was more than 10 bases, and there was no day or night at all. The losses on both sides of the attack and defense were very large, but Dolgon's goal was not in Yucheng, he was here to save Xuzhou, so after a few days of defeat, Dolgon called the Hongling urgent envoy and said: "Eight hundred miles urgently, give this letter to Prince Zheng, and ask him to send that person over quickly!" ”

Compared with the number of firearms of the defenders of Yucheng, Dolgon's Qing army did not have an advantage, after all, although Yucheng was small, it had a strong city to rely on. Therefore, Dolgon asked Jierharang in Luoyang for soldiers, and the person he named in the letter could only be one person, he was Liu Zhiyuan, the general of Dingnan in the Qing Dynasty, and this soldier was the most elite artillery unit of the Qing army in the hands of Liu Zhiyuan.

Liu Zhiyuan's department was subordinate to the Han army, and the emperor gave him a carda. In the decisive battle of the Ming and Qing dynasties - the Battle of Songjin, Huang Taiji sent Liu Zhiyuan's artillery to attack Jinzhou, and Liu Zhiyuan commanded the Qing artillery to destroy the Ming army fort in the east of the city. In the north of the city, they shelled the horse platform outside Jinzhou City, causing heavy casualties to the Ming army. Ma Guangyuan, the general of the Qing army, died in battle, and Liu Zhiyuan succeeded Ma Guangyuan as the Zhenghuang and Huang two banners of the Han Army. In the following year, Dolgon, the prince of Suirui, surrounded Songshan, destroyed four Ming army forts, and captured Ming generals Wang Xixian, Cui Dingguo, Yang Chongzhen, etc. Another year later, with the prince of Zheng Jierharang besieged Tashan, in the west of the city, blew up the city wall of Tashan more than 20 zhang, and completely annihilated the Ming army of Tashan. Attack Xingshan again, and destroy the Xingshan city wall, force the Xingshan Ming army to surrender, grant the hereditary second-class Lazhangjing, and lead the Han army to inlay the yellow flag. After another year, that is, the eighth year of Chongde, he successively conquered the Zhonghou Institute and the Qiantun Guard with Prince Zheng, and entered the hereditary first class. It can be said that in the later stage of the Songjin War, it was because of Liu Zhiyuan that the Qing army finally seized almost all of Jinzhou's outer defense line, captured Hong Chengchou, and forced Zu Dashou to surrender.

Liu Zhiyuan was the axe that was able to completely annihilate the Ming army in Liaodong in that decisive battle, the most fatal knife that ended the Ming army in the battle of Songjin, which took several years, and the driving force that buried the reputation of Hong Chengchou I.

After the Qing army fought with the Ming army outside Yucheng County for another ten days, the Zhennan general Liu Zhiyuan finally arrived. Dolgon did not greet him, but directly pulled him to the battlefield and said: "When the Lone King attacked the city, the artillery suffered great losses, and the moat around this city was extremely wide, and the defenders put away the drawbridge. The Lone King tried to build a pontoon bridge several times, and rammed the Wangbian Gate in the west of the city with a crash car, but was destroyed by the defenders before reaching the Wangbian Gate. The Lone King also tried to build a light boat and charge with a ladder, but the effect was not great. It's good that you're here, from now on, all the artillery of the army will be under your command! ”

Liu Zhiyuan thanked him, but he was laughing at Dolgon in his heart: 'Is there such a Morgen Daiqing? There are hundreds of cannons on the city, but you have soldiers pushing a crash car slower than a turtle to attack the city, and you have to build a pontoon bridge first, you are not fighting, but you are laughing. ’

After Dolgon stepped aside, Liu Zhiyuan's attack was carried out as usual, but his attack was to cover the accumulation of earth by the troops. When the height of the earthen ramparts was high enough to avoid the elevation angle, the artillery of the Qing army began to appear on the newly built earthen ramparts, and then began another artillery battle with the defenders under equal geographical conditions.

Liu Zhiyuan's troops were well-trained and extremely skilled in archery. Like the Ming army defending the city, they also used the Pythagorean method to measure targets, but the number of shots per minute and the rate of hits were much higher than those of the Ming army. The scales of this artillery battle finally began to tilt in favor of the Qing army. Liu Zhiyuan's artillery and other Qing artillery fire inflicted huge casualties on the defenders of Yucheng, with nearly half of the defenders' artillery killed and artillery losses also serious.

Seeing that the former cannon target suddenly became a demolition team, the disgraced Gao Bizheng hurriedly called the equally disgraced Jiang Jianxun and said: "Xiao Jiang, if it continues like this, we both have to become cannon fodder." I speak, you write a letter, and then immediately fly the pigeon to pass the book to me. Jiang Jianxun thought to himself: "He still hasn't grown up because he can't understand the words, I'll write the letter and then fly the pigeon to pass it on to you?" Wouldn't it be over if I read it to you directly? ”

But he could still understand what Gao Bizheng meant, so he hurriedly put away the pen and paper, and listened to Gao Bizheng say: "Long live Lord, the artillery fire of the Qing army attacking the city has become more and more fierce in the past few days, and the fight is still accurate, I can't rely on it, and you have already made preparations there." This group of Tartars is definitely a real Tartar, there are at least 200,000 horses, and Quan Teniang is the main elite. You've been preparing for the rest of you, but don't let me die and you'll die too. It's okay if I'm dead, but you can't afford to die! Otherwise, you can run away first! Our army has suffered so many casualties that the city is about to be bombed, and I feel that I will die in no more than three days. On the day of the city breaking, I didn't regret dying, but I couldn't help you during the decisive battle, and I actually caused chaos for you, which affected the mood of the Lord of Long Live and the overall deployment of the decisive battle. Long live the Lord treats me like a parent, I treat Long Live Lord like a brother, I haven't gotten along with you enough, we will ...... in the next life"