On the morning of 4 December, Zhu Youzhen set out from the camp with the main force of more than 20,000 people of the East Route Army, and after more than an hour of marching, arrived at the east of the camp at the Ninja Pass.

This camp was not built by the Later Jin army, but by Zhang Chun and the Ming army. Because of this, the entire camp was built in a very orderly manner, and all kinds of defense facilities were also quite complete.

Although the Houjin army destroyed many defensive facilities in the west when it broke through this large camp, but now in the face of the Ming army coming from the east, the Houjin army occupying this large camp has only slightly repaired it, and it has become the best field defense camp against the Ming army.

The west side of the camp extends to the middle of the pass, and the east side is more than a mile out of the pass, and the Luan River, which flows from west to east, passes through the pass at the foot of the mountain to the north.

The mountains to the south were steep and difficult to climb, so the Tartars sent only a small number of troops to control the ridge. The mountains to the north are slightly gentle, but they are separated by the Luan River, so they cannot be used.

When the Houjin army attacked this large camp, they could only choose to attack from the front, and although the morale of the Ming army was low, many people were still killed and wounded. And now it is the turn of the Ming army to attack this big camp, and they can only choose to break through from the front of the big camp.

Unlike the Mongols built a barracks with only a single-layer wooden fence on the periphery, the large battalion built by the Ming army was a field barracks built in accordance with the regulations of the General Staff. Double-layered sandwich walls were backfilled with the extra soil from the trenches within the double-pile walls, which were not only strong, but also effective against small artillery shelling.

The Furlong machine guns and field guns under 6 catties carried by the Ming army did not cause much damage to the outer wall of this large battalion. When the Houjin soldiers guarding the camp realized this, they immediately stuck their heads out from behind the wall, gestured to the Ming army in the distance, and insulted and provoked.

It is extremely troublesome to adjust the elevation angle of the Furlong cannon without cannon lugs, but the four 3 kg * guns and four 6 kg * guns carried by the Ming army can quickly adjust the angle, so that the shells can pass through the wall of the Tartar camp and directly attack the inside of the camp.

But with no view of the inside of the barracks, this blind firing did not seem to be able to deal a major blow to the Houjin army, so the shelling at the front soon stopped.

Although Zhang Chun drew the plan of the camp he built, when Chongzhen handed over the Ming army to Zhang Chun and asked him to make a tentative attack, Zhang Chun found that the layout of the camp seemed to have been changed beyond recognition by the Later Jin army.

Although these traps were crude, they were enough to thwart the attacking Ming army. After Zhang Chun collected his troops, he went to the emperor to plead guilty. Zhu Youzhen asked the generals how they could defeat the Houjin army and regain control of the mountain pass here. In addition to Li Hongyuan and several other staff officers, it was better to wait for the 12-kilogram cannon to come up and use the 12-kilogram cannon to attack; Others suggested building wagons to ward off the Tartars' bows and arrows, and for the soldiers to hide behind the wagons close to the camp walls before striking at close range.

After weighing the two opinions, Zhu Youzhen asked the army to temporarily stop the offensive, and while asking Zhang Chun to lead people to cut down trees and supervise the construction of wagons, he also sent people to the rear to urge the 12-kilogram artillery to advance as soon as possible. And he himself continued to take his staff officers and generals to the front line to observe the terrain and choose the offensive route.

At noon, six 12-pound guns and four 12-pound cannons arrived at the front line, and Li Hongyuan immediately arranged four 12-pound cannons and two 12-pound guns in the calculated artillery position, preparing to attack the camp owned by Houjin.

The officers and men of the Second Artillery Regiment were also gearing up to prove themselves in this battle, and after setting off from Gyeonggi, this huge contingent of 275 carriages has been on the way.

Although the heavy four-wheeled carriage used by the artillery regiment weighed 1.2 tons according to the steering mechanism of the Western-style four-wheeled carriage and the traditional partial van of the Ming army, and the new rubber veneer wheels also greatly improved the mobility of the carriage, the rugged mountain roads still caused great obstacles to the convoy after leaving the plain terrain near Gyeonggi.

The speed of the march had always troubled the artillery regiment, and it had not caught up with the battle of the Luanhe River, which made everyone in the army very dissatisfied with the fact that the artillery regiment occupied a lot of resources but did not play a role. The idea of having heavy artillery defend the city and light Franc cannons for field warfare once again prevailed in the army.

After all, the weight of a 12-kilogram cannon plus a gun carriage is almost 1,500 kilograms, and the weight of a 12-kilogram cannon plus an artillery carriage is close to 3,000 kilograms. The ordinary Franc cannon is only more than 500 catties, and the large Franc cannon is only about 1,000 catties. The latter two are far more convenient than the former.

At about 1 p.m., the 12-pound artillery position was finally arranged, and 11 trucks built by Zhang Chun were built. According to the advice of the General Staff, the Ming army attacked on the left and right sides, with the vehicles mainly concentrated in the relatively open area in the north, while the south began to attack after the artillery destroyed the outer wall of the camp.

According to the analysis of the results of the bombardment of the Tartar camp in the morning, Li Hongyuan aimed half of the artillery aimed at the main gate on the east side of the camp, after all, the camp gate made of logs did not have double protection.

Even Li Hongyuan, who is full of confidence in the 12-kilogram cannon, estimates that if he wants to make a gap in the outer wall of the camp, he will need at least five or six rounds of artillery bombardment. But in fact, in the first round of shelling, one of the shells made a gap in the gate of the Tartar battalion. A group of cavalrymen who had been deployed behind the camp gate to attack was cut off a corner by the shell, and at least three were killed on the spot and five were seriously wounded.

The firing regulations for the 12-pound gun were that no more than eight rounds per hour should be fired by conventional fire, and each gun had to be cooled for an hour after 40 shots. That is to say, it can only be fired once every 8 minutes, and this speed is naturally not comparable with the Franc cannon, but the power of the 12-pound cannon is almost catching up with the Hongyi cannon purchased by the Ming army from the Portuguese.

The firing interval of the Hongyi cannon is basically more than a quarter of an hour, and it is more difficult to move. As for the power of the 12-pound* cannon, although it is smaller, it is lighter.

Although the interval between the firing of a gun takes nearly 8 minutes, the artillery regiment adopts the method of firing the cannons in turn, so that the roar of the cannon always echoes on the battlefield.

Zhu Youzhen and the generals of the Ming Army watched with binoculars the damage caused by the 12-kilogram artillery for the first time in actual combat. With the reference to the effect of the morning shelling, everyone was satisfied with the power of the 12-pound cannon. In their binoculars, the gate of the Tartar camp fell to the ground after only four shots, and the wall on the side, which was nearly two and a half meters high, although it did not collapse directly, the log fence on the periphery had been twisted into shape, and the fill in the middle was leaked out.

The Ming troops, who were supposed to attack from the north with their wagons after a quarter of an hour of shelling, delayed on the road for nearly half an hour because they were worried that the shells would hit them by mistake, and only approached the shallow trenches on the periphery of the camp when the artillery was about to stop. When these Ming troops rushed out of the chariot and began to attack the wall, they found that there were no Tartars above the wall, and several bold Ming soldiers climbed the wall and carefully observed the inside of the camp for a long time, and found that there were no Tartars near the wall except for a mess.

These Ming soldiers hurriedly passed on their findings to the rear, and as the Ming army on the south road also rushed into the camp, after the Ming army on the two routes completely controlled the east of the entire camp, someone realized that the Tartars in the camp were retreating from the west pass in a hurry.

Just when the Ming army continued to pour into the camp of the Ninja Pass from the east, Wu Nag, Du Du, and Chahara stood near the camp gate on the west side of the camp with dozens of horses, urging their subordinates to evacuate while watching the movement of the Ming army.

The faces of the three of them were not very good-looking, and Wu Nag, who had not had a good rest for several days, was still full of bloodshot eyes.

Du Du looked at the Ming soldiers who began to search the inside of the camp in the distance, and couldn't help but sigh and said: "We shouldn't have withdrawn so quickly, the Ming army only relied on the power of artillery, once their soldiers entered the camp and had a short handover with us, their artillery would have nothing to hide."

If we can keep a team in the camp, we may not be able to fight them with the barracks. ”

Wu Nag glanced at Du Du beside him, and replied with a little dissatisfaction: "The question is, who will risk being bombarded by the Hongyi cannon to stay?" The right battalion has been rushing to the front since entering the customs, but they have not gained much profit, and now they want to cramped in the camp to let the Ming artillery bombard, this doesn't make sense.

Leaving this pass, there was more open terrain between Qianxi and Santun Camp for our cavalry to fight. The Hongyi cannon was heavy and inconvenient, and it was difficult to hit the scattered cavalry in the field. As long as we fight in the field, these soldiers will not be so afraid of the artillery of the Ming army, and we will have the strength to fight.

Otherwise, if the strength of the right battalion is greatly reduced, will the men and horses of the Mongol tribes such as Naiman and Ao Han, and the men and horses of the Horqin department Obabale still obey our orders and continue to stay behind to block the Ming army on the eastern road? ”

Seeing that Wunag and Du Du faced each other, Chahara had to play a round and say: "Du Du Belle also wants to share the worries of the Great Khan and them, and hopes that we can deal with this Ming army by ourselves."

However, judging by the performance of Obabale and the other Mongol chiefs, it may not be possible to solve the Ming army on the opposite side with our men and horses alone.

Since the emperor of the Ming Kingdom appeared on the opposite side, he must have brought a large number of reinforcements, and they even got the Hongyi cannon, and it would not be possible for Wunage Gushan to be less serious.

For the sake of now, it is better for us to wait for the Great Khan to receive the news and act in accordance with the instructions sent to us by the Great Khan. Until then, it only needs to delay the marching speed of the Ming army. ”

Du Du couldn't help frowning and said, "According to me, we should first ask for help from the three beylers in Zunhua City, instead of bypassing Zunhua and reporting to the Great Khan."

It is only a day and a half journey from here to Zunhua, but it takes at least three days to get to the Great Khan. If Sanbeile can come to the aid in time, we only need to keep it for three days, and wait for the Great Khan to respond, at least five or six days, isn't it a delay? ”

In response to Dudu's complaints, neither Wunag nor Chahara have an interface. Whether to report to Huang Taiji or to Mang Gurtai is a question of political attitude. If they lose the battle, they are just punishing some cattle and horses with armor, and if they stand on the wrong team, it will be the end of falling to the ground.

After a moment of silence, Chahara looked at the Ming army in the east and said, "It's almost all withdrawn, two adults, we should also go on the road." ”

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