The more than 20 Franc cannons captured by Mang Gurtai from the Santun camp were quickly regarded as a treasure by Huang Taiji, who forcibly divided half of the cannons and surrendered gunners from the left army and used them in the attack on the north.

The Left Route Army captured Santun Camp City in the first battle, and when it returned to Zunhua City, it was naturally very high-spirited, and its confidence in capturing Zunhua City was much more than that of the other two Route Army.

Moreover, after the news of the capture of Santun Yingcheng was transmitted back to Zunhua, the voices of withdrawal in the Houjin army suddenly became much less. And the Left Route Army, which heard about the richness of Zunhua from the Ming captives, especially the soldiers of the two white flags, was very enthusiastic about capturing Zunhua. Although the supplies in the Santun camp were abundant, most of them were military supplies. As the logistics and transfer base of Jizhou Town, Zunhua City reserves the living materials that these soldiers need.

Each of the small Franc cannons weighs about 200 catties, with three guns; Each weighs about thirty pounds, one with lead; Each weighs about ten taels, and the flat fire can reach about 600 steps, which is slightly farther than the tiger squat cannon. The Big Buddha Lang cannon weighs more than 1,000 catties and has a firing range of about 1,000 steps, that is, less than a kilometer.

However, the good men who practiced artillery in Jizhou Town were all left in Zunhua City, and some people were selected to enter the Army Military Academy to learn new artillery skills.

These gunners were not well equipped with their guns, and the new ones were too powerful, and they were afraid of exploding and often reduced to one-third of the charge, so the actual range was less than half of the effective range. The Houjin soldiers were not familiar with artillery, and after obtaining these artillery, they thought that they had obtained a siege weapon, so they rashly placed these cannons at a distance of 350 paces from the two bastions to the east.

From the beginning of the siege, the Left Route Army has always been tasked with feints, testing the firepower of the two fortresses guarding the East Gate Avenue. This kind of fortress that looks low and uneven from the flat ground is just the product of the Ming army's shoddy construction, if it were not for these Ming troops digging a deep and wide trench in front of the fortress, it is estimated that a charge can be taken.

In order to attract the Houjin army to attack the East Gate, Zhao Shujiao deliberately asked Wednesday to give up setting up barricades on the East Gate Avenue, so the nearly 3-mile-long street from the two fortresses to the East Gate was neither barrier-free nor pothole-free. As long as two fortresses were laid, the Houjin cavalry could even rush directly to the city of Zunhua along this avenue.

Therefore, after the main force of the Left Route Army returned from the Santun camp, the Jurchen Baylors of the Left Route Army were gearing up, preparing to first capture the two twisted and crooked Ming army fortresses built in front of them.

Although these Jurchen generals were very disdainful of the two fortresses of the Ming army, they did not make any rash moves when discussing the battle plan, except for the unfamiliar setting of artillery positions.

After Mang Gurtai returned to Zunhua, he learned from his cronies sent by Daishan the details of the military meeting held in the Chinese army camp yesterday. At this time, he also knew that the time to withdraw the army had been missed, and the news of the capture of Santun Camp City also made the soldiers of the Left Route Army excited, and at this time, even his own Zhenglan Banner was eager to try, wanting to be the first to attack Zunhua City and seize the rich property and women in the city.

Mang Gurtai knew that if he talked about retreating at this time, I was afraid that even his own subordinates would complain. Therefore, he could only put away the idea of withdrawing his troops and put his mind on the siege battle in front of him.

Regarding the losses encountered by the Right Route Army in the siege, although the Jurchen Baylor of the Left Route Army had heard of it, they did not take it to heart. thinks that this is just that the soldiers of the two red flags have lived in wealth for too long, and they have softened their muscles and bones, and they have forgotten how to fight. Since the establishment of the Later Jin Dynasty, it defeated the Ming army of Liaodong four times, thus occupying most of the northeast and establishing the foundation of the Later Jin Dynasty.

While the Later Jin won successive victories in foreign wars, the power struggle within the Later Jin was also fierce, first between Nurhachi and the Shulhaqi brothers, then between Nurhachi and the five founding ministers, and then between Nurhachi and his eldest son, Guangluo Bel Chuying.

This power struggle in the Later Jin Dynasty was even more bloody and brutal than the party struggles within the Ming Dynasty. The reason why Dai Shan was able to survive the power struggle in the later period of Nurhachi was because he chose to compromise and retreat, and tolerated Nurhachi's use of Yuetuo and Shuotuo to divide the two red flags, and abolished his position as the prince of Houjin.

After Jin was established for a long time, military merits have always been the most valuable, since Daishan was suppressed by Nurhachi, the opportunity for the two red flags to go out has been reduced. Even if it is an expedition, it is to call on the Niu Lu to which the two red flags belong to cooperate with the other flags to fight.

The two white flags of the Left Route Army were the two yellow flags led by Nurhachi before the change of flags in Huangtaiji, and they were not only the strongest two flags among the eight banners, but Nurhachi would inevitably order a part of the two yellow flags to fight every time he went out to fight, so as to maintain the combat capability of this pro-army. Therefore, the generals of the two white flags have always looked down on the combat effectiveness of the two red flags, which have been in the rear for a long time. Of course, in the eyes of the soldiers of the two white flags, the other four flags are not worth mentioning as much as the combat effectiveness of the two red flags.

Hearing the news that the attack of the Right Route Army was not going well, they didn't think how strong the Ming people were, but they felt that the two red flags were too degenerate, and they couldn't even beat a group of civilians who had just picked up arms. Out of pride in being the two yellow flags, the generals of the two white flags decided to take down the two forts in one go and show their strength.

In addition to wanting to prove that even if they changed from two yellow flags to two white flags, they were still the two most powerful flags of the Eight Banners. In addition, they want to deter those forces in the country who want to divide the two white flags and make them fearful.

For example, after the Great Khan Huang Taiji heard about the siege of the Santun camp, he immediately summoned Samhatu, the first white flag pawn to climb the city wall, and gave him a glass of wine with his own golden cup, rewarded him with a hereditary reserve officer, and gave him the title Baturu, and if he made a mistake in the future, he could be pardoned once. When I heard that his family was very poor, I gave him a great deal of silver and gold. It can be seen that Huang Taiji won over the hearts of the soldiers at the bottom of the two white flags and divided the minds of the two white flags.

The generals of the two white flags, who sensed the crisis, naturally hoped to use their own force to deter the divided minds of these internal enemies, and drag it out until the Dorgon brothers were adults and could personally receive the two white flags.

Therefore, after observing the terrain of the two Ming army forts, Mang Gurtai planned to concentrate his forces on attacking the forts in the north, pinning down the forts in the south with a small number of troops, and seizing the forts in the north first, breaking the defensive posture of the two forts being horns of each other, and the remaining forts in the south were not difficult to break.

However, the generals of the two white flags believed that the strength of the Left Route Army plus the newly formed six new Han armies had exceeded 14,000 troops. The circumference of the Ming people's fortress is no more than a mile, and the number of troops stationed will not exceed 2,000, and the left army will attack in formation, and the front is only about 1,000 people, and most of the horses of the left army are not used at all, so there is no need to divide the priorities.

The opinion of the generals of the two white flags was that the left army should be divided into two, with the new Han army charging in front and the Eight Banners supervising the battle in the rear, plus the cannons captured by the Santun battalion, the two forts would inevitably be broken in one attack, and then the houses hidden behind the forts could be cleaned up to prevent the Ming people from building barricades according to the model of other castles.

The demand of the two white flags to unite with one mind, and the sharp spirit of the left army that had just captured the city of Santun Ying, made Mang Gurtai make concessions and agree to attack the two Ming fortresses at the same time according to the proposal of the two white flag generals.

At noon on November 8, the Left Route Army was divided into two teams, and after arranging the battle sequence, the gunners who surrendered to the Ming army were ordered to open fire on the Ming fortress first.

These Furlong cannons did not have lugs, and in the past they could only be fired from the head of the city or from a dedicated van. Relying on the formalized training of artillery by the General Staff, these old Furlong cannons were also designed with special gun mounts, which could be used for activities in the city and in the field.

However, these artillery mounts did not play much role in the defense of the city in Santun Battalion, and now they let the Ming army's own fortress enjoy the role of these new gun mounts first.

Because half of the Fran cannons captured by the Left Route Army were taken away by Huang Taiji, the remaining ten or so Fran cannons were placed on the position in front of the fortress on the north side by Mang Gurtai. He was planning to concentrate on using these artillery, hoping to create a passage in these low walls to facilitate the attack of his subordinates.

Huang Qi, the artillery commander standing in the fort on the north side, kept staring at the lead bullets fired by the Fran cannons, watching them slowly skim the sky, and finally landed on the outer wall of the fort, leaving only a white mark, and then rolled into the trench.

The more than a dozen projectiles did little damage to the outer walls of the fortress, after all, most of these outer walls were covered with thick loess with wooden stakes, which would not be shattered and destroyed like masonry.

Although Huang Qi had learned this knowledge in the military academy and had personally tested the artillery, it was the first time he had seen this scene in actual combat. It was only by this time that he had some confidence in the fortress he was in.

The two fortresses of the Ming army were in the shape of a pentagonal fortress modeled after the Italian style brought by the missionaries. Enlarged triangular forts were set up at the five corners, and outside the fort was a waterless trench parallel to the city wall, 12 meters wide and about 2 meters deep.

The outer perimeter of the moat is a steep slope of 60 degrees, while on the side of the wall there is a steep slope of about 80 degrees. There was also an earthen wall above the trench that was one and a half meters high and more than one meter wide, so that the attackers were faced with an obstacle more than four meters high when they rushed to the bottom of the trench.

Behind this earthen wall is a gentle slope of 30 degrees, about 10 meters, before reaching the first outer wall of the fortress. The outer wall is about 3 meters high and 15 meters wide, and is made of wooden piles and loess.

Behind this line of defense is a square inner fortress wall, which is more than 3 meters high and is made of iron and concrete. The inside of the wall is made of rammed loess, and the width of the wall is about 22 meters.

Instead of relying on traditional frontal contact battles and the height of the city walls to resist enemy attacks, this Western-style fortress thwarted the enemy's attack by crossfire from the top, bottom, left and right, and with high efficiency to kill and injure the attacker.