The offensive against Liao had already begun, and Zhao Yan's army moved to Longkou, always paying attention to the news sent back on the front line. On the seventh day of March, the fleet transported the first infantry battalion of the Liaodong Army returned and brought back nearly 10,000 prisoners.

Although these prisoners had braids, they were all Han people. According to the rules set by the Qing Dynasty, twenty households had to draw out one household to join the army, and the weapons and armor were purchased together by these twenty households.

These Han people were forced into the family, so Zhao Yan immediately ordered people to screen the prisoners and then take them to labor reform.

Many of the prisoners were captured by the Qing Dynasty and went to Liaodong. They still remember where their hometown was. Such prisoners could be released only after a few months of labor reform, and then arranged a piece of land for cultivation in Qingzhou. If you want to return to your hometown, you should first do some construction sites in Shandong and then release them after the war.

Others were born in Liaodong. Their parents were Han people, but they might not have much identity with Han people. Such prisoners must undergo in-depth transformation and instill national ideas while working.

At the suggestion of the General Staff, Zhao Yan asked them to transport the Shandong Army Artillery Battalion and Lin Yi's cavalry battalion to Zhenjiang. The encirclement plan had been launched. Such obvious motivations could not be seen by the Qing Dynasty. Let's gain a foothold in Zhenjiang first.

The artillery battalion can not only be used for defense, but also for attacking Zhenjiang. Although the cavalry battalion has no use in defense, it can cover the infantry battalion's operations when attacking Zhenjiang.

On the morning of the eighth day of the lunar month, forty ships sent to the third battalion had also returned. The first battalion of the Shandong Army immediately received the order to board the ship. Zhao Yong excitedly took his men and quickly boarded the ship and set off at noon that day.

"Suppose Huang Taiji has received the news now that the Qing army of North Korea will inevitably retreat quickly, and it will take about three days to go from Nanhanshan City to Yizhou. So we must conquer Zhenjiang within five to six days, or occupy the banks of the Yalu River. The Qing army of Zhenjiang cannot cooperate with Huang Taiji to break through the encirclement."

"The Cannon and Cavalry Camp will land tomorrow, but you have to wait until the first battalion arrives the day after tomorrow to have enough troops to attack Zhenjiang. Therefore, the siege is only three to four days, and you can choose to build a defense line on the bank of the Yalu River."

The General Staff was extremely busy, calculating time, map, the number of materials needed, etc., and the work was never stopped.

...In fact, Huang Taiji received the news on the tenth day of the lunar month. At this moment, he was accepting the surrender of the King of Korea condescendingly. This small country that had always despised them as savages was finally completely conquered.

Huang Taiji began to set his mind on the North Korean population. Tens of thousands of Han people died of exhaustion last winter, causing serious damage to production.

Huang Taiji is a person who attaches great importance to production. He knows where the meaning of production lies, and population has become an important factor that restricts their development at present.

There was nothing at all, just entering the pass and plundering it, but what's so bad is that they were defeated in the pass and have no ability to enter the pass and plunder money, people and animals for the time being.

So he could only target North Korea. However, just when Huang Taiji was about to order the search of the Han people fled to North Korea, news of a great defeat came from Pidao.

This made Huang Taiji extremely angry, but the news that came later shocked Huang Taiji to sweat in a cold sweat.

"Damn it, the Ming people's warships actually blocked the Yalu River, and transported seven or eight thousand people from the sea to Zhenjiang!" Huang Taiji said with his teeth.

"The emperor needs no need to worry. Even if the road to Zhenjiang is not open, there are three other roads. Now it is spring and the snow has melted. Although those three roads are not easy to walk, they can still return to Liaodong." Dorgon was very calm.

Jirgalang suddenly remembered something and said after a while: "Emperor, according to the King of Korea, the Ming people had sent people to block those three routes last year and also built passes."

"What!" Dorgon's face suddenly changed, and Huang Taiji shouted at Jirgalang: "Why didn't you report it earlier?"

"I think the emperor knows it too..." Jirhalang replied noddedly.

"The situation is dangerous at this time, so I won't care about you for the time being. Ming said I will return to Beijing and order the troops and horses to prepare. Ming said I will start early in the morning." Huang Taiji was not good at calculating at this time. It is important to return to Liaodong.

On March 11, Huang Taiji hurriedly led an army of more than 50,000. The King of Korea was unclear, but he respectfully sent him ten miles away.

Li Zong then ordered the stonemason to create an inscription here to sing the merits of the Qing Dynasty. He was very glad that he finally sent the savages away.

Li Zong would never have thought that Shangguo was planning to block Huang Taiji in North Korea, but he couldn't even send him away... Haoge led 90,000 people to Zhenjiang and immediately strengthened Zhenjiang's defense. He stayed in the city with 20,000 people, and felt that he was almost sure.

Then he led 60,000 people to the south of Zhenjiang and joined forces with Duoduo and Daishan.

In the camp, Haoge, Daishan and Duoduo led a group of Gushan Ejin and Mele Ejin to discuss the offensive plan.

Huang Taiji was not here, and Dorgon was not here either. Naturally, Huang Taiji's eldest son Haoge presided over. He asked Dai Shan: "What are the great opinions of Prince Li?"

"Prince Huisu, now our army gathers in Zhenjiang. It is OK to launch an offensive as soon as possible to drive the group of Ming dogs into the sea. If it is dragged for a long time, the food and grass needed must be transported from all over the place." Daishan replied, putting his seat low and looking like he was obedient. It was Daishan's sensibility that led to his success. In history, there were three Iron Hat Kings among his descendants.

"Food and grass are indeed a problem. If you can't capture it for a long time, transporting grain from various places will hurt the foundation of the country." Haoge nodded in agreement.

If a large army breaks into the Ming Dynasty, there is no need to worry about food, and there is no way to rob it. But it is different in Liaodong. The army needs a lot of food supplies to fight.

At this time, when the weather is not connected, there is not much food, and transportation will inevitably cause food consumption. To eliminate the consumption during transportation, the only way is to improve the road and have efficient transportation tools.

"How many days do you have enough food to support in the army?" Duoduo asked Gushan Ejin and Meleejin in the camp at this time.

"The white flag has three days to eat."

"Two days..."

"one day……"

"Four days..."

There were many different opinions, and Duoduo was dizzy when he heard it. With his almost illiterate arithmetic level, he could not beat his ten fingers. He yelled and the scene suddenly became quiet.

Then a Han civil servant was called and asked him to count.

According to statistics, the food of more than 70,000 people is only enough to consume three days, and there is not much food in Zhenjiang City, and it is only enough to eat for 23,000 people who defend Zhenjiang for seven or eight days.

"We only have three days to drive Minggou into the sea within three days." Haoge shouted loudly: "Ming said early in the morning, we launched an attack."

"yes!"

...The second is the eighth day of the third lunar month.

Early in the morning, it was still dawn, and the low horn sounded. More than 75,000 Qing soldiers got up and took out the [***] dry food and started to chew.

In contrast, the soldiers of the Third Battalion were much better in terms of food. Not only did they have hot steamed noodles (the noodles were steamed in the Ming Dynasty), but they also had jerky meat, dried fish, and horse meat. Yesterday, they got a lot of dead horses on the battlefield.

Li Ran looked at the Qing army camp three miles away. The camp that stretched for four or five miles was densely filled with Qing soldiers, and I don’t know how many people there were.

"There are at least 50,000 or 60,000 people." Deputy battalion commander Qian Zhengguo estimated.

"After a while, let's continue to dig deep into the trenches, and then pull a wire mesh between the second trenches." Li Ran ordered, "Put the smoothbore gun up."

"Battery Commander, it is not very convenient for us to act on our own." Qian Zhengguo said. Li Ran raised his hand and said, "It's okay, leave three gaps in the barbed wire mesh, and use a transport barbed wire mesh to lock it up when the Tartars attacked." Li Ran said.

"yes."

After dinner, the soldiers of the Third Battalion continued to hurry up and build the fortifications. After a day of construction yesterday, five trenches had been dug more than two meters deep.

Each one is five meters wide and two meters deep. Unless the Qing Dynasty built a bridge with wooden boards, it would have to be filled with life. However, it is obviously not as simple as saying that it is said. Carrying a wooden board is a target of sight on the battlefield.

At the same time, behind the low wall, a row of smoothbore guns were set up. This smoothbore gun is an improved version of the tiger squat cannon, which is specially used to fire stones and shrapnel. If you shoot out one shot, the firepower can cover seven or eight meters in width within a hundred meters.

This kind of cannon is very light and weighs only hundreds of pounds per can.

...At the hour of Chen (7~8), the low horn sounded again, and more than 70,000 Qing soldiers stepped onto the war horses and went out to the camp to gather. There were so many people that they seemed to be unable to see the edge.

Duoduo was wearing shiny cotton armor and a tassel helmet. He looked proudly at the Ming army who was still digging fortifications in the distance, and said with great confidence: "We have a 70,000 army, and we can drive those Ming dogs into the sea in just one morning."

"What Prince Yu said is that the Ming people did not have a strong city to defend themselves. It would be as easy as driving them into the sea to play house as a child." Gushan Ezhen said with a smile on his side.

"After that being said, death and injury are inevitable. The blood of our Qing children can no longer flow." Dai Shanyan said, and Haoge nodded and said, "Let the Eight Mongolian Banners and the Eight Han Banners go to battle, so that our Manchu children can supervise the battle on the side."

The Qing army arrived at a distance of 800 meters away from the fortification and stopped. Based on their experience, although the artillery could be hit within this distance, it was not very powerful. The chances of attacking middle and high-level personnel were very small.

The sound of the trumpet sounded again, and a Mongolian red flag rushed out of the formation, and then the Han army's Zhengbai Banner also rushed out of the formation.

Most of the Eight Mongolian and Han Banners were without armor on their bodies. After all, they were newly formed troops. Although the Qing Dynasty had been stepping up the construction of armor all winter, they could not equip these Eight Mongolian and Han Banners with armor.

However, there are many horses. The horses riding by the Han army were purchased by twenty households, and everything was brought by themselves.

With the shouts of the supervising personnel, all of these 5,000 people dismounted, carried various instruments and rushed towards the Ming army's position. The next wave of troops had begun to take their positions.

On the position of the Third Battalion, the soldiers of the Third Battalion had already stopped their excavation operations, held their respective weapons, and prepared for combat.

The Qing soldiers of the two flags entered within two hundred meters on foot.

Musketeers behind the low wall opened fire one after another. The bullets still had enough lethality to such an armoured enemy, but they did not die so thoroughly after hitting, but they were injured even if they were not killed. Such gunshot wounds were generally untreated. If they entered within 170 meters, they could be shot to death directly.

One row after another, nine hundred musketeers divided into three teams, pulling the trigger forward in sequence, and a volley can be performed in four seconds on average. Each time three hundred bullets are shot out, they can kill nearly two hundred people.

The Qing soldiers walking in front kept getting shot and fell to the ground. The terrible consequence of the lack of protection on their bodies was that every volley shot could cause huge damage to the approaching Qing army.

For the Qing soldiers in the past, this was a long road. Seeing the people around you being shot dead and injured, a huge fear filled his heart.

However, the Qing army behind was relatively calm. Anyway, the one who died was in front, and a lot of meat shields were blocking it! He was still very safe behind him.

Along a distance of 100 meters, the Qing army suffered thirteen volleys, and nearly 2,000 Qing troops fell on this road. Although there were heavy casualties, the Qing army still gritted their teeth and moved forward silently. Advance was death, and retreat was also death, but there was still hope for advancement.

Finally, the Qing army entered within 100 meters, and they suddenly yelled and their pace began to speed up. Amid the shocking shouts, the Qing army, one hundred meters away, launched a charge.

The shooting continued! When the Qing army rushed to sixty meters away, it encountered caltrops all over the ground, and the momentum of charge stopped immediately. However, the Qing army behind did not care about the situation ahead, but pushed the flesh shield in front forward, hoping to use the death of cannon fodder in front to exchange for their safe passage.

While pushing, many Qing soldiers stepped on the caltrops and fell to the ground, making heart-wrenching howls. Some Qing soldiers came up with a way to advance with their feet against the ground, but soon kicked the special caltrops.

Not all Qing soldiers could think of walking with their feet against the ground. After all, in this era of information blocking, these Mongolian and Han Qing soldiers had never seen caltrops. As long as their thinking ability was a little worse, they would look at the ground while pushing, screaming in panic and trying to step on places without caltrops.

But there are caltrops everywhere.

The advancement speed of the Qing soldiers in front directly dragged down the entire stormtrooper. Although caltrops cannot cause too much damage, they seriously dragged down the advancement speed of the infantry.

This gave the musketeers an opportunity to take advantage of it. The distance was so close that all two thousand musketeers were put into the shooting queue. The musketeers who joined the shooting behind were distributed on both sides, shooting at the Qing army that advanced to the area covered with caltrops.

The oblique shooting caused an increase in the distance, so it was impossible to shoot the approaching Qing army at the beginning, but now the Qing army is so close that it has already entered the range.

Bang bang bang bang... Gunshots continued, and the Qing soldiers in front fell one after another. The smoke of gunpowder filled the battlefield under the breeze, reflecting the dark sky, and the smell seemed very bleak.

Wang Er, who was nervously loading, was a small platoon leader. He quickly loaded the bullets, then stepped forward at the commander's order, aimed slightly at the Qing soldiers fifty meters away and pulled the trigger.

The one shot hit me and a row of Qing soldiers fell to the ground. I couldn't tell which one was fought by myself. Wang Er, who had participated in many battles, had never shot so easily as he did today.

The armorless Qing soldiers on the opposite side were completely shot and were completely shot. This was much more enjoyable than fighting thieves and those Qing soldiers in armor.

Those thieves will basically be defeated without a few rounds of shooting, and they will generally not actively hit the gun. Only those cavalrymen are very casual when dealing with the thieves.

For the Qing soldiers who were piercing armor, the musket had to enter a hundred meters away so that the muskets could have enough lethality. And even if they got closer, they would not die as cleanly as they were in front of them.

At this time, some of the charge Qing troops collapsed and ran to the back screaming, but were immediately killed by the Qing cavalry who were free from behind.

More and more soldiers turned around and fled, and these supervising cavalry began to slash and kill wildly.
To be continued...