I

   Chapter 553 550 [Phoenix City]

  Liaodong, Phoenix.

   Hundreds of years later, the Manchus accounted for more than 70% of the city's population, making it one of the largest Manchu settlements in the country.

  However, most of those Manchus moved there later, and the Qing Dynasty deliberately enriched this "Land of Prosperity". Fo Manchu is a descendant of Changbai Mountain Jurchen, Yiche Manchu originally settled in Jilin, and Baoyi Manchu is a Han Chinese who worked as an errand in Shenyang's Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Eight Banners of Xibo and Eight Banners of Mongolia also moved from the north.

  Phoenix City at this time, inside and outside the city, has a population of less than 30,000.

  At the end of March, when the snow melted, Baozhou (North Korea border) Datong Army crossed the Yalu River and moved to Dandong City, which had not yet been repaired.

  In the northeast of Dandong, there is the ruins of Jiulian City in Ming Dynasty.

   Jiulian City, also known as Zhenjiang Fort, was used to guard against Japanese pirates on the Yalu River. After the Manchus broke through the city, they not only destroyed the castle, but also moved all the population away, so neither Manchu nor Han could live here.

  The dangerous mountain castle further north is also deserted.

   Only Tangzhanbao, which is the closest to Phoenix City, has moved some troops and their families here in order to guard against the Datong Army in the past two years.

   Around Phoenix. More than 90% of the fortress defense system built by the Ming Dynasty was abandoned by the Qing Dynasty.

  Lu Xiangsheng has already been promoted to division commander, commanding the 14th Division stationed in Baozhou, North Korea. He led his troops all the way north without encountering any obstacles, and quickly arrived at the repaired Tangzhan Fort.

  Tangzhanbao, originally a post station, was founded in the fifth year of Chenghua.

   There are two son and mother cities, big and small. The side of the mother city is 400 meters long, and the side of the son city is 150 meters long.

   Moreover, the sub-city is within the mother city!

   Obviously, the city is not big.

  The garrison, family members, craftsmen, coaters, and serfs all withdrew into the city, plus livestock and food, and the two small cities were crowded enough.

   "Fire!"

  Lu Xiangsheng is not talking nonsense. After camping, he immediately shelled.

   These two small cities are connected together. Although there is no moat, there are two natural rivers, both of which are tributaries of the Da Chong River (Love River).

  Three sides are the river, one side is the mountain, easy to defend but difficult to attack!

   "Boom boom boom!"

   To deal with this kind of castle, a fool will cross the river and climb the city to attack unless it is a last resort.

   It's shelling, shelling, shelling!

  After six full days of shelling, the southern city wall next to the river has been punched with a crack as thick as a head.

   There are only 150 Eight Banners soldiers stationed here. Seeing that the situation is not good, the guard quickly decides to evacuate. And retreat in an orderly manner, let the family members of the soldiers bring money, food and livestock, cross the river to the north bank of the Beihe River and leave, and then row over to pick up the defenders.

  Lu Xiangsheng had nothing to do about it. Without the help of hot air balloons, he would not even be able to see the enemy's movements clearly.

  Because there are mountains on the north bank of the river, the Datong army can only shell on the south bank of the river in the south, and there is no way to display troops in other places.

   "Shi Zheng, the enemy has withdrawn!"

  After falling down to refuel, in the hot air balloon that rose again, soon there were sentries waving flags to pass the news.

   "Cross the river and seize the city!" Lu Xiangsheng ordered.

  There are only more than a thousand serfs left in the city, and there are no Han Chinese, all of them are Korean serfs. The Han people here were all taken away by Huang Taiji seven years ago.

   After a day's rest, go up the river valley, and you will find Phoenix City dozens of miles away.

  The area of ​​Phoenix City is about the same as that of Tangzhan Fort. The overall shape is square, and the four walls are each 350 meters long.

   Similarly, it is surrounded by water on three sides and mountains on one side.

  However, it is far stronger than Tangzhanbao!

   "Master Zheng, I caught a few Tartars and made secret work."

  Lu Xiangsheng's 14th Division had just set up camp when four soldiers from the search mountain were arrested.

  The leader kneels down when they meet each other, and shouts: "Wen Enxun, a small citizen of the lower country, pays homage to the general of the Celestial Dynasty of the upper country!"

   "Are you Han?" Lu Xiangsheng asked.

  Wen Enxun replied: "General Qi, Xiaomin is a Korean."

  Lu Xiangsheng wondered: "Since you are Korean, why are you in the mountains south of Phoenix?"

Wen Enxun explained: "General Rong, my father was originally the Korean envoy (translator) stationed in Sheng... Shenyang. After my father died of illness, the current North Korean king killed his father and usurped the throne. The Wen family... was also liquidated and killed. Xiaomin could not return to North Korea, and it was useless to stay in Shenyang, so he asked to settle down in Liaodong to cultivate. The Tatar Chief Dorgon promised dozens of acres of land and gave it to several Korean serfs, so that Xiaomin's family could live in Phoenix City farming in the ravines."

  This old man is one of the ancestors of the Wen family in Fengcheng City hundreds of years later.

  Lu Xiangsheng asked: "Why don't you retreat into the city?"

Wen Enxun said: "How can the Tartars stop the heavenly soldiers? Xiaomin is a Korean, so how can he help the Tartars defend the city? Therefore, after Tangzhanbao ignited the wolf smoke, Xiaomin brought his whole family and serfs, Hide in the mountains and wait for the heavenly soldiers to arrive."

   This guy said it nicely, but he was actually afraid of death, so he took the opportunity to stand in line with the Datong Army.

  After the king of North Korea usurped the throne, he killed many of the Wen family, which shows that the Wen family was close to the Manchus and belonged to the dogs raised by the Manchus in North Korea. In the past, he turned his back on the master and took refuge in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and now he has taken refuge in the Datong court.

  Lu Xiangsheng asked: "Do you know the military situation in Phoenix City?"

Wen Enxun said: "There are 1,200 Tartar soldiers stationed in Phoenix City, and 150 troops have been withdrawn from Tangzhanbao. There should be 1,350 regular soldiers. However, there are quite a lot of bannermen scattered in the valley, and now they are all withdrawn into the city. If we guard the city together, there may be four or five thousand Tartar soldiers in the city, maybe even five or six thousand. Also, the Tartar soldiers in the city are all Han Jurchens."

  Han Jurchen means Sinicized Jurchen.

  These Jurchens, speaking Chinese and using Chinese surnames, were assimilated by the Daming military households in Phoenix City, so they were all compiled into the Eight Banners of the Han Army.

Wen Enxun wanted to do meritorious service wholeheartedly, and continued: "The guard of Phoenix City is Shuerhaqi's youngest son, Naodai. He was involved in Amin's case in his early years and was deposed as a common man. Two years ago, Dorgon tried to win over Ji Erhalang gave Nao Dai the title again, and let Nao Dai come to garrison Phoenix City."

  Nau Dai is Nurhachi's nephew, who has served as Nurhachi's personal guard for several years, and he can barely be regarded as battle-tested.

   Lu Xiangsheng knew most of this information.

  Lu Xiangsheng asked: "Many Korean serfs have been evacuated into the city. The Tartars must have forced the Koreans to help defend the city. Can you go and persuade them to surrender?"

   "This..." Wen Enxun was afraid of death, but he didn't dare to disobey, so he said bravely, "Xiaomin is willing to serve the general!"

   Instead of persuading them to surrender immediately, they first deployed artillery and confronted the defenders of Phoenix City across the river.

  Phoenix City has six cannons, and they are condescending. The artillerymen of the Datong Army dare not underestimate them. First let the civilians bear the gunfire and build the fort with earth and rocks to form an earth wall on the bank. The barrel can protrude from the muzzle, but the body of the gun is blocked by the earth wall.

  Under the pouring of artillery fire from the defenders, more than 70 civilians died, and this section of the earthen wall was finally built.

  Although it is not strong, the soft earth wall can effectively absorb the kinetic energy of enemy shells.

   "Boom boom boom!"

  The two sides confronted each other for five days, and Wen Enxun was sent to persuade them to surrender.

   This guy was sitting in a small boat, with shells splashing around him, and he was trembling with fright after he hadn't advanced a few meters.

  The Datong soldier who was rowing the boat smiled and said: "Mr. Wen, don't be afraid. Our boat is small and we are so far away from the city wall. It is not easy for the Tartars to hit it."

   "Yes... yes..." Wen Enxun lay on the boat and trembled.

  Seeing that the boat was approaching the north bank, the artillery of the Datong Army stopped firing.

   "Mr. Wen, the artillery fire from the Tartars has also stopped, so hurry up and seize the opportunity to speak out."

   "Boom!"

  As soon as he finished speaking, another shell hit, and the water even splashed on Wen Enxun's body, and the ship's hull was almost capsized by the waves.

  The boat continued to move forward, and had already entered the dead end of the city defense artillery.

Wen Enxun was urged to stand up, picked up the tin trumpet, and shouted in Korean: "Listen, Korean people in the city, my name is Wen Enxun, and I am also Korean. Don't help the Tartars to defend the city anymore. Well, Phoenix City will be breached sooner or later. Take up your weapons and rebel, take this opportunity to make great contributions, from now on... ah!"

  Because of the shooting angle, the artillery can't hit them, but the bow and arrow can, and a rain of arrows shoots over.

  Wen Enxun retreated in a panic and fell on the boat. The nearest arrow was only half a meter away from him.

   After shouting twice desperately, Wen Enxun finally returned, paralyzed by fright, and was dragged off the boat in the end.

On the city wall, Nao Dai frowned and said: "The Koreans in the city are only given one meal a day, and each meal can only drink a bowl of porridge. If you can't die of hunger, you can work. Both hands and feet are all tied with ropes so They can only take half a step at a time."

  Thinking about it, Nao Dai said again: "Call the warriors and go out of the city tonight to attack at night!"

  Capable generals defending the city will usually look for opportunities to go out of the city to attack and harass, otherwise being surrounded will hurt morale.

  Nao Dai followed Nurhachi and fought against Ming Dynasty for several years. Of course, he has been deposed as a commoner for more than ten years, and he hasn't fought a tough battle in such a long time, so it is possible that his skills will recover.

   Abandoned as a commoner, not a real commoner.

  After being stripped of all titles, Nao Dai is still helping with work. For example, Ningyuan City, because the outer city was destroyed, Nao Dai presided over the restoration of the Ningyuan Outer City.

  He has studied the structure of Ningyuan City very well, and is naturally good at how to defend the city.

  After coming to Phoenix City, Nao Dai also built a "big acute angle" in Phoenix City, which is a similar style of the Western Bastion. Therefore, the Phoenix City in front of them is particularly troublesome. Facing a close-range siege, neither the firecrackers nor the bows and arrows have a dead angle.

  Lu Xiangsheng's choice is to divide the troops.

   One is stationed in the southwest, that is, the "Fengcheng Stadium" a few hundred years later. There are rivers to the north and east, and mountains to the southeast. Protect the passage from the southwest. This is also the food road for the Datong Army.

  One part crosses the river to the east, goes back to the north, and camps between the mountains and the river. There is a 600-meter-wide passage here, and trenches can be dug all the way.

  Fortunately, the area of ​​Phoenix is ​​small, and the length of the east, west, north and south sides is only 350 meters, so it is impossible to make perfect use of this terrain.

  If the area of ​​Phoenix City was several times larger, then Lu Xiangsheng would be completely blind. Surrounded by water on three sides, with mountains on one side, and the sharp corners of the bastion, there is no other way but to bombard it with artillery.

  After Lu Xiangsheng observed the terrain, he seized the loopholes and divided his troops to dig trenches. Nao Dai also sent people from the mountains to attack at night.

  (end of this chapter)