In front of Shanhai Pass, Mangurtai looked at the majestic city in the distance, his eyes bloodshot and filled with hatred. The middle of February had passed, and the battle had lasted for ten days, but the Han city was still unmoved. Apart from the hundreds of holes in the wall caused by the bombardment, nothing else had changed.
The Kennu's breast-wall tactic worked for four to five days, but the Han quickly found a way to deal with it. If the Kennu could sneak in at night, they could also sneak out of the city and approach the Kennu.
Gao Duniu doesn't have that many cultivators who can cast spells under his command, but he moves boxes of explosives out of the city and arranges the engineers to blow up trenches on the ground, build protective walls, and build cannons.
In terms of building fortifications, the national army had a specialized engineering battalion. The cannons were light and portable, and could be pulled out and fired. The training level of the flintlock soldiers was also much higher than that of the Kennu gunners. After closing the distance, the Revolutionary Army's cannons could be used.
When the distance between the two sides was reduced to 500 meters, the advantage of the Revolutionary Army's cannons was fully displayed. A cannon could shoot a cannonball into the small gap in the Kennu cannons from 500 meters away, directly destroying the cannons and the gunners inside.
When Mangul 'tai saw the Han coming out of the city, he was overjoyed. Riding on his huge earth dragon, he personally led the army out. In the end, he learned what was called a 'hail of bullets'. Thousands of flintlocks and more than ten cannons were all aimed at him.
"Those Han, they are clearly timid, weak in cultivation, and not worth mentioning. Any one of our Jurchen warriors is stronger than them. But why can't we break through, we can't break through, we can't break through? "Mangurtai hid behind a broken cannon position and hammered the frozen breast-wall with all his strength.
The frozen sand was as hard as steel, but Mangurtai hammered it into pieces. The helmet he was wearing had fallen off, and his slender rat tail was broken in half. His face was covered with stubble, and he looked very haggard.
Engrid squatted on the side, looking dirty and messy as well. He patted Mangurtai's shoulder and said, "Third Beilei, let's retreat. They had to leave while they still could. Otherwise, all 30,000 of us will die here. "
Mangurtai was still unconvinced as he continued cursing, "Those Hans only know how to open fire. The moment there's any movement, they'll come over. They were just a bunch of bumpkins who didn't know anything and only knew this move. I attacked them at night, I took a detour to attack their flanks and rear, I bluffed and divided my forces into many groups.
I have been thinking of many ideas in the past few days. When I was in my teens, I followed my father to war. At that time, those Han soldiers were still drinking milk. The Han generals were very mediocre, their reactions were slow, their brains were stupid, and they were complete fools. I clearly did better than him, but he just led his subordinates to bombard me endlessly! "
Mangurtai hammered and hammered until a part of the parapet collapsed. His fists were covered in blood. Engedeli understood the 3 beilei's annoyance. Not only did the Han on the other side have more guns and gunpowder, they were very slow when it came to fighting. Every time, they would stupidly get into formation, stupidly open fire, and then stupidly win. Many veteran Jurchen soldiers who had fought for many years had fallen under the muzzle of their guns. This was indeed very unconvincing.
The Jin had spent a lot of money to procure a hundred cannons, and only a dozen or so could be transported to the Shanhai Pass frontline. But the Han on the other side could casually pull out a dozen or so cannons. Not only did they have cannons, they even planted mines everywhere and scattered gunpowder everywhere.
That's right, it's one thing for the Han to have a lot of cannons, but they also have a lot of gunpowder.
Was it easy for the Jin to buy some gunpowder from the Dutch? They had to travel all the way from Dongying and take a detour to the old forests in the northeast to be transported here. How much manpower and resources would it take to transport them to the Shanhai Pass frontline? Long-distance transportation was very limited. The rations for 30,000 men and horses were not enough, so they had to ensure the supply of gunpowder. Otherwise, if the cannons could not fire, they would be useless sticks.
The gunpowder in Mangurtai's hands was as precious as gold. Every day, he would calculate how to use every bit of it in the most important areas. But the Han on the other side used gunpowder like pouring water. Every now and then, they would fire hundreds of rockets at them. If they could not blow up the frontline fortifications, they would blow up the camps, rations, cows and horses at the back.
Those Han were the most hateful. Whenever they saw a tent, they would fire a few rockets at it. In the beginning, Mangurtai even ordered his men to set up some fake tents to attract the Han's firepower and waste their ammunition. In the end, the Jurchen's manpower and resources were exhausted. In the end, they could not even set up the fake tents.
"Don't you think it's infuriating?" Mangurtai hammered his hands until they were covered in blood. He angrily shouted to Engedri, "Those Han are not willing to come out and fight us. They just fire from afar, suppressing our Jurchen warriors to the point where we can't even raise our heads. But we just have to suffer more casualties than them. It's obvious that we are fighting harder than them. "
On the battlefield not far away, Mangurtai's gigantic earth dragon collapsed. Its hard skull was unable to withstand the bombardment of the 150mm shells. Half of its head turned into minced meat and splattered all over the place.
Mangurtai's' man and mount as one 'technique was useless. Taking advantage of Gao Daniu's unsteady footing, he mobilized his men and launched a decisive assault. He successfully charged into the Han's defensive line. But those Han soldiers refused to retreat. The gigantic earth dragon let out a terrifying roar and bared its sharp fangs, but it was unable to scare them. Both sides fought at close range and suffered heavy casualties.
By the time the Han's cannons reacted and fired a few shots, no matter how strong the earth dragon was, it could only fall. Mangurtai left behind a few hundred corpses and retreated in panic. This was his most outstanding moment in this battle. After that, he could no longer organize another attack. He could only watch as the fortifications and cannons that he had painstakingly built were destroyed one by one.
The moment they lost the support of the heavy cannons, the Jurchens would not be able to hold out against the incoming Han soldiers. Seeing that the battle was about to collapse, Engadri tried to persuade Mangurtai to retreat. But Mangurtai cursed: "Retreat? How? If we don't defeat those Han soldiers, they will continue to chase after us. Furthermore, our retreat route has been cut off. "
Retreating was always harder than attacking.
When Zhou Qingfeng formed the National Defense Army, some of the veterans had been trained for two years, but they were still unable to organize an effective retreat. Those who knew how to attack could only be called qualified officers. To be able to safely retreat from the frontlines in the midst of chaos, this kind of officer must be a master tactician.
The Jurchens in front of Shanhai Pass were fighting with determination. But two days ago, Mangurtai found out that his retreat route had been cut off. He could still hold on for now, but if he were to retreat, he would be defeated like a landslide. He did not dare to give the order to retreat and could only resist. "Delay, delay! Delay until nightfall, then we will have a chance to retreat. "
But even if they wanted to retreat, they had to leave some men behind to resist. Otherwise, if the retreating army was pursued, they would immediately collapse. The Han soldiers were not like those useless Ming Army soldiers. They dared to fight in the open and in the night. Right now, their morale was high, and their fighting style was getting fiercer and fiercer. How could it be easy to retreat under their noses?
With a loud boom, the last cannons on the Jurchens' frontlines were also destroyed. They were not hit by the Han soldiers' cannons, but by the Jurchens' engineers. Mangurtai had never thought that someone would blow up a trench in order to destroy a cannon, and then use the trench to get close to the cannon before sending it to the sky.
The Han engineers were hiding in the trench and digging with all their might. The Jurchens could see them waving their shovels and throwing up mud, but they could do nothing to the Jurchens who were hiding in the trench.
After losing the last cannon, Mangurtai immediately felt that his entire frontline was loosening. This loosening was reflected in the fact that the Han soldiers began to appear more boldly in the Jurchens' field of vision, flattening out the frontline that had been suppressed by the cannons, and pushing out their own cannons.
There were still two to four hours before nightfall.
Mangurtai really wanted to rush out and not hide behind the broken parapet and watch. But he knew that even if he rushed out, it would not be of much use. At most, he would kill a few dozen Han soldiers before being killed by the concentrated fire. These Han soldiers did not look strong individually, but when they gathered as a whole, they were very terrifying.
"Third Beilei, I'll stay behind to cover the retreat. You go." Enkedri moved closer to Mangurtai and said with a bitter smile, "You're the commander-in-chief, so the retreat depends on you. I'll stay behind with a few thousand men. We should be able to hold out for a while. "He looked up at the sky." I'm afraid we won't be able to hold out until nightfall. If we don't leave now, we really won't be able to leave. "
Mangurtai was startled. He looked at the Han soldiers outside the parapet. The other party was advancing in an orderly manner. Every fifty meters, they would stop to blow up some bunkers and build some fortifications before advancing again. Several troops supported each other, not in a hurry, not slow, and very orderly. He shook his head slightly and said, "If you stay behind, I'm afraid you won't be able to hold out for long."
"Third Beilei, those Han soldiers always shoot fire arrows before they attack to disrupt our deployment. Take your men and retreat before they fire. Even if they destroy me, it will be nightfall by then, so they won't easily chase after you. As for how you're going to break through the Han soldiers' blockade, I won't be able to help you. "
Enkedri smiled bitterly and said, "I didn't expect that this battle would be so difficult to fight. The Han soldiers have all become hard bones. It's too hard to bite. If you can see the Great Khan, help me persuade him. If it doesn't work, we'll retreat back to Hetuala. Admit defeat or become a vassal. Perhaps in a few decades, our Great Jin will rise again. "
Enkedri did not wait for Mangurtai's agreement. He turned around and went to organize his troops. There was no longer any meaning in defending. If he wanted to stop the Han army's attack, he had to counterattack and disrupt their deployment. But the firepower of both sides was not on the same level. Enkedri's attack would definitely result in heavy casualties.
"Sigh …" Mangul 'ertai heaved a heavy sigh. He had no time to be sad, and he could not let Enkedri's death be in vain. He could only gather his troops and horses, abandon all the supplies and wounded, and retreat immediately.
Some stayed behind to die, while others escaped. The most difficult and chaotic moment of retreat had arrived. Most of the people Mangurtai retreated were from Jianzhou, leaving behind the tribes that he had conquered over the past few decades. If they won the battle, they would all be Enlightened Masters. But now that they had to escape, no one was willing to sacrifice themselves so easily.
The moment Mangurtai gathered his troops, the entire battlefront began to collapse. Everything was irreversible.
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