Chapter 50: Surrounding Three, Leaving One Open

Nurhaci glanced at his son, then looked back at the troops behind him, and shook his head.

This time he had brought out the entire Eight Banners, a force of over fifty thousand men. If he were to fight a battle against the Ming army—even if all the Ming troops in Liaodong came out in full force—he would not be afraid, because the morale of the two sides was simply not the same.

But now it was not like that. This was a siege battle. If he attacked from three sides, his forces would inevitably have to be split up.

With three sides surrounded and one left open, he could only commit ten thousand men to each wall. Ten thousand men were not enough to put pressure on the Ming troops inside Shenyang and force them to flee.

At the same time, this kind of fighting was easily exploited by the Ming troops inside the city. One had to remember that the man sitting in command inside the city was not that fool Yuan Yingtai, but that brute Xiong Tingbi.

"Father Khan, they have retreated." Daišan looked ahead, his expression somewhat grim as he spoke.

Hearing this, Nurhaci's expression was not nearly as grim, because he had never held much hope for these Mongols. He had never expected to rely on the Mongols to breach Shenyang, because that was simply unrealistic.

He had only not expected the Mongols to retreat so quickly. They had not even charged to the foot of the walls—they had merely crossed the moat and then pulled back.

Still, Nurhaci could also see that the Ming troops on the city walls were indeed defending very tightly. Archers and cannons fired in volleys without ever stopping.

If one wanted to charge forward, one would have to cross these moats. Even if one actually made it across, the losses would not be small—not to mention the many chevaux de frise placed at the base of the walls.

The chevaux de frise placed below the walls were naturally not meant to stop his own cavalry, but rather to slow down the pace of his attack.

After crossing the moat, you had to move the chevaux de frise aside; if you did not move them, you could not get through; and while you were moving them, the rain of arrows from the city walls would come crashing down as if they cost nothing.

Those three rows of chevaux de frise were like tigers blocking the road. If you wanted to charge through, the only way was to fill the gap with lives.

Nurhaci could see it clearly now—Xiong Tingbi wanted him to fill the gap with lives.

Nurhaci was not stupid either.

Sacrifice lives attacking the walls of Shenyang?

He could not do that!

After pondering for a moment, Nurhaci directly said to Daišan beside him: "Take the men and go. Feign an attack on Liaoyang, circle around, and then come back. Once the Ming troops leave the city, we fight; if they do not leave the city, then we retreat."

"Yes, Father Khan." Daišan acknowledged, turned around, and mustered his troops, putting on the appearance of preparing to attack Liaoyang.

On the city walls, Xiong Tingbi watched the situation among the Jurchens, his expression unchanged, merely watching quietly.

Standing beside Xiong Tingbi, Li Guangrong's face showed some excitement as he said to Xiong Tingbi: "Great Marshal, they are splitting off troops to attack Liaoyang! The Jianzhou barbarians remaining below the walls number no more than twenty thousand. Why not have us raid their camp tonight? This way we can surely defeat the enemy in one battle."

Glancing at Li Guangrong, Xiong Tingbi shook his head. He did not believe at all that the Jianzhou barbarians would truly split their forces to attack Liaoyang.

Even if they truly did split forces to attack Liaoyang, those men would not be enough. Leave the city to raid their camp? They would likely fall right into the Jianzhou barbarians' trap.

From beginning to end, Xiong Tingbi had always felt that Liaodong could not be fought over—only defended—let alone any talk of annihilating the Jurchens. With the current military strength of the Great Ming in Liaodong, that was simply impossible!

Now His Majesty had ordered him to hold Shenyang and Liaoyang to the death, so he would hold them to the death.

He only hoped the capital would not suffer any more upheavals, and that those Donglin partisans would not stir up any more trouble!

Thinking of this, Xiong Tingbi could not help but look toward the direction of the capital. Nothing must go wrong, or else everything would truly be finished.

So what was the situation in the capital at this moment?

Routine memorials impeaching Xiong Tingbi had once again piled up on Zhu Youxiao's dragon desk.

"Burn them all." Zhu Youxiao said expressionlessly. He could not even be bothered to look at them now—reading these memorials was a pure waste of time.

With Yuan Yingtai's arrival in the capital, the impeachment of Xiong Tingbi had once again reached a peak. This time, the content of the impeachments was basically that Xiong Tingbi was afraid to fight.

Zhu Youxiao simply could not be bothered to listen to any of it. Sarhu had already been lost—what was there left to say? How poor the Great Ming's military strength in Liaodong was, there was no need to even mention it.

If Xiong Tingbi could hold the line, that would be a great achievement in itself. As long as Shenyang and Liaoyang remained, the Jurchens could not grow strong, and they would not dare to confidently march west to subjugate the Mongol tribes. In this way, they could not expand and could only make trouble in Liaodong.

Once they went west, then Liaoyang and Shenyang could send troops to retake Tieling and Kaiyuan, or even attack Nurhaci's lair—that is, Fushun.

In this way, Nurhaci could only turn back to reinforce, and he would not dare to go out and fight. Like Mao Wenlong's containment, the containment role of Shenyang and Liaoyang was far greater than that of the Dongjiang garrison.

Without being able to swallow up the Mongol tribes, Nurhaci had no way to grow strong and could only grind away there. In a few years, he himself could deal with him.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Chen Hong acknowledged, then signaled the young eunuchs to carry all those memorials away.

Setting down the wood carving in his hand, Zhu Youxiao nodded with satisfaction.

This wood carving was not of a person—it was of an Italian cannon.

Of course, the "Italian cannon" here had a specific reference—it was the Italian cannon from *Bright Sword*. Although it was called an Italian cannon, it was actually a French M1897 75mm field gun.

This was a cannon developed in France in 1897. Because it was the world's first cannon equipped with a recoil mechanism, its rate of fire reached 15 rounds per minute, far exceeding other cannons of the same era. Thus it shone brilliantly in World War I, with production and sales exceeding 20,000 units.

According to historical records, during World War I, Italy once imported a batch of such cannons from France. After the war, the obsolete surplus was sold to China, and they ultimately appeared on the battlefields of the War of Resistance. Because Italian text was engraved on the barrels, some records came to call them "Italian cannons."

"If I could build cannons like this, then Liaodong would not need to be defended." Zhu Youxiao toyed with the cannon in his hand and let out a soft sigh.

If he had a system, or a warehouse, then he would not have to go through all this trouble. He could ask the system or the warehouse for a hundred AKs to conquer the world—and preferably with unlimited ammunition.

"Forget it, I'll just play with flintlocks honestly!" Zhu Youxiao ultimately could only compromise, feeling very helpless.

Turning to look at Chen Hong, Zhu Youxiao asked expressionlessly: "How is the construction of my Hundred Crafts Institute coming along?"

This place, which seemed to be specially built for Zhu Youxiao to play around in, was in fact the place where Zhu Youxiao intended to pour countless efforts and heart's blood.

This would be a research and development institution of the Great Ming, personally supervised and led by Zhu Youxiao.

Some people said—would an emperor personally do such a thing?

In fact, he had to do it personally, because Zhu Youxiao did not feel assured entrusting it to others. There were too many constraints and too much corruption inside—Zhu Youxiao simply could not trust it.

Even though there were many things he did not understand, Zhu Youxiao could at least guide the major directions—that was the key. So he had to handle it personally.