Chapter 10: The Battle Situation (2)

  On the same evening, after a fierce battle all day long, Houjin and Ningyuan City simultaneously ceased fire and rested. The smoke on the battlefield had not yet dissipated, and the air was filled with the smell of burning gunpowder. Thousands of soldiers from both sides died in battle, and countless others were hacked to death or burned beyond recognition. Even people like Zhu Yinglong, who were far away from the Houjin camp, could faintly hear the anguished cries of the wounded Houjin soldiers.

  The girl's body was weak, her eyes sunken below the bridge of her nose, and she couldn't start a fire. As night fell, the temperature plummeted, and if they hadn't bought a lot of fur blankets along the way, wrapping themselves up in them, Xiong Hu and the rescued girl would have been frozen stiff, their bodies shivering slightly.

  As soon as the battle stopped, Zhu Yinglong was thinking about the true identity of the girl he had saved, so he saw the situation between the two girls, but didn't know what to do.

  "Prince Wang, have a drink to warm yourself up!" Lu Haotian tossed a wine pouch to Zhu Yinglong.

  Zhu Yinglong took the wine pouch, pulled out the wooden stopper, and brought it to his lips. Just as he was about to take a few sips, he suddenly had an idea, put down the wine pouch, inserted the wooden stopper, walked in front of Xiong Hu, and handed him the wine pouch, saying: "Take a sip, warm up your body."

  Xiong Hu raised her eyes and looked at Zhu Yinglong for a moment, her face slightly red as she said softly: "Lieniang doesn't drink."

  "Ah!" Zhu Yinglong was surprised, the girl at the door actually didn't know how to drink, this was beyond his expectations. He had eaten with Xiong Hu several times, but hadn't noticed this, which made him feel quite embarrassed.

  However, Xiong Hu saw the awkward expression on Zhu Yinglong's face and involuntarily stretched out his hand to take away the wine pouch from Zhu Yinglong. He pulled out the wooden plug, took a sip of the strong liquor, and not being used to drinking, he was immediately choked by it. His cheeks instantly flushed with two red clouds, extremely captivating.

  Zhu Yinglong was stunned for a moment, his mouth opened and then closed again.

  The red glow on Xiong Hu's face had just faded, but the strong liquor was like a raging fire burning inside him. Having never drunk before, Xiong Hu suddenly collapsed from the effects of the alcohol.

  The woman beside him grabbed hold of Xiong Hu, looking at Zhu Yinglong with tension. Zhu Yinglong also didn't expect it to be like this, took away the wine pouch and shook his head with a bitter smile: "Take good care of her."

  But just as Zhū Yǐng Lóng was about to leave, he found that the woman was staring at the wine pouch in his hand with a hint of hope in her eyes. Zhū Yǐng Lóng casually tossed the wine pouch over to her, and she happily received it, pulled out the wooden plug, and took a big gulp of strong liquor. She smiled at Zhū Yǐng Lóng with an open mouth, revealing two rows of white teeth, which made Zhū Yǐng Lóng's heart flutter. He quickly suppressed this strange thought and hastily left.

  "Your Highness, I think tomorrow Nurhaci's attack will be even more fierce. The supplies in Ningyuan City are scarce, and if this continues, Ningyuan City will be in danger." Xiong Tingbi said matter-of-factly.

  Lu Haitian also remained silent.

  Zhu Yinglong didn't know what to say at this time either. He stared blankly in the direction of Ningyuan City, seemingly not having heard Xiong Tingbi's words at all.

  On the second day, Nurhaci launched another fierce attack on Ningyuan City. The method of attack was similar to that of the first afternoon, and although it was not as cruel as the first afternoon, it was also extremely fierce. They changed their strategy from digging wall foundations to using iron-plated carts to crash into the city walls. After being dug by Nurhaci for 70-80 holes on the first day, the city walls were now violently shaking under the impact and were about to collapse.

  Yuan Chonghuan ordered the troops to defend the city to the death, assigning Ma Gui to guard the east gate, Zuo Fu to guard the west gate, Zu Dashou to guard the south gate, and Zhu Mei to guard the north gate. The city was divided into sections for defense, with mutual support, and Ma Gui was put in charge of commanding the entire city. In front of all the generals, Yuan Chonghuan wrote a vow in his own blood, bowed to the soldiers defending the city, picked up a handful of dry grass, chewed on it, and swallowed it. He said to the generals: "Now that Ningyuan is in danger, if I can defend the city with all of you, Yuan Chonghuan is willing to be reborn as cattle or sheep to repay everyone." The generals and soldiers defending the city had always admired this commander who shared their joys and sorrows. Seeing his blood-stained vow and watching him eat grass in public, they were all moved to tears, and one after another, they vowed to live or die with Ningyuan City, and fight a bloody battle for it!

  Round after round of fierce attacks, both the attackers and defenders paid a considerable price, but Ningyuan City stood firm, like a strong giant standing on the Liaodong land.

  Nurhaci, relying on his numerical superiority, hardly took any rest and the battle continued until dusk. The extra bedding in the city was almost all used up. Jin Zhun, the vice commander of Ningyuan City, came up with another device to destroy the enemy. In Zhu Yinglong's view, this was a flame thrower, which put fire medicine into a hollow mud ball, added a wooden frame outside, ignited the fire medicine and threw it down from the city wall. The mud ball kept spinning and spraying fire, instantly burning a large area of the Later Jin iron armor army to death, causing Nurhaci heavy losses.

  Zhu Yinglong and others were far away from the Later Jin Dynasty's camp, although they had binoculars as a convenient tool, but could only infer one or two things that had already happened in the battle. During this time, Ningyuan City seemed to have sent a team of daredevils to attempt a night raid on Nurhaci's camp, but they retreated after advancing only about 500 meters from the city wall. Zhu Yinglong couldn't understand this because he couldn't produce infrared binoculars at night, so as an outsider, he didn't know why Yuan Chonghuan made such an unwise move when his troops were so weak. How could Nurhaci, being so cunning, allow Yuan Chonghuan to send someone to launch a sneak attack on the military camp?

  Xiong Tingbi saw a clue and lightly exclaimed, "This is not good. The city's defensive arrows are insufficient. This must be the defenders sending people down to collect arrows from the corpses."

  Zhu Yinglong and others were also shocked after hearing this. If the Ningyuan garrison's arrows were insufficient, how could they defend the city?

  The people spent the second night in anxiety and unease, and on the third day, the attack of the Later Jin army was much more intense than the sum of the previous two days. They dug under the wall, rammed the city gate, and built vehicles higher than cloud ladders to climb over the city walls. With three simultaneous attacks, the offensive was extremely fierce, with corpses constantly being thrown down from the city walls, which were splattered with the blood of soldiers on both sides. Just as the city walls of Ningyuan City were about to collapse, Nurhaci thought that the city would be breached soon and personally commanded the army to attack again. However, he did not expect that while galloping under the range of the red cannons in Ningyuan City, a cannonball landed beside his horse, exploding and instantly creating a huge crater on the ground. A massive shockwave suddenly swept Nurhaci off his horse, throwing him heavily to the ground.

  The commander-in-chief was seriously injured. Without Nurhaci, the Later Jin army was like a plate of loose sand, so they had to order a retreat.

  After seeing this, the Later Jin army retreated like a tide, and the Ningyuan city wall erupted in thunderous cheers, shouting victory.

  When Nurhaci fell off his horse as seen from the telescope, Zhu Yinglong knew that this battle would still end with a result almost identical to history, but what he regretted was why the shell was a solid shot instead of a shrapnel shell. If it were a shrapnel shell, Nurhaci would have been killed by now.

  Nurhaci was seriously injured and the siege of Ningyuan city was lifted as a result.