Continuously, most of the flag soldiers, about 100,000 people, had crossed the Shihe River and gathered in the area between the east bank of the Shihe River and the Shanhaiguan city wall.
They only waited for the Hongyi cannon to come up and knocked out the gate.
Even the artillery array site of the Hongyi cannon has been leveled by the flag slaves.
This time the Qing army learned the lesson from the last time and also knew the range of the Ming army's firearms.
Therefore, a protective wall bunker as thick as a battle was built around the artillery array using wood and soil to ensure that guns and shells could not directly hit the array.
A soldier galloped over again and told Dorgon that an unknown fleet had appeared on the sea to the east.
Dorgon immediately rode his horse to the beach, squinted and saw three large Western-style sailboats and dozens of Chinese-style hard-sail sailboats approaching the shore.
Dorgon expected that these ships would land on the beach and attack the Qing army from the flank, and immediately ordered the Qing army's Eight Banners to stand ready.
In order to prevent the Ming army from firing cannons to attack the military formation, the military formation was arranged more than a mile away from the coastline.
Now Dorgon has only seen the "guns" of the Ming army.
He still doesn't know how powerful the Ming army's artillery is, nor how many artillery pieces are on a ship.
He arranged it according to the range of the Hongyi cannon.
The ships on the sea anchored a mile away from the coast and began shelling the shore.
Hundreds of naval guns on the sides of the three sail battleships fired in sequence.
The Franco machine on the hard sailing ship also fired all its guns.
The Franco machine had a limited range and did not cause any damage to the Qing army.
It stopped shooting after one round.
But the shells fired by hundreds of naval guns came roaring.
Solid shells, grenades, shrapnel, grapeshot, and chain rounds all attacked the Eight Banners soldiers arrayed on the coast, but most of the artillery shells were concentrated on the pontoon bridge closest to the coast.
In the blink of an eye, the pontoon bridge turned into a pile of broken wood.
The Eight Banners soldiers who were crossing the river on the pontoon bridge suffered numerous casualties.
The Qing troops arrayed on the coast were also dead, wounded and wailing.
Almost at the same time, an artillery position that had been set up on Cape Hill in the north many days ago also began to roar.
Twelve eighteen-pound field guns also destroyed the two pontoon bridges closest to Cape Mountain after three rounds of bombardment.
The Qing army stranded on the west bank of the Shihe River understood what had happened, and retreated in a panic towards the two remaining pontoon bridges in the middle.
The remaining two pontoon bridges were out of reach of both the naval guns and the field guns on Cape Hill.
All this was seen clearly by Xia Hua using a telescope, and the development of the entire battlefield situation had not yet left his deduction.
He immediately ordered the Ming troops on the left and right flanks who had just turned around to suppress the defense line, and then ordered the artillery to set up artillery positions and began to bombard the Qing troops in Hexi.
After several rounds of shrapnel fire from the artillery team's more than fifty 18-pound field guns, the Qing soldiers stranded on the west bank of the Shihe River had suffered numerous casualties.
During this period, a Qing troop of 5,000 soldiers and cavalry tried to rush up to attack Xia Hua's artillery position, but they were defeated by the 300 riflemen and eight flame-breathing Montinis guarding the artillery position, as well as the close-range field artillery fire.
The shotguns fired directly from the distance were torn into pieces.
When the Qing soldiers in Hexi were killed and wounded everywhere, Xia Hua ordered more than a thousand pistol cavalry in the Guards to launch an assault.
The mission goal is to defeat the enemies on the west bank, as long as they flee to the east bank.
The Guards cavalry formed a four-mile line and swept towards the frightened Hexi Eight Banners Army.
Holding the shining saber horizontally in his hand, the horse galloped across the wilderness.
Even though the Eight Banners are good at cavalry and archery, they have never seen such tall and swift cavalry.
The horses of this Guards Cavalry are two heads taller than the Mongolian ponies of the Eight Banners, and their impact power is twice that of the latter.
The scattered Eight Banners infantry in front bravely went up to intercept them, but they all passed by and died.
Some were cut into the throat by sharp blades and died, while others were knocked down and trampled to death by war horses.
At this time, another five thousand Qing army cavalry galloped across the pontoon bridge from the east bank, rushing toward the Guards cavalry like a torrent.
They are the most elite cavalry guards among the Eight Banners cavalry.
Everyone is wearing mercury armor, and when seen from a distance, it looks shiny.
Dorgon, Duoduo, and Ajige, who have been in battle for a long time, understood as soon as they saw the battlefield situation that they must hold the Hexi position, at least until the Hongyi artillery crosses the river.
Otherwise, his 100,000 troops are likely to be trapped in a narrow area of less than 40 square kilometers surrounded by Jiaoshan, Bohai, Guan, and Shihe.
So they quickly mobilized the heroic cavalry of the Bagala Guard Army under each banner, trying to repel the Ming army's assault.
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Amidst the shrill whistles, the Guards cavalry pulled back slightly and maintained an equal-width formation with the oncoming Eight Banners cavalry to start a hedge.
They sheathed their sabers and drew their Colt revolvers.
When the two sides were less than 70 meters apart, they each raised their pistols and crossbows.
The Eight Banners Cavalry Guards are within fifty meters, and their heavy arrows can hit the target with perfect accuracy.
But at this time, the Colt revolvers were all spitting out flames, gunpowder smoke rose from the cavalry, and thousands of bullets were fired intensively at the Eight Banners cavalry.
The Eight Banners soldiers at the front who had opened their crossbows and were ready to fire rolled off their horses.
Two more volleys followed.
Whether they were dead or not, most of the Tatar soldiers who fell off their horses were trampled to pieces by the iron hoofs from behind.
The last salvo was a freely aimed shot by each of them.
In the eyes of a Tatar soldier, the only figures in front of him at first were the figures of his own accomplices, so he just held the bow in his hand and just rode his horse wildly.
The Tatars who suddenly appeared in front fell off their horses amidst the roar and neighing of their horses.
Terrified, he was about to nock an arrow and draw his bow, but it was already too late.
A bullet roared in, piercing his heavy armor and knocking him off his horse.
After four rounds of gunfire, both sides were close at hand and the arrays had dispersed.
The Tatars prepared to engage in hand-to-hand combat.
But the other party didn't bother with them.
He passed by them two battles away and fired a shot at close range.
At this distance, the relative speed of the two sides in the horizontal direction is too high, making it impossible for the bow and arrow to aim, but the pistol can.
After the wrong horse, only a thousand of the five thousand so-called brave cavalry were left.
What hurt the morale of the Qing army more than the huge casualties was that the opponent did not suffer many casualties.
After crossing the opponent's line of troops, the Guards cavalry divided into two waves and continued to charge at the remaining soldiers of the Eight Banners in Hexi on the left and right.
The Eight Banners Cavalry Bagala continued to suffer casualties, and the Guards infantry at the rear had already pressed forward, launching precise sniper fire at them from hundreds of meters away.
In the end, only about two hundred survivors turned around and fled back to the east coast in panic.
The artillery was emboldening, and the left and right wings of the Ming army also took advantage of the opportunity to press forward under the cover of artillery.
The soldiers also became brave and fought hard to intercept and kill several small groups of Eight Banners soldiers who launched a counterattack on their own, including Shang Kexi's troops.
The remaining nearly 20,000 bannermen in Hexi have completely lost their will to fight after the brutal shelling and two infantry and cavalry battles with disproportionate casualties.
Driven by thousands of Guardsmen, they abandoned all their baggage, including the Hongyi cannon, and rushed toward the two pontoon bridges like a tide.
The Guards Cavalry then withdrew to the rear of the formation under the command of the whistle.
The follow-up reinforcements sent by Dorgon to Hexi collided with the defeated troops and huddled together on the pontoon bridge
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