Chapter 356 Both uncles and nephews want to kill each other

Zhu Nengdao, the imperial court is gathering a large army, and it is not possible to fight the decisive army. Jingzhou City has always been a strategic location, and the city defense fortifications are relatively strict, so the rebels are not so easy to capture. If you send another 5,000 to help defend the city, you should defend it.

Zhu Neng means exactly what Zhu Di means.

During the Jingnan Dynasty, the Yan army rarely attacked the city. Zhu Gaoxu suddenly wanted to attack the city, which surprised and happy.

Since Zhu Gaoxu started his army, he has surrendered everywhere, like Chengdu, Chongqing, and other big cities, without any strong attacks.

Zhu Di wanted Zhu Gaoxu to attack Jingzhou, and he would inevitably suffer heavy losses at that time.

Moreover, their whistle cavalry observed that Zhu Gaoxu had not had enough troops, only tens of thousands of people, and this number of troops was not enough to attack the city.

During the Jingnan Dynasty, Zhu Di first fought Zhending City, but failed for three days and three nights, causing heavy losses.

Later, more than 200,000 troops besieged Jinan. Jinan was about the same size as Jingzhou City and had a few defenders, but Jingzhou was an ancient city, which was much harder to fight than Jinan.

So Zhu Di felt that Zhu Gaoxu was going to attack Jingzhou and asked for trouble, which was just enough to consume his troops.

But at this moment, Zhu Gaoxu only knows the width and the depth of the water. But Mao estimated that compared with the moats in heavy cities such as Chengdu, Chongqing, Changsha, etc., he could guess at least four or five meters.

Behind the Water City is a brick city, which is about 1 meter thick. The inner wall is rammed with earth, the lower part is about 9 meters wide. The outer wall is made of stone and bricks. The brick city is 9 meters high and has a circumference of more than twenty miles.

Although there was no telescope, Zhu Gaoxu could see that there were two Hongwu cannons on both sides of the dock, and there were still cannons in Jingzhou City.

Water safety and time-saving are not comparable to land.

He was originally at the North Gate because many people attacked Jingzhou in the past and attacked from the North Gate.

Not to mention anything else, at least the basic data of the city size, shape, height, etc. must be included.

The Ming army had few city defense artillery at this time, and because Huguang was relatively stable and there was no war, the Hongwu artillery was no longer built until the later period. Now the one on the top of Jingzhou city is probably the old Hongwu artillery.

This kind of person cannot survive for three episodes on the battlefield. Zhu Gaoxu thought to himself, and then turned to Zhou Hu and said, "In the future, if you see this kind of king flag on the battlefield, you will directly bombard it with cannons."

However, there are few cannons in Hongwu, and there are many other types of guns such as bowl and cubic guns. However, Zhu Gaoxu did not have a telescope at this time, so he could only see cannons from afar. It is difficult to see other types of guns clearly.

Two hundred steps away, the cannon on the city wall was very obvious, and he also saw Zhu Zhi at the top of the city wall.

At the same time, Zhu Zhi replied and shot out of the city, scolding Zhu Gaoxu for being unfaithful and unfilial, and instead advised him to surrender, saying that he would plead for you in front of his fourth brother.

"If you hit him, you will scare him to death if you don't hit him." Zhu Zhi said.

Then handed over a simple picture.

The whistleblower chose the water-seeking person, swam directly outside the south gate, and observed it closely.

Among them, it can still be passed between the earth city and the brick city.

The generals had no objection. Although they thought Jingzhou was not easy to fight, Zhu Gaoxu had won every battle in front of them for a long time, and his image of strategizing was indestructible. Everyone spontaneously believed in the king.

"Don't you know my good nephew Zhu Gaoxu?" Zhu Zhi smiled.

However, Zhu Zhi had been stationed in the border area and was very experienced. He was a close confidant who strictly guarded the city gates. The city was not allowed to gather and discuss matters. There was a curfew just after dark every day, and there was no one on the street. The defense was very tight.

"Fight, there is no city that is difficult to fight in front of me, Zhu Gaoxu." Zhu Gaoxu said in an unquestionable tone: "Just hit Ximen."

The three of them quickly approached two hundred steps.

The south gate cannot do it, so I can only make the idea of ​​other gates.

When Zhu Gaoxu and the other two walked forward, Zhu Zhi at the top of the city had already seen it.

The original Tucheng was built during the Three Kingdoms period. It was later demolished and restored. Lao Zhu helped it raise it. The brick city was rebuilt when Lao Zhu called the King of Wu during the Hongwu period.

There is a moat outside the water city. The moat connects Taihu Lake in the west, Changhu Lake in the east, and is connected to the canal. It is more than 20 miles long, which surrounds the outer wall of the water city. The widest place reaches ten feet (30 meters), and the narrowest place is eight meters, with an average water depth of about four meters.

There are two cannons on the west gate, one is on the top of the city, and the other is more than twenty steps away from the city gate.

Although it was a bit far away, after he looked at it, he felt that there might be Zhu Gaoxu in the three people inside.

But Zhu Gaoxu's courage is surprising.

Zhu Gaoxu in the distance didn't know that Zhu Zhi was really cruel, so he just fired a gun and wanted to fuck him.

Zhao Gui and other generals were moved by the sight. The King of Han was so bold that he dared to pass through this.

Only one or two Hongwu cannons, but it depends entirely on luck to hit one person.

Song Mengdao, before the anti-rebellion army fought with Zhu Neng in Guangxi, he sent a team of people to Jingzhou in the name of a caravan, but Jingzhou City quickly imposed an early curfew, that is, after the sun set, there were no pedestrians on the street, and they were killed when they saw it.

This is probably one of the reasons why Zhu Zhi dared to yell to defend the city with two thousand soldiers.

If the two cities were captured, the official army could retreat to the innermost Tucheng, with a circumference of a little smaller, about twenty miles away. Tucheng was originally the shortest, but later the city was the highest in Lao Zhu.

Early in the morning of the 23rd, Zhu Gaoxu came to the south gate of Jingzhou City.

"Go to the West Gate." Zhu Gaoxu quickly brought the generals to the West Gate again, about one mile away to prevent artillery attacks.

Now it seems that the boat cannot reach within a hundred steps, and even if it blows the city gate, it has to swim over, but the boat cannot pass.

Of course, people in Jingzhou cannot come out on a boat, so is Zhu Zhi going to fight Zhu Gaoxu to the death?

As Zhu Gaoxu said, the main function of artillery in this era was to attack the morale of the other party during wartime and to improve the morale of the whole world. In addition to city defense and ships, only Zhu Neng, Sheng Yong and others used it in the field, and the effect was not good.

On March 20, Zhu Gaoxu's troops crossed the river from Zhijiang County. This was the only place with a bridge that had a hundred miles of river nearby.

The fewer people, the fewer the targets are. Moreover, He Nahu and Zhou Hu are as tall as him. The three of them stood together and couldn't see who was who in the distance.

The pier outside the south city gate was about twenty steps wide, and it was possible to dock warships, but Zhu Zhi was a cruel man. He sank several 400-foot ships and also drove into wooden stakes. Within a hundred steps from the city gate, he could no longer sail.

The signal of setting fire inside is the long horn sound outside, and then three consecutive cannons are added.

Zhu Zhi was one of the Kings of the Nine Sides back then, and like Zhu Di, he was indeed a little capable.

According to the order, Zhu Neng sent five thousand troops to support Jingzhou from the water, so he no longer cared about him.

Before he decided to move forward, a war horse that Zhu Gaoxu rode forward and backward, and immediately asked Yang Lei to lead his thousand-mile horse to the shadow.

"Damn it, my fifteenth uncle is also a cruel person." Zhu Gaoxu looked at him and laughed.

Now Zhu Neng has given him more than 10,000 elite troops in two guards. Including the young and strong people he recruited, the city guards have reached nearly 20,000, which is more than the prince who guarded Peking back then.

"It's only two cannons, the accuracy is poor. Don't worry, you can watch the shells and hide again. Moreover, Zhu Zhi may not hit me." Zhu Gaoxu really didn't take the Hongwu cannon seriously.

There was no firecracker on the top of the city wall.

Outside is the Water City, with six gates, namely the Southeast Gate, the East Gate, the South Gate, the West Gate, the Big North Gate, and the Small North Gate. Each city gate has a city tower, with an exterior wall of more than 20 miles long and more than three meters high (more than nine meters).

Later, I heard that the main force of the rebels seemed to have arrived at Ximen, so he rushed over immediately. At this time, Zhu Gaoxu was just two hundred steps away.

"Here." The subordinates responded and prepared to fire.

Zhou Hu reported to him at this time that he had sent a whistle cavalry to explore and even drew pictures.

In ancient times, those who could use water would not use land.

The moat on the west gate is slightly narrower, and the city gate is about eight meters in front of it, which is the narrowest in the entire Jingzhou City.

Moreover, Jingzhou must be fought. If he did not attack Jingzhou, he would not be able to go through the water without attacking the food, supplies and troops from Sichuan.

Then I thought to myself, Zhu Gaoxu is too bad, these three people have similar figures, which is really difficult to tell.

Zhu Gaoxu originally wanted to use a boat to approach the south gate and then use artillery to bombard the city gate.

Zhu Gaoxu is not far from the south gate and discusses with Zhou Hu, Song Meng, Zhao Gui, He Ruhu and other generals looking at the pictures.

"Hehe." Zhu Zhi smiled, turned around and asked a subordinate next to him: "Can Hongwu cannon hit there?"

He got on the Qianli Horse and then went over with He Ruhu and Zhou Hu.

After looking at the picture, except for Zhu Gaoxu himself, other generals felt that Jingzhou City was not easy to fight.

"You must not." The generals dissuaded one after another, and were careful of the official army artillery.

In addition, on the water wall of the outermost city, there are eight cannons in Jingzhou and many other firearms.

Yan Neng disturbed his head: "It's a little farther away, I can't tell that the three of them are almost the same."

The south gate of Jingzhou City is on the edge of the river. It usually has a dock, and ships traveling from south to north can dock.

After looking at it for a while, Zhu Gaoxu felt that he couldn't see anything else on the top of the city, and he wanted to move forward even more.

Almost as he crossed the bridge, Chen Wen stayed in Guizhou from Guizhou, and Zhao Gui brought 30,000 troops and a large number of ships (all from Sichuan), first defeated Yiling, and then came to Zhijiang.

The only thing that can be done is to set fire inside when they are at the critical moment of siege.

The two armies combined 60,000 troops and arrived at the city of Jingzhou on March 22.

Zhu Gaoxu ordered archery and announcements to go to the city and called for the city to surrender.

During the day, there are at least one hundred officials at each city gate.

So from the perspective of Jingzhou City defense, it is indeed more difficult to attack than Jinan City.

Before he rose up, Zhu Gaoxu's caravan had already investigated some important towns in the Ming Dynasty, such as Changsha, Wuchang, Jingzhou, Xiangyang, etc. in Huguang.

So it is almost impossible to open the city gate inside, and there are too few people.

At this time, a large number of guards from the capital had arrived in Wuchang. He was the first to support Yuezhou and was sent here again.

Jingzhou City is divided into three layers inside and outside, which are easy to defend but difficult to attack. This is the most complicated city Zhu Gaoxu has encountered at present.

Zhu Gaoxu listened and watched. He came over with 60,000 troops and horses. If he didn't fight, he would go back. Zhu Zhi wouldn't laugh to death.
To be continued...