Although the plan for the surprise attack on Kaifeng had been decided, Li Zicheng still felt a little uneasy. After dinner that day, he invited Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance and Li Yan together to further hammer out the key issues for the surprise attack on Kaifeng.
Kaifeng is the provincial capital of Henan, with millions of people inside and outside the city, prosperous commerce, and its wealth is almost ten times more than that of Luoyang. If this surprise attack succeeds and Kaifeng is captured, the benefits can be imagined.
However, the Chuang Army did not have an inside line in Kaifeng City, and because it was a surprise attack, the entire military operation was kept very secret. Therefore, there was no appointment of hungry people inside to respond, and they could only make a sudden surprise attack. As long as an opening was opened, Chuang Wang
We are sure to capture Kaifeng City.
The focus of the issue now is the choice of the first attack point. Whether it will be a surprise attack from the north gate or a surprise attack from the west gate has not yet been decided.
In a secret military meeting a few days ago, Li Guo advocated abandoning Zhongmou Avenue, marching eastward along the Yellow River Embankment, and making a surprise attack on the north gate of Kaifeng. His reason was that because of the fall of Luoyang, Kaifeng must have tighter defenses toward the west gate, so
A surprise attack on Ximen is not recommended.
However, Song Xiance believed that there was no moon city outside the west gate and it was easier to capture than other gates, so he advocated going straight to the west gate. At that time, King Chuang had both opinions, so he did not make a decision. He only said that when he set out,
Or it’s not too late to decide on the march.
Now, King Chuang himself also preferred to go straight to the west gate, so as not to be discovered by the guards in the city before the army approached the north gate.
In order to make a final decision, he came to ask Song Xiance and Li Yan carefully about the situation of Kaifeng's city walls and gates.
Song Xiance said: "Lin Quan and I have lived in Kaifeng City for some time, but we can only know the general outline. There is an earthen city outside Kaifeng City, also called the outer city, about two or three miles away from the inner city.
Far.
It is said that there are a total of 48 miles and 223 steps around this earth city. Now only the city foundation is left, there are no city gates, and carriages, horses and pedestrians have to cross the city..."
Li Zicheng heard this and asked: "Why don't we need a city gate?"
Li Yan explained from the side: "To prevent floods in the Yellow River, when encountering floods or emergencies, all gates in Tucheng will be completely filled with earth bags."
Song Xiance then added: "This earth city is like a waterproof embankment outside Kaifeng City. It has no defense and can be entered without attacking.
However, the inner city of Kaifeng is very solid. This inner city was rebuilt after the original Jin Dynasty moved its capital to Kaifeng. The inside was rammed earth and the outside was covered with bricks. It is said that when the Kaifeng city wall was rebuilt, the soil was transported from Hulao Pass, so the soil quality
Very strong.
Although this is just a legend and may not be credible, I have personally seen the city wall of Kaifeng. Not only is the soil quality excellent, but the soil is also mixed with lime, making it very strong.
Moreover, the inner city is more than five feet high, with five watchtowers with arrow holes and cannon holes, five large city towers, four turrets, and twenty-four star towers, all arranged according to the twenty-eight constellations.
There is also a trench surrounding the city outside the city. The trench is five feet wide at the mouth, three feet wide at the bottom, and two feet deep. There are plank bridges across the trenches outside the five city gates, which are commonly known as living suspension bridges.
Kaifeng's city defense is so strong that it is only advantageous to attack wisely and not to attack forcefully. If you want to attack forcefully, you must prepare more siege artillery, otherwise it will be difficult to attack."
Chuang Wang Li Zicheng asked again: "Is there water in the trench outside the city all year round?"
"The trenches on the southeast side have water all year round and are very deep. The trenches on the northwest side tend to dry up in winter or dry weather due to their higher terrain."
King Chuang looked at Li Yan again and asked, "The military advisor suggested entering the city through the west gate. What do you think?"
Li Yan replied: "Among the five gates of Kaifeng City, only the one outside the west gate does not have a moon city. The gate is straight and there is only one gate.
The remaining four gates are all built with moon cities, and some gates have as many as three or four layers, twisting and turning. It is said that the reason why Kaifeng's four gates were built in this way was because they were afraid of letting out the strong energy, and the ground line of Kaifeng comes from the northwest, so it is unique.
There is no moon city at the west gate, only a straight gate.
The military advisor decided to attack the city by surprise from the west gate, which I think is more appropriate."
Niu Jinxing also added: "Besides, we are going straight from Luoyang to Kaifeng, and only the west gate is the closest. If we bypass the west gate and attack other city gates, we will be easily discovered by the guards on the city.
"
Chuang Wangyou continued to ask: "I heard that the five gates of Kaifeng City are not straight. Isn't this west gate also in the middle of the west city?"
Song Xiance listened to King Chuang's words and said with a smile: "It's the five gates that are wrong, not the five gates that are wrong.
When the city was built, in order to avoid leaking the prosperous energy in the city, the east gate was tilted to the north, the Song gate to the south, the south gate to the west, and the north gate to the east. Only the west gate was upright and located in the middle of the west city to facilitate the entry of prosperous energy.
Kaifeng people have a saying: Three mountains are not visible, and five gates are wrong."
King Chuang asked hurriedly: "Where are the mountains in Kaifeng?"
Li Yan smiled and said back to him: "Kaifeng originally had no mountains, but according to Kan Yu's opinion, there is a mountain at the corner of the inner claw of the west gate, a mountain at Shangjie, and a mountain at Iron Pagoda Temple, which is called Yishan. Because
In fact, there are no mountains, but the terrain is slightly higher, so it is called "Three Mountains Unrevealed".
King Chuang nodded and smiled, and said: "That's it, let's follow the strong energy and go straight from the west gate to Kaifeng! Military advisor, let's do a divination and ask whether it's good or bad."
Song Xiance replied with a smile: "There is no need for divination. The ancients said: 'Divination is used to resolve doubts. How can we predict without doubts?'"
King Chuang asked him again: "If everything goes well and the army breaks through the west gate, which parts of Kaifeng City should be occupied first?"
Song Xiance said confidently: "The governor of Henan, the Chief Envoy and the Chief of Staff and other major government offices are all in the western half of the city, which is close to the west gate. A group of troops must be divided up to capture them quickly, leaving the civil and military officials in Kaifeng City leaderless and unable to advance or retreat.
Loss of evidence.
There is also an elite army dedicated to capturing the palace city and must capture the King of Zhou alive. I heard earlier that the King of Zhou has eight hundred guards with generous rewards. It is impossible to say that they will defend the palace city and resist our army.
Furthermore, after our army enters the city, we must quickly send a cavalry force to occupy the north gate and patrol the north city to prevent the King of Zhou from escaping. If the guards in the King of Zhou's palace defend the palace city, they will have to climb the ladder to climb the city."
"Is the palace of King Zhou very strong?"
"The palace city has two levels. The outer one is called the Xiao Wall, which is only two feet high and is easy to conquer. The inner one to the north is the Forbidden City, which is five feet high. There are flower crenels on the wall and a horse-blocking wall below.
As long as our army breaks into Xiao Qiang, King Zhou will be a turtle in the urn in the Forbidden City, with no way to escape. He will probably pay a heavy reward and make the eight hundred guards defend the city for him, waiting for reinforcements.
There are several wells in the Forbidden City, which usually store a lot of grain and fuel. If the eight hundred guards of the Zhou Palace resist desperately, our army can not only use ladders to climb the city, but also use the cannons on the Kaifeng wall to bombard the Forbidden City."
King Chuang nodded and said with a smile: "As long as Kaifeng is defeated, if King Zhou wants to rely on the palace to resist, we will have a 'turtle in the urn'."