The guards who summoned the ministers had already left. Mo Jingyao was pacing back and forth in the empty hall, sometimes beaming with joy, and sometimes full of worries. It was really hard to make a choice.
"The ancestors of the past had a will: The fortune of the Zimo family has ended, and it is only a matter of days that the Li family will be revived. It is better for us to avoid living in other countries, cultivate our power, and wait for the time, waiting for his destiny to be fulfilled." Mo Jingyao.
Thoughtfully, he murmured to himself: "Although the name of the Li Dynasty is right now, the power belongs to the Zheng Mansion. People who love love often rely on key points, and their reputation and atmosphere are no different from those of the Four Propaganda of Kuomintang and Peace. Both of them
The Mingde of our ancestors and the great government have been firmly entrenched in the hearts of the people. Therefore, even though destiny has been returned, the people's hearts have not fully returned to me the Mo family. Scholars who are well-versed in Confucianism often shovel away wealth and bury light, so don't they treat me badly?
If the Ming Dynasty's military power is greatly defeated by the Zheng Dynasty, this is a good opportunity for the Mo family to revive. We must not miss it. We must not miss it..."
Zhu Yongxing had finished asking, and found it quite funny. Why did this sound like "Have the people gone to work gone, have the people gone to school gone...". However, a decent city finally appeared in front of him, which made him very excited. Attack the city
Land grabbing, the moment to witness this new history once again is coming.
"There are almost more than 20,000 Annan soldiers gathered in Anpei, right?" Ma Bao made a rough calculation and looked at the middle-aged man who came to report the news, waiting for his confirmation.
This middle-aged man was of Chinese descent and had been an informant of the Zheng family who had been doing business in Annan for many years. He received secret orders to spy on information. In fact, he did not have much experience as a spy. The information he obtained was not detailed. He hesitated to answer Ma Bao's inquiry.
He dared not answer.
"Whether it's twenty thousand or thirty thousand, it's just a turtle in a jar." Zhu Yongxing smiled and waved his hand. This relieved the rookie from his embarrassment.
Ma Bao withdrew his gaze and said to Zhu Yongxing: "Your Highness, the enemies near Anpei have basically been transferred to this city. As long as they win with one blow, they will take the surrounding areas like a bag."
Zhu Yongxing nodded and said: "Surround three buildings. If the enemy is defeated and leaves the city, they can use cavalry to pursue them and easily win. If they fight in the streets in the city - that's not appropriate. After our army breaks the city, we don't need to go deep into it. We can bombard them with artillery to scare them."
Courage. Force him to surrender."
"Your Highness is wise, our army is good at field battles, and getting entangled in street battles may increase casualties." Ma Bao agreed, not forgetting to compliment him.
Zhu Yongxing smiled faintly, urged his horse, and walked around the city under the protection of his personal guards. He observed the city defense and looked for weak points to break the city.
Twenty miles north of Anpei City, the Ming army and the Annan soldiers went through a field battle that was not too large. The Annan soldiers, who were easily defeated, were defeated and fled back to Anpei, which completely dispelled Zheng Hua, the governor of Anpei County.
Confidence in fighting the Ming army in the wild again, he began to defend the city with all his strength, waiting for Shenglong to send more reinforcements.
Although the city wall of Anpei is not very tall and strong, Zheng Hua felt that the Ming army came from afar and was unlikely to carry heavy artillery. The siege equipment also needed to be temporarily built. There were many Annan soldiers in the city, so there was still hope for holding on.
Therefore, when the Ming army camped outside the city, Zheng Hua stood on the top of the city and looked coldly at the bottom of the city, and confidently encouraged the Annan soldiers and generals around him.
"The troops of the Ming Dynasty were forced by the Qing army. They could no longer gain a foothold in China, so they wanted to come to Annan to seize territory to settle in. However, how can it last long if they have to use their divisions to attack far away? When their divisions are exhausted and our army arrives together, victory will be certain.
"
"Goodbye, Duke!"
"Your Excellency is familiar with the art of war and knows the subtleties!"
"My lord, what you said is really a revelation!"
There were sighs of emotion from the surrounding people, and Zheng Hua stroked his beard and smiled, with a look of contentment on his face.
There is no moat outside Yen Pei City, only a hastily dug trench, and there are some sparse wooden stakes newly driven into the ground outside the city wall. Obviously, the Ming army advanced too fast, and the Yen Pei defenders did not have enough time to reinforce the city defense.
The dilapidated city walls have also been hastily repaired. The condition and color of the bricks and stones vary, and they look like hundreds of patches of clothing.
The main force of the Ming army established a stronghold at the north gate, while the cavalry patrolled outside the east and west gates to frighten the enemies in the city. Although the Ming army could block all four city gates, Zhu Yongxing did not want the Annan soldiers to fight against the trapped beasts.
, so the south gate is left open for entry and exit.
After observation, Zhu Yongxing found that the three city gates of Anpei did not have tall urn structures, but simple towers were built to enhance the defensive capabilities of the city gates. The east gate was even more dilapidated, and did not even have simple towers or defensive artillery.
There are very few of them. Therefore, he decided to choose this place as a breakthrough point.
"Sir, the Ming army has divided its troops. They have also formed a stronghold at the east and west gates and started digging trenches outside the city gate."
Duke Zheng Hua waved his hand to indicate that he already knew. At this time, he was at the north gate tower and could clearly see the actions of the Ming army below the city.
"Are the troops stationed in the stronghold going to attack the city? But what's the point of digging trenches?" Zheng Hua was a little confused. Did the Ming army want to attack or besiege? After looking at it for a long time, he couldn't figure out the point, so he had to respond by remaining unchanged.
In the event of a sudden change, the city defenders were ordered to step up their vigilance and not to relax.
In fact, the Annan people made a misjudgment. The Ming army did not dig trenches for siege, but used trenches to approach. Several z-shaped trenches approached the city gate at a speed visible to the naked eye until they were about 150 meters away. Then they dug mounds of earth.
The wall gradually formed a shelter facing the city gate.
"In the old battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao once built a scull, piled up mountains of earth, and shot Cao Ying with arrows." Zheng Hua was not an idiot. He actually knew some stories of the Three Kingdoms. He stroked his beard and said to himself in a smart way: "
Could it be that the Ming army wants to imitate this?"
"My lord is wise." An Annan general immediately flattered him, "The Ming army has some tricks, but my lord's wisdom cannot escape. This battle will be defeated."
After flattering him, Zheng Hua strengthened his judgment, pointed to the outside of the city with a sneer, and said: "Build a mountain of earth? How can you build a fortress of earth without stones and wood? The Ming army was good at field battles, but they were clumsy in attacking cities. The enemy
The front is sharp, I must hold on. When the food is exhausted, the energy will drain away. In this way, the city will have no worries."
"Yes, yes! It's the rainy season and the soil is soft. It's really fanciful and foolish to build a mountain out of earth. Your Excellency is well versed in the art of war. Anpei is as solid as gold, and the Ming army will definitely return in defeat." Another flattery was sent to Zheng.
Hua pretended to be reserved and cast his wise and profound gaze outside the city, full of disdain and contempt.
If it is not the rainy season and the soil is too soft, I will let you take a clay plane. Zhu Yongxing set up the king's flag at the north gate, but the main attack was at the east gate. Now he is regretting that he cannot carry out tunnel blasting. Fortunately, this is Annan's
A city cannot be compared with a fortified city in China. If there is a barbican city, or three gates and three walls, wow, just thinking about it gives me a huge headache.
For a strong city, let alone in ancient times, even during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, no matter whether it was China's homemade bronze cannons, iron cannons, or foreign iron cannons imported from abroad, they did not have enough ability to overcome the walled city. To conquer the enemy and hold on
It seems that the only way to attack the city is to use tunnels to attack it.
The tunnel siege method has existed since ancient times. Before the application of gunpowder, the purpose of hole attack was to dig tunnels into the city, and the other was to destroy the city wall. However, it is very difficult to attack the city from tunnels. Tunnels
It must be very wide to accommodate a large number of soldiers entering the city quickly. Therefore, usually the hole attack is not to dig all the way through the city wall, but to hollow out the bottom of the city wall, and then use strong wooden piles to support the base of the wall above. Wait until the bottom of a section of the city wall is dug
After it was completely hollowed out, the people were evacuated and the wooden piles supporting the foundation of the wall were set on fire, causing the wall to collapse.
In the Ming Dynasty, the use of gunpowder to blast city walls during tunnel attacks began to appear. Li Zicheng attacked Luoyang, and Zhang Xianzhong attacked Chongqing and Chengdu. This method was used. However, the real widespread use of tunnel blasting was during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Although there is already a precedent for tunnel blasting, Zhu Yongxing still believes that this tactic has a lot of room for improvement. Because he has studied physics and is a half-military enthusiast, he also checked a lot of information when writing books in his previous life. So
, Zhu Yongxing has very advanced theoretical knowledge on how to increase the power of explosions and improve blasting efficiency, such as sealing the charge chamber more scientifically, better controlling the direction of explosion impact, concave charge energy accumulation, etc., but it just needs to be applied in practice.
Experiment and refine.
Now that the natural environment does not allow tunnel blasting, Zhu Yongxing decided to use artillery bombardment and external blasting to break through Yenpei.
In principle, the Hongtian Cannon is very similar to a large-caliber mortar. It has a large shooting angle and a high ballistic arc. It can be used to bombard targets that are close to each other and have obstacles in the middle, making it impossible to shoot flatly. And Zhu Yongxing’s next target is
, which is to cast field artillery similar to the "Big Poleon" and "Little Napoleon" used in the American Civil War, as well as giant mortars used for sieges.
These three types of cannons can all be cast from bronze, and they are all front-loading smoothbore cannons with simple structures and lower costs. Although they are heavier than steel cannons and not very convenient to move, they are strong and easy to manufacture, and can outperform the Hongtian Cannon.
The range is increased several times.
Paying attention to firearms, artillery, and artillery are the inherent views formed by time travelers based on the development trajectory of military history.
About three hours later, the Ming army made all preparations to attack the city. They not only established a protective artillery position outside the city gate, but also tied dozens of ladders with bamboo trees to deal with Anpei, which was less than two feet tall.
The city walls and even the ladders used to climb the city are relatively easy to make.
After the arrangement was completed, Zhu Yongxing left the royal flag behind, rushed to the east gate with dozens of guards, and personally directed the siege operations.
On the way, the craftsmen took a rest in the car, and when they stopped to camp, they started working overtime. The sky-blasting cannon is just an iron barrel, which is relatively easy to make. Now there are nearly 30 sky-blasting cannons in the army, and they will be purchased from various chieftains along the way.
Yuanjiang Nasong has supplied another batch of gunpowder to process artillery shells, and together with the ammunition seized from Annan, the ammunition is also sufficient. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian to vote for recommendations, monthly votes, your
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