Gaochang City was built in the Western Han Dynasty.
It is a garrison town built by the Han people!
For thousands of years, the rulers here have been changing. The Han people have ruled the longest, followed by the Uighurs, Tubo, Rouran and other ethnic groups.
Ming Dynasty had enough reasons to regain its homeland.
After generations of consolidation and expansion, Gaochang City now has a palace city, an inner city and an outer city, and the outer city wall has nine gates.
The wall base is 12 meters thick and the city wall is 11.5 meters high.
Judging from the defensive capabilities of the city wall, it is definitely the largest city in the Western Region!
Even if the Ming army deployed a row of heavy artillery, it would be difficult to directly blow down the city wall. The giant rammed earth wall has extremely strong anti-cannon capabilities.
Artillery is not good, and returning artillery is even less good.
That the Yuan army used Huihui artillery to bombard Xiangyang City was pure nonsense.
The Huihui artillery only destroyed Fancheng's defenses and buildings, and partially damaged Fancheng's walls. The Song army defending the city even imitated the Huihui artillery on the spot to fight back.
The above mentioned are all from Fancheng, not Xiangyang.
Xiangyang was only hit on the city tower by Huihu artillery. The Song army was trapped in the isolated city and had no reinforcements. Since Fancheng on the other side had also fallen, they surrendered in despair.
…
Li Yanxian led his army to Gaochang. There were many forts built outside the city, all newly built in the past two years, forming the peripheral defense system of Gaochang City.
After setting up camp, a meeting was held.
Li Yanxian took out a map of Gaochang, and the latest version was drawn at the beginning of this year.
After discussing for about half an hour, Li Yanxian made a decision:
"Gaochang City and the surrounding farmland are all supplied by the Gaochang River (Mugou River). These forts are all located next to irrigation canals, and those irrigation canals also divert water from the Gaochang River."
"We can divide our troops to attack the two fortresses due east and northeast at the same time, luring the enemy forces in the city to come to the rescue. The main force of our army will be in the center to provide support. Once the defenders in the city come out, they will be quickly annihilated."
"After capturing these two forts, we will then tear down the one to the north of the city. Then we will cut off the Gaochang River to prevent the river from flowing to the city. All river water will flow to the irrigation canal we occupied."
"After cutting off the river, fill in the moat."
"Let's see how they hold on when there's no water!"
The civilians and craftsmen all took action to cut down trees and make siege equipment.
Instead of building large-scale equipment, they only built ordinary siege ladders as quickly as possible. The target was naturally the various fortresses outside the city.
More than 10,000 miscellaneous cavalry and two to three thousand fine cavalry belonging to Xiliao dispersed to interfere with the Ming army and civilians who were attacking the trees.
All Ming army cavalry were dispatched to drive them away, and infantry was used to protect the main felling points.
The two sides fought for several days, and the Xiliao cavalry lost more than they won.
Their overall combat effectiveness was too poor, especially those of the prairie cavalry who still used a large number of bone arrowheads, which were like tickling the armor of the Ming army.
For example, the Naiman tribe, when Yelu Dashi only had a few hundred armored cavalry, they were able to suppress them into obedience.
"We can't win, the Ming cavalry is too powerful!"
Narheishi said to Taiyang Khan: "Their armor is as if it is free. Even the light cavalry sent out for reconnaissance are all wearing a pair of light armor. The rest of the Ming cavalry are all wearing iron armor. Today's robbery
Returning to the corpse of a Ming army, although the outside is made of cotton, the inside is full of iron armor."
Taiyang Khan said with emotion: "The Han region is really rich."
"Father, we might as well surrender." Naerheishi no longer wanted to fight to the death with the Ming army.
Taiyang Khan shook his head: "Wait a minute. There is no guarantee of losing or winning in a war. Daliao's elite reinforcements are coming soon. What if Daliao wins in the end and we surrender early?"
Narheishi said: "We can't let the tribal warriors die in vain."
Taiyang Khan said: "Tell the leaders of the ministries not to fight to the death when they encounter the Ming army. Just shoot a few arrows for a show and flee back immediately if they encounter danger."
Not only the Naiman tribe passively avoided fighting, but other cavalry stationed or nomadic also chose to paddle during the battle.
They are not willing to die for Xiliao!
At this point, the Ming army completely gained control of the area around the battlefield, and the Xiliao cavalry only dared to run over and take a look before retreating.
Various small siege equipment were built, and tens of thousands of Ming troops advanced, leaving only a few thousand newly arrived soldiers to guard the camp.
Xiao Chala'a watched the Ming army approaching the fortress outside the city without looking through the telescope, but he did not dare to send out an army to rescue them.
Between the two western Liaozhai forts due east and northeast, the main force of the Ming army had formed a large formation. The front row was a defense line composed of four-wheeled sidecars. Countless artillery and muskets were attacking Xiao Zha Abu.
My scalp is numb.
After the main force of the Ming army built a large formation, they divided into two groups of thousands of troops to attack the two Xiliao fortresses on the left and right.
Xiao Chala'a should mobilize the army to prepare, and even let some of the troops go out of the city to form an array. What if he could seize the opportunity to win a partial victory? He couldn't just watch the Ming army march out.
"Boom boom boom boom!"
There was loud artillery fire from the direction of the two fortresses, mostly small and medium-caliber artillery shelling the defenses.
The only two heavy cannons were also dragged out, one heavy cannon to deal with a fortress.
While the artillery was firing, the civilians began to fill in the trenches outside the fortress. Those trenches even introduced river water, which was equivalent to a small moat.
If we continue, the moat will be filled in.
Xiao Chala'abu led the main force out of the city and sent out thousands of cavalry to tentatively rescue the Zhengdongfang Fort.
As soon as he moved here, the main force of the Ming army also moved, and thousands of cavalry were sent out to intercept him.
After a battle, the Xiliao army fled in panic, and the Ming army cavalry pursued them until they were close to the Xiliao formation before returning.
That day, it was mid-afternoon.
The two Xiliao fortresses were all destroyed, and one of them surrendered directly after being beaten.
The Ming army's camp also moved over and was divided into two, with the two forts as the center of the camp, because there was a richer water source here.
The next day, some soldiers were left to guard the camp, while the rest of the troops went to attack the enemy camp in the north of the city.
Xiao Chala'abu sent a large number of miscellaneous cavalry to harass the main force of the Ming army. He also sent infantry to attack the Ming army's camp which was relatively "empty" and did not even have any barriers built.
The soldiers guarding the camp had a large number of flintlock guns, and even carried thunderbolts. The moment the grenadiers were dispatched, the Western Liao soldiers who were sent to attack the camp collapsed and fled.
Aksukh was left in a camp. When he saw the objects thrown by the grenadiers explode, his two eyeballs almost exploded.
"That's the devil's weapon!" Aksukh said to himself.
A few days later, the Ming army uprooted all the nearby Xiliao forts, and the outer defense system of Gaochang City was completely destroyed.
Moreover, the Ming army also cut off the river and only flowed to the irrigation canal leading to the Ming army's camp. Not a drop of river water stopped flowing to the heavily guarded Gaochang City.
The residents in the city have gone crazy. In order to store water, every household carries buckets out.
Such a big city naturally has an urban drinking water system, which is nothing more than digging many artificial rivers and introducing river water from outside the city into the city for residents to use.
The water source was cut off and was still flowing downstream. Countless residents came swarming to get water. The water levels in the small river inside the city and the moat outside the city dropped rapidly.
Xiao Chala Abu collected all the containers that could store water and sent out troops to store as much drinking water as possible.
Seeing that the river was about to bottom out, the army even began to expel the people.
The Ming army was not idle either. They sent troops to keep an eye on the nine city gates, and their infantry and cavalry took turns to form outside the moat all day and night. Once they found that the city gate was open and soldiers and civilians wanted to get water from the moat, they immediately fired volleys of crossbows and muskets.
It was not until most of the water in the moat flowed further downstream that the Ming army formed formations and slowly withdrew.
During this period, there were civilians from the Ming army who came to fill the moat with their loads of earth. Foot cavalry guarded the various passages of the moat. The civilians only had to remove the chariot baffles to prevent arrows, and then they could calmly carry the earth and rocks to the moat.
Fall inside.
"This city is going to fall." Aksukh said.
Du Jushi said: "Did you know? This city was built by our ancestors, but unfortunately it was later occupied by foreigners."
Aksukh was quite surprised: "The people here, as well as the previous refugees, look different from you."
Du Jushi said: "But many of them are descendants of Han people, but they have been mixed with foreign races for a long time. Since the Han people built the city here more than a thousand years ago, the Han people have ruled here for most of the time. Even this
The name of the city, as well as the name of the country that was destroyed by the Western Liao Dynasty, were all taken by the Han people before the city was built. The terrain was high and open, and the people were prosperous. This is the origin of the name Gaochang, which is clearly recorded in "History of the North".
"Among them."
"No wonder this is a land of peach blossoms," Aksukh said. "Our Roman Empire also lost a lot of territory and was occupied by foreigners. I don't know when it will be recovered."
While the two were chatting, the morale of the defenders was already declining.
When the water stored by the soldiers and civilians in the city is finished, or is about to be finished, some people may be thinking of surrendering.
Xiao Chala'a Bu had already sent several groups of messengers, and after paying the price of more than 300 horsemen, he broke through and sent letters asking for help to the west.
Xiao Weili, the commander of the Western Liao reinforcements, received the first letter two hundred miles away. At that time, the river had just been cut off by the Ming army. By the time his pathfinder arrived a hundred miles away, the soldiers and civilians in the city had to rely on water storage to survive.
.
Li Tiansheng, deputy envoy of the Privy Council and commander of the Ma Army, said: "This battle is a bit difficult to fight. With Xiao Chala's commanding ability, all the water sources outside the city were lost in such a short period of time. The Ming army is stronger than we imagined.
The middle is stronger.”
Xiao Weili asked: "What do you think of the vehicles and artillery in the letter?"
Li Tiansheng shook his head and said: "There is no way to deal with it."
Xiao Weili asked puzzledly: "Why can't the artillery we built shoot so fast? Are there things that the escaped party members are hiding?"
The supervisor Yelu Tiege said: "Those Xixia party members who escaped had only seen muskets and artillery from a distance. The leader of the party who knew the most only touched the barrel of the Xixia artillery a few times while watching the Xixia artillery exercises. We
According to what these people said, it is not easy to imitate artillery. And the artillery of the Ming army must have been modified."
Xiliao also has artillery!
The imitation of the artillery was actually relatively smooth, and it was successful before Yelu Dashi was still alive. However, the gunpowder ratio is a bit difficult to achieve. Although it has been improved many times, the power is still insufficient.
Even the original gunpowder formula was smuggled from the Ming Dynasty with huge sums of money.
The Ming army mixed craftsmen into caravans to spy on the enemy. Of course, Xiliao could also bribe merchants who were greedy for money.
The businessman received the advance payment, asked folk craftsmen for the recipe, and then went to Xiliao to collect the balance after he knew it by heart.
At first, the civilian gunpowder formula could not even explode, and Yelu Dashi thought he had been deceived by businessmen. After adjusting the proportions again and again, he was finally able to explode, and the power became more and more powerful.
Firearms cannot be kept secret forever.
Xiao Weili said: "The Ming army cut off the water source in the north of Gaochang City. If our army wants to win, we can only fight with real swords and guns to recapture the water source. If we cannot capture the water source, this battle will be defeated!"