In the big tent, Su He encouraged many generals: "The siege campaign is about to begin. Use all your skills. This is the last big city we enter Sichuan.
After this battle, we can declare that Sichuan is our territory.
If you have other questions, you can ask them now."
Zhang Yuliang was the first to stand up: "Commander Su, the red cannon on top of the Ming Army's Rongcheng city has a very long range.
The Hongyi cannon on the head of Rongcheng city. Each city wall has ten Hongyi cannons and several other cannons.
We only carry 110 medium-sized artillery pieces. Under normal circumstances, there is no way to attack the city wall of Rongcheng outside the range of the Hongyi artillery.
You can only use five times the charge, which consumes the life of the cannon in exchange for the cannon's range.
After the cannon is fired three times, cracks will appear in the gun body, and the risk of the gun exploding increases dramatically.
Our artillery brigade can only provide artillery support for one city wall, and can only provide two to three artillery salvos."
Wu Jie and Li Dazhuang came out separately. They both raised a question. The moat in Rongcheng is wide and connected to the Minjiang River.
Now that the Minjiang River is in dry season, it is difficult to block the moat by filling it.
Su He listened to the opinions of the frontline army generals.
He selected an siege plan that was most suitable for the current situation from the siege plan drawn up by Li Fengming's staff.
He selected a siege plan and sent the plan to all the generals.
"Beicheng feint attack.
Dongcheng and Xicheng used a small number of troops to paralyze the enemy.
Our troops led the newly recruited surrender troops to conduct a tentative siege.
There is no need to actually attack the city, just to create a stir.
Wu Jie led the 1st and 2nd brigades of the Fourth Division to attack the south gate of Rongcheng.
In the early days, it was just like the East and West City, just pretending.
I will find a way to mobilize the garrison in the city.
Waiting for my signal, the artillery brigade will provide support, and the Fourth Division will seize the opportunity to capture the south gate of Rongcheng."
Su He issued the order, and various units began to mobilize troops frequently.
In order to cover the troop movement, he ordered Qi Gangyi to take the Flying Tigers into the air.
The hot air balloon slowly rose into the sky and floated above Chengdu.
Ding Degui boarded a hot air balloon for the first time to fight.
In the battle of Jianmen Pass, he was a reserve team and did not board the hot air balloon.
"Master Ding Zhu, you thought we could accomplish another feat and burn down Chengdu again.
I didn’t expect that this time I threw some pieces of paper, and it couldn’t kill anyone, so it had no effect at all.”
When Ding Degui saw these leaflets, he smiled and said: "Don't underestimate these pieces of paper. The effect they can play is more powerful than explosive bullets."
He adjusted the height of the hot air balloon so that the bed crossbow could not reach them.
They threw leaflets toward Chengdu and shouted loudly down below: "Everyone, come out and read the leaflets."
These flyers have their policies written on them.
For officials, it was emphasized that as long as there was no harm to the people, there was no resistance to the army entering the city.
After inspection, they will be retained in their original positions, and those who perform well will be promoted and re-employed.
For merchants, as long as there is no murder, the shops and properties in the city will not be confiscated.
For ordinary people, it mainly introduces the land distribution policy and food policy.
For subordinate officials, it mainly introduces the officialdom and the imperial examination situation. Specially, subordinate officials marked red can also participate in the imperial examination.
It is introduced that Li Zhisheng, the Minister of Household Affairs, was born as a subordinate official.
For soldiers, the policy of surrendering and avoiding death was proposed.
No matter how serious a crime they commit, as long as they surrender before the battle, they will never be executed.
As long as they raise the white flag, they will not be attacked again.
The leaflet also shows a picture of a soldier holding a white flag.
He also introduced how to wait for treatment anyway.
……………………
Zhang Lun looked at the monster flying above his head and finally realized the strength of the thief in yellow.
They can conquer several fortified cities in a short period of time, and they have some real skills.
Ding Yunzhen saw these winged tigers flying in the sky and rushing toward them.
He immediately hugged Zhang Lun and ran towards the city.
"My lord, please move away quickly, these things created by the thieves in yellow are very dangerous.
If a stone is thrown from here, it will kill someone."
When soldiers on top of the city saw the hot air balloon, they immediately knelt down and kowtowed.
"Gods have mercy on me, gods have mercy on me, I shouldn't fight against the power of God."
Zhang Lun has been staring closely at the hot air balloon floating towards Chengdu.
He was no longer in the mood to pay attention to the troop mobilization of the yellow-robed thieves outside the city.
He saw the hot air balloon coming over Rongcheng and no stones or other firearms were thrown down.
They threw down some pieces of paper with pictures on them.
Zhang Lun is wondering, what is the thief in yellow trying to do?
Shouting to pick up flyers, what are flyers?
On the top of the city, there were military households and young men picking up leaflets. The leaflets were in their common traditional Chinese characters, but most of the soldiers were illiterate.
A few generals who were literate saw the contents and secretly hid the leaflets.
Some soldiers saw leaflets floating from the sky.
He immediately knelt down and shouted loudly: "This is the will of God."
This soldier was soon dragged away by Zhang Lun on the charge of disturbing the morale of the army.
Ding Yunzhen picked up a leaflet, and when he looked at the content on it, his expression changed drastically.
He took the leaflet. He walked to Zhang Lun and handed the leaflet to Zhang Lun.
"Sir, look at the content here. The thieves in yellow are deceiving the public with their evil words. We must not allow them to continue to confuse the people."
Zhang Lun looked at the contents on the flyer and was shocked.
This is a stratagem of the thieves in yellow to undermine the confidence of the soldiers and civilians in Rongcheng to resist.
He immediately ordered that all the leaflets dropped by the thieves in yellow be confiscated.
Anyone who dares to leave any leaflets will be put in jail on charges of collaborating with the enemy.
Ding Yunzhen was responsible for collecting the leaflets. He went out not long before he came back with a depressed look.
"Sir, it is really difficult to collect the flyers from the thieves in yellow.
They dropped leaflets from the sky, hundreds of thousands of them, and there were leaflets in every corner of Chengdu.
Nowadays, most literate people have seen the flyers, and it is useless for us to collect them.
Besides, there are too many leaflets, and we don’t have that much manpower to collect them.”
After Zhang Lun learned about this situation, he changed his order.
"Then you go and issue an order that no one can discuss the contents of the flyer."
Zhang Lun ordered that discussion of the contents of the leaflets be prohibited.
But this matter cannot be banned with just one order.
Two soldiers were discussing secretly.
"The thieves in yellow said that if they break into Chengdu, they will give us land. Is this true?"
"It should be true. I heard your Excellency discuss that they want to confiscate all the land of the guards.
Redistribute the land to our military households."
"How I hope the thieves in yellow can break in.
Farming land for thousands of households every year, but my own children are still starving.
I sold my youngest son. Who would sell his own flesh and blood if he could really afford it?"
Two officers were discussing secretly.
"The thieves in yellow are very powerful and we may not be able to stop them.
If you really can't stop it, surrender immediately.
I asked people about the thieves in yellow, and most of what these people said was true."
"Prepare the white flag first. If you encounter an unstoppable situation, immediately surrender with a white flag.
With such a small amount of money, I am often criticized by civil servants for being cowardly, so I will quit."
Ma Zhengkang came to his house with a leaflet.
"It's really scary to have such a huge thing floating in the sky.
Dad, look at the contents of this flyer, it is very beneficial to us."
Ma Shengzhong slapped his son on the head.
"We are at the bottom, why are you worried about this?
The thief in yellow can't get in. Whatever he did before, he will do next.
When the thieves in yellow came in, we surrendered immediately.
Now that we see the leaflets from the thieves in yellow, we don't have to worry that this war will affect us.
The thieves in yellow want to completely rule this city and treat us as common people under their rule.
Then they will never massacre the city. As long as they don't massacre the city, this matter has nothing to do with us."
……………………
Zhang Lun stood at the north city wall. He saw the flag of Su He, the leader of the yellow-robed thieves, who had arrived at the formation of the yellow-robed thieves at the north city wall.
A large number of thieves in yellow gathered on the north city wall.
"Sir, in this case, the thieves in yellow will definitely launch their main attack from the north wall.
This is also in line with common sense. All the baggage of the yellow-robed thieves needs to be transported through the Golden Ox Road.
This part of the North City Wall is closest to the Golden Bull Road.
I just sent people to observe the movements of the thieves in yellow. Their troops have been mobilized, but there has been no large-scale movement of baggage."
Master Ding Yunzhen saw this situation and made suggestions to Zhang Lun.
When Zhang Lun heard Master Ding's suggestion, he nodded and approved the suggestion.
He saw the eyes of the defenders on top of the city flickering, and their morale was not as high as it was in the previous few days.
The leaflets of the thieves in yellow have had some effect.
Use silver to boost the morale of the defenders, and reward each person with one tael of silver, which is 50,000 taels of silver.
Zhang Lun was a little reluctant to give up.
This is a bottomless pit. Morale is low today, so he exchanges silver rewards for morale.
If morale continues to be low tomorrow, should we continue to increase the silver reward? This approach cannot be used by the court.
Zhang Lun rolled his eyes and ordered: "Send our confidants to supervise the battle. If you find that some generals are not working hard, arrest them directly."
"Okay, sir, I'll organize the manpower right now."
Ding Yunzhen began to form a supervising team, preparing to kill chickens and scare monkeys.
"Sir, the thieves in yellow have launched an attack."
The defender at the top of the city saw the yellow-robed thieves beginning to attack the city, so he sent someone to notify the governor Zhang Lun.
Zhang Lun climbed to the top of the city and saw the thieves in yellow clothes who had been besieging the city for several days, and officially began to attack the city.
"Thieves in yellow, what are you doing? Digging tunnels is not like this."
Zhang Lun saw thieves in yellow digging several ditches outside the city.
The ditch was about one meter deep, and the thief in yellow was walking in the ditch with his waist bent.
Ding Yunzhen formed a supervising team and sent it to the four walls.
He came to Zhang Lun's side.
"Sir, the thieves in yellow are digging trenches on all sides. This should be the unique siege tactic of the thieves in yellow."
Zhang Lun looked at the ditch dug by the yellow-robed thieves, gradually extending towards Rongcheng.
He asked with some worry: "The thieves in yellow are not taking the usual route. I have never heard of this method of siege.
When the thief in yellow did this, did he want to dig this ditch directly into the city?"
Zhang Yunqing was responsible for guarding the North City wall. He knew that he had offended the governor Zhang Lun.
Now he is sent to defend the most dangerous city wall.
He heard the conversation between the governor Zhang Lun and Shi Ye. He said that such a civilian official who knew nothing about military affairs could still lead troops and command them.
With the emergence of this phenomenon, it is not unusual for soldiers like them to win less and lose more when fighting.
He couldn't help but said: "The ditches of the yellow-robed thieves are different from the tunnels.
The purpose of the tunnel is to directly open the passage between the enemy camp and the city.
Send an elite team to attack the city through the tunnel, and open the city gate to welcome the army outside the city.
The thieves in yellow dug such shallow ditches that they would not be able to cross the moat.
If the moat water flows back, these ditches will be flooded."
After Zhang Yunqing finished speaking, he came to his senses and said loudly: "The thieves in yellow must want to use these ditches to divert the water from the moat."
He then denied it and said: "This is impossible. The moat is connected to the Minjiang River, and these ditches alone cannot divert the water from the moat at all."
Ding Yunzhen immediately suggested: "Sir, no matter what the purpose of the thieves in yellow is? We will never let the thieves in yellow dig out this trench smoothly."
Upon hearing this suggestion, Zhang Lun immediately asked the Hongyi cannon at the top of the city to fire.
The Hongyi cannon was tested several times, but the effect was very poor.
The yellow-clothed thieves dig trenches diagonally, and the red barbarians cannon cannons unless the iron bullets roll right into the trenches.
Most of the cannonballs hit the ground and had no impact on the yellow-clad thieves at all.
The defenders at the top of the city came up with several methods, but to no avail.
There are powerful archers who aim and shoot with bows and arrows.
The thieves in yellow have special shield soldiers who hold heavy iron shields to directly block the bows and arrows.
Zhang Lun stood at the top of the city, watching the actions of the yellow-robed thief.
They dug to the edge of the moat. The thieves in yellow carried sackcloth bags and threw the sacks filled with soil into the moat.
Zhang Lun understood clearly that the thief in yellow wanted to use this method to approach the moat and fill in the moat to create a path.
"Cover me with rain of arrows, and use shotgun shells from Hongyi's cannon.
The thieves in yellow are already at the edge of the moat, very close to the city wall, I don't believe I can't hit them."
The Hongyi cannon on the city wall fired, and the crossbowmen also fired arrows.
A dense barrage of shotguns and arrows covered the team of yellow-robed thieves filling the moat.
A hot air balloon made a sharp whistle in the sky.
All the thieves in yellow stopped immediately. The thieves in yellow who were already on the edge of the moat rolled directly down the moat.
The shells and arrows only wounded more than a dozen thieves in yellow and did not achieve much results.
Zhang Lun started a tug-of-war with the thieves in yellow. He also sent people to check the conditions of the other three city walls.
"Sir, the thieves in yellow at other city gates only dug a few trenches, they did not fill in the moat."
Zhang Lun received this news, and he judged that the main attack direction of the thieves in yellow was the North City Gate.
He immediately mobilized the garrison from other directions and gathered towards the north gate.
Zhang Lun didn't know that all his movements in mobilizing troops were clearly seen through telescopes by the soldiers on the hot air balloon in the sky above Rongcheng.
……………………
Su He heard Qi Gangyi's report that the scouts on the hot air balloon had discovered the defenders on other walls in Rongcheng and began to gather towards the north wall.
He asked the hot-air balloon responsible for reconnaissance to continue to observe the situation in Chengdu and wait for the opportunity for the main attack.
Until Qi Gangyi came to report, not only the soldiers defending the city from other directions.
The 10,000 Ming troops who had been staying in the center of Rongcheng and were responsible for supporting various areas also began to mobilize towards Beicheng.
Su He believed that the time was ripe and ordered the general offensive to begin.
Three green signal flares were launched into the air to convey the order for a general attack to all troops.
Wu Jie and Zhang Yuliang saw three green signal flares rising in the north direction of Rongcheng.
Zhang Yuliang said excitedly: "Commander Su has held back most of the troops in the city. It's time for us to show off our skills."
Wu Jie nodded and ordered to the general next to him: "Han Shuliang, your troops are responsible for capturing the city wall and urn city, and opening the south gate of Rongcheng.
Su Yanyan, your troops are responsible for attacking the city, opening the east and west gates, and at the same time controlling important places such as the granary and weapons depot."
The battle plan had already been decided, and Wu Jie gave his instructions again before the siege began.
He looked at Zhang Yuliang and said: "Brigadier Zhang, you can start.
Don't worry, we can use these two or three volleys to buy time to open the gates of Chengdu."
"I hope your casualties will be smaller, and I wish you victory."
Zhang Yuliang gave a blessing and gave orders to the artillery.
"Five times the charge, prepare for three volleys."
In the trial attack just now, the artillery brigade used uncharged explosive shells and had calibrated the parameters of the cannon.
Upon hearing Zhang Yuliang's order, the cannons of the artillery brigade fired one after another.
In the first salvo, a large number of explosive shells fell on the city walls of Rongcheng.
The violent explosion of explosive shells destroyed all the Hongyi cannons on the city.
The Ming army defending the city was completely unprepared. Many of the artillerymen were killed, and other military households panicked and ran down the city wall.
The artillery brigade's second volley of explosive shells continued to hit the city wall, aiming to destroy all the cannon.
During the second salvo of the cannons, some of the cannons had cracks due to too much charge and could not be used again.
Zhang Yuliang was not surprised to see this situation. He was experimenting with new cannons that could withstand three volleys.
The artillery brigade's cannons were damaged, but they accomplished their mission.
The Hongyi cannon on the south gate wall has been completely destroyed.
All the artillery brigade's artillery pieces were also destroyed.
The rest of the battle is left to Wu Jie.
When the artillery brigade opened fire, Wu Jie commanded the army to attack the city.
In order to paralyze the defenders, they did not choose to fill in the moat.
The moat in Chengdu is running water and connects to the Minjiang River. It is difficult to fill it up in a short time.
Han Shuliang looked at the moat in front of him. They had already made preparations.
"Start building the floating bridge."
As his order was issued, many soldiers carrying bamboo rafts rushed out of the trench.
The bamboos were tied side by side with ropes and were two meters wide.
On both sides of the bamboo raft, there are also pig skins that have been fully blown.
It is placed in the water and is large enough for a dozen people to pass through.
A squad of soldiers jumped into the moat holding bamboo rafts.
They stabilized the bamboo rafts in the river to prevent them from being washed away by the moat water.
Several bamboo rafts are connected together to build a simple floating bridge.
A total of ten pontoon bridges were built, and the troops quickly passed through the pontoon bridges.
The pontoon bridge has limited carrying capacity, and siege equipment can only carry simple and lightweight equipment such as ladders.
Han Shuliang watched the troops pass the pontoon bridge, and the artillery brigade's second salvo had been completed.
"Hurry up and get on the ladder and rush for me. There is no one at the top of the city now.
Any later and the city will be filled with defenders again."
Han Shuliang urged the soldiers to move faster.
The siege mines they built were too heavy. A city like Deyang with a shallow moat was suitable for this method.
For a city like Rongcheng with a huge moat, there is no way for siege mines to be transported across the moat.
The soldiers held up the ladder, put him on the south wall of Rongcheng, and immediately climbed up.
The walls of Chengdu were too high to prevent soldiers from stepping on the ladders.
The gaps in the middle of the ladder are all woven into a rope net with ropes.
Company commander Guo Dalei was wearing chainmail, holding a steel machete in his right hand, and five grenades hanging from his waist.
He stepped on the ladder with both feet and held the ladder with his left hand to control his balance.
He climbed the ladder as if on flat ground, twice as fast as the others, and was the first to climb to the top of Rongcheng.
The other soldiers have just climbed halfway up.
Normally, Guo Dalei would not dare to do this.
Now most of the Ming troops on top of the city were killed, injured or scared away by explosive bombs, so he dared to climb the city wall alone.
Guo Dalei saw a group of Ming troops preparing to climb the city wall.
He took off a grenade from his waist with his left hand and bit the fuse with his teeth.
Pull hard and throw the grenade down.
He quickly threw out all the grenades on his waist.
The grenade quickly exploded among the Ming army, causing the Ming army to flee immediately.
When these Ming troops saw the effect of explosive bombs, they were like frightened birds.
"Company Commander, you are so brave, you dare to climb up by yourself."
The troops in the rear have climbed up the city wall.
"Stop talking nonsense, just throw grenades down. We must not let the Ming army climb the city wall again."
More and more troops climbed to the top of the city. The Ming army knew that the thieves in yellow would not open the shells without opening their heads.
They carried long swords and prepared to charge forward, but they were repelled by Guo Dalei's troops.
"Use a hanging basket to hoist up the 75 light artillery, and we will use the artillery to capture Wengcheng."
Su Yanyan saw that the south gate of Rongcheng had been opened.
"Hurry in, the first regiment will go to the west gate, the second regiment will go to the east gate, and I will take the third regiment to control the granary in the city."
Su Yanyan rushed into Chengdu and at the same time sent out signal flares to notify other troops to cooperate.
……………………
Zhang Yunqing watched the yellow-clothed thieves in front of him storm the city. Several yellow-clothed thieves rushed to the top of the city and were beaten down by them.
Fires broke out in parts of the city.
He sent his confidants at the south gate to ride on donkeys and run as fast as they could to inform him that the thieves in yellow had captured the south city.
A large number of thieves in yellow rushed to the East City and West City, attacking from both inside and outside. Rongcheng could not be defended, and the army of thieves in yellow would soon enter the city.
Zhang Yunqing knew that the situation was over, so he immediately summoned the surrounding generals and said: "The thieves in yellow have entered the city. We must not surrender. The treatment for surrendering with a white flag is too low.
Capture Zhang Lun, open the city gate, and we will welcome the thieves in yellow into the city."
Zhang Yunqing took the lead in raising wages many times and had a high prestige among this group of people.
Some shrewd generals also sent their confidants to watch various places and learned the news that the thieves in yellow had entered the city.
They all agreed to capture Zhang Lun, the governor of Sichuan, and open the city gate.
After reaching an agreement, these generals returned to their respective armies and gathered their own servants.
"Do it."
Zhang Yunqing gave an order and chopped Master Ding Yunzhen to death with a single blow.
He was usually aggrieved, but now he felt relieved after being stabbed.
Zhang Lun saw his master's head flying into the sky. He was so frightened that his body trembled, and a pool of yellow water dripped under his feet.
Zhang Yunqing led his servants to open the north gate of Rongcheng.
When Su He saw the north gate of Rongcheng opened, he immediately ordered his troops to rush in.
When the Ming army in the city saw the army of yellow-robed thieves entering the city, most of them stopped resisting and raised white flags to surrender.
Su He sent troops to clean up the Ming troops who did not surrender in Rongcheng and the ruffians who took advantage of the chaos to cause trouble.
Wherever the army passed, the order in Rongcheng immediately stabilized.
