The monarchs and ministers of the Ming Dynasty had to hold court discussions again in Fengtian Hall.
This time Zhu Si's face became obviously nervous. He had been hiding in the palace for a few days. He also felt that the crisis was coming, but so far no one has figured out the details of the invading enemy, let alone its purpose. Just like
They were like visitors from outside the country, approaching the two capitals step by step, but there was no rush for success.
Wang Shizhong, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, issued a report: "Your Majesty, after Di Yi landed, they did not rush to attack the Ming capital. Perhaps their commander did not know where the Ming capital was, or perhaps they lacked food, grass, soldiers and horses... We can definitely do that."
Start by cutting off the contact between the landing troops and the sea fleet."
Now Wang Shizhong can see it too.
You can't beat them head-on. Tens of thousands of soldiers and horses are sent over, and they are beaten to the point where they can't find the north in an hour. There is no difference between rushing forward to fight and facing death.
But the opponent is not in a hurry to send troops. Either they don't know that the capital of the Ming Dynasty is nearby, or the opponent is not ready yet. Under this premise, of course, they must make good use of the landlord's advantages and engage in some "crooked" tactics.
Zhu Sidao: "The Ming Dynasty has millions of troops. In front of such a group of uninvited guests, does it just sit back and watch the other side provoke them, and then surrender? How many troops do they have? Ten thousand? Is it impossible to pile them up with the human sea tactic? Even if they have firearms, the ammunition consumption
Wouldn’t it just turn into a fire stick? Humph, I believe the firewood can burn them to death!"
Obviously Zhu Si did not want to accept Wang Shizhong's military strategy.
The opponent is clearly a small group of armed forces. They have jumped into the back garden of my Ming Dynasty, even at the feet of the emperor of the capital, and they actually let me avoid his edge?
Wang Shizhong looked troubled and didn't know how to respond.
In fact, even if Wang Shizhong felt that some clever tactics should be used to fight these enemies, the Ministry of War had no specific plan to implement, mainly because this incident was too abnormal.
Liu Chun asked for instructions: "Your Majesty, I don't know who should lead the troops to meet the enemy?"
Zhu Si glared at Wang Shizhong. Originally, it was the best choice to let Shangshu of the Ministry of War lead the troops, but now Zhu Si was very disappointed with Wang Shizhong. He asked with a dark face: "Is there any news about the king's troops from all over the northwest?"
Yang Yiqing went to report: "Soldiers and horses from three sides, Liaodong and other places are already on the way. Xuanfu's front army has arrived in the capital and has been on the battlefield. Now it is gathering up the broken troops. It is expected that the follow-up troops will arrive in the next few days.
.I believe that a good strategy to defend against the enemy is to hold on to the city and mobilize the soldiers and horses of the kings from all provinces to gather in the capital."
If Yang Yiqing hadn't come out to speak, Zhu Si would have almost said, "I'll leave the capital to you. I'll go back to Anlu first to avoid the limelight."
But he thought again, even if the walls of the acropolis in Tianjin were blown flat by those barbarians, don’t we also have explosives? When Zhu Hao was here, he used it to build roads in the mountains, so steep
The mountains have been flattened by bombing, so why do you think the imperial court has no chance of winning?
Zhu Sidao: "If you lead the troops from the Yang Qing family, serve as the Minister of the Ministry of War, and the censor of the Zuodu, and command all the troops and horses of the King of Qin... At present, the troops and horses around the capital that can be mobilized and go to fight against the bandits can be raised within five days.
How much will come out?”
Yang Yiqing was not surprised that the emperor arranged for him to lead the army. After all, he was the one with the most practical combat experience among the officials in the Central Committee of the Ming Dynasty. Whether it was resisting the Tatars in the northwest or pacifying bandits locally, he
They are all experienced and have outstanding military exploits.
At critical moments, only veterans like him can be of great use.
What Yang Yiqing didn't expect was that the emperor still insisted on sending troops to "send death". This would obviously greatly consume the few soldiers in the capital area and make Ming Dynasty extremely passive in defense. After all, everyone was dead, where would they come from?
Human defense?
Yang Yiqing said: "Your Majesty, it is better to use all the soldiers and horses to ambush the bandits on the main road to the capital, use artillery and gunpowder to form a barrier, or build forts, or dig trenches to speed up the consumption of ammunition in their hands."
Although the enemy force of unknown origin is powerful, from the perspective of a veteran like Yang Yiqing who has rich experience in leading troops, this kind of firepower cannot last long. It is simply a one-time deal. Maybe the other party is here to rob?
Once the looting is over and all the weapons and ammunition are used up, they will retreat without a fight!
There is no need to send the main force to fight them, or even to have a head-on conflict with them. Even if we want to eliminate them and prevent them from coming back next time, we should study their origins and intentions, and understand their background and method of making firearms after they withdraw their troops.
After the method, make a plan.
Zhu Sidao: "The matter of using troops will be left to you, Yang Qing's family. During this period, no matter what government office you are in, you are not allowed to leave anyone twelve hours a day. Civil servants and generals are not allowed to slack off in the slightest. I will summon you at any time!"
…
…
Zhu Si finally seemed a bit like a responsible emperor.
After being cornered by the invading enemy, he realized that he, as the emperor, needed to be responsible for the people of the world and communicate with the ministers. Of course, it was more because his life was in danger and he had to put forward a plan to advance and retreat together with his ministers, soldiers and civilians.
Look.
The capital has been put under martial law.
In order to prepare for the war, in addition to using regular troops to fight, soldiers around the capital even began to organize servants to go to the front line for the purpose of building fortresses. Except for the homes of dignitaries, civilians suffered at this time, and most of the men of the families were assigned
corvée.
In the direction of Nanjing City, Zhu Hao's soldiers and horses advanced relatively smoothly.
The whole thing is that now the Ming court doesn't care about Nanjing at all, and somewhat wants to let Nanjing fend for itself. Zhu Hao's soldiers and horses attacking Nanjing don't have much to worry about. The dispatch of troops is simple and direct, violently advancing, and there is no need to stop midway.
Pause, soldiers, horses and food can fully meet the needs.
In just four days, the soldiers and horses reached the gates of Nanjing.
At this time, there are 60,000 to 70,000 troops assembled in Nanjing City, but half of them are temporary recruits. It is simply false to say how much strength there is. This is related to the fact that Nanjing has not encountered a decent war for many years.
The six troops went to the garrison and then to the guard post below. They were not mentally prepared at all and fell into chaos.
The soldiers and horses under the Nanjing garrison were short of clothing and food, and their weapons and equipment were uneven. Many guardsmen had to take sickles and hoes to accept calls and participate in city defense. In this critical situation, there were no famous generals who knew how to take charge.
, I’m afraid it will be difficult to cope with it.
The siege begins.
Simple yet crude.
They came to bomb the city walls indiscriminately. Instead of planting explosives, they directly bombarded them with artillery. The shells were always filled with yellow gunpowder. After the explosion, they were extremely powerful. More than 5,000 shells were fired in an hour, targeting the direction.
Only on a certain wall.
An hour later, the city wall a mile in this direction was blown flat, exposing the residential buildings in the city.
The defenders in the city had never seen such a level of indiscriminate bombing. They were so frightened that many people on the city wall ran away. Fortunately, after the bombing was over, the troops outside the city did not take the opportunity to cover up the attack and enter the city, but sent "envoys"
”.
The messenger's skin is tan, his face has high cheekbones, sunken eye sockets, a broad nose, and thick lips. He obviously does not look like a citizen of the Ming Dynasty, but a "foreigner" who can speak the language of the Ming Dynasty. This person entered the city with a staff.
, no one dared to stop him, he passed through the damaged city wall, entered the city, and brought a letter written by Zhu Hao in advance. Of course, it was not in the name of Zhu Hao, but as a descendant of the Yin Shang. The Chinese Empire urged the Ming Dynasty subjects to surrender.
In exchange for peace.
…
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The war in Nanjing came to an end after the city wall collapsed.
do not fight!
Zhu Hao's army was stationed in the open area outside Shence Gate in the northeast of Nanjing City, while the main navy cruised on the Yangtze River, blocking Shangyuan Gate and Waijinchuan Gate, as well as several rivers connecting the inner rivers of Jinling.
At the same time, the southern troops of the Ming Dynasty, led by Lu Wan personally, rushed over from Fujian.
Lu Wan assembled more than a hundred warships and launched a sneak attack on Zhu Hao's fleet under the supervision of Luo An, the governor of Fusi Town, Jinyiwei North Town, who served as the supervisor.
But they obviously overestimated their ability to hide their whereabouts.
In fact, Lu Wan's headquarters had always been under the close surveillance of Zhu Hao's navy. After the war started, Zhu Hao did not need to dispatch too many additional ships and only sent one ship to fight.
It is a giant steel ship.
This big iron ship was equipped with heavy artillery. Not a single soldier could be seen on the deck. The cannons were fired from five miles away. The intensity of the cannonballs was obviously beyond the endurance of the Ming Dynasty warships. With one shot, the ship was penetrated and the soldiers on the ship were pierced.
The only option was to escape in a small boat, and there was no chance of rescue.
One ship versus nearly a hundred ships of the Ming Dynasty.
When Luo An, who was on the warship at the rear, heard the news, he was greatly surprised.
Lu Wan also brought him a very bad news: "Envoy Luo Zhen, based on the information I have obtained so far, the walls of Nanjing City have been blown down, and there are also bandits invading the capital. The weapons used are unheard of, and they are not harassing
Common people, a document urging surrender has been obtained in Nanjing City, and I have copied a copy for you to see."
Luo An looked complicated after reading the surrender document.
The naval battle ahead was still going on, and more than a dozen ships in their fleet had been sunk, but they actually couldn't even rush within two miles of that ship.
The other side only used one boat, which made them realize that this battle was unwinnable.
"The pirate ships are made of steel, and they are not just covered with a layer of armor. No matter it is a fire attack or the shells fired by our artillery, it will be difficult to sink them. At the moment, I may only land on the shore and conduct land battles.
One way.”
Lu Wan saw that there was no chance of winning in a water fight.
It is better to move the navy to the shore quickly, otherwise his troops will be completely annihilated at sea.
Luo An said: "Lu Zhongcheng dispatched troops to quell the Japanese pirates. I dare not interfere with the affairs of Jinghai. You can decide it yourself."
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Lu Wan immediately changed his tactics and ordered all the ships to turn around and flee to the southwest, heading for the nearest port. He tried to take advantage of the fact that his own ships were light and driven by sails and could travel faster to catch the opponent's giant steel ship.
docked before.
But they underestimated the speed of the opponent's steel warships.
Because the iron ship was driven by a steam turbine, its speed was more than twice as fast as the Ming Dynasty's ship. So when the Ming Dynasty hurriedly turned the ship's bow, the steel giant ship had already approached, and the bombardment continued, and no matter how far away it was,
Instead of artillery, medium and close range artillery were deployed in turn.
From range to accuracy and power, it is far superior to the artillery equipped on the Ming warships.
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When Lu Wan finally led the fleet into the harbor and the Ming soldiers landed, the giant steel ship sank almost all the Ming ships on the sea.
In other words, if the Ming Dynasty wanted to assemble a decent naval army to fight, it would be almost impossible to do so within a few months.
The losses on the Ming side were also heavy.
There were more than 20,000 troops, but not even half of them were left at this time.
After the steel giant finished strangling the Ming Navy, it turned back and quickly disappeared at the intersection of sea and sky. This made Lu Wan feel a sense of sadness after witnessing all this.