Chapter 782 Loyal minister, this is a complicated word
Author: Middle-aged paper tiger
Chapter 782 Loyal minister, this is a complicated word
The city of Shouzhou was filled with gloom and gloom. On Purple Mountain, the defense line that Liu Renzhan had built for several years and spent countless manpower and material resources only lasted six days before being captured.
In the end, less than half of the more than 10,000 people withdrew, and more than 70 generals including Yao Feng, the deputy envoy of Jiedu, were killed in the battle.
Moreover, when the Zhou army was pursuing, they pursued fiercely along the corridor, and the Qing Huai army was stationed behind Zijin Mountain, and the two forts guarding the corridor were also broken.
The Zhou army took the lead and directly pursued the Qing Huai army. They relied on the Qing Huai army to build a pontoon bridge to cross the Feishui River. If it had not been too late that day, Liu Renzhan believed that the Zhou army would even dare to come and grab the door.
On October 20, Zhang Gao moved outside Shouzhou City and simultaneously attacked the Qing Huai Army's water stronghold and land stronghold on the Huaihe River from both land and water.
Almost at the same time, the Southern Tang Dynasty took action. Zhu Kuangye, the envoy of Luzhou's Baoxin Army, sent his son Zhu Lingyun and Yuhou Zhengchong'en, the governor of Yamen, to lead 15,000 Baoxin troops from Luzhou to the north for rescue.
However, Liu Zaisheng had already prepared. He blocked the channel with large ships at Anchundu on the upper reaches of Feishui River. After the Southern Tang military fleet arrived, he fired with strong bows and crossbows from both sides.
The Baoxin Army was immediately defeated, and Zhu Lingyun only escaped with his life. Thousands of generals and soldiers including Zheng Zhongen and others were killed, and their bodies were all over the river.
On October 22nd, the army removed all the defensive facilities outside Shouzhou City and surrounded Shouzhou City on all sides.
Liu Zaisheng ordered Murong Xinde to carry Zheng Zhongen's armor on the tip of a spear, and go to the gate of Shouzhou City to show off his power with the Baoxin Army Jiedu Yamen flag and the recognition flag in hand.
The Qing and Huai army in the city were shocked and their morale was extremely low. Liu Renzhan burst into tears at the top of the city. Zheng Chongen was originally his subordinate Yuhou, and he thought that was why he came to rescue him. Unexpectedly, the rescue failed, and instead he was harmed. 's life.
Outside Shouzhou City, Zhang Hao had just looked around Shouzhou City. Although the city was now crumbling, he still had no intention of persuading him to surrender, nor did he intend to attack by force.
The reason why we did not persuade them to surrender was because Shouzhou City, which was persuaded to surrender, could not have as much deterrence as the city that was conquered.
The reason why he didn't attack by force was because Zhang Gao didn't want to waste the lives of his men when he could break the city immediately. Another reason was that he was waiting for an artifact - the artillery invented by Cao Yanming.
"Hey! Hey!" Dozens of peasants pushed and pushed forward, and the four healthy mules were so tired that white mist sprayed from their nostrils.
A cannon with a diameter as thick as a human head was loaded on a special cart with wooden wheels, and it was difficult to walk on the muddy road.
Zhang Gao observed it carefully and found that this huge cannon weighed at least 4,000 kilograms. The tail, shaft, riser, etc. were basically the same as those of later generations. Zhang Gao carefully drew the pictures.
The cannonballs are made of polished round stones, weighing about twenty kilograms.
Why not use iron bullets? Because iron bullets are troublesome to cast and carry, stone bullets are much simpler. The materials can be found everywhere, and they are easy to polish. They only require a few masons, and the power is not much different.
Another reason is that the gunpowder at this time was not advanced enough and stone bullets could withstand it.
Zhang Zhang measured it and found that the barrel was only over five feet, or 1,670 centimeters, which was one-third shorter than the mature artillery of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, but it was still one-half to one-third heavier.
The barrel was too short, which meant that the muzzle diameter had to be larger. Since the energy of gunpowder was not as high as in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the amount of powder charged was also very large.
This is a deformed child! Zhang Hao sighed as he blinked his eyes.
Judging from the current situation, the performance data are better than the first-generation cannons manufactured by Europeans at the end of the 13th century, but significantly lower than the red cannons that began to appear on a large scale during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, especially the Wanli period.
No! Zhang Hao felt a twinge of pain in his heart. Not only was this a deformed child, he was also a deformed child made of damn gold.
This is made of bronze!
Even if one kilogram of bronze is used to make extremely pure gold-backed coins, about two hundred coins can be made.
Four thousand kilograms of copper is equivalent to 800,000 coins, or 8,000 guan. This does not include losses, labor, etc., and the total needs to be at least 10,000 guan.
And ten thousand guan of gold back money is regarded as worth three guan in the market, that is, 10,000 guan is equivalent to 30,000 guan.
Thirty thousand guan was enough for Zhang Gao to pull out an elite battalion (800 to 1,000 people) with 60% armor and complete horse and footwork.
Damn it, if we build hundreds of them, our finances will go bankrupt. Considering the productivity conditions at this time, it is still too high.
Zhang Gao thought for a while, instead of developing heavy artillery now, he should develop small projectile tiger crouching artillery and small artillery that can be pulled around by horses and shoot shotguns, which are specially used to bombard the enemy's dense formations.
Cao Yanming sat on the carriage, touching the cannon beside him, looking around with great satisfaction, looking like I envy you all to death, he also wanted Zhang Yan to shock the heavens and praise him.
As a result, Zhang Gao touched his forehead in disgust and asked him to disappear from his eyes.
As soon as I, Zhang Shengren, looked at his paunchy appearance, I couldn't help but think that the money he spent on this guy could bring tens of thousands of troops, and my heart ached terribly.
Cao Yanming did not receive Zhang Yan's compliment. He raised his head proudly and immediately ordered his civilian servants to move the cannon forward. He thought to himself that when the cannon was fired, I, Zhang Shengren, would be frightened until his face turned pale.
Zhou Jun outside the city didn't know what these big pipes were, but they weren't surprised. Anyway, Duke Ziting's Tiangongyuan always did some weird things.
However, many people are salivating over these big pipes. Mad, what kind of weapons are these? They are mobile vaults.
Of course, the Qing Huai army on the top of the city didn't know what it was, no! They knew that many people thought it was a car crash. Liu Renzhan's third son Liu Chongjian also asked people to prepare kerosene and kindling materials to prepare
The car burned down.
With the sound of horns, the Zhou army raised Lu Gong's chariot, and a large number of soldiers holding shields and crossbows also stepped forward and began to attack the city.
Of course, it was also a cover for Cao Yanming to deploy the artillery closer to Shouzhou City. The barrel of this thing was too short and the range was not far.
Panting, Qingfeng dug a big hole with the fellow workers, and packed soil with burlap bags to compact the cannon.
The last time I inspected the six government offices in Shendu, I still vividly remember the terrifying scene of the two-thousand-pound cannon flying into the air.
Cao Yanming took matters into his own hands, loading gunpowder and stone bullets like a fat hamster. He wouldn't be worried if he didn't do this in person. After all, Tiangongyuan consumes hundreds of thousands of daily allocations a year, and the plate armor has just been messed up. If the artillery
No, that would be very sorry.
As soon as the surrounding soldiers entered the fighting state, no one paid attention to them. The Qinghuai army on the top of the city was just confused. Their hands when pouring kerosene were sore. The strange collision on the opposite side couldn't reach it, but both sides entered.
In the state of fighting, I didn't take it too seriously.
"Boom!" At this moment, an earth-shaking loud noise sounded, and everyone was startled.
At this time, apart from thunder, people had never heard such a violent noise.
The sharpshooters on Lu's car were so frightened that they staggered around, and many of the crossbowmen around the cannon actually ran away.
This was not because they did not abide by military discipline, but because it was too scary and they were completely unprepared. Many people in the two closest phalanxes of crossbowmen were so frightened that they became weak and vomited.
The Qing Huai army on Shouzhou City was even more frightened. Many people only saw a burst of black smoke and a flash of fire from the collision on the opposite side.
Then, the city wall in front of them felt as if it had been hit by a god's hand. It shook violently, and a depression as big as a washbasin appeared.
Fortunately, most of the walls at this time were still made of loess, not the stronger masonry walls of later generations, otherwise they would never have had such a great effect.
Missed! Cao Yanming was nervous. After calculating the angle, he quickly came over and asked the civilian workers to push the cannon to the pit on the other side. The other two cannons that were not fired also adjusted their angles.
If you want to rely on this kind of stone bullet to knock down the city wall, well, ordinary city walls can do it, but certainly not a fortified city like Shouzhou. You have to bombard the gate and break it.
The world seemed to have become silent. Countless pairs of eyes stared at Cao Yanming and the others as they were busy. For this weapon that was beyond their knowledge, the Zhou army was excited and frightened, while the Qing Huai army was left with fear.
Finally, under the spotlight, the three artillery calibrated their angles. As for the ballistics, they are not yet aware of it.
With a wave of Cao Yanming's fat hand, the artillery that fired continuously let out the same terrifying roar as last time. Three stone bullets weighing more than 20 kilograms, with almost visible shadows, roared towards Shouzhou.
The north gate of the city.
‘哐’ ‘click’
The stone bullets shot out first smashed the pulled up suspension bridge, and then hit hard on the north gate of Shouzhou, which was made of hardwood and weighed more than 1,000 kilograms, and made two huge holes.
Outside Shouzhou City, the Zhou army cheered loudly, while the Qing Huai army on the city wall looked like they were mourning their heirs.
Although only the north gate was blasted, there is still an urn city in the north gate that can still be defended. However, the urn city also has a door. The worst is to push in and blast the gate between the urn city and Luocheng.
Moreover, a weapon like the urn city can only be used once, and if you cannot drive people out when used once, it will lose its effectiveness and become a fortification that attackers can use.
....
The Qing Huai army has fought to this extent. In the past few months, especially in the past five or six days, the 30,000-man army has lost 10,000 people, and it can no longer fight.
Even if Zhang Zhou's interests were harmed when he carried out land equalization, the local tycoons from the Huaiyin Mansion and Haosi Prefecture who came to Shouzhou, as well as the local wealthy families who were afraid that Zhou Jun would continue to equalize land in Shouzhou, were all frightened to the extreme.
The courage to resist.
Liu Renzhan stood at the top of the city, deeply reviewing the events of more than a year in his mind. He suddenly shouted and finally figured it all out.
The second son Liu Chongliang and the third son Liu Chongjian heard the sound and came over to support Liu Rezhan. Liu Chongjian was frightened and looked at Liu Rezhan tremblingly.
"Your Majesty is defending the northwest of the country alone. None of the officials resisted. Only I, the Liu family, do not want to bend the knee. But after fighting today, I am worthy of being the leader of Jiangning City. Why don't we surrender!"
Although Liu Chongliang said nothing, his eyes showed approval.
Historically, Liu Chongjian couldn't fight anymore and risked crossing the Huaihe River to ask Guo Rong for surrender. However, he was caught by the captain patrolling the river. Liu Renzhan was furious and had Liu Chongjian killed in the name of treason.
Cut in half.
This incident made Liu Renzhan famous as a loyal minister through the ages, but it did seem cruel to Liu Chongjian.
Liu Renzhan frowned and wanted to roar, but he didn't.
Originally, according to his temper, Liu Chongjian would have been given a good beating based on these words. However, compared with the brutal policies of later Zhou Dynasties in history, Zhang Zhou's current benevolence and righteousness are many levels higher.
Perhaps if Zhang Chang had not been busy moving north and then south, and used soft tactics, even a hardliner like Liu Renzhan might not have surrendered.
But now, there is no need to say this, and Liu Renzhan knows it very well, because he has just figured it all out.
So this famous general of the Southern Tang Dynasty could only look up to the sky and sigh: "Since Emperor Liezu replaced Wu and established Qi, our Tang Dynasty has crossed the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers to preserve the culture. Today, the country is about to overthrow. How can we not have loyal ministers who shed their blood for it?
"
Brothers Liu Chongliang and Liu Chongjian cried loudly and prostrated themselves on the ground. The soldiers of the Qing and Huai Army around them couldn't help crying after hearing this.
Although Liu Renzhan led them to a dead end, during the five years of his rule in Shouzhou, he was diligent, caring for the people, selfless, honest and self-sufficient, which earned him a high reputation and the support of everyone in Shouzhou.
The Liu brothers still wanted to cry and persuade, but Liu Renzhan sighed again, took the hands of his two sons and said, "How can the Emperor of Zhou spare you two brothers if your father does not die?"