On this point, let alone Gao Pragmatic, we cannot be sure. In fact, even the people themselves are hesitating now.
The spies have come to report that the walls of Shacheng are now guarded by Ming troops. It is not clear where the Ming troops came from, but they must all be Ming soldiers wearing mandarin duck uniforms.
There is no doubt that the Ming army is good at defense. Even if Tumen feels in his heart that the combat effectiveness of the Ming army is very average and only a few units can fight in the field, when the Ming army defends the city, even Tumen Khan will have a headache.
In particular, the firearms of the Ming Army have made great progress in the past ten years. They are no longer prone to explosions and misfires like in the past. The range has also been significantly increased. Now, when you use a horse bow to shoot against the Ming Army's Longqing II style, you have no advantage in range.
Yes, unless you approach quickly and use your rate of fire advantage to make up for it, you will have a chance of winning.
For the Mongols, the speed of shooting arrows is very fast, and it is not like some novels say that they can only shoot a few arrows at a time before losing their strength. In that case, Mangu's evil tactics will be a trick.
?If you turn around and shoot a few arrows, you will run out of energy. Isn’t this tactic of turning around and flying a kite a direct death sentence?
But no matter how good the Mongols are at shooting, facing the reinforced old city wall of Yuanzhongdu, which is more than three feet high, it is difficult to shoot against the Ming army. Besides, archery alone is useless.
The ultimate goal is to destroy the city, and there are only a few ways to destroy the city: break the city gate, climb the city wall, or destroy the city gate or wall.
As for the bribery that the Boarskins liked to do later and open the city gate, the Tumen really couldn't do it.
There is no need to consider destroying the city gates and walls, unless the current offensive and defensive sides change positions and let the Ming army mount their artillery.
If you are in the Ming Dynasty, there is an old method that can be used, which is to capture Han people as cannon fodder, drive them to the city, and see whether the other side opens the city gate or not.
If you open it, the Mongolian cavalry will swarm in with the speed of their horses, occupy the city gate first, and then kill indiscriminately, causing panic, causing the defenders to collapse. If you don't open it, it will be fine. They will continue to capture the people and send them over as cannon fodder, which will increase the pressure on the defenders.
Psychological pressure, no matter how you fight in the future, it will be beneficial.
But the place Gao Pragmatic chose was too annoying. This Shacheng was originally the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, but now it is not within the Ming realm. How can any Han people around it be captured?
There is Zhangjiakou Fort not far to the south, but...if he can capture Zhangjiakou, the nine-sided strategic pass, does he still need to worry about the sand city?
Looking at it this way, the only remaining solution is to build siege equipment honestly.
But there are also difficulties in building siege equipment. First of all, there is a lack of big trees nearby - otherwise it wouldn't be called Sand City. According to Tan Ma's report, there are mountains fifty or sixty miles to the southeast. The trees on the mountains may be difficult to build.
Some siege equipment, but only for emergency use.
Secondly, there is a lack of good craftsmen. Today's Mongolia is not the same Mongolia that conquered the Arab region two hundred years ago and has countless Arab craftsmen under its command. There are no good craftsmen under Tumen Khan. Can they build a few simple engineering tools?
It’s hard to say.
Perhaps the most common equipment, such as a ladder and a crash car, can still be built with difficulty. If it is something like the legendary Lu Gong's car, then don't even think about it.
Burihatu, who is now almost used as a military advisor by Tumen Khan, after counting the number of carpenters in the army, he also made his own calculations for a long time based on factors such as the distance from the wood origin, and finally told Tumen: If
If you want to launch an offensive after building the equipment, it will take half a month to prepare. Even if you go all out to build it, it will take at least ten days if quality issues are relaxed.
After listening to this, Tumen Khan felt disappointed. According to the sayings passed down from his ancestors, it didn't take so long to build siege equipment during the Mongol Empire!
But the situation at this time is like this, whether he admits it or not, he can only accept the fact.
"What siege equipment can we build now? A ladder should be fine, but a goose cart?" Tumen asked in a bad tone.
Burihatu said: "It is possible to build a goose cart, but we lack iron sheets."
Tumen frowned and said, "It's impossible to think of this without iron sheets. We can only cover it with cowhide with hard boards."
The predecessor of the goose chariot was the cave house. The cave house was also called a cave. It was like a hut. It was covered with a layer of iron and had four wheels underneath, which could effectively protect the soldiers from attacking the city. Later during the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties, the Mongols combined the cave house with the ladder.
The integration resulted in a goose-shaped siege vehicle, also known as a goose vehicle, which took into account both defense and attack.
But Burihatu was a little worried and said: "Even if it is a complete goose cart, it is difficult to say how effective it is when facing the Ming army's defense. Nowadays, hard boards and cowhide are used instead of iron sheets. I think it is a bit dangerous."
Of course it is dangerous, not to mention that the small artillery of the Ming army can bombard them more easily. Even if the Ming army does not use cannons, it is not very afraid of these siege methods from two hundred years ago when it is just cold weapons against cold weapons.
For example, the Ming army had a pole, which was also called a "pole pole". This tool could not only resist the enemy's use of flying ladders to climb the city, but also be used to kill enemies who climbed the city. When the enemy's flying ladder approached the city wall, use
The chisel blade at the front of the fork pole can resist the flying ladder and push it down, or when the enemy climbs halfway up the wall, use the fork pole to push down the ladder and chop it hard. The chisel blade in front of the pole can break the enemy's arm.
There is also a flying hook, also known as "Iron Owl's Foot". It is shaped like an anchor and has four sharp claws. It is tied with an iron chain and then connected with a rope. When the enemy soldiers are attached to the foot of the city, they are ready to climb the ladder.
, take them by surprise and throw themselves into the enemy group, killing several people with a hook at one time.
There is also the Yaksha Lei, also known as "residing guests". This weapon is made of wet elm wood one foot in diameter and more than one foot long as a roller, with "reverse beard nails" densely nailed around it, and the nail head is exposed five inches from the wood surface.
, wheels with a diameter of two feet are installed at both ends of the rolling log, tied with iron ropes, and connected to a winch. When the enemy soldiers gather at the foot of the city, they are thrown into the enemy group and the winch is turned, which can crush the enemy.
As for the more common tools for defending the city, they are stones and rolling logs, that is, stones and logs used to defend the city. In cold weapon warfare, the city wall is usually equipped with some ordinary stones and logs, which can be used when enemy soldiers climb
When building the city wall, these stones and logs were thrown down to hit the enemy. These stones and logs were called "stones" and "rolling logs". Such things can be found in any city of the Ming Dynasty. Although Shacheng is an old city of the Mongols,
Since Gao Pragmatic is here, he is naturally equipped.
In addition to the above-mentioned city defense equipment, there are also wooden heads, door-blocking swords and carts, etc., which are used to block city walls and gates that have been destroyed by the enemy.
Oh, by the way, I almost forgot, Gao Pragmatic also has a big killer weapon like grenades...