At the top of Chifeng City, Madeng Yun cursed, lying on the wreckage of the collapsed city tower and observing the situation outside. This month's siege battle had been extremely cruel.
At this time, the Chifeng city wall was as good as a dog gnawed, with collapsed gaps everywhere. Thick wooden stakes were nailed to it, and wooden poles were nailed horizontally, and then filled with a large number of straw bags filled with earth and rocks. No matter how shaky it was, Chifeng's city wall was crumbling.
The city did not fall.
There were densely packed corpses under the city, both from the Qing army and the Ming army. These corpses were frozen hard and not rotten at all, which saved a lot of measures to prevent the plague.
During this season, the temperature outside the Great Wall is more than 20 degrees below zero. The corpses can be stored until the beginning of next spring.
Huang Taiji and others were also restless. Although the Eight Banners killed a large number of defenders, they suffered heavy casualties. They rushed to the city wall more than a dozen times and were defeated again.
Madeng Yun also tried his best. He put gunpowder into jars and placed them under the crenellations of the city wall in a shade. If the Eight Banners rushed up to the city wall in large numbers, he ordered the gunpowder jars in this area to be ignited.
When these Eight Banners came in through the crenel, their first reaction was to look at the surrounding Ming troops and prepare for a fight.
Almost no one would notice the jar filled with gunpowder behind it.
Then there was a violent explosion, and broken porcelain fragments flew all over the sky, as sharp as shrapnel. Ceramic has extremely high hardness, sharp edges, and is very lethal.
Amin has been going crazy these days. His blue flag suffered the greatest losses. They were all blown up by gunpowder.
"Junmen, it's bad, there is no water in the wells in the city." A general stumbled over and shouted with a cry.
Wells are a big problem. This city relies entirely on well water.
If a person doesn't eat for seven days, he may not necessarily die of starvation. But if he doesn't drink water for three days, he may die of thirst. In addition to the 20,000 cavalry sent out, there are more than 70,000 people left to defend the city. In the past month, two people have been lost.
More than 10,000 people. There are still more than 50,000 people left.
If the well water is gone, we will be in big trouble. There is not much ice and snow in the city.
Madeng Yun no longer cared about the city wall. At this time, another wave of attacks was repelled. People on the city wall were repairing the damage and rescuing the wounded. He quickly followed the general down to the city to check.
Madeng Yun came to a well and saw that silt was exposed underneath and was starting to freeze. There was actually no water left.
He suddenly became anxious and ran to the well on the next street.
There is no water in this well either.
"When did this happen?" Ma Dengyun grabbed the general's shirt and shouted.
"Junmen, I just realized there was no water this morning. I don't know what happened. There was still water last night." The general looked a little scared when he saw the commander's appearance.
"My subordinates don't know what's going on. I checked all the wells in the city and they all ran out of water overnight."
Ma Dengyun cursed, turned over and jumped into the well. The soldiers around him were so frightened that they hurried to pull him. But he jumped too suddenly and there was still no time.
Ma Dengyun ignored these idiots. He pushed his feet on the wall of the well and slid down little by little. The well was only one meter thick and his legs could still reach it. After sliding down several times in a row, he fell with a pop.
Bottom of the well.
At this time, the mud at the bottom of the well had begun to freeze. There was still a lot of white gas rising up like hot steam. Ma Dengyun yelled at the wellhead: "Why are you still dazed? Get a torch and throw it down. Idiot."
"
The leader of the soldiers immediately turned around and ran away, looking for a torch, as if he had been hit by an arrow in his butt.
Under the illumination of the torch, the situation on the walls and bottom of the well was clear. Madeng Yun really couldn't see anything unusual. Judging from the current situation, it can only be that the water level has dropped.
But in the middle of winter, for no reason, the groundwater level drops.
Madeng Yun's head hurts. This is really adding insult to injury. The food was already running out, and now the water is gone.
Damn it, how can we fight this battle?
He felt dizzy, his vision went dark, and he fell forward.
He quickly held the bottom of the well with one hand.
The mud was covered with ice, and it was very cold to the bone, which made him tremble. His head suddenly became clearer.
During this period, he hardly slept well and ate little. Now that the city has begun to reduce food rations, he naturally cannot eat more.
Long-term fatigue and malnutrition, coupled with this sudden blow, almost caused him to faint.
To be honest, the fact that he was able to hold on until now was something he never thought about. He felt exhausted and exhausted.
At this time, he seemed to feel a slight vibration on his palm.
He was stunned for a moment. Was it an earthquake? He was so desperate that he almost wanted to cry. If the broken city wall hadn't been watered and frozen, and the wooden stakes and straw bags that filled the gap would have been frozen together.
This cannot withstand an earthquake. If there is a big earthquake, all the city walls will definitely collapse.
However, he soon discovered something strange. The vibrations came one after another.
There are earthquakes like this there.
The vibrations of earthquakes are continuous, from small to large, to violent, then smaller, then larger, with periodic fluctuations.
By the Ming Dynasty, we had experienced more earthquakes, and everyone in the Ming Dynasty had some experience.
No, this kind of vibration was wrong. Suddenly, an idea flashed in his head.
Tunnel! Jiannu is digging a tunnel. This is the vibration of a pickaxe digging into the earth.
I don’t know how many tunnels there are and how long they took to be dug. It can be seen from the decline of groundwater in the city that it should be drained out during the digging of the tunnels.
Madeng Yun suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. The tunnel had already reached under the city wall. Maybe tonight, or tomorrow night, the Eight Banners would break out of the ground.
And he didn't know the location of the tunnel at all, and it was too late to find it now.
Ma Dengyun forced himself to calm down. He always felt that he had overlooked something.
Drainage, why do we need to drain water? What are they going to do when they dig under the city wall?
blasting!
Madeng Yun suddenly understood why there was no water in the well.
"Pull me up, hurry up." Madeng Yun roared angrily.
He climbed out of the well in embarrassment, turned around and returned to the general's mansion.
"Call all the generals to me for a meeting, quietly. Don't make any noise." He whispered to the leader of the soldiers, Ma Fu.
Malan was a little surprised when he saw him suddenly coming home. The old man had not come down from the city wall for ten days. Malan stepped forward, pulled Ma Dengyun and said: "Look, where have you been? You are covered in mud and water. Take off your clothes quickly."
Come down and change into dry clothes. Don’t catch a cold on such a cold day.”
As she said this, she turned to her maid and said, "Go and cook a bowl of ginger soup for me, and put some icing sugar on it."
Ma Dengyun waved his hand impatiently and asked the maid to go down. He said to his wife: "Stop doing these useless things. Hurry up and let the servants pack your things. We will wait at the north gate in an hour."
Malan stared at Madeng Yun, what does this mean? Does the master want to abandon the city and run away?
Madeng Yun quickly told her the situation.
"This city can no longer be defended. Jianu will most likely blow up the city wall after dark. First remove the officers and soldiers from the city wall. Just then, the Mongols in the north city went to attack the reinforcements. Now they are fighting Heiyunlong. If the city wall
If it is blown down, Chifeng will definitely not be able to defend it."
Ma Dengyun looked at his wife anxiously and said: "We cannot die here. We must retreat, go to the mountain passes and continue to hold on, resisting the slaves step by step, at least to give His Majesty and the cabinet time to respond."