This place is 160 kilometers away from Zhangjiakou to the east, 120 kilometers from Datong to the south, 130 kilometers from Guihua City to the west, and 60 kilometers from Zhuozi Mountain City.
It can be said to be the center of Zhangjiakou, Datong, and naturalization. The strategic value is very huge.
This is a node on Yang Fan's important logistics route. It must be taken down.
During the Yuan Dynasty, this place was called Jining Road. A small castle was built here.
During the Ming Dynasty, this was a strong fortress used by the Tumut tribe to resist the Haraqin people. After here, there is a small and strong fortress, which is Zhuozi Mountain.
The 80,000-strong army in the Beijing camp is divided into 20 infantry regiments and two artillery regiments. The headquarters also has a personal battalion responsible for protecting the safety of the commander. A cavalry battalion and communications battalion serve as messengers and scouts. They are responsible for reconnaissance of the enemy, delivering military orders and
information.
The army arrived at Jining Castle before noon. Yang Fan and Zhang Shize looked at the castle, which was 12 meters high and about 300 meters long, built on a small mound. They sighed, it was really a strong city.
This city was completely built during the Yuan Dynasty by using bluestone brought by the Mongols on camels and combined with Sanhe soil. Although it is not large, it is very strong.
This kind of castle is full of nails and is difficult to pull out.
"Before I came, I went to the Ministry of War to check the information on the five cities of Jining, Zhuozi, Guihua, Jiuyuan, and Linhe. The city of Jining is not big, but the wall is three feet thick. I guess we will have to spend some effort.
Zhang Shize said with a frown.
Yang Fan smiled and said: "I think it's good. There are three thousand Mongolians here, just for the Beijing camp to practice. Although these bastards have been trained to death by us, they have never been on the battlefield after all. This time I want to experience it in actual combat.
.”
"But this city is more difficult to defeat than the data says. We have to make a careful calculation to avoid causing too many casualties or losing more than the gain." Zhang Shize said.
"There is a saying in the art of war that if a small enemy is strong, a big enemy can be captured. There are many of us, so if we are surrounded, we can't attack as much as we want." Yang Fan said with a smile, "It just happens that all the siege weapons we brought are available."
Take it out and practice it. Otherwise, you won't be able to use it when you get to Guihua City, which will waste time."
"That's true. Let's set up camp. The whole army has a good rest and will attack the city tomorrow." Zhang Shize said.
As the order to set up camp was issued, each of the 20 regiments set up camp on their own.
There are no trees on the grassland, so the fence can only be built with barbed wire purchased from Zunhua. A trench is dug inside the barbed wire and soil is piled inside the trench to build a wall of sandbags.
Inside the earthen wall is the camp. Watchtowers are erected on all sides. These watchtowers are all built with steel pipe scaffolding.
There are cotton tents inside the camp, and there are honeycomb stoves inside for heating. Now, although it is starting to get warm in Guan, the climate on the grassland is still winter.
Along the way to Beijing Camp, we have been setting up camps non-stop, and we are already familiar with them. Each regiment has begun to build a large-scale camp. The regiment headquarters and warehouse workers are in the middle, and the troops are around.
We also need to dig toilets, prohibit open defecation and maintain hygiene. The cooking team has started to pressurize the water wells. Hot and cold water will be provided tonight.
At this time, on the city wall of Jining, Yin Bili Tabu Nang and three thousand households looked worriedly at the 200,000 people camping below.
"Oger Qianhu, what do you think of these Han people?" Yinbilita Bunang asked.
Oger Qianhu looked at these boundless Beijing camps and said worriedly: "I heard that these people are all the soldiers of the Ming Emperor, and they are all Beijing camps. I'm afraid they won't be easy to deal with. I can only take one step.
Just take a look."
Yin Bili sighed and said: "We Tumut people have nowhere to retreat. This is why I am unwilling to retreat to Guihua City. This is the land left to me by our ancestors. We will not go there. Who wants to take it away?
Take our territory and we will fight them to the end."
"Dear Tabu Nang, I estimate that they will start to attack the city tomorrow. We have made full preparations and accumulated more than 200,000 stones. Let them come. Let them know that we Mongolian warriors will also defend the city.
City." Aoden Qianhu said.
The surrounding centurions raised their scimitars, shouted loudly, and fought with them to the end.
Yang Fan and Zhang Shize heard a group of Mongolians yelling and making various insulting moves on the opposite city wall. They were stunned for a moment.
Yang Fan smiled and said: "Yin Bili, an old subordinate, has quite high morale."
"Hmph, I don't know whether to live or die. Let's see how many of them die tomorrow and whether they can still be so arrogant."
Yang Fan said happily: "It's better this way. Practice those bastards in Jingying well. We captured Jining, then Zhuozi Mountain, and arrived at Guihua City. We were born again the first time, familiar with the second time, and became veterans after the third time.
It’s time. By then, it won’t be difficult to conquer that big city.”
"For extra meals tonight, each crew will be given a bucket of canned braised pork." Yang Fan turned around and said to the quartermaster.
When they heard about the extra meal, the three armies burst into cheers.
From the beginning of the camp in Beijing, they basically ate dry food, including quick-frozen dehydrated vegetable soup. They had been so hungry that their throats were itchy.
This is what I got used to when Jingying was training in Nanyuan. He had a full meal of braised fatty pork and white flour steamed buns every night.
These low-level officers and soldiers have been treated like this for generations for more than two hundred years.
Don't talk about them. In this era, even landlords eat multigrain porridge with pickles. Landlords in the north have to celebrate the holidays by eating white rice.
I can't eat meat more than a few times a month. I'll be fine if I can eat an egg on a regular basis.
Those who eat meat every day are civil servants with lucrative positions or high-ranking military officers.
All of these guys were originally skinny. The emperor was originally worried that such harsh training would cripple some people. Unexpectedly, three months later, all of them were covered in gada meat. Their muscles were like blowing up balloons.
Same, it swelled up.
At the Nineteenth Regiment's station, they had finished their work and set up camp. All the officers and soldiers were sitting in groups on the felt to eat. At this time, the messenger arrived.
"Who is the leader Liu Sansi? He has a new task for you."
"I am, what is my mission?"
"The commander-in-chief ordered that the 19th Regiment will be responsible for operating thirteen roller trebuchets tomorrow. Send people to the Chinese Army Warehouse to collect them as soon as possible."
"Yes, I will send someone immediately."
After seeing off the messenger, Liu Sansi immediately called some people and walked towards the Chinese army.
Tian Xiaoxi asked the team leader Ge Gen, "Boss, what is this roller trebuchet?"
"I don't know, I haven't seen it, and I can't read. I heard my father talk about a trebuchet, but I don't know what a roller trebuchet is. I'll tell you later when I see it."
Soon they saw these trebuchets.
Unfortunately, they still couldn't tell what these trebuchets looked like. Because all they saw were steel components loaded on the caravan. They were all bundles of angle steel, which were obviously not assembled.