On this day, the artillery bombardment from both sides came to an end. Although the momentum was earth-shattering and the fighting was very lively, the actual losses on both sides did not exceed a hundred people.&&Although the city walls were dented by cannonballs,
But it is still very strong, but the battlements were smashed in four or five places, and they were all blocked by the Qing army with mud and sand, which did not have much impact on the city's defense.
The conditions of the three city walls were roughly the same, and Zhuo Luo breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the city walls of Guangde Prefecture were much stronger than those of ordinary county towns. Although the merchant army's artillery was fierce, it did not do much damage to the city walls.
It is estimated that tomorrow, the merchant army may switch to using explosive bombs to attack the soldiers defending the city, and then look for opportunities to attack the city. Therefore, the battle tomorrow may be much more intense than today.
However, today, the merchant army dug a trench of several hundred steps outside the city on three sides, and in the evening, when Zhuo Luo patrolled the city, the sound of "plop" digging could still be heard outside the city, because
In the dead of night, Guan Shi, Zhuo Luo heard it very clearly. Zhuo Luo still felt very strange, what was the purpose of the merchant army digging trenches.
Early the next morning, when Zhuo Luo climbed to the top of the city again, his expression suddenly changed, and he finally understood the role of the Merchant Army's trenches. Because at this time, he could clearly see three or four hundred steps away from the city wall.
, is a trench hundreds of steps long, parallel to the city wall, which had been dug when the two sides stopped fighting yesterday.
And overnight, from this trench, several more zigzag trenches appeared. Although they were winding, their overall direction was towards the city wall of Guangde Prefecture.
The nearest one is less than two hundred steps away from the city wall, and there are soldiers from the Merchant Army digging in every trench. The Merchant Army is not digging trenches for defense at all, but for offense.
Zhuo Luo was also very surprised. He did not expect that the merchant army would actually come up with such a way to attack the city. If the merchant army was allowed to dig trenches under the city wall of Guangdezhou, it would of course be very detrimental to the defense of the city.
If this progress continues,
In a few days, all the trenches will be dug up to the city walls of Guangdezhou, and then tunnels can be dug underground to sneak into the city of Guangdezhou. This tactic of digging into the ground to attack the city has been around since ancient times.
, I didn’t expect Shang Yi to use it here.
Of course Zhuo Luo knows that to deal with the digging siege tactics, it is to dig trenches in the city to resist. This does not mean that Zhuo Luo is familiar with military tactics, and in [The Romance of the Three Kingdoms], he has written too much about this pair of offensive and defensive tactics.
Secondly. As for the story of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", every Manchu noble is very clear about it. Although Zhuoluo saw this tactic used by the enemy for the first time, he was not unfamiliar with it. At the same time, he was quite excited. It turned out that this tactic was used by Zhuo Luo.
It was the legendary digging tactic, which really opened my eyes.
Therefore, Zhuoluo also immediately ordered to recruit the people in Guangzhou City to immediately dig trenches around the city wall to break the merchant army's tunnel. At the same time, he ordered all the artillery on the city head to fire at the trenches to attack the merchant army who were still working in the trenches.
Soldier.
However, after his order was issued, the Qing army discovered that on the city wall, they could not see the people working in the trenches at all, and could only hear the sound of digging. This was because the trenches of the merchant army were dug very deep, at least eight feet.
In many cases, the red cannons that use direct fire on the city wall have no angle to hit the trenches. Only the thunderbolt cannon can be used to project the shells in a large curve to hit the trenches.
The Qing army had a total of thirty Pili artillery pieces in Guangdezhou, ten at each city gate. Because the Merchant Army's front line was just outside the range of the Pili artillery, during yesterday's artillery battle, the Pili artillery was
It did not participate in the battle, but it immediately started firing, launching the explosive bombs one by one in a large parabolic trajectory.
However, the shells fired by the Thunderbolt artillery are basically not accurate. If one or two of the ten shells can accurately land in the trench, it is already very good. Sometimes after ten shells are fired, none of them fall in the trench, which is also common.
Yes. And business
The trenches of the domestic army were in the shape of a zigzag, with seven or eight turns. Unless the artillery shells could accurately land in the trench closest to the city wall, it would be impossible for the soldiers of the merchant army who were doing construction work.
It won't cause any harm.
Moreover, in the trench section of the construction work, the tops of the trenches were covered with thick wooden boards. Even if the artillery shells fell, they would not hurt anyone. This result was indeed beyond the expectations of the Qing army. It can be said that unless the Qing army was
Move out and fight your way out of the city, otherwise there will be no way to stop the merchant army's excavation work.
However, Zhuoluo didn't have the courage to send troops to attack, so he had to give up. At the same time, he thought to himself, you can just dig like this. Anyway, he has already dug a trench in the city, and he is not afraid of you digging tunnels into the city. Therefore, he did not open fire again.
They attacked the soldiers of the Merchant Army digging trenches, but the Merchant Army's position did not fire and bombard the city.
As a result, in the next three days, neither side opened fire and bombarded them. Instead, they buried their heads in digging soil and digging trenches. However, most of the soldiers of the Merchant Army were farmers. They worked with soil all year round and had trench-digging skills.
It is also a common practice and is commonly used. In addition, it is the end of April now. Although it is the Little Ice Age, the weather has become warmer and the land has thawed, so it is not laborious to dig.
The soldiers of the Merchant Army worked hard, sweating like rain, day and night, not only extending the trenches foot by foot towards the city wall of Guangdezhou, but also digging horizontally to connect all the vertical trenches.
Criss-crossed and densely packed.
After three days and nights of hard excavation, the three sides of Guangde City, especially the trenches outside the south city, have reached the city wall of Guangde City. The closest place is only more than 30 steps away from the city wall.
Distance. Although the Merchant Army's trenches were dug very deep, if they dug further, they would be completely exposed, so they all had to work underground.
On the morning of the fifth day, looking at the dense and long trenches outside the city, Zhuo Luo couldn't help but tremble in his heart, but at this time in Guangdezhou City, a deep trench had been dug along the inside of the city wall.
The base of the city wall could be seen in many places along the ravine, so Zhuoluo also felt a little confident and ordered the soldiers to
Surveillance day and night to prevent the Merchant Army from breaking out of the ground. At the same time, there are special people who stick washbasins, water tanks and other objects on the walls of the trench to monitor, so as to know the location of the Merchant Army when they break out of the ground. And they are still on the edge of the trench.
A large number of bags of soil, sand, stones and other objects were prepared, waiting for the merchant army to immediately throw them down to block the gap as soon as they broke out of the ground.
At this time, in the merchant army camp outside the city, Cheng Jin also gathered the generals and said: "After three days and three nights of hard work, our trenches have been dug to the city wall of Guangde. Today we will start to attack Guangde."
Nanjing has launched a full-scale offensive in Guangde Prefecture. Moreover, I have received information that Nanjing has sent reinforcements to Guangde Prefecture. They arrived yesterday.
After reaching Gaochun, the Qing army's reinforcements will inevitably arrive in Guangde Prefecture tomorrow. Therefore, in today's battle, we must conquer Guangde Prefecture. All armies must cooperate with each other according to the pre-war arrangements, and do their best to fight. We must win
Go to Guangde Prefecture. The first unit to attack the city wall of Guangde Prefecture will be credited with first-class collective merit."
All the generals also said in unison: "Use all your strength to capture Guangde Prefecture."
Cheng Jin also nodded and said: "Okay, let's attack."
Half an hour later, the sound of artillery that had been silent for three days rang out again, and this time all the artillery used by the merchants were explosive shells. Some artillery used direct fire, some used curved fire, and heavy artillery hit the deep areas of the city. The medium-sized artillery suppressed the firepower of the Qing army at the top of the city. The light artillery was also pushed to a distance of about a hundred paces from the city wall, attacking the Qing soldiers at the top of the city. At the same time, hundreds of thunderbolt rockets were fired like Guangzhou City.
Inside and outside the Guangdezhou city wall, the explosion sounded earth-shatteringly, as if all the energy accumulated in the past three days had been exploded.
Facing the unusually violent attack by the Merchant Army, Zhuo Luo certainly knew that the Merchant Army would launch a full-scale attack today. Moreover, at this time Zhuo Luo had also received a notice from Nanjing that the reinforcements would arrive in Guangde Prefecture tomorrow, so what to say today? They had to resist everything. Therefore, the Qing army's firepower was also fully activated. All kinds of artillery and thunderbolt rockets were used to attack the merchant army outside the city, regardless of whether they were useful or not. The fire musket soldiers and archers were also waiting under the city wall. , with the siege troops preparing to face the merchant army.
And Zhuoluo also walked back and forth between the three city walls, commanding and dispatching. At the same time, he did not forget to send some soldiers to guard the edge of the ravine to prevent the merchant army from breaking out. What if the merchant army wanted to attack the east and west? Outside? The fun was actually to cover the underground attack. Because until now, Zhuoluo had not discovered that there was a merchant army dispatched to attack at that side of the city wall.
"boom!"
At this time, Zhuo Luo was supervising the battle in the south city. He felt that there should be no big problem here, so he decided to go to the east city to have a look. He had just stepped off the city wall and was only ten steps away from the city wall. Suddenly he heard There was a loud, earth-shattering sound behind him.
A huge wave of wind, mixed with countless gravel, rushed towards Zhuoluo, sending him and more than ten soldiers around him flying two to three feet away, and then fell heavily to the ground. His body and head were also hit by dozens of pieces of gravel. If Zoro hadn't been wearing thick armor, he would have been smashed to pieces and his head would be bleeding. But despite this, the armor still remained He was hit in many places, his whole body was in great pain, and there was a buzzing sound in his ears.
However, it was not just Zhuoluo and the dozen or so soldiers around him who were swept away. When he led him down, he could vaguely see that many soldiers were flying higher and farther than he was. Of course, they fell harder. .
Zhuoluo didn't understand what happened, but heard "Boom!" There was another loud noise.