Chapter 372 370 [Disgusting] (Add more updates for the penguin boss)

  Although Zhang Xianzhong suffered nearly 10,000 casualties, most of them belonged to cannon fodder, that is, forced laborers.

  These civilian husbands are miserable. They were originally farming at home, but they were dragged to transport luggage for no reason. Not to mention the transportation. When attacking the city, you have to be cannon fodder. If you don't go to attack the city, you will be hacked to death by the supervising team.

  Li Zicheng fought in war while fleeing, and the situation is similar.

  "History of Ming Dynasty" said that Li Zicheng's tactics were "three walls", but the actual situation was "five layers of positions". The front line is full of coerced refugees, the second and third army formations are infantry, the fourth army formation is cavalry, and the fifth army formation is Xiaoqi.

   It is obviously a method of warfare that violates military common sense. If the refugees in front are defeated, shouldn't they overwhelm the infantry formation?

   However, the actual impact is small.

  Because the infantry has long been accustomed to the collapse of refugees, psychologically and morale will not follow. The refugees will not flee back, because they know that Li Zicheng's soldiers are going to kill people, who would dare to charge in the densely packed gun formation? When they collapsed, they fled to both sides.

  Use the large array of refugees to consume the strength of the officers and soldiers. After the refugees are dispersed, let the infantry go up, and the cavalry and cavalry take the opportunity to circle around the flanks.

  If the refugees really crushed their own infantry, Li Zicheng would flee immediately with Xiaoqi and cavalry.

  Anyway, refugees are consumables, and Zhang Xianzhong's husband is also a consumable.

  Zhang Xianzhong's 100,000-strong army attacked the city for half a month, only killing or wounding more than a thousand people, all of whom were killed or injured by the ten thousand enemies.

  At night, Shi Yongen couldn't fall asleep.

  He was sent by Xu Ying to Hubei as a spy, and he went to his relatives and became an apprentice in a dyeing workshop—a real relative, a real apprentice.

  Three months ago, Shi Yongen went out of the city with his relatives, and went to the outskirts of the city to celebrate the birthday of his relatives' old mother. He happened to meet a forced conscript man, and he was taken away in a daze, and he worked his life to deliver luggage to Zhang Xianzhong all the way.

  One hundred thousand troops, two hundred thousand civilians, the secret work mixed among the civilians is definitely not the only one for Shi Yongen.

  Because Shi Yongen was relatively strong, he was also incorporated into the siege battalion and participated in the siege twice. Every time he attacked the city, he was very timid, hiding behind the arrow-proof wooden boards of the ladder, ignoring the scolding of the supervising team, he took a long time to climb the ladder, and then quickly fled. After fleeing halfway back, he met the supervising team and immediately rushed to the city wall.

   There are many civilians who do this. As long as they don't collapse completely, the supervisor team doesn't bother to take care of them. Anyway, I didn't intend to let the civilian husbands attack the towers, as long as they can consume the supplies for defending the city.

  Even so, Shi Yongen's arm was scalded by hot oil, and part of the wound had already begun to fester.

  Shi Yongen didn't resent Xu Ying, and sent him to Zhang Xianzhong's site as a spy. Because Shi Yongen's family had already divided the land, his elder brother received a special arrangement and was directly promoted to be a member of the county yamen, and now he has become the chief of the engineering department. And my sister, who married a county magistrate as a sequel, will definitely live a good life in the future.

   It would be great if I could go back alive.

   "Uncle Cao, are you asleep?" Shi Yongen asked in a low voice.

  Uncle Cao was a farmer in his forties. He sighed and said, "How can I sleep? If I attack the city tomorrow, I'm afraid I will die under the city."

  The civilian husbands could not escape, and were divided into several groups, specially arranged in the center of the camp, with Zhang Xianzhong's regular army in all directions.

  Shi Yongen said: "It is estimated that there will be a war tonight, and we will be making preparations in the evening. If all the soldiers go to attack the city, we will take the opportunity to escape and call more civilians. If there is a big mess, we will definitely not be able to catch it."

   "This... was caught and going to be beheaded!" Uncle Cao said in horror.

  Shi Yongen asked: "If you don't escape tonight, you will die if you attack the city tomorrow. How can it be more cost-effective to die?"

   Uncle Cao replied: "It's not worth it."

  Shi Yongen said: "There is still a chance to survive if you escape, but if you continue to attack the city, you will definitely die. Which one do you choose?"

  Uncle Cao thought seriously, gritted his teeth and nodded: "Then run away!"

   "Take me with you when you run away." A siege battalion cannon fodder named Zeng Ayang suddenly said.

   "Okay, run away together, the more people the better."

  Shi Yongen quietly crawled out again, climbed a few steps and said in a low voice: "Old Li, are you afraid of death? If you go to attack the city again, you will definitely die..."

  …

  Guangji City Guard General Wang Hui was originally the silly son of a landlord in Liuyang County.

  The scholarly family didn't study well, and he didn't even pass the exam as a scholar. When he was a teenager, he started to play with knives and sticks, and even rode the family donkey as a horse, saying that he wanted to practice riding and archery.

  A few years ago, Jiangxi thieves crossed the border to plunder.

  Wang Hui, under the leadership of Feng Zuwang, the county magistrate, recruited the courage of the village to resist desperately. He personally beheaded the head of the thief and "flyed to the sky".

   Then the Datong army came to attack, so majestic and mighty, Wang Hui immediately surrendered with Xiang Yong.

  It doesn't matter if the family's land is divided, Wang Huile is conscripted as a farmer and soldier. Due to his outstanding performance and actual combat experience, when Zhao Han expanded his army for the third time, Wang Hui was not only incorporated into the Datong Zhengbing, but also directly served as the head of the post.

   During a series of battles in Dongting Lake, Wang Hui made great contributions one after another.

   Moreover, he is also literate, can write and count, and was promoted to battalion commander by leapfrogging. During the Jianghuai Battle, he made another meritorious service and was promoted to the head of the regiment quickly.

  Because of being literate, able to write and count, not only brave in battle, but also able to use his brain, Wang Hui, as the head of the regiment, was selected as the city guard of Guangji County.

  In fact, apart from Wang Hui's own reasons, the reason why he was promoted so quickly was that Zhao Han deliberately favored soldiers from other provinces. There are too many officers from Jiangxi, whether they admit it or not, there must be a phenomenon of forming cliques.

   It must be biased towards other provinces, but it should not be too obvious, otherwise it will chill the hearts of Jiangxi soldiers.

  Night.

  Wang Hui patrolled the city wall as usual, comforted the soldiers, and then looked out of the city subconsciously.

  He knew that Zhang Xianzhong was digging a tunnel, and the telescope had already seen it. There are a total of more than ten tunnels in all directions, and soil is being transported from the entrance of the cave every day.

  As long as you observe carefully, Zhang Xianzhong can still find it no matter how well he hides it.

  Using tunnels to transport gunpowder to blow down city walls was not invented by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It existed at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Officers and soldiers used this strategy, Zhang Xianzhong used it, and Li Zicheng also used it.

   Such a method of warfare is difficult to be effective against fortified cities such as Nanjing and Beijing, because the foundation is too strong and too deep.

  If you want to force the explosion, you need a lot of gunpowder.

  Take Nanjing as an example. When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom blew up Nanjing, I don’t know how much gunpowder was used, but it was “a lot” anyway. Later, the Hunan Army blew up the city of Nanjing. China said that 6,000 sacks of gunpowder were used, and the New York Times said that 30 tons of gunpowder were used—the data is a bit outrageous, but it also reflects that Nanjing cannot be blown up with a few coffins filled with gunpowder. city.

  Wang Hui sat on the tower and watched the warriors hang out of the city.

  Some people held iron rods and inserted them into the ground, some people swung a sledgehammer and smashed the iron rods, and some people covered the ground with bamboo tubes to listen to the sound.

  I do this every night, compare the position where the enemy dug the tunnel, and use iron drills to drive into the soil everywhere under the city to test.

"when!"

   I don't know how long the hammer was struck, and another hammer was swung down, and the iron rod somewhere quickly fell, and it had already been inserted into the enemy's tunnel.

"water!"

  The water buckets were quickly hoisted down from the city, and the guards pulled out the iron rods and poured water down through the small holes.

  The enemy soldiers in the tunnel were setting up gunpowder. Seeing that water was pouring in, they quickly blocked the entrance of the cave with mud.

  Bring all the iron rods nearby, and more than a dozen iron rods were smashed down there. A few of them were still **** when pulled out, obviously stabbing the enemy in the tunnel.

  Continuously digging holes and pouring water, this tunnel is useless.

  Zhang Xianzhong was so angry that he cursed and ordered to continue digging the tunnel. Instead of digging straight through, they dug forward obliquely, making it impossible for the defenders to determine the approximate location of the tunnel.

  At the same time, the cannon fodder continued to attack the city, and the number of Lu Gong vehicles increased to seven.

   There are several floors of the Lv bus, and the top floor is higher than the city wall, so you can shoot arrows on the city from a condescending height.

  The peasants, soldiers and common people defending the city held up shields or pot covers to block the enemy's arrow rain. Behind the shield, a strong person threw ten thousand enemies, most of which fell to the ground and exploded, only a very few could successfully smash into Lu Gong's car, because each layer of this thing has a baffle.

   After a fierce battle for a long time, the front and rear three Lu Gong cars stopped moving forward.

  But there were still two vehicles driving to the city wall. When a peasant soldier was throwing Ten Thousand Enemy, he was accidentally shot in the wrist by an arrow, and Ten Thousand Enemy fell directly into the guarding team.

   "Boom!"

  The city exploded.

  The elite in Lu Gong's car took the opportunity to jump onto the city wall and quickly occupied a small area.

   "Hold on, form an formation and hold on!"

  When Wang Hui heard the news, he quickly asked someone to issue a flag order, and he quickly led the team to support.

  Zhang Xianzhong's elite continued to climb up from this Lv Gongcar, and more than 300 peasants, soldiers and civilians who defended the city were killed.

  Wang Hui finally arrived with the elite reserve team of peasants and soldiers, with a three-piece set of wolf sticks, rattan cards, and long spears, and attacked from both sides. After a **** battle, hundreds of people were paid again, and finally the enemy army who attacked the city was defeated.

   Just as Zhang Xianzhong was sighing, suddenly a cavalry rushed over: "Your Majesty, my general is trapped by enemy cavalry!"

   "How many enemy cavalry are there?" Zhang Xianzhong asked.

The old Huihui subordinate replied: "About two or three thousand, most of them don't wear armor, and only use a gun to run far away to release the gun. But there are hundreds of cavalry, and those horses are tall and strong, and they are very serious. Armor, the vital parts of the horse are also armored."

  Zhang Xianzhong asked: "How tall can those horses be?"

  The man said: "It is much taller than the king's mount."

   "Hundreds of war horses are all that tall?" Zhang Xianzhong asked in surprise.

  The man said: "Not only are they tall and strong, but they also charge very fast. They also have infantry and march on mules. They specifically block the way of my general and prevent my general from returning with cavalry."

  Zhang Xianzhong was puzzled: "Even if infantry ride mules, they shouldn't catch up with old cavalry."

The man said: "The enemy army has sentry cavalry everywhere. Each team of these sentry cavalry has only two people. They don't carry any weapons. They march lightly and run very fast. They don't dare to fight. They run away when they encounter our army, and then Run to the nearby market towns to light up the smoke and spread the message. Those towns have dug trenches outside, and there are many farmers, soldiers and people guarding them, and our cavalry cannot attack."

   As he spoke, the man said anxiously: "Our army is all cavalry, and we don't have much food and grass, and we couldn't grab food along the way. We ran out of food two days ago."

  Zhang Xianzhong was silent.

  Sun Kewang said anxiously: "Father, it's not an option to encircle the city with one hundred thousand elites and two hundred thousand civilians. Why don't you divide your troops and march eastward..."

   "Where is going east? The first three counties are the same as here. There are no people in the wild. Are you going to divide your troops and attack the city?" Zhang Xianzhong asked.

  Sun Kewang said: "The spies reported that there are many market towns in the wild. Let's not attack the cities, but only attack these market towns."

  Zhang Xianzhong sighed: "The main force of the enemy army has not shown up, I am afraid it is trying to lure me to divide the troops. Once you lead the troops out, it is very likely that you will be surrounded, and you will not be able to return if you want to return."

  Sun Kewang thought about it carefully, and felt that it was true.

   This battle was too suffocating, Guangji County must be pulled out, so as to keep the food road safe. Even if they don't care about the issue of food roads, this is also the channel for their withdrawal. If they don't take Guangji City, they won't be able to withdraw their troops once they lose the battle.

   It took more than half a month to fight against Nima, but the opponent’s regular army did not see him, and the county town was still standing there safely.

In the evening of the same day, Lao Hui came back with his cavalry, and said in a panic, "I came back by a detour. Zhao Han's cavalry is disgusting, and the infantry riding on mules with a large number of sentry cavalry is also disgusting. I lost two hundred of my cavalry." Many, they didn’t die in battle at all, but they were so hungry that they ran out of food! Hurry up and order rice, I haven’t eaten for two days!”

  Zhang Xianzhong ordered the Huotou army to make meals, and first brought some pancakes to satisfy their hunger, and asked, "How many cavalry are there in the enemy?"

   "At first there were only more than two thousand, and later there were one thousand more, and there were hundreds of heavy armored cavalry." Lao Hui said.

  Zhang Xianzhong asked: "Are they all much taller than my mount?"

The old Hui Hui said: "It's not just tall. Compared with those horses, our horses are like mules! This battle can't be fought. We can't see people in the field, and we can't get food. The enemy army has no horses at all except cavalry. Come out to fight, just wait for us to attack the city. This Guangji City cannot be taken down, how dare you divide your troops to attack other places?"

  Sun Kewang said: "Father, I'm afraid the situation in the north is similar, and Dingguo can only attack the city by force like this."

  It is easier to clear the fields with strong walls in the north. The drought in that poor area is severe.

Old Huihui said: "When we are exhausted from attacking the city and our morale drops, the main force of the enemy army should come out. Moreover, the enemy army controls the Yangtze River and may send the main force behind us at any time. At that time, we will not be able to withdraw even if we want to. This battle is impossible. Fight, quickly withdraw the entire army!"

  Wouldn’t it be a big joke to withdraw troops now?

  The three-way army totaled 200,000, and the civilian husbands spent nearly 400,000. Didn't take down a city, didn't grab a grain of rice, just go back in despair like this?

  Damn Zuo Liangyu, why didn't he go south to help?

   There is also Na Luo Rucai, who made an appointment to go south together!

  Zuo Liangyu was facing the plague in Shandong. He didn't dare to move, and the rear would explode if he moved. Moreover, the soldiers were often infected with diseases, so they couldn't fight at all.

  Luo Rucai actually dispatched troops, and came down for a walk. After running two counties in a row, they found that there was no food to grab, and they didn't dare to go too deep, so they simply rolled back to the hinterland of Henan with the cavalry.

   "This Zhao is really shameless!" Zhang Xianzhong hated.

  In the south and north, there are six or seven counties with strong walls and clear fields, and the food consumed is enough to fight a big battle!

   Zhao Han just doesn’t want to fight, he just wants to waste food to save the people, and drag the enemy until he’s tired before fighting.

  It doesn't matter if Zhang Xianzhong drives straight in, it's better to go all the way to the prefectures and counties where there are no strong walls and clear fields. When the time comes to stay away from the territory, the battle line will be stretched, and you can find countless opportunities to defeat it.

  Zhang Xianzhong gritted his teeth and said: "Attack for another three days. If you can't defeat them, you will withdraw your troops and let the miners speed up digging tunnels. As long as you break through Guangji City, you will definitely get countless food and grass!"

   (Ask for a monthly pass.)

  (end of this chapter)