stubborn thief

Chapter 488

Maoshi seven quarters.

Yang Jiamo had already retreated to the stepping step below the city, shells whizzed and passed over the wall above his head from time to time, and the orderly who was still standing on the wall shouted loudly: "Marshal, the last ditch has been filled!"

Yang Jiamo, who was standing on the steps to the city, didn't speak, but Wang Xingshan, the deputy general who was wearing a fish-scale armor with a pale face, said anxiously: "Commander, the next step is to fill the moat, and I can still go out of the city to form an array!"

Wang Xingshan was hit by a stray bullet from the marshal's army half a month ago when he was out of the city to line up. Fortunately, the stray bullet had hit and shattered, and only caused a small wound on his abdomen, which was not fatal.

Now the fragments of the lead bullets have been taken out by military and medical craftsmen. Originally, he had been lying in bed in the city to recuperate, but the wounded soldiers couldn't hold back Liu Chengzong fired more than 1000 artillery pieces in less than two hours.

There were more than 400 seven-jin artillery shells smashed into the city alone. Wang Xingshan thought about lying on the couch again, and he would be crushed to death sooner or later, so he ordered his servants to put on armor and went to the front line on crutches.

Yang Jiamo took a deep look at him, he knew the weight of Wang Xingshan's words to go out of the city, shook his head and said, "It's not yet time."

General is a profession that violates human nature. The Yang family has been in charge of the Liangzhou military for generations, and Yang Jiamo has grown up in the army since he was a child. The generals in Liangzhou, Ganzhou are all his uncles and brothers, and the soldiers also get along day and night, but that was before the war.

When the war comes, as the commander-in-chief, there will be no friendship with each other day and night, no kindness from uncles and brothers, and there will be only one army and one mission left.

People have only one life, and only one chance.

As soon as he finished speaking, Luo Junjie, the Commander of Ganzhou, who was supporting Wang Xingshan, echoed, "Marshal Wang sits in the city with peace of mind and leads the troops out of the city. I will go there by myself. Let the idiot know. There are still heroes in Kansai!"

Yang Jiamo nodded slowly, patted Luo Junjie on the shoulder, and accepted the challenge: "The Luo family in Ganzhou are all tough."

Luo Junjie's father is Luo Yiguan. Facing the siege of the Nurhachi army, he defended Xiping Fort with 3000 people. The reinforcements were all defeated. Facing Li Yongfang's persuasion to surrender, he refused awe-inspiringly. He ran out of gunpowder and bowed to the north again. He drew his sword and committed suicide. carry on.

Hearing Yang Jiamo's approval, Luo Junjie smiled calmly, he would not die, he clasped his fists and said: "Commander, I'm going to leave the city for my humble job."

The troops in the city who were about to leave the city quickly gathered in the urns of the west gate and the south gate, and at the head of the city, batches of door panels, wooden windows, bricks and stone soil bags were sent to the city wall by the soldiers, and there were also battle sheds built in advance. , built directly on the city wall as a temporary fortification after the battlements were destroyed.

When the Bell and Drum Tower in the center of Gaotai City rang the clock of Chenshi, the battlefield seemed to fall into a brief silence. The general cannons and Fran cannons on the city wall were silent, and the marshal's guns placed five miles outside the city also died down. .

Only the trench filling team on the other side of the moat below the city was still working hard under the cover of the wooden mantle. Yang Jiamo ventured up the city during this moment of stagnation, and watched the enemy on both sides of the city wall from the southwest corner tower that had been bombarded.

He saw the Mongolian cavalry outside the west gate dragging earth bags and branches to fill the moat, and hundreds of artillerymen far away from the south gate were pushing artillery carts and approaching the city wall.

Obviously, this is just the calm before the storm. The eighteen cannons no longer projectile, they have to approach within the firing range to shoot flat. According to Yang Jiamo's understanding of their artillery skills, their artillery accuracy will be greatly improved within a distance of one mile. .

But for Yang Jiamo, this came at the right time. The offensive and defensive battles between the two sides really started when the marshal's army approached the moat.

Wang Xingshan, who had just laid down at the base of the city wall, was called up and temporarily served as the guard of the west gate. Yang Jiamo predicted that the Mongols over there would wait for an opportunity to board the city and make trouble after filling up the moat.

But outside the west gate, there is no land condition for large-scale siege equipment to be used. The moat and moat can be filled in, and the paddy fields can be filled.

As for the northeastern sides, Yang Jiamo only left four garrison guards. The east side was also paddy fields, and the Marshal Army had no idea of ​​filling trenches there, and the north side was the Heihe River.

The siege army on the other side of the moat is gathering more and more, which is particularly spectacular in Yang Jiamo's eyes.

The entire siege army formed three echelons, with 26 wooden mantle carts at the front, hanging thick wooden curtains seven or eight feet square, and spare ropes, wooden beams, and replacement wooden mantle boards were piled up on the carts.

The peasants and soldiers pushed Lele carts to bury the trenches in the shadow of the huge curtain panels. They did not form a formation, and each worked under the cover of curtain panels and equipment. However, Yang Jiamo can see from the scale that this group of soldiers is working roughly. There are thirty hundred regiments, half of which are civilian husbands and half are soldiers.

The second echelon has only fifteen or six centurions. It looks like the main force for attacking the city. It is equipped with eight temporary vehicles, eight aerial ladder tube vehicles, more than a dozen spare long ladders, and another 400-man cannon. Team.

The third echelon is the thirty centurions scattered five miles away. The armor is the most distinctive. Yang Jiamo can even see the marshal's banner belonging to the commander in chief, and Liu Chengzong is there.

Linche is a siege vehicle, which is built slightly higher than the city wall. It is a wooden shooting platform, which can carry a small number of soldiers to shoot at the defenders at the top of the city by taking advantage of their height. fight.

At present, the front car of the Marshal's Army is moving slowly and has not yet carried soldiers, but Yang Jiamo can already see a lot of muskets on the top floor of the front car with a telescope, very long muskets.

There are nearly 4000 soldiers in these two echelons, which is equal to the number of defenders in the city who can still fight. Yang Jiamo is not afraid, but he sweeps the front of the formation with a telescope, but feels cold from the bottom of his heart.

Those civilian men who filled the trenches were all the people of Gaotai, and most of them looked like the flag army and soldiers of the Qianhu Office of Gaotai, all wearing mandarin duck battle jackets that had been washed to pieces.

The soldiers pushing the siege equipment were the uniforms of the Ming army in uniform, and their clothes were completely different from the soldiers of the Marshal's Mansion who lined up five miles away.

This is most obvious on the officers. The officers of the Ming army wore cloth face armor with upper and lower parts, usually red and blue.

As for the officers of the Marshal Army, there are only two words, rich and noble.

It is said that the armor of these people is the same as that of the Ming army, and they are also cloth face armor, but they don't wear them, they are all carried on mules or thrown in carts.

They are wearing quilted jackets and trousers with leather trim. The cuffs, hem, collar trim, and collar are all fluffy. They look very warm. The jackets and trousers are all covered with chain mail. Where did you get so much chain mail.

At night, Yang Jiamo saw them wearing long armor with half sleeves. It was neither cloth nor cotton. It looked like felt but was much thinner, but he was unwilling to guess the cashmere from the bottom of his heart... this size The cashmere hood is worth less than five catties, and the wool alone is worth five taels of silver. If it is a little more important and counts the working hours of the weavers, it will cost more than ten taels.

The three-layer outer and inner clothes made of imperial brocade and Lu silk worn by the general officer Yang Jiamo are only worth three taels of silver according to the market price, and the embroidery work is less than ten taels.

What's the matter, He Huang, a leader of the rebel army, separatized the small regime, and the squad leader's clothes are better than those of the general officer of the Ming Dynasty?
But this is not the reason why Yang Jiamo feels chilled. What really chills him is the peasants and soldiers outside the city. Those who are filling the moat are all military households on the high platform. They may have just dredged the silt from the moat last year.

The first batch of soldiers to attack Gaotai was the Suzhou Army, which was the Suzhou Army under the command of Yang Jiamo, the commander-in-chief of Gansu.

Not to mention that he didn't understand, neither did Hu Zhishen, the general of the Suzhou battalion who commanded civilians to fill the trenches on the other side of the moat. He wondered why Zongbing Yang on the city didn't surrender?

The people who fought and died in this battle are all our own family members, not to mention Gansu and Gansu. Suzhou has already surrendered, and Ganzhou has also surrendered. You, a commander-in-chief from Liangzhou, are still guarding a high platform here City, what are you trying to figure out.

In his opinion, Yang Jiamo should hurry back to his hometown, but Marshal Liu behind him might not let him run back.

But if you don't understand it, you don't understand it. Hu Zhishen has no opinion on the first batch of his troops to attack Gaotai. As early as two months ago, when Suzhou had just surrendered, Liu Chengzong explained to him clearly, and the Suzhou battalion was reorganized. When you are done, you will be pulled to the front line to fight.

Before Hu Zhishen came here, he was always worried. He had claimed the title of Suzhou Wei's little waste, but he gained power and persuaded the desperate guerrilla general Ding Guodong and Qian Zongmi to surrender. These two are the real ruthless people in Suzhou.

Plus the bee tail needle, the deputy general of the Suzhou battalion sent by the marshal's mansion, what kind of thing is that?Hu Zhishen heard that this bee-tail needle was from the civilian army. He surrendered to the Ming army and then to the Marshal's Mansion. Five hundred horsemen smashed the Oala Tartar army.

The most outrageous thing is that these 500 people are divided into two groups!

According to the words of the Marshal's Mansion, Ding Guodong and Mi Layin must be sharpening their knives and slaughtering him; if they don't listen to the Marshal's Mansion, there are really no more than [-] cavalry under the Bee Tail Needle, and it may take soldiers to assassinate Guoshi Khan Divide into two ways, get rid of him, this little trash, no need.

More than 3000 people from Suzhou Camp came from Suzhou Weiwei. It can be said that all the generals were full of evil intentions until they met Liu Chengzong at the foot of Gaotai City.

To be honest, Liu Chengzong was not very capable, and he was also afraid of being assassinated by surrendered soldiers. It was the first time he saw the soldiers of the Suzhou Battalion that no one was allowed to bring weapons when they assembled.

But he is very sincere and knows that he cannot talk about ideals with hungry people.

He directly asked people to bring food for the whole camp for two months, and called thirty hundred generals to come forward in public, and rewarded each hundred generals with a pig and a sheep, and handed over a cart of soybeans, and asked them to grow bean sprouts as vegetables.

Then Liu Chengzong pointed to the craftsmen's camp: "The siege equipment has been built; the light artillery and heavy artillery are ready; I did not bring any silver when I went out, Gaotai City... Take the Hundred Corps as an example, the first to climb the city will be rewarded with 120 Hequ good horses; Those who climbed the city for the first time will be rewarded with 120 good Mongolian horses; those who climbed the city for the third time will be rewarded with 120 Guanzhong donkeys; if they take the city, the whole camp will be rewarded with three acres of land, and everyone will have a share."

Amidst the applause from the whole battalion, Hu Zhi felt very comfortable. What he was most afraid of was that Liu Chengzong called the whole battalion to talk about the court's injustice. That was correct and useless nonsense. Let us live comfortably, and whoever you say is innocent will be innocent.

If you let us eat and clothe warmly and have mothers-in-law, we can carry the ladder to fight against the court; if you let us be proud and proud, then we can climb the ladder to fight against the former dynasty.

Hu Zhishen's heart sank in a whirl, and Mr. Dong Ju, a staff officer from Suzhou Weijiao, patted him on the shoulder, and with his beard curled up, the meaning was obvious: I can't die.

The old Jiaoyu is a scholar, and he understands Liu Chengzong's tricks very clearly. There is no mention of officers above Baizong in the rewards, and he can't move even if he wants to.

The soldiers saw that Liu Chengzong was generous, and the officers saw that Liu Chengzong was stingy, so when the anti-official officer jumped out to encourage the soldiers to rebel, the soldiers would be more willing to hand over the officer's head to the generalissimo in exchange for a reward.

Not to mention that Yang Jiamo is the defender of the city, even if Zhu Youjian is the defender of the city, the Suzhou camp can still fight.

The bell of the time came from Gaotai City.

Eighteen catty cannons were slowly pushed to the second front, and the artillery team of [-] lion cannons under the command of the bee tail needle also slowly approached the moat. Temporary improvised fortifications launched an attack.

But the general artillery and Francophones on the city fell silent at this time, and the artillery stopped bombarding the siege army, as if they were quietly waiting for the marshal's army to completely fill up the moat.

Under such an atmosphere, the soldiers of the Suzhou battalion worked harder. Under the cover of the wooden mantle, they alternately filled the moat with sand and gravel, and stretched out a series of bridges on the soft wetland filled by the moat, and continued to the other side of the river. Approaching.

Even though the cannons at the top of the city were no longer bombarding, the wooden mantle carts of the Suzhou Army were still cantilevered over the moat, and the bee-tailed artillerymen at the rear pushed forty flexible and light lion cannons to line up on the flanks of the wooden mantle carts, aiming at the troops on the other side of the moat. The sheep and horse walls are played alternately.

One-jin iron bullets bombarded the three-foot-thick wall of sheep and horses on the other side of the river, causing bricks and stones to fly and clods to crack.

The tall carriages were also slowly transported to the bank of the moat. As groups of soldiers boarded the carriages, the defenders on the city could no longer carry quail. Send out bombardment with scatterers.

The bullets were like rain, and the Suzhou musketeers who boarded the car couldn't lift their heads. They could only squat behind the wooden fence and listen to the officers of the Huben Camp explaining the difference between carrying guns and heavy guns and bird guns. Its high altitude advantage hit the defenders at the top of the city with lead shots that could penetrate people's holes.

But the effect is mediocre, because Yang Jiamo has the information that the Marshal's army moved the cannon to a range of one mile. He has already ordered the artillery at the top of the city to retreat to the inner side of the city wall, and not to fire if they can't fire, and the defenders are also hiding inside the city wall. On the horse trails and trails of Dengcheng.

Only three groups of soldiers were left behind in the ruins of the three city gate towers and the east and west turrets, which were riddled with holes. These people were armed with small pearl cannons and captive-killing guns, hiding in the shadow of the gate towers. Waiting for Yang Jiamo's order.

It wasn't until there was a huge cheer from the bottom of the city, that the moat had been filled with several three-foot-wide roads, and that a carriage and a ladder cart were advancing towards the city wall, that Yang Jiamo finally waved his hands and ordered his servants to wave their flags on the horse trails and footpaths.

The Franco cannons on the city wall received the signal and began to fire rapid-fire shots at the adjacent vehicles to suppress them. Even if the wooden curtains were placed on the top of the city, the Yongzhu Cannon and the Extermination Cannon team hidden in the gate tower would still fire the cannons. The child splashed on the car.

At the same time, teams of soldiers carrying shields and defensive equipment, fully armed, ran up the city wall from the horse paths and footpaths. One by one, horizontal teams using three-eyed guns and bird guns spread out on the city wall. Instead, they were covered by wooden curtains. Shoot from the flanks at the soldiers below the city and drop flaming poisonous smoke bombs.

And behind them, a rack of oil tanks was placed on the top of the city. Under the cover of shields, soldiers pumped kerosene with torches, pressed down the sleeves to the adjacent vehicle a few steps away, and sprayed the fierce oil on the wooden adjacent vehicle. .

Then clay pots filled with kerosene were ignited and thrown towards Lin Che in the hands of the defenders.

A burst of flames suddenly exploded on the siege engine. After Liu Chengzong captured half of Gansu, the oil weapons used in the military finally showed their ferocious faces on the battlefield in Gansu, turning into flames soaring into the sky, and killing all the tall attackers. City ordnance devoured.

　good evening!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)