stubborn thief

Chapter 489
For a moment, Liu Chengzong really thought that the city would be broken soon.

Although the first reward was only given to three centurions, this reward was enough to mobilize the enthusiasm of the entire Suzhou army. Why not worry about a city being destroyed under everyone's bravery?
Liu Chengzong used his brains on rewards. If a person has money, the temptation of money is not great for him. Even if a person has no money, but the people around him have no money, the meaning of money to him may be far worse than that of righteousness. up.

Only when this person has no money and everyone around him has money, money means the most to him.

The same is true for horses. The Suzhou Army is a newly surrendered army and lacks horses and donkeys, and the surrounding marshal army battalions do not say that everyone has tall horses, at least one mule per person is guaranteed.

In such an army, all members of a hundred corps are rewarded with a good Hequ horse, which can bring a huge boost to personal confidence.

And in the siege, as long as three centurions climbed to the top of the city to occupy their feet, and the follow-up troops swarmed up, the city would fall.

It can be said that the moment Liu Chengzong offered a reward to the Suzhou camp, he firmly believed that the soldiers of the Suzhou camp could easily capture Gaotai City.

However, the flames sprayed from several fierce oil tanks at the top of the city and dozens of torches and cupping cans extinguished Liu Chengzong's beautiful fantasy. The kerosene was sprayed from the top of the city on the middle and lower parts of the tall car body next to the car, and the flames rose against the wind and rushed upwards. , Turning the frontier of the battlefield into hell on earth in an instant.

The soldiers who were climbing the car did not know what happened. The tension of the siege made everyone unable to hear the noisy shouts and screams outside. They just stepped on the ladder and scrambled to climb up. It is getting hotter and hotter, some people want to go back, some people want to go up.

Then the fire started, and people had no choice but to race with the flames and climb up crazily. Some people had just emerged from the top of the car when their heads were smashed to pieces by the pearl cannon hidden in the gatehouse twenty steps away.

The Shichang on the four vehicles that were pushed to the edge of the city rushed to the top floor, and their reactions were almost the same, one by one shouting in the thick smoke for someone to cut the rope.

Some of the suspension ropes of the four temporary vehicles were cut off, some were contaminated with kerosene and burned, and the pedals of the three temporary vehicles were released one after another, but only one pedal was accurately placed on the top of the city, and the pedals of the other two temporary vehicles were still intact. There is still a step or two away from the city wall.

The pedal of the last car was burned when it was close to being destroyed. This car was too close to the city, and the top floor itself was within the range of the fire oil tank. A soldier on the top floor was killed immediately. Fire oil was sprayed, and Lin Che was buried in the sea of ​​fire together.

The soldiers on the other three cars were not much better. There were cannons on the top and flames on the bottom, and they risked all kinds of dangers to hit the city wall from the pedals. It was just a suicide attack. It fell to the car in flames.

Liu Chengzong squinted his eyes in pain with his binoculars in hand. He saw with his own eyes a soldier jumping out of the car in flames, rushing towards the oil tank with Ming soldiers in his arms, and died together in a burst of flames.

Under the city, the poisonous smoke bombs thrown by Yang Jiamo's defenders also played a huge role. When they threw the smoke bombs, they shouted poisonous smoke. The Suzhou guards under the city also thought it was poisonous smoke, but it was not poisonous.

Acute poisonous smoke requires a lot of realgar. Gaotai City did not have enough supplies in a hurry to defend, so it could only rush to make smoke bombs with gunpowder, dried artemisia annua, straw, asphalt, tung oil, hemp rope, etc. The toxicity itself is not great, let alone the wild environment. The smoke density is not particularly high either.

But the smog all over the place is still choking people to tears. The most important thing is that the smog obscures the sight of the siege troops below the city, making them unable to protect the siege soldiers in the ladder. , the soldiers in the ladder rolled down one after another.

The soldiers below also evacuated one by one, trying to rush out of the area shrouded in smoke, which instead gave the city defenders an opportunity to shoot towards the periphery of the smoke with bows, arrows, muskets, and small cannons.

On the other side of the moat, the bee tail needles leading the Lion Artillery Team saw it in their eyes and were anxious in their hearts. However, the tube ladders, carriages, and wooden curtain carts of the Suzhou Army were all pushed to the base of the city wall. The artillerymen were afraid of accidental injury and did not dare to provide fire support.

"Damn, climb up and let them die with guns, and shoot at the kerosene tank. You can't let the army be buried here!"

The bee-tail needle was unusable with the cannon, and immediately commanded the two hundred generals under his command to lead the team to climb up the remaining four vehicles. The four vehicles were all in the middle of the moat that was buried, and there were still forty or fifty steps away from the city wall. .

Earlier, he complained that the four vehicles were moving slowly, but he will not complain now. They can be used as shooting platforms to suppress the defenders. Even a temporary car can't be kept.

The purpose of the bee-tail needle is to let Linche provide support, so that as many Suzhou soldiers as possible can retreat from the base of the city wall and retreat to the other side of the moat to be safe.

But Suzhou soldiers did not retreat.

Not only did they not retreat, Hu Zhishen, the general who wanted to retreat, was almost hacked by his subordinate Ding Guodong, and he was trained like a grandson with his neck shrunk.

This is also helpless. Although Hu Zhishen was a general appointed by the Generalissimo himself, the Suzhou Battalion was not reorganized by the Marshal's Mansion. Except for the general elite soldiers led by the bee tail needle, the rest of the old Ming army Score into thirds.

Hu Zhishen's Suzhou Guard Banner Army is the weakest, but there are quite a few people. The family is divided into fields and they are full of energy, but their foundation is not good, the training is not good, and the equipment is not good.

As the saying goes, generals are the courage of soldiers, but in turn soldiers are also the source of prestige of generals. The trash Xiaodianxin leads a group of weak chickens, fearing wolves before and tigers behind, so there is no prestige.

Qian Zongmi was born as a veteran, and he used to be the number one general in Zhao Zhirui's Suzhou camp, but now he is a newcomer, and his soldiers are surrounded by emaciated faces at the post station, and now he has been demoted to the marshal's mansion, and he is rushing to help Liu Chengzong , Make people look down, so he becomes a good old man who doesn't speak.

Only Ding Guodong, the former guerrilla general of the Ming army, had the highest official position and an upright personality. His subordinates were all veteran frontier soldiers from Jiayuguan and Suzhou, and they were well-trained.

The shortcoming is nothing more than the poor life and insufficient food and grass in recent years, but they were besieged in Jiayuguan for three months and ate half a year's food.

It's just that Ding Guodong originally had the intention to do anything wrong. He led his troops here and was rewarded by Liu Chengzong's salary. Attacking the high platform became the general trend. The hundred generals under his command wanted to win the first achievement, but Ding Guodong couldn't stop it.

He can only make an agreement with the generals under his command who want to win the first achievement, to capture generals such as Yang Jiamo alive as much as possible, and to capture soldiers who put down their weapons as much as possible... Ding Guodong is also from Ganzhou, and the city is full of Ganzhou troops, generals He knows them all.

Except for the firearms guides sent by the four Huben battalions, those who took four vehicles to suppress and try to climb the city were Ding Guodong's subordinate soldiers who lived with him day and night.

The kerosene burned fiercely under Gaotai City, and the anger also burned fiercely in Ding Guodong's heart.

In Jiayuguan, he didn't make up his mind to burn the rebels with kerosene. Yang Jiamo directly used kerosene in the city. Needless to say, he and Yang Jiamo must die in this siege.

Just when he was burning with anger, Ding Guodong heard that Hu Zhishen wanted to retreat, and Ding Guodong, who was emotionally confiscated, directly played a cameo to supervise the team, drew a line on the ground with his sword, and said against Hu Zhishen: "Those who cross this line will be killed!"

In fact, although they are located on the south bank of the moat river, they are only [-] steps away from the top of the city, which is still very dangerous. But Ding Guodong didn't care about that much anymore. He drew his sword and pointed at the surrounding Suzhou soldiers who were protecting Hu Zhishen with their bows and arrows: " Could it be that if you go to the city with a drum, the brothers who retreated to the front will all die in vain!"

Then he pointed to the horse team of the Marshal Hu Ben who was rushing to the front, and said to Hu Zhishen: "There are jackals in front and tigers in back, so why not choose one!"

He thought that the horse team running behind was the supervisory team Liu Chengzong urged them to march on, but in fact...it was the military medical officer of Huben Camp.

Although it is useless for the military medical officer to come in this situation, they are all burnt to death, but it is his own soldier after all, and for Liu Chengzong, he can save every one.

The general was ashamed, and the soldiers were disheartened. For a while, swords were on the verge of breaking out, and an internal strife was about to take place, but Hu Zhishen smiled and didn't care, and even bowed to Ding Guodong.

Who is he?Generals don't know what they should know. They have cultivated a lot of hobbies and hobbies that love life since they were young.

What does it mean to eat and wait to die?It takes an excellent mentality to eat and wait for death. When something happens to ordinary people, the more they think about it, the more angry they become, and the more they take a step back, the more they lose money. They simply cannot stand the anger of eating and waiting to die.

But Hu Zhishen is a real bastard. The so-called bum is for the sake of achieving the goal, whether it is clear or dirty, in short, he has to pass the test.

Facing Ding Guodong's cold eyebrows, he bowed backhand: "What brother said is very true, I almost missed a major event, tell me, what should I do?"

To be honest, Ding Guodong looked down on Hu Zhishen from the very beginning, so he didn't talk about surrendering or not. The famous commander of Suzhou Wei who liked to admire flowers and plant trees climbed on the head of me, a guerrilla general. Isn't this Liu Chengzong a pure disgusting person?

But when Hu Zhishen bowed like this, Ding Guodong felt that it might not be a good thing to be around such a cowardly person. If his immediate boss was Liu Chengzong, if he dared to draw his sword, he would probably have been pulled out and collapsed by now, and his brains could be smashed on the ground.

Hu Zhishen didn't have such worries. He thought to himself, the front lines are all your soldiers, and I want to withdraw them. It's not because I'm afraid that there will be too many dead people, and you will kill me when you turn around. It would be better if you are willing to attack the city. After they are all dead, as long as Gaotai City is taken down, my credit will be mixed up.

Compared with the credit for winning the city, being scolded is nothing.

Hu Zhishen immediately handed over the command of the front line to Ding Guodong on the spot, and Ding Guodong was not polite, and immediately organized the second siege with the Indian Ministry of Chief Qianmi.

His reorganization of the siege was not reckless, but that if he wanted to capture the city at the moment, he could only do it all at once, making a time difference with the defenders.

As a Gansu general stationed in Jiayuguan, Ding Guodong knew about oil. In fact, Gaotai's kerosene was most likely sent by Ding Guodong before.

Menghuo oil is very precious in some places, such as Yanchang and Yanchuan, which are rich in oil. Many villages have oil wells. Since the Yuan Dynasty, they have paid taxes ranging from a hundred catties to hundreds of catties of oil every year.

But in Jiayuguan, a place close to Yumen, the oil is not fresh, so it is not called an oil field, because Yumen does not have oil wells like Sichuan and Shaanxi. It is called Shizhi water, which flows directly from the river.

After the soldiers are collected, the oil and water are separated, and they can be transported in barrels and trucks to the city of Guannei. The oil is light and can be directly used as a kerosene tank.

It’s funny to say that there are about two generations of people in Gansu who have not experienced war. The kerosene stored in each city was not originally intended for war, but to go out of the city to practice marching and bring a few barrels so that it is convenient to light a fire for cooking in rainy days.

The daily storage is to dig several large ponds one foot square in the city, pour kerosene into them, and store them for a month. The ground around the ponds turns reddish yellow, and another pit has to be dug to move them, otherwise it is easy to cause a fire.

However, Gansu has been peaceful for a long time, and no one in Gaotai City has dug large ponds. They are all stored in wooden barrels, and the stock will not be too much.

Ding Guodong knew very well that there was not much kerosene in Gaotai City, and Yang Jiamo would not move all of them to the city. At this time, their first batch of kerosene was almost used up. , The tube ladder was withdrawn, and the Ming army knew very well that a new round of artillery bombardment was coming again.

The Ming army should retreat to the horse paths and footpaths inside the city wall. At this time, they are most likely to win if they climb to the top of the city.

Ding Guodong took over the command and immediately conveyed the military situation to the Central Army of the Marshal's Mansion and the Bee Tail Needle Department. First of all, he told Liu Chengzong that they would soon launch a new round of siege, and asked the jack guns in the rear to raise their firing angles and fire a few rounds into the city.

He also told the Beetail Needle, who commanded forty lion cannons, not to fire at the south wall, but to bombard the turrets on both sides of the southeast, and suppress the hidden gunners in the turrets.

Then Zonghei Chengyin, the former Suzhou Weiqianhu and now the Suzhou Camp, led the troops personally, gathered the several hundred headquarters that had just been withdrawn, preloaded the three-eyed blunderbuss with ammunition, pulled out the pole and inserted it in the waist. The smoke under the city will not be cleared, and the ladders are carried to gather under the city.

On the other side, the thousand-square-meter stamp seal also led the soldiers to get ready, soaking the cloth face armor and cotton armor of the soldiers in the small puddles that had been filled in the moat. Under the ladder, ready to join a new round of siege.

At this moment, Liu Chengzong, who was one mile away from the city, received the news that Ding Guodong was preparing to attack the city again. He raised his eyebrows, remembered Ding Guodong's name in his heart, and then ordered [-] guns to adjust their shooting angles and cross the city. Head fired into the city.

Huang Shengxiao also complained to him, saying that the 800 people in Ding Guodong were not capable of guarding the city in Jiayuguan, but they had a lot of food, and they wiped out the food stored in the pass for half a year.

Liu Chengzong thinks that being able to eat is not a problem. Don't say that he can eat half a year's food every three months. He can eat one year's food every three months. It's just the courage to attack the city after being attacked by fire, he Liu Shizi can afford it !

"Beat the drums for me, cheer for the warriors!"

The roar of eighteen thousand-jin cannons sounded again a mile south of Gaotai City, and the sound of gold ringing sounded on the city at the same time. The defenders scrambled to be the first, carrying the oil tanks like a tide, and retreated to the road and footpath behind the city.

At the same time, the suspension bridge outside the west gate of Gaotai City suddenly fell, and the commander of Ganzhou Guards, Luo Junjie straddled his horse and raised his saber, and led [-] soldiers to file out from the West Gate Wengcheng, directly attacking Mo Yu who had just filled the trench outside the city. Mongolian soldiers in Beijing.

Yang Jiamo in the city hadn't reacted to the first round of artillery salvo, and the sound of soldiers filing down the city was chaotic. It wasn't until a moment later that the marshal's army's eighteen thousand-jin guns fired the second round of salvo, and he frowned and looked up at the sky. , I thought to myself, why didn't I hear the sound of hitting the city wall during the shelling?
He heard the roar of war drums in the distance, and watched the artillery shells cross the city wall with a very high arc. Yang Jiamo's beard and hair all fell apart, and he shouted: "No! I was fooled, the enemy is still attacking the city!"

Outside the city separated by a wall, more than a dozen soldiers held up long ladders from left to right, as if they were holding a sharp spear together, and smashed towards the city wall.

It's just that the front of the spear is not the spearhead, but the helmeted Suzhou battalion Zonghei Chengyin. He pinned the hatchet to his waist, held the waist knife in his mouth, and ran quickly towards the city wall with both hands on the top of the ladder.

When the ladder reached the base of the city wall, he jumped up suddenly, and the soldiers carrying the long ladder behind him roared in unison and pushed up the long ladder and Hei Chengyin obliquely, so that he stepped on the city wall at an angle perpendicular to the city wall. Zhuan ran up with the long ladder, waited until his feet were empty, propped up his body with both hands, and then landed half kneeling on the top of the high platform.

Immediately afterwards, there were several long ladders on the left and right, also pushing a soldier to the top of the city.

Hei Chengyin took out the waist knife from his mouth, and drew out the hatchet around his waist. He glanced left and right at the top of the city where the kerosene was burning and smoked black smoke everywhere, and quickly got up. queue.

Hearing the roaring battle drums sounding for them from the rear of the battlefield, Hei Chengyin smiled on his bearded face. Damn it, watching Romance of the Three Kingdoms in Jiayuguan is nothing like thousands of households, they are soldiers!
Then he raised his saber and pointed at the Ming army running up on the horse path and footpath, hitting them like a cannonball.

"I, Hei Chengyin, won the first victory in ascending the city first!"

　good evening!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)