stubborn thief

On the night before Liu Chengzong arrived in Liangzhou City, the ghost soldiers of the two armies outside the west gate of Liangzhou City were disrupted.

But it wasn't completely chaotic. The goals of the two ghost soldiers were very clear. The Liangzhou ghost soldiers wanted to rush into the Wengcheng, while the Ganzhou ghost soldiers wanted to hold the Liangzhou ghost soldiers and get them out of the city.

For the Ganzhou soldiers, they couldn't get in this city, because Hong Chengchou's rule was that the ghost soldiers would return to the city, first stay in Yuecheng, and be led by the captain of the ghost soldiers into Wengcheng. The city returned to the team.

Ganzhou soldiers couldn't even enter Yuecheng.

The Wengcheng is an outer city built at the city gate. It is essentially just eight words: catch turtles in the urn, close the gate and beat the dog.

In some large inland cities with convenient transportation, the defensive function of the entire city defense system is compromised to civilian convenience, so the gate of the urn is built on the front to facilitate pedestrians, while the gate of the urn, which is formally used for military defense, is often opened on the side.

For example, the west gate of Liangzhou is in the west, but outside the west gate protrudes and wraps a circle of urn city, the gate of urn city opens to the south, and outside the west urn city, there is a moon city.

Yuecheng is similar to the small Wengcheng of Wengcheng, but its design purpose is different from that of Wengcheng. The height of the Yuecheng wall is much lower than that of the main city wall, and the area inside the city is also very small. It is less than five meters deep and more than 40 meters wide. It can almost be said to be a city wall. Wraps a small aisle.

Liangzhou is an ancient city in the Tang Dynasty. Although it was only covered with bricks in the second year of Wanli, the logic of its construction is the old-fashioned city wall. The person who built it was Li Gui, who briefly ruled Hexi in the late Sui Dynasty and early Tang Dynasty and proclaimed himself emperor.

At that time, catapults were not very popular in the world, and during the period when the heroes were fighting for hegemony, they paid special attention to the construction of city defenses, so the two words of this city wall stand out, high and thick.

When mentioning Tang Mingshi, Liu Chengzong couldn't help smiling, waved his hand and said, "Stop calling him, find someone, and send a letter to the city."

In this city, hundreds of infantry sneaked into Yuecheng, and they were sent to death.

After finally opening the city gate, there is a very narrow Moon City inside, which can only accommodate six or seven people in parallel. The army is stuck outside the Moon City. Li Jin was bombarded by the defenders on all sides of the Moon City. After passing through the Moon City for more than 40 meters, he walked all the way to the south before he could attack the gate of the urn city that opened to the south.

Li Hongsi hadn't slept well for a long time, and he was seriously short of sleep. When he was woken up, he got up angrily, and said angrily: "Who has never seen the Red Barbarian Cannon? I still have three peace thieves in my hand." As for the little general, Liu Chengzong has the Red Barbarian Cannon, I know it!"

The development of military technology has always been systematically adapted to the enemy's conditions. Where there is a spear, there is a shield. Most of the time, a dynamic offensive and defensive balance is achieved. When a certain technology makes great progress, it will break the balance in a short time, but in the end As the technology diffuses, the balance will return.

The higher the city wall, the thicker the base and the thinner the top, and the easier it is to be hit by boulders from catapults... By the Ming Dynasty, artillery was basically responsible for defending and suppressing the top of the city.

"Three Great Signs?" Liu Chengzong smiled and shook his head, pointing to Liangzhou City and explained: "This is an ancient city, and only an ancient city can build such a high wall. I'm talking about the restoration of Yanyun, Yungui and Hexi in the early Ming Dynasty."

If the city gate cannot be breached, the city wall has to be attacked. The brick-and-rammed-earth city wall, which is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, is more than 20 meters thick at the bottom, waiting to be attacked. Its bottom is thicker than Zhu Yuanzhang's Nanjing city wall.

Although this letter is not asking Liu Shaozong to surrender, the wording is still very friendly. It probably means that he has no ill intentions towards Liangzhou City, so it's fine if you don't want to surrender.

"That's right." Li Hongsi nodded and said, "I've been fighting with him since he entered Jiayuguan, and I saw his letters either once or twice, or three times. Confused; the second is that soldiers will use their lives, and they are good at using people's strength. After all, who is willing to lead soldiers to work for him? It's brother."

Last year alone, the imperial court allocated 130 western cannons and 14 catties of saltpeter to the town of Xuanfu. However, in field battles, especially in the Northwest battlefield, such cannons were not needed at all... This thing is in the hands of the officers and soldiers No need at all.

The offensive basically stopped at this point. How could such a small group of people enter Yuecheng break through the gate of Urn City?Even if it is broken, with Moon City, a small city that controls the flow of people, the efficiency of the defenders on Urn City to kill the enemy must exceed the replenishment speed of the attackers.

"fine."

So he didn't have the idea of ​​waking Tang Mingshi up, he just wanted to let him sleep and see how long he could sleep.

Liu Shaozong said expressionlessly: "This is to tell you and me that he can cast cannons in the army, and is preparing to cast a large number of heavy cannons...to show off his might."

However, a new cannon was accidentally cast in the army. He didn't dare to make molds in batches before he tried the cannon. He thought of Liangzhou Chengjian and came to try it. After a while, three cannons were released. In order to avoid accidental injury, Brother Wanwang temporarily withdrew the Xicheng defenders , so as not to hurt the peace, my brother is very grateful.

After finishing speaking, Liu Chengzong patted Beetail Needle on the shoulder and said with a smile, "Read more in your spare time... who is the guard of this city?"

On the front and back walls, the defenders are frantically throwing arrows, guns and shells.

The suppressive ability has become stronger, and the defensive ability has also become stronger. At this time, spending a lot of energy to make the city wall so high is of little significance, and the cost performance becomes lower.

Following Liu Shaozong's guidance, Li Hongsi finally saw Liu Chengzong's thief general he was talking about. It was a pig iron cannon nearly ten feet in size, using the marshal's signature two-wheeled cannon cart, with wheels as wide as pillars, and gathered in groups. The soldiers of the brigade were helping the cannon adjust the muzzle.

That night, Li Hongsi decided that he would no longer play tricks with Liu Chengzong's army. You guys like to make troubles outside the city, so why not if I don't go out?
As a result, the next day, Li Hongsi, who had just fallen asleep, was called out by Liu Shaozong, who replaced him: "Marshal, the bandits from outside the city brought the red cannon!"

Just when he was shocked by Liu Chengzong's [-]-pound cannon, Liu Chengzong was holding a telescope outside the city, and fell into confusion about Liangzhou City-what year is it, and why is there such a high city?
For the generals of this era, whoever saw the ancient city of Liangzhou was confused.

"Hexi was envoys from the Guiyi Army of the Jutang Dynasty; the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun asked for help from Shi Jingtang, and they all fell into the dust for hundreds of years. There is a copy of "Hexi Translation" compiled at that time, and the recovery of Hexi and Yanyun is almost a new expedition outside the territory."

The first thing he did when he retreated to Liangzhouwei was to ask military craftsmen to make clay molds with cannons. Now the clay molds that have been dried are almost ready for use. He wants to make [-] more. He is used to this kind of guns. The power is appropriate, smooth and reassuring.

He hurriedly said: "Then, do you know, Commander, what's the difference between your general who suppresses bandits and Liu Chengzong's general who is a bandit?"

This is also the reason why Hong Chengchou ordered the Liangzhou defenders to open and close the outer city gate from time to time. My city gate is open, and you can enter it at any time. Anyway, if you enter, you will die.

In addition, the Moon City Gate opens to the north.

When Li Hongsi ascended the city, he found that the siege camp outside the city had changed from an earlier siege camp with 3000 people in rotation to a boundless company camp of thousands of people. The sergeant is working hard to connect several battalions to form a criss-cross trench.

So much so that in Li Hongsi's head, there was no concept of such a cannon appearing on the battlefield.

The same is true for the city walls. In the era when siege towers were mainly used to suppress the defenders at the top of the city, the city walls were built higher and higher. This Liangzhou city is a relic of that era, but this trend was widely used by the Mongols. Cannon changed.

Li Hongsi was very happy when he saw the letter. When he was in Camel City, Liu Chengzong also sent someone to give him a letter to persuade him to surrender.

This means that an army attacked the city. After filling the trenches, breaking the walls of sheep and horses, crossing the suspension bridge, and reaching the west of Liangzhou City with difficulty, there was no city gate in front of them, only an eight-meter-high and twenty-meter-thick wall. The moon city wall, and behind it there is a urn city wall 16 meters high and more than [-] meters thick.

This is indeed true. The small general Pingzei imitated Gao Yingxiang’s version of the lion cannon, [-] catties; the copper lion cannon listed by Liu Chengzong was an improved version of the rogues, [-] catties, and its power and range were slightly inferior. But it has low logistical requirements and high mobility.

"Then if he really casts cannons under the city, he will cast a bunch of these things." Liu Shaozong shook his head and said, "I'm afraid Liangzhou City is not easy to defend, the city is too high."

Li Hongsi just glanced at it, but couldn't move his eyes from the cannon.

It's as if the cannon was picked up. Put it here to synthesize weapons. You don't even know what you made when you cast the cannon and open the clay model?

Hearing this, Liu Shaozong had a strange expression on his face: "Then the commander-in-chief should follow me to the west city wall. His thief general is bigger than yours, much bigger."

After reading the letter, Li Hongsi laughed angrily, took the letter and said to Liu Shaozong: "He also became a cannon by chance, by chance?"

The bee-tail needle is not that knowledgeable, but the defense map of Liangzhou city has been distributed to the whole army, not to mention that Liu Chengzong didn't let him attack the city, he just played with it and teased the ghost soldiers of the defenders with ghost soldiers. Let's see who is the ghost.

Li Hongsi became even angrier when he mentioned the little general who suppressed the bandits. It was Gao Yingxiang's version of the lion cannon he copied. There were originally [-] guns, which were invincible in Shaanxi's anti-insurgency wars. There was a chaotic battle, and after the battle, there were only three left.

After being attacked intensively by the defenders of Yuecheng, Wengcheng, and the horse-faced walls on both sides, the siege army walked north around the city wall and began to attack the Yuecheng Gate that opened to the north.

Liu Shaozong opened the letter. The content of the letter was very short. It seemed to be only a few sentences, but it made his expression look like he had eaten a fly. He was disgusted from the beginning to the end. In the end, he simply waved his hand and handed the letter to Li Hongsi: " Let's see, handsome, this guy is... really polite!"

At that time, the city was four feet and eight feet high, and the wall base was eight feet thick; in the early Ming Dynasty, Pu Ying, the commander of the capital, added another three feet to it, and the height reached five feet and one foot, and it was fully covered with bricks in the second year of Wanli.

Liu Chengzong stared at the city carefully with his binoculars, slowly shook his head and said: "This is a relic, a relic that symbolizes the three great martial arts of the Ming Dynasty."

Li Hongsi asked himself that he was also a person in the northwest who knew a lot about the military equipment of the Marshal's Mansion, so he casually said, "General Ping is bigger than his general!"

Tang Mingshi is old and unlucky. He got a stick in the early morning and slept soundly. He hasn't woken up yet.

The two armies fought chaotically outside the city with the light of the bonfire. When they came to one place, the artillery of both sides did not dare to shoot at them. The ghost soldiers of the Ganzhou camp also took the captives and retreated from the battlefield, and the city barely accommodated less than 100 people into the city.

Therefore, the walls of the county town and the Acropolis are basically two feet high, which is enough.

But Liu Shaozong didn't know about Liu Chengzong's Hongyi Pao, so he stared at him when he heard it: The commander understands it very well.

The thickness of the wall foundation basically can no longer be called a wall. To put it bluntly, it is a ridge lying on the ground.

The Ximen defense system was repaired by Xining Hou Songsheng, who was powerful in the northwest in the early Ming Dynasty. At the same time, the army shot the invading enemy outside the city.

Li Hongsi didn't say much, took the letter and handed it directly to Liu Shaozong, saying: "Look at what's written."

"Now, the ancestors of all the people in Hexi came from the hinterland of the Central Plains, which is thousands of miles away from the fertile fields. They brought their mothers-in-law and children to pack up their bedding and went to the frontier to kill Tartars and eat sand."

A moment later, a letter was shot at Moon City by the soldiers of the marshal's army. Soon the defenders found Li Hongsi and Liu Shaozong with the letter, and said, "Marshal, a letter from the enemy to General Liu."

At the forefront of those trenches, he just took a cursory glance, and he saw many people who looked like officers of the Marshal's Mansion looking at the city with binoculars.

Therefore, it looks extraordinarily majestic. Such a tall city wall was almost destroyed in the era when the return cannon prevailed. Today, the city wall is as low as two feet, and the tall one is only three feet. Liangzhou survived the war. There is no doubt that the city is a monster.

Liu Chengzong reckoned that there was nothing wrong with the bone he suffered, but he was tormented by bee tail needles and Ding Guodong these days and dared not sleep every day. I covered my head and fell asleep hard.

"Third?" Li Hongsi smiled and said, "The third is good at using cannons. Once the ecstasy soup is not filled, he will pull out dozens of artifacts and blast people to pieces... I guess he will I already have a clay mold of heavy artillery that has dried in the shade."

Beetail Needle, who was standing beside Liu Chengzong and telling Liu Chengzong about the situation of the ghost soldiers' chaotic battle last night, heard this sentence, and couldn't help asking curiously: "What is the commander talking about, the three major signs?"

"Ding Guodong said that during the day it was a man named Liu Shaozong, and at night I was talking to Li Hongsi, the deputy commander. Why don't you go and wake up Tang Mingshi, who was captured at night?"

It's not that he has never seen such a cannon. He has seen it. It was the first time that Da Ming imitated the Hongyi Cannon at the central level.

Liu Shaozong asked, "What about the third one?"

Li Hongsi shook his head and said: "Han Khan is a smart man who loves fame very much. He must already know that there is not much food and grass in the city. It is not good for him to seize the city. He just pulled out the cannon to scare us. In this way, let's delay it for a while." Procrastinate, reply and ask Lin Shen to write in the future."

General Lin Shen was Lin Chengdong who abandoned the equipment of the car camp and withdrew from the battlefield as an organization. He was also in the city at this time. Hearing this, he asked, "What do you mean by what the commander-in-chief said?"

"You are neither the highest-ranking official nor the guard of Liangzhou. Even if you write back to him to agree something, we all know that it is a tactic to delay the army, and the court will not blame you."

Li Hongsi said: "Just write to him and tell him that you are the general guard now, and Liangzhou has no intention of being an enemy of him, so let him go away. If you can stop the imperial army to the east of Guyuan, then Liangzhou will be able to protect you." Surrendered...he can't even get through the Gulang Gorge."

good morning!