weaving

Chapter 484 Want to "catch a turtle in an urn"

Although the plan to surprise Kaifeng had been decided, Li Zicheng still felt a little uneasy. After dinner that day, he invited Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance and Li Yan together again to make further clarification on the key issue of surprise attack on Kaifeng.

Kaifeng is the provincial capital of Henan. There are millions of people inside and outside the city, and the business is prosperous. Its wealth is almost ten times that of Luoyang. If this surprise attack is successful and Kaifeng is taken, the benefits can be imagined.

However, the Chuang army did not have an inside line in Kaifeng City, and because it was a surprise attack, the entire military operation was kept secret, so there was no appointment with the hungry people inside, so they could only make a sudden surprise attack. As long as an opening was opened, King Chuang We are sure to take Kaifeng City.

The focus of the problem now is the choice of the first attack point. Whether it is a surprise attack from the North Gate or a surprise attack from the West Gate has not yet been agreed.

In a secret military meeting a few days ago, Li Guo advocated abandoning the Zhongmu Avenue and marching eastward along the Yellow River embankment to surprise the north gate of Kaifeng. His reason was that Kaifeng must have stricter defenses against the west gate due to the fall of Luoyang. It is not recommended to surprise Ximen.

But Song Xiance believed that there was no Moon City outside the west gate, which was easier to attack than the other gates, so he advocated going straight to the west gate. At that time, King Chuang had both opinions, so he did not make a decision, only saying that when he left Or it is not too late to decide on the way to march.

Now, King Chuang himself tended to go straight to the west gate, so as not to be discovered by the guards in the city before the army approached the north gate.

And for the final decision, he came to Song Xiance and Li Yan to inquire carefully about Kaifeng's city walls and gates.

Song Xiance said: "Lin Quan and I have lived in Kaifeng City for a while, but we can only know about it. There is an earthen city outside Kaifeng City, also called the Outer City, about two or three miles away from the inner city. Far.

It is said that the surrounding area of ​​this earthen city is 48 miles, 220 steps, and now there is only the foundation of the city, without gates, and vehicles, horses and pedestrians pass through the city..."

Li Zicheng asked, "Why don't you want a city gate?"

Li Yan explained next to him: "In order to prevent floods in the Yellow River, when encountering floods or emergencies, all the gates of Tucheng will be completely filled with earth bags."

Song Xiance then added: "This Tucheng is like a waterproof embankment outside Kaifeng City, since it has no defenses, it can be entered without attacking.

However, the inner city of Kaifeng is very strong. This inner city was rebuilt after the original Jin Kingdom moved its capital to Kaifeng. Very strong.

Although this is just a legend and may not be credible, I have seen the city walls of Kaifeng with my own eyes. Not only is the soil quality excellent, but also the soil is mixed with lime, which is very strong.

Moreover, the inner city is more than five feet high, and there are five enemy towers on it, all with arrow holes and blast holes, five big towers, four corner towers, and 24 star towers, all arranged according to 28 constellations.

Outside the city, there is a moat around the city. The width of the moat is five feet, the bottom is three feet wide, and the depth is two feet. There are plank bridges outside the five city gates, commonly known as living suspension bridges.

The city defense of Kaifeng is so strong, so it is only good for outsmarting, not for hard attack. If you want to make a hard attack, you must prepare more siege cannons, otherwise it will be really difficult to attack. "

Chuang Wang Li Zicheng asked again: "Is there water in the moat outside the city in all seasons?"

"The trenches on the southeast and southeast have water throughout the year and are very deep, while the two sides on the northwest are often dry in winter or in dry weather due to their higher terrain."

King Chuang looked at Li Yan again and asked, "The military adviser suggested entering the city through the west gate, what do you think?"

Li Yan replied: "Among the five gates of Kaifeng City, only outside the west gate is there no Moon City, the gate is straight, and there is only one gate.

The other four gates are all built with moon city, and there are three or four gates with twists and turns. It is said that the reason why Kaifeng's four gates are built in this way is to vent their vitality, and Kaifeng's land veins come in from the northwest, so it is unique. There is no moon city in Ximen, only a straight gate.

In my opinion, it is more appropriate for the military division to choose to attack the city from the west gate. "

Niu Jinxing also added at the side: "Besides, we are going straight to Kaifeng from Luoyang, only the west gate is the closest, if we go around the west gate and attack other gates, we will be easily spotted by the guards on the city. "

Chuang Wangyou continued to ask: "I heard that the five gates of Kaifeng City are not right, isn't this Ximen also in the middle of the West City?"

Song Xiance heard King Chuang's words, and said with a smile: "It's the fault of the five schools, not the fault of the five schools.

During the construction of the city, in order not to reveal the prosperity of the city, the east gate was set to the north, the Song gate was set to the south, the south gate was set to the west, and the north gate was set to the east.

There is a saying in Kaifeng: the three mountains are not visible, and the five gates are wrong. "

King Chuang hurriedly asked, "Where are there mountains in Kaifeng?"

Li Yan replied with a smile: "Kaifeng used to have no mountains, but according to Kan Yu's words, there is a mountain at the corner of the inner claw of Ximen, a mountain at the upper street, and a mountain at the Iron Pagoda Temple. It is called Yishan. Because In fact, there are no mountains, but the terrain is slightly higher, so it is called "Three Mountains Not Shown."

Chuang Wang nodded and smiled, and said: "That's it, let's go straight from Ximen to Kaifeng along the prosperous air! Military division, how about divination and asking about good or bad luck?"

Song Xiance replied with a smile: "There is no need for divination. The ancients said: 'Divination is based on doubts. How can we divination without doubts?'"

King Chuang asked him again: "If it goes well, and the army breaks through the west gate, which places in Kaifeng city should be occupied first?"

Song Xiance said with confidence: "The governor of Henan, the chief minister, and the chief yamen are all in the west half of the city. They are closer to the west gate. A team of troops must be divided up to attack quickly, so that the civil and military officials in Kaifeng city will be leaderless. loss of evidence.

There will also be an elite army dedicated to attacking Miyagi, and they will definitely capture King Zhou alive. I heard earlier that King Zhou has [-] guards, and the rewards are quite generous. It is impossible to say that he will defend Miyagi to the death and resist our army.

Another thing is that after our army enters the city, we must send a cavalry to occupy the north gate as soon as possible and patrol the north city to prevent the king of Zhou from escaping. "

"Is King Zhou's palace strong?"

"The palace city has two levels. The outer level is called Xiaoqiang, which is only about two feet high and is easy to conquer. The inner side is the Forbidden City on the north side. The city is five feet high.

As long as our army penetrates into Xiaoqiang, the king of Zhou will be a shackle in the Forbidden City, with no way to escape, he will probably pay a lot of money to make those [-] guards work hard to defend the city for him, waiting for help.

There are several wells in the Forbidden City, and there is usually a lot of food, grain and firewood. If the [-] guards of the Zhou Palace resist desperately, our army can not only climb the city with ladders, but also bombard the Forbidden City with the cannons on the Kaifeng city wall. "

Chuang Wang nodded and said with a smile: "As long as Kaifeng is broken, if Zhou Wang wants to rely on the palace to resist, let's 'catch a turtle in a urn'."

(End of this chapter)