The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 155
At first, although the troops outside Xing'an City were powerful, they never attacked the city.

The food and grass in the city are still sufficient, and there is not much shortage of food and clothing, so there has been no major disturbance in Xing'an City.

After experiencing the initial panic, the folks in Xing'an City who were assisting in the defense gradually began to adapt to this situation.

However, as the siege continued, news of the fall of surrounding towns continued to spread.

Xunyang fell...

Pingli fell...

Ziyang has fallen...

It is difficult to conceal the news of the surrounding towns, and there are people with ulterior motives in the city to fuel the flames, so everyone in the city is panicked.

And the assisted defense civilians and sergeants who were originally calm were also concerned and worried.

Standing on the tower of the east city, Chen Wang looked at the rolling Chuangjun camp in the east.

It is now April 26th, and the siege of Chuangjun has lasted for almost two months.

The number of Chuangjun is growing day by day, and a large amount of supplies are transported into the camp of the Chuangjun by horses and carts every day.

The cavalry sent by Chuangjun to Hanyin also came back one after another.

However, according to the reports of the guards in charge of the observation in the city, the cavalry returning from the direction of Hanyin was much less than the cavalry going to Hanyin.

It is roughly estimated that there are at least four thousand riders stranded in Shiquan and Hanyin.

However, the night from the direction of Hanyin did not receive rewards, and those cavalry cavalry who were stranded in the two places occupied some important roads and set up camp in the dangerous areas of the mountains.

The villagers in the towns that were attacked were all taken hostage by them, the old and weak, women and children were abandoned outside the city, and the young and strong men were taken away into the camp to serve as hungry soldiers.

The two cities of Shiquan and Hanyin had no soldiers to move, and the only troops that could be mobilized in the entire Hanzhong Mansion were Zhou Yumao's Ranger Battalion, and there were more than [-] Hanzhong Guards, a total of less than [-] people.

However, the guards were invincible, and they were not completely sure that they could remove all the places occupied by the intruder cavalry.

Chen Wang's face was gloomy. If the process does not change, Gao Yingxiang will be transferred to Xunyang again in May.

But right now Gao Yingxiang didn't make any move to break out the camp, the intruders outside the city had already cut down the surrounding forests.

Chuangjun's camp is working day and night, constantly making equipment for attacking the city.

All the signs point to one thing—to break into the army and prepare to attack the city!
The Chuangjun did not intend to hide the news of the siege at all, and the soldiers guarding the Xing'an City Wall could clearly see the movement of the Chuangjun outside the city.

A large number of long ladders and trench bridges were carried out from the Chuangjun camp, and even the equipment used for siege appeared. Chen Wang saw several large ladders and many trench filling vehicles on the tower.

The trench filling vehicle is defended by a vertical bridge plate, so personnel can avoid being attacked by arrow stones when advancing the trench filling vehicle.

As soon as the rocks and soil in the trench filling vehicle reach the edge of the trench, the soil and rocks are thrown into the trench.

The Chuangjun now has a large number of trench bridges and trench filling vehicles. With these two siege equipment, the Chuangjun can cross the trenches and moats outside the city at a lower cost.

In the early and middle period of the late Ming Dynasty, few cities were captured by bandits.

The biggest problem here is actually a question of time.

The rogues are in the front, and the officers and soldiers are behind. As rogues, they seldom stay in one place for a long time.

Large siege equipment moves slowly, and it is not easy to drag it with livestock such as cattle and horses.

Therefore, when the rogues attacked the city, most of them could only use ordinary long ladders or dig tunnels, and used simple methods such as ants to attack the city.

But now Gao Yingxiang is not short of time.

Lu Xiangsheng retreated to the banks of the Han River because of previous military failures, and stopped his pursuit.

In March, a large-scale famine broke out in Henan.

Not to mention ordinary people, even the army can only get very little food and grass.

The thousands of battalions under the command of Zu Kuan and Li Chongzhen are all cavalry, not only people have to eat, but horses also have to eat grass.

There was a severe drought in Henan, and there was a shortage of food and grass. There were already noises in the Liaodong Army.

After negotiation, the Liaodong cavalry led by Zu Kuan, Li Chongzhen and others were transferred to Shaanxi Province.

One reason is that the open terrain in Guanzhong facilitates cavalry operations, and the other reason is to reduce the pressure on the supply of food and grass.

These news are not secrets at all, and many Ming troops are almost rotten from bottom to top.

The reason why Gao Yingxiang was able to lead the troops under his command to evade the encircling and suppressing army many times, in fact, apart from his keen sense of smell, was also tipped off by some Ming troops.

Some Ming soldiers not only killed good men and pretended to be meritorious, but even did business with rogue bandits.

Passing information is a pediatric matter, they can do things like buying and selling military exploits, collecting money and letting them go.

In history, when Yang Sichang took office as Minister of the Ministry of War, he put forward the strategy of "four positives and six corners, and ten sides to spread the net" in order to eliminate the peasant army led by Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others.

To be honest, if the strategy proposed by Yang Sichang had all the Ming armies working together, I am afraid that Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and other ministries would really be wiped out and encircled.

However, Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng used money to open the way many times, and took advantage of the internal contradictions of the Ming army, and finally broke through the encirclement net set up by Yang Sichang.

This kind of situation does not only occur in the mainland, but in Liaodong, Xuanda, Datong and other places, many frontier generals also have their own businesses.

The object of their business is not the rogues, but the northern captives and slaves...

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, countless people with lofty ideals and heroes stepped forward to save the country.

But behind them, there are many people who not only do not help, but keep obstructing them.

Now there is no shortage of time to break into the army. There are many craftsmen in the three cities they conquered, as well as in the original army.

In the Ming Dynasty, the "craftsman household system" was implemented, and the whole family of craftsmen, old and young, had to participate in production, and the generations continued.

Chuangjun now has tens of thousands of people, and there are not a few craftsmen among these 10 people. Naturally, some people can make large-scale siege equipment.

Not only that, there are people who can make weapons, firearms, armor and even artillery.

It's just that Chuangjun doesn't have a stable place where they can make these things with peace of mind.

Chen Wang stared at the Chuangjun camp in full swing. During this period of time, he watched the Chuangjun's siege camp gradually grow larger, and the number of equipment and supplies continued to increase.

"Hey!"

"Huh!"

"rush!"

Outside the Chuangjun barracks outside the city, tens of thousands of Chuangjun hungry soldiers are practicing intensively.

After more than ten days of practice, the hungry soldiers outside the city had begun to form their formations. Whether they were marching or retreating, they looked quite orderly, which was much better than the chaos of more than ten days ago.

Those villagers who were taken into the camp by the intruders from all directions were armed during this time.

Chuangjun dispatched veterans to lead these people to practice military formations in and out of the camp all day long.

During this period of time, the atmosphere in the city became tense again because of the action of Chuangjun.

The news that the bandits were about to attack the city spread throughout the city in a short period of time, and it was impossible to hide such news.

Right now, Xing'an City is on high alert all the way up and down, ready to guard against the attack of the invading army at any time.

Many people are not optimistic about the prospects of Xing'an City, and pessimism is spreading in the city.

But facing all of this, Chen Wang didn't take it seriously.

The reason is simple, as long as the first wave of rogue attacks is blocked, morale will rise again.

And although Chuangjun really wanted to attack the city, Chuangjun didn't really intend to capture Xing'an City...

For more than ten days, Chen Wang has been observing the Chuangjun outside the city.

Gao Yingxiang's military training method is the most common military training, queues, phalanxes, and spears.

Many people think that queues are something that only existed in modern times. The ancient army did not have queue training at all.

But this is actually a wrong perception. China has already started to use battle formations in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Whether the army is marching or retreating, attacking or defending, it is always arranged in a certain formation.

When marching, the formation of the army also has strict requirements, instead of marching in a swarm of bees and chaos.

Gao Yingxiang made no secret of his intention to attack the city, and at the same time kept training hungry soldiers outside the city, preparing to attack the city.

If the Chuang army puts all their efforts at all costs, then they will definitely be able to capture Xing'an City.

But the price to pay is completely out of proportion to the reward.

The siege planned by Gao Yingxiang was not for the purpose of capturing Xing'an, but for another project—military training.

The battlefield is always the best training ground. A person who can survive the mountain of corpses and sea of ​​blood is by no means an idle person, no matter what means he uses.

For the rogues, the most important thing is manpower.

These trapped hungry soldiers will be the main force to attack the city.

For the rogues, weak hungry soldiers are just waste that consumes rations.

Only those who have survived the baptism of fire and sword are eligible to truly join their ranks.

It's cruel, but this is the reality of this world.

This is not because Gao Yingxiang is cruel and merciless.

It was because Gao Yingxiang didn't have many other choices.

Chen Wang can adopt Qi Jiguang's method of selecting troops, select slowly one by one, and then train in a planned way.

But Gao Yingxiang could not adopt Qi Jiguang's method of selecting troops.

Because not many people will join his army voluntarily. They are rogues, they are rebels, and the officers and soldiers are chasing after them.

Chen Wang narrowed his eyes slightly. Xing'an City was easy to defend but difficult to attack. He felt that Gao Yingxiang should have never captured Xing'an City in history, and he also used Xing'an as a place for military training.

A voice from behind interrupted Chen Wang's thoughts.

A personal guard wearing a full armor half kneeled on the ground, reporting respectfully.

"General, the sand table has been expanded as required, and it can be inspected at any time."

Chen Wang nodded, he did not continue to observe the Chuangjun camp outside the city.

Chuangjun's camps were too far apart, and he couldn't see many things clearly, so he could only take a rough look.

"Time to get the binoculars out."

While Chen Wang was thinking, he turned around and walked straight towards the tower.

The first floor of the tower was used by Chen Wang as his command room.

Chuangjun didn't have heavy artillery or any catapults, so there was no need to worry about the city tower being defeated or collapsed. The city tower was naturally the safest place on a section of the city wall, and it also had the best view.

The scale of the sand table placed in the city tower has now been enlarged again, which is Chen Wang's request.

This time the sand table included four prefectures including Xi'an, Qingyang, and Yan'an in Shaanxi Province, as well as Henan in Henan Province.

On the sand table, red and black flags are used to indicate the Ming army and the bandits, and the situation is clear at a glance.

Chen Wang walked closer, his gaze slowly sweeping over the sand table.

During this time, Chen Wang has been troubled by a problem.

Gao Yingxiang has always been a cautious person, especially after being trapped in a heavy siege in Hanzhong and almost dying, Gao Yingxiang became even more cautious.

However, in July of the ninth year of Chongzhen, he took a huge risk from Hanzhong Mansion to go northward on the plank road to Xi'an Mansion.

Gao Yingxiang's behavior does not conform to his usual code of conduct, nor is it logical.

But Gao Yingxiang did this. Since he did this, there must be his reason for it.

To be honest, Chen Wangming thought hard for a long time but couldn't come up with a reason.

But looking at the sand table in front of him, when the context of the situation was clearly presented in front of Chen Wang, Chen Wang suddenly felt a sense of enlightenment.

On the sand table, in the Xunyang and Xiangyang areas, Lu Xiangsheng has already blocked Gao Yingxiang's way.

Gao Yingxiang is actually trapped in Xing'an and Xunyang.

There are quite a few black flags in the Shangluo area in the southeast of Xi'an Prefecture, as well as in the eastern region, as well as in the southeast of Qingyang Prefecture, and in the southeast of Yan'an Prefecture.

Each black flag naturally represents a bandit force, and now the largest bandit force in Shaanxi Province since Huideng was destroyed, only Li Zicheng is left.

But in addition to this, there are many small bandit forces scattered throughout Shaanxi Province.

Four or five slightly larger black flags were planted at the location of Yan'an Mansion, followed by several red flags to the west and north, encircling it.

Among the four or five black flags at the location of Yan'an Mansion, one is the most eye-catching. On the flag is a big "Li" written in white characters.

This flag, of course, represents Li Zicheng, who is still in northern Shaanxi Province today.

Chuangjun only blocked the east and west sides of Xing'an City, so Chen Wang could still receive information from the outside world.

After Li Zicheng suffered setbacks, he won two more victories, successfully broke through the blockade, and now he has fled to Yan'an Mansion.

Li Zicheng has arrived in his hometown Mizhi County and stationed troops on Ma'anshan.

Li Zicheng arrived in Mizhi earlier than in the original time and space, and the pursuing officers and soldiers obviously did not react.

Most of the officers and soldiers in Shaanxi Province are now concentrated in Yan'an Mansion, north of Xi'an Mansion, and in the Yellow River area to the east.

However, the interior of Xi'an Mansion is empty of defense, leaving only a solitary red flag.

……

"History of Ming Dynasty Biography Volume 190 Seven"

Going west to plunder Mizhi, he called Bian Dashou, the magistrate, and said: "This is my hometown, don't abuse my elders."

The gold left behind was ordered to repair the Confucian Temple.

They will attack Yulin, the river will grow suddenly, and many bandits will drown, so they will change their course and go west from Hancheng.

(End of this chapter)