Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 1351
After Wang Yan finished speaking, he looked at the crowd and asked, "Tongguan is a great pass. Can anyone tell me how to attack the city?"

Liu Fangliang first stood up and bowed: "Jianguo, the letter of surrender has been shot, and there is no response from the pass. If there is no internal response, then we can only attack the city, but Tang Tong built Tongguan very solidly. The attack is likely to cause heavy casualties."

The best way to break through the fortress is naturally to attack the heart first and disintegrate the enemy from the inside.Along the way, the Ming army relied on frontal pressure to seize many fortified cities.

Attacking the heart is the top, and attacking the city is the bottom. This is what I am talking about.

Wang Yan nodded slightly, "Although Gu has fought against Jin in many ways and dispatched 50 troops, the war has just begun after all, and the situation is not yet clear. Anyway, the possibility is really small. I thought that if you want to recruit the generals of the Jin Kingdom, you must at least break through Tongguan, forming a situation where Mount Tai is overwhelmed, and a tiger is fighting a rabbit, so that a large number of Jin troops will voluntarily surrender."

Wang Yan was silent for a while, raised his head, and continued, "Since we can't expect any problems within the Jin army for the time being, we should attack hard. No matter how great the sacrifice is, we must take Tongguan as soon as possible."

After Wang Yan finished speaking, he glanced at the generals. After hearing this, the generals all looked solemn, knowing that this time they really wanted to prepare for death, and there was nothing fancy to play.

The Ming army stationed 30 people in Henan, which was very exhausting. Even if the family had a big business, it would not be able to afford it. Besides, being trapped under a fortified city for a long time, morale would inevitably be slack, so it was necessary to break through as soon as possible.

After Wang Yan finished speaking, he looked at Li Guo, "How's the result of bombarding Tongguan?"

Li Guo hurriedly stood up, clasped his fists and replied: "Since October last year, the cannons have been bombarded for more than four months. Several places on the front of Tongguan have collapsed, but there is still a wall behind the wall of the Jin army, so even if The old wall has been smashed, and the attack is still very difficult."

Three years ago, the heavy artillery of the Ming army debuted in Xuzhou. The hundreds of kilograms of shells punched a hole and knocked down the fortified city of Xuzhou, which caused panic in the Kingdom of Jin.

The Kingdom of Jin knew that the old wall could block the Ming army's bombardment, so it began to strengthen the wall three years ago, and after the wall was closed, another wall was cast, which was three feet higher than the original old wall.

In this way, even if the old wall on the front was battered to pieces, after the Ming army broke through the old wall, they still had to face a new wall.

"Isn't the mortar made by Xin'an here?" Wang Yan said, "This cannon has been tried, and it is powerful. It can jump over the first wall and hit the second wall directly."

"Reporting to the Supervisor, the cannon has just arrived, but according to the officials of the Ministry of Industry, the range of this kind of artillery is only more than one mile, and the shells of the Jin Army can hit three or four miles, so the artillery team may not be able to approach and set up the cannon!"

Wang Yan had thought about this question a long time ago, and he smiled, "Using Li Dingguo's style of play in Nanyang, digging trenches and moving forward, the artillery team dragged the cannons along the deep trenches to the wall, and then set up artillery bombardment. The kind of artillery does not need to aim directly at the bombardment, it just throws the shells out, and you can put the artillery in the pit, don’t miss your head, the red-clothed artillery in the city will not be able to hit it.”

Li Guo had never seen a mortar, so he didn't know if it would work. He was somewhat skeptical, "Jianguo, even if the red cannons in the city can't hit it, the artillery team is too close to the city, and it is easy to be raided by the Jin army in the pass."

Not long ago, the Ming army bombarded Tongguan with cannons four miles outside the Guancheng. Unexpectedly, the Jin army rushed out of the pass, and the artillery team fled in panic. The Jin army took away [-] and destroyed more than ten. , The Ming army suffered heavy losses.

Because of this, the Ming army's shelling stopped for a long time, and Li Guo was also said a few words by Wang Yan.

Now that the artillery is going to be placed one mile below the city, the Jin army is likely to go out of the city to grab the artillery under the cover of the artillery at the top of the city.

Wang Yan frowned, pondered for a moment, suddenly his eyes lit up, and said with a smile: "Then dig a deep ditch in front of the pass, build an earthen wall, and send troops to garrison day and night, and first trap the Jin army in the pass. Wait for the shelling for a few days Afterwards, open a gap in the earthen wall and attack directly."

This is actually a reference to Li Dingguo's experience in fighting the Heyi Fortress. The advantage of this is that the Ming army can pass through the "Zhi" trench together and directly reach the next mile of the pass.

If you don't dig a trench, the Ming army will attack from the ground, and as soon as you enter the four-mile range, you will be bombarded by the Jin army's artillery.

When everyone in the hall heard this, they all began to discuss in a buzzing manner.

Li Guo understood what Wang Yan meant, saluted and said, "I understand!"

Wang Yan then said: "Digging trenches is a big project. From tomorrow onwards, the cavalry and cavalry will cover the trenches. The armed forces will dig the trenches to the pass as soon as possible. The artillery team is ready to bombard it. "

"Promise!" All the generals stood up together and clasped their fists in agreement.

Beginning on February [-], the Ming army began to dig trenches under the pass, which quickly attracted Tang Tong's attention.He didn't understand what the Ming army was going to do. At first he thought that the Ming army was going to dig a tunnel, but it didn't look like it.

At this time, the artillery at the top of the city fired a few shots, but none of the shells could hit the Ming army in the trench. This made Tang Tong frowned, realizing that if the Ming army entered the city in this way, the artillery on the city would not be able to attack at all. can not hit.

For a while, he hurriedly stopped the blocking and closed the door, asked people to clear the stones in the door opening, and then sent cavalry to rush out.

The cavalry of the Ming army immediately went up to meet them, and the two sides fought for a while.Although the cavalry of the Jin army fought within the artillery coverage of the city wall, the cavalry of the Ming army were often bombarded, but under the expulsion of the cavalry of the Ming army and the blocking of the gunmen arranged in the trench, the trench digging of the Ming army was not stopped by the Jin army. broken.

From time to time, the cavalrymen of the Ming army were beaten up by the artillery in the city, and the cavalrymen of the Jin army were often shot and killed by the gunners of the Ming army in the trenches.

Tang Tong saw that the interference did not have much effect, but many cavalrymen of the Golden Army died, so the interference stopped two days later.

By February [-]th, the Ming army's trench had been dug to one mile away from Guancheng, and began to dig two deep trenches parallel to Guancheng, and built an earthen wall between the two trenches.

Wang Yan's proposition is that if you can spend your energy and solve things by repairing fortifications, you will never easily trade your life.

Li Yuanyin's military guards were good at digging tunnels, as well as other fortifications. In addition, the Ministry of Industry distributed some shovels to each town, and the whole project was quickly completed in less than ten days.

On February 28, Haoge in Weinan County rushed to Tongguan after hearing that Wang Yan had arrived in Tongguan.

The next day, after the Ming army completed the fortifications, they began to prepare to bombard the city.After the trench was dug, the Ming army used oxen to pull stone rollers to roll over the trench bottom, so the ground at the bottom of the trench was very firm, and some places were paved with wooden boards, so the mortar would not sink the gun wheel because it was too heavy.

When the Ming army used cattle and manpower to pull the cannon down the trench and toward the wall, Tang Tong was accompanying Hauge to the city to check the enemy's situation.

The Ming army has a strong force and excellent equipment, which is within Hauge's expectation, so when he stood on the pass wall and saw the endless Ming army camp outside the pass, and saw the old pass wall full of holes, Hauge was not surprised. Accident.

However, Hauge is not worried about Tongguan's city defense system, and is quite confident.Most of the money in the Jin Kingdom's treasury in the past three years has been used to strengthen the city and cast cannons. He has experienced many battles and this is the first time he has seen such an exquisite defense system.

Haoge felt that if he came to attack, even hundreds of thousands of soldiers might not be able to take it down. If Wang Yan came to attack, Tongguan would definitely make him hit his head and bleed and shatter his teeth.

At this moment, Hauge was walking in front, and the Jinjun on the pass saw Hauge walking on the wide city wall, and military commanders at all levels saluted him from time to time, and many people showed excitement on their faces, while Tang Tong drank from behind from time to time. Rebuked: "Your Majesty is patrolling the city, cheer up this commander!"

At this time, Hauge stopped at an enemy tower.The enemy tower is a high tower extending from the city wall. It has a sharp corner protruding towards the western bastion, and artillery is installed on it.

This was the thought of Xu Guangqi, a minister of the Ming Dynasty, and it was also the idea of ​​Yuan Chonghuan to protect the blunderbuss with a platform and the city with a blunderbuss later in Liaodong Lane.

"Aiqing, what is the Ming army doing?" Hauge asked suddenly, pointing to the outside of the city after standing still.

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(End of this chapter)