Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 1354 Breakthrough in Tongguan

It was four o'clock in the night, and the gate of Tongguan city was quietly opened. Tang Tong personally led [-] elite soldiers to raid the artillery formation of the Ming army, but the Jin army was discovered by the Ming army before they approached. The sound is loud.

The battle lasted from the fourth watch to dawn, and a group of Ming troops rushed to the closed gate, forcing the Jin army to quickly retreat to the pass, and the Jin army's sneak attack failed.

The Ming army's bombardment during the day caused a great shock to the Jin army and hit the morale of the Jin army. Wang Yan thought that the Jin army would go out to seize the artillery. The Ming army had already prepared, and the Jin army's sneak attack naturally failed.

When Hauge gave Tang Tong this task, Tang Tong didn't have much hope. Before, he had the urge to seal the door. It was because the Ming army was very cautious in patrolling and defending, and he had no chance to take advantage of it, so he wanted to simply seal the door.

The Ming army pushed the front line to one mile from the gate, and the Jin army had no depth to go out of the city. As long as the Ming army pressed towards the city gate, the Jin army had to close the gate first.

After dawn, Ming began to bombard Tongguan, but the Jin army could only hide by the city wall and was beaten passively.

It was clearly the Ming army attacking the city, and their corpses should have been strewn across the field, but now the situation is completely reversed. The Jin army guarding the pass suffered more casualties.

If it continues like this, Tongguan will definitely be difficult to hold on, and sooner or later it will be breached by the Ming army.

In the early morning, Tang Tong, with red eyes, holding his helmet in one hand and his armor covered in blood, came to Hauge's tent. After the guards reported, he immediately opened the curtain and entered, and saw Hauge sitting in the tent with red eyes, waiting When he came in, he immediately stood up and asked, "How is it? How many guns were destroyed?"

Tang Tong saluted Hauge, and said sadly: "Reporting to Your Majesty, I took a box of explosive ammunition, and one of the cannons was not destroyed, but seven or eight hundred soldiers were killed or injured."

"It seems that the Ming army can't stop the bombardment." Hauge's expression darkened, and he sighed, "Let's seal the door."

……

Outside Guancheng, after the Ming army repelled the surprise attack of the Jin army, the Ming army, which had risen in battle, started shelling early in the morning.

Several gunners were squatting in the tunnel, eating bread and drinking broth, watching the other comrades firing cannons to help them, talking and laughing.

On the Guancheng, it was another scene. The soldiers of the Golden Army hid on the edge of the city wall, and they were silent. The Huotou army carried bamboo baskets filled with boiled sweet potatoes and potatoes, and distributed them to the soldiers of the Golden Army. One, squatting in a corner and eating silently.

"Lie down!" The Huotou army was carrying food and shuttled through the city. Just as a fearful voice roared, a shell landed on the top of the city and exploded instantly. The Huotou army and the soldiers around them were blown away. , The sweet potatoes and potatoes in the bamboo basket were also blown away, and then fell like hail.

The mortars of the Ming army, as well as the Hongyi cannons and siege cannons in the distance, all fired together and bombarded for five days. More than 2000 soldiers were killed or injured.

At dusk on March [-], the Ming army's bombardment finally stopped. The city wall of Tongguan had been damaged in many places. The old wall was riddled with holes, but the new wall was generally intact.

All ministries of the Ming army have prepared for the siege operation, and all equipment such as shield vehicles, trench bridges, and boarding ladders are in place.

In the early morning of the next day, the Ming army had breakfast early and lined up four miles away from the Guan wall according to their numbers.The soldiers of the Ming army, who had recharged their energy for many days, watched Tongguan being bombarded for a few days, and their morale was high, ready to gnaw on this hard bone.

At this time, the generals of each army came out from Wang Yan's commanding tent, and soon returned to their own formations, and then summoned the commanders of each battalion to order the task of attacking the city. The essentials are to pass the order layer by layer.

Many low-level officers gathered the soldiers around to explain the city defenses of the Jin Army, and told the soldiers how to cross the trenches and where the ladders were placed.

Suddenly someone noticed that Wang Yan was wearing a golden helmet and a red cloak, riding a charcoal horse and several generals to the front of the army.

All the troops hurriedly stood up and saluted one after another. Wang Yan walked around the formations, beat his horses and walked slowly, and kept raising his whip to greet the soldiers, so as to boost morale.For a while, wherever Wang Yan passed, there were constant cheers and high morale.

Wang Yan turned around and returned to the central army. Li Guo and other generals rushed to greet him, "Jianguo, it's getting late!"

Wang Yan looked up at the sky and nodded, "Then let's start!"

After finishing speaking, Wang Yan got off his horse and led the crowd into the lookout car. The drums of the Chinese army started to mobilize the atmosphere. Before closing the wall, the Wuzhong, Wuwei, and Zhenwu armies began to shout loudly with the sound of the drums, and the soldiers were excited. , The sound shook the Quartet.

Zhang Mingzhen, who was in charge of the attack, rode his horse away from the central army, reined in his horses in front of the main formation, and watched the soldiers of the Zhenwu left army, carrying long ladders, pushing shield carts into the trench, braved the artillery fire of the defenders, and walked along the tunnel. Go forward to the next mile.

Zhang Mingzhen also got off his horse, and as the army arrived at Guanxia, ​​the three battalions had nearly ten thousand soldiers, and the trenches were already crowded.

At this time, he stood behind the low wall, waited for several rounds of artillery bombardment, and gradually stopped, then suddenly drew out his saber, swung it forward vigorously, and screamed loudly: "Attack!"

With an order, the Ming army rushed out from the gap in the low wall and swarmed towards Tongguan, as if opening a gate to release the flood.

The Jin army on the Guancheng saw the Ming army coming from the wild, and hatred burst out in their eyes.After hiding in the distance and firing cannons for so many days, the grandsons finally came forward to die.

"Let go!" On the city wall, the general of the Jin army roared, and the veins on his forehead throbbed.

The artillery of the Jin army, which had not made any achievements, began to fire continuously. The shells roared from the top of the city to the Ming army under the wall, and the shield vehicles were smashed to pieces and paralyzed on the road.

Soon the Ming army rushed to the front of the ditch outside the pass wall. The soldiers of the Ming army spread the ditch bridge, collapsed across the ditch, braved the artillery and projectiles at the top of the city, cleaned up the antlers and rejected horses arranged by the Jin army, and moved forward with the shield.

"Paoshi! Be careful!" The Ming army officer reminded his subordinates loudly.

At this time, the stone-throwing machines lined up by the Jin army behind the city wall suddenly bounced up, and the sparkling shells were thrown out, falling on the land in front of the pass, and suddenly exploded again and again.

The attacking Ming army was blown away.At this time, the Jin army behind the wall continued to throw thunder, but the flowering bullet fired by a mortar fell behind the city wall, instantly blowing up the Jin army behind.

Braving the artillery fire from the top of the city, the Ming army charged forward under a dense net composed of artillery stones and projectiles.

"Swing away!" The siege troops in front of the city set aside their shield chariots, the Ming army musketeers hid behind and shot at the gate, and the sword and shield soldiers continued to charge with long ladders.

The artillery on the city kept firing. In this state, the large siege towers and goose carts could only be used as targets, so the Ming army abandoned these large equipment, and the Ming army was carrying long ladders all over the field. Wall attack.

"Go!" The Ming army passed the trench bridge and entered the city. The soldiers raised the ladder high and then lowered it, so that the huge iron hook on the top of the ladder hooked the top of the city, making it impossible for the defenders to push down.

As soon as the ladder for climbing the city was fixed, the soldiers following up quickly climbed up, and the soldiers of the Ming army were scattered like ants.

On the enemy platform protruding from the city wall, soldiers of the Jin Army bombarded the climbing Ming army with guns and cannons from the shooting holes. It made an arc and landed on the enemy's platform, immediately overturning the golden army above it, screaming and falling down the city wall.

Zhang Mingzhen was behind, closely watching the situation of the battle, and if the offensive was not going well, or the losses were too great, he would order supplements.

Teams of Ming troops, under his command, rushed out of the trenches, and another team of Ming troops refilled the trenches and were ready to go.

At this time, the entire battlefield was fiercely fought, and the shouts of the soldiers of the two armies shook the four directions. Zhang Mingzhen could see soldiers from the Ming army and the Jin army falling from the city almost every quarter of an hour.

The most intense part of the battlefield is undoubtedly the closed gate, where the Jin army on the city dropped fire bottles from time to time, and a raging fire ignited on the ground. Hundreds of soldiers of the Ming army, under the attack of the Jin army on the closed wall, were pushing a long The long battering ram approached the closed door.

The battering ram was pushed to the front of the closed gate and entered the blind spot where the Jin army shot. Only the rolling stones and the hammers kept falling down. Hammer down the Ming army on both sides.

"Brothers are here! Pull me up!" The officer in front stood in the door opening and commanded loudly.

The soldiers on both sides of the battering ram immediately leaned back, pulled the giant log, and then let go.The battering ram suddenly slammed into the closed gate, but Tongguan's gate was thick, and it only trembled slightly when it hit it.

The soldier's door slammed several times in a row, and the door was always slightly vibrated when it was closed. The commanding Qianhu found something abnormal, checked it carefully, and couldn't help cursing loudly, "Damn it, it's blocked!"

······
The siege on March [-] lasted for a whole day. The Ming army once occupied the old wall, but because they failed to open the gate, the army could not pour in, and finally stopped at the new wall, failing to capture Tongguan in one go.

The Ming army was full of scolding. I didn't expect that the Jin army who came out to harass the customs a few days ago actually blocked the door.The Jin army was also uncomfortable. After the Ming army retreated, Tang Tong asked the soldiers to clean up the city wall, repair the damage, and count the casualties. After taking a breath, he hurried to Hauge's camp.

On the evening of the [-]th, after defeating the attack of the Ming army, Hauge called all the generals to discuss.

The shelling in the past few days had caused the morale of the Jin army to be low. Today, blocking the attack of the Ming army undoubtedly gave the Jin army a shot in the arm and stabilized the morale of the army.

This should have been a good thing, but Hauge couldn't be optimistic when he saw the loss reported by Tang.

"Your Majesty, today our army suffered more than 5000 casualties, and the Ming army probably suffered more than 30 casualties. It seems that our injuries are less, but our number is also small, and the Ming army has [-]. Difficult to defend."

In the previous bombardment, the Ming army destroyed a large number of Jin army's equipment. The cannon stone chariots that should have played an important role in the city defense battle and the Jin army archers who hid behind the wall and threw bows and arrows outside did not play a role. , but suffered heavy casualties under the mortar bombardment of the Ming army.

Tang Tong, who originally thought he could keep it for two months, is now a little afraid to guarantee it.

Hauge was silent for a while, as he expected, "There is indeed a gap in strength between my Dajin and the Ming Kingdom. Before, I was reluctant to part with the foundation of the Dajin Kingdom. I wanted to keep the enemy out of the country and guard it everywhere. , In fact, it disperses the strength of my big gold."

Those with bare feet are not afraid of those who wear shoes, which means that those with bare feet have nothing, so they dare to fight.Hauge became the emperor of the Great Jin, and many generals of the Jin Kingdom now have families and businesses, and they are naturally reluctant to lose what they have already obtained.

The Kingdom of Jin deployed defenses everywhere, and did not want to lose anywhere, which indeed dispersed the troops of the Kingdom of Jin.

Tang Tong nodded, "In terms of national strength, there is indeed a gap between our dynasty and the Ming Dynasty. There is a lot of difference in military strength, money, food, and weapons."

"Great countries don't care about power and strategy. The Ming country dared to attack Tongguan regardless of casualties. It is because they have enough strength to drop ten times with one force. They can afford it and can afford it, but I, Dajin, can't spend it any longer." Hauge Standing up suddenly, "Big countries use their majestic teachers to crush them with strength and win head-on. Small countries also have their own ways to win. They must win by surprise!"

The previous defense strategy of the Kingdom of Jin was to keep the enemy outside the gate, which was tantamount to fighting hard everywhere, and the strength of the Kingdom of Jin was not as strong as that of the Ming Dynasty. In the end, most of them would perish because they defended passively and had no means of winning.

The many golden generals on the side understood Hauge's meaning, Bai Guangen was silent for a while, and said: "Your Majesty, I have also said before that if your Majesty decides to abandon Tongguan, lure the enemy to go deep, and use a trick to win, there are two issues that must be considered. First, Wang Thief has always been cautious, and second, if 30 Ming troops flood into Guanzhong, we don’t have enough troops to deal with it. If these two problems are not resolved, I think it’s better to stick to Tongguan.”

"I've considered what the Qing family wants." Hauge had obviously thought it over, he walked to the map hanging in the big tent, and said in a deep voice, "Right now, I don't occupy any of the three places in northern Shaanxi, Hanzhong, and Guanzhong. The advantage is that if one place collapses, it will collapse everywhere, and the situation is extremely passive. I can't say how things are going on between King Yongping and King Shu. Just talking about Guanzhong, as far as Tongguan is concerned, our dynasty can't afford it. Wang Yan is not a saint , I think he is very swollen, and there will always be shortcomings. If he opens Tongguan alone, he will not fail to come in, so no matter whether he is cautious or not, he will enter the pass. The big deal is that the ambush will become the main decisive battle."

Horg paused for a moment, then looked back at the crowd, "The key issue is the strength of the troops."

Tang Tong and the others nodded slightly. The key lies in the strength of the troops. If there are enough troops, they can fight head-on and defeat the main force of the Ming army, and the crisis of the Jin Kingdom will be resolved.

"Your Majesty, there are 30 Ming troops in Henan, and we only have 9 troops guarding the passes in the pass. Even if the Ming army is tricked by us, it will be difficult for us to take down 30 Ming troops. I don't know where the troops His Majesty said are. Could it be the troops stationed near Chang'an?" Bai Guangen asked doubtfully.

The generals below are also talking about it, even if there are 100 million troops in the garrison, they are not the opponents of the Ming army in a direct decisive battle.

Hauge waved his hand to make them quiet, "I am going to abandon Hanzhong and northern Shaanxi, and send troops to northern Shaanxi and Hanzhong to delay the attack of the Ming army, and transfer the main forces of King Yongping and King Shu back to Guanzhong. I have an army of 20 in Guanzhong, as long as I ambushed Wang Yan, cut off his food roads, and hurt Wang Yan's main force before the Ming army from northern Shaanxi and Hanzhong entered Guanzhong, the situation in Dajin can be reversed."

Anyway, Tongguan can't hold for long now, and Jin Guo is not as powerful as the Ming Dynasty, so it can only win by surprise.

Hauge’s plan is very bold, it’s a big gamble, if he wins, then Wang Yan loses, and the Ming army on the other two sides won’t bother, there is no problem in keeping Guanzhong, but if he loses, he will lose cleanly , but stick to Tongguan, once Tongguan is broken, you will still lose cleanly.The Jin general in the tent heard this, and couldn't help but feel refreshed...

(Today, my baby is one year older, so there is nothing to change tonight on this big chapter.)
(End of this chapter)