Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 475 The war is anxious
Zhangzhou Mansion was originally among the prefectures of Bamin, and it could not be ranked in the forefront. The regulation of the frontier fortress has become an important town.Today, the city of Zhangzhou is high and the walls are wide enough that three carriages can run parallel on top of the city. The Qing army built a large number of fortifications and prepared enough rolling logs, stones, kerosene and arrows to withstand the strong attacks of the Ming army.

At this time, for the Ming army, the city wall of Zhangzhou was second, and the most important thing was the moat outside the city wall. The moat was three feet wide and one foot deep.

Now the Ming army's strategy of digging tunnels to blow up the city is hindered by the moat, focusing on attacks, organizing strong attacks, and also constrained by the moat. It is a move to recruit Qing soldiers and disturb the morale of the Qing soldiers. Because of the moat, the Ming army cannot exert positive pressure. Little effect.

Wang Yan has already accepted the imperial edict from Guangjing. The imperial court urged him to return to Beijing as soon as possible. He can delay for at most half a month. Even after he returned to Beijing, he would feel uneasy about sleeping and eating, because there were not a thousand Qing troops in Zhangzhou City, but more than 2 people.

Right now, if Wang Yan wants to solve Zhangzhou, he must first destroy the defense of the moat. He adopted Wang Shixiu's suggestion. That night, he sent general He Zhen to lead a thousand soldiers and five thousand civilians to directly fill in the diversion canal in the upper reaches of Longxi. A dam made the stream go directly to the main road, and the moat lost its water source.The north of Zhangzhou City is high and the south is low, and the moat has no water source. On the other hand, the moat itself is much higher than the stream, and the river continues to flow away from the outlet channel.

When the water was drained, the Ming army's shelling did not stop. Another important preparation before the siege was to dismantle the artillery on the city.

In addition to the four red barbarian cannons that Wang Yan had brought before, and the thirteen red barbarian cannons of the Ming army, looking down at the overall situation, other large and small cannons were also set up to shoot at the same city.

The Ming army built artillery arrays under the city, and erected wooden boards. The nearest artillery array was only three hundred steps away from the city wall. Of course, they would be hit by the Qing army, but the Ming army's Hongyi cannons could also dismantle the Qing army's emplacements. .

The sound of "rumbling" guns rose and fell one after another above and below the city, and the swarms of bees and fuel tanks equipped on the city were smashed by the shells one after another.

A cannon above the city hit a Ming army artillery emplacement under the city, and immediately attracted three or four Hongyi cannons to bombard it, and immediately knocked the Qing army's artillery emplacement into the air.

The shelling lasted less than an hour, and the Qing army on the city completely misfired. This was not because the Qing army's artillery was destroyed, but because the Qing army had no way to restrain the Hongyi cannon. Li Chengdong had to let the artillery be lifted down first.

The Ming army's bombardment lasted for a day. Thirteen Hongyi cannons, plus a hundred cannons of various kinds, made the Qing soldiers unable to hold their heads up.

In the early morning of the next day, when the Qing soldiers were about to meet the shelling, the Qing soldiers on the top of the city saw a dumbfounded scene. The wide moat suddenly dried up.

During the artillery battle the day before, the Qing army's attention was all on the Ming army's artillery, and they did not notice that the water level was dropping. Now after a day and a night, the water was drained, so the Qing army was shocked.

The shelling that the Qing soldiers were waiting for also arrived on time, but at the same time as this shelling, countless soldiers held up wooden planks, protected more than ten thousand civilians against the soil bags, pushed wheelbarrows, and rushed towards the dry moat frantically.

The Qing army was suppressed by the artillery, but there were still arrows shooting down from the city. Several members of the Ming army worked together to lift the large wooden planks, and most of the arrows were blocked.

By dusk, a section of the moat in the north city with a width of more than [-] feet had been filled with soil.It was the Ye Ming army who continued to fill the river, and did not stop until after dawn.

At this time, it was April [-]th in the third year of Longwu, and the Ming army began to attack the city for the first time since the siege of Zhangzhou.

At the command of the army, the soldiers of Zhongzhen Town, pushing all kinds of equipment, under the cover of artillery bows and arrows, swarmed towards the northern city of Zhangzhou. The Qing army, which had been suppressed for many days, finally began to counterattack.

The Ming army concentrated their forces to attack one point. Although the artillery fire had cleared many fortifications on the city before, the Ming army's attack on one side was also beneficial to the defense of the Qing soldiers. Iron sand, rockets fired by swarms caused great losses to the Ming army.

In one day, Zhongzhen Town lost nearly 500 people, and it didn't achieve any results at all. It didn't even get to the top of the city a few times.

On the 500th, the Ming army continued to attack. This time, Zhongwu Town was the main attack. However, Li Chengdong, relying on the solid city defense and complete equipment, caused the Ming army to die more than [-] people.

At the same time, in the underground, the Ming army and the Qing army also began to fight each other. Tunnels intersected underground. The Ming army dug in. After hearing the movement, the Qing army recognized the direction and dug outside. The two tunnels collided. , The Ming army and the Qing soldiers immediately engaged in hand-to-hand combat in a narrow space.

For a while, the battle in Zhangzhou entered a state of anxiety, which made Wang Yan gradually become irritable.

Fortunately, Li Chengdong still misjudged. He thought that the Ming army dug the tunnels to steal the city at night and would go all the way to the city. However, the Ming army dug all three tunnels together. Although the movements of the three tunnels were detected, the Qing army also Digging from the opposite direction, they dug through two, and then the third Ming army tunnel stopped under the city. The Qing soldiers did not hear any movement, thinking that the Ming army had given up, so they did not continue to search.

On the [-]th, Zheng Chenggong's Ministry was in charge of the main attack. They set up a formation outside the city. The buildings and ladders were towering, and they rushed and crashed the cars and pushed them to the front of the army.

By noon, the Ming army had filled the tunnel at the foot of the city wall with a thousand catties of gunpowder. The gunpowder was wrapped in cotton cloth, poured with tung oil, and then tamped down with soil to seal it.

Not long after, an earth-shattering explosion sounded suddenly. Even though the soldiers of the Ming army were prepared, many of them sat on the ground in shock. The entire city wall and the ground of Zhangzhou North City seemed to rise and fall. After the violent explosion, The soldiers of the Qing Dynasty were stunned. Huge smoke rose from the place of the explosion, and earth and rocks flew horizontally. The sound was terrifying.

Seeing this, Zheng Chenggong immediately drew out his waist knife and roared loudly: "Soldiers, kill~"

The soldiers of Zheng Jun immediately pushed the equipment, ran wildly, and the sound of shouts was overwhelming. Wang Yan quickly picked up the binoculars to watch. After the explosion, after the smoke and dust cleared, a two-meter-long hole leaked out, which disappointed Wang Yan.

　Thank you for your reward, please subscribe, ask for a monthly pass, and ask for a recommendation.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)