Wanli 1592

Chapter 36
Wei Xuezeng not only thought so, but also did so.

One day when the war ceased, he sent one of his staff who was more eloquent to the city to lobby Liu Dongyang and Qiaobai. Unexpectedly, Liu Dongyang and Qiaobai were frantic because they were surrounded on all sides, so they directly proposed to be the general soldiers of Ningxia to guard Ningxia. No entry, the Ming court is not allowed to send people to replace their positions, which directly exposed the ambition to separate Ningxia for security. This persuasion is equivalent to ceding Ningxia without persuasion, how is it possible?

This made Wei Xuezeng furious.

However, for a glimmer of hope for a peaceful settlement, Wei Xue once again ordered people to enter the city to meet with Xiaobai and Liu Dongyang, regardless of Ye Mengxiong's dissuasion, trying to drive a wedge between the two, and encouraged Liu Dongyang to kill Xiaobai by saying that Xiaobai was originally a Mongol and Liu Dongyang was a Han. Bai Kaicheng's determination to surrender, was brushed off by Liu Dongyang and Qi Bai together, and Qi Bai was actually in Liu Dongyang's mansion. This poor lobbyist was pushed to the top of the city and fried in oil in front of Wei Xuezeng. up...

Wei Xuezeng was so angry that he almost lost his anger. Ye Meng Xionghu ordered the Ming army to bombard the city and bombed Liu Dongyang and Qi Bai back to the city, but the morale of the Ming army was frustrated by this, and Wei Xuezeng was very angry.

Time passed slowly. No matter what tactics Wei Xuezeng used, he was still unable to deal any blow to the rebels. The method of feigning several times and attacking once reduced the loss of the Ming army to a certain extent. More than 3000 people died in the half-month siege. , here, the disinfection method presented by Xiao Ruxun has played a great role.

Xiao Ruxun brought doctors from Pinglu City and every castle to form an ambulance battalion. All soldiers who were less injured were sterilized with strong alcohol and then bandaged properly. The rate of stable injuries and injuries was very high, and the death rate was greatly reduced. , This made Wei Xuezeng and Ye Mengxiong feel a little pleasantly surprised even amidst their depression.

At the beginning of April, the imperial decree arrived, the emperor ordered Xiao Ruxun to be promoted to the former general of Ningxia, who was guarding Pinglu City, to be the commander-in-chief of Ningxia. , and even specially asked Mei Guozhen, the edict officer and supervisor of the army, to bring a message, saying that if he made great contributions in quelling the war, there would be a big reward.

Mei Guozhen smiled and said that the emperor personally ordered to give the general a message, Xiao Zongbing, this is the first time since Wanli!

Xiao Ruxun immediately expressed his loyalty, and his solemn expression made it impossible to doubt.

Ma Gui was once again promoted to the deputy commander-in-chief of Datong because of his military exploits, but he didn't have that much preferential treatment. Xiao Ruxun's Pinglu Army was also required to inspect the heads because of the capture of 9000 people, and reward silver according to the heads. This is still His Majesty the Emperor personally ordered.

It can only be said that people are more angry than people. Anyway, Ma Gui is envious and jealous. The second brother Xiao Ruhui is a little bit self-pitying that he doesn't reuse him. The younger brother became the commander-in-chief at the age of 22, and became the leader of all the big soldiers and officers here. He will communicate with the civilian officials on behalf of the officers and soldiers here, but he has only been promoted to the guerrilla general... No more effort!He was about to be completely surpassed by his younger brother!
Mei Guozhen also brought a Shangfang sword and gave it to Wei Xuezeng. Xu Wei Xuezeng had the power to cut first and then play, and the generals were awe-inspiring.

In the next strategy meeting, Xiao Ruxun, the commander in chief of Ningxia, was authorized to participate. The rest of the generals, even the deputy commander in chief, Li Wei, did not have this treatment... It made the generals feel dissatisfied, but they had nothing to do about it. Very hard, especially the record of annihilating the [-] cavalry of the Rabbit Department is enough to make these officers shrink their heads.

"What? Bury it in the ground with gunpowder and blow up the city wall? Those gunpowder barrels you saw on the road are for this?"

This is the first news that Mei Guozhen heard after he became the supervisor of the army!Feelings all the way to see Wei Xuezeng recruiting gunpowder from all over the reason is this?
He immediately froze on the spot, and didn't recover for a while——You guys haven't made any progress in your relationship for ten days, are you digging a tunnel to blow up the city wall?Mei Guozhen seemed to have heard the Arabian Nights. Seeing Wei Xuezeng and Ye Mengxiong's looks that did not seem to be fake at all, he realized that it was indeed true, and also learned that this tactic was proposed by Xiao Ruxun.

"Mei Jianjun, please take a look. This is the whole map of Ningxia's city walls. At the four city gates, there are urns in front of the gates and two walls behind the gates. That is to say, counting the urns, each gate is guarded by four walls. , I won't count if I take one, but I have to break four in a row. During the period, I have to always be on guard against the bandit army. , there are four ways.

Our army has no more than [-] soldiers, and the bandit army has at least [-] soldiers, supplemented by a fortified city. Our army has no advantage in terms of strength. The previous time, our army stormed Ningxia City with a large army, and lost [-] soldiers within three days. However, not even a urn city has been captured, and the loss of soldiers is too great. We really cannot accept it. Therefore, storming Ningxia City is the next strategy. "

"This point is also known to the supervising army. The law of war says that attacking the city is the bottom line, and attacking the heart is the top priority. It is right not to attack the fortified city. However, what kind of tactic is it to blow up the city wall with gunpowder? This supervising army is also familiar with it. Reading the history of war, since the Song Dynasty firearms appeared, there has never been such a tactic, who would have thought that gunpowder could overturn the city wall? Then what is the meaning of the city wall?"

Mei Guozhen was quite confused.

Xiao Ruxun said: "No one has used it before, so it doesn't mean it won't work, and the predecessors didn't understand the power of gunpowder very well. Maybe a single cannon is not powerful, but a hundred cannons lined up and fired are equally terrifying. Although the cannon can't do anything Fortify the city, but gunpowder is not necessary. We will blow it up from the base of the city wall with gunpowder. The key point is to seal the entire space!

The general has studied firearms in depth and found that the reason why gunpowder is so powerful is not that it can explode. In fact, if you put a pile of gunpowder in an open space, the gunpowder will only burn and smoke instead of explode. Please take a look. "

Xiao Ruxun squatted down, poured a handful of gunpowder on the ground, and ignited it with a torch. As expected, the gunpowder just burned with dazzling light, smoked and made noise, and there was no explosion.

"However, if the gunpowder is placed in a closed space, and it is completely closed, leaving only the fuse, it becomes a firearm."

Xiao Ruxun took out a small bamboo tube, which contained gunpowder and a fuse. This was a special demonstration firearm. Lighted the fuse and put a wooden bowl on it. Everyone moved a little away, and with a bang, the wooden bowl was blown up. day, and then fell again.

"This is the principle of the tactics that the general thought of. If a large amount of gunpowder is ignited in a confined space, the entire space will burst, and this space is located directly under a city wall. Then, when it bursts, the city wall will be destroyed again." how?"

Mei Guozhen stared blankly at the wooden bowl rolling around on the ground. Wei Xuezeng and Ye Mengxiong had already seen Xiao Ruxun's demonstration, so they were confident.

"In this way, this is really a feasible way?" Mei Guozhen frowned and thought carefully: "But this is a move that has never been done before, Xiao Zongbing, how many do you think? grasp?"

Xiao Ruxun said firmly: "Eighty percent!"

"Basically..." Mei Guozhen looked at the extremely solid Ningxia City on the map, and slowly shook his head: "But I don't know how long it will take to repair the city wall after I blow it up? It is not easy to build the city wall of Ningxia. Will there be a huge loss if it is blown up?"

Xiao Ruxun shook his head.

"There will be losses. After all, this is war. Since ancient times, there has never been a war without loss. However, the Mei Supervisor Army, the two evils are the lesser of two evils. No matter how good the city wall is, it is now in the hands of the rebels. The obstacles to the suppression of the Ming rebellion, as long as they are obstacles, must be removed! If the city walls are gone, they can be repaired, and if the soldiers are gone, they will really be gone. If the walls are destroyed, the soldiers are still there, and they can still deter captives. The soldiers are gone. No matter how thick the city wall is, what's the use of it?"

(End of this chapter)