scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 317 The Siege Begins

(PS: It will be April [-]st soon. I wish all my friends a happy April Fool's Day in advance. Just ask for the last March monthly pass, as well as the early month monthly pass for April.)
In the early morning of October 26, the next morning after Fatty’s army arrived at the city of Hangzhou, Fatty Lu personally went to the city of Hangzhou to observe the terrain, look for breakthroughs in the siege, and led hundreds of cavalry to run more than half a circle around the city of Hangzhou. Fatty Lu soon discovered that The fortification of the city of Hangzhou is indeed what Yao Qisheng said, and it is definitely not something that can be broken by Qing Yi.

The city wall, which is nearly forty miles long, is more than six feet high at its highest point and five feet high at its lowest point. There are as many as 58 Tibetan soldier towers on the city wall, and the moat under the city wall is more than four feet wide at its narrowest point and even seven feet wide at its widest point. , The original ladder car, cloud platform and city crash car can't get close to the city wall at all.At the same time, there is a protruding arrow stack at a certain distance on the city wall, which allows the defenders to shoot and kill the soldiers attached to the city, making it very difficult to climb the city by flying ladders, which is extremely unfavorable to the attacker.

In addition, other auxiliary fortifications in Hangzhou City are also very complete. There are urns at the ten city gates, and there are more than [-] Hongyi cannons and other artillery pieces on the city walls. Because of the base camp, there must be plenty of supplies for defending the city, such as gunpowder, kerosene, arrows, rolling stones, thunder wood, and ash bottles, and it is impossible to run out of them in a short period of time.As for the grain and grass, the autumn harvest has just finished, and the grain and grass hoarded in the city of Hangzhou, the starting point of water transportation, even if it is not counted as the civilian food of the people in the city, the food in the warehouse alone is enough to support the defenders for more than a year. Breaking the city, that is no need to think about it.

"Boss, this city is not easy to attack." Wang Shaobo said worriedly: "It goes without saying that the city wall is two feet thick. Yao Qisheng and the man-dog prisoners we captured have also confessed that the city wall of Hangzhou is made of bricks and lime glutinous rice. If there is no rammed earth in the middle of the repair, it is impossible for our artillery to blow down the city wall directly."

"There is no unbreakable city in the world, only people who can't be broken." Fatty Lu said calmly: "A city within three miles, a country within seven miles, can't be conquered without a city. The right time is not as good as the right place. The reverse is also the same. A city of ten miles, a country of a hundred miles, can be broken in a circle, and the place is not as good as the people. The main force of Hangzhou Mangou has already come out, and the defenders in the city are relatively weak, and people are panicked. Without the will to fight, the generals will not have the will to fight, but our army has high morale and sharp soldiers, if we can make good use of harmony and distract the enemy's army, our army may not have hope of breaking the city."

"My master intends to use psychological tactics?" Wang Shaobo asked tentatively.Fatty Lu nodded, but he didn't explain in detail. He just raised the rein and urged the horse back to the camp, "We'll talk about it when we get back to the camp. I'll think about it on the way."

When the quick horse returned to the self-army camp near the Buried Bridge, it was almost noon at three o'clock, and entered the Chinese army tent again. Before Fatty Lu had time to sit down, Fatty Lu's cheating fiancee Huang Xifeng Xiaojiao , had already got out from the back tent with a food box, smiling like a flower on his pretty little face, and said sweetly to Fatty Lu: "Master, you are finally back, Xifeng made you lunch with her own hands, please Try Xifeng's handicraft."

"Why did you come in?" Fatty Lu was startled, and asked the soldiers next to him angrily, "Who told you to let her in?"

"Back to the general, she insisted on coming in." The soldiers brought by Fatty Lu from Dali's hometown replied tremblingly: "You guys don't allow it, she just cried and made noise, and said she was the general, you didn't go through the door." Wife, it’s only right and proper to bring you food and take care of you, we don’t allow her to do her duty as a wife, and roll on the ground, the little ones have no choice but to let her wait for the general in the back tent.”

"Drag out and beat ten army sticks, next time you dare to let people into the big tent, you will be punished twice!" Fatty Lu shouted sharply, the soldiers had no choice but to salute and go out to receive the punishment.Fatty Lu turned his fat face to Xiaojiali again, and shouted with a livid face: "Get out immediately! Don't say that I haven't officially married you yet, it is the three women before me who dare not enter my big tent or study room without permission." He signed the deposit room, next time you dare to come in and make trouble, serve you with a whip!"

The smile on Little Pepper's face froze, and he began to show an expression of grievance, and then it became clear and cloudy immediately, crystal tears flowed out of his big bright eyes, and his red mouth was about to burst into tears, but he was caught by Fatty Lu's majestic face. Terrified, I didn't dare to cry out.But it was the appearance of wanting to cry but not daring to cry, which made Fatty Lu a little soft-hearted. He couldn't help but pull her over, let her sit on his fat legs, and said softly in her ear: "I know you are Good intentions, but this is the large tent of the Chinese army where I give orders, discuss the military situation, and summon the generals. It is the most important place in the army. Ordinary people are not allowed to trespass without permission. It is a capital crime of direct beheading. Do you know ?”

Little Pepper nodded, and said with aggrieved sobs: "I didn't know before, no one told me. I just saw that it was almost time for lunch, so I made a few dishes for you in the boy's room. You have a taste of my craft, no..., I didn't expect..."

"Those who don't know are innocent, and I won't punish you this time." Fatty Lu said softly in her exquisite and pearly ear, "Get out quickly, sir, I'm going to raise my account and order troops, and I'll finish it in a while It's business, I'll go to see you in your little tent and have lunch with you. Be good."

"Okay." Little Pepper burst into laughter, and suddenly stretched his arms around Fatty Lu's neck. Before Fatty Lu came to his senses, he felt the sweet smell of strawberries, and Little Pepper kissed his own face.Then the little pepper blushed again and quickly jumped off the ground from Fatty Lu's legs, picked up the food box and ran out, and let out a string of clear and clear childish voices like silver bells, "Sister, it's done, I'll wait for you to eat together Lunch, if you dare to lie to me, I will cry for you."

"This ghost girl, I really don't know how the old Huang's family spoiled me." Fatty Lu muttered with a wry smile, then touched his fat face kissed by Xiaojiali, and cursed secretly, "Why did I feel something just now? Fragrance? Trouble, am I about to degenerate into a lolicon?"

Putting aside the matter of the little pepper for the time being, Fatty Lu quickly ordered: "Uncle Shao, write a letter for me immediately, and write a letter to Li Zhifang, Governor of Zhejiang, and General Tula, the guard of the dog in Hangzhou, urging them to open a letter." Surrender the city, and promise that as long as they surrender, we will preserve their lives, property and land, otherwise, the whole family will be spared. Also, write down my four-kill order in writing and tell the Mangou defenders directly."

Wang Shaobo agreed, and quickly buried himself in the book, and Fatty Lu gave the order to blow the trumpet to raise the tent. After a while, the fat man's army rushed to the big tent and lined up to listen to the order. Yao Qisheng, Zhu Fangdan and others also arrived at the tent to wait for orders.When all the generals arrived, Fatty Lu said straight to the point: "Generals, after carefully observing the terrain of Hangzhou, this general decided to set the breakthrough points of our army's siege at the Wulin Gate and Qiantang Gate in Hangzhou. The main gate, especially the Wulin Gate, has as many as [-] towers on the city. It is the first gate in Hangzhou, and it is not far from Hangzhou City. Not afraid?"

Although it is very strange why Fatty Lu chooses the easy and the difficult, all the generals of Fatty's army still shouted in unison: "Don't be afraid!"

"Very good." Fatty Lu nodded in satisfaction, and then ordered: "Convey the order, break through Hangzhou, and each soldier who breaks through the city will be rewarded with 20 taels of silver! Those who have other achievements in battle will be rewarded heavily!"

"Thank you for the reward, General!" Fatty's generals replied in unison again.

"Qin Yong and Hutongchun listen to the order." Fatty Lu picked up a command arrow and ordered: "Our army has 240 five artillery pieces. Qin Yong, you gather 180 of them outside the Wulin Gate, and the rest outside the Qiantang Gate, and bombard them with all your strength. The garrison on the city consumes a lot of troops and scares the guts of the dogs! Hutongchun, you lead [-] infantry to cover our artillery and prevent the dogs from going out of the city to attack. Pay attention to taking turns to rest and maintain your strength."

Qin Yong and the second general Hu Tongchun agreed together, took the command arrow and retreated temporarily, Fatty Lu pulled another command arrow, and shouted: "Cheng Long listen to the order." Cheng Long, the general of Huzhou, stepped out and agreed with his fists, and Fatty Lu ordered "Lead [-] infantry, bring more sacks, hoes and shovels, and use the cover of our army's artillery fire to fill the moats of Wulin Gate and Qiantang Gate. Within two days, you must fill up the east side of Wulin Gate for three miles, and the west side of Qiantang Gate. Fill in two miles to open the way for our army to attack the city, only a lot, not less!"

"Decree!" Cheng Long bit the bullet and took over the drudgery - knowing that almost all of his subordinates were new recruits, Fatty Lu asked him to do this drudgery, naturally he was reluctant to use up the old soldiers of the fat army in the work of filling the river .

"You can't do it blindly, you have to use your brains." Fortunately, Fatty Lu warned again: "This job is very dangerous. You have to wait until our army's artillery fire scares all the dogs in the city and dare not show their heads before you start. Fill up the river and when Mangou fights back with all its strength, you have to retreat in time and replace the artillery with our army to deal with Mangou! You have to repeatedly seesaw with Mangou to consume Mangou's defenders, and then fill the river with all your strength at night to complete the task. It’s a great achievement.”

"Thank you, General, for your guidance." Hearing what Fatty Lu said, Cheng Long felt much more comfortable, and quickly thanked him for agreeing.Fatty Lu ordered again: "Except for Gao Hongchen, the rest of the generals will lead their own troops to rush to build siege ladders and ladders day and night. The more the number, the better. When General Cheng fills up the moat, attack the city immediately! Gao Hongchen, your cavalry Divide into two teams to take turns to rest and wait for orders, and if there is any change in Mangou, attack immediately!"

All the generals of the Fatty Army agreed together, and Fatty Lu waved his hand, and ordered again, "Let's spread out, Xiaoyong, your artillery must pay attention to covering General Cheng Long's river filling team, no matter the recruits or veterans are extremely precious to our army." If you can reduce the losses, do as much as possible, and it doesn’t matter if you finish firing all the shells, let’s take it easy when we return to the army.” Fatty’s army generals agreed again, and then they each took orders to set out their tents to make arrangements.

It wasn't until the fat man's army and generals had all left that Fatty Lu turned his gaze to Yao Qisheng next to him, and asked with a smile: "Mr. Yao, I will choose the easy and the difficult. I won't attack the Qingtai Gate and Wangjiang Gate, which are far away from the city of Hangzhou, and I won't attack them." You chose Genshan Gate and Qingchun Gate with relatively low city walls, but chose Wulin Gate and Qiantang Gate, which are the most difficult to fight, can Mr. Yao understand the reason?"

"Understood." Yao Qisheng nodded, and said in a deep voice: "The general wants to use his majestic military power to scare the courage of the Mangou defenders. Once Mangu's courage breaks down and fights, Hangzhou will be destroyed!"

"Mr. Yao is really clever." Fatty Lu applauded happily, then asked with a smile, "Is there any news from Mr. Ling?"

"No." Yao Qisheng shook his head and replied: "Xiaogou lost contact with the students after he fled back to Hangzhou City pretending to be a defeated soldier from Huzhou, but please rest assured, General, Xiaogou is still quite resourceful, as long as he is not spotted by Mangou , you will definitely be able to take action when the general is attacking the city, and respond to the general's attack."

"Then thank you very much. It's really like this. Master Ling is the first victory in this battle!" Fatty Lu was even more happy. At this time, Wang Shaobo had already written the letter that Fatty Lu gave. Fatty Lu checked it and was satisfied, so he signed it After using the seal, he asked Wang Shaobo to arrange an envoy to send to Li Zhifang and Tula, and then he ordered Yao Qisheng: "Mr. Yao, our army is about to bombard Hangzhou City. You are familiar with the situation in Hangzhou City. Can you go and send it to Yao Qisheng?" My cousin Qin Yong gave some pointers and told him where the best deal is?"

"The general ordered, how dare the students disobey?" Yao Qisheng respectfully agreed, and then asked curiously: "General, don't you want to direct the artillery battle yourself?"

"A beautiful woman invited me to dinner. I'll go and have a look after I finish eating." Fatty Lu lamented as he got up: "Barely considered a beautiful woman, even if she is three or four years older, it's already early winter, and the night is so cold , there is no need to cover your feet in the bed."

………………

The process of how Fatty Lu shamelessly molested Little Luoli is probably not of much interest to friends. Let’s take a look at the situation of Fatty Lu’s hapless opponents. The Fatty’s army quickly advanced to the city of Hangzhou and indeed killed them. The Qing army in Hangzhou was caught off guard. In addition, a group of defeated soldiers from the Qing army in Huzhou fled back to Hangzhou before, bringing the news that the [-] troops of Laita were wiped out. The Hangzhou Qing army, which was mostly composed of second-line troops, was even more so. Terrified and afraid to go out of the city, he had to send a large number of messengers to ask for help from the nearby Qing army, while desperately strengthening the city defenses, intending to rely on the strong city to survive and wait for the friendly troops to return.

When the envoys recruited by the Fatty Army from the folks in Zhejiang carried the white flag and sent Lu Fatty's letter of persuasion into Hangzhou City, in view of the discovery that the Fatty Army had gathered outside the Wulin Gate, Li Zhifang, the governor of Hangzhou, and the elderly and sickly The Hangzhou general Tula of the Qing Dynasty had already come to the Wulin Gate tower to observe the enemy's situation, and the fat man's army envoys were able to climb up the Wulin Gate city wall soon, and presented Lu Fatty's letter to Li Zhifang, Tu La and other Qing army generals.

"Go back and tell Lu Yifeng the dog thief." After reading Fatty Lu's letter, Tula coughed and said to the Fatty's army envoy: "I want Hangzhou City, speak with swords and guns! I want the old man to donate Hangzhou and the four surname flags in Hangzhou city People, dreaming! Seeing that you are an envoy, I will spare your life today, get out!"

The fat army envoy, who had no hope of success at all, turned around and left without saying a word, but at this moment, Li Zhifang, the governor of Zhejiang, suddenly shouted: "Wait a minute." Roared, "Li Zhitai, what do you want to do?"

"Your envoy, please wait for a while, let me speak to General Tu and then I will give you an answer." Li Zhifang instructed the envoy again, then turned around, gave Tula a wink, walked up the tower, Over there Tula understood, hurriedly followed, and went into the tower with Li Zhifang to talk privately.

"Tujunmen, this is an opportunity." Li Zhifang said in a low voice, "The main force of our army is on the southern front, and it is difficult to return in time. Although there are more than ten thousand soldiers in the city, most of them are new recruits and old soldiers. They are all elite soldiers who have experienced many battles. Although the city of Hangzhou is solid, once Wu Gou attacks with all his strength, if there is a slight mistake, it may not be safe. However, Wu Gou's expedition alone will not last long. If he can delay as much as possible, Either wait until Wugou’s food is exhausted, or wait until the main force of our army returns to help, Hangzhou can be safe.”

"What Li Zhitai means is that he pretended to surrender intentionally, and took the opportunity to delay the time, so as to buy time for our army to return to aid?" Tu La came to his senses.Li Zhifang nodded, then whispered a few words into Tula's ear, agreed with Tula on a plan, then went downstairs with Tula again, and met the Fatty Army envoy on the city wall.

"I would like to trouble your envoy to report back to General Lu who conquered Donglu in the Great Zhou Dynasty." Li Zhifang said politely to the envoy of Fatty Lu: "His kindness in persuading him to surrender has been appreciated by both the lower officials and General Tu. Now the main force of our army has been completely lost in the hands of your army, and Hangzhou is gone. Cheng Gucheng, we also have a little surrender, but the general's decree and conditions are too harsh, we really can't accept it."

"Lord Zhitai, why is our army's condition too harsh?" The fat man's army envoy was overjoyed, and hurriedly said: "As long as Lord Zhitai and General Tu are willing to surrender, the conditions can of course be negotiated, no matter which one can be negotiated."

"About killing all the bannermen with the four surnames in the city." Tu La took over the conversation and said, "Although the old man is not one of the four surnames, Aixinjueluo, Hesheli, Tong Jia and Niu Gulu are all from Manchuria Compatriots, if I ask this old man to slaughter them and sacrifice the city to surrender for the sake of his family's life, this old man will never agree."

"That's right." Li Zhifang nodded in agreement, and added: "Your envoy, please report back to General Lu Yifeng. As long as he agrees to accept the surrender of these four surnamed bannermen, and give us some time to discuss, we can consider surrendering in Kaesong."

"Well, the envoy will report back to General Lu, and I will definitely give a satisfactory answer to Master Taiwan and General Tu." The fat army's envoy was overjoyed, and hurriedly left - a poor teacher who had just joined the fat army could persuade him to surrender Hangzhou An important town, this is definitely a glorious event worthy of special mention in history books.But what the fat army envoy didn't notice at all was that when he turned around, Li Zhifang and Tula showed such a sinister smile at the corners of their mouths...

Li Zhifang and Tula were not happy for a long time. About half an hour later, the fat army envoy ran back to the city of Hangzhou with a white flag. He didn't ask to enter the city, and shouted directly beside the suspension bridge: , Li Zhitai, please come out and answer, my general has already given you an answer."

Li Zhifang and Tula hurried to the arrow pile to agree, the fat army envoy saw it, and hurriedly shouted: "My general wants the young envoy to report back to Lord Zhitai and General Tu. He already knows your request, and he believes it." Your sincerity, and I also believe that you are definitely not using the strategy of slowing down the army, so he decided to give you three days. After three days, as long as you open the city and surrender, he will never hurt your lives, and will never take a penny of your family property As well as the guards of the Qing Dynasty in the city of Hangzhou, our generals will not kill any of them."

"Okay! Lu Yifeng's child has been tricked!" Li Zhifang quietly clenched his fist excitedly, and hurriedly shouted: "Thank you for your message, please report back to General Lu. After three days, Li Zhifang and General Tu will definitely give him a satisfactory answer." reply."

"Master Taiwan, please don't worry, the envoy still has two paragraphs to say." The fat army envoy shouted helplessly: "The first paragraph, my general only promises to give you three days to think about it, but he will never forgive you. All the mite people of the four surnames in the city of Hangzhou, regardless of whether Hangzhou surrenders or not, after our army enters the city, all the mite people of the four surnames will be killed to avenge our compatriots in the south of the Yangtze River!"

Li Zhifang and Tula's faces were pulled down, but after the Fatty Army envoy finished shouting the third paragraph, Li Zhifang and Tula almost fell off the city wall and died together.I could only hear the fat army messenger shouting: "The third paragraph, my general said, he only promised to give you three days to think about it - but he didn't promise that you won't attack the city within three days! So I The army will launch an attack on Hangzhou immediately. Whether to surrender or not, and when to surrender, are all decided by Master Zhitai and General Tu! Well, the envoy has finished speaking, farewell, Master Zhitai and Old General Tu, please take care .”

After all, the Fatty Army envoy really turned around and ran away, leaving Li Zhifang and Tula two unlucky bastards cursing on the city wall, "I thought I was shameless enough, I can't imagine that there are people in the world who are more shameless than us!" ! Laozi’s skin is at most as thick as the city wall of Hangzhou, and Lu Yifeng’s skin is thicker than the corner of the Great Wall!”

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The fat man's army envoy had just run away when a new loud noise came, and the fat man's army artillery lined up outside the martial arts gate spit out flames and smoke one after another, blasting solid shells and flowering shells into the air one after another, drawing The wonderful parabola on the debut, smashed the sky and covered the sky and smashed inside and outside the gate of Wulinmen.The first thing to suffer was the Tibetan soldiers tower that Tula and Li Zhifang had talked about before, which was blown to pieces almost instantly by the bombardment of the Fatty Army; followed by the defensive forts on both sides of the city gate, under the guidance of the leading party Yao Qisheng, The fat army's first round of shelling covered two forts, blasting the Qing army's artillery on the forts to pieces, and the artillery blasted until ghosts and wolves howled.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The artillery battle is still going on, and the towers of the Tibetan soldiers on the city wall of Hangzhou are smashed one after another. When the development of firearms has evolved to a certain level, this kind of fragile towers used to garrison and hide soldiers not only can no longer serve as a cover, but are still enemies. The first patronage target of the shells is also a ready grave for the defenders.Fatty's artillery fired only three salvos, and the twelve towers on the Wulin Gate section were wiped out, and they were blasted into twelve piles of ruins, burying countless Qing people who were hiding in them and couldn't escape. army soldier.

After three rounds of shooting, all the Qing soldiers on the city wall have escaped. Even Li Zhifang and Tu La and other senior Qing army generals have fled to the dead corners of the city wall to avoid artillery. Most of them have no battlefield experience in Hangzhou. Naturally, the soldiers of the Qing army were even less polite. They fled faster than the other, cried louder than the other, and scrambled down the city wall to avoid the shells. There are countless soldiers of the Qing army who fell off the city wall and were pushed off by their companions. Almost everyone had this thought in their minds, "Wu Gou is so powerful, should he escape from the city? Or should he put down his weapons and surrender?"

"Brothers, this is your chance, go!" Seeing that most of the soldiers of the Qing army in the city had escaped, Cheng Long, the new Ding of the fat army who was in charge of filling the river, waved his flag and shouted. Thousands of soldiers of the fat army immediately carried The sandbag shouted and charged, rushed to the side of the moat at a flying speed, threw the sandbag and boulder into the moat, then turned around and ran away.

When the Qing army on the city realized that the situation was wrong, they rushed up to the city wall and fired arrows, but the artillery team of the Fat Man Army had once again shown its power, roaring and pouring more shells on the Qing army defenders, forcing the Qing army soldiers to attack. Once again, howling and fleeing down the city wall to avoid the artillery, the infantry of the fat army took the opportunity to rush up to fill the river again, the Qing army went up to defend the city again, and the fat army took the opportunity to fire and bombard again.

(End of this chapter)