warring states careerist

Chapter 784 The Siege of Dangshan ([-])

Four days later, the engineers had already dug the second parallel trench 250 steps closer to the city wall. This parallel trench was finally within the attack range of the defenders' artillery, but because of the angle and relationship, it could not cause any damage to the soldiers inside. damage.

From the time of excavation to this time, only six people were lost on Sishang side, three of them were caused by landslide accidents, and the other three were the iron bullets from the city guards that bounced into the trench strangely and unreasonably. .

The soldiers in front are trying to widen the width of the parallel trenches, digging hard according to the specification of four steps, which is six meters. It seems that if the people in the city do not go out of the city to fight back, the work can be completed by tomorrow morning at the latest.

Six Fingers observed the trenches in the distance, turned around and said to the artillery commander beside him, "Tomorrow will depend on you."

"Once the trench is widened and the engineers have completed the deployment of the artillery positions, you will transport the artillery through the trench."

"Those dozens of large curved rock-shooting cannons will cover you. When the time comes, you should lower your angle and hit the iron bullets on the brick slope as much as possible, jumping around, so as to completely destroy the defenders in front of you."

"As long as you do a good job and suppress the city, whether to use artillery bombardment, climb the city with ladders, or dig holes to blast, that's another story."

Taking advantage of the weakness of the masonry structure and the shortcomings of the unreasonable slope angle, it was the artillery commander's opinion to bounce and bombard with iron bullets. He knew exactly what he should do.

Yesterday's observation of the hot air balloon's launch revealed that the main force of the city had gathered on this side, and the front of the city wall was densely packed with people, which was a massacre for the jumping iron bullets.

Dangshan is too close to Pengcheng, so many heavy copper cannons for defending the city can be transported here.

There are a total of fourteen heavy mortars that fire iron bullets weighing tens of kilograms, but have a short range and a high curve.

The reason why it is called a mortar is because the whole shape looks like a mortar for pounding rice and garlic, with a thick caliber, a thick outer wall, and a short bore.

Originally, this was used by Pengcheng to defend the city, to cross the city wall and destroy the siege chariot. It replaced the Ji chariot of the Mohist city defense technique before the gunpowder era.

And some flat-firing cannons replaced the position of the transfer machine and the bed crossbow in the original system.

Under the original city defense system of the Mohists, the replacement of the Gunpowder Age did not have the slightest stagnation.

If you can defend the city, you can use it to attack the city. This has never changed.

The commander of the artillery is Shi's direct descendant, and can be regarded as one of Shi's direct disciples. He and Liuzhi are also from the same school. The two have a tacit understanding in some ideas of attacking and defending the city.

Looking at it now, the commander of the artillery feels that he must be the one who plays the leading role this time, and he is also convinced that his original suggestion is enough to disintegrate the city defense of Dangshan.

When the two were about to continue discussing some details, a messenger came to report that it was observed from the hot air balloon that some people had gathered in the city, and it seemed that they were going out of the city to harass them.

Liuzhi smiled, and said to the artillery commander, "That's good, we haven't attacked the city yet, so I'll let you play first."

Without waiting for the artillery commander to answer, Six Fingers pointed at the messenger and said, "Raise the flag, beat the drums, and let all the ministries prepare to counterattack according to the established plan of the staff officers."

"Cover the engineers and let them continue digging without panic."

…………

In the city, the emperor's father Yueling looked at the ditch stretching towards this side like a spider's web, and looked at the soil flying out of the ditch from time to time, with a gloomy expression.

This siege method of the Mo family made him very uneasy.

It's like two people fighting with swords, even if they are weak and inferior in skills, then they can fight with their swords, knowing that it is death.

But the current siege method is more like a wound on his body that will never heal, bleeding every day.I knew very well in my heart that once the blood flowed out, I would definitely die, but I could only watch the blood flow out day by day, but there was nothing I could do, even the enemy who made the wound couldn't see it. .

He knew that the Mo family's siege methods were quite different, and he also knew that he couldn't defend the city by himself, but he didn't expect that the actual combat would be so different from what he imagined.

The trusted counselors said one after another: "Unless we send people out of the city to fight back and destroy these trenches, there is no other way."

The emperor's father Yueling felt a little noisy, pointing to the wide formation in the trench in the distance and the guns shining with copper light in the distance, he asked: "Out of the city to fight back, can one of a hundred people approach the trench?"

"If you can't get close, how can you destroy it?"

He felt that there was really nothing he could do, and the cronies and advisers were talking nonsense. Could he continue to defend without knowing how to destroy the trench?

But the question is how to destroy it?

There are only a few cannons at the top of the city, and the engineers on the opposite side are hiding in the trenches like mice, and the shape of the trenches is extremely disgusting, they are all almost parallel to the angle of the city wall, and the shelling is basically ineffective.

The bows, crossbows and muskets at the top of the city are useless as cover. Now the nearest trench is 250 paces away. Not to mention the arquebus that is a hundred paces away, which is similar to hitting the moon. Can anyone do it?
From the counterattack at the head of the city to the nearest ditch, the distance of 250 steps is all an open field. Before retreating, the nearby houses and trees have been cleared, so that the attacking side can use it as a cover.

Now this 250-step open field is facing the musketeers and artillery of the Sishang volunteers who are waiting in full battle. I am afraid that they will die before they can get close, and the morale of the city will drop even more.

The confidant counselor beside him said: "In my opinion, the Mohist's siege method is quite meaningful. Now 250 steps away from the city wall, another trench parallel to the city wall has been dug, and it is being widened."

"With their excavation speed, the widening will be completed before tomorrow morning."

"Once it is widened, Sishang's soldiers can advance to a place 250 steps away from us. If they continue to dig forward, they can fully control the distance of 250 steps."

"And there is an earth barrier being piled up there. It should be the deployment of copper cannons. There are many cannons on Sishang. Once the earth fortification is completed, the top of the city must be within the range of the Sishang copper cannons."

The counselor spoke clearly and logically, the emperor's father Yueling sighed and said: "You are right, I can see it, you can see it, anyone who knows how to fight can see it."

"The difficulty is that even if we can see it, even if our calculations are correct, we can even calculate when the moat can be widened on Sishang...but what's the use?"

What's the use of this sentence? I completely asked the trusted advisers around me.

It is said that soldiers are deceitful, and that is about strategy.

Now the Mohists put their tactics in front of everyone, including those who defend the city can see the Mohist's tactics, infer the time when the parallel trenches outside the city will be completed, and determine the location of the artillery deployment...

The question is, how?
The Mo family showed everything to the city defenders, so what's the use of seeing it?

Just when the emperor's father Yueling was about to get agitated, a trusted aide gently pulled the corner of the emperor's father Yueling's clothes. The emperor's father Yueling understood that this trusted aide was asking him to suppress the irritability in his heart, so as not to completely distract people.

So he eagerly put on the humility of a person who is really good at raising scholars, and expressed his apology for his irritability just now with an elegant and aristocratic posture.

When there was no one there, the emperor's father Yueling asked the scholar who had pulled the corner of his clothes just now: "What good plan do you have?"

The counselor asked back: "I think, according to the current excavation speed and siege methods of the Mohists, how long can the city last?"

Emperor Yueling looked at the sky, since this man is a confidant and has always been anti-mo, there is no need to hide it, he just said: "If there is no rain, ten days at most."

The counselor asked again: "If the city breaks down, judging from what you have done and what the Mohist Heze did in judging Tian Wu, do you think you can survive?"

How could the imperial father Yueling not know his situation?
At that time, even if the Mo family doesn't want to be stained with blood and throws him to the Dai clan, will the Dai choose to let him go into exile?I'm afraid that he will be blamed for all the contradictions of Song State on him, and then execute him according to the will of the people.

The conflicts in the Song Kingdom were not accumulated by him, but hard-won. If he was a mediocre person, perhaps he could prevent this conflict from erupting so quickly.

It is precisely because of his ambition and ambition that the contradictions cannot be suppressed.

Now it seems that death is inevitable, the Mo family will not spare him, at least use his blood as a warning: whoever dares to imitate him will die.

Faced with such a problem, the emperor's father, Yueling, used what he said during the Zichan reform, and sighed: "Gou benefit the community, and life and death are for it."

That being said, it is tantamount to acquiescing to the end of one's own mortality.

He didn't expect that the princes would be so short-sighted, and he didn't expect that he might not last even a month in the face of Sishang's offensive. The Dangshan Fortress he spent a lot of money to build was simply a joke in Sishang's eyes.

Seeing that the emperor's father Yueling answered so indifferently, the confidant counselor asked again: "For the dying, the first priority is to think about how to take revenge."

"The methods those people are thinking now are meaningless. Even if more than a hundred people are abolished today and two or three trenches outside the city are dug, it will only delay the day of breaking the city by one day."

The emperor's father Yueling frowned, looked at the counselor, and asked coldly: "What do you mean? As you said, I should surrender to Sishang? Are you a Sishang lobbyist?"

This sounds like saying don't think about whether you can hold it, it's better to think about something else.

what else?

The implication is that the emperor's father Yueling felt that it was nothing more than surrender.

The counselor shook his head and said, "I'm not a lobbyist. Si and I have a sworn feud. My father died in the Shangqiu Incident."

"I just want to tell you that since you are already doomed, instead of thinking about how to delay your death a few days, you should consider revenge after death."

"Didn't you hear the story that Sishang told about 'the political reform was opposed by the nobles, and seventy families were murdered before death'?"

(End of this chapter)