I

Yanziji in Nanjing, Caishiji in Taiping and Chenglingji in Yuezhou are also known as the "Three Major Rockies in the Yangtze River".

Chenglingji controls the throat of Dongting Lake and has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times. Historically, Zhang Xianzhong defeated the officers and soldiers on Chenglingji, and the defenders in Yuezhou City surrendered directly.

It was very interesting at the time. Zhang Xianzhong fought from Yuezhou to Xiangyin, and was resisted by the local braves all the way.

As he arrived in Changsha, Zhang Xianzhong sent people to publicize the policy. The content was just one sentence: "Residents will be exempted from taxation of money and food for three years as they operate their business normally."

This order was issued, and within one day, three prefectures and two states surrendered without a fight.

Then, the whole of Hunan surrendered, and half of Jiangxi surrendered. Local officials were unable to recruit troops, and large landowners were unable to recruit troops. The common people were waiting for Zhang Xianzhong to come and be exempted from taxes for three years.

Comparing Zhang Xianzhong's situation, do you still think Zhao Han's battle is too easy?

Long Wenguang, the prefect of Yuezhou, is definitely not relaxed at this moment.

General Li Bingqian also had a heavy expression on his face. He was from the north and could not surrender to the bandits, otherwise his whole family would be implicated.

"Boom boom boom!"

Artillery continued to bombard the tower, and Jiang Dashan sat in the middle of the army and watched the battle.

This ruined city is really difficult to defeat. The height of the city wall is 11.5 meters. There are 1365 battlements on the city, each battlement is more than 1 meter high. There are six city gates, four of which have urns, and the other two gates are difficult to attack normally.

The moat is 65 meters wide. Just filling in the moat would be very tiring for Jiang Dashan.

After half a month of siege, several sections of the moat had just been filled in.

At this moment, Huang Yao had already set off from Changsha, captured Xiangyin County, and led his troops to Yuezhou Prefecture to join Jiang Dashan.

"Why is this city so high?" Huang Yao was startled.

Jiang Dashan said: "I asked the locals and it was Xu Da who ordered it to be built."

Huang Yao asked: "How are we going to fight?"

"We have just filled in several sections of the moat, and we are firing cannons every day. We are quietly digging tunnels," Jiang Dashan said. "There is a lot of dark water here, and tunnels are not easy to dig."

Huang Yao smiled and said: "Then you can slowly besiege the city, and I will conquer the surrounding counties."

As long as the soldiers defend this kind of fortified city, it is impossible to conquer it without heavy artillery. The Datong army cannot do it, nor can the rogue bandits, nor can the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

After the Qing Dynasty issued the order to shave their heads, the south often defended the city.

A group of temporarily recruited civilians guarding a city wall that was half the height of Yuezhou could resist the Manchu army for three to five months. Many times, it was not the Qing soldiers who conquered the city, but the city starved to death due to lack of food, or there were traitors who opened the city to offer sacrifices.

Jiang Dashan sent people to carry earth and cross the moat to build a high platform. It seemed that he was going to build a high platform and shoot at the city from a high position.

In fact, they used the high platform as a cover, hid behind it and dug tunnels, intending to use gunpowder to directly blow down the city wall.

Unfortunately, there is too much groundwater, and the tunnels are flooded with stagnant water.

...

"fire!"

"Boom boom boom!"

There is a camp on Chenglingji, where there was a fortress. Later it was changed to the Inspection Department, whose main responsibilities were to inspect smuggling and catch water thieves.

The fortress had long since been abandoned, but it was rebuilt last winter and is in pretty good shape.

Jiangxi's self-produced large-caliber artillery has fired more than two hundred rounds, but it has not destroyed the castle.

"boom!"

A cannonball hit the injured area, and finally had its effect, and a piece of the top of the castle was destroyed.

Jiang Liang stood up excitedly and shouted: "Aim at that place and keep firing!"

At this moment, the Jiangxi Navy came in force.

The Datong army suddenly became inspired, and the morale of the defenders in the castle plummeted.

Both sides knew that the navy was at war, and whoever came back first would win.

The warships loaded with Folang cannons were ordered by Gu Jianshan to sail to Chenglingji, and fired at the water side of Chenglingji.

This kind of river ship-borne artillery could not pose a threat to the castle, but it had a heavy blow to the morale of the defenders.

Artillery is blasting from all sides!

They were all models for the governor of Huguang, and they were fed by Fang Kongzhen with money. They respected Fang Kongzhen very much, but Fang Kongzhen was arrested and imprisoned.

If it weren't for the new governor Xu Renlong, who also treated them well, these pacesetters would have surrendered long ago.

"General, why don't you surrender?"

"Yes, we have held on for more than half a month, and we are worthy of the governor."

"..."

General Zhou Qinxue angrily rebuked: "As a soldier, I should be loyal to the emperor and serve the country. If anyone dares to surrender again, he will be killed without mercy!"

Zhou Qinxue came from a family of northern military generals, and it is unclear how loyal he is. But if he is not loyal, the whole family will be held accountable. The court has been very strict with the family members of the surrendered generals in the past two years.

The soldiers dispersed, all filled with resentment.

Since Fang Kongzhen was imprisoned, the salary of the pacesetter has become less and less. Moreover, although they are from Huguang, their home is north of the Yangtze River. Who the hell wants to come to the south to fight?

"boom!"

Another place was destroyed.

Jiang Liang stood up fiercely: "Get ready to attack!"

The Datong army carried the ladder and ran towards the castle. Some of the heavily armored warriors, holding long knives in their hands, moved toward the gap created by the cannonballs.

The defenders had no muskets and could only fire arrows continuously.

When the arrows landed on the heavily armored warriors, they would either be bounced away immediately or stuck staggeringly. The warriors only had to raise their arms to cover their faces.

Not cotton armor, but real double layer heavy armor.

There is chain mail on the inside and zha armor on the outside, forming a composite heavy armor with excellent performance in all aspects.

Armor is not easy to make, and it is not easy to find strong men who can wear it for fighting.

Of the nearly 30,000 Datong soldiers, only 600 heavy armored fighters were trained, 300 were thrown to the South Court Army, and 300 were thrown to the Middle Court Army, which were only used at extremely critical times.

"The Great Harmony of the World!"

"Farm and eat!"

Three hundred heavily armored soldiers, armed to the teeth, shouted such a silly slogan in unison, the scene was really funny.

Of course, the defenders in the castle don't think so.

Zhou Qinxue organized officers and soldiers to block the gap in the castle, and there were many spears. The formation was extremely elite.

However, seeing the heavily armored soldiers advancing slowly in formation, these elite officers and soldiers retreated subconsciously. Aren't they fools who wear leather armor and fight against these tin cans?

The three hundred heavy armored soldiers did not run, and the full double-layer armor weighed more than 60 kilograms. Running forward was too exhausting.

They walked forward at a leisurely pace, carrying long miao knives on their shoulders.

brush!

When they came to the gap in the city wall, they stabbed with the officers and soldiers' long spears, and the Miao knives swiped out in unison.

"Run!"

At the moment of the battle, the officers and soldiers collapsed directly.

They were indeed elite, but their morale was demoralized by artillery bombardment. The former governor was imprisoned, the current governor was defeated, the two coaches were gone, and they were sent to leave their hometowns to fight.

"No retreat!"

Zhou Qinxue sent out a team of supervisors, but the team of supervisors took a few steps forward and saw the iron can holding a seedling knife on the opposite side, they were also frightened and collapsed and ran away.

Someone wanted to resist, but was cut in half with a single knife.

A clean break is not an adjective.

"Surrender without killing!"

"Dang Dang Dang Dang!"

The officers and soldiers put down their weapons one after another, knelt on the ground and begged to surrender.

Zhou Qinxue sighed, turned to face the north, closed his eyes and slashed his sword.

When the news of the fall of Chenglingji came, Long Wenguang, the prefect of Yuezhou, and Li Bingqian, the general, all looked pale.

Chenglingji is the gateway to Yuezhou City, if that side is lost, this side will become a lonely city.

Moreover, the people in Yuezhou City are very unfriendly to these officers and soldiers from the north. The local people have long wanted to surrender, for fear that the resistance would be too fierce and cause unnecessary trouble for themselves.

The local people are hostile to officers and soldiers from other places, and this sentiment is becoming more and more obvious.

The officers and soldiers from other places felt angry. We crossed the river and risked our lives to defend the city for you, but you still look like this.

"Shhhhhh!"

Many arrows were shot from the earthen platform set up outside the city, all of which were letters of persuasion.

The entire army of the Dongting Lake Navy was wiped out, the governor of Huguang has been captured alive, and now Chenglingji has also fallen. These were all written in the letter of persuasion. When the literate people saw the letter, they were so frightened that they wanted to jump down and surrender on the spot.

Long Wenguang called Li Bingqian over: "General Li, please lead your troops to surrender. Bandit Zhao is not a bloodthirsty person, so there is no need to commit more crimes. Yuezhou City cannot be defended."

Li Bingqian smiled wryly: "My wife and children are all in my hometown, how can I follow the thief? My second son is still a juren, so we can't delay his future."

"As you wish."

Long Wenguang lost his spirits and walked back to the government office. He called his servants and maids, took out the money and said: "These goods, you should divide them up, and don't leave them in the government office."

"master!"

The house slaves guessed that he wanted to commit suicide, and wept sadly.

"Go!" Long Wenguang shouted.

A group of domestic servants left one after another with the silver.

Long Wenguang untied his belt and hanged himself.

Not long after, an old servant came back. He carried Long Wenguang's body, rolled it up in a mat and waited there, hoping to send the master's ashes back to his hometown.

General Li Bingqian stood on the tower, smiled miserably, and suddenly drew his sword and killed himself.

"Bingyuan, if the water in the tunnel is drained, it will take half a month at most before we can dig down to the city and release explosives!"

"No need."

Jiang Dashan put down the binoculars, and he saw the enemy general committing suicide with his own eyes.

A moment later, the city gate opened wide.

In the entire south of the Yangtze River, the top five cities in Chenggao finally surrendered by themselves.

Chongzhen should feel relieved that Yuezhou Prefecture and Chenglingji sacrificed a magistrate and two generals.

In fact, Long Wenguang didn't need to die. He was from Guangxi. Zhao Han could reach Guangxi next year at most. Wouldn't it be nice to surrender in advance to pave the way for the family?

Li Zheng set out from Changsha, and has conquered Ningxiang, Yiyang, Yuanjiang, Changde, and Taoyuan at this moment. Almost no resistance was encountered, and the whole journey was on the sidelines. Only the county magistrate of Taoyuan wanted to defend the city to the death, and was tied up by the county magistrate and the chief secretary.

With the assistance of the navy, Huang Yao led his troops to attack the city along the river, trying to reach Shizhouwei (Enshi).

As for Jiang Dashan and Jiang Liang, they attacked Wuchang Mansion (south of Wuhan) and Wuchang County (Echeng) eastward until Xingguo Prefecture bordered Jiangxi.

Only in this way can we take down the whole territory of Hunan-the mountains in western Hunan, and I am too lazy to fight for the time being.

However, Zhao Han's Hunan Province is bounded by the Yangtze River, including Enshi, Ezhou, Huangshi, and southern Wuhan in later generations of Hubei.

Anyway, Huguang was divided between Zhao Han and Zhang Xianzhong, the south of the Yangtze River belonged to Zhao Han, and the north of the Yangtze River belonged to Zhang Xianzhong.

The premise is that Zhang Xianzhong can eat the officers and soldiers there, and more than 30,000 people are huddled in the two cities.

(Double monthly ticket, if you don’t vote, it will be gone. Friends from other stations will also come to support.)

(Tomorrow four more.)