I

Although Zhang Xianzhong suffered nearly 10,000 casualties, most of them were cannon fodder, that is, civilian men who were forcibly recruited.

These peasants were miserable. They were farming at home, but for no apparent reason they were dragged along to transport heavy goods. Not to mention transportation, you also have to be cannon fodder when attacking the city. If you don't attack the city, you will be hacked to death by the supervising team.

Li Zicheng fought when he was on the run, and the situation was similar.

"History of the Ming Dynasty" said that Li Zicheng's tactics were "three walls", but the actual situation was a "five-layered position". The front line was full of refugees, the second and third military formations were infantry, the fourth military formation was cavalry, and the fifth military formation was cavalry.

This is obviously a tactics that goes against military common sense. If the refugees in front are defeated, why not overwhelm the infantry formation?

However, the actual impact is small.

Because the infantry has long been accustomed to the collapse of the refugees, psychologically and morale will not follow them. The refugees would not flee back, because they knew that Li Zicheng's soldiers were going to kill people. Who would dare to charge into the dense gun formation? When they collapsed, they fled in both directions.

Use the large formation of refugees to consume the physical strength of the officers and soldiers, wait for the refugees to disperse, and then let the infantry attack them, while the cavalry and cavalry take the opportunity to move around to the flanks.

If the refugees really defeated his own infantry, Li Zicheng would immediately flee with his cavalry and cavalry.

Anyway, refugees are expendables, and Zhang Xianzhong’s husband is also expendable.

Zhang Xianzhong's 100,000-strong army attacked the city for half a month and only suffered more than a thousand casualties, all of which were killed and wounded by the 10,000-strong enemy.

At night, Shi Yongen couldn't sleep.

He was a craftsman sent to Hubei by Xu Ying. He went to work with his relatives as an apprentice in a dyeing workshop - a true relative and a true apprentice.

Three months ago, Shi Yongen followed his relatives out of the city and went to the outskirts of the city to celebrate the birthday of his relative's old mother. He happened to encounter a forced conscript, and he was taken away without knowing it. He worked hard to transport supplies to Zhang Xianzhong along the way.

One hundred thousand troops, two hundred thousand civilians, among the civilians, Shi Yongen is definitely not the only one.

Because Shi Yongen was relatively strong, he was incorporated into the siege camp and participated in the siege twice. He was very timid every time he attacked the city. He hid behind the arrow-proof planks of the ladder, ignored the scolding of the supervising team, took his time to climb the ladder, and then quickly fled. Halfway through the escape, they met the supervising team and immediately rushed towards the city wall.

There are many civilians doing this, and as long as they are not completely defeated, the supervising team doesn't bother to care. Anyway, we didn't plan to let the civilians attack the city tower, so long as they could consume the supplies needed to defend the city.

Even so, Shi Yongen's arm was burned by hot oil, and part of the wound had begun to suppurate.

Shi Yongen did not resent Xu Ying and sent him to Zhang Xianzhong's territory as a spy. Because Shi Yongen's family had already divided their fields, his elder brother received special arrangements and was directly promoted to a county official, and now he has become the chief of the engineering department. And my sister, if she marries a magistrate as a second wife, she will definitely live a good life in the future.

If only I could go back alive.

"Uncle Cao, have you slept?" Shi Yongen asked in a low voice.

Uncle Cao, a farmer in his forties, sighed: "How can I sleep? If we attack the city tomorrow, I'm afraid I will die under the city."

The civilians could not escape, so they were divided into several groups and specially arranged in the center of the camp, surrounded by Zhang Xianzhong's regular troops on all sides.

Shi Yongen said: "It is expected that there will be a battle tonight, and preparations will be made in the evening. If all the soldiers go to attack the city, we will take the opportunity to escape, and call more civilians. If the chaos gets bigger, we will definitely not be able to catch them."

"This... person will be beheaded if caught!" Uncle Cao said in horror.

Shi Yongen asked: "If you don't escape tonight, you will die if you attack the city tomorrow. How can it be more cost-effective to die?"

Uncle Cao replied: "It's not even worth it."

Shi Yongen said: "You still have a chance to survive if you escape, but you will definitely die if you continue to attack the city. Which one do you choose?"

Uncle Cao thought carefully, gritted his teeth and nodded: "Then run away!"

"Take me with you when you escape." A cannon fodder from the siege battalion named Zeng Ayang said suddenly.

"Okay, let's run away together, the more people, the better."

Shi Yongen climbed out quietly again, took a few steps and whispered: "Old Li, are you afraid of death? If you try to attack the city again, you will definitely die..."

...

The general who guarded the city in Guangji was named Wang Hui, who was originally the foolish son of a landlord in Liuyang County.

Coming from a scholarly family, he didn't study hard, and he didn't even pass the exam. He chased chickens and chased dogs since he was a child. When he was young, he started playing with knives and sticks, and even used the family's donkey as a horse, saying that he wanted to practice riding and shooting.

A few years ago, Jiangxi bandits crossed the border and looted.

Under the leadership of the county magistrate Feng Zuwang, Wang Hui recruited village warriors to resist desperately. He personally beheaded the thieves and "flyed into the sky".

Then the Datong army came to attack. Such a majestic military power, Wang Hui immediately surrendered with Xiang Yong.

It didn't matter that the family's property was divided, and Wang Huile was conscripted into a peasant soldier. Due to his outstanding performance and actual combat experience, when Zhao Han expanded his army for the third time, Wang Hui was not only incorporated into the regular soldiers of Datong, but also directly served as the sentinel commander.

During a series of battles at Dongting Lake, Wang Hui made great achievements one after another.

Moreover, he was literate, could write and do math, and was promoted to battalion commander. During the Battle of Jianghuai, he was promoted again for meritorious service and was quickly promoted to regimental commander.

Because he was literate, could write and do calculations, was not only brave in battle, but also used his brains, Wang Hui was selected as the leader of the Guangji County city guard as the regiment leader.

In fact, apart from Wang Hui's own reasons, the reason why he was promoted so quickly was because Zhao Han deliberately favored soldiers from other provinces. There are too many officers from Jiangxi. Whether they admit it or not, there is definitely a phenomenon of forming cliques.

It is necessary to favor other provinces, but it cannot be too obvious, otherwise it will chill the hearts of Jiangxi soldiers.

at night.

Wang Hui inspected the city wall as usual, comforted the soldiers, and then looked out of the city subconsciously.

He knew that Zhang Xianzhong was digging a tunnel, and the telescope had already seen it. There are a total of more than ten tunnels in all directions, and soil is being transported from the entrance of the cave every day.

As long as you observe carefully, no matter how well Zhang Xianzhong hides it, you can still find it.

The use of tunnels to transport gunpowder to blow down city walls was not invented by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It existed at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Officers and soldiers used this strategy, Zhang Xianzhong used it, and Li Zicheng also used it.

Such a method of warfare is difficult to be effective against fortified cities such as Nanjing and Beijing, because the foundation is too strong and too deep.

If you insist on forcibly blasting, you need a lot of gunpowder.

Take Nanjing as an example. When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom blew up Nanjing, I don’t know how much gunpowder was used, but it was “a lot” anyway. Later, the Hunan Army blew up the city of Nanjing. China said it used 6,000 sacks of gunpowder, and the New York Times said it used 30 tons of gunpowder. Nanjing city.

Sitting on the tower, Wang Hui watched the warriors leave the city on ropes.

Some people held iron rods and inserted them into the ground, some people swung a sledgehammer and smashed the iron rods, and some people covered the ground with bamboo tubes to listen to the sound.

I would do this every night, compare the positions where the enemy dug tunnels, and use iron rods to drive into the soil everywhere under the city to test.

"when!"

I don't know how long it took to strike, and then another hammer was swung down, and the iron rod somewhere quickly fell, and it had already been inserted into the enemy's tunnel.

"water!"

Water buckets were quickly hoisted down from the city, and the guards pulled out the iron rods and poured water down through the small holes.

The enemy soldiers in the tunnel were placing gunpowder, and when they saw water pouring in, they quickly blocked the entrance of the cave with mud.

All the nearby iron rods were brought over, and more than a dozen iron rods were smashed down there. A few of them were still bloody when pulled out, obviously stabbing the enemy in the tunnel.

Keep digging holes and pouring water, this tunnel is useless.

Zhang Xianzhong was so angry that he cursed and ordered to continue digging the tunnel. Instead of digging straight through, they dug forward obliquely, making it impossible for the defenders to determine the approximate location of the tunnel.

At the same time, the cannon fodder continued to attack the city, and the number of Lu's vehicles increased to seven.

There are several floors of Lv Gongche, the top floor is higher than the city wall, and it can be condescending to shoot arrows on the city.

The peasants, soldiers and common people defending the city held up shields or pot covers to block the enemy's arrow rain. Behind the shield, a strong person threw ten thousand enemies, most of which fell to the ground and exploded, only a very few could successfully smash into Lu Gong's car, because each layer of this thing has a baffle.

After a fierce battle for a long time, the front and rear three Lu Gong cars stopped moving forward.

But there were still two vehicles driving to the city wall. A farmer and soldier was accidentally shot in the wrist by an arrow when throwing Ten Thousand Enemy, and Ten Thousand Enemy fell directly into the guarding team.

"boom!"

The city exploded.

The elite in Lu Gong's car took the opportunity to jump onto the city wall and quickly occupied a small area.

"Hold on, form an formation and hold on!"

When Wang Hui heard the news, he quickly asked for the flag to be issued, and he quickly led the team to support.

Zhang Xianzhong's elite troops climbed up from this Lv Gong car continuously, and more than 300 peasants, soldiers and civilians who defended the city were killed.

Wang Hui finally arrived with an elite reserve team of peasants and soldiers, with a three-piece set of wolf traps, rattan badges, and long spears, attacking from both sides. After a bloody battle, hundreds of people were paid again, and finally the enemy army who attacked the city was defeated.

Just as Zhang Xianzhong was sighing, suddenly a cavalry rushed over: "Your Majesty, my general is trapped by enemy cavalry!"

"How many enemy cavalry are there?" Zhang Xianzhong asked.

The old Huihui subordinate replied: "About two or three thousand, most of them don't wear armor, and only use a gun to run far away to release the gun. But there are hundreds of cavalry, and those horses are tall and strong, and they are very serious. Armor, the vital parts of the horse are also armored."

Zhang Xianzhong asked: "How tall can those horses be?"

The man said, "It's much taller than the king's mount."

"There are hundreds of war horses that tall?" Zhang Xianzhong asked in surprise.

The man said: "Not only are they tall and strong, but they also charge very fast. They also have infantry, marching on mules, specially blocking the way of my general, and preventing my general from bringing cavalry back to join us."

Zhang Xianzhong wondered: "Even if the infantry rides mules, they shouldn't catch up with the old cavalry."

The man said: "The enemy army has sentry cavalry everywhere. Each team of these sentry cavalry has only two people. They don't carry any weapons. They march lightly and run very fast. They don't dare to fight. They run away when they encounter our army, and then Run to the nearby market towns to light up the smoke and spread the message. Those towns have dug trenches outside, and there are many farmers, soldiers and people guarding them, and our cavalry cannot attack."

As he said that, the man said anxiously: "Our army is all cavalry, and we don't have much food and grass, and we couldn't get any food along the way. We ran out of food two days ago."

Zhang Xianzhong was silent.

Sun Kewang said anxiously: "Father, it's not an option to encircle the city with one hundred thousand elites and two hundred thousand civilians. It's better to divide the troops and march eastward..."

"Where do you go east? The first three counties are the same as here. There are no people in the wild. Are you going to divide your troops and forcefully attack the city?" Zhang Xianzhong asked back.

Sun Kewang said: "The spies reported that there are many market towns in the wild. Let's not attack the cities, but only attack these market towns."

Zhang Xianzhong sighed: "The main force of the enemy army has not shown up, I am afraid it is trying to lure me to divide the troops. Once you lead the troops out, it is very likely that you will be surrounded, and you will not be able to return when the time comes."

Sun Kewang thought about it carefully and felt that it was true.

This battle was too suffocating, Guangji County must be pulled out, so as to keep the food road safe. Even if they don't care about the issue of food roads, this is also the channel for their withdrawal. If they don't take Guangji City, they won't be able to withdraw their troops once they lose the battle.

But after beating Nima for more than half a month, the opponent's regular army has not been seen, and the county seat is still standing there safely.

In the evening of the same day, Lao Hui came back with his cavalry, and said in a panic, "I came back by a detour. Zhao Han's cavalry is disgusting, and the infantry riding on mules with a large number of sentry cavalry is also disgusting. I lost two hundred of my cavalry." Many, they didn’t die in battle at all, but they were so hungry that they ran out of food! Hurry up and order rice, I haven’t eaten for two days!”

Zhang Xianzhong ordered the Huotou army to make food, and first brought some pancakes to satisfy their hunger, and asked, "How many cavalry are there in the enemy?"

"In the beginning, there were only two thousand more, and then there were a thousand more, and there were hundreds of heavy armored cavalry." Lao Hui said.

Zhang Xianzhong asked: "Are they all much taller than my mount?"

The old Hui Hui said: "It's not just tall. Compared with those horses, our horses are like mules! This battle can't be fought. We can't see people in the field, and we can't get food. The enemy army has no horses at all except cavalry. Come out to fight, just wait for us to attack the city. This Guangji City cannot be taken down, how dare you divide your troops to attack other places?"

Sun Kewang said: "Father, I'm afraid the situation in the north is similar, and Dingguo can only attack the city by force like this."

It is easier to clear the fields in the north with strong walls. The drought in that poor area is severe. This year, it has been clear that there is no harvest.

Old Huihui said: "When we are exhausted from attacking the city and our morale drops, the main force of the enemy army should come out. Moreover, the enemy army controls the Yangtze River and may send the main force behind us at any time. At that time, we will not be able to withdraw even if we want to. This battle is impossible. Fight, quickly withdraw the entire army!"

Wouldn't it be a big joke to withdraw troops now?

The three-way army totaled 200,000, and the civilian husbands spent nearly 400,000. Didn't take down a city, didn't grab a grain of rice, just go back in despair like this?

Damn Zuo Liangyu, why didn't he go south to help?

And Luo Rucai, who made an appointment to go south together!

Zuo Liangyu was facing the plague in Shandong. He didn't dare to move, and the rear would explode if he moved. Moreover, the soldiers were often infected with diseases, so they couldn't fight at all.

Luo Rucai actually dispatched troops, and came down for a walk. After running two counties in a row, they found that there was no food to grab, and they didn't dare to go too deep, so they simply rolled back to the hinterland of Henan with the cavalry.

"This Zhao is really shameless!" Zhang Xianzhong hated.

In the south and north, there are six or seven counties with solid walls and clear fields, and the food consumed is enough to fight a big battle!

Zhao Han just doesn't want to fight, he just wants to waste food to save the people, and drag the enemy until he's tired before fighting.

It doesn't matter if Zhang Xianzhong drives straight in, it's better to go all the way to the prefectures and counties where there are no strong walls and clear fields. When the time comes to stay away from the territory, the battle line will be stretched, and you can find countless opportunities to defeat it.

Zhang Xianzhong gritted his teeth and said, "Attack for another three days. If you can't defeat them, you will withdraw your troops and let the miners speed up digging tunnels. As long as you break through Guangji City, you will definitely get countless food and grass!"

(Ask for a monthly pass.)