The Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 93: One death and one injury

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On the carved upstairs of Huaiyuan Fort, Wang Jiayin found that he was surrounded by officers and soldiers on all sides, feeling anxious in his heart. He handed over the task of defending the city to the generals, and went back to pack up the details, ready to break through the night and escape.

Huaiyuan Fort was built on a small protruding hill, and the terrain was a few meters higher than the surrounding area. When the frontier troops were stationed in the past, there had been a lot of renovations. The walls were dug very steeply on all sides, especially facing the western Mongolia , North sides.

Zhu Youjian carefully observed the terrain and found that the south side was slightly slower, and there was a winding path for people in and out of the castle.

Although he chose the direction of the breakthrough, the terrain was too steep. It was really necessary to use the lives of soldiers to fill the gully under the city. There would definitely be many casualties. The Siwu camp has a total of only 40,000, which is much less than the bandit soldiers. Naturally, Zhu Youjian is reluctant to cause a lot of casualties.

In addition, the besieged troops in the northwest and northeast are always under the threat of other bandits. Zhu Youjian believes that the sooner the Huaiyuan Fortress is attacked, the better.

Wang Jiayin did not wait for the night to come. In the evening, the flowering bomb fell at the Nancheng Gate.

The flesh and blood couldn't stop the huge energy released when the gunpowder exploded. After the gunners fired in Tongzhou last time, they had a better grasp of the aim of the artillery.

With the huge roar, fire and heat waves, the defenders of the South City Gate were quickly defeated. They followed in Wang Jiayin's footsteps, retreated to the city, and handed over the gate to Zhu Youjian.

Zhu Youjian and Yang Du led a large army into the city from the south gate, chasing and killing Wang Jiayin's defeated army in the city. The other three gates all have soldiers from Siwuying camps attacking, and the bandits have nowhere to go back, and they are messing around in the streets.

With the assistance of the Fenwu Camp and the Military Training Camp in the city, the other three city gates were quickly breached, and tens of thousands of soldiers in the Siwu Camp were massacred in the city.

There are only dozens of bandits left beside Wang Jiayin. He wants to take advantage of the chaos to escape from the North Gate and go to Gao Yingxiang. I just met Yuan Chonghuan and entered the city.

If they meet Zu Dashou or Man Gui, they will definitely single out Wang Jiayin, and Wang Jiayin still has the chance to be injured and captured, but Yuan Chonghuan was born as a civil official and singled out is not his strong point.

Yuan Chonghuan didn't know that it was the bandit leader Wang Jiayin, and when the army had already entered the city, he dared to escape. He involuntarily said, commanding the soldiers to hack and kill, all the bandits who were about to escape, including Wang Jiayin, fell in a pool of blood.

Before dark, the city gradually settled down, and the bandits who had nowhere to escape had only one way to surrender.

More than 20,000 bandits, except for the three thousand who were killed, all surrendered.

Zhu Youjian worried that there would be soldiers mingling with the people, leaving Yang Du’s martial arts camp to search the city and appease the people in the city.

As a pioneer, Man Gui and Liu Yushu's cavalry had arrived in Mizhi County early and completely cut off Wang Daliang's northward escape route.

Man Gui, who had just arrived at Mizhi, was eager to do his work. He had only three thousand people, and they were all cavalry, but he wanted to attack the county where more than four thousand bandits were stationed.

Mizhi County is amidst a lofty mountain range. There is no moat outside the city due to insufficient water resources. However, because it is close to the military town of Yansui, as a preparatory town to resist Mongolia, the city wall is very thick, up to ten meters high, easy to defend and difficult to attack.

After dropping the corpses of dozens of soldiers, Man Gui had to sit under the city and sigh: "His grandmother, who made the wall so thick? It was against Lao Tzu."

Liu Yusu leaned forward, "General Man, I have a way to attack the city."

"Why didn't you tell me if there is a way? I lost the lives of dozens of soldiers?" Man Gui grinned, and gave Liu Yushai a hard look.

"Didn't I just figure this out? I don't know if it will work." Liu Yusu shivered with fright.

"Say, see what you can do wrong."

"General Man, we have a lot of mines and grenades. As long as we can throw them in, the city gate will be blown up."

"Throw it in? You have such great strength? Throw the grenade into the city? The archers in the city are blind? They will let you near the wall?"

"General Man, there used to be a catapult. You can put a grenade in the catapult and throw it into the city as a stone."

"A trebuchet?" Man Gui finally understood, "It's still your kid, and assemble the trebuchet immediately."

The area around Mizhi is densely forested with high mountains. Trees are cut down to make trebuchets. The materials are very sufficient. This trebuchet does not require quality and is for one-time use.

The handymen in the army were busy driving, and it took only one and a half hours to build five simple trebuchets.

The soldiers set the sling rack three hundred steps away from the city gate, just outside the range of the bow and arrow. The trebuchet was covered with a white cloth to increase the suddenness of the attack.

Liu Yusu ordered the soldiers to beat the drums and prepare for the offensive, leading the bandits in the city to the city gate.

Seeing more and more bandits gathered at the top of the city, Man Gui finally issued a military order to siege the city. The soldiers uncovered the white cloth on the trebuchet, put twenty mines or grenades into the sling bag, and then pulled down the fuse of the grenade. When the fuse was half burned, the trebuchet began to fire.

Twenty grenades or landmines were not of great quality and it was not difficult to cast them. However, the soldiers did not practice enough, and their heads were not accurate enough, and none of the grenade that started to project fell on the city's head.

But the huge explosion, the accompanying thick smoke and fire, still scared the bandits at the head of the city to Liushen Wuzhu, and no one knew what new firearms the officers and soldiers were equipped with.

Under Liu Yuzhe's personal training, the soldiers gradually adjusted their strength and angle, and the grenades began to concentrate on the city's head and fall. Five trebuchets were launched for the first time, forming uninterrupted firepower, and the bandits were no longer able to gain a foothold in the city.

Taking advantage of the opportunity of the bandit’s enlightenment, several soldiers carried a large number of grenades and landmines, unsuspectingly, entered the city gate hole, piled these firearms at the city gate, and then pulled down the grenades and quickly ran to the wall Avoid outside.

"Boom..."

With this super loud noise, the bandits who shook a hundred paces away, their eyes were black and their ears croaked, and the lingering palpitations in the heart just now turned into souls scattered...

The earth and rocks on both sides of the city gate were also flying randomly. The thick wooden door was broken into several sections, the largest of which fell slowly after the explosion, and fell heavily on the ground, raising countless dark grays and blacks. The dust.

Man Gui immediately stopped the trebuchet and personally led a team of thousand people to the city gate.

Liu Yuzha will also follow into the city, Man Gui shouted: "Don't, you divide the remaining cavalry into two thousand-man teams, and advance along the city wall to prevent the bandits from fleeing out of the county."

Liu Yuzha immediately realized that his number of soldiers was less than the bandit soldiers in the city, and he could not complete the siege. Now he could only use the speed advantage of the cavalry to chase and kill the bandits who fled the city.

There are mountains all around, and once the bandits leave the city, it is like a rabbit entering the grassland and a fish entering the sea. Where can they catch their shadows

The three thousand cavalry guards were divided into three groups. Man Gui led one into the city to drive out the bandits, and Liu Yushu divided into two groups to sweep out the bandits outside the city.

The bandit soldiers in the city were scared by the explosion and could not organize effective resistance at all. In front of the cavalry, they were simply lambs to be slaughtered.

More than four thousand bandits were killed by three-way cavalry, two thousand were captured, and more than one thousand others fled into the deep mountains using the mountains and woods outside the city.

While Man Gui took Mizhi, Zhu Youjian was not idle either. He personally stationed in the north and lifted Gao Yingxiang in the north. Yuan Chonghuan’s Xianwuying advanced to Suidezhou, which is Wang Daliang’s lair.

The connection between Suide and the outside world was completely interrupted. Man Gui and Zhu Youjian stationed in the north and northwest respectively, cutting off their possible contact with Gao Yingxiang's tribe. Now both places are isolated cities.

Wang Daliang was stationed in Suide Prefecture. Now he is surrounded on three sides. The only east side without officers and soldiers is the natural danger of the Yellow River. Now officers and soldiers are gathered around Suide. Even if there are ships crossing the river, there is no time to escape.

On the first day, Yuan Chonghuan followed Zhu Youjian's instructions and ordered Li Yue's department to attack casually for a day without any gains.

The next day, Yuan Chonghuan simply let the soldiers rest for a day without launching any tentative offensive.

On the third day, Yuan Chonghuan suddenly let Li Yuebu and Shen Xingbu alternate cover, siege the city in an all-round way, leaving only the cavalry guards traveling around to supervise the battle.

The increase in the offensive intensity of Xianwuying made the bandits unable to adapt for a while. After an hour, they finally approached the city wall, and a large number of temporary ladders were built up to the top of the city.

The soldiers of Xianwuying outside the city kept attacking the outcropping bandit army with bows and arrows. Although the bandit army had an advantage in position, they had to avoid the bows and arrows outside the field and shoot at the soldiers who were attacking the city. .

The soldiers who climbed the ladder had not yet climbed to the top. When they met the bandits, they took out grenades from their bodies one by one, pulled down the leads, and threw them toward the city.

"Boom."

"Boom."

"Boom."

The continuous explosion sound made the exhausted bandits fall into the abyss. They stood at the head of the city one by one, letting the grenade explode beside them.

The wounded bandits on the straight screamed and screamed, so that the bandits at the head of the city awoke. Since I don't know what advanced firearms the officers and soldiers used, and since they can't resist these firearms, the bandits still have one trick to escape.

Wang Daliang was at the head of the city just now, and Xianwuying suddenly increased the intensity of the project today, which caught him off guard. While increasing the defenders, he personally supervised the battle. A grenade exploded beside him, and the fragments hit his left leg.

Wang Daliang's injuries were not serious, but his guards were frightened by the lethality of the grenade. It was just an excuse that Wang Daliang was injured and dragged him away from the city.

The main general retreated, and the bandits all fled. At this moment, the characteristics of the peasant army were unreservedly displayed in front of Yuan Chonghuan.

The bandits in the city had more than 10,000 soldiers, which was more than the number in Xianwu Camp. However, Wang Daliang was "kidnapped" by some guards with ulterior motives, causing the bandits to flee.

The soldiers of Xianwu Camp opened the city gate, and Suide officially broke.

The wandering cavalry finally played a role. They galloped outside the city to intercept and kill the bandit soldiers who left the city.

The wounded Wang Daliang was unable to escape and was captured by the rebel army. This was the first highest leader of the bandit army captured by the Siwu Camp.

Wang Jiayin and Wang Daliang were killed and wounded, and the tribe was defeated. The bandits in Shaanxi were left with the northernmost Gao Yingxiang tribe, but this one was the strongest bandit.

Because Wang Daliang was defeated and captured, not voluntarily surrendering, Zhu Youzhen refused to pardon his crime of treason. However, he was willing to commit his crimes and make meritorious deeds and cooperate with the Siwuying camp to wipe out the robbers. Zhu Youjian decided to report the facts and wait for the court to deal with it.

Zhu Youjian was not happy for long, and Liu Lin reported: Gao Yingxiang has transferred all the bandits outside, concentrated in Yansui Town, with a total strength of more than 60,000.