First Minister of Ming Dynasty Chapter 294

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The battle to attack Hangzhou is different from Huzhou, Jiangyin and Wuxi... First of all, Hangzhou is a large city with a population of several hundred thousand. In the current world, even if it is not ranked in the top five, it is still in the top five. ten.

Moreover, Hangzhou City, as the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty in the past, has a complete defense system. There is a moat outside the city, a wall of sheep and horses, and a solid city wall. Every 150 steps, there is a horse face, and soldiers stand on it and can cross. Shooting, the effect is even more powerful than Lingbao.

Although it has gone through a hundred years of ups and downs, this set of things is still there. Since the rise of the Red Turban Army, the Yuan army has strengthened the city wall. After Zhang Shicheng succeeded in the sneak attack, he also put a lot of thought into it. . .

Most importantly, Hangzhou is a port city, and it is very difficult to surround Hangzhou at once. If there is no way to seal it, there will be a steady stream of supplies at sea.

There are many soldiers and horses in the city, abundant supplies, and constant foreign aid... Under such circumstances, wanting to capture a fortified city is no less than ascending to the sky.

This is also the reason why he gave Xu Da the siege task and gave him an army of 100,000.

In the entire Zhu family army, Xu Da was the second who could command a 100,000-strong army. If he couldn't, then only Zhu Yuanzhang would go out in person.

As for Zhang Ximeng, if he were to come, it would not be to dominate the army, but to coordinate!

With his familiarity with the generals, plus his status and prestige, he can coordinate the big guys and work together to attack the city. This can still be done.

It was precisely because he was familiar with Zhang Ximeng's ability that Zhu Yuanzhang sent him to cooperate with Xu Da.

To be honest, Zhang Ximeng has always been very clear about his position. When he arrives, it is enough to let the generals know. As for the rest, he was determined not to say a word.

After all, once the control is not good, it will put pressure on Xu Da and make him misjudgment, then it will be bad.

All in all, the professional is still left to the professional.

Zhang Ximeng was only responsible for reviewing the battle... First of all, after taking Huzhou, Xu Da did not rush to take Hangzhou directly, but sent troops and horses to sweep the surrounding towns and pull out the nails.

Especially when Yuhang was in his hands, Hangzhou gradually became an isolated city.

But at this stage, Xu Da still did not attack the city. He vigorously built a fortress, forming a blockade around the periphery. Xu Da behaved like a seasoned hunter, patiently setting up traps, trapping the prey little by little, and finally achieving a one-hit kill.

It is worth mentioning that Xu Da gave Wu Zhen a task to detour from the upper reaches, cross the Qiantang River, and capture Xiaoshan County.

Wu Zhen successfully completed the task, and then he built a fort on the south bank of the Qiantang River, and then sent catapults, crossbows, and... fireboats!

That's right, Xu Da has long been thinking about how to cut off the passage on the water.

Even though the barbarians surrendered in The Hague, Zhang Shicheng still had a lot of ships, and it was not an easy task to cut off the water supply. Xu Da asked Wu Zhen to take Xiaoshan to build a fortress on the south bank, and then collected boats and prepared fire equipment.

As long as Zhang Shicheng's fleet dares to approach Hangzhou and deliver supplies.

The small boat will go out and set fire to the big boat. If these large ships wanted to attack the Zhu family's army on the shore, they would face successive attacks from catapults, ballistas, and gunpowder packs.

Before Zhang Ximeng arrived, Xu Da had quietly cut off all the escape routes in Hangzhou.

It is this operation that perfectly interprets the difference between handsome talents and general talents.

The next step is to face the city of Hangzhou.

Pan Yuanming also knew that the Zhu family's army was not good, so he also went all out to increase the difficulty of attacking the city. He actually built a temporary dam in the southeast of the city.

With the dam blocking, the water level of the moat suddenly increased, and the moat was also widened by ten feet.

Pan Yuanming's move was a brilliant move, but he seemed to have forgotten one thing. As the water level of the moat rose, the river water penetrated into the city, and many low-lying houses were flooded.

What's even more unfortunate is that the low-lying terrain is usually the residence of poor people. It is simple and low, and it is difficult to shelter from the wind and rain. Overnight, it turned into a country.

The people were miserable and complained.

Pan Yuanming directly ordered to recruit young and strong people to go up to defend the city. As for the remaining old and weak women and children, they were locked in the military camp and closely guarded. As a hostage, if you want to keep the young and strong, and if you want to save the life of your family, you should honestly defend the city, otherwise, the whole family will die!

Obviously, when it comes to not being human, the Pan brothers have always been non-human.

After Pan Yuanshao arrived, in order to show his determination, he came up with a new idea, which was to demolish some houses and use bricks and bricks to defend against Zhu's army.

It's not that it's impossible to do this, but the problem is that this brother's work is too rough, there is no communication at all, and no compensation and resettlement will be paid afterwards. If anyone is not convinced, they will be arrested and let them do the hardest and most tiring work. Son, if you dare to resist, you will kill him directly.

Between the army and the people, it can't be said that they love each other, it can also be said that they are inseparable.

Under this circumstance, the siege battle commanded by Xu Da began.

The first thing that kicked off the battle was a loud bang.

It turned out that Xu Da secretly arranged for someone to approach the dam built by Pan Yuanming. Taking advantage of the night, he transported ten barrels of gunpowder and 1000 catties of gunpowder. After stepping into the dam, it ignited and exploded.

With the destruction of the dam, the river surged out, and the water level of the moat dropped rapidly.

Pan Yuanming was also terrified. He was so frightened that he rushed to the city and found that the water defense line he was proud of was rapidly shrinking. His face was quite ugly.

"Xu, I'll be waiting for you here, I'll see how you kill me!"

After Xu Da broke the blockade of the moat, he was not in a hurry, but gathered about 200 trebuchets and blasted the city of Hangzhou.

In fact, if you want to knock down a basic fortified city like Hangzhou with the help of a trebuchet alone, it is an almost impossible task. You must have something like Lu Gongche, or gunpowder blasting. city.

But a very interesting thing happened, because Pan Yuanming blocked the moat, causing the water level to rise, soaking the sheep and horse wall, and even the city wall was lost.

Xu Da's trebuchet offensive achieved extraordinary results. Many holes were smashed into the sheep-horse wall, and then it collapsed in pieces.

The Hangzhou city wall was also smashed in many places, and some of the outsourced blue bricks fell off.

It can only be said that Pan Yuanming can get a hammer when he asks for a hammer.

Xu Da was calm, he just mobilized his soldiers to fill the moat and prepare for a full-scale siege. Different from Chang Yuchun's hurried style, Xu Da pays attention to taking time for himself and taking his time.

It can be clearly felt that he has a unique rhythm. Every moment, he is advancing forward, as if a huge tide is coming, so that you have no way to avoid it and no way to contend.

The whole landfill operation lasted for three days. The moat in the northwest of Hangzhou was filled up for a long time, and Xu Da gained enough space to use it.

Zhang Ximeng has been observing, and he found that the siege battle is a bit like playing chess. How to mobilize the enemy, how to find a breakthrough, how to go straight into the enemy's line, slash and capture the flag... The difference is that what you lose in chess is only chess pieces, but what you lose in battle is human life, a fresh human life!

Although Zhang Ximeng was used to seeing life and death, his blood flow accelerated and his mouth was dry.

Xu Da first dispatched Zhou Dexing and Lu Zhongheng to attack the city in two ways. They led their subordinates and quickly approached the Hangzhou city wall, and the battle began.

Above the city head, bows and crossbows were fired, attacking the Zhu family army. Every moment, someone fell on the way to charge.

When everyone got to the bottom of the city, erected the cloud ladder, and prepared to attack the city. At this time, the rolling wood and stone at the top of the city smashed down like raindrops.

Once the body of flesh and blood was hit, it shattered its bones and bones, spurted blood, and fell directly to the ground, losing his life.

The Zhu family's army is indeed strong, but it doesn't mean that the Zhu family's army won't suffer any losses... Every victory in battle is earned by countless soldiers who have gone one after the other and exchanged their lives.

The only thing you need to care about is whether these losses are worth it.

Xu Da was watching silently, from the reaction in the city, spied on the reality of the city.

The attack continued into the afternoon, and the Zhu family's army gained nothing but lost a lot.

But Xu Da gradually came to a judgment. In the afternoon, he immediately dispatched Tang Shengzong to lead five goose carts to attack the northwest corner of the city!

The so-called goose cart does indeed look like a fat goose.

The body is a sturdy wooden vehicle, like a moving fortress, and the goose neck is a ladder. The soldiers are inside the goose vehicle, so they can avoid losses. When they get close to the city wall, they will climb to the city decisively!

Tang Shengzong followed Xu Da's direction and quickly approached the city wall. The defenders were also alarmed, and hurriedly shouted to come over to defend.

The two sides fought fiercely around the city head.

The soldiers here are fighting hard to be the first, and they all have to take the first step.

And the defenders in the city also took their lives. Behind them was the supervising team led by Pan Yuanshao. Everyone carried a big sword. Anyone who dared to retreat would be killed immediately.

Under the threat of death, the defenders in the city also had to fight with their lives. Relying on the superiority of numbers, they pushed the Zhu family back several times.

Tang Shengzong was so angry that he screamed. He personally carried a long knife and led the team to attack.

When he just stepped on the city wall, several long spears stabbed him in the face, Tang Shengzong slashed hard and broke a few grabs, but his shoulder was still injured and blood was pouring out.

Tang Shengzong gritted his teeth and continued to fight. The subsequent soldiers also fought to the death, not wanting to miss the opportunity to break the city.

But even so, he was still driven down at dusk. Tang Shengzong, with scars all over his body, pleaded with Xu Da for his guilt.

"The general is incompetent, please punish me!"

Xu Da was expressionless and just asked Tang Shengzong to deal with the wound.

For the next two days, it was still the same. The Zhu family's army climbed the city several times and almost succeeded, but they were all pushed back by the defenders inside.

The two sides fought to the death for a long time, and the city walls were filled with siege equipment such as goose carts.

In addition, the logs thrown out of the city, and even the corpses of soldiers, piled up like a hill, and it was too late to clean up.

On the fourth day, Xu Da suddenly invited Zhang Ximeng to watch the battle.

"Xu Da, do you have a plan to defeat the enemy?"

Xu Da smiled reservedly, "How do you feel, sir?" Xu Da deliberately raised his head and looked at the sky.

Zhang Ximeng pondered for a moment, and then said, "It seems that the wind direction has changed. Today, the northwest wind is blowing."

Xu Da nodded immediately, "Sir is really sharp, I will break the city with this wind!"

Zhang Ximeng was surprised again, Dongfeng didn't agree with Zhou Lang, Tongquechun locked Erqiao deeply!

This is not a water battle. Does the wind direction help?

Xu Da quickly told Zhang Ximeng with reality that the wind direction is not only useful, but can also determine victory or defeat... This time, he deployed three times the strength of his troops, and the trebuchet attacked even more violently.

It was not until close to noon that the Zhu family's army attacked the whole line, attacking the city from two directions from the northwest, overwhelming the mountains.

Unlike in the past, among these soldiers, there were some people with wooden barrels. They went to the city and sprinkled the fish oil in the wooden barrels on the damaged goose cart. UU reading www.uukanshu.com

The defenders in the city demolished a large number of houses, except for the bricks and tiles, the sturdy beams are the most popular, and if one is thrown down, it will knock down a whole bunch of enemies.

Therefore, a large amount of wood was hoarded at the head of the city... Just when the battle was in full swing, Xu Damingjin suddenly withdrew his troops.

The Zhu family's army receded like the tide, and the defenders in the city didn't know what was going on. At this moment, thick smoke rose from under the city wall, and soon it turned into a soaring flame. into the city.

The wood that was hoarded on the city wall was actually set on fire.

For a while, the city was burning up and down.

"put!"

Xu Da gave an order to the catapult, and this time the catapult threw a gunpowder packet.

And taking advantage of the cover of fireworks, the catapult could greatly approach the city wall, and the gunpowder packets passed over the city head and landed inside the city wall, exploding, burning...

The defenders and civilians who were trying to put out the fire had never seen this before, and they were so frightened that they ran for their lives.

The supervisor team at the back swung the machete and killed several people, but more and more people rushed towards them. They were so frightened that their hands trembled, they threw down the ghost-headed sword, and turned around and ran away.

Looking at the blazing Hangzhou city, Xu Da showed the smile of a winner.

He drew out his sword and shouted sharply, "Soldier, follow me to attack the city!"

The dignified commander actually took the lead and rushed to the burning city first. How could the other soldiers dare to neglect, and rushed forward together.

Zhang Ximeng looked around, he was the only one left!

"Wait for me!"

In a hurry, he took out his sword and followed...

Chapter end