sweeping the world

Chapter 641
Ran Min led his army out of Xiangguo, and it took nearly 20 days to reach Dingxiang.

It took them nearly 20 days to walk the five hundred miles. It was the artillery and the corresponding baggage in the team that slowed down the marching speed. Shorter than cavalry.

It's not that the cavalry will really march faster than the infantry, it depends on what kind of road it is, and the horses of the cavalry are not easy to take care of.

In fact, war horses have always been extremely delicate, they stop regularly to feed them in a fixed amount, and they have to be given enough rest time, and even need to be washed and massaged.

People can march non-stop day and night if they have to endure it. The big deal is to cultivate after the war, but if the horses really want to rush day and night non-stop, they will really be useless.

Li Tan, who had known for a long time that Ran Min would come, felt somewhat uncomfortable.

As General Zhengbei, Li Tan felt that he was a tragic existence, as if he had been under Ran Min's shadow all the time.

The last time the northern shogunate was in charge of the battle against Sizhou, Ran Min stepped in halfway, and the subsequent battles in Bingzhou and Shuozhou were led by Ran Min. It was obviously the job that General Zhengbei should do, but every time he was defeated by Ran Min. Min took over.

This time, Li Tan led his army to block the last remnants of the Jie clan in Dingxiang City. At the final harvest stage, Ran Min came again.

"Come on, don't make a sad face, laugh for the uncle." Seeing that Li Tan didn't hide his depression, Ran Min not only didn't care, on the contrary, he began to like Li Tan a little bit.He said: "Xu Zheng has made all kinds of contributions. He has to be made a marquis, and he has to be a lieutenant, but he has to stay in the center all the time. Can't you live like that?"

As a military general, if you can't lead the army to the battlefield, stay away from the familiar war and iron horses, no longer see the rush of blood, no longer smell the fishy smell of corpses, and can only bury your head in documents all day long, how boring would that be?
"You're right, but..." Li Tan really smiled, but with a little reluctance: "But everyone will be depressed when they are always like this?"

Ran Min waved his hand: "Take me, General, to have a look."

When the Han army besieged Dingxiang, their camps were built around Dingxiang. In front of the camps facing Dingxiang, trenches were dug. The trenches should be about one foot wide and about one foot deep.

"Those are horse pits?" Ran Min pointed to the dense black spots in front of the trenches: "There are so many of them!"

"Didn't you have nothing to do before?" Li Tan became even more depressed when he thought of this: "We have been surrounded for nearly two years, and no matter how much we provoked the enemy before, they didn't come out, so we can only dig trenches and dig holes."

In order to besiege Dingxiang, Li Tan failed to participate in the recovery of Bingzhou and Shuozhou, and the subsequent battle of the grassland and the battle of Yandi had nothing to do with him. In the past, it was more or less able to bury the most elite troops of the Jie tribe. Consolation, Ran Min came over and snatched everything away.

Ran Min personally came to the side of the ditch to watch, only saw the stagnant water in the ditch, and asked: "The enemy has repeatedly broken through and failed to attack the last line of defense?"

"The catapults, bed crossbows, cart crossbows, strong crossbows and other sharp weapons equipped by the three standing armies are not decorations." Li Tan calmed down and pointed to the distance: "With such a defensive chain, how can we attack?"

Ran Min realized that Li Tan was really annoyed, but he was still heartless. He walked around the front line and took Li Tan to watch the bronze cannon he brought.

"This..." Li Tan looked at the thick and long bronze cannon on the wheeled base and asked in shock: "Is this a cannon that can hit three or four miles away?"

Originally, one mile was 300 meters in modern times, but Liu Yan modified it to 500 meters per mile.

In fact, Liu Yan not only modified the number of miles, but also referred to the unified measure of the Qin Empire to standardize and unify the modern units of length. The military was the first to fully implement it.

The importance of measurability is incomparable. Any scientific and technological development is above mathematics, and there is no mathematics when measurability is chaotic.

In order to re-regulate the measurement scale, Liu Yan spent a lot of time and effort, and only after repeated confirmations did he come up with the scale, and only with the original can he promote it.He was the first to roll out the new measure in the military, because he considered that the era of firearms use has arrived, but it cannot be like before.

How was it before?The smallest unit of length is cun, followed by chi, above chi is zhang, above zhang is yin, above yin is li.

The unit of length in each dynasty may have that name, but the actual length has always changed.In terms of the unit of length, the Qin Empire had unified, but the Qin Empire has been chaotic since then. The central government has its own measure, and each region has its own measure.Not only the unit of length, but also the unit of weight. The feudal dynasties since the Qin Dynasty have not unified them again.

The reason why Qin was able to ensure that the degree of measurement was not chaotic was supported by the strictness of Qin's law.Although the subsequent dynasties also had their own laws, they were not enforced with the strength of Qin, and the inconsistent counts facilitated corruption by bureaucrats at all levels.

With the progress of the times, especially the advancement of military equipment, it is really impossible that the minimum length unit is one inch. Taking the manufacture of bronze cannons as an example, there is a huge difference between a barrel difference of one inch and a difference of one millimeter. The same is true for the manufacture of projectiles. In this way, products with higher technical content are less able to tolerate too large errors.

"The projectiles fired by this thing are about 120 kilograms, and the caliber is [-] millimeters." Ran Min patted the twelve-pound cannon that had taken off its gun jacket: "Someone brought thirty of this thing."

Li Tan found that the world had become a bit confusing to him. He had learned about kilograms and millimeters, but he had never heard of the word "caliber".

Ran Min walked to the muzzle of the gun and explained what the caliber was, and then showed off the news he had just learned: "In addition to the 120 mm caliber, there are also various caliber models of 83 mm, 94 mm, and [-] mm."

Didn't Li Tan always stay in Dingxiang?I have heard of the firearms unit, but I have never seen it with my own eyes, so I don’t have much of a concept. I only have one feeling when I listen to Ran Min show off, and that is: It is really out of date with the progress of the times.

New troops from the Han army arrived, and the enemy troops trapped in the city of Dingxiang soon realized that what they saw was only about a thousand Han troops, and they didn't take it seriously. They were worried about whether there would be more troops The new Han army reinforcements came.

"Your Majesty, go back and leave me waiting to die." Zhang Hezhu was Shi Hu's former Si Yu, and he looked around at the same unlucky group of people with the expression of dead parents: "Many times failed to surrender, break out It is also difficult, what should I do?"

Shi Hu is dead?He was indeed dead, or was killed by his own sons.

The Zhao Kingdom of Shijie collapsed, and all the kings with military power in their hands either died in battle or fled far away. Some of Shihu's young sons who were not kings were kept by his side.

Dingxiang has been besieged by the Han army, and there is no news from the outside world. They have not broken out, partly because of Shihu, and partly because they still have some illusions.

If it hadn't really happened, who would have believed that a huge country would collapse so easily? Just because they didn't believe it, they would hold on to hope and wait for someone to come to the rescue. They had to wait for two years. Before that, there was Shi Hu who was half dead. Pressure, Shi Hu's death can be regarded as liberation.

It's not that Shi Hu didn't kill his own son, and his son also wanted to kill him. After the sons in Dingxiang killed him, no one wanted to take the throne. Be the ultimate taker.After all, whether he is the king or not, the fate he gets after the defeat is really different.

"What else can I do?" Zhu Gui's face was so gloomy that he bowed his head and said, "We can only seek to break through."

Zhu Gui was Shi Hu's minister when he was in office, and his official position was much higher than Zhang Huezhu's. However, it is useless to talk about the official position now. What we are talking about is who has the most influence on the Longteng Guards.

"Although helpless..." Zhang Jackal said fiercely, "It can only be done in one battle."

Still the same sentence, they were trapped in Dingxiang for two years, and there was really no news to the outside world. Most people think that the worst situation is that the few princes who commanded troops outside are still defending a certain place to resist, and Da Zhao has not yet died. , If you break out of the siege, you can find a place to inhabit.

Before Shi Hu died, he divided the Longteng Guard into several parts, and Zhang Jack got one-third of the command.After Shi Hu's death, everyone did not get confused and start civil strife. Several generals who had the authority to command the Longteng Guards were able to maintain their power, but they did not feel very happy.

"That's the only way to go." Zhu Gui finally made a copy: "If the enemy has a thousand reinforcements, they can increase their troops even more. We can't delay any longer."

In Dingxiang at this time, within two years, most of the city wall sections had already been gapped, and only Miyagi had maintained a complete city wall.

The plague broke out in Dingxiang City before, and the Han army did not dare to enter at will. After at least half a year from the outbreak of the plague, they would never enter the city unless they stepped in.

"Since they dare to come out of Miyagi, the epidemic should have ended." Ran Min didn't want to drag too much time here, so he convened the generals to discuss: "Is there any possibility for the enemy troops in the city to break through, and if not, there is a plan to take the initiative to attack. "

Li Tan once again became the damn deputy and expressed that he was not in the mood to speak at all.

The same generals who have been dragged in Dingxiang for a long time, they have actually had enough of the endless siege, and it is really their wish to be able to get out of this mud pit, so they expressed their opinions one after another.

"Making the illusion of evacuation to lure the enemy troops out of the city to break through?" Ran Min said that this seems a little unreliable, and it is based on the premise that the besieged enemy army has no knowledge of the outside world: "Does the enemy army know the outside world? You know? If you know about it, it might be self-defeating."

"Our army is not afraid of a strong attack at all now." Li Tan felt that he had had enough: "Why not attack with absolute strength?"

Ran Min expressed his liking for this mindless style of play.He not only brought thirty bronze cannons, but also explosive packets that had played a huge role in the early battle to destroy Yan. There was no shortage of trebuchets in Dingxiang that could launch explosive packets.

On the one hand, they want to attack by force, and on the other hand, they want to break out of the siege regardless of the cost. It's just that the Han army wants to spend at least three days to prepare. The trapped army in Dingxiang City needs a day's preparation before moving in the middle of the night.

The Han army was equipped with firearms, but there were not many that could be mastered and used. Ran Min didn't think about whether he would startle the enemy, and decided to give the future a profound seeing is believing that day.

The bronze cannon has wheels, and the mule and horse can get close to the front line. Ran Min didn't want to be petty, just pulled out one cannon, and pulled them all at once.

In addition to [-] bronze cannons being pulled to the front line, nearly a hundred catapult carts were also pulled up after a lot of tossing, and all kinds of bed crossbows and cart crossbows were not left behind.

The remnants of the Jie tribe who had decided to break through the siege, they made all kinds of final preparations. When they learned that the Han army was making a big move, they thought it was a leak of news, and the mutual distrust intensified.

It can't just be all kinds of long-range troops going up, there must be corresponding troop guards, the movement will naturally not be small, and the mobilized Han army will soon spread out to the east of Dingxiang City.

Once there are tens of thousands of people, there is no bounds. The flags of the army's squares are fluttering in the wind, and all kinds of passwords are spread all over the place.

Zhang Jack went up to the city wall and saw that there were too many things he couldn't understand, and he was even more confused about the Han army's catapults and other equipment in front of them.

Dingxiang's city wall already had gaps, so there was no need to attack the city gates. Infantry and cavalry could quickly charge into the city. It was completely unreasonable to place heavy siege equipment in front of the military formation.

The dilapidated city wall had long lost its value. After breaking through many times, the Longteng guards became familiar with relying on the ruins of the city for street fighting. Zhang Jack and others did not pull out the troops.

Later, not only the generals of the army came to watch on the spot, but also people of some status came over, but they all had the intention of fleeing back to Miyagi on horseback once the Han army charged.

Pointing to a bronze cannon he had never seen before, Zhu Gui asked Zhang Jack, "Does the general know what this is?"

If Zhang Jack knew there would be a ghost, and the distance was really far away, it didn't really look real, so he could only shake his head to express his ignorance.

In the army formation outside the city, Ran Min put down his binoculars, and proudly yelled at his colleagues around him: "Just tell me, the big movement will definitely attract them to come to spy, maybe you don't need to make any more preparations, just blast them to death immediately!" End the war."

Li Tan and other people who don't know the power of firearms don't understand what bombardment means, but they are very interested in ending the war.

Ran Min was very dissatisfied with being judged as a reckless man who only knew how to act recklessly. Many times he found opportunities to use strategies but not many succeeded. He was naturally excited to show his face today. He knew that not everyone could be killed in one go. A large group of people in high positions in the enemy country.

Thirty bronze cannons were placed in a straight line, leaving the necessary intervals between each one. After completing the necessary work of shooting various elements and loading ammunition, they were waiting for the order to fire.

"In the future, no matter whether they are all killed or not, we will treat it as a tentative charge." Ran Min dropped a sentence, and started to walk under the surprised eyes of everyone. Cover your ears."

That's right, although Ran Min has personally lit a cannon more than once, but he is very obsessed with the kind of thing that can be heard when the fire is fired, and he is so excited that he may kill a large group of enemy officials with his own hands.

Zhu Gui, Zhang Yu and others who were on the city wall looking around, they found no signs of the Han army approaching, so they continued to stay. While they were talking, they heard a muffled sound, and the next moment was a strange whistling sound It came over, and something hit me more than [-] steps away. It was a mess with splashes of earth and rocks.

"Straight thief, hurry up and re-check." Ran Min bluffed to the trend artillery: "Move quickly, don't get run away!"

(End of this chapter)