Bright Spring

Chapter 425

The freezing rain stopped in early spring, and the troops of the King of Han's Central Army set off.When they arrived in Guizhou City, it was the Lantern Festival. After everyone ate the "floating yuanzi" made of glutinous rice, the New Year's Eve was over.

Guizhou City is surrounded by mountains and forests.So Zhu Gaoxu ordered to hide part of his troops in various mountains and forests, so that the enemy could not figure out how many soldiers and horses he had to besiege the city; then he mobilized the left and right armies to march eastward with great fanfare and approach Liu Ying's troops.

After the deployment is completed, only the generals of the Central Army of the King of Han know that the strength of Liu Ying's troops will reach more than [-]; and the number of troops around Guizhou City will reach more than [-].

... It was only the third day after the army arrived in Guizhou City, but the siege fortifications on all sides had already begun to take shape.

The circumference of Guizhou's city wall is about eight or nine miles, but the siege is seven hundred steps away from the city wall, so it is more than ten miles long.

The fortification structure is not complicated, a trench, rammed earth into the waist wall, and now people are repairing the fence, using bamboo and wood to build on the earth waist wall; every [-] steps, they also need to build camp gates, arrow towers and watchtowers .

On the military camp in the distance, craftsmen assembling return guns and catapults are busy, and the progress of logging and building ladders is also in progress.

Before coming to Guizhou, Zhu Gaoxu knew he was going to attack the city.Siege requires a large amount of arrows, ammunition, and tools, so heavy artillery was not brought, so as not to slow down the marching speed.It will be a while before Qu Neng will dispatch heavy artillery from the Chongqing government.

"Boom!" There was a loud cannon sound in the distance, and some soldiers straightened up and turned their heads to look into the distance.Soon came the general's yelling and scolding: "Hurry up and work!"

While running the horse, Zhu Gaoxu also looked at the direction from which the gunfire came.There is white smoke in one place on the city wall, which should be where the artillery was fired.However, it has no effect. Even the Hongwu cannon with the longest range can't pose much threat to the target a mile and a half away.

The fortifications of the King of Han's army were full of dust.In a trance, Zhu Gaoxu felt that people were building a river dam, or building the foundation of a palace city.And the sporadic cannon fire did not add much to the atmosphere of the battlefield. After all, in Zhu Gaoxu's experience, the construction site would also blow up the mountain.

Zhu Gaoxu reined in his horse, and when he looked away, he saw many soldiers nearby looking sideways at him; with the supervision of the generals, the brothers did not stop their work.

However, there was also a man who was so intent on looking at a stake in front of him that he didn't notice Zhu Gaoxu at all. "Hey..." The man opened his mouth and yelled, swung the hammer, and hit the wooden post with a "bang".People who do this kind of work will cry out, which is said to relieve some internal injuries caused by huge vibrations.

It was a cold spring season, but the man's shirt was open, and the sweat was flowing on his black and yellow chest muscles, glistening in the bright sunlight.

Zhu Gaoxu looked at the faces one by one, thinking that many of them would die in the next few days, he thought about who would die, and felt a little uncomfortable.The ancient Yun Ci did not command soldiers, probably because of this reason.

Not only did he have to consider how many people would die in the siege, but he also had to think about how long Liu Ying and Sheng Yong could delay on their respective battlefields!On the battlefield, whether time is important or human life is important, this is a difficult problem to solve.

Zhu Gaoxu raised his head again, squinting his eyes at the dazzling sun above his head.

A little bird was flying towards Guizhou city in the sky.The gray-blue sky is too vast, and the eyes are too dazzling. If you are not careful, that bird is really difficult to be seen.

At this moment, a "hiss..." sound came from the horse.Amidst the sound of horseshoes, a knight reined in his mount and fell off the horse. He stepped forward and clasped his fists and said, "My lord, I have sent people to visit all the forts within a radius of twenty miles, and almost all the enemy soldiers have withdrawn." Already!"

Zhu Gaoxu nodded slightly, thinking: Guizhou city defenders are not strong enough, they are shrinking the defense line as much as possible.

The knight said again: "However, only the Qingyan Village in the south has not withdrawn, closed its doors for defense, and shot arrows at our scouts."

"Understood." Zhu Gaoxu waved his hand.

The knight bowed and returned to his mount.

Zhu Gaoxu looked at the almost invisible bird above the city, and his imagination was stimulated: maybe the bird was a pigeon, a carrier pigeon raised in Guizhou city; news from outside was sent to Qingyantun, and then the news system Put it on the pigeon's leg, let it go, and the pigeon will automatically return to Guizhou City as if it has been programmed.

This is not surprising, even for human beings, as long as they are instilled with the procedures of loyalty, filial piety and morality, it is difficult for people to resist.Therefore, as long as the Chuanqing people have a little way to survive, even if they are forced to flee to the mountains and become savages, they are rarely willing to revolt.

Zhu Gaoxu immediately turned his head and saw Zhao Ping riding a horse beside him, so he said: "Zhao Ping, send your troops over there and pull out Qingyantun!"

Zhao Ping didn't ask the reason at all, cupped his fists and said: "The last general has orders!"

He has been promoted to the left deputy general of the Hanwang Army. This young man who failed the imperial examination and was initially a groom for Zhu Gaoxu, has climbed his status very quickly.However, even Liu Ying, an official from hundreds of households who was captured in the "Battle of Jingnan", can also be a governor, and there is nothing wrong with a groom as a deputy general.

Thinking of Zhao Ping's background and current official position, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but said again: "By the way, I told you to destroy Qingyan Tun because Qingyan Tun is most likely a stronghold for the enemy to transmit news. There are so many in a radius of twenty miles. It may not be a coincidence that all the forts were withdrawn, but Qingyan Tun was left behind."

Zhao Ping bowed solemnly, made a sound of "driving", turned his horse's head and left.

On the towers and walls in the distance, flags fluttered above, and there were many swords and guns.Zhu Gaoxu estimated that there were only 3 to [-] defenders, but he didn't see it...the number of military households in the capital of Guizhou is quite large, and the number of defenders can be roughly estimated by excluding the Gu Cheng tribe who besieged Kunming.

... Gu Cheng, the Marquis of Zhenyuan, who is over 70 years old, has eight sons in total.When Gu Cheng surrendered to the Yan Palace in Beiping, Emperor Jianwen killed his four sons, including the eldest son.The remaining four sons are all officials in the capital of Guizhou. After being punished by the Jianwen court at that time, they could not care about people so far away, so they survived.

Therefore, Zhu Gaoxu speculated that the chief defender of Guizhou City might be Gu Yong, the second son of Gu Cheng.

Zhu Gaoxu didn't know anything about Gu Cheng's son, and he wasn't even sure if Gu Yong was the guard of Guizhou.

Gu Cheng had guarded Guizhou for many years before the "Battle of Jingnan", and Yonglechu continued to preside over the military administration of the capital of Guizhou.This kind of dignitary who has been serving as a feudal official in the same place all the time, it is easy for local soldiers to have a personal attachment to him.So before Gao Chi ascended the throne last year, Gu Chengcheng dared to openly intercept the guards of the Han Palace.

Even the secret work of the King of Han's Mansion had to go through Guizhou, and they were extremely careful, detouring as much as they could.

Therefore, Zhu Gaoxu had no way to find an internal response in Guizhou City; he didn't even have much information about Guizhou.There are no such people as Huayang County King and Wan Quan in Guizhou City anymore... Some strategies are really rare, they can only be done by chance, and have little to do with the coach's resourcefulness.

How should we attack Guizhou City now?Zhu Gaoxu has been planning for a long time, and he has thought of many ways.

The city gate is relatively easy to break, but the Guizhou defenders are clearly defending it, and the city gate may be blocked by stones; The city became a turtle in a urn, besieged by enemy troops on four walls.

Zhu Gaoxu also considered digging tunnels to seal the gunpowder inside and blowing up the city walls.But is the foundation of Guizhou city soil or rock?he does not know.Even with the soil, it will take a long time to dig the tunnel.

The city wall was blown down, black gunpowder is not explosive after all, and the countless stones and a large amount of rammed earth wrapped at the bottom of the city wall in Guizhou must be piled up in the gap.The Ming army, who has long been used to gunpowder, also knows what is going on, and then the two sides will continue to consume troops at the difficult-to-pass gap... If the defenders of Guizhou City are not 30 to [-], but [-] to [-], Zhu Gaoxu may Try to blow up the walls.

An important town in the Ming Dynasty, with rammed earth walls, usually 20 meters thick at the bottom, holding black fire|powder weapons, what can we do?

The solution Zhu Gaoxu can think of at the moment is to consume the defenders to death!

It's not that he's not in a hurry, it's because he only thought of this method, which made him feel more aware of current affairs.

Zhu Gaoxu thought it was unwise to attack the city as soon as he came up.Good luck may work, but most of the time it is a waste of troops.

Zhu Gaoxu could easily imagine that at the beginning of the battle, the defenders' organization, physical strength, and weapons were well prepared; and the defenders were buffered by a wall that was more than two feet high, so there would be no danger of the field team collapsing.

However, any solid fortification must be defended by people; otherwise, the two-foot-high city wall will not be able to stop it at all, even if it is twenty feet high, there is still a way to climb it!

I am afraid that only when the defenders are exhausted, their strength is insufficient, and their morale is low is the time to launch a deadly attack!

The circumference of the city wall in Guizhou is about eight or nine miles, which is about 4000 meters.

At an average distance of five meters on the city wall, if one enemy soldier can be killed or one enemy soldier can be incapacitated in one day, then about 1000 defenders can be consumed every day.

If such an effect can be achieved.Ten days later, nearly half of the [-] to [-] defenders will be exhausted and physically exhausted; at this time, the possibility of a weak omission somewhere on the nearly ten-mile-long city defense front increases.The King of Han army seized the opportunity to attack the city, and it was very likely to find a breakthrough.

The key point is how to consume it?How many lives are exchanged for the strength of the enemy army!It also includes the consumption of morale and confidence on both sides.

...But now Gu Cheng under the city of Kunming will also face the same problem, and the opponent who will die is Sheng Yong.

Even Gu Cheng didn't come back to rescue Guizhou, it was obvious that he was going to play hard.Zhu Gaoxu has no reason to give up, he has to bet against Gu Cheng!Everything is possible. If you are willing to bet and admit defeat, it depends on who can't bear it first.

Chapter 426 The Mist in the Mountains

"Why don't you bring the Wu hook and collect the fifty states of Guanshan. Please go to Lingyan Pavilion for a while, if you are a scholar with thousands of households?"

A burst of poems full of strong emotions came from the hillside, almost like reciting through gnashing of teeth.Wu Gao, Marquis of Jiangyin, climbed up the hillside following the sound, and he saw Geng Hao, the grandson of Geng Bingwen, Marquis of Changxing.

Now Geng Hao is Wu Gao's son-in-law, and he married Wu Gao's youngest daughter who was nearly thirty years old but had the same thoughts as a three-year-old child. Of course, this is also the reason why Wu Gao took Geng Hao and his son out of prison.

Wu Gao stroked his gray beard and said, "Are you very dissatisfied with the current situation?"