Cannons roared.
Liu Chengzong watched his artillery shells hit the top of Jiayuguan City and sighed silently in his heart.
His surrender of the garrison at the pass was just a routine matter, and the slaughter of sheep and cattle in front of the pass was just to weaken the morale of the garrison. In fact, he knew better than anyone in his heart that the garrison at Jiayuguan would not surrender.
The Nine Borders of the Ming Dynasty have indeed lost many major battles, but there has never been a civil servant who surrendered without a fight, and the only border general who surrendered without a fight was Fushun guerrilla Li Yongfang.
Jiayuguan has the aura of never being breached since it was built. The defenders here cannot easily surrender to him. Liu Chengzong, who was born in the border army, believes in the professional ethics of these old colleagues.
But he really didn't expect that the guard at Jiayuguan Pass was also a strong man. The marshal's army was stewing meat outside the pass, wanting to show off their wealth and treatment. As a result, the guard at Jiayuguan Pass also set up a big pot at the gate and hung the sheep on the gate tower. Kill now and slaughter now.
Both sides had a good meal, one mobilized troops and the other had high morale. A fierce battle was inevitable, and they could only rely on artillery to communicate.
The two sides fired several rounds of heavy artillery at each other. Liu Chengzong, who was on Tushan Mountain, looked at the telescope for a moment, then turned to Cao Yao and said: "It seems that there is indeed no shortage of gunpowder in Suzhou. The artillery in Jiayuguan can fire accurately and quickly. They have sufficient training, so they have it." Good craftsmanship.”
Cao Yao, who was also holding a telescope, responded, and then nodded and said: "Their artillery is a bit inferior. The imperial court does not pay attention to the northwest offensive and defensive guns. There are only four invincible generals and twelve generals who can fight against us. If we capture them, we can fire light artillery to demolish the sheep and horse wall."
Artillery in the Ming Dynasty has always had various names, but during the Chongzhen period, various types of cannon were divided into three categories in terms of use, namely war guns, attack guns and defensive guns.
War muskets are field artillery, most of which are relatively light; attack muskets have a smaller diameter and can be fired directly and in a curved direction, making them siege guns; defense muskets are heavier, and the distance from the fire gate to the lug is only as long as the lug. Half of the muzzle, the barrel of the gun tilts downward, and is used for swooping down on the city.
However, most of the artillery with this clear classification is used in the Liaodong battlefield and the Xuanda Defense Line where military pressure is high. The artillery in Jiayuguan are all old items from the Qi Jiguang era.
The Ming army at that time had no need to siege cities. The largest field artillery was Qi Jiguang's Invincible General and Ye Mengxiong's General Cannon. The former's normal specification was a Fran machine gun of 1,050 kilograms, and the latter's 1,000 kilograms. forged cannon.
These two kinds of old artillery are the main force of heavy artillery in Jiayuguan, and Liu Chengzong is no stranger to them. Li Bei used the smaller ones to fight him in Yan'an Mansion.
However, there was no joy on Liu Chengzong's face. He had expected that he would have the upper hand in the artillery battle outside the pass at a distance of one mile.
The Marshal's Mansion has complete production capabilities in artillery. When attacking the Bajiao City occupied by Chuoktu Taiji, it even cast cannons on site outside the city. It also had experienced artillerymen from the Ming army and a self-sufficient gunpowder production area.
With advanced equipment, sufficient gunpowder, complete training, and professional personnel, there is no reason for the Marshal's Mansion to lose in the artillery bombardment stage.
What really worries him is the siege, because for him Jiayuguan is a great pass that needs to be broken quickly, and he cannot be here for several months.
Attacking Jiayuguan was not only a shock to Gansu, but also a way to show off their power to Batur Hutaiji and other Wala nobles. Liu Chengzu led four battalions, two battalions of Tianshan Guards and two battalions of Mongolians. Stayed in Jiayuguan for one month.
They must leave for Tianshan in a month. Otherwise, the fourth battalion of Tianshan will not have enough food and grass, and they will have to start eating the food and grass of Liu Chengzong's main fifth battalion.
These people began to eat the food of the main camp, which declared Liu Shizi's Gansu strategy plan a complete failure, and they had no choice but to return to Qinghai.
Therefore, Liu Chengzong's worries mainly came from the scale of reinforcements in Jiayuguan.
The Marshal's Mansion has an advantage in the artillery battle. A long-term artillery battle can weaken the city's defenses to the greatest extent and gain an advantage for the next stage of the storm.
But at the same time, this is also a double-edged sword. It will take a long time to weaken the city defense by shelling. Reinforcements from the east of Jiayuguan will arrive one after another, which will cause trouble for the siege.
But at least for now, the situation is not bad.
Liu Chengzong greeted Cao Yao and said: "Go down, the defenders' cannons can't reach us. It's time to get anxious soon. The cannons can be hit by strong charges."
After fighting with the Ming Army too many times, Liu Shizi also got to know the habits of the Ming Army's gunners. These people came with double charges at every turn, which was quite scary sometimes.
Cao Yao followed Liu Shizi down to the city and asked, "How do you plan to break through the barrier?"
"It's the same old thing, first tear down the Sheep and Horse Wall, and then use cannonballs to knock off the battlements of Guancheng and Hanging Wall. It's best to capture Guancheng by force. If you can't take it... If you can't take it, you can only attack Xuancheng by force. The wall is closed, let’s go inside first.”
The hanging wall mentioned by Liu Chengzong is the Great Wall connecting the cliffs and high mountain deserts on the north and south sides of Jiayuguan. It is relatively easy to cross the pass from the Great Wall, but it still cannot avoid the siege of Jiayuguan.
Therefore, Liu Chengzong planned to use artillery for a day, then send people to break through the hanging wall tomorrow, and use horse soldiers to rush into Suzhou to block the reinforcements from the east.
After that, Liu Chengzong walked down the Tushan Mountain and ordered to the soldiers beside him: "Send an order to the Tianshan Guards and Junggar Camp, and order them to move to the front of the formation, and build ten buildings six hundred steps away from the city, one mile apart from south to north. It’s a four-foot-long earth mountain.”
The city wall of Jiayuguan is three feet high. Liu Chengzong needed to build a four-foot-high earth mountain outside the city in order to see the horse path on the other side of the city wall. The battlements outside the horse path were where artillery fire needed to be destroyed.
As for letting the four battalions of my brother and Varana do earthwork, it was because they did not need to participate in the war. Their presence on the battlefield was just to show off, and it was of no use to save their energy. Building earthwork and digging trenches was not a waste of food.
The greatest virtue of the Marshal's Mansion is that as long as a person is alive, he must not waste food, because every morsel of food that person eats was saved by someone in the world starving to death for him.
But in fact, Ding Guodong on the other side of Jiayuguan feels this truth more deeply at this moment.
The marshal's army slaughtered 72 sheep outside the pass before firing. It was not painful or itchy, because this was the food prepared by Liu Chengzong for the marshal's army. They ate like this all the way from several tuenmu camps.
In fact, because they left the pastures of the Tunmu camp, their livestock supply had dwindled. Anyone could eat live livestock during the march, but outside Jiayuguan, only troops preparing for battle could eat fresh meat.
In order to ensure the morale of this long-distance march, Liu Shizi spent a lot of money. In the next two years, the eight herding camps in Qinghai were in need of grazing.
But for Ding Guodong, the guerrilla general of Jiayuguan, this was not the case. The enemy was killing sheep and cattle outside the pass, which was such an obvious provocation and insult. He could not show weakness. He sent people to the nearby herdsmen on the spot to bring more than 30 sheep to slaughter them. .
It cost money to buy it, but he wanted to buy it, but the herdsmen didn't want to sell it, and they still expected these animals to produce lambs, so they bought it by force.
Ding Guodong had no other choice. Jiayuguan's defense equipment was very sufficient. The biggest loophole was the people. Once the soldiers lost their morale, there would be nothing left.
He can transfer livestock from Suzhou Wei, but it takes half a day to get there, and the most critical issue is that he can afford to buy thirty animals in Jiayuguan, but he cannot transfer livestock from Suzhou Wei. The price is affordable.
The market price of these lambs is only thirty or forty taels of silver, but when reinforcements from all walks of life arrive and he adjusts the livestock, he will not need this amount.
Seeing that the artillery of the Marshal's Mansion suppressed the defenders on the city so much that they could not even lift their heads, even the artillerymen were half a beat too slow to fight back, which almost made Ding Guodong anxious to death.
The guard Qianhu Hei Chengyin was also very anxious. He ran over from behind the battlements with his waist hunched over and said: "General, Hanhan's cannon is very powerful. If you keep putting it down like this, the cannon that has been closed will be smashed sooner or later. I Rid out of the city and destroy a few of his cannons!"
"Don't dare to show off your courage!"
Ding Guodong became anxious when he heard this, pointed at Hei Chengyin and said: "You stay in the gate and don't dare to leave the city. Their cavalry is waiting for you to leave the city!"
He could recognize that the artillery position outside the city was a conspiracy. The brass cannons were clearly better than the old antique cannons in the city, and they were meant to lure them out of the city and destroy the cannons.
This is the consistent style of Ming army warriors. Grandpa's head is here. If you have the ability, come and get it.
"Then, general, just watch them blow up all our cannons?" Hei Chengyin said anxiously: "We have to find a way!"
The closed guns are all good guns that can hit one or even two miles, but if you want to shoot accurately, you only need one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred steps. Beyond this distance, you will not be able to shoot accurately.
What's more, the enemy had piled soil in front of the artillery position, and Hei Chengyin didn't know what the soil was made of. Even if the blind cat encountered a dead mouse, the cannonballs would not be able to penetrate it at all.
The opposite is different. Those huge cannons outside the city, fired at once at a distance of 500 paces, can knock down at least two of their battlements. Once the battlements are broken, the artillery emplacements will have to be moved. If they continue to move like this, sooner or later the artillery will be destroyed. Cannonballs damaged.
Not to mention that these cannons are really old. This kind of artillery battle with a small enemy and a large number is too much pressure to close the sixteen old generals.
"Think of a way. What can we do? Reinforcements are still delayed."
Ding Guodong cursed secretly, several reinforcement stations were only thirty or forty miles away from Jiayuguan, and the two armies faced off and fired artillery for a long time. If his grandfather were still alive, he would have run away on crutches.
"Hold on, hold on until they attack the city, and rely on their strength to kill them in close combat." Ding Guodong said to Hei Chengyin: "Don't let the Marshal's Office underestimate our border defenders."
They did not have an advantage in the artillery battle, but in the close combat at the top of the city, at least within three days, Ding Guodong was confident that he could defeat the Marshal's Mansion.
Hei Chengyin also thought that this was feasible, and called Ha Zhi, a fireman from hundreds of households, and said: "Let your people go get kerosene. Don't let the gates fall. Wait for hundreds of them to attack Wengcheng and set fire to them." !”
This is a solution.
Ding Guodong thought that the enemy had just arrived and his morale was at a high level. If he could win a victory in Wengcheng and kill the enemy's spirit, the most suitable way would be a fire attack.
Because the specialty product with the largest reserves in Jiuquan is petroleum, which is called naphtha in this era.
Jiuquan was the first city in ancient China to use petroleum in defensive warfare. In the first year of Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Jiuquan soldiers and civilians used petroleum to burn the Turkic army's siege equipment, thereby averting danger.
In the Ming Dynasty, due to the existence of deep wells and better oil extraction capabilities, Jiuquan had a series of special products produced by oil, such as ink after burning oil, oil for lighting, waterproof and anti-corrosion paint, asphalt, and vehicle wheel axles. Lubricant, and fire oil for battlefield use.
Fire attack is the advantage of the Jiayuguan defenders.
Ding Guodong did not reject the proposal to burn the siege troops to death in Wengcheng, but he gave Hei Chengyin a very clear and confusing order: "No arson until reinforcements arrive."
But Hei Chengyin understood, and said with a very solemn military salute: "General, don't worry, I understand. I don't need to use it, but we must let them know that we have kerosene."
In fact, the Jiayuguan garrison did not want to fight with the Marshal's Mansion at all. They were indeed well-trained. However, except for the officers, few of the city garrison had experienced war personally. To the garrison, war was just a romanticized frontier fortress poem.
The Gansu frontier army did endure hardships. The supply of food and grass here was not timely and they often went hungry. However, Hexi only experienced desertification and no severe drought. What they experienced was the treatment of the Yansui and Xuanda frontier armies during the Tianqi period, so it was not a big problem.
There is no such thing as the hard-heartedness of soldiers or thieves who had to kill people to survive during the drought in northern Shaanxi.
In their view, the frontier army and the Qinghai Marshal's Mansion had no grudges in the past and have no grudges in recent times. The soldiers attacking and defending the city had no choice but to do it according to their own masters. But in the final analysis, the soldiers on both sides were from Shaanxi. Pushing forward to the year of Tianqi, Maybe Qiu Fang had also stood in a military formation in Huamachi.
The general gives an order, and the soldiers attack the city. They are lucky if they make a contribution, and they are bad luck if they die. People will die in war, and soldiers are mentally prepared to eat food, but at least they can choose how to let the enemy die.
Hei Chengyin could understand that he proposed to use fierce fire oil because he couldn't let his soldiers die at the critical moment, but it didn't matter whether he was stabbed with swords, spears, or bombarded. He just didn't want to be poisoned or burned to death. Death...it's all death, and it's not a pleasant death.
Therefore, he could use fierce fire oil as the last defensive measure before the city was broken. For him, this war was originally a tragedy of fighting against each other.
But Ding Guodong is a general with a veteran background, and his thoughts are not so sympathetic. He is very rational. This is just an account that requires an abacus.
When the reinforcements arrive at Jiayuguan, they can hold it. They can set fire to it, explode it with poisonous smoke, and it doesn't matter how they fight. If they have achieved military exploits, they can be promoted and make a fortune, and their brothers can also eat well.
It is only natural for the government and the army to fight against the rebels.
There was only one reason why he refused to use fierce fire oil. The reinforcements did not arrive, so they used all their weapons to fight hard, destroying the friendship that was born from the same roots. In the end, Jiayuguan was still not defended, and the rebels were full of anger. vent?
To massacre the city.
Now the question is here, where are the reinforcements?
The cannons on the city were still roaring, and several fast horses carrying flags galloped from the direction of Suzhou. They rushed to Guancheng to find Ding Guodong and worshiped him. They reported: "General Ding, reinforcements...the reinforcements can't come."
"them?"
Ding Guodong was so choked that he couldn't speak, so he heard the order from the cavalry: "Thousands of enemy troops rushed into Ganzhou, crossed the high platform and plundered Ma Yingbao. The frontline of the troops was directed at Suzhou. General Zhao gathered troops this morning to rush to the east to reinforce Jinzhou." The Buddhist temple and the Jinta Temple Fort outside the northern pass were also besieged by the Tatar army. There were only 700 soldiers in Suzhou. They said that there would be no reinforcements in three to five days."
