Outside Gaotai City, the sky was pitch black at the fourth watch, and the villages and houses outside the city were surrounded by trenches and forts.
As the Dragon Boat Festival approaches, the night is no longer cold. The smoke from the besieged camp is integrated with the night. In the endless smoke, the charming smell of broth is everywhere.
In the abandoned village where the Chinese army was located, the tents of several military tents along the loess road were dimly lit by oil lamps, and solemn officers were quickly entering and exiting the village.
Cao Yao walked to the courtyard wearing a cashmere coat and asked the guard standing guard by the torch outside the courtyard gate, "Where is the commander-in-chief?"
The guard saluted and said, "General Cao, the commander just went to bed half an hour ago."
Cao Yao nodded: "It's time, go get the commander some face wash."
In the large tent where the officers were discussing matters, brigade commander Yang Yao and the frontline battalion commanders all arrived neatly dressed. They took off their helmets and sat on both sides of the long table covered with maps. No one was talking to each other, they were all just looking at the maps in trance.
On that map, the combat positions of several battalions down to the Qian Headquarters were marked. Gututaiji led eight hundred Chahars to the west of Gaotai City, Mo Yujing led two thousand Heshuote to drink horses on the north bank of the Heihe River, and Wei Qian'erying's two thousand headquarters are in the south of the city, and one thousand headquarters is fortified fifteen miles southeast of Gaotai City.
The main attack direction of the Marshal's Army is south of the city, and Hu Zhishen's Suzhou Battalion will be the first batch of siege troops.
The crystal hourglass on the table was dripping. Soon, as the guards sang "The Marshal is here!", the officer in the tent immediately stood up holding his helmet, and then Liu Chengzong, who had red eyes but looked energetic, took Cao Yao with him. He quickly walked into the tent, and when everyone had just stood up, he lowered his hands and said, "Sit down, have you all eaten?"
All the generals nodded. Although it was only the fourth watch, the whole army had already eaten breakfast, and today's breakfast was particularly good. The fire chiefs of each team stayed up all night. At the third watch, they set up pots to boil water and cut meat and noodles. Mixed garlic sprouts and tofu, and made steamed noodles for the whole army.
Authentic, the technical director of this Lanzhou Noodles is Yang Qi, a former Ming Dynasty military officer who was born in Lanzhou. However, the noodles should have been made with pork instead of beef.
Yang Qi said that for good luck, this spicy noodle was called longevity noodles in the Tang Dynasty.
As for the beef, it was given by Lin Chengdong, a military officer of the Ming Dynasty. Before he led the car camp to break out, he ate everything he could eat and took away everything he could carry, leaving more than 30 cows and more than 20 pigs. If they couldn't take them away, they slaughtered them all on the spot.
Brigadier Yang Yao, who was at the front of the long table, smiled and said: "Don't worry, Commander, the whole army has eaten, and now only the Commander is left."
"good."
Liu Chengzong laughed out loud. The battle at the Zhangye Oasis in the east was too chaotic. Zhang Tianlin's troops lost their organization. Officers at all levels could not find generals and generals on the oasis. However, they all knew that the Generalissimo's Chinese Army was besieging the high platform, resulting in Officers at all levels sent information to the Chinese army.
He spent the whole night buried in the sea of newspapers, trying to figure out the general situation on the battlefield from the field camp newspapers that were compiled in pieces... In general, Zhang Tianlin's troops fought well, and the soldiers led by officers at all levels , all rushing in and out in the melee.
Few surrendered to the enemy, but many were wounded, deserted, and lost contact.
On the other hand, there are also many new recruits, including soldiers who belong to the same battalion but are under the command of other officers, soldiers who have returned from the Ming army, and even soldiers who were directly captured.
There was even a Bai Zong nicknamed Yingshanhong, who used to be a soldier of the Heavenly Monkey. It was the first time he wrote a newspaper for the commander, and he was so excited that he could hardly speak.
Ying Shanhong said that she and her immediate subordinates had lost contact and were in a panic. She happened to encounter more than 300 Ming troops in the field. The Ming troops were also panicked. When the two armies met, they turned around and fled at the same time.
After reacting, Yingshanhong led his army back to charge into the battle, and personally captured an officer for himself. His name was Wang Huaizhong, the commander-in-chief of Gansu Town.
When Yingshanhong wrote Tang Bao, the three hundred Ming troops under Wang Huaizhong had already drawn their helmet guns, and together with Yingshanhong's headquarters, a total of 442 people, occupied the ancient castle in the southeast of Ganzhou.
There are many similar Tang reports. Liu Chengzong judged that Li Hongsi's army ran eastward to Ganzhou and lost its organization. Its morale was obviously low during the continuous loss of territory and the eastward retreat of the battle line. The soldiers lacked fighting spirit and the low-level officers had a serious tendency to surrender.
Obviously, in this battle to determine the ownership of Gansu, victory has been tilted towards the Marshal's Mansion.
After conquering the high platform, the journey to Zhangye Oasis must be smooth.
In the central military tent where the proceedings were being held, generals at all levels reported that preparations for the attack were in place. Liu Chengzong reached for the imperial calendar on the long table, pulled off a page and read it.
The torn-off imperial calendar was stamped with the seal of the Qin Tianjian, which stated that April 26, the seventh year of Chongzhen, was the appropriate day for burial and sacrifice.
"Give me the order to conquer the high platform!"
Following Liu Chengzong's order, the torn-off imperial calendar was thrown into the fire, turned into ashes and rose into the sky, using the heat to fly from the dome of the felt tent to the sky.
Under the night, the siege camp was dotted with sparks, and military music sounded one after another. Teams of Suzhou Battalion sergeants held up torches and walked between the trenches and earthen mounds. Thousand-jin red cannons were pushed onto the scheduled cannons protected by earthen and wooden ramparts. In this position, carts of ammunition were piled behind the earth and stone fortifications, and chariots loaded with earth and stone were pushed to the edge of the fields.
On the south wall of Gaotai City, Yang Jiamo, the chief military officer of Gansu Town, stayed up all night like a cook in the camp outside the city.
Since yesterday morning, when the gentry from Ganzhou City came to the city to persuade them to surrender and brought the news that Ganzhou City had been captured by Liu Chengzong, Yang Jiamo had not slept a wink.
The movements of the troops outside the city could not be hidden from him. Liu Chengzong's various actions may not be so easy to understand in the eyes of the main generals of the marshal's army, but Yang Jiamo on the city understood it very well.
For more than half a month, Yang Jiamo has not been idle in the city. He has almost demolished all the buildings in Gaotai City, leaving only a few two- and three-story buildings as resting places for wounded soldiers. The wood and bricks he obtained Shidu was turned into a city defense tool, just to fight to the death.
Because Yang Jiamo knew very well that Liu Chengzong built siege ordnance, collected grain, grass and baggage, uprooted nearby strongholds, besieged surrounding troops, filled in peripheral trenches, increased the number of muskets, and waited for reinforcements to arrive... He couldn't possibly not understand that every action was for Kill him.
And now, apparently the time has come.
First there was a trumpet blast outside the city, then the sound of suonas came one after another, followed by the beating of thick war drums. Under the cover of night, within five miles of the two sides, the sound of rolling wheels squeaked in the darkness and made people's heads tingle. numb.
Yang Jiamo's defenders had dozens of kerosene-burning bonfires piled within two miles outside the city, but beyond the second trench it was pitch black and difficult to see.
But even if he couldn't see it, he could still hear it. It was the unique sound of small, thick and wide wooden wheels belonging to siege equipment, rolling across the fields in groups.
The cannons and military music in Gaotai City also rang out. The soldiers who were waiting for danger woke up from their sleep and rushed to the city wall in panic. They gathered at the base of the city wall piled with defensive equipment under the horse path and stood ready.
Liu Chengzong's siege deployment was completely clear. Yang Jiamo could see it clearly during the day. There were no troops stationed outside the north gate, but that was the Heihe River. There were Mongolian cavalry wandering across the Heihe River. It was a dead end; there were enemy troops garrisoning outside the west gate, but the siege The equipment is not there, it is not the main attack direction.
There are no enemy troops outside the east gate of the remaining two gates. They are deliberately released as a way to escape. Running out and running for more than ten miles until the dog is exhausted, there will be enemy troops waiting for work to pounce on the drowned dog and beat them up. This is the basic operation.
What's left is the south gate. There are eighteen field heavy artillery pieces lined up in a row, and there are also piles of siege tanks. There is no doubt that the main attack direction is south of the city.
But since he saw that Liu Chengzong was planning to use artillery to clear the way, Yang Jiamo could not let the soldiers board the city wall at the first time. Moreover, Gaotai City was too small, and the artillery shells falling over the city wall and falling into the city would also cause casualties to the unassembled soldiers, so he could only let the troops climb on the city wall. They gathered under the horse path inside the city wall.
There are only more than 200 soldiers stationed in the city, but these soldiers are enough for Yang Jiamo.
As he opened his arms, the servant behind him with the three-eyed gun blasted a trumpet. The soldiers stationed under the corner tower in the southeast of Gaotai City immediately responded to the order. With a few shouts, torches were placed on the fire chariot, and a hundred tigers rushed together. The car started up, and hundreds of rockets shot out one after another, illuminating the fields south of the city with a little light.
Under the brief illumination of the rocket tail flames, Lele vehicles loaded with earth and rocks were lined up in a long queue in the fields, heading towards the two ditches outside the city. The first vehicles had already begun to be buried.
Behind those lele cars, there were huge machines that were advancing slowly, casting large shadows behind them.
Just as hundreds of tigers on the city were rushing forward, spewing out a large amount of gunpowder smoke, the siege camp five miles away erupted into a large dazzling light. A series of six thousand-pound cannons fired upwards at close to the maximum shooting angle, sending the screaming solid Cannonballs hit the city.
Several cannonballs hit the surface of the city wall and the city respectively, breaking several bricks, and two more shot through the smoke and flew into the city, but none of them seemed to hit the Hundred Tigers Rushing Chariot they wanted to hit.
Even so, the terrifying momentum still caused Yang Jiamo, who was standing at the top of the city, to frown unconsciously and muttered: "The beating was pretty accurate."
Although not a single shot hit the artillery tank, the artillery skills displayed by the marshal's army's artillery still made the defenders on the city feel miraculous - two cannons fired shells from 1,700 steps away, even if they landed within a radius of five Bu Nei, it’s not surprising.
But the six cannons fired a salvo, and if you don't count the shells that crossed the city wall, they could still land within ten steps in a radius. The impact points of the shells were a bit too dense.
This kind of accuracy is frightening to ordinary soldiers. What they see is nothing more than excitement. The Ming artillerymen on the city can see the way. This is not only explained by artillery skills. In fact, artillery skills are very important in this scale. The least of the salvos.
To put it bluntly, how many inches to raise the muzzle is nothing more than a ruler, and the angle can be adjusted with stones.
Standardized artillery carriages, standardized artillery, standardized charges and standardized artillery shells are the cornerstones of achieving this kind of shooting accuracy. Without these, no matter how advanced the artillery skills are with six different guns, they will not be able to shoot this kind of accuracy. Accurate.
Standardization of the military industry is not a new thing. It has been practiced in every dynasty since the Qin Dynasty. However, it was also out of reach in the last dynasties of every dynasty.
Take the Ming Dynasty as an example. When Emperor Wanli first ascended the throne, the artillerymen in Ji Town erected two poles of different lengths and used the invincible generals in the Franchise style to fire live ammunition. They could hit with such accuracy wherever they pointed.
The battle was entirely about the artillery skills, because as long as there was a problem with the artillery, Qi Shaobao would kill people on behalf of the artillery.
But at this time, according to the military investment of the Ming Dynasty, only Liaodong can have all the cannons it wants. In Gansu, if the artillerymen report that there is a problem with the cannons and cannot fire accurately, Marshal Yang Jiamo can only pat his subordinates. Comforting shoulders: "It would be nice to have some."
In fact, Yang Jiamo said this just half a month ago. The two Ganzhou battalions brought all field equipment. They climbed to Gaotaicheng to look for the heavy artillery that defended the city. The artilleryman said, "Commander, these cannons made by our ancestors are probably No match for the stupid thief.
Yang Jiamo looked at the Jiajing Lord, Longqing Lord and Wanli Lord placed on the city wall. What else could he say besides the blessing of his ancestors?
The salvo of six thousand-pound cannons on the left wing was like a signal, but for a moment the right wing also flashed with fire. The six thousand-jin cannons roared one after another, and then the six frontal cannons also joined the bombardment.
But in fact, the accuracy of the eighteen thousand-pound cannons of the Marshal's Army in front of the formation did not have anything to do with the artillery skills. At this time and at this distance, they could not see the outline of the Gaotai city wall before dawn.
Liu Chengzong's artillery only knew where the artillery they operated should be placed. The reservations were all artillery positions that were experimentally tested after half a month of siege. Blue bricks were used to make the artillery carriage tracks, and pits were dug on the buttocks of the artillery carriages to cushion the cannons. All they had to do was push the artillery onto the track. , raise your buttocks and sink the butt of the gun into the pit, then use a gun gauge to check that the angle is correct, and just shoot with your eyes closed.
The rest is the error caused by the air and the lack of roundness of the cannonball at the distance of 1,700 steps.
The three alternating arrays of artillery continued to roar, which shocked the defenders. However, the artillery on the Marshal's position was fired in an orderly manner.
Due to the fixed shooting angle and gun position, the shooting and firing steps are much more cumbersome than in normal field battles. Therefore, they only fire at half the speed of the drill, firing five times per minute. The firing rate is very suitable for old age.
Even so, the eighteen thousand-jin cannons operated by Huben battalion officers still fired 720 cannons at three targets at the top of the city for the whole time.
When the first ray of sunlight shone on the head of Gaotai City, the brick-clad south city wall was broken everywhere, and the rammed earth layer was exposed in many places. Even the turret on the east side of the south wall was demolished in half at some point.
Liu Chengzong stood on the position where the smell of gunpowder smoke lingered. He counted the collapsed battlements with his telescope at thirty-three. He showed a satisfied smile and turned to the artillery and ordered: "At dawn, the priority is to suppress the artillery on the city head. By the way, knock down the remaining battlements."
Amidst the roaring sound of artillery, the frontline messenger ran back to the central army and reported: "Commander, the second trench has been filled, and we can march!"
Liu Chengzong did not speak, but waved gently. The command flag was waving behind him. The chariots parked outside the second trench with thick wooden curtains were advancing forward. The huge shadows protected the ladder trucks and floor trucks behind them as they advanced to the city. Within the range of the Sanfran cannon.
At the same time, the general cannon at the top of the city, which was still protected by the battlements, also opened fire. Solid iron bullets bombarded the wooden curtains on the front line, causing the thick wooden curtains hung by ropes to roll forward and backward.
The artillery of the two armies roared, and Hu Zhishen, the Suzhou battalion commander who was hiding behind the wooden curtain chariot and directing the battle, urged loudly: "Quick, quick, move forward! Push the wooden curtain into their faces!"
Good evening!
