The four main city gates in the east, west, north and south of Datong Town were closed tightly.
There was a roaring wind in the city, and there were not even a few pedestrians on the streets. Many businesses and shops were closed, and the doors were closed, and the doors of every household in the city were tightly closed.
Although many people knew that Hu Zi Banner was a business, when the Tiger Zi Banner army besieged Datong Town, the people in the city were convinced that they were bandits.
Datong Town is not a small town like Bianbao.
The roughly square town of Datong is 1.8 kilometers long from east to west and 1.82 kilometers long from north to south. The city walls are all based on regular stone strips and stones, rammed with Sanhe soil, and covered with a layer of blue bricks.
The city wall is more than ten meters high, and the brick walls are built with brick stacks that are five meters long, almost one meter high, and half a meter thick. There are such brick stacks every half meter.
"Dong Weng, there are Deputy General Li and others on the city wall. You should go back to the Yamen and take charge!" Hu Mingyi persuaded Li Guangyi to leave from the city wall.
Next to him, Vice General Li also said: "It's too dangerous to stay at the military gate on top of the city. Why don't you ask the general to arrange a few soldiers to protect the military gate when you go back."
"There's no rush." Li Guangyi waved his hand gently and immediately asked Vice General Li, "Tell me the truth, can Datong Town be defended?"
Vice General Li knelt on the ground with one knee and said, "Don't worry, the general will definitely defend the town of Datong."
"Get up, I hope you will keep your word and defend the town of Datong." Li Guangyi said to Vice General Li who was kneeling on the ground, but he didn't have much confidence in his heart.
It's not that he doesn't want to have confidence, but the situation outside the city in front of him makes it really difficult for him to have much confidence.
At this time, the outside of the city was densely packed with rebels as far as the eye could see.
Although he did not directly command the troops like a general, the rebels outside the city were numerous but not chaotic, and their flags were clear. Even if he did not know much about soldiers, he could still tell that the bandit army outside the city was worthy of being called an elite.
"Dong Weng, let's go back first. Since Vice General Li said he could hold it, I believe he can hold it." Hu Mingyi was still persuading Li Guangyi to return to the governor's office.
He and Li Guangyi had different thoughts.
Looking at the army of bandits outside the city, his calves kept spinning, fearing that the bandits outside the city would shoot a flying feather and kill him with an arrow.
Li Guangyi looked at Hu Mingyi next to him and asked: "How are you doing with the border army prisoners in the bandit army anyway?"
Until now, many civil and military officials in Datong Town still believed that many border troops had joined the rebel army, which made the rebel army suddenly expand to tens of thousands.
"No news has come back from those who were sent." Hu Mingyi said, "However, after so many days, there must be some effect. Maybe the rebels only need to fail once when they attack the city, and the border troops who were captured by the rebels will The generals will voluntarily defect from the bandit army and return to the court."
Li Guangyi frowned slightly, a little dissatisfied with Hu Mingyi's answer.
However, he knew that there was little use in blaming Hu Mingyi at this time, so he said: "Find a way to arrange for people to go out of the city to contact the frontier soldiers in the rebel army. As long as they rebel against the rebel army, the court will forget everything in the past."
"The students have taken note of this and will immediately send someone to contact the border soldiers in the rebel army." Hu Mingyi promised following Li Guangyi's words.
The matter of contacting the captured border soldiers was not due to lack of effort on his part. In fact, even he himself was very puzzled as to why the people sent there had not received any news back after so many days.
Li Guangyi stood on the top of the city for a while and watched the bandit army outside the city, and then took Hu Mingyi down the city wall and returned to the governor's office.
All the forests outside Datong Town were chopped bare.
Camps were set up around Datong Town, and the trees that were cut down were used to make ladders and rush vehicles for climbing the city walls.
Coming outside Xinpingbao City were the Tiger Character Banner's First Battle Division and Guards Division, as well as some soldiers of the Second Battle Division.
In a large tent in the Tiger Flag army camp outside the city.
Liu Heng and three military divisions were surrounding the sand table.
If people in Datong Town see this sand table, they will be very surprised, because there is actually a Datong Town on the sand table, which is only much smaller than the real Datong Town.
"When did our artillery arrive?" Liu Heng asked Zhang Hong next to him.
Zhang Hong said: "There are quite a few cannons that need to be transported. I'm afraid it will take a day or two to arrive. My subordinates have already sent additional manpower to assist the artillery team in transporting those cannons."
"Either the army carries a batch of cannons, or else they use this batch of cannons to bombard Datong City first." Chen Xunping said.
Zhang Hong, who was standing next to him, said: "Datong Town is different from the cities we attacked before. Without heavy artillery, it would be difficult for us to blast through the walls of Datong Town. This time the proprietor asked me to bring nine-pounders and twelve-pounders. Pound artillery is specially used to deal with fortified cities like Datong Town."
"I know that Datong City is difficult to fight, but I am more worried that the imperial court's reinforcements may arrive at any time. Once the imperial court's reinforcements arrive, it will be even more difficult to capture Datong Town." Although Chen Xunping said to Zhang Hong, his eyes were looking at To Liu Heng.
When to fight and how to fight, the final decision was made by Liu Heng.
Jia Liu, who had been silent all this time, suddenly said: "There must be people from the Foreign Intelligence Bureau in Datong City. Can we use the people from the Foreign Intelligence Bureau to find a way to open the city gate and let our army enter the city?"
"The four main gates of Datong all have barbicans. It is simply impossible for people from the Foreign Intelligence Bureau to continuously open the inner city gates and the barbican gates. If you want to capture the barbicans outside, you can only rely on a large army to attack them." Zhang Hong said. .
Chen Xunping said: "There are not many defenders in the city, and they cannot compete with us in terms of strength. Even if we attack by force, we will definitely be able to successfully capture the Wengcheng outside."
"If we attack by force, there will be too many casualties. It is better to wait for the artillery team to transport the nine-pounder cannon and the twelve-pounder cannon. With these heavy artillery, it will be much easier for us to attack the city and fewer people will die." Zhang Hong said .
Datong Town was the first large city with high walls and thick walls that the Tiger Banner Army encountered, and the power of artillery would be greatly weakened in the face of such a large city.
Liu Heng looked at the four urn cities in Datong Town respectively, and asked a few people around him, "Which urn city do you think is more appropriate for us to start with?"
"My subordinates think we should attack Ying'en Gate in the east first." Zhang Hong pointed to the Wengcheng where Ying'en Gate is located on the sand table with his finger. "If you enter the city from here, you can go straight to Prince Dai's Mansion."
Chen Xunping objected: "There are moats on the east and west sides. If you want to attack these two directions, you need to fill in the river. I think we should choose the north gate or the south gate as the main attack direction."
As he spoke, he pointed his fingers at the north and south sides of Datong Town on the sand table.
"I support Chen Yingzheng. It is best not to choose the east and west cities as the main direction of attack." Jia Liu expressed support for Chen Xunping.
