"You're right, if they want to take Yongning City, they'll have to pay for it with human lives." He Qianyou gritted his molars and repeated what Yang Fan had just said.
Yang Fan knocked the ashes from his pipe and said: "I believe that the general and Chen Shizheng will not give up on us. As long as we hold on in Yongning City, reinforcements will definitely come. In advance, we must persist until the day when the reinforcements arrive. Do you want to come? A pack of cigarettes.”
He handed the pipe in his hand to He Qianyou.
He Qianyou pushed his hand out and said, "You know I don't smoke this thing. It's too choking. What's the point of smoking this thing?"
"This is a good thing. When you are tired, you can take a few puffs to relieve fatigue." Yang Fan put the pipe into his cloth pocket and hung it on his belt with a rope.
He Qianyou smiled bitterly and said: "I would rather make a cup of tea and drink it, but I can't enjoy this thing like you. It doesn't satisfy you and doesn't make you hungry. It's also choking. I really can't stand it. Usually when you smoke, my nose gets choked when I smell it."
"If you don't know how to enjoy good things, you are not blessed." Yang Fan joked.
He Qianyou grinned and said: "I don't want this kind of blessing, you should keep it to yourself!"
The two bickered for a while, and Yang Fan straightened his expression and said: "I feel a little uneasy about the defense of the city tomorrow. Let's take out all the things we prepared! Give some to each city wall."
"Take it out now and use it. What will happen later?" He Qianyou said worriedly.
Yang Fan looked outside the city and said: "I'm afraid that the enemy won't leave us much time. If Yongning City falls because we leave it unused, we might as well use it all. It would also be good to kill a few more enemies."
"Then I'll listen to you. I will arrange for people to send everything to the city wall tonight. However, we should save as much as we can. We don't know how long Yongning City will be besieged. If everything is used up, we will have to fight with the enemy. We fought tooth and nail on the city wall," He Qianyou said.
There were not many archers in the city, so they relied on cannons and muskets to shoot at the attacking officers and soldiers.
Although it is easier to train firecrackers than to train archers, the loss of gunpowder is also great. Without gunpowder, the cannons can only misfire, and the defenders on the city walls can only fight hand-to-hand with the enemy.
When there is no numerical advantage, hand-to-hand combat is most detrimental to the defenders in the city.
Yang Fan said: "Go and prepare. After that, let the defenders in the city have a good night's rest. Tomorrow might be a bloody battle."
"I will take people to move everything in the warehouse to the city wall." He Qian nodded, turned and left.
As the sky dimmed in the early morning, the garrison in the city began to prepare meals.
Yongning City has a lot of people from surrounding villages and towns, which makes the city have a shortage of food. However, when there is not much food, the defenders never lack a little bit of food rations.
Several big households in the city all took the initiative to take out the grain stored in their homes.
Although the Tiger Character Banner divided their fields, it did not take action against other family properties of wealthy families like them, nor did it harm their families, allowing them to keep most of their family property.
This relieved many wealthy households who were struggling with their families and families.
After more than a year of living under the rule of the Tiger Character Banner, these large households gradually accepted the local governance of the Tiger Character Banner. Although the Tiger Character Banner did not allow each family to buy or sell land, and stipulated the number of acres of land per household. , but it gave strong support in business, reduced many excessive taxes, and completely lifted the shackles on the necks of some businessmen.
Of course, these alone are not enough to make these large households actively donate food.
The reason why these big families want to donate food to support the defense of the city is because he understands the virtues of the officers and soldiers, and they all understand that once the city is defeated, it will not be a matter of losing some food, but that the family will be destroyed, and the women in the family will end up even more miserable. .
Beep! Beep! Beep!
On the watchtower on the city wall, the guards guarding there blew their bronze whistles.
The sharp and piercing copper whistle sounded like a battle horn. The guards on the city wall performed their duties and all entered their fighting positions. valley
The gunners of several four-pounders began to load the cannons with powder and iron balls.
Standing on the city wall, Yang Fan looked at the dust and smoke after the army marched in the distance through the monocular in his hand.
"There seem to be a lot fewer officers and soldiers coming to attack the city today."
Through the monocular telescope in his hand, he noticed that the officers and soldiers outside Yongning City had almost half fewer troops than the previous two times.
Even so, the number of invading officers and soldiers outside the city was as many as 10,000 or 20,000, far exceeding the number of defenders in the city.
"Order the artillery team to fire as soon as the officers and soldiers enter the firing range." Yang Fan said to the messenger next to him.
A lot of medicine was brought out last night, enough to cope with the consumption of a big battle.
The army of officers and soldiers outside the city approached Yongning City little by little.
"The troops have been divided. The enemy has divided their troops." A guard standing not far from Yang Fan said pointing in the direction of the officers and soldiers outside the city.
Yang Fan noticed.
The officers and soldiers outside the city separated into a team of several thousand people and headed towards the east gate of Yongning City.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
War drums sounded outside the city.
Another group of thousands of soldiers and horses broke away from the official army and rushed towards Yongning City.
Many siege equipment were in front of the team, followed by a large number of officers and soldiers.
boom! boom! boom!
When the siege officers and soldiers approached Yongning City and entered the range of the four-pounder cannon on the city wall, each four-pounder cannon was fired under the control of the gunner.
Cannonballs flew out of the city wall and fell into the crowd outside the city.
Jiang Yingzhao said: "We must capture Yongning City, but we must be wary of the army of traitors in Xuanfu. We cannot attack Yongning City from our side and allow the traitors to attack us from behind. ”
"What do you want to do?" Mangui asked.
Jiang Yingzhao twirled the beard on his chin with his hand and said, "On the way back from the supervisory army, I was thinking about how the slave thieves fought with us in the past in Liaodong?"
"Slave thieves?" Man Gui thought for a while and said, "Since Sarhu, we have basically been stationed in the city while the slave thieves attacked the city outside."
After hearing this, Jiang Yingzhao shook his head and said: "That's not what I'm asking. I want to ask how the slave thieves defeated the Ming army one after another."
"Buy the internal agents in the city, take the initiative to offer the city, and cooperate with others to capture the city." Man Gui said, and then added, "Our situation is different from that of the slaves and thieves. Although they are all attacking the city, there is no internal agent in the city to offer the city."
Jiang Yingzhao said: "Don't forget that every time slaves and bandits besiege a city, they always besiege it first without attacking it. When the rescue troops and horses arrive, they will first eat the rescue troops and horses, and then officially attack the city."
"I understand what you mean. You also want to surround them without attacking. Wait for the main force of the thieves to come and annihilate them in one fell swoop." Man Gui suddenly realized.
Jiang Yingzhao shook his hand and said: "We don't all need to imitate the slave thieves. There are only a few defenders in Yongning City, and how many soldiers and horses we have. We can divide our troops into two places. On one side, we can attack the city, and on the other side, we can set up an ambush for the main force of the thieves." .”
