Chapter 97 Hammer smashing walnuts
That's right, the Yellow River Navy.
In Zhao Yong's view, this was like magic.
Nothing else. Because of thousands of years of human settlement and continuous deforestation, most of the northern mountains are bare. The Taihang Mountains are like this, and the Luliang Mountains are like this too. The large trees in Shaanxi and Shanxi had been exhausted during the Hundred Years' War between Song and Xia.
Otherwise, there would not be a large amount of sediment washed downstream, so that there would be a river hanging above the ground.
In the lower reaches of the Yellow River, near Tongguan, there is the famous mainstay Zhongliu. Especially affecting shipping. There is also Hukou Falls, where it is almost impossible to sail a boat from downstream to upstream. Ships can only be built locally. Because of the heavy wood, the local ships are very small. It's just a ferry. Don't even think about it anymore.
The section of the Yellow River controlled by the Northern Army was only part of the Inner Mongolia section of the later Yellow River, and there were no forestry resources nearby. Under such circumstances, how could the Northern Army build a large ship?
But the problem is that he did see the Northern Army ship sailing on the Yellow River.
There were not many in number, only a dozen or so, and the ships were not big, only two or three times larger than the local ferries. They also had various artillery pieces on them. There is no heavy artillery, but it is enough to dominate the upper reaches of the Yellow River.
It is impossible for the Shanxi Army to cross the Yellow River and head west.
Zhao Yong didn't know that this was the role of railways.
Lushun Shipyard directly disassembles ready-made boats into different parts according to the size of train cars. Starting from Yingkou, the parts are transported by train to Dongshengwei.
This was then reassembled in Dongshengwei by qualified technicians from Lushun Shipyard.
Of course, this assembly has a certain impact on the overall structure of the ship. Under such circumstances, these ships cannot fire heavy artillery. Once the cannon is fired, they will probably be shattered. This would be a big joke. Only some small artillery can be arranged, and even infantry artillery cannot be used.
These ships are just living targets on the sea. They don't even need to be hit. If they walk a few times in the violent storm of the sea, they will sink. But this is not the sea, but the upper reaches of the Yellow River. The place he has to face has no artillery at all, just some ferries.
That's enough.
As a result, the most desired reinforcements in Yulin City stopped at the Yellow River. Even Zhao Yong has another terrible thing to worry about, that is, after the Northern Army takes Yulin, whether the enemy will attack Shanxi from Shaanxi.
As a result, Zhao Yong could only deploy defenses along the Yellow River.
But as a result, Shanxi has no mobile troops at all.
Along the Yellow River, the Inner Great Wall, and the Taihang Mountain defense line stretch for thousands of miles. Even though many places are blocked by mountains and are natural defense lines, Shanxi's military strength has been exhausted when looking at such a long defense line. But it won’t work if you don’t prevent it.
Such an embarrassing situation in Shanxi made Zhao Yong think more about it, if not anything else. It is your own future. Did he really follow Nanjing's path to the dark side?
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Zhao Yong still has time to think about his future. But Song Sheng no longer had this intention.
With a "boom" sound, a cannonball hit the top of the city, causing bricks and stones to fly randomly. In many places, pieces of masonry fell away, exposing the rammed earth inside.
The architectural level during the Hongwu period is worthy of recognition. Even under the bombardment of giant cannons, Yulin City still stood tenaciously. The Northern Army occupied all the outlying camps, surrounded them on three sides, and bombarded the city walls day and night, regardless of key points.
In other words, it’s not that the Northern Army ignores key points. But Beijing has too many artillery.
Dozens of heavy artillery were transferred from the rear, hundreds of infantry cannons equipped by various armies, and other miscellaneous artillery were gathered together, and their number almost covered the entire front. After all, artillery layout is also very particular.
Artillery firing positions, gunpowder storage areas, and other places are required. And there must be a certain distance between them. After all, although He Xi has always regarded preventing firearms in the military from exploding as a top priority, he has even made concessions in many places for this matter.
But there was one thing He Xi had to admit.
There is always the risk of a gun bursting.
This is due to technical reasons. Before technology advances, the risk can only be reduced, and it is impossible to completely eliminate the risk of bomb explosion. In other words, when arranging artillery positions, the risk of the artillery exploding the barrel must be taken into account. Otherwise, if you get too close, the barrel will explode. It caused a chain reaction. That's not good.
Such a decentralized arrangement. So many artillery pieces are almost as long as the Yulin City Wall.
It seems that there is no offensive focus. Of course, there are important points. The focus is the north gate. Because the army is easiest to deploy here. Once a breakthrough opens here. When the army marches straight in, it can prepare for street fighting.
Countless soldiers were bored and sitting on the ground behind the artillery, but they did not take off their armor. Because they don't know when the wall will fall. They must be prepared to rush in as soon as the city wall falls.
However, it is certain that the city wall cannot hold up.
Because they could clearly see the cracks in the city wall. From a distance it looks like black lines.
The Northern Army can be seen in the distance as black lines. But Song Sheng seemed to be even more shocked.
There seemed to be light at the end of the cracks, which indicated that some cracks had penetrated the rammed earth city wall several feet wide. The light has come through at the end.
It is already a matter of time before Yulin City is destroyed.
And Song Sheng looked at the soldiers who were standing guard in the Tibetan Soldier Cave under the city. They were all gray and dusty. The northwest was already very windy and sandy. Not to mention the artillery bombardment of the rammed earth city wall, each shot raised countless smoke and dust.
These soldiers cannot go up the city wall. Going up the city wall is simply seeking death, but they dare not leave too far, otherwise the enemy will suddenly attack the city and there will be no time to react. That's a big problem.
You can only eat ashes here.
That’s how it became.
The eyes of each of them were dull and dull.
Song Sheng sighed and thought to himself: "That's enough, it's time to retreat."
Song Sheng can encourage morale. Although Song Sheng is not a top-notch general today, he is still a veteran leading troops. He knows very well that at this point, Yulin City is actually in a completely passive situation. At this time, what needs to be tested is not the methods and strategies, but the will.
The will to persevere.
There is no way, but it is actually a way. This is how many defensive battles last until the end. Hold on to hope in the midst of despair.
So what if the city is destroyed?
It's not like street fighting cannot be fought. Moreover, Song Sheng actually clearly felt that although the Northern Army was very strong, when it came to hand-to-hand combat, that is, hand-to-hand combat, the Northern Army was no better than them, and even somewhat inferior.
A man from the northwest can kill people with a knife, and he is no weaker than anyone else.
Moreover, there is enough food in the city and plenty of gunpowder.
He fought until the end. Even if the city is defeated, it is not impossible to continue fighting for more than a month, or even longer.
But Song Sheng must die. It is estimated that not many of the soldiers who followed him would leave Yulin City alive.
When Song Sheng thought of this, he couldn't help but ask why?
If we were to fight now, it would be the Mongols. Song Sheng, don’t say that there is food. Even if there is no food, he will continue to bite the corpse and continue to beat him, but he will not be cruel. But after all, it was a family matter of the Zhu family. The boss and the second son were fighting for the family property and wanted him and his soldiers to die.
Song Sheng was unwilling.
And even if Song Sheng is willing, these soldiers are not too willing.
Many of these soldiers were former members of the King of Qin. They all miss King Qin. It has nothing to do with whether King Qin is a good person or not. King Qin is dead. No matter how dead. From the last years of Hongwu, they were all put into another book. Now it is being reused.
Song Sheng also felt from the eyes of these people that they might not be willing to die for Nanjing.
If Song Sheng persists, his end will not be too good.
By this time, he felt that he was worthy of the Nanjing court. As for Song's future, he will discuss it in the future, but what he thinks about right now is withdrawing his troops. Read the book
Fortunately, Song Sheng had a lot of preparations for withdrawing his troops.
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One night, the Southern Army in Yulin City suddenly withdrew from Yulin City from the south gate.
Such a big movement cannot be hidden from others. It is even more difficult to hide it from Qu Neng.
Qu Neng was even more delighted.
Of course he wanted to conquer Yulin with regular soldiers and crack walnuts with a hammer.
