Of course, Emperor Chongzhen's illness was a rumor he deliberately spread. As a result, as he expected, Aurangzeb and Abbas II finally decided to attack Delhi.
Generally speaking, in a siege, if there are no reinforcements from outside, the city cannot be defended. This is common sense.
However, if the army in the city is strong enough, what if there are no reinforcements from outside?
At least facing the 250,000 troops outside, even if they looked overwhelming, the Ming troops in the city were not afraid.
Because the soldiers and horses of the Ming Dynasty believe that as long as the emperor is here, they will be invincible! As a result, the confidence they showed affected the Dongwu and Mughal soldiers. In addition, during this period of time, Aurangzeb's army had been chasing Aurangzeb like sheep, which made them even more confident.
When the coalition forces outside the city arrived, Emperor Chongzhen repeated his old trick and placed his emperor's guard of honor at the top of the city, asking his men to shout and ask Abbas II to come forward and answer.
This time, it was different from Aurangzeb’s time. Abbas II was still very interested in the mad emperor of the Ming Dynasty. In addition, Aurangzeb was about to run away at any time, while Abbas II surrounded the Ming army. Therefore, after hearing the message, he also stepped forward. Of course, there was no doubt that he was at a safe distance.
"The Ming Dynasty has no grudges against the Persian Empire, so why did it lead troops to attack me?" On the city wall, Emperor Chongzhen asked loudly after finishing speaking.
After hearing this, Abbas II sneered and replied: "Why don't you just stay in your own country? You have to come here to cause public outrage! Who do you blame?"
"The Mughals dare to attack the Ming Dynasty and kill our people, how can I spare them!" After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen said sternly, "I will give you another chance before you do anything substantial. , retreat immediately. Otherwise, I will lead my troops to the west, destroy your nine tribes, and Persia will be eliminated from now on!"
To Abbas II, these words sounded extremely arrogant. He did not believe that the Ming Emperor was really capable of this. It was impossible for him to pass this level right now.
Therefore, when he heard it, he immediately laughed and replied: "It seems that you are really an arrogant person. You can also say such big words. Let's get past the current level first! If you really have the ability, I will wait for you." That’s it!”
There was a conversation here. When Aurangzeb heard the report, of course he came over to gossip. When he heard this, he also laughed and said: "The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is really an arrogant person. He doesn't know how high the sky is. How do you think it is?" Was this Khan really defeated before? It was a false defeat, just to welcome you over, but now he has become the turtle in the urn, right?"
As soon as Emperor Chongzhen heard Aurangzeb speak, he immediately shouted: "Beasts who kill kings and fathers have the nerve to come out and call you dirty. Just wait, I will cut you into pieces with a thousand knives as a warning to future generations." !”
When Aurangzeb heard this, he became furious. After all, such a thing was disgraceful.
He did not retaliate, but immediately said to Abbas II: "This dog emperor of the Ming Dynasty is so arrogant. It is useless to talk more. Just capture Delhi and twist off his head and use it as a chamber pot!"
For Abbas II, of course he was also very disgusted with regicide and patricide. Therefore, deep down in his heart, he also disliked and looked down upon Aurangzeb. But now that we are in a cooperative state, he nodded and said: "Yes, there is no use just talking about it, let's see the real deal!"
Having said this, Abbas II frowned and asked again: "You are most familiar with Delhi. How do you think it can be fought well?"
After hearing this, Aurangzeb turned his head to look at Emperor Chongzhen's figure, sneered, and then turned back to Abbas II and said: "Of course I am familiar with Delhi. Before withdrawing a few days ago, the city had been destroyed. Ben Khan has destroyed it. The most important thing is that Ben Khan knows that there is a secret passage to enter the city!"
Upon hearing this, Abbas II was surprised at first, and then overjoyed. He couldn't help stroking his hands and said: "Haha, not bad, not bad, so good!"
"In this way, we will attack the city and cover it from all sides!" Aurangzeb said proudly, "But you have to attack the city with elite troops, and you have to act like you are really fighting, and do it enough, so that you can attract enough attention of the Ming army. Of course, Ben Khan will definitely try to attack the city as much as possible, there is no doubt about this. When the fighting is fierce, Ben Khan will send elites into the city from the tunnels and attack from both inside and outside. In this way, Delhi will be defeated!"
At this point, seeing that Abbas II did not seem to agree immediately, he quickly added: "I have sent all the elites to the city. Outside the city, I can only trouble you. In this way, it is fair. Yes or no?"
Hearing this, Abbas II was no longer silent, nodded and said: "Okay, let's do it!"
Afterwards, the two of them began to discuss the details.
……………………
Whether it was Aurangzeb or Abbas II, even if they were killed, they would never have imagined that Emperor Chongzhen on the top of the city seemed to be standing beside them, listening to the two of them discussing specific details. . Their battle plan was no secret to Emperor Chongzhen.
Emperor Chongzhen looked at the eavesdropping system and saw that after their discussion, Abbas II confirmed to Aurangzeb: "Is the secret passage secret enough?"
"Of course!" Aurangzeb said confidently after hearing this, "Only we, the Mughal Khans, know about this secret passage. The man is dead, and only this Khan knows about it."
The person he was talking about was, of course, Shah Jahan. In addition, there are actually a few people who know that they are the eunuchs who guard the secret passages in the palace. When Aurangzeb captured Shah Jahan and returned to Delhi, those eunuchs offered the secret passage and took refuge in Aurangzeb.
After Aurangzeb and Abbas II finished their discussion, they returned to their own armies and began to deploy siege arrangements.
However, when the two of them were deploying their subordinates, the details they had discussed deviated.
Abbas II, for example, did not send his elite troops to attack the city. He is not stupid. The casualties from the siege must be huge. How could he possibly kill his elite?
On Aurangzeb's side, he indeed selected the best from those who attacked through the secret passage. But for those who were attacking the city outside, he told them that it would be better if the thunder was loud and the rain was light. Wait until the city is on fire, then start attacking the city with all your strength.
At dawn the next day, the army outside the city made pots of rice and had their stomachs full. Then they began to mobilize their troops and horses. The sound of horns, the sound of horse hooves, and the clanking of armor were intertwined together, and the atmosphere changed. Xiao must be killed.
This kind of mobilization of troops continued until almost noon, when the army outside the city, whether it was the Mughal army or the Safavid army, began to press against the walls of Delhi, and the seemingly massive siege began.
"Boom boom boom..."
Where the war was going on, the Mughal Empire was responsible for the east and north sides, and the rumble of artillery sounded first. In other words, they are the only ones with long-range heavy artillery.
After all, Delhi was the capital of the Mughal Empire, and heavy artillery must have been deployed. Since Aurangzeb decided to abandon the city, he certainly would not leave the heavy artillery in the city.
On Abbas II's side, even if the nearest city was Lahore, he also had heavy artillery, but he could not bring the heavy artillery to Delhi, which was eight or nine hundred miles away. Not to mention, when Abbas II set out, he thought it was a field ambush, so there was no need for heavy siege artillery.
As for the Ming army, although Emperor Chongzhen had already decided to defend Delhi. However, the Hongyi cannons were too heavy and heavy to accompany the army in pursuit of the enemy, so they were left to Zhang Huangyan's side.
In this way, only Aurangzeb's side was "booming".
However, the artillery of the Mughal army was obviously not very good, and could compete with the Ming army before Emperor Chongzhen crossed over. The shells were either fired too high or too low, and the reloading speed was extremely slow.
This made the proud Aurangzeb very angry. Bullying that there was no long-range artillery in the city of Delhi, he ordered his heavy artillery troops to move forward so that they could fire more accurately.
Under the roar of the artillery, the infantry outside the city also began to roar and launch an attack. Because there were so many people, the sound was so loud that it almost drowned out the roar of the artillery.
However, in reality, most of the infantry troops charged closer, and then the long-range troops fired at the Ming army on the city top. Not many infantry troops climbed up the city with ladders. After all, this was the heaviest casualty.
As a result, the first day of siege began with great fanfare.
Aurangzeb felt a little satisfied when he heard the shouts of killing from Abbas II's side. But then, he heard his subordinates who were monitoring the other side running over and saying that Abbas II's side was just like here, focusing on long-range attacks and had not sent many troops to climb the city to fight, so he couldn't help but curse his mother. .
However, he actually knew in his heart that Abbas II was definitely not an honest man and would really act according to the agreement. But one thing is certain, as long as there is chaos in the city, Abbas II will definitely attack the city with all his strength.
With this in mind, Aurangzeb looked at the city of Delhi and saw Ming soldiers everywhere. He summoned his elite troops and asked his eunuchs to lead them to attack from the tunnels.
However, he would never know that in the square of the palace in the city, Emperor Chongzhen was leading an army and waiting quietly here. The leading general is Zhou Yuji, a powerful general with heavy troops.
In addition, there are piles of wood piles in the open space of the square and the streets, and Ming army soldiers are guarding each pile of wood.
Emperor Chongzhen saw the start of Aurangzeb's tunnel battle through the eavesdropping system, and said to Zhou Yuji: "Here we come, start preparing!"
If Dalantai were here, he would definitely be surprised to see Emperor Chongzhen's ability with his own eyes. However, Zhou Yuji was not surprised. He immediately received the order and left with some of his men to guard the entrance of the cave.
Of course, Emperor Chongzhen was prompted when he heard what Aurangzeb was talking about there and spent some time finding out these cave entrances.
