Chapter 407: The Wall is High and Wide
Outside the city, Gu Shan organized the 3rd Column and Feng Dayong's 15th Column to attack the west gate together. The enemies on the city fought desperately, and the attack and defense inside and outside the city were extremely fierce.
However, the enemy blocked the wide west gate with sand and stones, and with the enemy's interception at the city gate, the gate still did not explode despite the continuous bombardment of the Shenwei Army's artillery fire.
On the city walls, the Mongolian army put up a desperate resistance despite the bombing of the Shenwei Army. The Shenwei Army's siege had little effect. Due to the high walls and thick city walls, there were too few soldiers going up and they were unable to establish a solid foothold. The first round of attack by the Shenwei Army ended in failure.
Chu Yuxuan went to report to Zhao Yulin that Commander Lai was furious when he saw that the siege was blocked and had ordered a reorganization of the attack.
When the commander gets angry, it is very easy for him to make stupid moves, which will harm the entire army.
Zhao Yulin thought that this was definitely not a good thing, so he asked Chu Yuxuan to pass on the order, asking the siege troops to temporarily retreat and prepare for the next battle.
Later, Lai Chuanfang came hurriedly to find him.
Zhao Yulin asked the guard to bring over a cup of Qingcheng tea and said, "Why are you in such a hurry? Have a cup of tea first and then talk."
Lai Chuanfang was anxious. Regardless of the fact that the tea was scalding hot, he took a gulp and said that Dayong and Gu Shan had not fought hard enough and that their poor command led to the failure of the siege. He wanted to go to the front line himself to command his brothers to climb up the city wall and destroy these bastards.
Zhao Yulin shook his head and said: Now, the enemies in the city are the ingredients on our chopping board. Just cook them however you want. Why are you in such a hurry?
We lost a lot of good brothers in the first battle, which shows that the enemy is fierce and powerful.
At the same time, it also shows that our preparations are far from enough.
He asked Chuanfang to personally walk among the brothers who were on the front line climbing the city wall, and find a better way to reduce casualties and capture the city.
In the city, the defending general Liu Yuzhou saw that the Shenwei Army had stopped attacking, and immediately ordered his heavenly army to stop inflating the hot air balloons and hide quickly. He wanted to use the hot air balloons to launch a surprise attack on the Shenwei Army.
In the evening, Zhao Yulin participated in the combat discussion.
Gu Shan reported to him that Zhengzhou City had thick walls and he failed to defend it, nor did he expect that Liu Yuzhou's people would be so fearless of death.
Liu Qiangguang said that Liu Yuzhou was a die-hard godson of the Northern Barbarians. In order to win over the relatives near Zhengzhou to work for him, he distributed all his land and ancestral property to his subordinates. So those people tried their best to protect him and win the battle to keep their own land and property.
Feng Dayong said, "Why should we be afraid of him? We have an army of 100,000 and such advanced catapults and red cannons. Are we afraid that we can't take down a mere Zhengzhou city?"
Lai Chuanfang reported to him that today's artillery blocking fire was not effective. The enemy also learned from our Shenwei Army and became more sophisticated. They arranged their Huihui cannons in groups of three or five in the city, firing covertly to protect the city and prevent our brothers from attacking the city.
That's why we were blocked by the enemy when we climbed the city wall, which increased our casualties and suppressed our momentum in attacking the city. Tomorrow, when we attack the city, he plans to lure the enemy to fire and first eliminate Liu Yuzhou's heavy weapons such as catapults.
Zhao Yulin nodded and said that this was right. We cannot act recklessly in war, we must use our brains. Every soldier of the Shenwei Army is our brother, and we must never use troops blindly and harm our brothers.
He asked Zhang Qi what the current situation in the surrounding area was like.
Zhang Qi said that there was a news report from the south that Hubili had ordered to suspend the attack on Jiankang Prefecture and withdraw troops to the Huaihe River line for defense.
The Mongolian army in the north, led by Prince Mengge, is coming quickly, but its direction is Kaifeng Prefecture and Yingtian Prefecture. It is suspected that the Mongolian army will deploy defenses in Kaifeng Prefecture.
Minister Miao has already led reinforcements out of Tongguan and is heading towards the war zone.
Deputy Marshal Yang led the army to attack, and General Jiang Hai also left Xinyang and headed north to form an encirclement of Xuchang.
The navy commander Zhou and General Cao Youliang from Jiangnan have already joined General Meng, and all the armies are heading north.
The astronomer reported that the weather has been fine for the past three days, the rivers have sufficient water this year, Zhengzhou is low-lying and has abundant groundwater, so it is not suitable to dig tunnels into the city.
After listening to this, Zhao Yulin nodded and asked Zhang Qi to send a message to Lu Huacai and Gao Jin, telling them that the war in the east was at a stalemate and would last for some time, and that they must guard against Kuoduan's sneak attack.
He asked his brothers to continue the discussion, adjust the deployment and fight again, while he went to the back hall to rest.
In Suzhou, Hubili advanced a big step southward and took the command from the front. When the generals met him, they said to him with some regret, "We were having a great time fighting, why did you retreat?"
Meng Heizi's defense line has collapsed. The Mongol cavalry is invincible. Why should he retreat?
Hubili attached great importance to intelligence gathering and bribed many traitors in Jiankang Prefecture. He had a strong battlefield perception ability and had long since seen through the changes in the Southern Song Army.
He told all the princes, dukes and generals: 40,000 troops from Cao Youliang's Divine Power Army have already crossed the Yangtze River, and Zhou Ping, the chief naval commander of the Divine Power Army, has personally led hundreds of large ships to the east. The ships are neatly arranged on the Yangtze River, clearly demonstrating to the king that they will cooperate with Meng Heizi in the battle.
Right now, the Shenwei Army has surrounded Zhengzhou and Xuchang in the west. The situation is not good. If you guys just attack southwards, what if the Shenwei Army in the west goes eastwards and occupies Yingtian? Our retreat will be in danger.
The generals were awakened.
Immediately, King Lu asked why he was afraid of him. Didn’t the royal court announce that Prince Mengge was leading troops to help? Why should he be afraid?
When Hubili heard this, he immediately felt a little sour in his heart.
The generals in front of him originally obeyed his orders, but now they heard that Brother Meng was coming, and they admired Brother Meng's reputation . They all looked to the north and waited for their big brother.
Subconsciously, he wanted to accumulate strength for himself and ascend to the throne.
Fairy Banban, aren’t you working for your elder brother?
However, Hubili has a strong sense of family. If Mengge becomes the Khan, it means his family controls the real power of the grassland empire and restores the glory of the Toure family, and he will still have the candy to eat.
While Hubili's mind was still spinning, Shi Tianze, the representative of the Haner Army, spoke.
The Haner Army was the local signed troops recruited by the Mongolian Army. Shi Tianze was the largest Haner Army leader in the Central Plains. He believed that the Shenwei Army was coming fiercely and must be guarded against. It would be best to completely retreat across the Huai River and the Yellow River to organize defense, otherwise we would face the attack of the Shenwei Army from south to north and from west to east.
Because Meng Gong, Yu Jie and the Shenwei Army have actually united.
He said with disdain that they were all little southern barbarians, and there was no need to be afraid. Even if they united, what would happen? He would still beat them to a pulp and leave their teeth untouched.
Shi Tianze hated it most when the Mongols called the Han Chinese "Southern Barbarians" because he was also a Han Chinese. This guy said that not all southerners were soft persimmons, there were also hard walnuts.
When Hubili saw that the two sides were getting into a fight, he immediately said that they were discussing military affairs, so how could we underestimate our opponents?
Instead, you're looking down on yourself.
Otherwise, why haven't we defeated the Divine Might Army in all these years?
The generals stopped talking and calmed down to discuss countermeasures.
At the Shenwei Army's command post outside Zhengzhou City , Zhao Yulin had not slept yet.
It was almost dawn when Lai Chuanfang came in to report to him that today we must make full use of our artillery advantages to use overwhelming firepower to destroy the catapults and other heavy firepower in the city, and establish an attack position for the siege troops that would not be threatened by the Mongolian army's Huihui artillery.
Zhao Yulin nodded, and seeing that Lai Chuanfang's eyes were red, he said with a smile, "Isn't it fun to be the head coach?"
Lai Chuanfang apologized to him apologetically, feeling that he had been reckless yesterday.
When he saw that the Third Column had paid a heavy price in sacrifice under the cover of powerful firepower but still failed to capture the city, his eyes were bleeding and he wanted to rush to the top of the city in one go.
Zhao Yulin said that the fight was about to start, so he should have a cup of tea to refresh himself.
He said: We as coaches must keep a clear head. It doesn't matter when we capture Zhengzhou City. What's important is that we take it in the easiest way.
Lai Chuanfang stood up and said that he had remembered everything, then gave Zhao Yulin a standard military salute and left.
In the city, Liu Yuzhou had a rare sleep. When he woke up, he saw that it was already bright in the sky, but he could not hear the explosion of the Shenwei Army's thunder bombs. He asked his personal soldiers in confusion: The Shenwei Army didn't attack?
The guards told him no, just now the Shenwei Army used the Eight Ox Crossbows and Thunderbolt Chariots to shoot a lot of leaflets in, promoting their idea of equality for all and that Han people do not fight against Han people.
Liu Yuzhou smiled contemptuously and said that it was another old trick of Zhao Qier. He couldn't win yesterday, so he thought about it all night and actually used this trick to win people's hearts, but it was just empty preaching.
Does he know what those poor guys need?
When it comes to winning people's hearts, I am the ancestor of Zhao Qier. Just wait and see.
He ordered the messenger to beat the drum to gather the generals, and asked his personal guards to carry out three boxes of silver. He then gave the silver to the generals who came to report, and ordered them to defend the city bravely and kill the enemy to win meritorious service today.
After the generals left, he picked up a silver ingot and tossed it in his hand for fun, while saying to his eldest son, "No matter what, this thing is the most useful."
This guy was showing off when he suddenly heard an explosion at the city gate. The eldest son immediately said that the Shenwei Army was attacking, and the two grandfathers quickly put on their armor and went into battle.
Lai Chuanfang adjusted his tactics, changing from the fierce and rapid attacks of the previous few days to a propaganda war. The military governor suggested to him that although the Liu family army seemed to be united, there were tens of thousands of soldiers in the city, and there were also civilians who were coerced. As long as we did enough propaganda, even if there were no surrendered soldiers, we would be able to shake their morale.
Therefore, the Shenwei Army first launched a propaganda war, promoting the idea that everyone in the Shenwei Army is equal and that the land should be distributed to the people so that everyone has a share.
Not only that, Lai Chuanfang also generously withdrew the guards in the East City, retreating five miles to the left and right to set up defenses, allowing the people in the city to enter and exit freely.
This is what Zhao Yulin told them: surround the city on three sides and leave one person empty, so that the soldiers in the city still have hope of escaping and surviving.
Look, initial results have been seen in just one hour.
The Shenwei Army opened fire to attack the city. Liu Yuzhou stepped forward to supervise the battle. The general in the corner below was muttering. The lieutenant held the silver he had just received and said, "It's of no use. You can only enjoy it while you are alive."
The deputy general complained that the land allocated to him by the Liu family had been equally divided by the Shenwei Army, and everyone had a share, but he was actually wanted by the Shenwei Army, which meant that he had worked for the Liu family in vain.
The soldiers nearby also learned from leaflets sent in from the sky and news brought back by scouts entering and leaving the east gate that the Shenwei Army wanted to divide the land equally and establish a society where everyone is equal.
They gradually realized that they could have a good life without dying in such a muddled way, and began to discuss quietly: The Divine Might Army has not closed the East Gate, so if we can't hold on, we can just go out of the East Gate and get away with it...
