The advantage of a civilization that has existed long enough and has rich and detailed historical materials is that if there are really talented people who read more history books and understand them thoroughly, then there will be nothing new under the sun.

The Ming Dynasty said that it would advance by sea and land, but the army besieged Seoul. How many men and horses were there in total? How many defenders were there?

Yin Yuanheng had the advantage of geographical location and military strength, but he never dared to go out of the city to fight against the enemy. He had already exposed everything: he could not withstand any defeat at all.

Defending the city, as long as the city is not broken, even if you win, you can still hold on.

In his judgment, if the Ming army did not take the initiative to launch a general attack, they would be defeated if they retreated from the city.

Facing such an opponent, Zhang Jing felt no pressure.

Although the Ming Dynasty was strong, North Korea could not be said to be very weak.

Yin Yuanheng did not even dare to break this situation, which only meant that the city now relied on force.

All it takes is a fuse to completely change the situation.

The previous massacre of the Shilin sect failed to achieve this goal.

After all, can those scholars and generals who hold official positions and ordinary people in the city urinate into a pot?

Everyone is fundamentally of a different class.

"It's worse than before the Ming Dynasty's army was reorganized. Most of them were conscripted into the army." Zhang Jing said to Song Liangchen again, "Where's the king's division? All the troops have been recruited. The weather is cold, so shout louder during the drill. Tell everyone, the expedition was originally

There will be extra pay, and there will be rewards for winning. Now, the longer you fight, the more extra pay you will get, and you can still win a complete victory just by relying on momentum and strategy. Therefore, you need to shout louder to let the defenders in the city know.

Master Wang’s morale remains undiminished!”

Some soldiers were sent to help build and guard the city of Incheon and the shipping route, but there are still more than 20,000 troops outside Seoul.

Among the more than 20,000 "army", the only ones who really belong to the elite recruiters of the Ming Dynasty are the 6,000 from the Jiliao Border Region and the 2,000 marines from the Beiyang Marine Division. The remaining more than 10,000 actually belong to the Great Wall Company and the Shipping Bureau, only here

Be responsible for building momentum and undertaking logistics and other tasks.

Including Ping'an Road and Huanghaidao, the other Ming forces in total are less than one-third of North Korea's remaining troops. The total number of standing elite troops dispatched by the Ming Dynasty to North Korea is only 15,000.

But so many people came through the new military disciplines of the Ming Dynasty.

Nowadays, one is to maintain morale, and the other is to keep out the cold. The drill consists of rehearsing the advance and retreat of military formations, and walking and walking.

The problem is that the momentum is completely different.

“One—two—three—four—stand still!”

"Whistle left and right, the formation of mandarin ducks and plum blossoms spread out!"

"Three drums before the war!"

"Dong dong dong dong dong——", "Fight for the Ming Dynasty!"

"Dong dong dong dong dong——", "Be loyal to the Ming Dynasty and be loyal to Your Majesty!"

"Dong dong dong dong dong——", "Defend the people and win the battle bravely!"

Thinking about the smiley words of the generals before, the ordinary recruits of the Ming Dynasty felt happy.

It turns out that the reason for the siege but not the attack was so that they could get more extra money for the expedition. Indeed, an extra month would be an extra five coins.

Although you can't earn other military merits like you did on Ping'an Road and Huanghai Road before, at least it's not dangerous.

If Seoul could be taken down just like this, wouldn't it be a great achievement in defeating the enemy's capital? Such great achievements had not been seen in the Ming Dynasty for many years.

Therefore, the generals of the Seoul garrison looked at the Ming army outside the city with expressionless expressions, and they adopted new tactics.

They were practicing below the city, and the shouts were loud.

This is not like the previous three directions where there were only two or three hundred "surrogate spies" shouting words in Korean that made people in the city unstable. This is an army of over ten thousand. Sometimes hundreds of people shout slogans, and sometimes

The whole army from three directions came and went, shouting in unison as if they were comparing their voices and responding to each other.

This sound could not be suppressed by the war drums on the city wall.

Most of them couldn't understand what they were shouting, but they could only hear the powerful momentum.

Is it today? Is the big one coming?

It's a pity that it's just practice.

The drills were scary: the heavily armed elite soldiers of the Bird Gun Formation and the Yuanyang Formation also conducted cross-country training around the camp, and the troops passed neatly outside the city wall.

I mistakenly thought that these were the three walls of the offensive, and the defenders were firing arrows.

They responded with the usual few cannons fired every day. The cannonballs passed over the training team from the air and hit the city wall more than a mile away. The distance was too far and the damage was not great enough, but it was full of torture.

On the first day when Zhang Jing and Song Liangchen changed their routine again, the defenders of Seoul were frightened and were always on guard against the imminent decisive battle.

The next day, Queen Wen Ding felt more and more in need of stimulation and was paralyzed, and Pu Yu was hollowed out.

On the third day, the Ming army seemed to enjoy it and became more and more proficient in shouting. Even the soldiers in the north and west of the city started military songs.

The weather is naturally getting colder, but the enemy troops are becoming more and more active, and the defenders have been mentally stressed for a long time, so the taste is naturally different.

On the fourth day, Yin Yuanheng's face turned pale: the relays took turns in three directions. This time, the Ming army often had thousands of people shouting at the same time, and they could no longer be disturbed by any sound.

He seemed to be using Korean that he had just learned, and the content of the shout was: The Ming army defends the people and comes to Korea to rescue our brothers. We have been surrounding Seoul for several months. It’s not that we can’t win!

He didn't know who helped Ming Jun translate, but the words he shouted were catchy and rhymed.

The entire sky above Seoul echoed with the chants of the Ming Dynasty demons.

On the fifth day, there were more words.

[If you win a battle, don’t enter the city; if you don’t rob goods, don’t rob people!]

[If you are an official and don’t care about the life and death of the people, you might as well throw it into a big frying pan!]

[We are soldiers and have military pay. You bring your own clothes and food. When the war begins, you block it and protect the general from escaping to the east.]

【……】

No one in Gyeongbokgung Palace looked good.

"We can't do this anymore!" a general said angrily, "I'm willing to go to war so that they can't fool around like this without any scruples!"

The voice is still coming from far away: [We have been surrounding Seoul for several months, it’s not that we can’t win...]

The Korean civil and military forces have never fought such a battle this time.

We are all men, fighting hand to hand!

In the past, these tactics were only used against the other party's decision-makers.

A estrangement.

Some of those who can still stay here today are highly educated. They feel heavy and think of the story of "Besieged on all sides" in Chinese classics.

Now the Ming army is trying to drive a wedge between North Korean generals and soldiers, as well as North Korean civil and military officials and ordinary people.

is that useful?

I'm afraid it's useful...

Yin Yuanheng said flatly: "No! Isn't it just their trick to provoke you to go out of the city to fight? If Baoming can really win easily, why bother with so much effort? So many soldiers are here on an expedition, and it costs nothing to fire cannons every day? Tens of thousands of people are fed and clothed.

No money? For a fortified city like Seoul, they want to cause chaos in the city just because they can’t storm it! Even if they surround the city from all sides and cut off the food and grass in the city, they can’t do it. Otherwise, wouldn’t it be easier for chaos to break out?”

[...At present, we are blocking the battle, and we must protect the general to the death and flee to the east...]

After he finished speaking, another sentence like this came out, and the scene seemed very embarrassing.

It is as if to explain: I know that you all have your own thoughts, and many of you have already planned to abandon the city and flee if the war goes bad, leaving you with a way to survive.

Anyway, if you escape and the Ming army comes to defend the city, will you still be able to capture it? It's a done deal.

"Lord Ling Yi Zheng, this is really not the way to go." Another general said, "At least some of the food that has just been shipped will be used to feed the soldiers. The Ming army has changed their tactics again. No one knows whether they will divide their troops.

Go and cut off the grain road to the east."

"...The truth will be arranged!"

Although Yin Yuanheng nodded, he felt a little depressed.

What needs more assurance now is the civil and military officials who are suppressed by him in the city. Naturally, the morale of the military cannot be disturbed, but the homes of these officials, big and small, and the families of their relatives also need to ensure food supplies.

If even they can't guarantee it, then there will be chaos immediately.

As for the other civilians... they are under siege and fighting, and they have to burn incense if they don't starve to death.

Fortunately, the Ming army doesn't know whether it's because they don't have enough troops, or they are afraid that if they divide their troops to surround the east side, there will be danger in other directions. If the north and west sides are cut off by the defenders, there will be big problems in the transportation of their grain and grass.

Yin Yuanheng could only think about it like this, so he cheered again: "Food is not a problem! Baoming can't securely surround all sides, so he can only try to scare us. They must defend the north and west, and the rest

The troops can only barely surround the south side. On these three sides, the city wall is built on the mountain, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack. The best to attack is the east side. But since the grain road from Gangwon Province to Gyeonggi Province is unobstructed, as long as we work together,

Seoul will never be destroyed!”

No matter how the Ming army changed their tactics, Yin Yuanheng and his brother still managed to maintain stability in both civil and military directions during the battle to defend the city.

This confrontation has been going on for so long, and everyone seems to be used to it.

Even if the Ming army changed their tactics again, they still only shouted words.

It is said that there are ten sieges. Although the Ming army was stronger, it still allowed the grain road east of Seoul to remain open with such a small force. The Korean civil and military could not think of any other reason except that it could not be done.
To be continued...