The battle to attack Hangzhou is different from Huzhou, Jiangyin and Wuxi... First of all, Hangzhou is a large city with a population of hundreds of thousands. With this scale, if you look at the world today, even if it is not ranked among the top five, it is still stable.
Top ten.
Moreover, Hangzhou City, as the former capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, has a complete defense system. There is a moat outside the city, a sheep and horse wall, and a solid city wall. Every 150 steps, there is a horse face, and soldiers can stand on it and cross
The shooting effect is even more powerful than that of Diamond Castle.
Although it has gone through hundreds of years of ups and downs, this set of things is still there. Since the rise of the Red Scarf Army, the Yuan Army has strengthened the city wall. After Zhang Shicheng succeeded in the sneak attack, he also put a lot of thought into it...
The most important thing is that Hangzhou is a port city. It is very difficult to surround Hangzhou at once. If it cannot be sealed, there will be a steady stream of supplies from the sea.
There are many soldiers and horses in the city, abundant supplies, and constant foreign aid... Under such circumstances, capturing a well-defended city is no less than reaching the sky.
This is also the reason why Xu Da was given the task of siege and gave him a hundred thousand troops.
Among the entire Zhu family army, Xu Da ranks second among those who can command an army of 100,000. If he cannot, then only Zhu Yuanzhang will take action himself.
As for Zhang Ximeng, if he is allowed to come, it will not be to command the army, but to coordinate!
With his familiarity with the generals, coupled with his status and prestige, he could coordinate everyone and work together to attack the city, which was still possible.
It was precisely because he was familiar with Zhang Ximeng's abilities that Zhu Yuanzhang sent him over to cooperate with Xu Da.
To be honest, Zhang Ximeng has always been very clear about his position. When he arrives, it is enough to let the generals know. As for anything else, he is determined not to say a word.
After all, if you don't grasp it well and put pressure on Xu Da and make him misjudge, it will be bad.
All in all, leave it to the professionals.
Zhang Ximeng was only responsible for reviewing this battle... First of all, after Xu Da captured Huzhou, he did not rush to capture Hangzhou. Instead, he sent troops and horses to sweep the surrounding towns and pull out every nail.
Especially after taking Yuhang in hand, Hangzhou gradually turned into an isolated city.
But at this point, Xu Da still did not attack the city. He vigorously built a fortress and formed a blockade around the perimeter. Xu Da behaved like a seasoned hunter, patiently setting up traps, trapping his prey bit by bit, and finally achieving a strike.
Must kill.
It is worth mentioning that Xu Da gave Wu Zhen a task, asking him to detour from the upper reaches, cross the Qiantang River, and capture Xiaoshan County.
Wu Zhen successfully completed the task, and then he built a fortress on the south bank of the Qiantang River, and then sent trebuchets, crossbows, and... fire ships!
That's right, Xu Da has long been planning how to cut off the water channel.
Even though the barbarians surrendered in The Hague, Zhang Shicheng still had many ships. It was not easy to cut off the water supply. Xu Da asked Wu Zhen to take the route to Xiaoshan and build a fortress on the south bank. Then he collected the boats and prepared fire equipment.
Only Zhang Shicheng's fleet dared to approach Hangzhou to transport supplies.
Small boats would be dispatched, setting fire to ram large ships. If these large ships wanted to attack Zhu's army on the shore, they would face attacks from trebuchets, ballistae, and gunpowder charges in turn.
Before Zhang Ximeng arrived, Xu Da had quietly cut off all retreat routes in Hangzhou.
It is this operation that perfectly explains the difference between a handsome man and a general.
The next step is to face the city of Hangzhou.
Pan Yuanming also knew that the Zhu Jiajun came with bad intentions, so he went all out to increase the difficulty of attacking the city. He actually built a temporary embankment in the southeast of the city.
With the dam blocking the way, the water level in the moat suddenly increased, and the moat was also widened by ten feet. The water was choppy and difficult to cross.
Pan Yuanming's move was a brilliant move, but he seemed to have forgotten one thing. As the water level of the moat rose, the water seeped into the city, and many low-lying buildings were flooded.
What's even more unfortunate is that low-lying areas are usually the residences of poor people. They are simple and low-lying and cannot provide shelter from the wind and rain. Overnight, they turned into swamps.
The people were miserable and complained.
Pan Yuanming directly ordered the young and strong to be recruited to defend the city. As for the remaining old, weak, women and children, they were locked up in the military camp and closely guarded. As hostages, he held the young and strong. If he wanted to save his family's lives, he would defend the city honestly, otherwise
If so, the whole family will die!
Obviously, the Pan brothers have always been immoral when it comes to being immoral.
After Pan Yuanshao arrived, in order to show his determination, he came up with a new idea, which was to demolish some houses and use bricks and tiles to resist the Zhu Jiajun.
That's not to say that it can't be done, but the problem is that the work done by these brothers is too rough, there is no communication at all, and no compensation or resettlement is given afterwards. If anyone is not convinced, they will arrest them and make them do the hardest and most tiring work.
Son, if you dare to resist again, I will be killed directly.
We cannot say that the military and civilians love each other, but we can also say that they are incompatible with each other.
Under this circumstance, the siege battle commanded by Xu Da began.
The first thing that kicked off the battle was an earth-shaking loud noise.
It turned out that Xu Da secretly arranged for people to approach the dam built by Pan Yuanming. Taking advantage of the darkness, he transported ten barrels of one thousand kilograms of gunpowder, stepped into the dam, and ignited the explosion.
As the dike was destroyed, the river surged out, and the water level of the moat dropped rapidly.
Pan Yuanming was also frightened to death. He was so frightened that he hurried to the city and found that the water defense line he was proud of had shrunk rapidly. His face was quite ugly.
"Xu, I'll be waiting for you here. I'll see how you come here!"
After Xu Da broke through the obstruction of the moat, he was not in a hurry, but concentrated nearly 200 trebuchets to bombard the city of Hangzhou.
In fact, if you want to break open a basic solid city like Hangzhou with just a trebuchet, it is an almost impossible task. You must have something like Lu Gong's car, or gunpowder blasting, or at worst, send troops and use human lives to fill it.
city.
But a very interesting thing happened. Because Pan Yuanming blocked the moat, the water level rose, soaking the sheep and horses wall, and even the city wall was damaged.
Xu Da's trebuchet offensive achieved extraordinary results. Many holes were smashed out of the sheep-horse wall, and then it collapsed in pieces, and it could no longer serve as a barrier.
The city wall of Hangzhou was also damaged in many places, and some of the outer blue bricks fell off.
It can only be said that Pan Yuanming gets hammered if he asks for it.
Xu Da was calm and composed. He just mobilized his soldiers, filled up the moat, and prepared for a comprehensive attack on the city. Unlike Chang Yuchun's hurried style, Xu Da paid attention to taking time and taking his time.
You can clearly feel that it has a unique rhythm, and it is moving forward every moment, as if it is a huge tide, rushing towards you, leaving you with no way to avoid or fight against.
The entire landfill operation lasted for three days. A large section of the moat in the northwest of Hangzhou was filled in, giving Xu Da ample space to perform.
Zhang Ximeng has been observing, and he found that the siege battle is a bit like playing chess. The two sides are arranging their troops around the Chu River and Han borders. How to mobilize the enemy, how to find breakthroughs, how to go straight into the enemy's formation, kill the generals and capture the flag... different
When you play chess, you lose only chess pieces, but when you fight, you lose human lives, every living human life!
Although Zhang Ximeng is used to seeing life and death, his blood flow is still accelerated and his mouth is dry.
Xu Da first assigned Zhou Dexing and Lu Zhongheng to attack the city in two groups. They led their men and quickly approached the Hangzhou city wall, and the battle began.
On the top of the city, bows and crossbows fired in unison, attacking the Zhu family's army. Every moment, some people fell on the charging road, but the soldiers who followed did not make any trouble. They just crossed Pao Ze's body and quickly approached the city wall.
When everyone arrived at the city, they put up ladders and prepared to attack the city. At this time, rolling logs and stones from the top of the city rained down on their heads and faces.
Once a flesh-and-blood body is hit, its muscles and bones will immediately shatter, blood will spurt from its mouth, and it will fall directly to the ground, losing its life.
The Zhu Jiajun is indeed very strong, but it does not mean that the Zhu Jiajun will not suffer losses... Every victory in a battle is won by countless soldiers who fought hard and sacrificed their lives.
The only thing you need to care about is whether the losses are worth it.
Xu Da was watching silently, and from the reaction inside the city, he could glean a glimpse of the real situation in the city.
The attack continued into the afternoon. Zhu Jiajun gained nothing and suffered a lot of losses.
Xu Da gradually came to a conclusion. In the afternoon, he immediately sent Tang Shengzong to lead five goose carriages to launch an attack at the northwest corner of the city!
The so-called goose cart does indeed look like a fat goose.
The body is a solid wooden vehicle, like a mobile fortress, and the goose neck is the ladder. Soldiers can avoid losses inside the goose vehicle. They can wait until they get close to the city wall, and after setting up the rope, they can decisively climb onto the city!
Tang Shengzong quickly approached the city wall in the direction pointed by Xu Da. The defenders were also alerted and hurriedly shouted to come and defend.
The two sides surrounded the city and started a fierce fight.
The soldiers here are fighting bravely to be the first to climb up. They rush to the top of the city on the ladder.
The defenders in the city were also risking their lives. Behind them was the supervising team led by Pan Yuanshao. Everyone was carrying a broadsword. Anyone who dared to retreat would be killed immediately.
Under the threat of death, the city's defenders had to fight desperately, relying on their numerical superiority to push Zhu's army back several times.
Tang Shengzong screamed in anger. He personally carried a long sword and led the attack.
When he just stepped onto the city wall, several spears came towards him. Tang Shengzong slashed hard and broke several spears, but his shoulder was still injured and there was a lot of blood.
Tang Shengzong gritted his teeth and continued to fight. The soldiers who followed also fought desperately, not wanting to miss the opportunity to break the city.
But even so, he was still driven down at dusk. Tang Shengzong, with scars all over his body, apologized to Xu Da.
"The general is incompetent, please punish him!"
Xu Da had no expression on his face and just asked Tang Shengzong to deal with the wound.
In the next two days, it was still like this. Zhu Jiajun climbed to the city several times and almost succeeded, but was pushed back by the defenders inside.
The two sides fought to the death for a long time, and the city walls were covered with siege equipment such as goose chariots.
In addition, the rolling logs and even the corpses of soldiers thrown out of the city were piled up like a hill, and there was no time to clean them up.
On the fourth day, Xu Da suddenly invited Zhang Ximeng to watch the battle.
"Xu Da, do you have a plan to defeat the enemy?"
Xu Da smiled reservedly and asked, "How do you feel, sir?" Xu Da raised his head and looked at the sky.
Zhang Ximeng thought for a while and said: "It seems that the wind direction has changed. Today there is a northwest wind."
Xu Da nodded immediately, "Sir, you are really sharp, I will rely on this wind to break the city!"
Zhang Ximeng was surprised again, Dongfeng refused to go along with Zhou Lang, Tongquechun locked Erqiao deeply!
This is not a water battle. Does the wind direction matter?
Xu Da quickly told Zhang Ximeng with reality that the wind direction was not only useful, but could also influence victory or defeat... This time he deployed three times the strength of his troops, and the trebuchet attack became more violent.
It was not until close to noon that the Zhu Jiajun launched a full-scale attack, attacking the city from two directions in the northwest, like an overwhelming mountain.
Different from the past, among these soldiers, there were actually some people carrying wooden barrels. They arrived at the city gate and sprinkled the fish oil in the barrels on the damaged goose cart.
The defenders in the city demolished a large number of houses. After the bricks and tiles, there were thick beams, which were the most popular. If one was thrown down, it would knock down all the enemies.
Therefore, a large amount of wood was hoarded at the top of the city... Just as the battle was in full swing, Xu Dam suddenly withdrew his troops.
Zhu's army receded like a tide, and the defenders in the city still didn't know what was going on. At this moment, thick smoke rose from under the city wall, and soon turned into flying flames, with fiery snakes blowing by the wind.
Enter the city.
The wood stored on the city wall was actually set on fire.
All of a sudden, the city was burning both above and below.
"put!"
Xu Da gave the order to the trebuchet. This time the trebuchet threw out gunpowder packets.
And taking advantage of the cover of fireworks, the trebuchet was able to approach the city wall. Each gunpowder packet crossed the city head and landed inside the city wall, exploding and burning...
The defenders and civilians who were trying to put out the fire never saw this, and were so frightened that they ran for their lives.
The supervising team behind them swung their machetes and killed several people, but as more and more people rushed towards them, they were so frightened that their hands trembled, and they dropped their ghost-headed knives and turned around and ran away.
Looking at the city of Hangzhou in flames, Xu Da showed a winner's smile.
He drew his sword and shouted loudly, "Soldiers, follow me to attack the city!"
The dignified commander actually took the lead and was the first to rush towards the burning city. The other soldiers dared to neglect and scrambled to rush forward together.
Zhang Ximeng looked around, he was the only one left!
"Wait for me!"
In desperation, he drew his sword and followed him... For the fastest novel reading, please visit the mobile phone:
