4332 (the eighth year of Chongzhen), December 3rd.
Su He stood on a high platform built with a wooden frame and looked at the situation in Mengjin County with a telescope.
A high-magnification telescope allows you to see distant scenes very clearly.
Su He could see the nervous expressions of ordinary soldiers of the Ming army on the top of Mengjin County.
Wang Shiyuan, deputy chief of the general staff, introduced to Su He: "Your Majesty, our army has surrounded Mengjin County.
Commander Su Hu of the Third Army is in the north of Mengjin County. He is setting up artillery on the Yellow River to attack the forts on the bank.
Wu Jie of the Fourth Army was in the west of Mengjin County, blocking Mengjin's escape route to Luoyang and Kaifeng.
Li Dazhuang's troops of the Seventh Army are located in the south of Mengjin County.
Qi Gangyi led the imperial guards to the west of Mengjin County.
All the Ming army strongholds on the outskirts of Mengjin County have been eradicated by our army.
When we attacked the outskirts of Mengjin County, Gao Jie, the former general of the Chuang Army, surrendered to us."
When Su He listened to Wang Shiyuan's introduction, he walked into the governor's camp from the high platform.
The Metropolitan Governor's Camp is a specially established command center for the northern battlefield.
There is a detailed battlefield sandbox arranged here, and dozens of staff members constantly summarize battlefield intelligence and make corresponding suggestions.
Su He made relevant decisions based on the advice of his staff.
Su He originally commanded in his own camp, but as the military scale expanded.
The staff constantly communicated and analyzed things.
The messengers frequently went in and out of the camp to deliver military orders to the various armies.
The camp was in such a mess that Su He couldn't sleep at all and had no energy to direct the army in battle.
He chose to set up another large-scale camp, and all war-related matters were handled in this camp.
Su He looked at the sand table placed in the governor's tent, and the battle situation was clear at a glance.
The Ming army in Mengjin County was surrounded on all sides, with four armies and 160,000 Qin troops, completely surrounding the Ming army.
The Qin army was stronger than the Ming army, and the Ming army tried to break through during the siege.
This Ming army that tried to break out was directly annihilated by Wu Jie.
The Ming army found that they did not have the strength to break through and chose to defend Mengjin County.
Su He ordered: "Call Gao Jie in. He should have some knowledge of the situation in Mengjin County and the Ming army."
The guardsmen took Gao Jie directly into the hut and searched him carefully.
Gao Jie felt extremely humiliated when he was searched, but he did not dare to show any expression of resistance.
Gao Jie was taken to the governor's camp, and the guards of the guard regiment opened the pistol bullet safety.
Once Gao Jie is found to have any abnormal movements, he will be shot to death immediately.
Gao Jie was led in by soldiers from the guard regiment.
There were four officials-looking people in the big tent.
He didn't know any of these people, and he couldn't identify who the King of Qin was.
He immediately knelt on the ground, kept kowtowing, and said: "The common people pay homage to the King of Qin."
Su He looked at Gao Jie with a frightened expression and kept kowtowing.
"Get up! How much do you know about Mengjin County? Do you think the Ming army can hold Mengjin County? Tell us your opinion."
When Gao Jie heard someone giving the order, he stood up, lowered his head, and observed the surrounding situation with the corner of his eye.
The person who just spoke should be King Su He of Qin.
"Reporting to the King of Qin, my knowledge of Mengjin County is limited.
This is a small county town, not large at all. The ferry crossing of the Yellow River outside is very large.
This is a famous Yellow River ferry, and the industry mainly relies on the Yellow River water transportation."
Gao Jie saw from the corner of his eye that King Qin Su He frowned, and he knew that he was a bit verbose.
He started talking nonsense just to organize his thoughts.
"There are not many people in Mengjin County. There used to be more than 40,000 people, but now there are only more than 6,000 people left.
The intruders entered Mengjin County and killed a large number of gentry and wealthy people.
After the Ming army entered Mengjin County, some Ming troops arrested young men in the city and said that these people were all rebels.
They are killing good people and taking credit for their merits. They chop off the heads of these people and use them as credit for their own army.
In Mengjin County, only a few women and children are left.
Before the old, weak, sick and disabled people were in the city, they could not earn food and would have starved to death long ago.
The young men were captured by Li Zicheng and killed by the Ming army for taking credit. Basically, not one of them survived."
When Su He heard what Gao Jie said, an angry look appeared on his face.
When the Qin army attacks, under normal circumstances, they will not attack the people.
The Chuang army and the Ming army had extremely low moral standards, and it was common for them to attack the common people.
The moral level of the feudal army was extremely low.
No one can control the accidental injury of civilians in wars. As long as there is a large-scale war, it will definitely happen.
Treating people as cheap cannon fodder and killing good people to take credit for their crimes was something Su He couldn't accept.
Gao Jie continued: "The original earthen walls of Mengjin County were all destroyed by Ming army artillery.
The cement city wall used in Mengjin County is two meters thick and cannot be broken through by ordinary artillery shells.
In order to save his life, King Chuang used the remaining cement to build several fortresses in the city.
These fortresses are as strong as the city walls, and are equipped with cannons and muskets, ready to fight to the death when the city is breached.
If the sulfur had not been cut off, the Chuang army would not have been able to prepare gunpowder.
Even if Mengjin County is breached, it can still defend it for a long time with these fortresses."
Su He looked at Jiang Zhiyu and asked, "What kind of cement did you give Li Zicheng?"
The craftsmen in Hanzhong have been using cement for a long time and constantly exploring the properties of cement.
Nowadays, thanks to the efforts of craftsmen, cement has several major categories and dozens of subcategories.
Each type of concrete composed of cement has different strengths.
Jiang Zhiyu heard Su He's question and recalled it carefully.
This matter was done by his subordinates and should have been reported.
"Your Majesty, I can't remember the specific model clearly. You proposed to give greater support to the Chuang Army. It should be an old military type."
When Su He heard this, he basically gave up his plan to capture Mengjin County in a short time.
The two-meter-thick high-strength concrete city wall cannot be penetrated by current artillery shells in a short time.
Don't expect a quick victory this time, let the troops practice siege warfare more.
Su He watched Gao Jie being interrupted and stood aside at a loss.
He asked Gao Jie: "Do you know what the weaknesses of the Ming army in Mengjin County are?"
When Gao Jie heard Su He's question, he quickly replied: "King Qin, the morale of the Ming army is very high, and the weapons and ammunition are also sufficient.
The Ming army had a lot of food and grass, and two Ming civilian officials commanded the battle. I really can’t find any weaknesses in the Ming army?”
Su He stared at the sand table tightly. He didn't believe that the Ming army was really invulnerable and had no weaknesses.
The solid concrete city wall made the Qin army's heavy artillery completely useless.
A small number of elite artillerymen operate heavy artillery, and with good luck they can blast enemies on the city wall.
The heavy artillery attack on the concrete city wall had an extremely weak effect.
Su He had previously thanked Mengjin County for its solidity, allowing the Chuang army to rely on this small county to hold off the Ming army for such a long time.
But now as the attacker, he feels very troubled by the fact that the city wall of Mengjin County is so strong.
Could it be that their Qin army also wanted to learn from the practices of the Ming army?
The weapons and ammunition of the Ming army in the city were continuously consumed. When the Ming army ran out of ammunition and food, the Qin army took over Mengjin County.
When Su He thought of this, he directly rejected the idea.
This time, Tianxiong Army and Guan Ning Army have been surrounded, and the start is very good.
But we cannot delay too much time in the small town of Mengjin County to give the Ming court enough time to react.
Su He carefully thought about how to capture Mengjin County after running out of ammunition and food.
It takes a long time to empty out.
If the food in the city can be wiped out, the food shortage can be achieved in advance.
This goal can be achieved by accurately bombing the granary in the city.
Su He had an idea and thought of the hot air balloons commonly used by the Qin army.
When faced with helpless passes, Qin's hot air balloons performed extremely well every time.
Su He walked directly out of the governor's camp. He looked outside the camp at the howling northwest wind.
The wind is too strong now, and the wind is even stronger at high altitudes.
There is no way a hot air balloon can stay stable at high altitude.
Hot air balloons are a good combat platform, but they are very demanding on the weather.
You must wait until the winds subside before using the hot air balloon.
Su He walked into the camp again and asked Gao Jie, "Do you know about the situation in the granary in Mengjin County?"
Gao Jie nodded like a chicken pecking at rice.
"I know very well that my wife Xing is responsible for managing the granary.
I'm very familiar with the location of the granary."
Su He immediately asked Gao Jie to point out the location of the granary on the sand table.
The Ming army will definitely make use of the granary built by the Chuang army.
They had just entered Mengjin County and had no time to build a granary.
Gao Jie marked the locations of all the granaries in Mengjin County.
Su He waved his hand and asked the guards to take Gao Jie down.
He will give Gao Jie a chance and arrange for him to study in a military academy. Whether he can become famous in the future depends on his own ability.
"Chief of Staff Wang Shiyuan, you go and inform the armies that you can try to attack the city and test the strength of the Ming army to defend the city.
If something cannot be done, don’t force it.”
Su He called a group of staff and worked with them to study the feasibility of hot air balloon bombing.
The order was quickly issued to all armies, and they began to try to attack Mengjin County.
Su Hu stood on the solid ice of the Yellow River and looked at the huge fort in front of him.
He said angrily: "What did the Logistics Department do to support King Chuang to resist the Ming army?
It actually uses high-standard cement. The fort I built in Loop is also of this standard."
Su Hu saw the 150 artillery pieces they had worked hard to transport and set them up on the north bank of the Yellow River to attack the forts on the south bank of the Yellow River.
The steel 150 gun weighs close to five tons.
It requires a special artillery carriage, which is pulled by several horses and dragged extremely slowly to the battlefield.
This kind of artillery is extremely powerful. If you attack an ordinary city wall, it will only take three shots and the ordinary city wall will crack.
Now three shots were fired, and the cannon hit the fort and only shattered the concrete outside the fort.
"Fortunately, the Logistics Department didn't go crazy and sold the most advanced artillery to the Chuang Army.
The range of our artillery is much longer than that of the artillery on the fort, and we can attack this fort calmly."
Su Hu personally wrote a battle report and reported on the situation here.
This fort near the river is too strong. It is impossible to win in a short time.
At the Fourth Army Headquarters, Wu Jie frowned and said, "We have been using concrete buildings for defense before.
Now I encounter a reinforced concrete city wall for the first time, and there is absolutely nothing I can do against him."
Wu Jie has learned about the strength of the city wall in Mengjin County, and there is really nothing he can do now.
Chief of Staff Fu Xiucheng said: "The Logistics Department really went too far this time. I remember the Logistics Department did experiments.
Ordinary concrete brick walls and cannons can also be easily solved.
I learned from the Logistics Department that Mengjin County is actually a reinforced concrete structure, and the steel bars inside are thicker than my thumb.
The thickness of the city wall reached an astonishing two meters.
The two-meter-thick reinforced concrete city wall cannot be easily conquered by ordinary people.
Even if we mount 150 artillery pieces, the shells will not be able to penetrate the two-meter-thick reinforced concrete city wall."
Wang Zhixin sighed and said: "There is really no way, this city is too difficult to capture.
There are a large number of artillery pieces on top of the city, which are the artillery pieces we eliminated before.
We all know the power of these artillery pieces, they are more powerful than the Ming army's Hongyi cannons.
We relied on the powerful power of these artillery to easily defeat the Ming army.
I didn't expect that it would be our turn now to bear these artillery fire.
The logistics department is really careless in its work. If firearms are sold in the future, multiple departments should jointly provide guidance."
Wu Jie rubbed his head and said: "I will personally go to the King of Qin to plead guilty, and now withdraw all the soldiers who are attacking the city.
With the current defensive strength of Mengjin County, if we rely on ladders to attack the city, this traditional siege method will be used to scale the city wall.
The Fourth Army must be prepared to reduce its strength by half. This is not how battles are fought.
Using elite artillery and rockets, we tried to hit targets on the city wall. We entered into a war of attrition with the Ming army.
Our army has a steady stream of logistical supplies, but the Ming army's logistical supplies have been cut off by our army.
Even if it continues to be wasted, the final victory must be our army."
It wasn't just Wu Jie of the Fourth Army who changed his tactics.
After trying to siege the city.
Li Dazhuang and Qi Gangyi both gave up the method of attacking by force.
…………………………
Lu Xiangsheng looked at the man in yellow who retreated, and he breathed a long sigh of relief.
"The weapons of the thieves in yellow are too sharp, and their attack on the city is also very fierce.
I'm really afraid that the city wall can't be defended.
We failed to break through and had no choice but to defend Mengjin County."
Sun Chuanting said with a smile: "Thank you to Li Zicheng.
He left us a very strong Mengjin County town, as well as a large number of artillery on top of the city.
The quality of these artillery pieces is much better than the Hongyi cannons we produce.
The artillery eliminated by the thieves in yellow was actually so powerful.
If Li Zicheng had sufficient gunpowder, we would not be able to attack him at all."
Lu Xiangsheng nodded and agreed with Sun Chuanting's statement.
He said in a relaxed tone:
"I heard that the construction method of Mengjin County was taught to the rebel Li Zicheng by the thieves in yellow.
I was a little scared before. The thieves in yellow have ways to deal with this kind of city wall.
I didn’t expect that they are good at building cities. Even if they produce the most powerful artillery, they can’t break through this kind of city wall.”
Sun Chuanting brought a cup of tea, finished the tea and said: "There is sufficient food and ammunition in the city, and our army is very good at defending the city.
According to the current situation of supplies in the city, we can hold on for at least two years.
We really used this small town of Mengjin County to hold off the thieves in yellow for two years and win victory for the Ming Dynasty.
Even if the two of us die for our country, it is totally worth it."
Lu Xiangsheng said confidently: "In two years, the princes of the imperial court should be able to react and send heavy troops to rescue us."
The two of them finished drinking tea and came to the army under their command.
They went to encourage the Ming army and make them believe that they could defend the city.
