In the Ruhe Valley east of Longshan Mountain in Pingliang Prefecture, there is a fortified city named Zhenyuan.
Liu Chengzong took a few clerks and explored the road with Yang Yao, Wei Qian'er and others. He stood on a high mountain and looked towards Zhenyuan County in the distance. The large plateaus in the mountains to the north were full of cultivated farmland, and a city at the foot of the mountain blocked the valley.
Be strict.
The city is surrounded by mountains to the north, the Ru River to the south, and spans the valley. There is only one road, which enters through the east gate and exits through the west gate, passing through the city.
The entire city is shaped like a terrain with high north and low south.
There are three high walls on the east, west and north sides. The walls are more than two feet high. The Ru River and Pu River in the east of the city meet and flow along the south of the city. The river bed is very low. It serves as a natural moat for Zhenyuan City. Therefore, there is only a nun wall in the south of the city and no high wall is built.<
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There is a water gate in the south of the city, an urn gate outside the east gate, and the urn gate opens to the north; there are two city gates in the northwest and southwest to the west. There are also urn gates outside the city gates. The urn gate in the north opens to the north, and the urn gate in the south opens to the north.
Nankai.
There is also a north gate on the mountain, which leads to the large plateau in the northeast of the city. There is also a urn city.
There is the Ru River in the south of the city, and there are trenches on the east and west sides to introduce the water of the Ru River as moats. The moat is nine feet wide.
Looking from the mountain, you can see that the city is full of irregular streets that are not connected.
Outside the moat, there are three other small castles and several piers in the southeast, southwest and northwest.
Rather than saying this is a city, it is better to say it is a fortress that exists for war.
In the Northern Song Dynasty, this area was an important town in Ruhe Road's defense against Xixia. Fan Zhongyan built many fortifications and was later called Zhenyuanzhou, where the state was governed.
Fortunately, there was Yang Yao in the team who knew the way. After the Guyuan Mutiny, he escaped from the mountains with the team and got lost for several days. He had already paid the tuition in advance.
Yang Yao pointed to the large plateau in the northeast of the city and said: "The Qingpingyuan Office of Guyuan Pastoral Supervisor is in this city. In summer and autumn, horses are herded outside."
"Isn't it because of the horses that we took this road?" Liu Chengzong said with a smile: "Then when we attack the city, we should go back a little bit, and first use the horse soldiers to block the plateau road and rob the horses."
The road to Zhenyuan is not easy to walk. You have to go northwest along the river valley and upstream of the Ru River, and the road is winding and winding.
The reason why Liu Chengzong took this road was to supply war horses.
In the early days, because they could not afford to raise them, the Lion Battalion only had mules and infantry per person, and the number of horses was less than one-third of the soldiers. Later, the number of people increased, but the number of horses did not increase.
Now that we are going to fight, the imaginary enemy is still Cao Wenzhao's Guan Ning Army. The Lion Battalion may not have any disadvantage in terms of soldiers, but there is a real shortage of war horses.
Besides, there is such a good horse-grazing land in Ningzhou. He wants to go to Guyuan to find the vassal king, the army, and the Supervisory Office to seek some support to defeat the official army.
Yang Yaodao: "Commander, I still can't figure it out. The war horses have crossed Longshan Mountain. There are pastures in the north and south of Guyuan Prefecture. The road to Pingliang Fucheng is much easier to walk than this."
"It's easy to go. Can you restrain the soldiers?"
Liu Chengzong raised his hand and broke a branch on the top of the mountain. He swept the dead grass in front of him and said: "Now that Yang He has summoned Cao Wenzhao to plunder Pingliang City, it is not appropriate. We continue to go west. At this time, plundering the Han Palace will only increase our hatred."<
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"Then..." Yang Yao held his words in his throat, looked at Wei Qian'er again and again, and then said: "Then Pingliang Fucheng will not be robbed? Marshal, one Hanwang Palace is half of Pingliang City!"
"Why are you so anxious? King Han has the ability to fasten four rings to the city wall and carry it away."
Liu Chengzong glanced at him: "I can't carry him away. He is just the ambassador of the Lion Camp. He can rob him whenever he wants. We are facing a war now, so why rush?"
"In other words, can you tie four rings to the city wall and carry it on your back? If you take away half of the city, where will you put it? If you carry a lot of property, isn't that just giving meat to Cao Wenzhao?"
In fact, there is no room for the baggage they are carrying now. Money, food and goods cannot be transported by a baggage outpost prepared for war.
Even including mules, the baggage transport capacity is only 900,000 kilograms.
But now the Lion Camp carries 1.6 million kilograms of food alone, not to mention weapons and equipment, and this does not include Yuzi Camp's baggage.
Liu Chengzong's head gets big every time he thinks about this.
Sun Tzu's Art of War said that fighting the enemy is all about eating, but that is because there is a country behind the army. When they burn the food they cannot finish eating and take away with them in the enemy's country, they still have enough food when they go back.
The Lion Camp does not have this condition. If they burn the food, they will never be able to think long-term and will always be led by their stomachs to go where there is food.
Liu Chengzong swept out a clearing with tree branches and sat on a stone to worry. He needed a base where people would have no worries.
But that's a long-term thing, now they need to attack the city.
Once we pass this city, there are only a few small forts in Longshan, and the westward journey to Guyuan is unimpeded.
Secondly, they also need to occupy this city as a transit station for snatching horses and food from Guyuan Prefecture.
Otherwise, the city's main defense direction is to the west. If you don't control it, it may not be difficult to get there, but it will be troublesome to get back.
A mule team of more than ten people has been wandering westward from the river valley. It is the Ningzhou rice and grain caravan organized by Yu Ziying. Ningzhou has heavy taxes, and people have always traveled hundreds of miles carrying grain to exchange for silver and pay taxes.
Tradition.
Liu Xiangyu took advantage of this and organized a team with a few stones of millet to gather intelligence at close range and observe the fortifications and the number of defenders on the city. Secondly, he also wanted to try to see if he could arrange for soldiers to sneak into the city.
"Is the drawing done?"
Liu Chengzong turned his head, and the clerks, including Song Shouzhen, were drawing on the paper, drawing the outline of Zhenyuan City on the paper.
Liu Chengzong went over and looked at them one by one. There were no professional painters in the team, so the effect was not good.
He reminded: "Make the moat wider. You see, the river is ninety feet wide. Your line has passed. Can the soldiers lift their legs to cross it?"
"The piers of the outer castle will not be painted? I will put you there when the siege begins. If you don't see the painted castle, will they shoot you with arrows?"
"The east wall has three turns, so why don't you draw a straight line for me?"
The bookstore clerks in Lion Camp were all former bandit soldiers, and some were even former bandit soldiers from Lao Huihui. After studying at Zhuantianmao Academy, they became bookstore clerks, and they basically had no painting skills.
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Song Shouzhen, the most educated among them, was only taught how to read by his mother and did not learn cultural knowledge systematically.
In fact, this battle does not require drawings. Liu Chengzong has already visited the city in person and is ready to issue orders when he returns.
But he didn't want to be the first to explore the road all the time, especially in a geographical environment with many mountains and rivers, where the risk of exploring the road was very high.
What's more, in his impression, Huangwa brother Li Zicheng and Tutu brother Zhang Xianzhong, who had achieved success more than ten years later, both died while exploring the road.
Therefore, he wants to train a group of courageous soldiers, scouts, and clerks who can draw the terrain, so that the future road conditions and information will be clear at a glance.
At least to a certain extent, it can avoid the number of personal explorations of the enemy's situation.
It's one thing to have martial arts skills, but it's another thing to have martial arts skills with muskets and artillery.
However, among several bookstores, he really found one that suited his liking.
The clerk looked to be in his thirties, with a medium height and a strong build, a pair of angular eyes, high cheekbones, a big beard, and a face full of flesh.
Just based on his appearance, some people would believe him if he said he ate children.
But he painted very seriously, and although his skills were a lot different, he understood Liu Chengzong’s requirements very well.
This person drew the mountains, rivers, and even the mountain terraces with lines in circles, and also marked the locations of the urns and gate towers.
Liu Shizi looked behind him for a long time before asking: "What's your name?"
The secretary with a sinister face suddenly heard a voice from behind. He was startled, and even the hairs on his neck stood up. When he turned around and saw it was Liu Chengzong, he breathed a sigh of relief with lingering fear, and said quickly: "Commander, I am subordinate to the frontline secretary.
Hu Shizhong."
Liu Chengzong groaned: "Hu Shizhong? What did you do before?"
This name is much more serious than 1, 2, 3, 4. Could it be that you were a student before?
Hearing Hu Shizhong stand up and say: "Commander, I am from Huanglong County. I was the first to herd cattle. In the second year of Tianqi, I couldn't pay the food and died in prison. So I went to Huanglong Mountain and surrendered to Ma Guangyu. Later, I was expelled by Li Bei.
He ran away and entered the lion's camp."
"What's your name?"
"Oh, three generations of our family have been herding cattle. I am illiterate, so I got it from my landlord."
Liu Chengzong nodded, understood, and said: "Stop being at the outpost, go to Team Tang and follow Captain Wei, and do this exclusively from now on."
Hu Shizhong naturally had nothing to say. Yang Yao was standing next to him and said hurriedly: "The handsome man must give me another bookcase."
"Here you go, look at how good this picture is."
Not long after, they returned to the mountain camp twenty miles away from the city. The two battalion chiefs arranged the siege needs around the drawn city defense map.
"The weak point of this city is obviously in the south of the city. When the city was built, it was blocked by a big river. But now there is a severe drought, and the water in the river is barely above the calf. The female wall can be jumped over by a child."
Liu Chengzong pointed to the picture and said: "The biggest problem in the south is that the river ditch is too deep. It is necessary to pile up soil to create several ramps. If we attack one side alone, there will be too many defenders gathered, making it difficult to capture the city. We have to attack two or even three sides." p>
Liu Chengzu said: "Then attack the east city together. There are many dead trees in the woods on the mountain. Build ladders and wooden curtains, and send a team from the north city to contain them."
Liu Chengzong added: "We also need to send the cavalry to the west of the city to block its way of sending messages to the west."
On that day, various tribes went out in the mountains to cut down forests and collect wood.
In the evening, Liu Xiangyu, who went deep into the city, returned with his grain sales team.
Bring back data such as the height of the city, the depth of the trench, and the width of the city, as well as the population of Zhenyuan City and the number of defenders.
At the same time, Mr. Liu used the Pythagorean method to calculate the length of the siege ladder based on the city's height of two feet and two feet. He also drew the design drawings of the siege vehicles and the wooden curtains for shielding arrows and muskets, and handed them over to the two battalions of workers for production.
In addition, Mr. Liu also discovered that there are more than 200 households in the city, more than 3,000 Dingkou, and more than 600 supervisors from Qingpingyuan Horse Prison.
Yang Yao was very surprised when he heard this: "Grandpa, how come there are so many guards? I remember that there were only more than five hundred soldiers in Qingpingyuan. The number of people who could escape should only be one or two hundred!"
"The supervisor, surnamed Cui, is a capable man. Hearing that Yang He went to Ningzhou, he quickly recruited refugees to serve as benefactors." Mr. Liu took away his cigarette holder and smiled: "He even wanted to recruit me as a benefactor and call him to eat horses.
Grain."
Liu Xiangyu's face was filled with ridicule and ridicule.
Liu Chengzong felt in his heart that this prisoner was indeed very powerful.
My father is the kind of serious person who studied hard in a humble life and once passed the imperial examination, he lived a good life, just like any official in the world. Even if he was sent to prison, he would eat differently from others.
Dad has never eaten horse food.
He had eaten it, his eldest brother had eaten it, and people who were born as horse soldiers had eaten it. Even Xiao Liu, who worked as a book boy next to his father, came to his place every night in Yuhe Fort to eat some beans.
A handful of beans can save a life.
But he didn't say anything. Everyone's understanding of the world is different.
He just said: "This prison is good. I will take him away after we go to the city."
Based on this calculation, the number of defenders that can be assembled in this city is about 800 to 1,500. If the benefactor's troops are released and captured while they are outside, the number of defenders during the siege can be minimized.
In general, this amount of troops is completely insufficient.
That night, Liu Chengzong worked with Shi Chengwo, Lin Wei and others at the Gongshao camp to refine the siege vehicle they were going to build.
When they attacked Huojiabao, they made long ladders, but that kind of thing is fine for attacking a small fort. The main force for attacking the city must be siege vehicles.
Unless it is to increase the width of the siege, if you directly use long ladders to siege the city, it is basically cannon fodder. As long as there is a ramming truck on the city, it can be pushed down in series.
The chassis of the siege vehicle is one foot six feet long and seven feet wide. In fact, wider would be better, but the bridge on the moat only allows this width.
A six-foot-wide round wheel is used below, with two floors inside. The front of the lower floor is sealed with wooden boards, and soldiers push carts inside. There are shooting holes on three sides of the upper floor for five or six soldiers to shoot with muskets.
There is a triangular guard plate on the side of the car, the highest is one foot six feet, and two long ladders, one foot five feet long, are carried on the car, the other is folded, and there are two iron hooks at the head of the ladder to hook the city wall.
A rope is connected to the top, and the long ladder is raised by the soldiers in the vehicle.
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Of course, you can also use several wooden poles and large wheels as a winch, which is safer and more durable, but it will increase the working hours and the chance of failure.
At this time, there were not many defenders in the city, and there were not many veterans. The defenders may have never seen an siege in their lives, so Liu Chengzong didn't care so much.
The wooden mantle is a large square thick wooden board, connected with long wooden beams and ropes, and hoisted using the principle of leverage. When soldiers ascend the city, they use it to block the ladder, shield the lead arrows, and also prevent the defenders from destroying the siege ladder. p>
Fortunately, the materials are easy to obtain. Zhenyuan County once had more than 50,000 registered residents during the Jiajing period. Today, there are only abandoned villages in the terraced mountains, reminding Liu Chengzong that these people once lived here.
The three door panels are connected together to form a wooden curtain.
Relatively speaking, the siege vehicle is more difficult to make, but there are many craftsmen in the two battalions, so the process is not too slow if they work together.
Until nightfall on the fifth day, the soldiers of the Lion Battalion drove the mule team from the southern mountainous area to the south of the city, carrying earth bags on the backs of mules to fill the river.
Yang Yao's cavalrymen waded lightly through the water, bypassed the southeastern fort and piers, crossed the city, and went to the west of the city to make repairs in order to cut off the roads and capture deserters.
The Bailiuxi tribe moved to the mountain plateau north of the city, carrying several long ladders, and prepared to attack the city during the day to contain the defenders. Zhang Tianlin's tribe followed and robbed the nomadic benefactors scattered outside the city.
On the morning of the sixth day, the bells of the North Tower were ringing.
The endless army came upstream in the river valley and captured the small southeastern fort in an instant. Six siege engines and thousands of infantrymen rolled through the valley, raising dust that obscured their sight. They advanced sixty steps to the east of the city, separated by the moat and
The city gate towers face each other.
When the magistrate, who had disturbed his sweet dream, arrived at the city, the artillery troops had already set up artillery positions across the river bank. What greeted him were twenty-four bronze cannons, filled with gunpowder and a ferocious smile.
