More than a month ago, the Kuaibai rebels were still attacking the city. They captured 47 of the 48 forts in Hexi, leaving only Pinglu City as their Waterloo. In the blink of an eye, the offensive and defensive sides changed positions, and it was the turn of the Ming army.
The siege began, and the rebels moved to defend the city. Liu Dongyang, who was watching the battle from the top of the city in Ningxia, was filled with emotion when he saw the Ming army siege troops coming in like ants.
"Mastermind, do you think we can hold it?" Liu Dongyang asked Kuai Bai who was standing next to him. A low-level officer like him, when he gets excited, thinks that I am the best in the world, but when he fights in such a large corps
At that moment, my eyes suddenly darkened, and I couldn't help but be so scheming.
Kuai looked at the Ming army in all directions, listened to the earth-shattering shouts of killing, pretended to be calm, and said: "General, don't panic, the Ming army is just bluffing. If they want to capture our city of Ningxia, that's it."
wishful thinking."
"But even if they capture us and surround us tightly, we won't be able to do anything about it, right?" Liu Dongyang was not confused and directly raised a key question. As a rebel army without foreign aid, once it is attacked
If it is surrounded, there is no hope of escape. If this is the case, then what is the point of holding on to a city?
Kuaibai smiled and said: "General Soldier, don't forget that the imperial court is no longer the imperial court of the past. If this war continues for a long time, the imperial court will not be able to support it. As long as we hold on for half a year, the imperial court will definitely consider recruiting troops."
"Recruitment?" Liu Dongyang thought in his mind.
He also felt what Kuaibai said. In recent years, the supplies of the border troops were obviously not as good as in previous years, and their determination to use troops against the Tatars was also getting weaker and weaker. Everything showed the decline of the central finance of the Ming Dynasty.
As Kuaibai said, if the war in Ningxia lasts for half a year, the first one to be unable to hold on will be the Ming court, not the city of Ningxia. By that time, the court will probably consider a peaceful solution, right?
If it wants to be resolved peacefully, what conditions will the court put forward, and what conditions can I put forward? For the sake of face, the court will never pardon all the rebel masterminds, but will adopt the method of pulling in a group and beating a group, which was not the case in other countries in the past.
There have been precedents in local mutinies.
So, when the imperial court wants to make peace with the Ningxia rebels, will they ask for the death of Kuaibai or Liu Dongyang? Will Kuaibai do something evil to him?
Cooperation with Kuaibai, for Liu Dongyang, is like dancing with wolves. Kuaibai has the Cangtou Army and some other teams loyal to him. Liu Dongyang's advantage is that he is Han, and most of the Ningxia Wei troops trust him more.
He was somewhat wary of Kuai Bai. Since the rebellion was still too short, Liu Dongyang had not yet been able to establish his own trust among the Ningxia Guard officers and soldiers, so he was unable to fight against Kuai Bai. But at the same time, Kuai Bai did not dare to give up easily.
Liu Dongyang, otherwise it will provoke another mutiny of the Han army.
Such a balanced relationship became even more subtle when the Ming army launched a large-scale siege. Both sides knew that they should cooperate to resist the Ming army's attack. But both sides were also making preparations in case Ningxia City could not be defended.
If you live, you can take the lead and use the other party's head as a gift for your surrender to the Ming court.
"We must not consider the matter of planning and recruiting peace. The Ming army cannot sustain a long war. As long as we defend the city, there will always be a chance to counterattack." Liu Dongyang said to Kuaibai.
Kuaibai nodded and said: "The general soldier is determined. It is a blessing to our officers and soldiers of the Ningxia Guard. The general soldier can rest assured, as long as I am here, the Ming army will never succeed."
"Liu is relieved that the mastermind is here." Liu Dongyang also pretended to be sincere and united, and said to Kuaibai.
The two people with ulterior motives tested each other, and then separated and went to different locations to direct defensive operations. Kuai Bai secretly conspired with Kuai Chengen, Kuai Yun and others to keep an eye on Liu Dongyang. Liu Dongyang also contacted Xu Chao
, Liu Chuanbai, Zhang Wenxu and others discussed how to guard against Kuaibai and preserve their strength, which need not be mentioned.
On the Ming army side, after Ye Mengxiong issued the siege order, all the troops besieging the Ningxia Guard began to attack. The Ming army was no stranger to siege tactics, and they also had many specific equipment. In addition to watchtowers, ladders, and siege vehicles
In addition to such equipment, the application of artillery is also quite mature.
Unlike the artillery used by Su Hao, most of the artillery in the Ming army only fired shotgun shells or solid shells. The number of blooming shells was very small, and due to the use of black powder as explosives, the power of blooming shells was far beyond that of Su Hao's artillery. Su Hao
Li Rusong had previously suggested using artillery to break the city, but Li Rusong laughed at it precisely because the two sides were talking about completely different things. The artillery in Li Rusong's mind was the artillery that fired solid bullets. When the solid bullets hit the city wall, the damage caused was
Very limited, hoping to use solid bullets to smash a hole in the city wall is really too whimsical.
Although he rejected Su Hao's suggestion of using artillery to break the city, Li Rusong still used artillery to the maximum extent when he commanded the Liaodong Army to attack the city. However, its role was to bombard the defenders at the top of the city and cover the soldiers' climb to the city.
Li Rusong came with the idea of making achievements in Ningxia, so he naturally spared no effort in commanding the Liaodong Army to attack the city. Under the cover of artillery and bows and arrows, the Liaodong Army divided into dozens of groups, carried ladders and rushed straight to the Ningxia City, and began to climb the city without any explanation.
The Ningxia army at the head of the city had long been threatened by Kuai Bai and Liu Dongyang, saying that once the city was breached, the Ming army would kill all the rebels, so each and every one of them tried their best to defend themselves to prevent the Ming army from ascending the city.
The siege battle entered a fever pitch from the very beginning.
Li Rusong's arrogance is not without reason. The Liaodong Army under his command is indeed extremely brave. No matter whether it is huge rocks or boiling oil thrown down from the city, as long as their lives are not taken away, they will persevere along the ladder to the city.
Attack on the top of the city. Hand-to-hand combat took place at each entrance to the city. People kept falling from the top of the city, several feet high. The sergeants who fell basically had no hope of survival. But even so, the officers and soldiers behind seemed like
It was as if he didn't see anything, but he still charged upwards with perseverance.
The Liaodong Army fought fiercely, and the Ningxia Army was also a cornered beast. As a border city, Ningxia City has always been prepared to prevent Tatars from attacking the city. The officers and soldiers of the Ningxia Guard are no strangers to the battle of defending the city, and have prepared a large number of defensive equipment.
Kuaibai knew the principle of going all out. Facing the first wave of Ming army's offensive, he ordered to defend at all costs. His most elite Cangtou army was also sent to the top of the city. These local ruffians were all naked, with their hands on their chests.
Li wielded the Ghost Head Sword and fought with the Ming army for the top of the city, inflicting maximum damage on the Ming army.
"The siege battle was so tragic." Su Hao, Xu Guangzu, Chen Dao and others stood on a hillside in the distance, holding up binoculars to watch the siege battle, and couldn't help but sigh. This is not the case.
In the movie, the city was full of living people. Seeing them fall bloody one by one, Su Hao felt very uncomfortable.
"That's how fighting is, it just depends on which side has more stamina." Xu Guangzu replied. As a veteran who has been on the battlefield for many years, he is already very familiar with such scenes and will not be as pitiful as Su Hao.
Su Hao asked: "Uncle Xu, in your opinion, can the Liaodong Army capture the city head?"
Xu Guangzu said: "How can it be so fast? This is the first round of siege."
Su Hao said in surprise: "What, does it take many rounds to attack it?"
Chen Daoyou interjected: "It all depends on the strength comparison between the two sides. If the strong bullies the weak, it is possible to capture the city in one round. But looking at the current battle situation, Kuaibai's troops are not the best.
Weak enemies, the Liaodong Army is only on par with them. Now that the Liaodong Army has the advantage of a favorable geographical location, it will be difficult for the Liaodong Army to make any achievements unless they attack for ten or eight rounds."
"But..." Su Hao didn't know what to say. This round of attacks was already so brutal. If there were ten rounds and eight rounds, wouldn't it mean that there would be corpses everywhere?
Xu Guangzu explained: "This siege is based on the attrition of both sides. In the first round of the attack, the rebels had the equipment to defend the city and sufficient troops. The Liaodong Army attacked for a while, but lost stamina, so they naturally withdrew and replaced
A group of people then attacks. When the rebels' defensive equipment is used up, the soldiers are dead and wounded, and they are unable to defend, then the attacking party will be able to break the city."
"How long will it take?" Su Hao asked again.
"Even if ten days and a half are fast, it is not unheard of to attack for a year and a half." Xu Guangzu said.
Su Hao said: "If that's the case, then why not wait for our explosives to be transported from the capital before attacking. I believe that it only takes one round to blow up the city wall. Without the advantage of the city wall, how can the opponent be invincible in the face of tens of thousands of troops?
.”
Chen Dao said: "Li Rusong doesn't want to wait. If he used explosives to blow up the city as you said, how will the credit be calculated? He came all the way from Liaodong not just to be a supporting role for you.
of."
"Governor Ye has already told me this truth." Su Hao said depressedly, "Mr. Chen, you are from the Ministry of War. Do you think Li Rusong is right to do this? The lives of so many soldiers are not as good as his contribution.
Is it important?"
Chen Dao was speechless. He knew that for those generals who led the army, the lives of soldiers were indeed not as important as their own merits. There were many people who wanted to serve as soldiers, but the merits they could earn were limited. Li Rusong held back
I ran to Ningxia with great energy, and of course I didn’t want to go back empty-handed. Compared with the great achievement of breaking the city, what do the soldiers who died in the attack count?
Xu Guangzu stared at the battlefield for a long time and said: "Don't worry about changing it. According to Lao'er, Li Rusong may not dare to attack like this anymore. Kuaibai's strength is much stronger than he estimated.
If we continue to attack like this, Li Rusong may lose his pants and lose his merits."
"Is that true?" Su Hao's eyes lit up, and he turned to Chen Dao and said, "Mr. Chen, can you please go and beat the drum and stop Li Rusong from risking his life like this again." (To be continued...)