Chapter 713: Digging tunnels and blowing up city walls
"Commander, didn't you say that design requires strong professional knowledge and a lot of experimental demonstrations?"
Liu Rengui asked with a frown.
Su Chen sighed and said: "That's true!"
"I can't figure out how the giant cannibal did it."
Master Sun Ren: "No matter how it did it, once we defeat the big cannibal, we will find out if we arrest a few high-ranking officials and ask them."
"Let's think about how to capture the city of Basra."
Su Chen put aside the doubts in his mind first, and everyone said helplessly: "I have no good solution for the time being. I plan to send a hot air balloon to set fire to the city after the next batch of kerosene arrives."
When everyone heard this, their expressions varied. Liu Jingren's eyes lit up: "Commander, isn't this a good idea?"
Su Chen glared at him: "What a fart!"
"The cannibal is not a fool. How can he not prepare fire-fighting measures?"
"And even if it is finally taken down, Basra will no longer be inhabitable,"
"I also want to use that place as our base in the future!"
Liu Rengui: "We will think of a solution in the next two days. If it doesn't work, we will have to burn down Basra!"
"Commander, it's been a long time since we left Datang. We can't waste time with the cannibals!"
Su Chen nodded and told everyone to disperse and go back to find a way.
Su Chen didn't want the soldiers to brave the cannon fire of the Great Eater to attack the city, but he also couldn't quickly destroy the Cannibal's artillery.
The Great Eater had no intention of leaving the city for a decisive battle with the Tang army.
As a result, the war temporarily entered a stalemate.
Although the two armies are in a stalemate, the initiative is still firmly in the hands of the coalition forces.
Su Chen sent a hot air balloon to watch over Basra every day. Every move of the cannibal in the city was in the eyes of Tang Jun.
And he would drop a few bombs from time to time,
This made the big eater extremely angry, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Su Chen also relied on the longer range of his artillery to bombard the city wall several times every day.
Although it has no other effect except leaving a few small holes in the city wall,
Tang Jun also enjoyed it!
The commander-in-chief of Dashi thought that the Tang people were deliberately torturing him and wanted to force him to go out of the city to fight the allied forces.
Decided never to be fooled by the Tang people and determined not to leave the city.
After two battles on the beach outside the city and on the banks of the Karen River in the past two days, Da Shiren also understood that he could not win a field battle against the Tang army.
After several combat experiences, the Big Eater is no longer so afraid of hot-air balloon bombings, and the situation at Camp Fahd outside Medina will never happen.
Besides, this is a city, not a military camp, and the area is much larger. It is difficult for a hot air balloon to have any effect with its small bomb load.
Su Chen saw that the big cannibal was hiding in the city and would not come out, so he was not in a hurry.
It seems that there are plans for a long-term confrontation with the big cannibal.
What the big eater didn't know was that just when they were worrying about the hot air balloon above their heads,
The Tang army's attack on Basra has quietly begun.
How could Su Chen have had a long-term confrontation with the cannibals under the city of Basra? It was just to distract the enemy and cover his own attack plan.
After finding it difficult to destroy the artillery on the enemy's city wall, Su Chen did not want to burn Basra to ashes.
After thinking about it, Su Chen came up with another idea.
That's digging a tunnel!
In fact, the method of digging tunnels to attack a city is not a new one. It has been around since ancient times.
There are records in ancient books, and the novels also call the soldiers digging tunnels the Digging Army.
Moreover, Mozi's "City Guard" also records in detail how to dig tunnels against the enemy. There is also an idiom in it called "Fu Yao Listen!"
Just bury the jar upside down in the ground, and then let the soldiers lie on it and listen.
The sound of the enemy digging tunnels can be clearly heard within a certain distance.
However, the ancients usually took precautions against enemies digging tunnels into the city.
Su Chen didn't want to dig that far, he just had to dig under the city wall.
Then plant explosives underneath!
There were many methods of this kind in ancient times. Su Chen remembered that the Taiping Army used this method to blow up the Nanjing city wall when they captured Nanjing.
Everyone agreed with the method proposed by Su Chen.
Anyway, they couldn't think of any other way for a while.
Although digging tunnels is an old idea, it's hard to say whether the cannibals are prepared for this.
Moreover, Su Chen's method only digs under the city wall and does not dig into the city, so the chance of success will be much greater.
So in the camp of the Tang Army and the Persian Army, the two groups of soldiers took action at the same time, and two tunnels slowly extended from the camp toward Basra.
This method of digging tunnels has an unchangeable disadvantage, which is that it is very time-consuming.
It is said that the Taiping Army captured Nanjing in fourteen days and took twelve days to dig tunnels.
Su Chen's condition was better. It took eight days of digging to dig out the foundation of Basra's city wall. Thanks to Basra's location, the geology is a plain where rivers impact the soil, and the soil is soft.
What made Su Chen very happy was that the big cannibal was unaware of this!
I don’t know whether it was the negligence of the food guard, or they had no such experience, or other reasons.
Anyway, it was Su Chen who dug the tunnel under the city wall of Basra and had already buried the gunpowder, but the cannibal was still unconscious.
Su Chen was very happy and ordered: launch a general offensive immediately and capture Basra quickly!
One hundred and fifty artillery pieces were pushed forward, but they did not fire immediately. Su Chen was afraid that the tunnel he had worked so hard to dig would collapse.
More than 5,000 marines gathered 1,500 meters away from the south gate of Basra, and there were thousands of Persian elites not far away.
Fifty hot air balloons also took off at the same time and floated slowly over the city of Basra.
This time it is still a joint operation between Datang and Persia.
For a general attack, the more people, the better.
When Da Shiren saw the Tang army marching out of camp in large numbers, as if they were about to launch a general attack, he immediately became nervous and prepared to fight.
The artillery began to be loaded, and the crossbows, trebuchets, and rolling logs and stones also began to be prepared.
Seeing that the Tang army was only concentrated in the south of Basra,
The Great Eater began to gather his cavalry behind the other three city gates, preparing to leave the city at any time to harass the enemy.
Seeing the hot air balloon slowly floating over Basra, Su Chen ordered to light it.
In several tunnels in the two camps, soldiers lit the fuses on the ground and began to run back desperately.
If they can't escape from the tunnel before the gunpowder explodes,
The best outcome is to be buried alive by the collapsed tunnel.
Su Chen was riding on a tall horse, standing behind the field artillery, waiting quietly.
The big man-eating man on the city wall was wondering, why did he stop moving when he reached the edge of the shooting range with such a large formation on the opposite side?
Could it be that he came out to scare people like he did two days ago?
I’m looking forward to Tang Ren’s next move,
The Dashi defender on the city wall suddenly became light and flew directly into the air, and seemed to hear a low, huge muffled sound!
Tang Jun, who was standing on the ground, only felt the ground tremble suddenly, and at the same time saw a section of the city wall flying up in front of him.
Then the ground trembled several times in succession, like an earthquake!
