"How is it possible? Why did this wall suddenly become so much higher?"
Chijin was dumbfounded. When he went south last year, the city wall was only half as high as it is now. Although it was still a chasm that was difficult to break through, it was not without opportunities.
But now, the city wall suddenly reached a height of more than ten feet, almost as high as the mountains on both sides. It was like an extremely tall cliff lying in front of us, making it impossible for anyone to think of challenging it.
"Are the city walls of the Ming Dynasty people so high?"
Beside Chi Jin, the young warrior also widened his eyes and said as he looked at the tall city wall in front of him.
He had long heard that people in the Ming Dynasty were very good at building city walls. The city walls were very tall and the city was very prosperous. He had also heard that although there were countless treasures in the city, it was relatively difficult to conquer.
But looking at the tall city wall in front of him, he felt very insignificant, and he had the feeling that a fly is shaking a tree.
"How is it possible? If the walls of the Ming Dynasty were so high, how could we possibly get in?"
Chi Jin came back to his senses and said.
Then he bravely rode his horse to the foot of the huge city wall. But before he got close, arrows were shot at him rapidly. However, the accuracy was too poor. He avoided it very flexibly, but he had to
Backing away continuously.
"It's not going to be easy now. In the past, the Ming Dynasty's arrows couldn't hit very far."
Chi Jin retreated out of the range of the bow and arrow, and his face turned ugly.
He had previously attacked Datong with a large army. Although the Tatars were nomads on the grasslands, their bows and arrows could shoot farther and more accurately than those of the Ming Dynasty army.
I really have to complain about this.
It stands to reason that the DPRK was an agricultural civilization and the Tatars were a nomad civilization. The productivity and technological level of this agricultural civilization must be higher than that of the nomads. The quality of bows, arrows, swords, and armor must be higher.
But the facts are quietly contrary. The quality of the weapons of the Ming Dynasty army was extremely poor. Whether it was swords, crossbows, armor, logistics, food, etc., they were far inferior to those of the Tatars.
This is not because the Ming Dynasty made fine and high-quality weapons, armor, bows and arrows, etc., but because the civilian officials were in power and constantly suppressed the generals and nobles. This military expenditure was saved as much as possible, and it was reduced as much as possible.
As for the depletion of armaments.
Another aspect is that before the Tumubao Incident, the commander of the Ming Dynasty army belonged to the emperor. The emperor was also directly responsible for armaments, and neither was under the control of civil servants.
After the Tumubao Incident, not only the military power was under the control of civil servants, but also the head of the military department was responsible for the armaments. And everyone knows that the corruption problem in the Ming Dynasty was extremely serious.
Allocating 10,000 taels of silver to make swords requires making 5,000 swords. Perhaps due to layers of deductions, less than 5,000 taels of silver fell into the hands of the craftsmen in the end, but they still had to make 5,000 swords. The quality can be imagined
And know it.
The low military expenditure, coupled with corruption, resulted in the very poor quality of the bows, arrows, swords, armors, etc. in the hands of the Ming Dynasty army. Even the firearms troops created by Zhu Yuanzhang were completely useless, and the musketeers would rather use them.
Even swordsmen are unwilling to use muskets, because they may be destroyed by the explosion.
The border troops of the Ming Dynasty did not dare to go out of the city to fight with the Tatars. This was not because they were really afraid of death, but because the guys in their hands were useless. When they went out, they were only delivering food, and they could only rely on the city walls to defend and counterattack.
.
Therefore, when the Tatars attacked the city, the Tatars would habitually use their bows and arrows to suppress the city head to facilitate the siege.
The Tatars' bows and arrows could hit the people on the city wall, but the Ming Dynasty army's bows and arrows on the city wall were unable to hit the Tatar archers, and were suppressed by long-range firepower.
But now, because the city wall of Datong has been raised several feet, the situation has changed. Shooting arrows from a higher place has great advantages. Bows and arrows can shoot farther and are more lethal.
It becomes more difficult for the Tatars under the city wall to attack the Ming Dynasty army that stands higher, because the attack process of bows and arrows is a parabolic process, affected by gravity, it is difficult to attack more than a dozen
The city wall is ten feet high.
This means that if we want to attack Datong in the future, it will be impossible to rely on archers to suppress the archers of the Datong defenders. On the contrary, they will be suppressed by the archers of the Ming Dynasty, and there will be no way to provide assistance.
.
This is also the reason why Chi Jin's face turned ugly, because he himself is a vulture shooter, good at bow and arrow, and is very familiar with this aspect.
"Are people in the Ming Dynasty crazy?"
"Building the city wall so high will cost them more housing than they can afford?"
Chijin rode his horse and looked at the Ming Dynasty people on the high city wall. Although he was still very cowardly, he only had a few horses, but no one on the other side dared to come out.
But he saw ridicule in the eyes of the Ming Dynasty people.
"I don't believe it. They were able to build such a high wall in such a short period of time. Maybe it was all made of dirt."
Chijin drew out his bow and arrows and filled them up instantly. The bow and arrow shot towards the city wall like a meteor. He wanted to test whether the city wall was strong or not.
"Keng~"
On the tall city wall, the arrows of the bow and arrow collided with the hard cement wall, causing sparks to fly, and then the bow and arrow fell feebly towards the city wall.
"this?"
"Is everything made of solid stone?"
Chi Jin was dumbfounded again. He originally thought this might be a shoddy project, but who knew it was so hard that when he shot the bow and arrow, it was like shooting on a rock.
"How can this be?"
Chi Jin shook his head repeatedly. He was a close guard of Dayan Khan. He followed Dayan Khan. He was also a knowledgeable person. He knew that building the city wall was very expensive in terms of financial, material and manpower, and the Ming Dynasty court was already poor.
There is no way to open the pot. There is simply not much power to build such a huge city wall.
"Let's go~"
Although he couldn't figure it out, Chi Jin had no intention of giving up and continuing to probe.
Attacking Datong hard is always a choice made when there is no other choice. On the long defense line, they can always find gaps that are easy to break through. Many parts of the Great Wall have long been rotten. Chi Jin remembers several places that are easier to break through.
place.
He led his men on horseback to a weak point in the defense line in his memory, which was also a pass between two mountains. The Great Wall at this pass was in disrepair and was made of earth.
It is easy to open a breakthrough.
"This~"
But when Chi Jin came to this pass, he was dumbfounded again, because the Great Wall at this pass had been renovated. The key is that it was built very high. Although it was not more than ten feet high in Datong, it was still four feet high.
Five feet high.
The terrain here is far less open than that in Datong, so it is not suitable for large-scale legionary operations. Building a building four to five feet high is enough. If one man can block the barrier and ten thousand others can't open it, it will be difficult to break through.
"What exactly is going on?"
Chi Jin felt that his head was buzzing, and when he looked at the endless Great Wall on the top of the mountains, winding to the end, he seemed to see an insurmountable chasm across the top of the mountains.
"Go away, I don't believe it anymore."
Chi Jin continued to gallop towards the next gap, but he was still not disappointed. There was also a tall gray-white city wall blocking the way.
“No gap~”
Chi Jin rushed through every pass, completing one gap after another that was easy to break through in his memory, but all the gaps were blocked with cement walls, so that not even a gap was found.
He was completely dumbfounded and couldn't believe it. He even tried to test these city walls with bows and arrows many times, but the results were the same. The hard cement walls easily blocked his sharp bows and arrows.
“I’m afraid that this year’s raid southward will come to nothing~”
He suddenly thought like this, it was like a city wall with such a high height, and there was not even a gap in the defense line. I'm afraid it would be difficult to come and go freely.