The city wall of this county town was indeed strengthened and raised, but it was not thickened at all, because no one would have thought that the peasant army would use the method of digging holes in the wall to attack the city? So the strong men guarding the city on the top of the city tried their best to attack several places.
The refugees who dug holes poured boiling oil and gold juice on their heads, and fired firecrackers and arrows. It was a completely one-sided massacre.
If according to the general rules of siege, with such heavy casualties, it would be enough for the peasant army to stop the siege. But now Gao Yingxiang doesn't care at all.
For those refugees, those who dig holes in the wall are destined to die when they return, but digging holes in the wall will give them a chance of survival. After all, they only need to dig a bag of broken bricks and mud.
As for the casualties of the refugees, Gao Yingxiang doesn't care even more. Anyway, there are a lot of cannon fodder in the peasant army, so it doesn't matter if they consume some. Gao Yingxiang even feels a little happy in his heart. Without these cannon fodder, he can save a lot for himself.
What about food?
From the very beginning of the siege, Huang Long stared dumbly at the movements of the refugees. After a while, he finally figured out what method Gao Yingxiang wanted to use to attack the city. Huang Long couldn't help but murmured: "This method is simply incredible.
It was not thought up by humans.”
At this time, the leaders of the peasant army had not mastered the art of flattery, so Huang Long's words were very vulgar. But his demeanor and words were like the most flattering words, which made the pores on Gao Yingxiang's body stretch out.
, and couldn't help laughing.
Although the attack at the top of the city was fast, it could not stop the refugees who were digging holes in the wall like ants. The holes in the wall were dug bigger and deeper, and finally, the city wall was finally penetrated.
After all, those who defended the city were recruited strong men, not well-trained soldiers, so when the city wall was dug through, their psychological defenses had actually collapsed. Those strong men immediately jumped off the city wall and fled towards the city, without any thought at all.
While the holes in the city wall were still small, they worked hard to block these holes or fight at the entrances to prevent the peasant army from entering the city. This also lost the last chance to defend the county seat.
Don't blame those strong men, even the county magistrate was lost in thought on the tower and kept muttering to himself: "How could this happen? How could this happen?"
Gradually, the cave entrances were dug enough for one person to pass through. Several peasant soldiers who had been prepared for a long time rushed into the county town first and guarded the entrances of the caves. However, they saw that they were surrounded by strong men who were defending the city.
They were running around like headless flies. They were so nervous that they broke into cold sweats, fearing that the strong men would attack them when they were alone. However, the strong men seemed to regard the entrance of the cave as a scourge. No matter how they ran around, they did not dare to get close.
The hole in the city wall protected by peasant soldiers.
So the hole in the city wall became bigger and bigger. Gradually, two holes were connected together, then three, four... Finally, a large gap of more than 20 feet was formed. And the refugees also
No more digging. They got out of the way and allowed the old battalion soldiers from Gao Yingxiang's troops behind them to rush into the county town.
…
"King Chuang! There is quite a lot of food in this city, enough for us to eat for a month." Huang Long said excitedly.
After conquering the county seat, the peasant army killed all the officials and large officials and gentry as usual, and looted all the official warehouses and the property of the officials and gentry.
But Gao Yingxiang was not satisfied with this. He then ordered: "Take all the food from the people in the city. Then drive them all outside the city. If they join our rebel army, we welcome them!"
Huang Long was stunned for a moment, because in previous plunders, the peasant army always had to take into account the reputation of the rebels and did not touch the people's private property very much. Of course, the people did not have any private property, so looting them was not worth the gain. But now Gao Yingxiang
This order forced the people in the county to a desperate end. Those people had no food and were in the wilderness. As long as they wanted to survive, they had to join the peasant army.
But Gao Yingxiang was a little helpless in doing so. The current peasant army does have a little less food, and there are too few refugees in the wild, making it more difficult for the peasant army to coerce. In addition, the loss of cannon fodder in the siege just now was also quite large. These reasons are
Gao Yingxiang had no choice but to act like this.
Sure enough, after doing this, basically all the people in the county joined the peasant army. After resting for a day, the peasant army immediately rushed to the next city like a swarm of locusts.
After receiving requests for help from several border counties, other Ming troops could passively avoid the battle, but Henan Governor Li Xianfeng could not avoid the responsibility. After thinking about it in every possible way, he asked Chen Yongfu to lead 3,000 troops to the border for support.
However, before Chen Yongfu set off, Li Xianfeng gave Chen Yongfu a thousand warnings: Just make a gesture of rescue. Don't be greedy for credit and fight the peasant army to prevent the main force of the Henan Ming Army from being damaged.
Chen Yongfu was a well-known honest man among military officers in the late Ming Dynasty. His honesty was reflected in his special compliance with the rules of the noble and the military. In particular, Chen Yongfu obeyed the orders of civilian officials. Therefore, successive governors of Henan regarded him as their confidant.
But at this time, it was not good to be a confidant. When Li Xianfeng was preparing to send troops, all the military attachés of the Henan Ming Army declined, and Li Xianfeng had no choice but to focus on the most obedient Chen Yongfu.
But Chen Yongfu's honesty was only reflected in the officialdom. He was not so honest during the war. Seeing that he could no longer shirk this dangerous task, Chen Yongfu asked Li Xianfeng for a large number of war horses, so among the three thousand people he led
Half of them were cavalry. But Chen Yongfu was prepared to slip when the situation went wrong.
Moreover, Chen Yongfu did not go to the rescue in a straight line. He led his army along the coast of the Yellow River, preparing to withdraw to the cities along the Yellow River if there was any trouble.
But as soon as he entered Henan Prefecture, Chen Yongfu got a piece of information: two county towns on the border of Henan Province had been lost one after another, and the peasant army's method of attacking the city was to dig holes in the city wall.
In fact, when Gao Yingxiang adopted a new siege method, he also did a good job of keeping it secret. He wanted to take advantage of the fact that the Ming army did not know this siege method to capture more county towns, so he used it every time he attacked.
The city must be surrounded in front of the city to prevent anyone from escaping to report the news.
But Gao Yingxiang made a mistake in the end. Because there were only wandering bandits in the wilds of Henan, the people gathered in cities and stockades. Many of those stockades were places where local wealthy gentry formed strongholds to protect themselves.
Of course, many of these villages were originally the nests of bandits, and the Ming army would fight and kill them when they encountered them. But at this time, the common enemy of the peasant army tied them together. (To be continued...