Most of the buildings in Thanh Hoa City are wooden structures. It is midsummer at this time, the weather is dry and things will burn easily when exposed to fire.
The war at the South City Gate quickly spread to the city. The fire burned fiercely and shot up into the sky. Thick smoke billowed and covered the sky and the sun.
The city has long been in chaos, with defenders and civilians running around everywhere.
Under the continuous bombardment of the Ming army's artillery, very few people survived in the South City Gate area.
Even if you are lucky enough not to be killed, you can't avoid the fire. If you escape the fire, you can't avoid trampling on each other. Even if you are lucky enough to avoid these, the billowing smoke is the most deadly!
So many people were not burned to death or trampled to death, but suffocated to death under the thick smoke.
Someone tried to put out the fire, but the fire was too strong to put out.
The Ming army's shelling finally stopped, but they did not enter the city because the entire Qinghua City had been turned into a sea of flames.
The people running for their lives were running around in the thick smoke. They could no longer tell the direction. Some people fainted and fell to the ground while running. Occasionally, a few people covered in fire would let out shrill screams.
Running wildly and dancing.
There are four city gates in Thanh Hoa City, all of which have been locked.
In order to prevent the Ming army from having an internal reaction in the city, Li Sicheng specially ordered craftsmen to build a huge iron rope and personally held the key. On weekdays, even the city defense guards were not qualified to open the door.
Now that the South City Gate was attacked, many people rushed to the other three city gates in an attempt to escape, only to find that the huge iron cables originally used to resist the Ming army could not be opened at all.
The solid Thanh Hoa City has now become the last barrier trapping thousands of soldiers and civilians.
…………
Under the North City Gate, there were also crowds of people.
"Open the door, open the door quickly!"
Countless defeated soldiers crowded under the city gate, shouting hysterically.
Although in the daytime, they still vowed to let the Ming army taste their power and make the Ming army repeat the mistakes of the past. They even showed off their power, thinking that the Ming army would be as panicked as it was decades ago.
Withdraw troops.
But now, amid the flames and smoke, in front of the locked city gate, they fell one after another, like harvested wheat.
When Li Sicheng and his son arrived at the North City Gate, the place was already completely surrounded.
The commander of the imperial guards drew his sword and shouted: "Get out of the way, everyone, get out of the way!"
No one could listen at all. Everyone crowded tightly in front of the city gate. Even if they died, they would die here.
In desperation, the guard commander waved, and the guards behind him stepped forward and chopped down several people in succession.
However, it did not have any effect.
Seeing that the guards were about to continue killing people, Li Bin hurriedly shouted: "I have the key to the city gate, let me open the door!"
Finally, someone in the noisy crowd heard the word key.
Everyone moved out of the way, and Li Bin led people forward, opened the city gate, and then fled all the way north.
…………
Outside the south city gate, the Ming army's position.
Chen Ying looked at the burning Qinghua City, but there was no relaxed expression on his face.
"Your Highness, why don't you block the other city gates and only attack the south gate? The bandit chief may abandon the city and escape!"
Zhu Qiyu was silent for a moment, and then asked: "The ancients have an idiom, which is called open the net. Do you know what it means?"
Chen Ying was stunned for a moment and said: "Isn't it just to let people live? But... why should we let them go?"
Zhu Qiyu said: "This allusion has a long history. It tells that in the late Xia Dynasty, Cheng Tang went out hunting and saw nets spread out on all sides of the countryside. A hunter was praying, coming from the sky, coming down from the earth, and coming from all directions.
, all entered my snare."
Chen Ying couldn't help but nod and said: "Since it's hunting, it should be like this."
"However, Cheng Tang said, you have killed all the animals in this way, and then removed the snare on three sides, saying, if you want to go to the left, go to the left, and if you want to escape to the right, run to the right. If you don't want to run,
Yes, just enter the Internet cafe!"
Chen Ying was puzzled and frowned tightly.
Zhu Qiyu asked: "Guess, what is the result?"
"I guess that Chengtang was...beaten by a hunter?"
"Of course not!"
Zhu Qiyu shook his head and said: "This matter reached the ears of all the princes, and they all said that Cheng Tang was so kind and virtuous that even animals were favored by him. At this time, Xia Jie was exercising tyranny.
, dissolute and immoral. So Shang Tang raised his troops and led the princes to attack Xia, and finally succeeded and established the Shang Dynasty."
Chen Ying was still puzzled and asked: "On the battlefield, kindness to the enemy is cruelty to oneself. Winning shows that he is powerful. What is the point of being kind and unkind..."
"You're right!"
Zhu Qiyu suddenly smiled and said: "I used to think that this story was about the invincibility of the benevolent, but the emperor told me that if the net is wide open, benevolence is only superficial. The real reason is to prevent trapped animals from fighting, no matter whether they are human beings.
They are still animals. When they are cornered, they will use all their strength to fight back. However, if the enemy leaves a glimmer of hope for survival, they will only think about how to escape. For our army, not only can we achieve our strategic intentions, but we can also maximize our ability to survive.
To reduce one's own casualties, there is an idiom called Don't chase the poor enemy, that's the truth."
Chen Ying has also been on the battlefield for a long time, so he naturally understands this truth, but he still has a question: "But if we let the thieves chief free, I'm afraid there will be endless troubles!"
Zhu Qiyu said disapprovingly: "What's the harm in just leaving? Once Thanh Hua and Thang Long are captured, Annan will fall completely. What kind of trouble can a mere king of subjugation and a dog who lost his family stir up? What we have to consider now is,
It’s about how to govern in the future. I had no experience in the past and spent a lot of manpower and material resources, but in the end I had no choice but to withdraw..."
The order to abandon Annan was given by Emperor Xuanzong, so on this topic, just stop there.
Chen Ying asked again: "What should we do now?"
Looking at the flames soaring into the sky, Zhu Qiyu asked: "How much ammunition are left?"
Chen Ying replied: "There are still 200 rounds of artillery shells, about 150 mines and grenades, and the rifle ammunition is still sufficient."
When it came out of the capital, the Shenji Battalion carried a total of 6,000 artillery shells and 2,000 mines and grenades. Until now, there are not many left.
Especially tonight when we attacked Qinghua City, we used all the firepower and consumed more than 1,200 artillery shells.
You know, the cost of a blooming bullet is 300 taels of silver, and with more than 1,200 rounds, that’s more than 300,000 taels!
This is just the cost price, which is something that even if you have money you can’t buy it.
In wars, money was paid. In the past, it was based on who had more soldiers and who had more food and fodder. To put it bluntly, these are also money.
During the Renxuan period, the Ming Dynasty changed its trend of expansion, voluntarily abandoned Annan and Nuergandusi, and began to adopt a strategy of recuperation. This was because the Yongle Dynasty spent too much money and the people of the world could no longer afford it.
The most indispensable thing in the Ming Dynasty today is money. Since the emperor came back from Tumubao, he first investigated Wang Zhenyu's party, then vigorously purged the Jiangnan smuggling group, and also ransacked the Confucius family in Qufu. He had already made a lot of money.
Spending more than 300,000 taels of silver in a battle is just a trivial matter.
Of course, for Annan Kingdom, no matter how much money there is, it cannot be exchanged for flying tiger cannons and explosive shells.
This is the power of technology!
Zhu Qiyu thought for a moment and ordered: "Save the two hundred rounds of artillery shells to hit Shenglong. Send the order to go down and rest where you are. When the fire is out, enter the city!"
Two hundred artillery shells are certainly not enough to attack Thang Long City, but Zhang Fu still has 100,000 troops there.
Just concentrate your firepower and blast open a city gate, that's enough!