At the end of the day, accompanied by the rapid sound of horns, the Tatar army outside the north and south gates of Monument City began to gather and mobilize almost at the same time. The final siege battle was about to begin.
Outside the gate of the North City, more than twenty catapults have been set up within the shooting range of the city since the afternoon, preparing to attack the city. This time, Batu Munch asked his two thousand elite soldiers to serve as the main siege force, assisting
With more than 2,000 infantrymen attacking the city together, it can be said that a huge investment was made.
As the trumpet blew, the Tatar soldiers rushed to the city to wait for the order to fight. Under the city were ladders like a forest, shields like curtains, archers, scimitar hands, and grapplers, all ready.
The same situation exists outside the South City. Compared with the narrow terrain of the North City, the Tatar soldiers and horses led by 5,000 Asbas are spread out more widely and their formation is more stretched. The South City wall is more than 600 steps long.
Everything outside is open ground, so the attack surface is very long, fully taking advantage of the Tatars' numerous soldiers and horses.
Compared with the terrain of the North City, the attack surface of the South City is three times wider. This means that the limited troops and horses defending the city have to be spread thin, and the ability to defend the city is even weaker.
In view of this, Zhang Yanling had to deploy most of his limited troops to defend Nancheng.
After the mobilization in the afternoon, the morale and enthusiasm of the soldiers and civilians in the city were mobilized. The wounded soldiers also asked to join the battle. More than 200 people at home volunteered to go to the city to join the battle, so the number of people defending the city barely increased by more than 300.
But even so, the total number of people was less than 1,500.
Zhang Yanling made the coordination and deployment of the troops. Zhang Yin and Wu Qian led 500 soldiers to garrison the north city. One hundred of them were the guards of the Jinyiwei Dahan General Camp, and 400 were soldiers of the Dushi City frontier army. These 500 people were all
They are healthy and strong soldiers and horses, equipped with 200 crossbows and all six crossbows. In addition, ten bird guns are allocated to Beicheng.
The remaining more than a thousand soldiers and horses who can be regarded as old and weak soldiers followed Zhang Yanling and Chen Shiyi to defend the Nancheng wall. After all, the Nancheng front line is long, and there must be enough manpower to stand in the defensive position of the city wall. There cannot be no defense on the city wall.
Manpower, that's not possible.
In fact, in terms of combat effectiveness, although there are only 500 defenders in the North City, they are definitely more powerful than the 1,000 people in the South City. Zhang Yanling did this because Batu Meng's attack in the North City must be extremely fierce. After experiencing it twice
After the huge defeat, Batu Munch was determined to win tonight. With the troops and horses in the south city attacking, Jean must do it at all costs. Therefore, the battle in the north city will definitely be more fierce.
Of course, Nancheng's defensive pressure must also be huge. But under the current strength situation, Zhang Yanling can only choose to keep the number of troops in Beicheng small, but the combat power needs to be stronger. Nancheng uses the number of people to make up for the lack of combat power.
And it can fill the combat position to ensure that every crenel is defended.
Although the Tatar troops in Nancheng are in full offensive formation, it can be seen that they obviously lack siege equipment. There are only two catapults and not many siege ladders. This may be due to the fact that they burned down this morning.
Their siege engines were related to the felled logs.
All of this adds variables to tonight's battle.
Zhang Yanling and Zhu Houzhao stood on the top of the Nancheng city, looking at the densely packed Tatar troops and horses under the city. Zhu Houzhao sighed softly: "Uncle, it seems that Asbasi has not given up. After all, your strategy of psychological warfare has not worked.
It works. It’s a pity. I once thought I saw hope of success.”
Zhang Yanling smiled and said: "Yes, it does not seem to work. But so what? Our destiny should be in our own hands, shouldn't it be in the hands of Asbath? It would be best if the strategy succeeds, no
It doesn't matter if we succeed, it's just a bloody battle. Don't worry, Your Majesty, I will risk my life tonight to protect the Emperor from leaving safely. When the city is broken, it's time for us to attack and break through."
Zhu Houzhao nodded and said: "My uncle is right. Is it possible that our life and death will be controlled by Asbas? I am already prepared to die in battle. No matter what the outcome is, I am proud to participate in this battle."
I want
Let the world know that no one in our Ming Dynasty from me down is greedy for life and afraid of death. I want future generations to know what it means that the emperor guards the country and the monarch guards the country. This is the abundant martial virtue of our Ming Dynasty.
."
The sun sets in the west, and there is a cloud of clouds in the west, as bright as fire, which illuminates the mountains and cities in a crimson color.
It seemed that even God realized that this was a bloody battle with rivers of blood. Therefore, the clouds in the sky seemed to be burning and soaked in blood.
In the mountains and fields, the hot wind blew strongly. The mountains stood tall, and the chilling air gradually became thicker and thicker. The murderous intention was getting stronger and stronger up and down the city.
A low and dull horn sound sounded, and it was like a spark igniting gunpowder. In an instant, the earth shook and the mountains shook, and the shouts of killing rang out.
The battle begins!
Outside the North City, twenty-six catapults began a fierce bombardment. The bombing range of the twenty-six catapults on the battle surface of the North City, which was more than 200 paces wide, could completely cover the area within ten paces of the radius of the scattered rubble.
, so the entire North City wall was completely caught in the rain of stones thrown by catapults.
Stones fell down with a roar, and the top of the city was filled with smoke and dust, and there was chaos. Palm-sized stones were jumping, collapsing, and splashing on the city wall. They kept jumping and falling from the other side of the city wall. The entire city wall was unable to stand up and down.
.
At the same time, the Tatar infantry began to slowly approach in formation with shields. The bombing of the trebuchets gave them the greatest cover. They were not in a hurry. They only needed to push closer to a safe distance and wait for the trebuchets to stop.
At that moment, you can launch an attack.
Batu Munch looked at the situation in front of him with a cold face, feeling both pleased and remorseful at the same time. What was gratifying was that after continuous setbacks, when morale was low, he had strong control ability and could still organize an attack of this level.
.Although the soldiers and horses were defeated, they were not
Chaos, this is the bloody nature and ability of the Tatar soldiers and horses. After years of fighting, the Tatar soldiers have become accustomed to death and bloodshed. They have strong endurance and can quickly recover their morale after a simple rest and dare to attack again. This is enough to be proud of.
and gratified.
What I blame myself for is that I should not have underestimated the enemy at the beginning, or even launched an attack rashly. As a result, thousands of soldiers and horses were killed and wounded, and I suffered heavy losses. Even if I decided to launch an attack, I should be prepared as I was today.
, build the necessary siege equipment and then attack. As it is today, the trebuchet will greatly suppress the Ming army on the top of the city. If they dare to stay on the top of the city, the trebuchet will cause them heavy casualties. This
After that, the infantry siege will be completed in one go.
In the past, they were building a roller coaster and a wooden raft, which were all fancy tricks, but they actually failed to achieve the point.
But fortunately, it's not too late to make amends. Tonight's battle will definitely bring a successful conclusion to the roundup of the little Tatar emperor.
Just as Batu Munch thought, the Ming army on the city top was indeed unable to gain a foothold. Under the bombardment of trebuchets, the outer battlement bunkers collapsed one after another. The city top was blind, and the sky was filled with rocks, leaving nothing on the city head.
It is different from seeking death.
Therefore, from the beginning, Zhang Yin ordered his soldiers to hide inside the city wall. Although a large number of stones flew and fell, there was a blind spot under the city wall, and there were stone houses stacked with supplies, so there was no need to worry about casualties. The only trouble was
The key is to defend the city as quickly as possible when the enemy attacks the city.
Batu Munch was obviously not in a hurry to order the soldiers to attack the city wall. He wanted to use trebuchets to completely destroy the defenses on the city wall, kill the enemies on the wall, and level everything on the wall. In this way, he would not have to worry about the opponent when attacking the city.
Some tricks. This attack was originally a simple and crude attack based on the superiority of troops.
The trebuchet bombardment seemed to be endless, with rocks raining down like rain, and smoke and dust obscuring the sunset over the city.
…
When the Beicheng was bombarded with rocks, the Tatar attack in Nancheng had also begun. However, compared with the attack in Beicheng, the attack in Nancheng looked grand, but it seemed a little louder than the rain.
The bombardment of the two catapults seemed so lonely and weak. If the Tatar soldiers and horses below the city hadn't made deafening shouts of killing and the horns of attack kept blowing, the scene in Beicheng would be incomparable.
Since there were not a large number of siege equipment to suppress the city, the defenders at the top of the city firmly guarded the crenellations, and three hundred archers were ready with their bows and arrows ready to face the opponent's siege.
The siege finally started from the east wall. In other words, the Tatar general on the east side couldn't hold back anymore. He ordered the archers to approach the city sixty or seventy steps away and shoot arrows at the city head to cover the infantry attack. The battle ended at this point.
It officially kicked off.
Following the attack on the east city wall, the Tatars also launched a full-scale attack at the city gate and on the west side of the city gate.
Guns fired from rows on the city wall, arrows from both sides screamed in the air, and the scene quickly became intense.
I don’t know if it is an illusion or some other reason, but the defenders at the head of the city always feel that the opponent’s attack is weak. Even if the five thousand Tatar soldiers in the southern city are not supported by powerful siege equipment, the simultaneous attack of five thousand soldiers and horses should be
It would bring great pressure to the defenders. But this is not the case.
The Tatar attack on the northern city wall was indeed fierce. Several Tatar captains commanded more than 2,000 Tatar soldiers and horses to storm the city wall and rush to the bottom of the city wall. Hook-locked poles and dozens of improvised long ladders were quickly set up.
Climbing up to the top of the city, braved the rain of stones and arrows from the top of the city and stormed up.
Zhang Yanling had no choice but to order Zhao Yuancheng to deploy a twenty-man gun team on the east side to prevent the opponent's fierce attack. The battle between the two sides was fierce.
But on the west side, the Tatar attack seemed cautious. The two sides had been engaging in long-range battles in a situation of shooting arrows at each other. A large number of Tatar infantry rushed to the city wall and cowered away with their shields. They did not cause huge damage to the city wall.
The impact seems to be waiting for something.
Zhang Yanling had no time to think about why the Tatars behaved so strangely, and he did not want to think too much. Since the Tatars were willing to do this, it reduced the pressure on the city defenders a lot. Perhaps the Tatars wanted to consume the city defenders and use
With the pressure on the east wall reduced, it was not certain that the defenders in the west city would attack the city in one go. All you had to do was take full precautions and not give the Tatars an opportunity to take advantage of them.
Half an hour later, when the sunset had already set over the mountains to the west. With a huge roar, the towers of the north city wall collapsed under the persistent bombardment of several trebuchets.
At the same time, Batu Munch was also satisfied and gave the order for the infantry to attack the city. Because there were not many defensive facilities left on the entire city wall. Even the battlements were mostly destroyed. It was time to use the last daylight to launch a fierce attack.
The shouts of killing that resounded through the mountains and fields were deafening, and the Tatar infantry in the north of the city, which had advanced less than forty steps away from the city wall, launched a wave of attacks.