Chapter 1038 The Battle of Tiemenguan - The difference between the two
"Throw it again and kill these sons of bitches!" Wang Cheng stood in the simple arrow tower, reached out and threw a grenade out of the window, and shouted loudly.
The Ming army in Tiemenguan City did not have many arrows. When they came to Tiemenguan City, it was still in a peaceful state. The archers only brought sixty arrows each. They used a lot these days. Although in Mongolia
They forced some more before running away, but the Mongols didn't give much because the prospect of war was unclear at this time, so they didn't dare to waste arrows.
However, out of caution when setting off, Qin Shoushan ordered each soldier to bring a few grenades. They would not be used during this period. They were used for defense at this time, but Wang Cheng first used a trick to lure the enemy up.
At the top of the city, the soldiers were asked to pretend to be panicked and flee, and finally the soldiers who had already been hiding in the arrow towers threw grenades intensively.
The Xilu at the top of the city were suddenly bombarded with cries of ghosts and wolf howls. In this era, the development of firearms in the East was a little ahead of that in the West. They had never seen such a weapon. Although a single grenade was not very powerful, it could not be thrown many times, and it could hardly be thrown with a snap of the finger.
Most of the people were killed in the explosion. The Xilu soldiers behind who were climbing on the ladders and preparing to rush into the city to rob were suddenly frightened and hurriedly retreated downwards. In the panic, several ladders were overturned and fell.
More than ten of our own people died.
When Wang Cheng saw that the Western captives began to retreat, he immediately rushed out from the archery tower to pursue him, but was caught by Qin Shoushan. "The Western captives who rushed to the top of the city were only three to four hundred people, and the Western captives had more than ten thousand soldiers in total, and they were not defeated."
You will break through the formation, are you going to the city to die?"
"I'm confused." Wang Cheng slapped his head: "When I saw the Xilu being bombed and howling like ghosts, I wanted to chase them. I forgot that there were so many of them. I can't beat them outside the city."
"But after being bombed like this, they don't dare to look down on our Ming soldiers."
"Don't think there is nothing left, hurry up and clean up the corpses on the top of the city. The city is small to begin with, and now the weather is hot. If the plague is spread, it will be bad."
"yes."
After that, Qin Shoushan stood at the top of the city, raising his hands with clairvoyance and looking at the Xilu camp with the help of the sun. He saw that the general who had just led the troops to attack the city came out soon after entering the Chinese army camp. It seemed that he had not been deprived of military power.
, instead arranged for his soldiers to set up camp, and sighed: "This battle is not easy to fight."
…
…
"Please general, please punish me." Kule lowered his head and stood in front of Bormu and said.
"Sit down, I won't punish you. It's not your fault." Boermu said: "Although I heard that the Ming army had this thing called a grenade before setting off, no one has seen it and doesn't know.
No matter how powerful it is, this time it will be treated as tuition to the teacher Zhan Zhan."
"Thank you, General." Kule saluted and said. This matter is big or small. Now Boermu will not hold him responsible and is very tolerant to him.
After he sat down, Boermu ordered the attendants beside him: "Hurry up and go to the city of Hami and tell the Great Khan the power of this thing called a grenade in the hands of the Ming army."
Then he turned to his military attache and said: "Although the siege failed today, it also proved that the morale of the Ming army is not low and they must hold on to the city. Tiemenguan City is strategically located and it is very difficult to attack the city. We can no longer fight.
The idea of taking the city in two or three days must be prepared for a long-term siege. You must also get rid of anxiety and attack steadily."
"We don't need to be anxious. Although Tiemenguan City guards the north-south transportation chokepoint of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, it will be very important to go south to Qinghai and even Uzang in the future to threaten the Ming Dynasty from the flanks and contain the Ming Dynasty army, but now it has little impact on the war.
, we can fight slowly."
Kule and others suddenly understood and agreed one after another. Boermu was right, they didn't have to rush to capture Tiemenguan City in the first place.
"Now you all retreat and lead the soldiers to set up camp. Early tomorrow morning, we will begin the official attack on the city!"
Starting from the second day of June on the second day, Boermu commanded the army to launch an attack using the most formal siege method.
The Ming army stationed in the city suddenly felt uncomfortable. Although the front of the city was not wide, they had too few people. They had to be prepared for a small number of Xilu people to go up the mountain and sneak into the city for a sneak attack. There were even fewer soldiers to defend, so they held on to the four sides.
I can't stand it any longer.
"Qianhu, today is the fifth day of June, nearly three hundred brothers have been killed, and all the others are injured. Sixty percent of the grenades have been used, and more than seventy percent of the arrows have been used. According to this,
At most, we can only hold on to the city for three more days." In that room again, Qin Shoushan and his ten hundred men gathered together, and one of them said.
The atmosphere at the scene was a bit gloomy. Although they did not think they could hold the city from the beginning, with such a huge geographical advantage, they could only hold the city for seven days at most. Many people were unwilling to do so.
"Didn't I say from the beginning that I would defend the city through the Iron Gate? Now it's just that the time to die is too early, so what's the big deal." After a while, Wang Cheng stood up and said.
"That's it, just leave it to fate for how many days you can hold on. Anyway, I have killed three Xilu with my own hands in the past few days, which can be considered a profit." Another hundred households said.
"That's right! I also killed five Xilu with my own hands. This time our entire army, including those killed in the initial bombing, has killed more than 1,100 Xilu. It's all worth it."
As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere at the scene became more relaxed, and everyone joked with each other. However, Qin Shoushan knew that this was just a stress reaction in their despair. It might also lead to their breakdown in the next few days.
The broken jars caused the city that could have held on longer to be captured earlier.
He was a little anxious. Although he now believed that unless the Western Expeditionary Army defeated the main force led by Timur himself in a short time, the final city would not be able to hold on, but the longer they persisted, the higher their reward might be in the future.
, he still wanted to hold on for a few more days.
While he was thinking about it, he suddenly heard Wang Cheng say: "When the day comes when the city is destroyed, I will definitely go to the random graveyard and commit suicide. I heard that these Xilu believe in the Tianfang religion devoutly and pray five times a day.
I have to pray before starting to attack the city in the morning. And the Tianfang Sect is a bullshit religion. Who knows what evil sects might use my corpse to vent their anger. I went to the graveyard to commit suicide, which saved them from humiliating my corpse. They
You wouldn’t be interested in digging up graves in mass graves.”
"It's impossible to tell. Who knows what these beasts from the west can do. I say you might as well place a circle of pork around it before you die. People in the Tianfang Sect don't eat pork, and they think pork is extremely dirty. See
There is pork all around you. Even if I wanted to humiliate your body at first, I would turn around and leave with a look of disgust." Someone even made such a joke.
"This is not bad, but now there are many cattle, sheep and horses in the city, and there is not a single pig. If I want pork, I can't get it." Wang Cheng actually started to think seriously.
Everyone burst into laughter, and one of them was about to say something else, when he suddenly heard Qin Shoushan shouting, "I have a way to stay here for a few more days."
"What! Qin Qianhu, what solution have you come up with?" everyone asked hurriedly.
"Haha, the secret must not be leaked." Qin Shoushan even started a lawsuit.
Two days later, on the morning of the seventh day of the sixth lunar month, the Xilu began to attack the city step by step again, but the defense of the Ming army was much sparse. Seeing this, Kule wanted to lead his troops to attack again, but he immediately thought of the seven meats he had been blown up by a grenade before.
On that occasion, Basu was afraid that the Ming army would arrange another trick, so he ignored it and just fought in accordance with the regulations.
But even in accordance with the regulations, the battle was much faster than usual. Soon someone attacked the city and fought with the Ming army.
Although Kule was cautious, he saw that the resistance of the Ming army was very fierce and there was no possibility of an ambush. He also led his soldiers to rush to the top of the city and fight with the Ming soldiers.
Later, Qin Shoushan led reinforcements to come to the rescue and wanted to push back the Xilu who had attacked the city. However, this time the Xilu also tried their best to capture the iron gate and pass the city. Even if people were being killed, they would not retreat at all.
, the reinforcements from behind also rushed to the top of the city.
Seeing this, Qin Shoushan suddenly took out an arrow from his waist, stretched his bow, put the arrow on it, and shouted in Mongolian: "I have the blessing of the Buddha. If I shoot this arrow, the person who hits it will be different!" Then an arrow shot out in the middle.
One person. Several soldiers beside him also raised their bows and nocked arrows, hitting several people. At the same time, they shouted in Mongolian: "We have the blessing of the Buddha. If we shoot this arrow, those who hit it will be different!"
Except for the two thousand Samarkand soldiers who were sent to attack Tiemenguan City, who were the main force of Timur's men, the rest were herdsmen recruited from near Lake Balkhash. Many of them were of mixed race and they all understood Mongolian.
.They didn't take it seriously when they heard the cry at first, but they were surprised to see the wounds of the people shot by more than 20 arrows rapidly festering, and they were horrified.
They are all devout Tianfang believers, and they couldn't help but murmur when they saw this scene. To them, although the Buddhist gods are all false gods, false gods only mean that they are evil, and it does not mean that they have no magic power.
When they thought that these people who were fighting were blessed by the evil god, but the true god did not show his attitude of blessing them, their morale dropped sharply, and they were forced to retreat after being killed by the Ming army.
At this time, it suddenly started raining. Although it was not heavy, it was difficult to use bows and arrows, so Kule had to order the troops to retreat.
Qin Shoushan breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the Xilu troops retreating; because of the rain, he returned to his residence to take a bath. Wang Cheng was very curious about what happened just now, but Qin Shoushan could go back now, but he couldn't. He could only stay at the top of the city.
Deal with the rest.
The rain was getting heavier. It was always inconvenient to move around in heavy rain. It took Wang Cheng a long time to dispose of the corpses at the top of the city. He also recovered all the arrows and other things that could be recovered, leaving only a few.
The sentry asked the other soldiers to take shelter from the rain in the archery tower but always pay attention to the situation outside. He hurried down to the city to find Qin Shoushan to find out.
He met Qin Shoushan on the way, and just as he was about to speak, he heard Qin Shoushan say: "Quickly, gather your subordinates!"
