Later that night, Zhu Chanyi led his troops to the gates of Nanding City. Just as he was about to encircle the city, he heard the news that Hu Jisao had left. The news was very accurate and could not be mistaken.
Zhu Chanyi was a little frustrated, but of course such a situation had been expected for a long time. His frustration was only a momentary thing, and he immediately began to set up camp.
Nanding City is adjacent to the Yellow River in the north, so the defense of the north is left to the navy. Zhu Zanyi ordered the land division to station from the east to the south of the city, forming three camps in the east, southeast and south directions of the city.
The three camps all have an average number of troops, 50,000 soldiers. Zhu Zanyi himself placed his tents in the southeast camp for the convenience of communication. The grain and grass camp was also placed behind the southeast camp.
Because there were too many troops assigned to him, he finally sent three generals to take orders under his account. At this time, Huang Ren, Tang Quan, and Ma Jun, who were also experienced in the Ming army, were under his command. Zhu Zanyi Each of the three of them was appointed to lead a battalion.
Early the next morning, Zhu Zanyi began to attack the city. According to Lin Yurong's wishes, he ordered the battalions not to work too hard. Today was just a test, and the artillery on the ship also fired weakly. At one time, there were less than twenty guns at the top of Nanding City. The artillery fire was no match. In addition, the defenders of Nanding City resisted fiercely, and the whole day's battle made little progress.
During dinner in the evening, Tang Quan said to Zhu Zanyi: "Your Highness, we cannot fight like this. The resistance of the Annan people at the top of the city is too fierce. Although the soldiers are small, they are very brave. Today, my subordinates saw that the momentum was not good and ordered to withdraw their troops several times, but they also suffered losses one after another. There are more than 3,000 soldiers, of which more than 1,300 were killed and more than 2,100 were injured. The casualties caused by the army's attack on the city are not small, but this is just a test, the casualties are too great."
"Yes, Your Highness, the camp under my command also suffered more than 3,000 casualties, and Ma Jun's side was almost the same. In this way, the entire army lost tens of thousands of soldiers in one day, although most of them were slightly injured and could only be rested for two or three days. We can return to our own army, but the loss of troops is too great. And the Annan people in the city have lost 3,000 troops today, which is only 30% of our army."
Huang Ren continued: "According to the current situation, even if we still storm the city in the future, it will not be possible to capture the city in one day. And if we cannot capture Nanding City in the future, we will not be able to deliver the good news before the New Year. In the hands of His Majesty,"
He was even more worried about the latter point. The generals at their level were already very complete in terms of qualifications and resumes. All they needed was to obtain the title of marquis and count after a great achievement. But the commander-in-chief of the attack on Nanding City this time was Zhu Zanyi, and besides, the Ming Dynasty The number of troops dispatched was more than twice that of the Annamites, and the cannons were five times as many. The credit would not be too great. If they could deliver the good news to His Majesty before the New Year, His Majesty might be happy to knight them; but If the good news cannot be delivered to His Majesty until after the new year, they may not be able to be crowned. So he is very anxious and can't wait to attack Nanding City with a large army tomorrow and knock it down in one fell swoop. Not only him, but Tang Quan and Ma Jun are also the same. thought.
Although Zhu Zanyi has not yet mastered the skills of fighting, as a royal prince, he can naturally see their thoughts.
But for him, the most important thing now is to clear out the Annan soldiers and ordinary people in the city and involve them all in this war, so that after the war, they can all be condemned as criminals and demoted to slaves or sold to merchants accompanying the army. The land and houses were also freed up to house the people who moved from China.
So Zhu Chanyi said after careful consideration: "The guards here are the only elite soldiers left in the Hu Dynasty in Annan. To avoid losing too many soldiers, it is better to be more cautious. Since we have lost too many soldiers in this way, we will be more careful from tomorrow on."
Attack the city first, wait until the problems of defending the city are discovered, and then attack with force to capture the city in one fell swoop."
"As for reporting victory, although reporting victory is important, it is not as important as the lives of the soldiers. As long as the city can be captured before the New Year, the soldiers can have a good year. There is no need to rush to deliver the victory report to His Majesty before the New Year.
In front of His Majesty’s eyes.”
"Your Highness," Huang Ren said, "You are very careful now. If you are more careful, you may not be able to detect anything. If you want to detect a problem, you must send troops to attack fiercely. Only when the enemy soldiers are focused on one thing and not on the other, can the problem be detected, and then the reserve troops will attack in one fell swoop.
Press forward and defeat the Annamites."
"But,..." Zhu Zanyi wanted to shirk it again.
"Your Highness, if the current situation of the siege is to be followed, it would be better for the army to camp under Nanding City and only besiege it without attacking. This would not only make the Annan people suspicious and not know what our army is going to do under the city, but also allow the army to rest. If we want
To attack a city, you must send out a large army to attack fiercely, and you can't be distracted like this."
"Besides, Lord Zhang's intention is to capture Nanding City as soon as possible. If you delay it all the time, it goes against the Lord's wishes, which is not good." Ma Jun was also a little anxious. In official circles, it is taboo to use the words of a superior to suppress his superiors. The superiors must be sure
He won't be happy. He even said such words, which shows that he can't care about anything else for the slightest hope of being granted a title. Fortunately, His Highness King Jingjiang is not a military general of the Ming Dynasty. In the future, as long as he is not sent to the title of Prince Jingjiang,
Being an official doesn't mean you have anything to fear.' He thought at the same time as he blurted out the words.
Zhu Zanyi was naturally unhappy after hearing this, and raised her head to look at Ma Jun.
But Ma Jun's words still played a certain role. Although he was a prince, generals like Zhang Wen would rarely offend him. In the future, if the imperial court assists his vassal, it is impossible for Yunxi to personally take charge of it. It will have to go through the six departments of the imperial court and the governor's office of the fifth army.
If Zhang Wen were to cause trouble, it would be hard for him to write and tell the emperor everything.
Zhu Zanyi then softened his tone, discussed with the two of them, and finally decided to continue fighting like this tomorrow, or even be more careful. The next day, the entire army launched a fierce attack on Nanding City and captured the city in one fell swoop.
Early on the next morning, with the cooperation of the cannons on the ship, the army began to attack again. In the evening, Ma Jun and three other people came to Zhu Zanyi's camp again to report today's losses and discuss tomorrow's plan.
Today they lost a total of more than 8,000 soldiers, and less than 3,000 were killed in battle, which was less than yesterday, but still a lot. However, most of the soldiers killed and injured today were the soldiers recruited from the southwestern barbarians.
Yunxi mobilized a total of 300,000 garrison soldiers, 40,000 sailors, and 256,000 southwest barbarian soldiers to attack Annan this time. His original intention was to use these southwest barbarian soldiers to fight tough battles and reduce the losses of the garrison soldiers.
. But He Rong's side just paid it off. The front, center, right and rear armies of 400,000 troops commanded by Zhang Wen personally did not fight very fiercely at first, and did not use barbarian soldiers. Later, they fought hard battles.
However, because these battles are very important and are not the usual way of fighting, Zhang Wen and other generals were afraid that the barbarian soldiers would lose control, so they all used trustworthy guardsmen to fight. As a result, as of yesterday, the number of barbarian soldiers lost was more than that of the guardsmen.
Still less.
‘Now these barbarian soldiers have finally come in handy.’ Zhu Zanyi said in her heart.
After the report was completed, the three of them discussed for a while about tomorrow's attack on the city. After all the troops were arranged, Zhu Zanyi let Huang Ren and the others go down.
After they retreated, Zhu Zanyi turned around and said to Lin Yurong: "Lin Aiqing, there is no way to fully implement your plan. Not only the three of them want to attack fiercely in order to win as soon as possible, but the soldiers below also have the same idea. I
Even if we don't fear them and don't care about Zhang Wen, we still can't suppress all the soldiers. We can only storm Nanding City tomorrow."
Zhu Chanyi was a little helpless. During the day today, he sent people to explore various camps to understand the thoughts of the generals and soldiers. The results showed that almost all the soldiers did not want to drag the war to the last day before the New Year, and wanted to end the war as soon as possible.
Rest well for twenty days, and then send troops to attack other places after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.
"Your Highness, what you plan is for people and what is done is God. Now that things have come to this, Your Highness should not be worried anymore and be at ease."
"Besides, the two days of attacks have already had a certain effect. There are more and more people on the city who look like civilians. Even if we break into Nanding City now, we can use the excuses we discussed before to deal with the local gentry and civilians."
Lin Yurong was actually very depressed. He thought that the plan he made was very good, but he did not expect that it would end in vain because it went against the wishes of the soldiers. But this matter was not due to Zhu Chanyi. Although he spoke straightforwardly, he did not represent any sophistication.
Even though they didn't understand, of course they had to comfort Zhu Zanyi at this time. Wei Zheng, a famous admonisher during the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, would also comfort Li Shimin at this time.
After hearing Lin Yurong's relief, Zhu Zanyi felt better and said to him: "Tomorrow you can also lead the troops to attack the city. I have several thousand households in my hands now, and I will leave them to you to command tomorrow, so you can save some more
Thanks for your hard work, it won’t be sudden when Gu appoints you as Biaotong in the future.”
"Thank you, Your Highness." Lin Yurong bowed.
Zhu Zanyi smiled and said a few more words, asking him to retreat.
Then Zhu Chanyi looked at the sand table in front of him and said to himself: "I don't know what the battle will be like tomorrow. I hope everything goes well. Why do I always feel uneasy."
