Chapter 29 Thinking of peaches? Still expecting fraudulent surrender?
"Bang bang bang——"
The deafening sound of firecrackers resounded at the mouth of Ming'e Valley in Tongbai Mountain.
The bursts of firing were so continuous that it was difficult to tell which were real gunshots and which were echoes in the mountains and valleys.
Early that morning, as He Yilong tried to turn around and rush out of the gap from Shen Shuren's side, the two armies started fighting fiercely. The battle was so bloody that it was the first time that Shen Shuren had led the army.
Groups of dead pioneers from He Yilong's tribe fell at the mouth of the valley, and their corpses quickly piled up into piles. The attackers struggled to move forward and fought with their heels buried in their heels.
The allusion of "burying your heels to fight" first came from "Three Kingdoms", which was written about the last battle between the Ji and Han Dynasties, when Zhuge Zhan fought to the death with Deng Ai. It is often interpreted by first-time readers as meaning "let the soldiers bury their heels to prevent retreat" "Be a deserter", and then used Zhuge Zhan's glue pillars, drums and harp to blackmail him and he didn't know the art of war.
In fact, there is no such thing as deliberately burying your heels. There are so many corpses that they will sink in if you take any step.
The situation He Yilong faced today was obviously more difficult than when Zhuge Zhan faced Deng Ai.
The contrast between the movements on the battlefield was so strange and terrifying - He Yilong had never faced a large-scale firearms camp before, but it was really the only time in his life to use firearms to this extent and to use them at such a favorable time, place and people.
Normally, when firearms are blasting each other, the battlefield should be filled with loud sounds of gunfire, but occasionally the screams can overwhelm the guns, allowing people to feel the killing effect firsthand, and at the same time, regulate their auditory nerves.
But today's line of fire was several times louder than usual, but the screams were pitiful. The contrast between movement and stillness made the hairs on the hair stand on end and the survivors shuddered.
Only officers who are lucky enough to survive a few more rounds can see clearly what happened - because the valley is too narrow, the front is only about a hundred or so people wide, and there is no way to go around.
Firearms were thrown into the crowd, and any soldier might be hit by three or five bullets at the same time, so he would be killed without even a chance to scream.
Normally, if a soldier is killed in battle, there will be at least three to five times as many wounded. Now, the casualty ratio has dropped below two to one. There are less than two wounded for one dead person, and the wounded will soon be trampled and crushed to death. , suffocated to death, the screams sounded much cleaner and sparse.
The tactics that the officers and soldiers usually practice are the stacking method, which is the "three-stage attack" in which they take turns to shoot forward. Now, they have changed back to the more old-fashioned "passing method" in an emergency, allowing the soldiers in the back row to prepare for the attack. After the bullet is fired, it is handed to the soldier who fired, and a dedicated person is responsible for aiming and shooting.
In places where the terrain is relatively open and open, the shooting efficiency of the stacking method will be higher. A person who focuses on one gun will become more familiar with his own weapon.
But today, on this special occasion, they were all stuck there. In order to make the first row line up as closely as possible, the officers and soldiers did not even leave a corridor for the soldiers to rotate forward and backward, and there were nearly 200 people lined up in a dense queue.
Chen Shuren now has about 1,500 muskets, all of which use paper shells for fixed ammunition. With the guns being exchanged frantically, the front row can fire almost every three or four seconds.
The front of the formation has become a complete dead place. Even if Daluo Jinxian descends to earth and the Western Chu Overlord reincarnates, he will not be able to rush over.
When he rushed forward, there were also long-handled battle axes and hoop-mounted bayonets waiting for him.
As the war situation gradually stabilized, Shen Shuren, who had always been cautious and reluctant to go to the front line to supervise the battle, rarely went to a place three hundred steps away from the front line in person, climbed up and looked into the distance with a telescope.
In the final battle to pursue and eliminate Liu Xiyao, he hid on the ship and gave full frontal command to Zuo Zixiong.
This time, two bandit chiefs in the fifth camp of the Ge Zuo were eliminated, and they were famous figures with the names of "Ge and Zuo" respectively. It would be a waste not to take the opportunity to increase their prestige.
The Tongbai Valley is so precipitous that no one of He Yilong's men can rush over three hundred steps ahead, and it is beyond the attack range of the enemy's long-range weapons, which makes Shen Shuren very calm.
After watching for a long time, Shen Shuren himself was so aroused by the tragedy in front of him that he put down the telescope and couldn't help but sigh in his heart:
"It's a pity that there are no photos to take in this era, otherwise I would have to record my heroic appearance of climbing up a height to view the enemy's situation, chatting and laughing, commanding and defeating the enemy.
Well, it's not completely hopeless. If we don't have photos, we can find someone who can paint more realistically. In the late Ming Dynasty, there were already painters from Jiangnan who learned from Western oil painting techniques and pursued realism. It seems that the details of the facial features can be painted very realistically.
It's a pity that I haven't mastered the light and dark shadows and the far and near perspective. It's really not good. In a few years, when I become rich, I will ask Zheng Chenggong to wipe out the Dutch people. I will capture all the Dutch prisoners and ask the Dutch East India Company to hand over the scientist Descartes. Come and exchange hostages with the painter Rembrandt!
When the time comes, let Rembrandt be my royal portrait, specifically to record my heroic appearance. Why can't I paint dozens of portraits that are more famous than the Emperor crossing the Alps? Rembrandt seems to be the same age as Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, they should both be 35. age."
…
The bloody battle on the first day ended in the sharp and strange contrast between Shen Shuren's calm chatter and laughter, and the bloody massacre at the front line, which was like a Shura field.
Normally, such heavy casualties would have caused the bandits to collapse and retreat. Today, however, it was because they were surrounded on all sides and they jumped over the wall in a hurry, killing three to five thousand people before they finally retreated.
After several consecutive breakouts with heavy casualties, He Yilong's troops were completely depleted of energy and energy. In the following five or six days, no large-scale charge could be organized, and at most they were only tentative sneak attacks.
The food and grass of He Yilong's tribe are also gradually being consumed. There is not much food for the army, so it is good to be able to eat it for more than ten days.
It took several days to march after entering the valley and fight Liu Guoneng, so counting the days, the food brought before would definitely be eaten up in three or four days.
Of course, He Yilong's tribe didn't only have food to eat along with the army. After all, they also controlled Pingjing Pass, a mountain pass.
There are usually as few as one or two thousand and as many as three or four thousand people stationed here, and some food is also stored for the garrison to eat for a long time during the war. It is necessary to ensure that it is enough for at least three months to half a year. After a protracted war, there will be time. Transport food from the rear.
However, the food that was originally planned to feed the three thousand garrison was now given to more than 30,000 people. The time was shortened ten times, and it only lasted for ten days and a half at most.
Neither Shen Shu nor Liu Guoneng wanted their troops to suffer too many casualties, and the enemy would starve to death during the siege for half a month. This price was definitely worth it.
On the other hand, also after the large-scale bloody battle that day, some complaints came from the Chenshu people’s rear——
In the previous wars of the Ming army, there were few opportunities to use firearms continuously for half a day. That is to say, each fire blunderbuss was fired three or five times before entering into close combat. At most, there were more opportunities to fire during the city defense battle.
Therefore, the Ming army's logistical supplies and ammunition ratio were also prepared according to conventional operations.
Even though Shen Shuren paid more attention to firearms than others and repeatedly emphasized the need to ensure gunpowder production and bring more ammunition with the army, he had no experience at the beginning and did not understand the details, so he made a general request to "prepare more ammunition for the army than other Ming armies." I think it's enough.
This time, He Yilong and I continued to be stuck in the valley and lined up to shoot for a day. The Ming army immediately became short of ammunition and the logistics could not keep up.
Fortunately, He Yilong was already discouraged and didn't know about the situation, so he didn't charge again. This allowed Shen Shuren to slowly make up for this shortcoming, gain wisdom from every experience, and order the troops to prepare more ammunition next time.
From this, he also realized a problem: he had planned to use most of Huangzhou's military production capacity to produce new muskets after all existing firearms soldiers were equipped with bayonets and long-handled battle axes starting from April.
Now it seems that the mass production of ammunition is more important than muskets, and the subsequent allocation of military industry resources must be re-tilted.
In the past, the production ratio of the Ming army was to ensure that each musket was equipped with twenty or thirty rounds of ammunition. When it came to Shen Shuren, it had to be improved to "at least ensure that all muskets can fire a hundred times." Otherwise, the gun would If there are too many, it will also be a fire stick.
Experts always rely on logistics when fighting a war. No matter how good the ordnance data is on paper, it is useless if the logistics cannot keep up.
Chen Shuren maintained the siege, checking for leaks and filling in the gaps, but He Yilong finally couldn't sit still.
On May 25th, which was the tenth day after He Yilong's troops failed to break out of the encirclement, He Yilong began to reduce the food rations for his troops and changed them to only one meal a day. On the other hand, he also started sending envoys , I would like to ask Liu Guoneng or Shen Shuren again to accept the surrender.
The messengers he assigned were all very scared. After all, the messenger sent to Liu Guoneng last time was directly killed. However, under the threat of He Yilong's knife, they had no choice but to go their separate ways.
Anyway, the envoys He Yilong initially sent were not important people, and he would not feel bad if they were killed.
As a result, the envoy sent to Liu Guoneng was killed again.
There was no way, Liu Guoneng knew He Yilong too well and despised him as a person, so he refused to give him a chance to believe him again - he knew that He Yilong had followed Zhang Xianzhong and had the experience of falling and falling again twice, how could he Trapping the trap for the third time?
Besides, Liu Guoneng has a sensitive identity. If he casually contacts thieves to negotiate deals, it will only damage his trust in the court. He can only be extra careful in this regard.
In contrast, those sent to Shen Shuren were not at risk of being killed directly.
Chen Shuren received the envoy politely and asked about the purpose of his visit. After learning He Yilong's purpose, he seemed a little surprised:
"He Yilong wants to surrender? Does he still have credibility? When Chen Qiyu and Xiong Wencan recruited the thieves, they allowed them to defend their territory and submit to the court in name only. But it resulted in a catastrophe! Why should I trust you now? them!
Surrender is not out of the question. Let He Yilong surrender in person, and the whole army should lay down their weapons and accept the imperial court's adaptation.
Also, who do you think you are? Can you agree to this condition on behalf of He Yilong? Next time, either he will accept it completely and come to reduce it in person. If he wants to bargain, he should change it to something substantial enough."
The nameless messenger was soft-spoken and did not dare to resist. He could only serve as a sounding board and convey the message first.