Chapter 299 of the text volume: Faced with Yan Yingyuan's tight defense, Duduo's initial attack failed to achieve results, so he had to take a long-term view and prepare in several ways.
He summoned his generals to brainstorm and quickly came up with several countermeasures.
These strategies were mainly analyzed by Zhang Cunren:
"Your Majesty, the Ming Army's nails protruding out of the city in the west are really difficult to pull out. Although they are small, I have already observed them. They are almost solid lumps of earth, and they may not collapse with cannons.
Even if they are unable to gain a foothold after a forceful attack, they can still retreat or gain reinforcements through the earthen dikes and corridors. Therefore, it is better to think of another way and slowly remove one or two of the triangular fortresses over time, and then forcefully attack the west wall of Jiangyin.
At the same time, since our army has completely besieged the city on all sides and has far more troops than the defenders, we can launch a response offensive from both directions from the north and south. Share the attention of the Ming army defenders and consume the defenders, in case something happens to them somewhere
There was a flaw and it was an unexpected surprise that we were able to get to the city first."
Zhang Cunren's countermeasures were divided into two parts. One part was to adjust the strategy of the main offensive battlefield in the west of the city, and the other part was to open up a second battlefield on the north and south sides.
Because he hadn't said anything about how to adjust the main battlefield, Duduo couldn't hear the problem, so he only asked a few concerns about the second battlefield:
"We have to attack the south and north of the city at the same time. I'm afraid it won't be easy to launch. Yan Yingyuan did not build those disgusting triangular forts on the north and south sides of Jiangyin City. But that is probably because of the rugged terrain.
It was laborious to ram earth and move rocks, but he didn't have that much labor power at the moment.
Since the rugged terrain is not good for the defenders building forts, it is also bad for our army to transport heavy siege equipment. I have already seen that the roads outside the city are either rugged mountains or low-lying ones that have been flooded by canals.
muddy ground.
The heavy Lu Gong vehicles and ladder trucks cannot be pushed outside the city walls in those directions, and it is difficult for the Hongyi artillery to establish a position that is far enough away from the city wall, safe enough, and has a good shooting range. If the artillery is set up directly on the narrow flat ground outside the city,
I'm afraid it's not enough for the city's artillery to counterattack!
You asked me to launch an offensive in the north and south. Are you going to use flying ladders, light ladders, trench bridge carts, ramming logs and digging wooden donkeys just to break the wall?"
Regarding this difficulty, Zhang Cunren could not deny it. He just said openly that there was really no way, but the Qing army had no choice.
The reason why Yan Yingyuan did not build triangular forts in these places was because of course there were real difficulties. He also knew that it would be difficult for the Qing army to attack from these mountainous areas. The pros and cons were equal to both sides.
If they had studied the history of the Japanese thirty years ago, they would also know that Sanada Yukimura only built the Sanada Maru south of Osaka and did not build the other three sides because the other three sides were difficult to attack.
A position that can avoid the defensive focus of the defenders must have inherent flaws.
Duduo weighed it again and again, and found that he had no choice, so he agreed to this arrangement. The Qing troops in the north and south directions had to abolish some of their martial arts and banned some heavy equipment that was difficult to deploy, so they accepted it.
Then, he turned his attention back to what Zhang Cunren said and wanted to ask what specific solutions could be done.
Zhang Cunren had obviously thought about it in advance, pointing to the terrain in the distance and explaining: "Your Majesty, these triangular fortresses are made of solid rammed earth and cannot be destroyed by bombing. The only way is to hollow out the foundation and let it collapse on its own.
Since ancient times, the most feared thing about tunnel sieges is that the defenders will discover them in advance, and then dig long trenches inside the city wall to cut off the tunnel exits. But this time we only pursued digging to the bottom of these triangular fortresses, and first used a large number of wooden pillars to support them.
Live, dig out more height, and then burn down the wooden pillars. You can even spend some money and finally bury more gunpowder.
Eventually, the foundations collapsed, and these triangular forts sank. As long as they sank a few feet, or even a foot, to ensure that the top forts were destroyed and beyond repair, our army could take the opportunity to press forward and launch a general attack on the city wall behind them.
As for this tunnel collapse siege method, because there is no expectation to dig into the inside of the city wall from the beginning, it only focuses on creating a collapse, so naturally there is no need to worry about the defenders in the city digging deep trenches to cut off the exit. It is just that it takes a long time, and this requires the north and south sides.
Attack with a multi-pronged approach and try to cause the defenders to make mistakes in the chaos. Whichever side wins first will be better."
Duduo rolled his eyes
, admitted that Zhang Cunren did have an idea, and one of the biggest shortcomings of the tunnel siege was indeed bypassed in this environment.
However, Duduo is also knowledgeable about soldiers, and he also knows that this is not the only shortcoming of tunnel sieges. There is also a second largest and very important shortcoming, which is that tunnels are afraid of underground water.
Duduo closed his eyes and thought for a while, then suddenly opened them: "Have you ever thought about it, we have been in Hebei and Liaodong for a long time. The land in Hebei is soft and dry. The Hebei army has been good at digging holes since ancient times. In "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, Gongsun Zan
All cities.
But the south of the Yangtze River is muddy and full of water, especially around Jiangyin, where Yan Yingyuan has just dug a canal and flooded the ground. If you dig a few feet down, can you ensure that a large amount of water will not seep in?"
Zhang Cunren took a slight breath of air and realized that this problem was indeed serious. After weighing it, he could only adjust the details:
"Then we can only dig shallower and shorter at the same time. We only dig a hundred or two hundred steps outside these triangular forts to ensure that we can dig under the triangular forts within two hundred steps. And our type of tunnel digging is unusual for penetrating into the ground.
The tunnels in the city need to be covered up. We can dig them openly and use the excavated soil to form a bunker at the entrance of the tunnel to protect the entrance.
In such a short distance, even if water seeps, the most important thing is to arrange for soldiers to build some stones to block the big seepage points as much as possible, and then use water tanks to carry water outside. We have tens of thousands of troops, don’t we still have the manpower to drain the water? "
Duduo thought about it again and felt that it was indeed feasible, because their tunnels did not need to be kept secret. They could save a lot of distance by digging openly.
Then the last remaining problem is time. This project will delay the siege for many days, probably at least ten days. During these ten days, the front can only shoot at the Ming army, and we have to look to the north and south wings to find opportunities.
…
After the Qing army formally decided on the new general offensive strategy, of course they did not dare to delay for a moment and immediately reorganized a strong offensive.
It took time to dig tunnels in the west of the city to break through the outer triangular fortress. The main soldiers of the Qing army gathered in the north and south, especially in the north of the city. In just a few days, the Qing army assembled a large number of flying ladders, a dozen light ladders, and several more
Ten trench bridge vehicles and wooden donkeys for digging the city allowed the heavy armored troops to board first and launch a storming attack.
The so-called specific standard is to see whether these equipment can pass through rugged and muddy areas and be transferred to the north of the city. Any equipment that is too heavy that cannot be pushed by horses and men over the rugged terrain, or that cannot be pushed out if it gets stuck in a mud pit, will only be moved.
It can be discarded, and the upper limit of all sizes and tonnage is considered to be a limit. This undoubtedly restricted the performance of the Qing army.
For the same reason, the Qing army was unable to deploy heavy Hongyi artillery on the northern front. In terms of artillery support, they could only use those 3500- to 500-pound Fo Lang machines. Even if such small artillery fell into a mud pit during transportation, it could be towed by manpower.
come out.
In the absence of heavy artillery, the Qing army could only use traditional massive bows and arrows, rattan shields, and temporary thick-plank formations. They stepped forward and fired arrows to cover the city. Suddenly, arrows rained down on the city.
The muskets were originally not taken seriously by the Qing army. At this time, they had to save gunpowder to make way for cannons and dig tunnels to bury gunpowder for blasting. Most of the only muskets were mothballed by the Qing army and relied on the high-low matching of arrows and cannons.
Yan Yingyuan himself learned that the north of the city had become the new main attack direction, so he personally led a team to the north of the city to reinforce and supervise the battle, blocking the entrance with elite troops and being ready to deal with dangerous situations at any time.
Although the Ming army in Jiangyin City is not large, it has a large population. In particular, it has previously absorbed refugees from Wujin County and other places to escape the hair-cutting order, as well as refugees from surrounding Wuxi County and other places who migrated because their fields were flooded. Therefore, the city has a large population.
There are more than 200,000 strong men!
Don’t think this number is an exaggeration, because in history, when Yan Yingyuan and others rebelled against the Qing Dynasty in Jiangyin, there were more than 200,000 men gathered in history. Now he has absorbed more people than the same period in history, and the preparation time is longer, excluding the old men.
It is not surprising that a young, sick and disabled person can raise more than 200,000 yuan just by being young and strong.
Because of his hatred for the hair-cutting order, and because Yan Yingyuan was already quite prestigious in his hometown in Jiangyin, he went out to serve as an official with the Zhu Shu people to fight against the enemy for several years, and his prestige became even higher. More than 200,000 strong men were eager to help defend the city, and they were united.
, the number of Han people participating in the battle actually reached three times the total number of Qing troops on the opposite side.
!
Although these more than 200,000 strong men have no military skills, and Yan Yingyuan only trained them in discipline for less than half a month. Before that, they only helped build city defenses. But with such a large number of people, everyone is brave and willing to make up for the casualties of their comrades.
The gap still made the Qing army miserable.
The generals sent by Duduo to take charge of the siege battlefield in the north of the city were mainly Gushan Beizi Shangshan and several of his younger brothers. Shangshan was the legitimate son of Fei Yangwu, the Duke of Qingzhen, and succeeded him. He was only in his twenties now.
His younger brother Fu Lata and others are also known for their bravery and fearlessness.
On the third day after the siege began, Shang Shan led his troops to attack the city. After suffering extremely heavy casualties, he finally discovered that the Ming army's guards at the top of the city seemed to be loose, and there was hope of gaining a foothold on the city in some locations, so he ordered the Ming army to attack the city at any cost.
onslaught.
Upon seeing this, Fu Lata also asked his second brother for orders, and was willing to personally supervise the battle on the city. Shangshan told his fifth brother to be careful, so Fu Lata wore three sets of fine iron-clad cotton armor, and then brought a full armored suit with him.
The Manchu warriors, each wearing two sets of iron-clad cotton armor, began to climb the city. The Qing archers next to them also opened fire, regardless of concealment, and threw all their strength at the top of the city to share the pressure for the warriors who climbed first.
Fu Lata was also considered a brave Manchu general. When he ascended the city, he had two sabers hanging on his waist and two sabers on his back. He wore triple armor, and there were guards with heavy shields beside him to help him clear the way, vowing to protect his master to the death.
The Ming army at the top of the city saw that the heavy armor of the new Qing army was so strong that even direct hits from muskets could not penetrate it, and crossbow arrows could not damage them.
For a time, the Manchu soldiers suffered a lot of casualties. Many soldiers were injured on the head, face and eyes. Although they were not fatal, they were also injured from falling. They rolled and wailed. They were dragged down by multiple heavy armors and were unable to get up for a while.
Only the road led by Fu Lata personally was protected by the iron shields of the elite warriors, and the golden juice in the gray bottle could not penetrate. Fortunately, Jiangyin was an important shipbuilding town in the south of the Yangtze River, and had huge reserves of tung oil for waterproofing ships. Yan Yingyuan
After noticing the danger here, he asked the soldiers to quickly add hot tung oil pot to the gap.
It's a pity that the dispatch of reinforcements from the tung oil pan was still a little slow. Although the soldiers did not care about life and death, they directly stretched out their upper bodies to pour the oil pan down. This actually burned several Manchu warriors in the rear army to death, but they were still killed by the Manchu vanguard.
The dead soldiers successfully entered the city.
Naturally, the strong man who leaned directly out of the city wall to pour oil would be shot directly into a hedgehog by the rain of arrows from the Qing army below, and fell down the wall wailing. However, the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were not afraid of death, and the comrades of Paoze who died in the battle still continued to fight.
Pass the empty oil pan and continue to fill it with oil to prepare for another battle.
After Fu Lata climbed up the wall, a dozen of the most elite bodyguards around him began to kill with open arms. The Ming army used their spear formations to stab at each other frantically, but they were still unable to injure the most elite among the Manchus at all.
Warriors, especially Fu Lata's own triple armor, are even more invulnerable.
Fu Lata's two swords flew flying, and the sound of frantic slashing was loud. He cut off the two hanging on his waist, and then took out a new sword from his back to fight again. Behind him, many armored dead soldiers also rushed up one after another.
Chen Mingyu, the official under Yan Yingyuan's command, happened to be in charge of the defense of this section of the city wall. When he saw this, he shouted loudly and used his voice as a warning and rushed forward.
Regardless of life and death, the warriors of the Ming Army armed with hooks and hooks and spears used underground moves to attack the lower third road full of dead soldiers. They took advantage of their inability to turn around and knocked down several people. This process was naturally very dangerous. Many Ming soldiers had hooks because of
His position was too low and it was difficult to block. When he knocked down the enemy, he was also hacked to death by a lot of dead soldiers.
However, Yan Yingyuan was so popular with the army that even if his soldiers saw their comrades die miserably, they would still pick up the hook and continue hooking them, even if the only chance of losing their life was to knock the dead Manchu soldiers off their feet.
Immediately after he was knocked down, there was Minzhuang nearby who was throwing logs and rocks. Ordinary soldiers, even if they rushed up with big rocks and smashed them at close range, they still wanted to greet the dead soldiers who fell to the ground.
Fu Lata himself chopped to death four Ming soldiers with his own hands while slashing wildly with his two swords. In the end, he was defeated and knocked down. He also hacked to death three Ming soldiers who wanted to attack Minzhuang, but those
Even though Minzhuang was dead, the inertia of the stone in his hand remained unabated, and it still fell heavily along with the body and hit Fu Lata.
Fu Lata was hit in the abdomen and chest by two rocks one after another, causing him to vomit and spit out blood, and then stabbed to death.
The third person who threw stones was Zhuang, but because the sharp blade penetrated the body of the deceased directly and completely, it was unable to block the inertia of the deceased's forward movement. The deceased relied on the last nerve reflex to fine-tune the flexion and extension of his arms, and the corpse fell down.
At that moment, the stone held by both arms happened to be swung on Fu Lata's head by the inertia of the lever.
Fu Lata's brains sputtered out from the gaps in his double helmets. Finally, the Ming army's surging hook hands repeatedly stabbed the gaps in his helmet's neck protection, hooking his throat to a bloody mess, and his head was forcibly cut.
The spear stabbed and roared, and the hook broke wildly.
The heavily armored and trusted soldiers brought by Fu Lata were all killed one by one in the Ming army's fearless counterattack.
Half a quarter of an hour later, as the first attempt by the Qing army collapsed, Gushan Beizi Shangshan almost fainted from tears on the battlefield. He had already learned that his fifth brother was beaten to a pulp by the Ming army who were brave enough to fight to the death.