Chapter 666 0661 [Prince Zhu Attacks the City]

In winter, the soil is hard, making it difficult to dig trenches.

There were not many civilians who followed the army outside the city, and they didn't dig much in half an afternoon.

Towards evening, smoke began to rise in the camp. This was the Ming army setting up pots to cook rice.

Wanyan Zongwang launched a sudden attack, not allowing the Ming army to eat in peace, nor allowing the Ming army to dig trenches and build forts calmly.

The Jin cavalry were still in a team of fifty, cruising back and forth and shooting arrows outside the Ming army's chariot formation. The Ming army's archers and crossbowmen also relied on car formations and fences to fight back against the golden cavalry.

Apart from retarding the trench-digging activities of the civilians, neither side achieved much.

In the afternoon, the Jin infantry and the Hebei Han army came from Zhaozhou and set up camp on the west bank of the bed water, diagonally opposite the Ming army camp for several miles across the river.

Wanyan Zongwang stood on the city wall, looking at the Ming army camp in the distance and said: "Prince Zhu dared to set up the camp outside the city, but he was also afraid that our army would rob the camp, so he asked the soldiers guarding the perimeter to sit in formation overnight without taking off their armor. . Fighting like this will make the soldiers exhausted in a day or two."

Wanyan's mother said, "I always feel that Prince Zhu is hiding something."

"What else can he hide? It's just firearms." Wanyan Zongwang said.

At night, Wanyan Zongwang still sent cavalry to harass, making it impossible for the Ming army soldiers to rest normally.

"Boom boom boom!"

In the middle of the night, there was a sudden burst of artillery fire on the east bank of Bianshui.

Of the 210 iron cannons brought by Ju Ming, two-thirds were less powerful squatting cannons, but one-third were field cannons with a range of more than two miles.

The Jin infantry and the Han army from Hebei came from Zhaozhou and set up camp on the west bank of Qianshui River. Not long after they fell asleep, they were shot by the Ming army's artillery on the other side of the river.

Not to mention killing, because the distance was too far, no artillery shells even penetrated the camp, but it caused great chaos to the Jinbing camp.

The Han troops in Hebei, who were nervous and unwilling to fight, only heard bursts of artillery, and then woke up and roared.

"Prince Zhu is coming, run away!"

Wanyan Zongwang, who had already crossed the river from Gaocheng and returned to the camp, was so angry that his lungs were about to explode. Fortunately, the enemy's and our camps are very close to each other. Both sides are facing each other tonight, so the Jin soldiers can immediately pick up their weapons to maintain order.

Braziers were lit throughout the Jin camp. The Jin cavalry mounted their horses everywhere in the camp and ordered the Han troops in Hebei to return to their camps. Those who disobeyed were immediately executed on the spot.

Before the two sides fought fiercely, the Jin soldiers killed hundreds of Han troops by themselves, and the Jin soldiers' camp was still in partial chaos.

"The camps are still too close."

Wanyan's mother came back to maintain order and despaired of the low morale of the Han army in Hebei.

Wanyan Zongwang asked: "Have all the camps been pacified?"

Wanyan's mother said: "I have killed many frantic Han troops, and some Han troops have escaped from the camp. I have sent cavalry to chase them back. When the two armies are fighting for a decisive battle, we should not bring these Han troops to fight. There is no other use in consuming food and grass.”

Wanyan Zongwang felt uneasy and personally led a group of cavalry to the shore of Beishui to investigate the situation.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

Just after running not far, another burst of gunfire came.

Several Qingqi rushed to report: "Marshal, the Ming army is destroying our pontoon bridge. Pucha Wanhu was injured when he sent troops to stop it!"

The pontoon bridge and camp of the Jin soldiers did not face the Ming army camp, but were located further south.

Pucha Hubalu is Wanyan Talan's son-in-law. He leads the cavalry across the river tonight and is responsible for harassing the exhausted Ming army. While running to shoot arrows, I received a report from Qingqi that Ming troops were attacking the pontoon defenders.

The man immediately blew his trumpet and gathered all the scattered cavalry.

Before I even ran back to the pontoon, I saw stars on the riverside - the musketeers' ramie matches were shining brightly.

Pucha Falcon Balu didn't think much, and rushed over with his cavalry, leading the way with extremely bravery.

When they were dozens of steps closer, two thousand muskets fired.

Another volley of two thousand muskets.

Another volley of two thousand muskets.

After three rounds of volleys, the pikemen who were squatting on the ground stood up and erected a gun array to protect the musketeers who were loading ammunition.

In the darkness to the north, more than 3,000 Ming Army cavalry suddenly burst out under the leadership of Li Yanxian.

The Jin cavalry, who was caught off guard by three rounds of musketry, was attacked from the side by the Ming cavalry and was so frightened that they fled further south.

The formation of the Jin cavalry was very scattered at night, and neither wing was attacked. More than 6,000 rounds of bullets were fired, and only less than 200 cavalry were killed and wounded.

Instead, Li Yanxian led the cavalry in pursuit and killed over a hundred of the Jin cavalry who were unable to escape.

Not long after, Pucha Falcon Balu led his troops to escape from the pontoon farther south. Not far after crossing the river, he fell off his horse with a thud.

He was carried back.

Wanyan Zongwang held up a torch to check and found that Pucha Falcon Balu's chest armor had been penetrated, and the wound was a small hole with bloody flesh.

The projectile is not big, but the wound caused by it is so big that it can almost fit a table tennis ball into it.

The army medics arrived, first checked his pulse and then cleaned his wounds. One of the ribs was broken, and the bullet stuck in the rib was removed, and then bandaged with ointment.

Pucha Falcon Balu woke up in pain once while taking out the bullets. He groaned in pain for two hours and finally fell asleep. He started to have a fever in the afternoon of the next day.

Wanyan Zongwang checked the situation after dawn and found that the pontoon bridge built by the Jin soldiers had been destroyed by the Ming army at night.

The Jin soldiers guarding the bridge did not even dare to stand on the west bank, because the water was only forty meters wide, and the Ming army's musketeers could shoot across the river.

In the evening of the same day, Wanyan Talan led his army to arrive, and the Jin Kingdom's military strength increased again.

Wanyan Talan said: "I have ordered the abandonment of Qianmin Town, Nanxinzhai, Shijiadian, Yangjiaguan, and Taohua Island, and all the people in these places have been relocated to nearby cities. I have also drawn cavalry from the cities along the coastal road and brought them all here for a decisive battle, leaving only the infantry to defend the fortified city. The military rations will no longer go through the coastal road, but will go the old way before."

"Nanxinzhai can't be defended either?" Wanyan Zongwang said in surprise.

Wanyan Talan explained: "The enemy general who crossed the sea to attack was called Li Bao, who was ranked first in terms of military merit in the Ming Dynasty. The Ming army attacked everywhere by boat, and our soldiers were exhausted, and two grain transport teams were robbed. Later, Li Bao became even more aggressive, and even set up a camp on Juehua Island, and surrendered the Jiangnan navy that the Liao Kingdom had come to surrender!"

Wanyan Zongwang: "..."

The Liaoxi Corridor had been destroyed by Li Bao, and the Jin soldiers did not dare to leave the city at all.

Wanyan Talan voluntarily gave up two salt fields and several fortresses and towns, and the Jin soldiers could only retreat into the city to defend it.

The only Jiangnan navy there was composed of Khitans and Han people. Seeing that they could not defeat Li Bao's fleet, and with Yelu Yudu coming forward to surrender, the entire navy surrendered to the Ming Dynasty.

After a moment of silence, Wanyan Zongwang said, "Your son-in-law may be dying soon."

Wanyan Talan immediately ran to visit Pucha Hubalu and found that his son-in-law had a high fever and was talking nonsense in a daze, and there was a Jurchen wizard performing a ritual next to him.

After asking about the recent battle situation in detail, Wanyan Talan asked: "How do you plan to fight?"

Wanyan Zongwang said: "Build more floating bridges next to Gaocheng, so that you can quickly cross the river to rescue the defenders in the city. There will also be floating bridges farther downstream to facilitate the Jin cavalry to go around the rear of the Ming army. Prince Zhu should be attacking the city. We will first use the city defense battle to consume the Ming army, and when the enemy's morale is low and the soldiers are tired, we will launch a general attack from both sides."

Two days later, Zhu Ming used more than 20,000 soldiers to guard the camp in place, and pulled out 20,000 soldiers to officially start the siege.

This time there are a large number of upgraded versions of the nest car-watchtower car. The Song army used this thing as a watchtower, but Zhu Ming built it bigger. Each watchtower car can accommodate five musketeers, which is slightly higher than the enemy's city wall.

Three thousand heavy armored infantry, three thousand medium armored infantry, and four thousand musketeers are placed on both sides to cover the advance of the siege troops.

All artillery is arranged in the direction facing the city wall and on both sides of the siege troops.

The Jin cavalry urgently crossed the river from the north and south, and hundreds of cavalry first charged at the advancing siege troops.

These hundreds of Jin cavalry rushed from west to east along the city wall. There was a city wall in the north, a Ming army camp in the south, and a Ming army siege force in the east.

"Boom boom boom!"

"Bang bang bang!"

Dozens of tiger squat cannons on this side of the camp fired shotgun shells in unison from the south. The two thousand musketeers who covered the siege troops also fired from the east.

Cannons and muskets, cross-fire.

Although the hundreds of Jin cavalry were in a scattered formation, more than half of them fell on the spot.

Wanyan Talan stood on the top of the city and saw it clearly. His face turned pale in an instant. He said to Wanyan Zongwang: "Except for the various units guarding the city, all the rest will go around to the south and east to attack the enemy camp. While the Ming army is attacking the city, destroy their camp from the rear!"

Batch after batch of Jin soldiers crossed the river on a floating bridge a few miles to the south, and even those Han soldiers from Hebei were brought with them.

The Ming army in the camp took the initiative to shrink.

The Ming army camp within a radius of several miles abandoned all the outer perimeters. Wanyan Zongwang then discovered that the Ming army's carriages outside the camp had all been taken into the camp last night.

Not only that, the Ming army's digging trenches and building fortifications on the periphery were just a cover. Wanyan Zongwang thought that his troops had worked by giving up after digging for a long time. In fact, the Ming army was secretly digging trenches and building fortifications inside the camp with the cover of military tents. After shrinking the defense circle, the amount of work was greatly reduced.

The east and south were the main attack directions of the Jin soldiers. Inside the Ming army camps on these two sides, a two-meter-wide and three-meter-deep trench had been dug.

The excavated soil was used to build a barrier, which had been covered with fodder before. Because the distance was too far to see clearly, Wanyan Zongwang looked at it from the city wall and thought that those were fodder for the Ming cavalry - if the Jin people had telescopes, the Ming army would have been exposed long ago.

The Jin soldiers attacked the camp in a big way, breaking through the outer perimeter with great momentum, and only found trenches and barriers when they entered.

Twenty thousand Ming troops and thousands of civilians were guarding the shrinking defense line. If the Jin soldiers wanted to break through, they would have to pay with their lives.

Outside the southern wall of Gaocheng, a large-scale watchtower car was carrying musketeers and pushing forward. There were also siege equipment such as ladders, parapets, and battering rams next to it.

The Jin soldiers guarding the city were already firing rockets outward, and their targets were the ladders and parapets.

The watchtower car stopped twenty meters away from the wall, and the musketeers standing inside began to prepare to shoot freely at the top of the city.

Hua Rong went to the battle in person. At such a short distance, let alone hitting people, even a flying eagle could hit it!

He had already observed through a telescope and learned the position of Sarihe, and ordered the soldiers to push him closer.

Sarihe was commanding the troops to defend the city, standing behind the parapet, and his personal soldiers were protecting him with shields, but his head was completely exposed.

Under normal circumstances, this position could not be dangerous.

"Bang!"

A gunshot was fired, and Sarihe fell down.

This future left prime minister and left marshal of the Jin Dynasty died without knowing why.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

Following the sound of Hua Rong's gunshot, the other musketeers also fired one after another.

The Jin soldiers who were defending the city began to fall in large numbers.

Wanyan Zongwang was also on the city, but he avoided the siege area, otherwise this guy might also capsize.

Hearing the gunshots and screams, Wanyan Zongwang turned his head and saw that no one of the Jin soldiers on the distant wall was standing. Not to mention those who were shot, those who were not shot also squatted and hid behind the parapet out of fear.

Several Jin soldiers came running over, "Marshal, the commander-in-chief is gone!"

Wanyan Zongwang was stunned.