Daming kill

Chapter 222 Not idle
On a section of the city wall in Susong County, fifty miles north of Huangmei County, the generals of the Peasant Army guarding the city looked at a large mound of dirt hundreds of steps away from the city wall with worries on their faces.

He didn't know what that big mound was for, and his knowledge and hearing were very limited.

And the unknown made him anxious.

It is now May [-]th, and the officers and soldiers have been in Susong County for five days. However, the officers and soldiers have not attacked the city for five days, but they have piled up more than a dozen mounds the size of our eyes around the city, and then used soil to attack the city. Heaps as the core set up to resist horses and wooden walls to form a small defense center.

But none of these mounds faced the city gate, and they were even far away, which was very strange.

In order to prevent the officers and soldiers from secretly digging tunnels, the peasant army dug a row of deep trenches on the inner wall of each large mound in the city, and buried large tanks at the bottom of the trenches to prevent the officers and soldiers from digging tunnels. Dig deeper.

However, in the past few days, there was no phenomenon of the officers and soldiers poking holes in the deep ditch with tunnels, and people who went into the tank from time to time to listen did not hear any unusual movements.

What kind of medicine is sold in the official gourd is even more confusing.

But in fact, if there are veterans in the peasant army who have traveled from south to north, they may guess some.

It's a pity that most of the peasant army in Susong County are local people who have just joined Zhang Xianzhong, and a very small number of so-called veterans are just surrounding officers and soldiers and people from other places who have just joined Zhang Xianzhong.

Even the general of the peasant army guarding the city himself is a small leader of the army who took the initiative to lead his troops to surrender a few months ago.

The real elite and veterans of the Peasant Army have always followed Zhang Xianzhong or stationed in big cities like Huangzhou Fucheng.

Today, the generals of the Peasant Army in Susong County rushed here after hearing that over a thousand officers and troops had suddenly gathered in front of this relatively remote mound in front of them, and even the few defenders in the city gathered together. Come here in case something changes.

But the general of the peasant army watched the city for a long time. Apart from finding that the army and soldiers were gathering more and more, he did not find that the army was ready to attack the city.

Because the officers and soldiers far below the city didn't seem to have many ladders at all, and they didn't find any other siege equipment.

But it also made him more uneasy.

He had an intuition that the problem should be on the mound.

The intuition of the general of the Peasant Army was correct. When he was staring at the mound, Zhao Jin and Shi Ming beside the mound were also staring at him.

Seeing the flags and figures on the opposite city wall shaking more and more, Zhao Jin met Shi Ming's eyes, and then said sullenly, "I think it's almost time to start a fire."

"Yes. General Zhao, you decide." Shi Ming nodded earnestly.

So, Zhao Jin's personal soldier, Zhao Liang, immediately ran to the entrance of the tunnel covered by the mound of earth to deliver the order.

Soon after capturing Huangmei County, Zhao Jin and Shi Ming asked Zuo Menggeng again to attack Susong County.

Different from Zuo Liangyu's other generals, Zhao Jin and Shi Ming knew that their foundation was too shallow, and they had to rely on something if they wanted to maintain their status or advance to a higher level.

And this can only be military exploits.

As modern people, it is impossible for Zuo Liangyu's generals to burn, kill and loot without any thought in the government-controlled area to strengthen themselves.

They have both moral bottom line and fear.

Both Zhao Jin and Shi Ming understand the importance of reputation, and also understand that it is not wise to completely stand against the civil service system before the Ming government collapses, and they don't want to block all other roads.

This also caused their strength and wealth to be slower than Zuo Liangyu's other generals, including those who were constantly adding new generals.

And this inevitably weakened their weak and unstable position.Even if the relationship between Zhao Jin, Shi Ming and Zuo Menggeng was already very good, they were basically not affected by Li Ping.

The most important thing is that Zhao Ming and Shi Ming also want to have their own territory. This is the unique obsession of modern people who know Mao Zedong's saying "Government grows out of the barrel of a gun".

In this regard, Li Ping has set a good example for them.

Although they are also worried that Li Ping's method is too risky, it does not prevent them from learning from it.

At this time, Zuo Liangyu's generals were basically happy and relaxed, and they had no interest in attacking the gangster Zhang Xianzhong at the risk of failure. In fact, they had completely lost since Xiangyang. Gained the courage and confidence to attack the big thief.

And this gave Zhao Jin and Shi Ming, who were unwilling to be lonely, an excellent opportunity.

After analyzing the pros and cons, they hit it off quickly.

When they attacked Huangmei, they used the excuse of covering Jiujiang. This time when they attacked Susong County, they used the excuse of mopping up Zhang Xianzhong's forces behind Li Ping to stabilize Nanzhili (Susong County belongs to Anqing Prefecture of Nanzhili ).

Anyway, Li Ping had already brought down Qizhou, and there was no question of whether their actions would anger Zhang Xianzhong and attract him to trouble.

Zuo Menggeng didn't quite understand why Zhao Jin and Shi Ming liked to take risks with their hard-earned wealth. After all, their military strength was still insufficient to attack the city.

Huangmei County succeeded in a surprise attack by luck, but it is impossible for every city to be successfully raided.The enemy is not a fool!

And forcibly attacking the city, if the strength is insufficient, it is very likely that the teeth will jump all over the ground.

However, under Zhao Jin's lobbying, Zuo Menggeng, who was too lazy to meddle in other people's business, quickly approved the request of Zhao Jin and Shi Ming, who had become confidantes, and brought them Zuo Liangyu's words: Military affairs, but I am happy to see the loyalty and bravery of the generals. Presently, offering thieves is very powerful, if you can ensure the stability of the Yangtze River, you can do it cheaply."

Therefore, Zhao Jin and Shi Ming selected 5000 people from the further expanded army in Huangmei County to attack Susong County, and planned to try a new siege plan.

In fact, their new siege method was not new, and was even commonly used by Li Zicheng's troops in Henan and Shaanxi.

That is to bury gunpowder under the city wall to blow up the city wall.

However, due to the lack of handy tools, Li Zicheng's troops often need more than ten days of underground excavation before bombing the city, and because they do not understand the airtight and directional principles of blasting, the underground excavation space is often very large, and they often use Several or even more coffins were used to hold large quantities of gunpowder.

But Zhao Jin and Shi Ming are different.

Before leaving Xiangyang, Zhao Jin, who graduated from Luzhi and was good at earthworks, ordered a small batch of short iron-tip shovels made of fine steel from Li Ping, which ensured that his department had a strong ability in earthworks.

Then, Zhao Jin and Shi Ming simply purified and granulated the large amount of gunpowder obtained from Zuo Liangyu's other troops.

Granular gunpowder is actually not a new thing at this time. It has begun to be used in a certain range in the late Ming Dynasty, but it is not very popular (it is relatively widespread in Europe), and there are still few people who know it.

The production of primary granular gunpowder is relatively simple.

Powdered gunpowder is hardened by adding water, then broken into small pieces and dried in the sun, making it the simplest form of granulated gunpowder.

The secret of the power of granular gunpowder is that there is a certain space between the particles, and the oxygen in it plays a good role in supporting the combustion of gunpowder and greatly improves the combustion efficiency.

However, maximizing the power of granulated gunpowder requires some trial and error and adjustments in the size of the powder particles to achieve the optimal size and shape.

But if there is no time and technical ability to refine the gunpowder particles, the most elementary granular gunpowder will also increase the power a lot.

According to the conclusions of the Europeans, who were more widely used at this time and had a very primitive level of understanding, the usual granular gunpowder could triple the power.Of course, the simpler ones will definitely be worse, but they are enough.

Since it was also the first time to carry out such a large-scale blasting, Zhao Jin didn't know how much gunpowder should be buried.In order to ensure success, he buried all their gunpowder under the city wall in front of him after experimenting with the directional technology in a small dose.

Zhao Jin and Shi Ming's troops, who had just been ordered to assemble here to attack the city, were mostly dumbfounded. Most of these officers and soldiers who arrived at this mound for the first time did not know that they were planning to blow up the city wall.

Because apart from this mound, the other mounds are completely deceptive.The surrounding soldiers were also naturally inexplicable, and then spread their inexplicable to almost the entire army.

So many Zhao Jin and Shi Ming coalition forces who had just been conscripted by force managed to keep the secret, even if there were deserters in the middle.

And when Zhao Jin gave the order to prepare to attack, the officers and soldiers who arrived later became even more confused.

There was no city gate in front of them, and they did not bring a few ladders, and it was broad daylight, how could the city be attacked?
Then they were asked to open their mouths for no reason!

Just when most of these officers and soldiers stared wide-eyed, there was a sudden loud muffled sound, and then the city wall in front of them suddenly rose shockingly, and then began to collapse.

Then, the ground under their feet visibly trembled.

In a stunned state, the place where the city wall collapsed was quickly covered in a thick cloud of dust.

At this time, several bugles in Zhao Jin's army began to sound, followed by the familiar continuous sound of drums and whistles.

The sound of cursing and yelling soon sounded, and the troops of Zhao Jin and Shi Ming put away their astonishment and rushed towards the smoke and dust following the forward banners of their respective teams.

The battle ended quickly.

The top leader of the Peasant Army in Susong County and hundreds of able-bodied subordinates were directly killed by the explosion, and more people were injured. Quickly rush into the city from the collapse.

There are not many peasant troops in Susong County. There were only about [-] and most of them were newly recruited civilians. The combat power is diluted even weaker.

Then the city was broken suddenly, and the dragons had no leader, so the whole battle directly turned into a one-sided massacre.

Even Li Shengcai, who participated in the siege for the first time, also killed very easily and happily and became more and more courageous. Of course, taking the opportunity to rob the rich and the common people was also the most vicious and the most.

In the evening, sitting around the county office, Zhao Jin and Shi Ming started the planned division of interests.

"Brother Zhao, it's up to you to decide whether we should have regional autonomy like Huang Mei, or whether we will distribute the gains proportionally after the unification." Shi Ming said pretending to be careless, and at the same time very euphemistically proposed the idea of ​​resetting the distribution of benefits after the war .

This should be because he realized that the original plan of dividing the city into two cities and governing the east and west was no longer suitable after he completed occupying the land of the two counties.

Zhao Jin didn't show any surprise expression, but his expression was very dull. The fingers of his right hand tapped the armrest of the chair irregularly and continuously, as if he was thinking about something.

But Li Shengcai's face changed drastically.

He looked nervously at Shi Ming, then at Zhao Jin, and suddenly said: "I think the original plan is better, it is simple and clear at a glance, and it is very convenient for everyone."

Shi Ming glanced at Li Shengcai blankly, did not speak, then continued to stare at Zhao Jin, waiting for Zhao Jin.

"I think what Shige said is right. We have captured two cities now, and it is not appropriate to continue to divide and rule. Each city is divided into two areas. Our energy is not enough, it is not conducive to unity, and it also disperses us power." At this moment, Wang Chengwu interjected in a low voice.

"But you also know that most of our subordinates are ignorant and uneducated idiots and peasants from the countryside. It is their nature to want to take advantage of more advantages. Unified points, not to mention whether they can be clearly distinguished, it is estimated that it will be troublesome to get only one. It will definitely lead to a lot of conflicts, and finally hurt everyone's feelings. It will not be worth the loss!" Li Shengcai hastily continued to defend and firmly expressed his opinion.

But at this moment, Zhao Jin suddenly stopped knocking on the armrest of the chair and sat upright, then looked at Shi Ming and said solemnly: "The two of us can have one city per person."

Shi Ming's eyes lit up for a moment, and then suppressed the ecstasy in his heart and said: "Brother, it seems that he has already considered it? I didn't say anything, you choose first."

"Huangmei County belongs to me, and this county belongs to you. But I want all the prisoners in this battle, and I want to share two-thirds of all the captured ones." Zhao Jin said very seriously.

"Why..." Li Shengcai's ear-piercing voice fell silent immediately.

Shi Ming took a vicious look at Li Shengcai who was slapped on the shoulder by Wang Chengwu and shut his mouth, then put on a smiling face and stretched out his right palm to Zhao Jin and said, "No problem, it's a deal?"

Zhao Jin stretched out his right hand and clapped Shi Ming with his mouth slightly raised, saying, "It's a deal."

(End of this chapter)