Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 259 Z-shaped Trench
"No, there are still several gentry families in the city. If we massacre them, there will be no chance for them to surrender in the future."

"That's not necessarily true. As long as we defeat that guy named Lin, the imperial court will eventually recruit us."

As the former Penghu guerrilla, Wang Mengxiong undoubtedly knew the moral character of the imperial court better than Zheng Zhilong. He went on to say: "Besides, the people in the city are hidden dangers. Now our army's morale is unstable, and there is a greater possibility of change in the city. It is better to just kill them and save trouble."

These words finally prompted Zheng Zhilong to make up his mind. He gritted his teeth and said, "Then I'll do as you say."

On this day, Zheng Zhilong completely tore off the mask of a righteous bandit and began to organize his subordinates to massacre the city in batches in order to boost morale.

There were only 40,000 to 50,000 people in Xiamen. A small half of them fled after Zheng Zhilong's troops landed on Jiahe Island, and another small half fled when the city was captured. Now the total number of people in the city is about 10,000, which is about the same as the number of pirates under Zheng Zhilong.

In view of this, Wang Mengxiong suggested that Xiamen City be divided into areas according to the organizational structure of the Zheng army, and that fairness and justice be maintained as much as possible to ensure that every pirate had something to rob.

After all, there are only so many civilians, and the pirates need to leave people to guard the city. They have to rotate, and whoever is at the back will not be happy.

And only by doing so could Zheng Zhilong know which troops were looting in which area, so that he could quickly gather the troops when necessary. Otherwise, let alone dealing with the possible fierce attack outside the city, it would take an unknown amount of time to organize the decisive battle outside the city scheduled for two days, and by then the morale boosted by the massacre would have dissipated.

In order to ensure that the order of dividing the area into sections and contracting out the responsibilities could be implemented, Wang Mengxiong personally volunteered to lead the Marines in batches to maintain order in the city and never allow anyone to cross the line.

Zheng Zhilong was dumbfounded when he heard this. He had committed many robberies in Guangdong, but he had never done it in such an organized and disciplined manner.

This is probably why the saying goes "bandits pass by like a comb, soldiers pass by like a rake". Bandits like headless flies are always inefficient, and the truly destructive power must be an organized army.

Wang Mengxiong was indeed an outstanding general of the Ming Dynasty. Although he had never massacred a city before, his military skills were much higher than those of the pirates.

That night, Xiamen turned into a city of tears, where human nature showed its most despicable side and the pirates vented their most primitive animal desires.

All the property was looted, the man was hacked to death and lay in a pool of blood, the woman's hands were nailed to the bed with a sharp knife, and she endured round after round of torture and devastation in pain and helplessness. Similar scenes were played out in countless families.

Even Zheng Zhilong seemed to be infected by the warm atmosphere. Usually he was not very interested in women, but that night he ordered his men to kidnap two beauties so that he could vent his desires.

Zheng Zhilong wanted to vent not only his lust, but also his frustration over the fall of Wanggang and his fear of his future. The same was true for the pirates under him, whose families were in danger of death and their own future was uncertain.

At times like this, the evil side of human nature will be further stimulated - since I am not having a good life, you can't expect to live in peace either, I will take someone with me when I die, and I will have enough fun before I die...

On the same night, outside Xiamen City, about three hundred steps away from Qiming Gate, the Huiyou Company began to organize the prisoners of war to dig trenches.

This is a parallel trench, roughly parallel to the east wall. The prisoners were forced to start earthwork. Each of them was given a shovel and a bamboo basket. Under the moonlight, more than 200 prisoners were lined up in a line, with a total length of about 400 meters, slightly shorter than the east wall of Xiamen.

Twenty steps behind them, fifty musketeers from the Army Department were supervising the work. Anyone who tried to escape would be shot dead immediately.

The distance from the first parallel trench to the city wall is carefully selected. This is the starting point for the attackers and equipment to advance towards the city wall. It is best to be outside the effective range of the defenders' artillery. In other words, personnel and equipment will not suffer heavy losses in the process of entering this parallel trench from the outside. At the same time, the trench repair personnel responsible for earthwork will also be relatively safe.

However, if the trench is too far from the city wall, the amount of earthwork will increase significantly, which will not only take longer to build, but also significantly reduce the efficiency of the subsequent siege. Therefore, how to choose a suitable distance is a test of tactical level and the degree of understanding of the enemy situation.

The artillery on the city walls of Xiamen were mainly wrought iron cannons such as the Dajiangjun Cannon and the Weiyuan Cannon. In addition, there were also some light cast cannons such as the Fajian Cannon. Lin Hai had already figured out their approximate effective range during the attack by the Vanguard Bureau.

It was a bright moonlit night, and Huiyou Company's actions naturally did not escape the eyes of the defenders on the city wall. No one knew what was going on on the other side, so they hurried to report to Zheng Zhilong.

Zheng Zhilong had just taken off his pants and was about to enter the port when he heard that Lin Hai had started to take action. He was so frightened that he hurried to Qiming Gate and sent someone to invite Wang Mengxiong over.

In urban sieges and defenses of that era, it was not uncommon for the attackers to dig trenches outside the city. A few years later, Huang Taiji did this in Dalingh City, usually for the purpose of long-term siege.

Wang Mengxiong quickly asserted, "Boss, it seems that the Lins are planning to keep the siege going for a long time."

“How should our army respond?”

"Don't worry about it. This ditch is a bit far from the city wall. It will take at least several days and nights to dig a circle. Let's wait until tomorrow morning, and then we can use artillery to bombard it."

Before dawn, the first parallel trench was dug. The Zheng army neither left the city to harass nor fired artillery.

The trench was ten feet wide, enough for the Red Cannon weighing two or three tons to move in it, but the depth was relatively shallow, only six feet from the bottom of the trench to the top of the trench wall, and there were no steps on the side close to the trench wall. Obviously, this was not a fortification used to besiege the enemy.

Then, the prisoners of war who were repairing the trenches and the musketeers who were supervising the work began to change shifts, and the Huiyou Company began to dig diagonal trenches. The diagonal trenches extended from the first parallel trench toward the city wall, roughly at a 45-degree angle to the parallel trenches. There were eight trenches being dug at the same time, with one trench every meters.

The artillery fire began on the city walls of Xiamen, but due to the angle of the diagonal trench, Zheng's artillery could not form a vertical fire. Moreover, the prisoners of war were digging forward in the trenches, so the efficiency of the artillery fire was very low.

Wang Mengxiong already felt something was wrong, but he still didn't know what the other side was going to do. After all eight diagonal trenches were dug, Huiyou Company began to dig the second parallel trench.

This parallel trench was located behind the twenty artillery batteries and was connected to the first parallel trench through eight diagonal trenches... Wang Mengxiong suddenly woke up as if from a dream. It turned out that Lin Hai's plan was not to carry out a long-term siege, but to attack the city with artillery.

(End of this chapter)