Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 157

At noon, the shouts are anxious.

Outside Jixi Fort, fifteen returning artillery pieces continuously threw stones. In just one morning, there were hundreds of flying stones.

In Jixi Fort, all the soldiers were nestled behind the city wall, watching helplessly as rocks flew into the city, making big holes.

Behind the parapet, Zhu Gaoxu and Lin Su were sitting together. Lin Su said anxiously: "Your Highness, use artillery. We are being beaten all the time. The morale of our brothers is almost gone!"

"Yes, Your Highness, don't we have eight artillery pieces?!"

"Your Highness, use artillery!"

Behind the parapet, the generals next to Zhu Gaoxu asked him to use artillery, but only Zhu Gaoxu knew the power of his eight artillery pieces.

These artillery pieces were disassembled from the ship and placed on the six arrow towers of Jixi Fort by Lin Su. If they were forced to hit them, they could be fired, but the damage caused would not be great.

Instead of using it to fight back artillery, it is better to keep it to attack the Uliangha people who are trying to attack the city.

"It's not time to use them yet. Artillery cannot be used without my military order."

After expressing his attitude, Zhu Gaoxu continued: "This time, the artillery fire can't break through the city wall for the time being, and it can't hurt the brothers. If they want to fight, let them fight. When they find that the attack is useless, they will naturally change the attack method."

"Let brothers wait, give me a moment to greet these barbarian soldiers!"

"Yes..." Despite Zhu Gaoxu's explanation, everyone still felt a sigh of relief in their chests.

However, compared to the breath they were holding back, Zhang Chun, who was stationed on Hadaling Mountain at this moment, ushered in the first battle he commanded alone.

"Smash! Smash these guys to death!"

On the western slope of Hadaling, thousands of Uuliangha people were knocked down one by one by Zhang Chun and others with oak trees.

Dozens of corpses lay scattered like onions on the white ground on the cleared western slope. The remaining [-] or so Uuliangha people hid in the forest under the white ground, relying on trees to survive.

The west slope of Hadal Ridge is not difficult to climb, but compared to climbing the mountain, the Bohai Navy who keeps throwing logs down the slope is scary.

Dozens of kilograms of wood were thrown from the wooden platform and rolled down the gentle slope. They were injured when they touched and died when they hit, but they were not given a way to survive.

The most important thing is that the Bohai Navy has an inexhaustible supply of mulberry trees. As long as one or two trees are cut down, it is enough to make dozens of mulberry trees.

Thousands of people were suppressed by 600 people on the slope. The wood thrown by soldiers and retinues were the same, and one person could be used as a weapon for several people.

Even if Wuliangha's Qianhu keeps people attacking, once someone pops up and tries to climb, four or five trees will immediately roll down the slope. The power is so frightening that everyone will be scared to lean on the trees and not dare to do anything. move.

Thousands of households had no choice but to send people down the mountain to deliver the message.

"Excuse!"

When the news about Xipo came back to Halagu, he immediately cursed him, and the hundreds of households who came to deliver the message could only lower their heads.

Looking at his appearance, Haragu knew that Xipo's news was true, so he could only calm down and continue to ask: "How many people are there on the mountain?"

"They were hiding behind the rafts and we couldn't see clearly, but judging from the speed at which they threw the wood, there should be no fewer than 500 people."

Baihu bravely reported it, and Harawu didn't feel strange after hearing it.

Relying on the geographical advantage, it is not surprising to use 500 people to block 1000 people.

"500 people..." Haragu looked at the city wall of Jixi Fort, which was being suppressed by Huihui artillery. He made a simple calculation: "In other words, there should be only 4000 or [-] people on this wall."

"Stop the Huihui cannon!" Harawu had a plan in his mind and raised his hand to signal the Huihui cannon to stop firing.

After he gave the order, the fifteen return cannons began to stop ejecting, and the Mongols responsible for operating these return cannons also began to replace the belts of the return cannons.

Since they are animal leashes, they are not durable and will need to be replaced once they are used frequently.

Watching his soldiers and horses changing their belts, Haragu looked at a fat man next to him: "Azashi Ritaiji, please lead your five thousand households to attack the city. Pay attention to the southern city wall. Find loopholes in them.”

"Don't worry, I will find it!" Azashili did not complain, but just agreed with his arms crossed.

He turned his horse's head and left. About half an hour later, more than a thousand Jurchen prisoners who had been beaten walked out of the camp.

They stepped forward to push the Lü Gong chariot, Yun chariot and other siege equipment for the Ulyanha people, while the 5000 people from Azashi walked carefully behind them.

"The attack on the city has begun, every household should prepare!"

On the top of the city, Zhu Gaoxu looked excitedly at the more than 5000 Uliangha people walking out of the camp, while Lin Su stood up and shouted to the soldiers around him.

Butang began to deliver Lin Su's military orders, and more than [-] soldiers and a thousand armored Jurchen retinues on the city wall began to prepare for war.

Coal and dry firewood were added to the stove that had always been sparking, iron pots were placed, and buckets of river water were poured into it.

These iron pots are not big. One bucket of water corresponds to one iron pot, and each iron pot corresponds to each crevice.

Once the Uliangha people start to attack the city, the boiling water in these iron pots can warmly take care of any Uliangha people who try to attack the city.

"Bang the drum to help out!"

"Boom...boom...boom...boom..."

At the top of the city, the drums on the six archery towers began to sound. Due to the large distance, the sound of the drums was not loud, but it was enough for everyone on the road to hear.

It's not noisy, but uplifting.

"Hugou! Come and kill your grandfather and me!"

"I'll fuck your mother!"

"what!!!"

Behind the parapet, some new soldiers from Liaodong who had never been on the battlefield were shouting to vent their nervousness.

I have to say that this is very useful, so many people started to curse.

The siege equipment was gradually advanced, and ten cloud chariots and four Lu Gong chariots attacked the city wall respectively.

Due to lack of time, Jixi Fort only strengthened and extended the city wall last year and did not dig a moat.

Therefore, the siege equipment came to the city without any doubt.

The Ming troops raised their bows and fired arrows, and many Jurchens who had been captured and helped the Uliangha people attack the city were shot dead.

Without armor, they are just a group of lambs.

During this period, not everyone tried to surrender to the Ming army at the top of the city, trying to pull them up to the city. However, the noise of the battlefield obscured their voices, and a thousand Jurchens were killed by arrows.

At the same time, Yun Che and Lu Gong Che also hit the wall of Jixi Fort.

The Uliangha people began to board the cloud chariot and Lu Gong chariot. As the ladders and siege boards were lowered, the Uliangha people began to climb the ladders, climbed onto the Lu Gong chariot and rushed towards the city wall.

"shoot!"

Lin Su led the soldiers around him to shoot arrows at the small space in Lu Gong's chariot, but those who could attack the city were often elites. The elite Wu Liangha, who was wearing armor, held up a round shield and rushed out of Lu Gong's chariot with arrows. , rushed up the city wall.

The two sides began to fight on the horse track. Most of the Wuliangha people were short and thin, but most of the Wuliangha people who could wear armor were thick and strong. Even if they were short, they could explode with murderous energy.

Scimitar, iron bone flower, waist knife, pumpkin hammer...

The weapons of the two armies collided on the horse road. The Ming army cooperated tacitly and took advantage of their height and strength. They raised their shields in the front and stabbed the faces of the Uliangha soldiers with spears from the rear.

On the ladder, there were constantly climbing Uliangha soldiers. Their skin was torn apart by the boiling water poured out by the Jurchen guards, and their flesh and blood were glued together with the leather armor on their bodies.

Wails and screams resounded throughout the battlefield in an instant. A tall Wuliangha soldier, who was about the same size as the Ming army, jumped down from the siege board and swung two iron bones in his hands, catching several Ming soldiers off guard. He suffered a heavy loss, but quickly regained the home court advantage and used the crowd to squeeze him off the track.

The Ulyanha soldier who fell from the horse path more than two feet high was hit repeatedly with hammers and wooden mallets by the Jurchen guards waiting at the base of the city wall before he could get up. Not long after, he convulsed and died.

The role of individual bravery on the battlefield is very limited, unless it can be achieved to the extent that one man can stand against ten thousand men...

The number of Uuliangha people on the city wall who entered the horse path through Lu Gong's carriage gradually increased, and they began to spread out and expand their positions.

Since both sides were wearing armor, only a handful of people died in the long battle.

However, many of the leather-armored soldiers who climbed the ladder were burned and shot.

"All five hundred armored soldiers from my formation have been sent up. As long as we stand firm, we can capture this place very quickly."

In this formation, Azashili and Haragu talked about their arrangements, while Haragu looked at the battlefield solemnly.

The Ming army was well prepared, and few of the Uuliangha people who climbed the cloud chariot could climb up. However, Lu Gong's chariot was able to continuously transport soldiers onto the horse path.

"Let the craftsmen build ten more Lugong cars!"

Haragu turned his head and ordered Qianhu beside him. Qianhu followed the order and left. Not long after, the sound of axes, chisels and knives began to be heard from behind.

But compared to this sound, what enveloped the entire river beach more was the killing cry from Jixi Fort.

The Ming army on the city was well prepared and pushed the Uliangha people into the city whenever they had the opportunity, allowing the Jurchen retinues who were ambushing under the city to play their role.

During this period, some Ming soldiers also fell, but they were quickly carried away from the battlefield and sent to the temporary military medical clinic behind Jixi Fort to check their injuries.

If there are no injuries such as internal injuries or broken bones, they will be woken up and continue on the battlefield.

If they suffered injuries such as internal injuries or fractures, their armor would be taken off and someone would take their place on the city wall.

As time passed, Azashi's 400 armored soldiers dropped sharply to more than [-], but they also succeeded in gaining a foothold. Many leather armored soldiers began to follow their pace and climbed up the horse path through Lu Gong's chariot.

The Wuliang Hajia soldiers who stood still had a clear goal. They went to the city gate tower and tried to pull up the Qianjin gate through the mechanism.

The Ming army tried to block it, but in the end they retreated because of the narrow city wall and the large defensive surface.

Not long after, Lin Su and more than a hundred Ming troops retreated to the horse road next to the city gate tower. Although the Uuliang Hajia soldiers in front of them were being beaten to death by hundreds of Ming troops behind them, they bravely set their main attack direction. On Lin Su and these 100 people.

"Hold on! Don't let these rogues disturb His Highness's peace!"

Lin Su waved his hammer and shouted, reminding everyone.

He was about to lead his troops to continue the charge, but when he saw the Hu soldiers in front of him, they all stopped and looked behind him in horror.

Lin Su turned around, and a tall figure enveloped him.

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty... Your Highness..." Looking at Zhu Gaoxu, who was much taller than him, Zhu Gaoxu looked much burlier than usual because he was wearing double armor.

"Get out of the way!" Zhu Gaoxu stretched out his hand to push him away. The force was so strong that Lin Su was almost knocked to the ground.

When he got up hastily, Zhu Gaoxu rushed towards Hu Bing with an iron mace in both hands.

No one seems to have a deep understanding of Zhu Gaoxu's martial arts skills. They usually hold back when practicing martial arts with Lin Su and others.

The only time he made a serious move was probably the last time he hit Xiyang Ha hard with an arrow. He rushed into the enemy formation with a thousand horses and successfully rushed out.

Many people in the military knew about these things, but except for those who had seen them with their own eyes, everyone else regarded them as exaggerations.But today, their views have changed...

"roll!"

"Ugh!!"

Two iron maces weighing ten kilograms were lighter in Zhu Gaoxu's hands than the two or three kilogram blunt weapons in the hands of ordinary soldiers. He charged with more than a hundred armored soldiers alone.

The two parties collided. Some Hu soldiers wanted to insert their knives into the gaps in the armor, some swung hammers, and some threw throwing axes.

But no matter what, the armor on Zhu Gaoxu was never penetrated at all, and he himself did not even take a step back.

The iron mace was swung, and all the teeth of the Hu soldiers who were hit were smashed away, and the whole person took off and fell into the city like a green onion on a dry land.

A Hu soldier jumped up and tried to insert a sharp knife into the gap between Zhu Gaoxu's neck armor, but was beaten back into the crowd by Zhu Gaoxu's mace.

"Come! Follow His Highness!"

"rush ahead!!!"

Hot blood rushed to his forehead, Lin Su shouted, his whole face turned red due to congestion, and the soldiers behind him also had their blood boiling.

"Hold him! He's alone!"

Hundreds of officials among the Hu soldiers shouted, and three or five Hu soldiers immediately abandoned their weapons and hugged Zhu Gaoxu's feet and hands.

Zhu Gaoxu dropped the mace in his hand and grabbed one of them.

Hu Bing, who was less than five feet tall and weighed no more than [-] kilograms, was picked up by him with one hand and slammed into the Hu Bing in front of him.

"Come again!!"

Zhu Gaoxu trembled with excitement, and stabbed several sharp knives into his chest, along the gaps in his armor.

Hu Bing's face showed a smile after he succeeded, but before the smile appeared, it became stiff.

"It...can't get in..."

A Hu soldier said tremblingly, with a look of horror on his face.

No one thought that Zhu Gaoxu wore double armor, they just thought that Zhu Gaoxu was invulnerable.

The iron mace was swung, and the frightened Hu Bing was smashed into the Huashan Mountain and hit the Tianling Cap, and fell down.

"This guy is not human!"

Seeing the impenetrable Zhu Gaoxu, some of the Hu soldiers were so anxious that they wanted to run away. Zhu Gaoxu also wanted to chase him, but his hands and feet were hugged by the Hu soldiers, so he had to smash the few Hu soldiers who hugged him to death with his mace.

Some Hu soldiers did not believe that Zhu Gaoxu was invulnerable. They tried to get close to Zhu Gaoxu and pierced his neck armor with a knife, but Zhu Gaoxu caught him in his hand.

Several other Hu soldiers saw this, and some targeted the neck and some the legs.

Zhu Gaoxu stretched out his other hand to grab the man, and put them under his arms with the other man, his elbow suddenly exerting force.

"Uh uh uh..." A feeling of suffocation came, and the two Hu soldiers were kicked around by their legs.

"Your Highness!"

Lin Su led his troops and rushed forward, smashed away the Hu soldiers who tried to slash Zhu Gaoxu's legs, and kicked him off the city wall.

When he turned back to look at Zhu Gaoxu, he saw that Zhu Gaoxu was holding the two Hu soldiers tightly, with dozens of corpses at his feet.

Before he could react, the two Hu soldiers resisted slightly and finally stopped responding. They were pinched to death by Zhu Gaoxu, showing off their strength...

At this moment, Lin Su only knew how much strength Zhu Gaoxu had used up when practicing martial arts with his group.

"Kill them all!"

Before Lin Su could react, Zhu Gaoxu was kneeling on the ground, panting heavily, staring intently at the Uliang Hajia soldiers ahead who were being retreated by the Bohai Navy.

"Yes!" After reacting, Lin Su immediately joined the Bohai Navy, but Zhu Gaoxu sat down on the corpse of a Hu soldier, leaning against the female wall and gasping for air.

He is very powerful, but he is not superman.

Killing dozens of people on foot in a dozen breaths, this has reached the limit of his physical strength at his age.

At this moment, he only felt tired. If he hadn't made sure that there were no major wounds on his body, he might have thought that he was seriously injured due to the feeling of weakness.

"kill!!"

The cry of killing rang in my ears, and there were corpses on the ground in front of my eyes. Blood stained and flowed into the fort along the horse path.

Looking at the scene in front of him, Zhu Gaoxu raised his head and looked at the sky.

Compared with the blood on the ground, the sky was always blue, and the sun shining down on the heaven and earth was so bright that he couldn't open his eyes.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

The sound of ringing gold rang outside the city, and many armored soldiers who had not yet died in the battle began to jump back to Lu Gong's chariot and retreat, and the light soldiers with leather armor ran back to the main formation.

"Can't retreat! Just take it down quickly!"

In the formation, Azashili shouted to Haragu with red eyes. Haragu was annoyed by him and cursed back: "Look at how many of your armored soldiers have died. They have already begun to be rushed back by the Ming army." Mr. Lu is on his way, I asked Ming Jin to protect your strength, you idiot!"

Haragu's scolding made Azashili feel embarrassed, but he also realized that Haragu was indeed doing his own good.

However, Azashili still couldn't lose face after being scolded like this in public, so he shouted fiercely to Qianhu behind him: "The whole army retreats!"

"Yes..." Although Qianhu was also attacked, he also knew that now was a good time to retreat.

Although the war started only half an hour ago, their casualties already numbered in the hundreds. The shaken military morale was on the one hand, but the most fatal was the loss of strength.

Wu Liangha began to withdraw his troops across the board, and the Ming army at the top of the city also cheered, raised their bows and arrows, and fired arrows at the fleeing Hu soldiers.

The attack may have been slow, but in retreat, Wu Liangha's Hu soldiers outran the speed of four legs with two legs.

However, after an hour, the army retreated, leaving only hundreds of corpses inside and outside the city.

"Hugou! Come on! Come and kill your grandpa!"

"Dog Tatar, fight again!"

"A bunch of wild donkeys want to kill your father. Just wait ten more lifetimes!"

"Rebellion, let's fight again..."

Facing the retreating Hu soldiers, everyone vented abuse.

While they still had time to vent, Zhu Gaoxu and Lin Su had already begun to count the casualties, and at the same time ordered people to hoist the corpses outside the city into the city to prepare for unified disposal.

"hiss……"

In the city gate tower, Zhu Gaoxu took a breath of cold air and took off his two layers of armor one by one.

He didn't feel it during the battle, but after the battle, he felt the pain in his body.

The two layers of armor were taken off, and a guard wiped the blood off Zhu Gaoxu's body with a clean coarse cloth dipped in hot water.

"Your Highness, you suffered six stab wounds. Fortunately, they were only scratched by the tip of the knife and no flesh and blood were injured."

"Your Highness's injuries are all from the front. He is really brave..."

Two guards, one wiping blood and the other carrying boiling water, both sighed at Zhu Gaoxu's bravery.

Zhu Gaoxu didn't take their compliments seriously and just said to the two of them: "Get two buckets of hot water and find some clothes."

"Yes!" The two stood up straight, turned around and went out to find two buckets of hot water and one bucket of cold water.

Zhu Gaoxu stood up and washed himself, and during the process he looked at his wounds.

The four wounds on the chest were all one-inch and half-inch in size. They were probably wounds caused by the tip of the knife. There were two two-inch and one one-inch cuts on the calf. They were just cuts of some flesh and there was no need for stitches.

After washing, Zhu Gaoxu applied medicine to the three wounds on his legs, and then asked the two guards guarding the gatehouse to apply medicine to his chest.

Boil boiling water and wrap it in a dry coarse cloth. Normally, it will take at least six or seven days to heal.

"Your Highness!"

Just as the medicine was finished, and before Zhu Gaoxu had time to put on his clothes, the voices of Lin Su and Yi Shiha rang out from outside the building.

The two of them were wearing armor and still had some blood stains on their bodies, but they had very happy smiles on their faces.

"Your Highness..." The two of them entered the building and bowed, and Lin Su reported the good news: "Brothers, we have killed 390 and 120 Tatars, including 820 and 120 armored soldiers, [-] and [-] Jurchens, and the rest were ordinary barbarian soldiers. , and another [-] five sets of armor were seized."

"Where are the casualties?" Zhu Gaoxu asked him as he put on his clothes and tidied himself up.

At this time, Yishiha, who was in charge of commanding the retinue, stepped forward and bowed: "Seventeen brothers were killed in the battle, 26 from Liaodong, and 25 retinues. 35 brothers were seriously injured and recuperating, 72 from Liaodong, and 59 retinues."

"In total, 68 were killed in battle, 160 were seriously injured and recuperated, and 230 were killed or injured."

"In other words, 150 armored soldiers cannot participate in the battle..."

Yi Shiha's words were very heavy, but compared to the nearly [-] Tatars who were killed, the death toll of nearly one to ten was already considered a great victory.

"Not counting the Jurchens, we only killed less than 600 of them."

Compared with their happiness, Zhu Gaoxu was not happy.

More than 150 Tatars were killed and wounded in exchange for 570 armored soldiers. The results seemed brilliant, but now there are only 3000 armored soldiers in Jixi Fort, and more than 200 of them are not even new recruits.

The casualties of 150 armored soldiers were already unacceptable to Zhu Gaoxu.

"Your Highness!"

Outside the building, Wang Yi, who was promoted to Qianhu Official by Zhu Gaoxu yesterday, walked in. He looked the same as Lin Su and others, covered in blood.

He bowed as soon as he walked in, and then reported: "The city walls have been inspected and there are no cracks."

"Okay..." After hearing the news, Zhu Gaoxu's slightly heavy mood finally relaxed a little.

But even so, he still looked out the door.

Through here, he could clearly see the Uuliangha Hu soldiers who had withdrawn from their formation.

Although more than 1000 people were killed in the battle, this was not a heavy casualty for them at all. After all, there were less than 150 Hu soldiers among them, and Jixi Fort had already lost [-] people to death and serious injuries.

Six hundred for 150, Harawu and Wuliangha can exchange, but Zhu Gaoxu cannot afford to exchange...

(End of this chapter)