Ping An Biography

At the beginning of September, it was sunny for a while and the temperature picked up, but the angle of the sun is getting more and more away from the earth, which is something that mortals cannot change. The sun shining on people is no longer as hot as summer, and it is the time of autumn.The dry land and paddy fields near Jiujiang City were barren. Outside the city, there were only troops but no farmers.In the Jiangnan region, this season is not considered a slack season. Not only can you harvest all kinds of fruits and vegetables, but you can also grow beans. However, no one wants to go to the side of the battlefield to leisurely farm... Are you a spy to inquire about the military situation?Perhaps the countryside far away from the town is now the time to work, and the scene will be completely different. After all, unless the army passes by, no one will walk for a few days to hang out in the countryside after being full.

Zhang Fu was finally willing to attack the city down-to-earth.He went through several tentative rushes, and secretly sent Nei Ying to burn food, but all failed. Obviously, the "shortcut path" is not so safe.Now he has no choice but to start the comprehensive project of siege step by step.

A mile away from the rebel bunker outpost and city walls, a massive round of civil engineering is underway.A long fortification is under construction, based on a wall made of rammed earth, and then a fence is built with wood. There are horse piles on the outside, and there are gates, archery towers, and artillery arrays in the middle. The fortifications on the east line meander from the edge of Baishui Lake. Extending all the way to the Yangtze River.

Buildings were clanging on the ground, and shirtless men were carrying heavy hammers to ram the earthen walls. People's yelling and rough|heavy breathing merged with the fiery scene.Among the people who come and go are craftsmen and peasants, most of them are soldiers. They divide labor and do various tasks, such as moving wood and soil, piling and building fences, carrying water, and processing wood. Mixed together, the soldiers become coolies, The general becomes the foreman.

Han people are best at defending and attacking cities, because soldiers come from all walks of life. The civilization of the Central Plains is at the leading level of the times in social development. The development of organization and division of labor makes people more suitable for this kind of complicated war. Soldiers are very It is easy to organize and divide labor... just like the army of nomads is better at looting and field warfare, because the herdsmen who live on horseback are born to ride horses and archery, and a little combination is a cavalry.Each has its own strengths.

In fact even the military is mostly working, not fighting.Most of the time the troops going out are walking, transporting things, building camps, collecting firewood to make a fire and cooking, and doing these things; a war that lasts for several months, there are very few times when they really charge into battle.

But this kind of labor is naturally different from a pure construction site. From time to time, a cannon will come from the opposite side, and the iron ball will smash the newly repaired things, and often kill people.Not only that, there was a large cavalry army lined up behind the construction site to prevent the defenders on the opposite side from rushing out to counterattack; fortunately, the defenders never attacked, they just deployed artillery arrays there to fight coldly.

The officers and soldiers are not to be trifled with, and they will retaliate if they are bombarded.They found that long-range retaliation with heavy artillery was not very effective, because only solid bullets could be fired at a distance of nearly one mile, and they were projected at a high throw angle.The officers and soldiers transported the parts of the return cannon by ship, set up positions in front of the fortifications, and used the return cannon to throw flower bombs; this thing was used by the Tartars to attack the city in the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties, and it is still easy to use after a hundred years, especially the people of the Ming Dynasty After carrying out technological transformation and manufacturing the flower bomb with the latch mechanism, the power is not limited to throwing stones at the city wall.

The flowering bomb is hollowed out from a whole stone, filled with gunpowder, arsenic croton and other poisons. It is a combination of bomb and poison gas. When it hits the enemy's position, the stone explodes first and hurts people, and then the poison is scattered. A solid bullet with a hole in it is obviously more effective.The Suzaku army drank a pot, and then they began to dig trenches and pits. Here, they used return guns to jump into the ditch to hide debris, and then swept the poison into the pit to bury them after shooting; Extremely slow, this method is not enough to make much of an impact.The return artillery is also facing the enemy's artillery attack. The target is too large and cannot be moved. It is placed there high up, unlike the artillery that can be buried on the sandbags of the earth wall; the Suzaku Army uses three cannons to deal with one return artillery at the same time, usually constantly adjusting the angle Three or four shots in a row can destroy one.

You come and go, the battle has never stopped, but there has been no high-intensity battle in the past month.In addition to the eastern front, the army of the South Road had already arrived in the south of the city, and they were also repairing fortifications there.Part of the South Route Army went around to the west of Gantang Lake to camp, and then repaired fortifications on the narrow land corridor between Gantang Lake and the Yangtze River.

After such a repair, Jiujiang City has been completely blocked, and the only way out is from the Yangtze River in the north and the lakes on the east and west sides.But the Yangtze River is controlled by the government and navy, and there are no boats or sailors on the lake.In addition, there is an almost negligible road, Li Gongdi.Legend has it that it was built by Li Bo, an official of the Tang Dynasty, to facilitate transportation, and at the same time build bridges and gates to adjust tax time.But this narrow passage is obviously easy to defend and difficult to attack.

... Zhang Fu and two generals climbed up a dirt hill outside the east gate of the city to observe the scenery inside the city from a distance.This earth mountain is also one of the man-made works. There are four in total outside the city, and the one that Zhang Fu came up is the tallest and the farthest.Putting a cannon here can directly blast the city head, and its height is slightly higher than the city wall; it could have been built closer so that small artillery such as bowl-mouth guns can also be fired, but the enemy also has cannons, so it cannot be repaired close.

"The heavy artillery of the bandit army can hit two miles at the farthest, and there is danger here. The British should go down quickly." A general persuaded.

Zhang Fu waved his hand to stop him.The two armies have been fighting each other for more than a month, and Zhang Fu has almost a comprehensive understanding of the performance of the rebels' firearms. The distance is more than two or three hundred steps. No matter what kind of gun is particularly accurate, we can only make a rough estimate; it can be adjusted repeatedly. It can hit the target, but it is almost impossible to hit this hill with a sudden shot one mile away.Zhang Fu felt that if he was afraid of such a risk, it would be better to go home and take care of the elderly instead of fighting.

He looked at it for a long time, and first found that the rebels' soldiers had some characteristics, and there were many "real bandits" on the top of the city; before that, on another hilltop, he saw that there were many Han kings surrendering bandits on the ditch wall fortification, especially the army in the northwest. Where the troops are relatively weak, almost all the ditch walls are filled with thieves.From this discovery, Zhang Fu guessed at least two points: First, after the civil strife in Wang Zhiyuan's department, the trust of the rebels in the surrendered army of the King of Han has dropped significantly, and they are very wary, and the loyalty and morale of the surrendered army should also be extremely reduced. ...In addition, the Jiujiang army is outside the city, so it can be used well to continuously induce surrender and further weaken the strength of the rebel army.Second, due to the completion of the siege fortifications, the fortifications of the rebel earthen bunkers are no longer effective, and their defense gradually leans towards the city walls, so a large number of surrendered troops are deployed on the fortifications of the ditch walls.

At this moment, Zhang Fu found a group of people walking up to the top of the city wall, and one of them walked to the edge of the city wall surrounded by the crowd.The weather was clear and the air was clear and the sightlines were excellent. Zhang Fu could almost see the general movements of the people on the city wall from a distance... Although he couldn't see the face and appearance clearly, he guessed based on the situation that the person on the wall might be Zhu Wenbiao, the leader of the thieves.

Zhu Wenbiao used to be called Zhang Ning. He passed the imperial examination and became an official in the capital. It's a pity that Zhang Fu, who was also in the officialdom of the capital, had never seen this person, and he didn't know what he looked like.Maybe I met him on some occasion, but Zhang Fu was an important minister of the Duke's court very early on. When Zhang Ning was an official, he was a sesame official of the sixth or seventh rank. There are so many such officials in the capital, it is impossible for Zhang Fu to pay attention to him.

But now Zhang Fu has to attach great importance to this person, except for the fact that he separatized Huguang and disturbed the world, Zhang Fu even has a respectful attitude... Such an opponent deserves respect.In Zhang Fu's view, this person is definitely not an idler in some aspects of the military, and he was also a minority in the Ming Dynasty, which is full of talents, such as the application of weapons, army management, and even some strategies.Wang Zhiyuan, as an internal agent, arranged everything seamlessly, and the timing of his actions was very decisive. Not long after the soldiers approached the city of Jiujiang, although Zhang Fu felt that this method was a trick beforehand, he also thought it was a surefire strategy. Unexpectedly, it still failed in the end.Moreover, even Yang Shiqi had defected there, no matter whether he was voluntary or forced, who is Yang Shiqi, and if he was a rebellious gangster, Zhang Fu concluded that Yang Shiqi would not give up even if he had nowhere to go.

The other party seemed to be looking this way too. Zhang Fu couldn't see the man's face clearly, but he could feel that he was looking at him.The two of them just looked at each other from a distance, and Zhang Fu even believed that he was Zhu Wenbiao.

Zhang Fu, who is usually very serious and rigorous, developed a kind of obstinacy by accident.He raised his hand and deliberately pointed to a place to the east several times.

In the direction pointed, there is a beautiful scenery that Zhang Fu had discovered before, beside Baishui Lake.There is an antique pavilion, orange trees, and a layer of beautiful fallen leaves on the ground. From a distance, the clear water, exquisite pavilion, and bright leaves seem to turn into a wonderful picture.

The meaning of Zhang Fuzhi's words is obvious, he just wanted to tell Zhu Wenbiao: the scenery is beautiful.At such a time when swords were on the verge of attack and soldiers were approaching the city, Zhang Fu told him that he still had the mind to look at the scenery, which was to express a calm and confident state of mind that the inevitable victory was at hand.

Overwhelm the opponent in momentum.Zhang Fu stroked his beard and continued to observe.The general next to him also followed Zhang Fu's movements and looked at the pavilion with great interest, but he didn't know why and was dumbstruck.

He hoped that he would be shot at the top of the city, and that would reveal Zhu Wenbiao's angry mood.Young people can't stand "flirting | teasing", it's human nature to strive for strength.

Unexpectedly, it was extraordinarily quiet at this time. Normally, the opponent would fire cold shots from time to time, but today there was no cannon.Zhang Fu waited for a long time but there was no movement. The two continued to look at each other like this, as if they were communicating wordlessly.

"Alas..." Zhang Fu finally sighed slightly, turned around and beckoned his followers to leave the mountain together.