Ping An Biography

Zhou Mengxiong's wife, concubine and youngest son had already come to Wuchang.Soon after he became the commander of the new army, his wife Zhou Li and others moved into the newly resettled Zhou Mansion in Wuchang.

It was another late night, almost three o'clock, when Zhou Li heard the servant girl say that the master was going home.But after waiting for a long time, the master didn't come to the bedroom, so why go home so late and not go back to the bedroom to sleep?She quickly thought that the master might have gone to the concubine's room, and she felt uncomfortable, so she told her girl to go and see.Unexpectedly, the girl came back and said that the master was still in the living room, talking to a man.

In the middle of the night, why did you bring your subordinates home?

Zhou Li then put on his clothes and went out of the inner house to pick up the master.But thinking that there was a male guest and it was midnight, she couldn't show up rashly, so she went in through the back door and listened to what was going on behind the curtain.

Sure enough, there was a man talking, Zhou Li recognized it, it turned out to be Liu Mazi.This Liu Mazi is an old subordinate who has followed Zhou Mengxiong for many years. He came to Zhou's house more than once, and occasionally just stayed overnight at the house, because this man's original wife has never married since his death, not even a family...he is an acquaintance.

Liu Mazi's voice said: "My lord's current situation is no different from being roasted on the fire. You need to think about it more. You have delayed sending troops, no matter whether it is the people in the palace of Chu or the people inside and outside the court. "

After hearing this, Mrs. Zhou thought of Yao Ji, the person in the "Chu Palace".Mrs. Zhou Li just met her not long ago. This in-law looks very young, but she is by no means a good person. Somehow, Mrs. Zhou is still inexplicably afraid of Yao Ji when they meet her.

Zhou Mengxiong's voice said: "Whether the new army can win the flag is related to the overall situation! I will never send troops until I am sure that I will defeat Guanjun Beilu in one fell swoop! Overwhelmed, why worry? After the new army is destroyed, there will be no soldiers to move. The old man sees what kind of thoughts they have at that time. Throughout the ages, most of the people who have made mistakes are these people who only care about franchises!"

"That said, Jiujiang is an isolated city that has been trapped for more than a month, surrounded by a hundred thousand troops!" Liu Mazi said, "It's no wonder everyone is anxious. If this Jiujiang is broken, the king of Xiang will be inside, and Yongding The battalion is inside...not to mention the importance of King Xiang, but the Yongding Camp is recognized by the court as the number one elite of the Suzaku Army.

Zhou Mengxiong didn't answer.Liu Mazi lowered his voice and said: "The general has heard some gossip. Many people say that you changed generals in the new army, saying that the lord is the same as the party and cultivates party members in the new army. There is one more thing, the general is waiting for you Just to talk about this at night, Yao Fang went to Wuchang."

"Monk Yao? What is he doing in Wuchang?" Zhou Mengxiong walked a few steps with his hands behind his back.

Liu Mazi said: "It should be the noble concubine Mrs. Yao who came back after she opened her mouth. Otherwise, it would be difficult for him, a general who leads the army, to come back by himself. Does Mrs. Yao want Yao Fang to take over the military power of the lord?"

"Him?" Zhou Mengxiong sneered, "I only heard that Monk Yao can play tricks, but I don't know that he can manage the army and fight in battle. The old man will never hand over the military power to him, unless five ministers in the cabinet, At least three have clearly ordered the old man to hand over the military power. Yang Shiqi should understand the weight of it, and Zhu Heng is also a person who has led the army, can he not understand?"

Liu Mazi said: "The last general said something bad in private. You have offended everyone inside and outside. What are you trying to do? King Xiang has been besieged in Jiujiang for more than a month now. Even if you send troops to leave now, It will take less than a month to conquer Jiujiang, and the King of Xiang will be besieged for at least three months. After a few months of fear, even if he is out of trouble in the future, once someone whispers in his ear, it will be like replacing you with nothing' In terms of cultivating party feathers, does the King of Xiang have a lot of heart? Rather than that, it is better to give up the military power to Yao Fang and his son, and let them clean up this mess."

"You underestimate the King of Xiang. He dares to reuse someone like Yu Qian..." Zhou Mengxiong pondered for a long time, "Also, I have never seen a letter from the King of Xiang urging reinforcements. Even if Jiujiang is besieged, send one or two It is not difficult for a messenger to sneak out to rush out to urge troops. At least you can send a good night to go to the Yangtze River. I have never seen a letter, which proves that the King of Xiang knows how to use the new army. If the old man only cares about self-protection and compromise now, What kind of person is Zhou then?"

As soon as Liu Mazi was about to continue talking, Zhou Mengxiong raised his hand to stop him: "No need to say more, I have made up my mind. This battle is not only about the life and death of the overall situation, but also a rare opportunity. The key to success is only once. Nothing good hesitantly!"

Zhou Mengxiong finally left a sentence: "I will go to the cabinet early tomorrow morning and ask the court to raise taxes. There is not enough military supplies. If you can't win people's hearts on the battlefield, it is nonsense!"

……

The people in Wuchang did not misunderstand, Zhang Ning really had a hard time in Jiujiang City.With a sword hanging over his head, the city can be destroyed at any time, and he can't get out, so it's completely blocked. It's normal to have trouble sleeping and eating.

Worry will cause people's mental tension. The enemy soldiers are separated by a wall. He is always worried that some omissions will be broken and he will be breached. Therefore, he has to personally intervene more and more things, which increases the level of worry.Every day before dawn, he would get up first to get the roster file, walk around the city wall, ask the names of the generals on duty and how to arrange defenses, etc., and then record the list of generals in the tower according to the files on the file. Review it.Then wait and see the mobilization of troops in the enemy's fortifications, and then make some complicated analysis and guesses.

Gunpowder and lead are running out.Charcoal and saltpeter are not a big problem. The governor’s office has consciously arranged to use manure piles for nitrate a few months ago, so a certain amount of materials can be continuously replenished; but sulfur is a big problem, and the inventory is reduced, so there is no other way to grow it.There is also lead that is difficult to replenish. It is not a big problem to scrape iron materials in cities, but lead is not commonly used in the folk, and it is difficult to replenish; as long as there is lead material, it is easy to process projectiles. It can be used by trimming the corners, and the soldiers can process it by themselves.

There is also food. Zhang Ning ordered the Xingyuan officials to calculate the total amount and the time it can last. As a result, these people can only report the approximate amount, which is estimated by rough calculation.Zhang Ning remembers that the granary used Wai Tun, which is a cylindrical container surrounded by bamboo mats, which contains grain; such a regular container, it is very easy to calculate the volume.After asking, I found out that the scribes in charge of statistics do not know the simple formula of multiplying the area of ​​the bottom by the height.This must be the problem of the scribes themselves. It is impossible that ancient China did not have the development of mathematics for calculating volume. Last time he found in a book that someone in the Song Dynasty had recorded the theory of infinity and performed integral calculations.Zhang Ning asked the scribes to ask Yu Qian for advice to calculate the exact weight of the grain.A few days later, I finally got the report. It seems that Yu Qian can not only calculate the volume, but also calculate the density and convert the weight.These scribes, who depended on writing and ink, were not as good at mathematics as the few warriors in the army. Some generals in the artillery battalion even memorized parabolic calculations and Newtonian kinematic formulas... and used them to formulate gun regulations for various artillery.

There was another booming sound of guns outside the east city. Zhang Ning wanted to see the damage to the city wall, but was stopped by Li Zhen and others, so he had to listen to the sound outside the Governor's Xingyuan Gate.After a while he climbed up to an attic inside the gate, and saw shells flying directly into the city from time to time, hitting the roof with the sound of cracking wood, some houses near the city wall had been shelled for a long time, From a distance, it looks like the ruins after an earthquake.

There are still some people in the city who did not escape, but there are very few people.At the beginning of the war, many people stayed at home and did not come out. One month later, the war was still not over. People couldn't bear it due to hunger and fear.As for what will happen to people after they go out, Zhang Ning and others can't control it, but they can think that women and children are fine; Probably a deserter.

Every ten days or eight days, the artillery formations of the official army will conduct a long period of intensive shelling. At this time, it is probably when they have repaired the damaged heavy artillery or received firearm reinforcements from the waterway.Emperor Xuande Zhu Zhanji gave up his blood for this war, and a steady stream of supplies were sent in. It is true that the large territory of two capitals and thirteen provinces is more confident.

However, the performance of the heavy artillery of the army is not good, especially the large general heavy artillery. The wall of the gun is too thick and the heat dissipation is poor. It takes nearly an hour to cool down for two or three rounds before it can continue. Even if it is used so continuously, it is easy to damage.Dozens of cannons continued to bombard the city wall indiscriminately, and the city wall would be broken and collapsed in many places. At this time, the Suzaku Army would gather soldiers and horses at the collapsed places, ready to counterattack the attacking army at any time, and then take turns repairing the city wall day and night.The tug-of-war between the two sides will come back every ten days or so.Fortunately, Jiujiang City is also an important city, with tall and thick walls. If it were in an ordinary county town, the city walls would have been blasted to pieces by artillery.

Outside the various fortifications outside Jiujiang City, there are also sparse battles going on, and both sides are fighting for consumption.The Suzaku Army and the Jiujiang Army are naturally unable to launch a high-intensity counterattack, and the official army has not attacked intensively for a long time; perhaps because the tactical value of the fortifications has decreased a lot, it is not worth sacrificing too many troops. If you can't stand one death, there will be hundreds of thousands of casualties.

The officers and soldiers learned how to dig pits and build walls. They started digging trenches from outside the fence, and then dug trenches horizontally at about a hundred steps. .One hundred steps is barely within the maximum range of the firearms, hiding behind and firing blunderbusses or throwing heavy arrows with strong bows can hit people in the defense fortifications.At the same time, you have to pay the price of being killed by the opponent.

However, the design of the trenches dug by the officers and soldiers was faulty, and it was difficult to drain water. When it rained, the trenches would be filled with water, and it would be impossible to do it without sending people to dredge them.So after it rains, the officers and soldiers will not run into the trenches for many days.

…Because the defenders began to control the conservation of gunpowder, the artillery on the earthen fortress rarely fired, and the return artillery of the officers and soldiers became more and more rampant, and continued to throw poisonous bullets into the fortifications.However, the deployment of the defenders in the first fortification is decreasing day by day, and they seem to be reluctant to stick to the fortification of the ditch wall in front; if the government army attacks again with a dense force at this time, it should be broken immediately.

People were ashamed and exhausted, struggling in the mud and waiting for the day when they would switch defenses and go to the city to rest.One day, a soldier turned out from behind the earth wall with a musket, climbed up the earth ditch, and stood there stupidly. He wanted to reload, but soon there were crackling gunshots, and the arrows also flew, and the man finally died in front.Perhaps this is the result of his own willing choice.

Many soldiers began to miss the field battle style of hedging, and could give them a happy life or death, but at this time, the Suzaku army's strength was exhausted and it was difficult to organize a large-scale counterattack, let alone afford casualties.People can only spend and endure in the mud, like a long-term struggle for survival, looking forward to a glimmer of hope in despair.

Outside the dilapidated city wall in the distance, there are two tall cloud carts, but there is no one on and off.It was a large-scale equipment brought in by the government army some day, with wheels underneath, protected by thick wood and iron armor, and pushed to the edge of the city. The soldiers on it held firecrackers and attacked the defenders on the city wall.But soon the cloud car was bombarded by large and small artillery, and the bottom deck was bombarded together with the wheels. After the soldiers on it ran away, this big thing couldn't be taken away, and it was left there for many days.Whenever the sun rises, you can see the sun hanging on the wooden frame, like an ancient landscape.