Daming Military Empire

Chapter 249

When Zhu Cijiong heard that Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were planning to defend Xiangyang, he couldn't help heaving a sigh of relief. He was afraid that the rebels would run wild everywhere. As for defending Jiancheng, it would be courting death.When there were no artillery or the artillery power was very small, it was indeed difficult to break through a majestic city like Xiangyang with 20 people guarding it. Boom, it's a breeze for the defenders in the city to be unable to lift their heads.

It is also understandable that Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong have the idea of ​​​​defending the city. Their knowledge of artillery is still limited to the twenty five-type mortars used by Lu Xiangsheng when he attacked Linfen in the fourth year of Chongzheng. More than 300 meters, if you consider the height of the city wall, then at least move the mortar to a place more than 200 meters away from the city wall. Although Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong can't build artillery, they can build catapults. The power of catapults at this distance is basically It's almost the same as artillery, so they don't worry about artillery at all.

Fortunately, Zhu Cijiong has not equipped the local guards with artillery. If Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong snatch a few [-]-type howitzers or [-]-type howitzers, and then try the power of the howitzers, they will definitely run as far as possible. Far, what a joke, once the range of the artillery exceeds one mile, they will only be beaten, and there is no way to fight back. No matter how high the city wall is, it is fake, just to make others pay more.

Since Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong wanted to die like this, Zhu Cijiong would naturally not let them down. He directly informed Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting immediately, and led the Tianxiong Army and Qin Army together with the Second Army of the Imperial Guard, the Dingliao Army and The Wuwei army surrounded Xiangyang City together, and had a hearty siege battle!
In fact, even the 30 army he led could capture Xiangyang City, but that would be very troublesome, because the Second Army of the Imperial Guard and the Dingliao Army are both third-class armies, and the Wuwei Army is a newly formed army. The artillery has not yet been equipped. The 30 army has a total of more than 1000 artillery pieces, and they are all [-]-type howitzers and [-]-type howitzers. The number, range, and power are slightly insufficient. The army is basically very difficult. If it is not suppressed, the loss of the siege will be great. He does not want to consume too many soldiers for a battle that must be won.

The Tianxiong Army and the Qin Army are different. They are the first-class army and the second-class army of Ming Dynasty. The number of artillery is more than one. The Tianxiong Army alone has two thousand howitzers of various types. The two armies combined are enough. There are more than 3000 artillery pieces, which can completely overwhelm the defenders on the city wall, and it is not easy to attack the city.

Since Zhu Cijiong rushed directly to Xiangyang, while Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting only left after receiving his order, it would take a few days to deliver the order even if they rushed on the horse, so Zhu Cijiong arrived in Xiangyang a few days earlier than Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng.

When he arrived at Xiangyang City, he was not in a hurry to attack. Instead, he ordered Qin Gongming and Li Mingfu to lead their respective troops to surround the west and south sides of Xiangyang City, while he led the Second Corps of the Imperial Guard to station in the east, and he was alone in the north. He didn't make any arrangements. He wasn't playing a game of siege, because Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting were rushing over from the north, so there was no need to siege the north at all. He hoped that Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong would escape from the north and directly bump into the Tianxiong army and the army. Qin Jun, that way he wouldn't even have to attack the city.

Naturally, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong in the city could not run away. They had already made up their minds to guard Xiangyang and exhaust the imperial army. How could they run away? Not only did they not run away, but they were still watching Zhu Cijiong's jokes on the city wall.

Li Zicheng looked at the camp of officers and soldiers with a telescope, and said disdainfully: "This little emperor really has no experience. After several days in a row, he can't even send people to harass and harass him. He only knows how to build siege equipment." He thought that the siege battle was just a matter of a day or two? It was a protracted battle. This kind of protracted battle consumes the energy of the enemy is also very important. Also, he refused to put his horse fork on the outside of the camp. Are you looking for death, how about we send cavalry to wrap the horseshoes at night and steal the camp?"

But Zhang Xianzhong shook his head with a smile and said: "Forget it, he doesn't look like he is going to attack the city. Maybe he didn't think about attacking the city at all. Maybe he just put on a show and left after a few days." , there is no need to provoke him, let him play."

Zhu Cijiong did not plan to attack the city, he planned to send Lu Xiangsheng to attack the city. King Lu Yan had rich experience in attacking cities stationed by peasant troops without muskets and artillery, so he didn't have to worry about it at all.As for the reason why he didn't set up Macha on the outskirts of the camp, it wasn't because he was inexperienced, but because he wanted to piss off Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. There were several rows of mines buried there. If they came to steal the camp, they would definitely be blown up and cry. Shout out!

He is not just building siege equipment, he also ordered people to lay telegraph lines. Now the 30 troops outside Xiangyang City are like a whole. No matter which camp Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong attack, they will be besieged by the other two. He wasn't afraid of a surprise attack at all, but rather hoped that Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong would come and make a surprise attack.

30 man-made and 10-man-made siege equipment is naturally extremely fast. When Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting finally came together, the siege equipment was almost ready. Zhu Cijiong called five generals to hold a short combat meeting, and everyone agreed I believe that when the firepower has an absolute advantage, there is no need to play tactics such as attacking east and west, feigning attacks and harassment, and it is enough to just open up the formation and attack hard.

Early the next morning, Lu Xiangsheng began to command the Tianxiong Army and the Qin Army to attack the city. It really didn't take any brains to deal with the peasant army who didn't even have earth cannons. The range is far and near, arranged in four rows in the north of Xiangyang City, with more than 3000 artillery pieces. It took more than an hour just to line up. Their faces turned pale, and they realized now that sticking to Xiangyang was a wrong decision.

Lu Xiangsheng didn't bother with them. After the artillery array was set up, he tried to shoot a few rounds, adjusted the angle, and then continued the bombardment with solid bullets. After more than an hour, the arrow stacks on the city wall were almost flattened. , the defenders on this city wall suffered heavy losses. In order to resist the attack of officers and soldiers, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong lined up 3 to 1 people on each wall. You can imagine how dense it is, even if there are a maximum of [-] people under the female wall, more than [-] people can be stacked, and the rest are basically smashed into meat!
Lu Xiangsheng didn't care how many people died on the city wall. Seeing that the explosion was almost over, he ordered his [-] infantry to push the siege equipment in front of the artillery formation, set up an attack formation, and then rushed to the city wall with a loud shout. go.

At this time, the Second Corps of the Imperial Guard and the Dingliao Army also put out hundreds of artillery pieces and directly covered the northeast and northwest corners of the city wall with shells. The thieves on both sides could not support the city wall to the north at all.

Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong hid in the city gate with ashen faces and watched the approaching Tianxiong army, their eyes were full of remorse, if they knew that they would not be playing defense, no matter where they fled, it would be better than being caught in the urn like this!

There is no medicine for regret in this world. The moment they decided to defend the city, they were at the end of the road, and on this end, they didn't even have a chance to make full use of their strengths and run wildly!
(End of this chapter)