warring states careerist

Chapter 780 The Siege of Dangshan ([-])

Tigers and sheep can never be equal, the premise of equality is that sheep can kill tigers.

Under the feudal system, the nobles above the scholar-officials depended on the off-duty of the fief, and they could be off-duty for training while eating meat. This is the basis for the distinction between superiority and inferiority.

And now, everything is different.

Before the autumn wind came, the cicadas were aware of it, and the emperor's father, Yue Ling, who was on the front line of anti-ink, was the first to notice this change, but he was already powerless.

…………

At the small gate of the camp on the west side of Dangshan City, thousands of old and weak are queuing up to enter, and people from the Propaganda Department are promoting there.

Just as the emperor's father Yueling thought, if the emperor's father Yueling did not release these people to leave Dangshan today, the Mohists would still fight, but the propaganda caliber of the Xuanyi Department would be different from today's.

Many people wanted to kneel down gratefully, but they were stopped by the people from the Propaganda Department. Instead, they said that they did not clean up those people who harmed the world in time.

After appeasing the people, the old and weak were arranged two miles away from the camp.

Dangshan is close to Pengcheng, and there is no logistical pressure. This is also the basis for this time the besieged city can use the concept of "humanism" to evacuate the old and weak from the city.

The siege of Dangshan could not have been a long-term siege, but a tragic assault. There was no difference between these people in the city and outside the city.

But for the morality of the whole world, the evacuation of these thousands of people is of great significance. As long as it is well publicized, people in the world will always think that the fate of the people is also the fate of the people. This is a subtle propaganda.

This kind of propaganda is meaningless to the siege of Dangshan, but it is meaningful to the world.

After all, the army is just an army, and needs to obey the needs of politics. Their opinions are not enough to guide the strategy of the decision-makers in Surabaya.

…………

In the command post in front of the enemy, all kinds of opportunities for the staff officers have been presented to Liuzhi and his comrades in arms.

Faced with these opinions, the artillery commander made a different suggestion.

"Dangshan's terrain and city defenses are not suitable for hole attacks. The biggest shortcoming of Dangshan City is that the outer corners are all masonry structures. This is a place we can take advantage of."

"If the outer layer is covered with soil, and the iron bullet hits it, it is likely to sink deep into the soil, but it does not kill."

"But if it's a masonry, concentrate the gunpowder, attack one corner fiercely, adjust the elevation angle of the shot, and you can let the iron bullet hit the stone and fly around, causing serious damage to the enemy."

"Now that Mount Dang has been besieged, and there are swamps in the north and south, the most suitable direction for our attack is the east. If we don't make a big splash, we should attack the east side violently, so that the soldiers in the city will concentrate on the east wall."

"We made a lot of fanfare, but they didn't dare not send more people."

"If you send more people, the crowd will be denser. Iron bullets can jump up when they hit a masonry wall, causing great damage."

"Approach with zigzag-shaped trenches and tunnels, use artillery to reduce the enemy troops on the wall, and then attack with camps first. As long as one corner is broken, the entire Dangshan Mountain will be destroyed."

However, this plan coincided with what Liuzhi was thinking. Liuzhi looked at the point attack plan, and the success rate was really not high, and if it failed, it would have a great blow to the morale of the army.

The surrounding ditches and ditches, as well as the extended outer defenses, made the plan of digging burrows down to the foundation less effective.

He also took into account the artillery advantage of the righteous division. How to make use of this advantage and make use of its strengths to avoid its weaknesses is what the coach of one side has to consider.

After looking at the draft plan of the artillery commander, Six Fingers nodded in agreement.

The overall idea of ​​the Sishang siege method has never changed, which is to rely on the zigzag civil engineering trenches, which are close to the city walls.

Take advantage of the artillery, attack a little bit, attack in a concealed manner, and take down a protruding corner in one fell swoop, then the defense line of the entire city will collapse.

Because this is Dangshan City, not Dangshan Fortress, there is no double fort built in the city, so the corner is the biggest weakness.

The zigzag trench tactics have been fully utilized in the previous siege battles, and it is impossible for the city to be unprepared.

But the rogue of this tactic is that as long as the artillery on the attacking side has the upper hand and skilled engineers, even if the city knows the tactics outside, there is nothing they can do.

It is said that it is a zigzag trench tactic, but it can actually be called a parallel trench tactic.

Taking the city wall as a point, the shortest distance must be the perpendicular line perpendicular to the city wall.

However, this vertical line will be covered by the artillery of the defending side, which will cause great losses to the attacking side.

The advantage of the zigzag trench is to use a trench with an acute angle to the parallel line of the city wall, and slowly approach the city wall by the sine of the trench.

The artillery on the city has no threat to the soldiers moving in the trench, because it forms an acute angle with the city wall. From the perspective of the artillery on the city wall, it looks like a line parallel to the city wall. The copper cannons cannot hit the people in the trench.

However, because of the sharp zigzag angle, the entire trench actually keeps approaching the city wall. Once it is within [-] to [-] steps of the city wall, it can be sent to attack the camp first, so that the most dangerous trench is [-] to [-] steps away from the city wall. The distance is described as false.

Going to the camp first is what the princes and Sishang of various countries call it. There are also those who call it the Grenadier, or in the Mohist system in the past, it was called the Beichengmen. In fact, they are similar.

They are equipped with muskets and iron mines, and some of them are not even equipped with muskets and only carry daggers and iron mines. They are the most elite infantry troops, and most of them are selected strong men.

As long as they can get close to the walls, a storm or two can make it to the city.

To deal with this "obscene and rogue" siege method, it is actually very simple: send field troops out of the city to destroy the hard-earned trenches; or the artillery has the upper hand and destroy the artillery of the siege troops.

But the method is simple, but it is difficult to do.

If field battles can be won, why rely on defending the city?

Therefore, under the siege system of this era, this kind of tactics can be regarded as invincible, and after "scientific" calculations, as long as the number of infantry is five times that of the defending side, and the artillery is twice that of the defending side, It can be guaranteed that an angular fortress of the Gunpowder Age can be captured within a month.

The situation in the world has developed to this point, and the competition is no longer the bravery of the warriors of the two sides, but the level of governance of the two sides.

Who has the money to make more copper cannons.

Who can mobilize more troops on the premise of ensuring that the country does not collapse.

Who has the most literate population.

Whose mathematics nine number geometry is better.

Who is more capable of mobilization.

Who has the money to build more of these forts.

Basically, whoever is on the winning side.

For any country in the world, Sishang has an advantage in these comparisons, and the only fear is to use the power of one state to fight against the other eight states.

Liuzhi was very aware of Sishang's advantages, and also understood what Sishang was afraid of, so he agreed with the request of the higher authorities to capture Dangshan within a month, but he was sure that he could accomplish it.

After several votes, the artillery commander's opinion was approved, and soon a plan based on this tactical concept was formulated by the staff.

The main direction of attack is the east side of Dangshan Mountain, and the two protruding corners of the city gate on the east side are the main direction of attack, and the siege methods of hole attack and ant attachment are abandoned.

With the two protruding corners as the target, two zigzag trenches are dug at the same time, and the width of the trench is about six meters.

Every fifty steps, a trench parallel to the city wall was dug to prevent the soldiers in the city from going out to fight back, and it also allowed the soldiers on the attacking side to hide in the trench and fight back at any time.

All the artillery was used intensively, and the initial task was to prevent the city from going out to counterattack, and block the open space between the east gate and the trench.

When the zigzag-shaped trench was close to the city wall three hundred steps, the engineers began to dig artillery positions near the trench, and used the night to deploy the artillery in the trench position two to three hundred steps closer to the city wall.

As soon as it dawned, the angle was adjusted immediately, and the city was bombarded.

Using the slope of the masonry structure in Dangshan, a large number of iron bullets were shot at an angle close to parallel to the ground, causing the iron bullets to jump on the slope of the masonry structure. The purpose was not to blast the city wall, but to kill the defenders, The purpose of destroying the defense equipment is to cover the excavation under the city.

Normally, digging starts at [-] paces, which is the farthest distance that the artillery blind cats at the head of the city can cause losses to the attacking party when they encounter dead rats.

Start digging at [-] steps, and every [-] to [-] steps, dig a parallel trench for garrison and as a transfer station. A total of about three parallel trenches need to be dug to approach the city wall.

In the direction closest to the city wall, use the cover of artillery to dig out the attack opening, so that the attack of the two first battalion companies can be launched at one time, which is considered a success.

Because the copper cannons at this time fired solid iron bullets, the biggest threat to the artillery lay in the vertical shooting. If they attacked directly, the vertical shelling would pose a great threat.

The zigzag excavation made the artillery on the defending side abolished, because it was impossible for the iron bullets to roll in the ditch almost parallel to the city wall, and it was impossible to kill the soldiers on the attacking side.

The archers, crossbowmen, and musketeers at the top of the city can't kill people moving along the zigzag trenches. As long as the height of the top of the city, the width and depth of the trench, and the angle with the top of the city are calculated, they can approach without damage.

The most important thing about this tactic is to be neither arrogant nor impetuous, neither hasty nor impetuous, and use the slowest speed to achieve the greatest results.

As long as the artillery has the advantage, as long as the zigzag trench is close to two hundred steps in front of the convex corner of the city wall, as long as the counterattack in the city can be defended, then the distance is only one step away.

In the last dozens of steps and more than a hundred steps, whether to concentrate copper cannons to open the gap, or to send people to dig a hole and bury it with thousands of catties of gunpowder to blow up the city wall, the meaning is almost the same.

The order given above is for one month. With the mobilization speed and mobilization capabilities of the countries at this time, it is impossible for reinforcements to appear within a month.

One month later is the end of the important autumn harvest and the wheat planting period in the Central Plains. It is also the deadline for countries to send troops and intervene.

If the situation in the Song Dynasty is stable without sending troops, sending troops will not make much sense.

Sending troops, the siege of Dangshan will also make countries think twice.

However, Liuzhi didn't care about the one-month deadline given above. He calculated a little, and found that fifteen days was enough to conquer Dangshan.

(End of this chapter)