Great Wei Overlord

Chapter 876
Chapter 882

In fact, Sun Wu’s words are too simple, and later generations often misunderstand these few words, just like Liu Xuande in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", who couldn't bear to leave 10,000+ people behind, so he was overtaken by Cao Jun in Changbanpo. As a result, the entire army was defeated. Although this is a romance story, it is in line with the truth of "loving the people is annoying".

In addition to Liu Xuande, there are countless generals who love the people in history. Whether it is Khitan, Jurchen, Mongolia or Manchu, they often use the method of plundering the people to attack the city. When encountering a cruel general, they can ignore these and attack without distinction. In this way, the city and the people in the city can be saved naturally, but most of the pedantic generals can't bear to kill their own people. As a result, the enemy broke the city and slaughtered the city, which caused even greater casualties.

Sun Tzu's Art of War said that "there will be five dangers", among which "integrity can be humiliated" and "love for the people can be annoying", which are the most difficult hurdles to overcome. Many famous generals have fallen on this... Kindness and love for the people are virtues, but war is Anti-human nature, the more noble the character, the easier it is to suffer. Those who reward them are often vicious and vicious. For example, Xiang Yu let Liu Bang go at the Hongmen Banquet. Liu Bang, who is a cockroach, was defeated, and he was also evaluated as a "woman's benevolence" in history.

Li Dingguo is the No.1 general of the Southern Ming Dynasty, and his character and ability are all top choices. However, in his attitude towards the common people, he is also suspected of being a woman.When he attacked Guangdong for the second time, when he attacked Xinhui, he was about to break the city. The Qing army in the city suddenly drove out the people and launched a counterattack. How did the people in Xinhui repay him?These ordinary people were afraid that Li Dingguo would not be able to hold the Xinhui after he defeated the Xinhui, and that the Qing army would slaughter the city bloody after they fought back, so they resolutely helped the Qing army defend the city and resisted Li Dingguo to the death. Anyway, Li Dingguo is so kind, even if he can break through the Xinhui, he will not embarrass them. Help the people of the Qing army.

In fact, in history, Ran Min also committed the two mistakes of "integrity can be humiliated" and "loving the people is annoying". If he attacked Yanzhou in the east, or Luoyu in the south, he could definitely make a difference.But Ran Min's bottom line is that Han people don't kill Han people, especially those who are loyal to Jin.But how did those righteous men in Ran Min's eyes repay him?
Wei Tong, the governor of Yanzhou, did not fight in the First World War, and directly surrendered the city. Except for Zhongshan Sulin, all the generals of Wei Guoyuan who surrendered to Jin State surrendered the city.

So Ran Min is just a hero, not a hero.Give a hero [-] chances, and the hero still can't beat the hero.

Ran Ming's attitude is very important, it is the key to the success of Wei's Southern Expedition, if Ran Ming is like Yang Guang, Wei's Southern Expedition will surely fail.

Seeing Ran Ming's attitude, Ji Li breathed a sigh of relief, and then talked about the progress of the West Route Army.

Xie Ai's troops of the West Route Army are also progressing smoothly. Murong Chui and Murong Ke brothers joined forces to storm Jianmen Pass. The situation at Jianmen Pass is also very dangerous, especially after receiving Huan Wen's order to retreat from Bajun, the Shu army at Jianmen Pass will not fight. While fleeing, Murong Chui took the opportunity to fight for Jianmen Pass, and Murong Ke sent a large number of civilians to transport supplies into Shu while traveling the entire Jinniu Road, and joined Xie Ai's troops in Jiangyou City.

With reinforcements from the rear, Xie Ai's strength greatly increased, and he also had the courage to continue to attack. Murong Chui led his army eastward to Zitong, and Xie Ai took the opportunity to go south to Fuling, where he fought fiercely with Huan Wen's general Deng Xia in Fuling.

Ran Ming said: "So, now we have three armies of the Great Wei, only the middle one has no progress?"

Ji Ling nodded.

Ran Ming said: "This is not possible. The General Staff ordered Zhang Wen to be urged. I will give him three more days. If it is not a day, we must attack Fancheng and take Xiangyang City within three days!"

Ji Li showed a look of pain, "Your Majesty, I'm afraid this is a difficult task for the strong!"

Ran Ming laughed and said: "Brute force alone is not enough to fight, you have to use your brain." Then, Ran Ming whispered in Ji Zhen's ear, and finally Ran Ming said loudly: "With this method, if Zhang Wen can't win Fancheng and Xiangyang again, Tell him to find a piece of tofu at random, and kill himself by hitting the tofu! "

Ji Li nervously ordered the staff to pass Ran Ming's order to Zhang Wen.Before the invention of the heavy howitzer, the form of warfare did not actually change much.The ancient Chinese city walls, as long as they are not ruined cities that have been in disrepair for a long time, the original black powder shells and rockets can't be chewed at all.

This situation did not change until the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period.The Taiping army filled coffins with gunpowder, stuffed them under the city walls, and blew up the city walls. Even a big city like Nanjing was blown up, so the city became easy to break through.

Outside the north gate of Fancheng, there stood a solid camp with a wall eight feet high and double moats inside and outside. From Guo Quan's point of view, this camp was a bit too strong, and it took a lot of effort to build it.It's nothing to worry about, the camp should be built stronger, at least not afraid of the enemy coming out of the city to attack and harass.But the strange thing is that there is a long ditch about three hundred steps away from the city wall, and several small earthen villages are built behind the ditch.

Deep ditches and strong fortifications are also commonly used in sieges. If you encounter a fortified city that is difficult to conquer, and there is no other good way but to besiege it for a long time, you will use this tactic.

But the strange thing is that Wei Guo only dug a deep ditch at the north gate.Fancheng has four gates, east, west and south, so what's the point of blocking only one gate?

Guo Quan couldn't figure it out, but he couldn't see anything from the city wall. At this moment, a school captain said: "Speak to the general, listen to the urn on the city wall, and found that Wei Jun is digging a tunnel!"

"Do you want to sneak into the city by digging a tunnel?" Guo Quan said with a smile: "Wei Jun also thinks too easily of this general!"

In the 5000 years of Chinese history, there has been artistic progress in the method of attacking and defending cities. It is not impossible to dig tunnels into the city. There are many successful examples, but there are also many failures.Guo Quan had long prevented Wei Jun from digging tunnels into the city, so he arranged a large number of listening urns in the city, that is, half-buried the large water tanks in the ground, and then used soldiers with good hearing to listen to the movement below. Take the method of releasing poisonous smoke and flooding to destroy the enemy at the lowest cost.

Only this time, Guo Quan never imagined that Zhang Wen's real purpose was not to dig tunnels into the city, but to bomb the city.

Chapter 759

Chapter 759

Guo Quan, as a cutting-edge general under Huan Wen's command, is actually very familiar with gunpowder weapons. He took precautions against crossbow shells and rockets fired by the Wei army.The first is to pack the soft soil into baskets and place them on the city wall to prevent the shells from ricocheting.

In fact, the biggest damage of stone bullets fired by catapults or stone-core bullets fired by artillery is not a direct hit, but relying on the kinetic energy of the second or third ejection to kill a large number of enemies.Although the soil in the basket cannot avoid the damage of the ballista shells, it can weaken the power of the ballista shells by more than [-]%. Don't underestimate the power of this small percentage. In fact, the weakened ballista shells hit the city wall without heavy weight. Catapults are powerful.

As for the rockets that rely on launching, since the explosion method of the rockets at this time is still the original fuze ignited explosion method, this method has great limitations, either it will explode in the air if it does not hit the target, or it will explode after hitting the target. , and the probability is not low.In one accident, a rocket hit a water tank by chance, and the rocket went out accidentally, which made Guo Quan discover the weakness of the rocket.

For this reason, Guo Quan even removed the gray bottles and golden juice placed on the city wall to make room for a large number of water tanks. As long as the rocket lands and does not explode immediately, he can directly pour a bucket of water on it. It will be useless.Facing a general who is familiar with gunpowder, Wei Jun's gunpowder weapons have limited effects.

For Wei Jun to dig a tunnel to enter the city, in Guo Quan's view, this is a joke. The productivity in ancient times was low. If you want to dig a tunnel to enter the city directly, it may not be impossible, but it is too difficult.Three days is impossible, it will take at least half a month. He has discovered Wei Jun's tricks and will take countermeasures. In this way, Wei Jun will move out a stone and hit him in the foot.

At this time, the Wei army launched a fierce siege again. Guo Quan was sure that this was a feint attack by the Wei army, but this attack was different from the previous ones. If the defenders do not show their heads, they will carry the ladder to the city, and the defenders will fight back. The result is even simpler. Eight-ox crossbows, crossbows, and rockets hit it all at once.

Although Guo Quan had a way to restrain gunpowder weapons, the restraint was not absolute, and those rockets or crossbow shells that exploded on the ground caused a large number of casualties to the defenders.

At the same time, the engineers of the Wei Army began to advance hard.In fact, Zhang Wen, as the Hussar General of the Wei State, is by no means a helpless mediocrity. He was the same as Dong Run when he was in Ran Min's time. As a safe measure, occasionally fight a few innocuous defeats.Zhang Wen also used tactics to deceive Guo Quan.

First of all, he was secretly surrendered by Huang Jinzhong in Fancheng. Huang Jinzhong was the original defender of Fancheng. He was suddenly deprived of military power by Huan Chong, and he secretly hated him.As the defender of Fancheng for seven years, he is very familiar with Fancheng.In the second year of Kaiyuan, the Yellow River flooded. In fact, Fancheng also suffered floods, but it was not as serious as the Heluo area. However, there was more than three feet of water in Fancheng. In order to discharge the accumulated water in the city, a drainage channel was dug in the northwest corner of Beicheng. , although the drainage canal had been blocked at this time, but in order to fool the errand, the construction worker at that time used wooden planks and covered them with soil.This incident happened later. Since the small official was Huang Jinzhong's confidant, Huang Jinzhong adopted the method of mixing mud and did not re-construct.

After getting this information, Zhang Wen was very concerned.Ran Ming's order ordered him to destroy the city within a day, and it would be too late to dig a new tunnel, but it might be the easiest way to go under the city wall through the drain, install gunpowder, and carry out blasting.

Under the leadership of the confidant sent by Huang Jinzhong, Zhang Wen found the drainage channel. This drainage channel was about one foot two in width and eight feet in depth, but at this time there was nearly two feet of silt deposited. Clean up can be barely pedestrian.

Cleaning up the silt was much easier than digging a new tunnel. It only took more than half a day to clear a distance of more than 200 feet. According to basic measurements, it has almost reached the bottom of the city wall.At this time, the bottom of the drain suddenly narrowed, and it was only a small hole three feet square. With the hard work of all the engineers, they spent more than an hour digging a hole about two feet deep under the city wall. Zhang, a large hole about three feet wide.Since it was the first time to blast the city wall, Zhang Wen didn't know whether the gunpowder could blast the city wall, so he increased the weight. In the pit under the city wall, 66 barrels of [-]-jin gunpowder were placed, a total of [-] jin of gunpowder. , and it is the latest granular gunpowder.

"Report to the general, all the gunpowder has been installed, please give instructions!"

Zhang Wendao: "Ming Jin withdraws troops and withdraws the soldiers who attacked the city."

"Dang, clang, clang..." With the sound of Jin Ming, those soldiers who climbed the city wall turned around and ran away. In a blink of an eye, all the hundreds of Wei soldiers on the wall were completely evacuated.

Guo Quan wiped the sweat from his forehead, today's situation is very dangerous.The tactics adopted by Zhang Wen are close to the infantry and artillery coordination of later generations, which made Guo Quan suffer a lot. In just one day, the defenders of Fancheng were killed or injured by 500, while the casualties to the Wei army were actually less than [-]. , The loss ratio of the offensive and defensive sides actually reached one to four. This record may have been unprecedented.If such tactics continue for a few more days, Guo Quan will have to ask Huan Chong for help.

Looking at the sunset, Guo Quan encouraged the guards and soldiers. He ordered the civilian husbands to send wine, meat and food to the city wall, and then he went to the wounded barracks to comfort the wounded.It's just that Guo Quan just walked down the city wall and before he reached the wounded barracks, he heard a loud noise that shook the sky, and then the ground shook.

"What's going on? Did Dilong turn over?" Guo Quan calmed down and asked the soldiers beside him.

At this moment, no one answered from the soldiers around him. When Guo Quan saw those soldiers, they all stared at the northwest in dumbfounded.

At this time, the city wall in the northwest corner was blown down with a gap of more than twenty feet, and the hundreds of soldiers guarding this position were all turned into a pile of minced meat.

The battlefield seemed to have stopped, and the other defenders of the Shu army on the city wall were all frightened. They looked at the blown down city wall like walking corpses that had lost their souls.At this time, the captain of the city guard came back to his senses. He shouted loudly, but the soldiers still didn't respond.

In fact, it is not to blame that the soldiers did not obey orders, but the huge explosion made all the uninjured soldiers on the city wall deaf, and many of them may not be able to recover for life.All those soldiers saw their captain's mouth opening and closing, without making any sound at all.

Although the defenders were stunned, those Wei soldiers who had already prepared were not stunned.Miao Rulin, who was in charge of the siege of the Wei State and defeated the generals, shouted: "Soldiers attack, Great Wei Wansheng!"

"Big Wei Wansheng!"

Su Xiao held the Ghost Head Saber and roared, "Big Wei Wansheng!"

The Wei army's offensive troops consisted of two reorganized departments, with a total of 2000 people, including crossbowmen and crossbow warriors. When these troops were more than 100 steps away from the gap in the city wall, the defenders also reacted.They didn't seize the time to seize the favorable terrain and launch a counterattack, but there was a great chaos, and countless soldiers shouted in panic: "The city is broken, it is really broken! Run for your life..."

Their cries could be heard in the distance.

Seeing this situation, Zhang Wen punched himself hard on the chest and shouted, "It's done!"

The blasting of the city wall was very successful. Many soldiers near the gaps in the city wall were blown out, and the Wei army rushed into the city wall without any battle.

In the era of cold weapons, there was almost no experience in street fighting. In the past, as long as the city wall was broken and rushed into the city, the battle could almost be regarded as over.Guo Quan still resisted desperately, but it was a pity that he was unable to organize the demoralized soldiers, and even he himself was surrounded by his own soldiers and fled from the south gate.

After Fancheng was conquered, Zhang Wen ordered his troops to encircle Xiangyang that night.

More than [-] prisoners of the Shu army were also captured. The merchants who followed the army that night asked to buy the prisoners.Joining the army took the paperwork and asked Zhang Wen to sign it.

Zhang Wen threw the document aside and said angrily: "Except for Huang Jinzhong, kill all the officers above the corps leader."

When you join the army, you will be dumbfounded when you hear this. If you are above a corporal, you need a lot of people. Take a unit of 1000 people as an example, you need more than 6000 corporals, [-] seniors, [-] captains, and [-] dubs. , two tunes.Calculated in this way, [-] people need to kill at least a thousand people.

"General, I'm afraid it's inappropriate to do this. Your Majesty has already ordered that there is no need to massacre the Jin country and the Hu people!" Joining the army said: "Killing more than a thousand of them, big and small, will cost more than 5000 in vain. Ten thousand dollars! Besides, the general has a long way to go, if you get a reputation for being cruel and easy to kill, it won't do you any good!"

"You don't need to say any more, the general has made up his mind, these people must be killed, and now the general wants to set a rule for them." Zhang Wen said: "Before our army attacked the city, we had already shot letters to the Shu army in the city to surrender. Since they dare to resist to the end, they have to bear the consequences of doing so..."

There is a thought in the head of joining the army: "killing people to build power"

It wasn't just that Zhang Wen wanted to give himself a prestige, but in fact, it was also Ran Ming who wanted to give himself a prestige. He needed to break the illusions of those Jin army generals.Lay down your arms, fight for leniency, and if you want to resist, prepare to die.Anyway, Wei Jun's lecture hall is already mature, and Ran Ming doesn't need any historical names to fight for himself. In the military academy, generals can be mass-produced continuously.

Doing this may cause the enemy to resist more resolutely at the beginning, but as long as this principle is adhered to, as long as "leniency" and "resolute elimination" can be implemented, the enemy will gradually accept this principle. Needless to say the stubborn ones, some generals may give up resistance and raise their hands in surrender.

In fact, Ran Ming learned this trick from Man Qing. Compared with Man Qing's cruel policy of massacring cities, Ran Ming has done too much kindness. He only kills officers, not soldiers, let alone innocent people, women and children ... The Manchus could conquer the Han people by massacres, and the Mongols could also conquer them by massacres, and there was no need for Ran Ming to adopt the method of win over.

Human nature is so cheap sometimes, especially in later generations, when Ran Ming saw Li Dingguo attacking Xinhui, they were obviously Han people in the Ming Dynasty, and they were willing to be the lackeys of the Qing Dynasty. Resolutely resist Li Dingguo, even if it is cooking women and children.

(End of this chapter)