I

  Chapter 315 313 ​​[There are many martyrs] (add more for the penguin boss)

  Nanjing Yanziji, Taiping Caishiji, Yuezhou Chenglingji, are also known as the "Three Great Rocks of the Yangtze River".

  Chenglingji controls the throat of Dongting Lake, and has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times. Historically, Zhang Xianzhong defeated the officers and soldiers on Chenglingji, and the defenders in Yuezhou City surrendered directly.

  It was very interesting at the time. Zhang Xianzhong fought from Yuezhou to Xiangyin, and was resisted by Xiangyong all the way.

  When he was about to arrive in Changsha, Zhang Xianzhong sent people to publicize the policy. The content was just one sentence: "Residents operate normally, and they are exempted from paying money and food for three years."

  This order was issued, and within a day, the three prefectures and two states surrendered without a fight.

  Then, the whole of Hunan surrendered directly, and half of Jiangxi followed suit. Local officials could not recruit troops, nor could the big landlords. The common people were waiting for Zhang Xianzhong to come and be exempted from tax for three years.

  Compared with Zhang Xianzhong's situation, do you still think Zhao Han fought the war too easily?

  Long Wenguang, the magistrate of Yuezhou, must not be easy at the moment.

   General Li Bingqian also had a serious expression on his face. He is from the north and cannot surrender to the bandits, otherwise his whole family will be implicated.

   "Boom boom boom!"

  The artillery bombarded the city tower continuously, and Jiang Dashan sat in the middle army to watch the battle.

  This broken city is too difficult to fight. The height of the city wall is 11.5 meters. There are 1365 battlements on the city, and each battlement is more than 1 meter high. There are six city gates, four of which have urns, and the other two are difficult to attack normally.

  The moat is 65 meters wide. Just filling the moat will exhaust Jiang Dashan.

   Besieged the city for half a month, and just filled in a few sections of the moat.

  At this moment, Huang Yao had already set off from Changsha, defeated Xiangyin County, and led his troops to Yuezhou Prefecture to join Jiang Dashan.

   "Why is this city so high?" Huang Yao was taken aback.

  Jiang Dashan said: "I asked the local people, Xu Da ordered it to be repaired."

   Huang Yao asked: "How are you going to fight?"

   "The moats have just been filled, and the cannons are fired every day, and the tunnels are being dug quietly," Jiang Dashan said, "There is a lot of dark water here, and the tunnels are not easy to dig."

  Huang Yao smiled and said: "Then you slowly besiege the city, I will go and take down the surrounding counties."

  This kind of fortified city, as long as the soldiers defend it, it is impossible to conquer it without heavy artillery. The Datong army can't do it, the rogue bandits can't do it, and the Manchu Qing can't do it either.

  After the Manchu Qing issued the hair-shaving order, the south often defended the city.

  A group of people temporarily recruited, guarding a city wall that is half shorter than Yuezhou, can withstand the Qing army for three to five months. In many cases, it was not the Qing soldiers who broke through. Either the city lacked food and starved to death, or a traitor opened the door to sacrifice the city.

  Jiang Dashan sent people to carry the soil, crossed the moat and built a high platform, as if they were going to build a high platform, and shot at the city from a condescending height.

  In fact, they used the high platform as a cover, hid behind and dug a tunnel, intending to use gunpowder to blow up the city wall directly.

  Unfortunately, there is too much groundwater, and all kinds of accumulated water in the tunnel are flooded.

  …

   "Fire!"

   "Boom boom boom!"

   There is a camp on Chenglingji, where there used to be a fortress. It was later changed to the inspection department, whose main duties were to inspect smuggling and arrest pirates.

  The fort has been abandoned for a long time, but it was rebuilt last winter, and it was quite solid.

  Jiangxi's self-produced large-caliber artillery has fired more than 200 shells, but it just didn't blow up the castle.

   "Boom!"

  A shell hit the wounded area, and it finally had an effect, and a piece of the castle was blown down.

  Jiang Liang stood up excitedly, and shouted: "Aim there and keep firing!"

   At this moment, the Jiangxi Navy sailed mightily.

  The Datong Army suddenly cheered up, and the morale of the defenders in the castle plummeted.

  Both sides know that the Navy has gone to war, and whoever comes back first means that whoever wins.

  The warship loaded with the Frang cannon was ordered by Gu Jianshan to sail to Chenglingji, and fired at the water side of Chenglingji in unison.

  This kind of inland riverboat carrying artillery cannot pose a threat to the castle, but it has a serious blow to the morale of the defenders.

  Cannons are bombarding on several sides!

  They are all pacesetters of the governor of Huguang, who were fed by Fang Kongzhang with silver. They respected Fang Kongxue very much, but Fang Kongxue was arrested and imprisoned.

  If it wasn't for the new governor, Xu Renlong, who also treated them well, these pacesetters would have surrendered long ago.

   "General, why don't you surrender?"

   "Yes, we have held on for more than half a month, and we are already worthy of the governor."

   "..."

  The counselor Zhou Qinxue scolded angrily: "As a soldier, I should be loyal to the emperor and serve the country. If there is another word to surrender, I will definitely be executed!"

   Zhou Qinxue was born in a family of military generals in the north, so it is not clear how loyal he is. But if he is not loyal, the whole family will be held accountable, and the imperial court has been very strict with the surrendered general's family in the past two years.

  The soldiers dispersed separately, full of resentment.

  Since Fang Kongzheng was imprisoned, the salary of the pacesetters has become less and less. Moreover, although they are from Huguang, but their home is north of the Yangtze River, who the **** wants to come to the south to fight?

   "Boom!"

   Another place was collapsed.

  Jiang Liang stood up fiercely: "Ready to attack!"

  The Datong army ran towards the castle carrying the ladder. Some of the heavily armored warriors, holding long knives in their hands, moved towards the gap made by the shells.

  The defenders have no firecrackers, so they can only shoot arrows continuously.

   When the arrows fell on the heavy armored warriors, they were either bounced off immediately, or inserted wobbly. The warriors only needed to raise their arms to cover their faces.

   Not cotton armor, but real double-layer heavy armor.

  The inside is chain mail, and the outside is tie armor, forming a composite heavy armor with excellent performance.

   Armor is not easy to make, and it is not easy to find a strong man who can wear it to fight.

  Nearly 30,000 Datong soldiers, only 600 heavy armored fighters were trained, 300 were thrown to the South Court Army, and 300 were thrown to the Middle Court Army, which were only used in extremely critical situations.

   "Under Heaven!"

   "Farm and eat!"

  Three hundred heavily armored soldiers, armed to the teeth, shouted such silly slogans in unison, the scene was really funny.

  Of course, the defenders in the castle don't think so.

  Zhou Qinxue organized officers and soldiers to block the gap in the castle. There were many spears, and the formation was extremely elite.

   However, seeing the heavy armored soldiers marching slowly in formation, these elite officers and soldiers retreated subconsciously. Aren't they fools who wear leather armor and fight against these tin cans?

  Three hundred heavy armored soldiers did not run, and the full double-layer armor weighed more than 60 kilograms. Running forward was too exhausting.

  They walked forward at a leisurely pace, carrying long Miao Dao on their shoulders.

brush!

   Came to the gap in the city wall, stabbed with the officers and soldiers' spears, and the seedling knives swiped out in unison.

   "Run!"

  The moment the battle took place, the officers and soldiers collapsed.

   They are indeed elite, but their morale is low by the bombardment. The former governor was imprisoned, the current governor was defeated, the two coaches were gone, and they were sent to leave their hometowns to fight.

   "No retreat!"

  Zhou Qinxue sent a supervisory team, but the supervisory team took a few steps forward and saw the iron can holding a seedling knife on the opposite side, and was scared to collapse and run away.

   Someone wanted to resist, but was cut in half with a single knife.

   One clean break is not an adjective.

   "Surrender without killing!"

   "Dang Dang Dang Dang!"

  The officers and soldiers put down their weapons one after another, knelt on the ground and begged to surrender.

  Zhou Qinxue sighed, turned to face the north, closed his eyes and cut himself with the sword.

   When the news of Chenglingji's fall came, Long Wenguang, the prefect of Yuezhou, and Li Binggan, the general, all looked pale.

  Chenglingji is the gateway to Yuezhou City. If that side is lost, this side becomes an isolated city.

   Moreover, the people in Yuezhou City are very unfriendly to them officers and soldiers from the north. The local people have long wanted to surrender, for fear that the resistance would be too fierce and cause unnecessary trouble for themselves.

  The local people are hostile to officers and soldiers from other places, and this sentiment is becoming more and more obvious.

  The officers and soldiers from other places are all angry. We crossed the river and risked our lives to defend the city for you, but you still look like this.

   "Shhhhhh!"

  From the earthen platform set up outside the city, many arrows were shot, all of which were letters of persuasion.

  The entire army of the Dongting Lake Navy was wiped out, the governor of Huguang has been captured alive, and now Chenglingji has also fallen. These were all written in the letter of persuasion. When the literate people saw the letter, they were so frightened that they wanted to jump down and surrender on the spot.

  Long Wenguang called Li Bingqian over: "General Li, please lead your troops to surrender. Bandit Zhao is not a bloodthirsty person, so there is no need to commit more crimes. Yuezhou City cannot be defended."

  Li Bingqian smiled wryly: "My wife and children are all in my hometown, so how can I follow a thief? My second son is still a juren, and his future cannot be delayed."

   "As you please."

  Long Wenguang lost his mood, and walked back to the government office. He called his servants and maids, took out the money and said, "You should divide up these goods, and don't leave them in the government office."

   "Master!"

  The house slaves wept sadly when they guessed that he wanted to commit suicide.

   "Let's go!" Long Wenguang shouted.

  A group of servants left one after another with the money.

  Long Wenguang untied his belt and hanged himself.

   Not long after, an old servant turned back. He carried Long Wenguang's body, rolled it up in a mat and waited there, hoping to send the master's ashes back to his hometown.

   General Li Bingqian stood on the tower, smiled miserably, and suddenly drew his knife and killed himself.

   "Bingyuan, the water in the tunnel has been drained, and in at most half a month, we will be able to dig under the city and release explosives!"

   "No need."

  Jiang Dashan put down the binoculars, he saw the enemy general committing suicide with his own eyes.

   A moment later, the gates of the city opened wide.

  The entire south of the Yangtze River, the top five cities in Chenggao, finally surrendered by themselves.

  Chongzhen should feel gratified. Yuezhou Prefecture and Chenglingji sacrificed a magistrate and two generals.

  Long Wenguang actually doesn’t need to die. He is from Guangxi. Zhao Han will be able to reach Guangxi next year at most. Wouldn’t it be nice to surrender in advance to pave the way for the family?

  Li Zheng set out from Changsha, and has conquered Ningxiang, Yiyang, Yuanjiang, Changde, and Taoyuan at this moment. Almost no resistance was encountered, and the whole journey was on the sidelines. Only the county magistrate of Taoyuan wanted to defend the city to the death, and was **** by the county magistrate and the chief secretary.

  With the assistance of the navy, Huang Yao led his troops to attack the city along the river, trying to reach Shizhouwei (Enshi).

  As for Jiang Dashan and Jiang Liang, they attacked Wuchang Prefecture (south of Wuhan) and Wuchang County (Echeng) to the east until Xingguo Prefecture bordered Jiangxi.

   Only in this way can we take down the whole territory of Hunan-the mountains in western Hunan, and I am too lazy to fight for the time being.

  However, Zhao Han’s Hunan Province is bounded by the Yangtze River, including Enshi, Ezhou, Huangshi, and southern Wuhan in later generations of Hubei.

  Anyway, Huguang was divided between Zhao Han and Zhang Xianzhong, the south of the Yangtze River belonged to Zhao Han, and the north of the Yangtze River belonged to Zhang Xianzhong.

  The premise is that Zhang Xianzhong can eat the officers and soldiers there, and more than 30,000 people are huddled in the two cities.

   (Double monthly pass, if you don’t vote, it will be gone. Friends from other stations also come to support.)

   (Tomorrow four more.)

  (end of this chapter)