Civil Fort, October 17. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Early in the morning, heavy snowfall.

The first snow inside and outside the Great Wall in winter came very timely.

The goose feathers were snowing heavily, and the Ming officers and soldiers in the Tumu Fort did not have any distress, on the contrary, they rejoiced, and there were laughter and laughter everywhere. Because this is a heavy snowfall, in the absence of drinking water in the city, a heavy snowfall may not be able to get the soldiers out of trouble, but the water supply problem should not be worried in the short term.

Early in the morning, the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty used various methods to collect the ice and snow, and the temperature in the northern country of October during the Xiaoice River period was already below zero, and the ice and snow would not melt when it landed, and soon snow would be formed, and the soldiers carefully shoveled the snow down, put it in baskets, and sent it to the water cellar for treasure.

Later, the water cellars were filled, and the moats in the city that had been temporarily left unused were covered with straw and used to store the snow.

The officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty talked and laughed, carrying baskets and walking in the trenches and fortifications inside and outside the civil fort, constantly increasing the water reserves in the city. The women began to prepare breakfast, and as the snow melted, the broth of the horse's meat began to smell rich.

The soldiers rested for the night and were in good spirits. Originally, the biggest thing that the big guys were most worried about was that after the Tatar soldiers and horses took Zhangjiakou Fort and Xuanfu Town, the main force was under the Tumu Fort. They were afraid that the Tatars would be outnumbered, and they would easily break the city on the first day, and even if reinforcements arrived, it would be useless.

To the joy of the Ming army, although the main Tatar force came, but there seemed to be no good way to do it for the Tumu Fort, last night an attack ended with the Tatars throwing away a thousand real Tartar heads, and the Tatars had no immediate intention of attacking the city.

According to the report of the horse exploration, the Tatar camp was frequently moved, and many veterans were saying that the Tatars would not fight to the death with the Ming army at the Tumu Fort, but would bypass the Tumu Fort and attack the Juyong Pass or the Bauhinia Pass.

The old soldiers wanted to convey that the Tatars were just surrounding the Tumu fort and would not attack with boredom. In this way, the defenders of the city can hold on and wait until there is a shortage of water in the fortress. As soon as the soldiers let go of their worries, a heavy snowfall fell, which was simply the icing on the cake.

Now the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty in the civil fort feel that they occupy all the elements such as the right time, the right place and the right people, and they can wait with Shen Xi in the city to make contributions and return to their hometowns.

As for the cruelty of the war, there is no need to think about it, and don't want to be a deserter, now the Tumu Fort is trapped on all sides, even if it is not trapped, the outside of the city is full of trenches built by the Ming army itself or the Tatars, and you can't go if you want to.

“…… It's time for breakfast, my lord! ”

Shen Xi was standing at the head of the city in the north of the city, observing the movements of the Tatars, and Yun Liu took Xi'er to the head of the city to greet him.

Yesterday's battle ended, Shen Xi looked at the map for a while, and ordered the command post to be moved to the Tibetan soldier cave in the north of the city wall, no one else understood what was going on, Shen Xi got up early this morning and climbed up to the head of the city to observe, Hu Songyue, Zhu Lie and Liu Xu had all come, but Shen Xi did not give any explanation for this, and the three generals were busy with their own errands and did not ask.

As for the prison guard Zhang Yong, he stayed in the house in the west of the city and refused to move his nest.

"Got it!"

Shen Xi answered, put down the binoculars in his hand, and found that his eyes were a little dry. When he came down from the city, Shen Xi couldn't help but nod slightly when he saw the handsome Yunliu and Xi'er looking at him curiously.

Although Shen Xi had pity for his second daughter before, he had no affection, perhaps now that he has been in the army for a long time, there is no one around him, in the case of Yunliu and Xi'er who came to help with soldiers and horses regardless of life and death, Shen Xi was somewhat grateful, and re-examined his feelings for Yunliu and Xi'er.

In fact, in terms of Shen Xi's aesthetics, these two women are very in line with Shen Xi's standards in terms of appearance and personal charm, but unfortunately, because their backgrounds are too complicated, Shen Xisheng is afraid that his life will be disturbed, so he has always kept away from them.

Shen Xi yawned, not scrupling because he was in front of a beautiful woman...... Even if he was beaten by iron, he felt a little unbearable at this moment, looked up and looked around, and said, "Go to the command post and talk!" ”

Xi'er was peeking at Shen Xi, and she didn't quite understand Shen Xi's sudden tired expression. Yun Liu behaved calmly, no matter from any point of view, Yun Liu was smarter and wiser than Xi'er, and could help Shen Xi share a lot of work. Shen Xi always likes to think about problems alone, and often complicates some simple problems, so Shen Xi simply called Yun Liu and Xi'er to the command post to talk about the next step in using troops.

In the command post, Shen Xi had a military map of Tumubao in his hand, which was about to be turned over by Shen Xi, Yun Liu and Xi'er had tried to understand the content on it, but they never got the point.

Shen Xi stood behind the handsome case, didn't care about patting the snowflakes on his body, looked at the military map, and said, "Next, the Tatars will inevitably attack from the north of the city!" ”

Yunliu and Xi'er glanced at each other, and Xi'er was straightforward and asked, "Why?" ”

Yun Liu glared at Xi'er, blaming her for being too talkative, but Shen Xi did not avoid this question: "Because the Tatars want to test the defense of the civil fort from all directions, last night the Tatars chose to attack from the Black Evil Position, today, it should be the White Wolf Position......"

Speaking of this, Shen Xi smiled dumbly, because he saw the confusion on Yun Liu and Xi'er's faces.

"What a white wolf bit, I'm talking about playing." Shen Xi explained with a smile, "Actually, it's just a feeling...... I think the Tatars should attack from the north of the city next. If the Tatar general leading the army has enough brains, he should be able to detect the disadvantages of besieging the city on all sides, and the next step is to besiege the city and give way to the south of the city, because it is a water source, which can shake the hearts of our army......"

"As for why it is in the north of the city and not in the east of the city, because most of the siege equipment of the Tatars plundered the Ming Dynasty, it was relatively cumbersome for them, if the siege of Sanyun was given up from the south of the city, it would be too far to transport it to the east of the city and then launch an attack, but although the terrain in the north of the city was higher, the uphill road was not difficult! Attacking from the north of the city is to go downhill and then uphill, which is relatively less strenuous! ”

Yun Liu asked, "Lord Shen, I don't understand, since the Tatars have an absolute advantage in terms of strength, why don't they besiege them from all sides?" ”

Shen Xi smiled: "On the one hand, the Tatars don't have enough siege equipment. On the other hand, the Tatars are most afraid of the artillery in the city, the advantage of the artillery is that it covers a wide area, but there is a problem that it is inconvenient to move, and it is only necessary to determine the general layout of our artillery, and the other side can target it...... This minimizes casualties! ”

Yun Liu asked, "Since Lord Shen has judged the direction of the Tatar main attack, he should strengthen the defense in the north of the city, right?" ”

"That's right!"

Shen Xi nodded, "But I can't be too conceited, if the Tatars don't play according to the routine, they must deal with it." I will increase my defense in the north of the city in this battle, but I don't plan to invest too many troops, and I have to pretend that this line of defense is relatively empty, and when the Tatars come, our officers and soldiers will pretend to be panicked, so that the Tatars think that the sneak attack is successful......"

Hearing this, Yun Liu basically understood why Shen Xi would gain something every time he was on the battlefield.

Shen Xi thinks about things, and he will not only consider one aspect, but will take into account all aspects of the situation.

Many generals, since they analyzed that the next attack of the Tatars would be launched from the north of the city, they would usually be complacent and arrange a large number of men and horses-for-tat, and as a result, the Tatars temporarily changed their strategy and chose to attack from other directions, and the defenders would naturally fall into great passivity.

Shen Xi expected the enemy to take the lead and did not make a conclusion, but instead made some gestures to lure the enemy into depth, and when the Tatars really came, he knew that the focus of the Ming army's defense was in the north of the city, which caused the Tatars to suffer heavy losses.

Yun Liu continued to ask, "Then Lord Shen thinks that the number of soldiers and horses that the Tatars will attack next time will be?" ”

Shen Xi bowed slightly, expressing his approval of Yun Liu's question, and said: "Even if it is just a tentative attack, the Tatars do not send many soldiers and horses, but it is expected that there are about 5,000 soldiers, and if one is not properly prepared, he will be killed by the Tatars along the trench area, and he will also fall into great passivity in defense!" ”

"I only plan to let Zhu Lie, the commander of the second battalion, lead 1,500 men to meet the battle, and the remaining 1,000 men of the second battalion, as well as the two thousand troops drawn from the first and third battalions, will be used as the general reserve......"

At the end of the battle last night, Shen Xi readjusted the soldiers and horses under his command.

Originally, the three generals each had 2,000 men under their command, and the total number of these horses plus follow-up reinforcements had exceeded 8,000.

Shen Xi transferred 600 men from the reinforcements to form the fourth battalion, and distributed the remaining 1,500 men and horses, plus the 849 officers and soldiers of the Ming border captured yesterday, to Zhu Lie, Liu Xu, and Hu Songyue, so that the soldiers and horses under the command of these three people reached about 2,800 people, all of whom were mixed troops of various arms such as firecrackers and crossbowmen.

At present, among the four battalions, the first battalion is led by Hu Songyue and is responsible for the defense of the west of the city.

The second battalion was commanded by Zhu Lie and defended the north of the city.

The commander of the third battalion was Liu Xu, who was in charge of the eastern part of the city.

As for the fourth battalion, it was commanded by the reinforcement Qianhu Song Xie and was responsible for the defense of the south of the city.

The south of the city is a flaw that Shen Xi deliberately left for the Tatars to see, he does not think that the Tatars will take advantage of this flaw, even the old treacherous and cunning such as Yi Si Ma Yin is unpredictable to Shen Xi's use of troops, even if he sees this flaw, Shen Xi believes that this person will not dare to attack from the south of the city easily.

Because once the south of the city is attacked, the defenders of the city will realize that there is no hope of replenishing water, and there is no way to escape, so they will only fight to the death.