On the evening of the same day, Zhu Zanyi led his troops to Nanding City, and was about to surround him on all sides when he heard the news that Hu Jichen had left, and the news was very accurate and there would be no mistakes.

Zhu Zanyi was a little frustrated, but this situation was naturally expected, his frustration was only a momentary thing, and he immediately began to set up camp.

Zhu Zanyi ordered the land division to be stationed in the east of the city to the south of the city, forming three large camps in the east, southeast and south of the city.

The strength of the three battalions is average, 50,000 soldiers, and Zhu Zanyi himself put his camp tent in the southeast of the battalion in order to facilitate contact. The grain and grass camp was also placed behind the camp to the southeast.

Because there were too many troops assigned to him, he finally sent three generals to obey his orders, and at this time, Huang Rong, Tang Quan, and Ma Jun, three people who were also very senior in the Ming army, were under him, and Zhu Zanyi appointed each of them to lead a battalion.

Early the next morning, Zhu Zanyi began to attack the city. According to Lin Yurong's intentions, he ordered that all battalions should not be too desperate, today was just a test, and the artillery on the ship also opened fire weakly, and for a while, it was not as good as the less than 20 cannons at the head of Nanding City. In addition, the defenders of Nanding City did resist very fiercely, and there was no progress in the battle for a whole day.

At dinner in the evening, Tang Quan said to Zhu Zanyi: "Your Highness, you can't fight like this, the resistance of the Annan people at the head of the city is too fierce, although the soldiers are small but very heroic, today the subordinates saw that the momentum was not good and ordered the withdrawal of troops, and there were more than 3,000 soldiers lost successively, of which more than 1,300 were killed in battle and more than 2,100 were wounded. The casualties of the army attacking the city are not small, but this is just a test, and the casualties are too great. ”

"Yes, Your Highness, the battalion commanded by the minister also lost more than 3,000 soldiers, and Ma Jun's side was about the same, so that the whole army lost tens of thousands of soldiers in one day, although there were more minor injuries and they could return to the team after resting for two or three days, but the losses were too large. And the Annan people in the city lost three thousand troops on both sides today, which is only 30% of our army. ”

Huang Lu continued: "According to the current situation, even if you still storm the city the day after tomorrow, it is impossible to capture this city in one day. And if you can't capture Nanding City the day after tomorrow, you won't be able to send the good news to Your Majesty before the New Year,"

He was even more worried about the latter. Generals of their level are already very complete in terms of qualifications and resumes, and what is missing is a great achievement to be awarded the title of Marquis Earl. But the commander-in-chief of this attack on Nanding City is Zhu Zanyi, and the Ming Dynasty sent more than twice as many troops as the Annan people this time, and the artillery is even five times, and the credit will not be too great, if they can deliver the good news to His Majesty before the New Year, maybe His Majesty will be happy to give them the title; But if the good news can only be delivered to His Majesty after the year, they may not be able to be knighted. Therefore, he was very anxious, and he was eager to storm Nanding City with a large army tomorrow and defeat it in one fell swoop. Not only him, but Tang Quan and Ma Jun also have the same thoughts.

Although Zhu Zanyi's skills in fighting have not yet been practiced, as a royal prince, he can naturally see their thoughts.

But for him, the most important thing now was to clear the city of Annam soldiers and ordinary people, and involve them all in the war, so that after the war they could all be condemned, reduced to slavery or sold to the army merchants, and the land and houses were vacated to accommodate the people who had moved from the country.

So Zhu Zanyi pondered and said: "The defenders here are the few remaining elite soldiers of the Annan Hu Dynasty, so it is better to be cautious in order to avoid too many losses." Since there are too many soldiers to lose in this way, from tomorrow onwards, we will attack the city more carefully, and then storm and capture the city in one fell swoop after testing the problem of defending the city. ”

"As for the matter of reporting success, although it is important, it is not as important as the lives of the soldiers, as long as you can lay down the city before the New Year, so that the soldiers can have a good year, you don't have to rush to deliver the good news to Your Majesty before the New Year."

"Your Highness," Huang Lu said, "I am very careful now, and if I am careful again, I am afraid that nothing will be tested." If you want to test the problem, you must send troops to attack, and you can only test the problem when the enemy soldiers are taking care of one thing and losing the other, and then the reserve troops will press up and break the Annamite in one fell swoop. ”

"But ,......" Zhu Zanyi has to shirk again.

"Your Highness, if it is according to the current siege situation, it is better for the army to be stationed under the city of Nanding and only besiege it, so that the people of Annam can be suspicious, and they don't know what our army is going to do under the city, and it can also allow the army to rest. If you want to attack the city, you must send a large army to attack it, and you can't be so distracted. ”

"What's more, Hou Ye Zhang's intention is also to capture Nanding City as soon as possible, and always delaying it will go against Hou Ye's will, which is not good." Ma Jun was also a little anxious. It is taboo to use the words of superiors to suppress superiors in officialdom, and superiors will definitely not be happy. He even said such words, which showed that he couldn't care about anything else for the slightest hope of his knighthood. Fortunately, His Royal Highness King Jingjiang is not a military general of the Ming Dynasty, and as long as he is not sent to His Royal Highness King Jingjiang as an official in the future, he is not afraid of anything. He thought as he blurted out.

Zhu Zanyi was naturally unhappy when she heard this, and raised her head to look at Ma Jun.

But Ma Jun's words still played a role. Although he is a prince, a general like Zhang Wen is rarely offended. In the future, it is impossible for Yun Xi to personally be responsible for the imperial court's assistance to his feudal domain, and he will have to go through the six departments of the imperial court and the governor's office of the five armies.

Zhu Zanyi then soothed his tone, discussed with the two of them, and finally decided to fight like this tomorrow, or even be more careful, and the whole army launched a fierce attack on Nanding City in the day after tomorrow, and captured the city in one fell swoop.

Early the next morning, with the cooperation of the ship's artillery, the army began to attack again. In the evening, Ma Jun and the other three came to Zhu Zanyi's camp again to report today's losses and discuss tomorrow's plans.

Today, they lost more than 8,000 soldiers, and less than 3,000 were killed in battle, which is less than yesterday, but still a lot. However, most of the soldiers killed and injured today are the soldiers of the southwestern barbarians who have been recruited.

Yun Xi mobilized a total of 300,000 guards, 40,000 sailors, and 2,560,000 southwestern barbarians to attack Annam this time. His original intention was to use these southwestern barbarian soldiers to fight tough battles and reduce the losses of the guards. But He Rong's side was not enough, the 400,000 troops of the front, center, right, and rear four armies personally commanded by Zhang Wen were not very fierce at the beginning, and there was no need for Yi soldiers; Later, they were all tough battles, but because these battles were very important and not the usual way of engagement, Zhang Wen and other generals were afraid that the soldiers would lose their chains, so they all used trustworthy guards to fight, resulting in fewer losses than guards until yesterday.

Now these soldiers are finally coming in handy. Zhu Zanyi said in her heart.

After the report, the three of them discussed for a while about the siege of the city tomorrow, and after arranging all the armies, Zhu Zanyi asked Huang Lu and the three of them to go down.

After they retreated, Zhu Zanyi turned his head and said to Lin Yurong: "Lin Aiqing, there is no way to fully implement your plan. Not only are the three of them going to storm in order to win as soon as possible, but the soldiers below are also thinking like this, even if I am not afraid of them and don't care about Zhang Wen, I can't suppress all the soldiers, so I can only storm Nanding City tomorrow. ”

Zhu Zanyi was a little helpless. During the day today, he sent people to inspect the various camps to understand the thoughts of the middle and lower generals and soldiers, and the results showed that almost all the soldiers did not want to drag out the war until the last day of the New Year, but wanted to end the war as soon as possible, and then rest for 20 days, and then send troops to attack other places after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

"Your Highness, it is up to people to make things happen, and since the matter has come to this, Your Highness should stop worrying and be relieved."

"Besides, the attack of the past two days has played a certain role, and there are more and more people in the city, even if you enter Nanding City now, you can use the pretext that was negotiated before to deal with the local gentry and civilians."

Lin Yurong was actually very depressed. He thought that the plan he had made was very good, but he did not expect that it would end up in vain because he disobeyed the hearts of the soldiers. But this matter is not bad for Zhu Zanyi, although he speaks straightforwardly, it does not mean that he does not understand any human feelings, of course, at this time, he has to comfort Zhu Zanyi. Wei Zheng, a famous counselor during the period of Tang Taizong, would also comfort Li Shimin at such a time.

Zhu Zanyi listened to Lin Yurong's relief, felt a little better, and said to him: "Tomorrow, you will also lead the troops to attack the city." Gu now has a few thousand households in his hands, and they will all be handed over to you to command tomorrow, so that you can accumulate some credit, and it will not be abrupt when Gu appoints you as the standard commander in the future. ”

"Your Highness." Lin Yurong bowed.

Zhu Zanyi smiled and said a few more words, making him retreat.

Then Zhu Zanyi looked at the sand table in front of him again, and said to himself: "I don't know what the battle will look like tomorrow." Let's hope all the best. Why do I always feel uneasy? ”