"That's different." Shen Daxing said, "I think so, you go to find Zhang Guodong, if he agrees, I will take you to have a look." ”

Qin Zhigang stood up helplessly: "This matter is still kept secret from me, I'll go find Zhang Guodong." ”

Qin Zhigang found Zhang Guodong and not only proposed to understand the development of the steam engine of the scientific research institute, but also put forward a higher requirement, requiring the director of the industrial bureau to grasp the latest and highest scientific research results of the scientific research institute, so that they can be transformed into productive forces at any time.

Zhang Guodong understands that Qin Zhigang's request is justified, and if the Industrial Bureau does not even know the latest scientific research results, then the research and development work of the Industrial Bureau will also be affected. However, the secrecy level of the scientific research institute was determined by the conference, and Zhang Guodong could not change it by himself. On the one hand, Zhang Guodong agreed to disclose the research and development status of the steam engine to Qin Zhigang, and on the other hand, he also told Qin Zhigang that he would work with Qin Songwang and Dong Fei to propose to the conference that all scientific research results could be disclosed to the director of the Industrial Bureau.

Han Wantao and Xu Lang stood under Fuchun City and watched the situation on the city. The two divisions of the New First Army have besieged Fuchun for more than ten days, but they have not been able to defeat it. Fuchun City has a high ditch and a deep ditch, and there are quite a lot of Western artillery, which is not too easy to fight. The combined fleet had repelled an attack by the South Vietnamese side at sea the other day, sinking about a dozen warships. However, in order to ensure the safety of Hoi An, only six warships came from the combined fleet, the remaining four remained in Hoi An, and the other two remained in Kimpo.

The artillery on both sides was still roaring, and in order to avoid excessive casualties, Han Wantao never ordered a strong attack. But after more than ten days of bombing, it had no effect, and Han Wantao and Xu Lang were a little anxious.

"Wan Tao, this style of play is not good." Xu Lang held the binoculars and said, "Even if we finish the shells, we won't be able to hit Fuchun." ”

"Then what do you have to do?" Han Wantao also knew that such an attack would be ineffective, but the range of the rifled gun could not catch up with the artillery on Fuchun City, and if the soldiers were allowed to climb the city wall, it would cause greater casualties.

"There's nothing I can do." Xu Lang really couldn't think of a way, in fact, the best way was to besiege it. Now that the Yulin Army has obtained the right to control the sea, it is very convenient to transport supplies from Jinpu or Hoi An, and it should be the best way to surround Fuchun. But Xu Lang knew that it was not possible to besiege the city, and the new army had to quickly defeat Fuchun, so that it could take time to attack the city and control the city and the Mekong Delta region. And the purpose of all this is still to the north, to prevent Tao Min from entering Japan.

"Give the order, stop the attack, and collect the troops." Han Wantao gave the order to withdraw the troops, and the Yulin army set up a barracks more than a mile away from the Fuchun city wall.

Lin Zhaolong, Xu Tianbin, Ye Zhan, Gao Chen and others all came to the military headquarters, and after chattering for a while, no one had any good way.

"Gao Chen." Xu Lang directly called his name, "Tell me what you think." ”

"Sir." Gao Chen stood up and said, "If you just say that you want to conquer Fuchun City, there should be many ways. The subordinates were taught by instructors when they were in military schools, and we can use the method of flooding. There is a river outside Fuchun City, and by the sea, we can dig the river, Guan Yunchang once flooded the Seventh Army. Then you can get some stone throwers and throw some rotting cattle, sheep and even human carcasses, as well as dung into enemy cities, so as to spread diseases and plagues, so that the enemy has no backhand. ”

"Gao Chen, you stop." Lin Zhaolong shouted, "Are you disgusting or not, come up with such a bad trick." ”

"Sir." Gao Chen defended, "The lowly official just said that this is just a simple siege method, and the lowly official also knows that these methods cannot be used, and we also have to consider the problem of civilian casualties." ”

"Gao Chen, you go on." Han Wantao said, "Don't care if your method works or not, you can discuss it." ”

"Yes, sir." Gao Chen continued, "Then it's to dig tunnels, dig tunnels directly into the city wall or dig down his city wall. ”

"It doesn't work." Ye Zhan vetoed, "It's impossible to dig down the city wall. In case the enemy notices it, as long as we pour some water into the tunnel or something, we can't withdraw at all, this method is too unsafe. ”

"You all wait a minute." Xu Lang suddenly raised his hand to interrupt everyone's words, and he lowered his head and was thinking about something.

Gao Chen's proposal to dig a tunnel reminded Xu Lang, who remembered the method used by Yang Xiuqing, the king of the East during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, to break through the city of Nanjing.

The city wall of Nanjing was built by Zhu Yuanzhang, the wall base is 15 meters thick, more than 10 meters high, and it is impregnable. At that time, Lu Jianying, the governor of Liangjiang in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, only had 5,000 people in his hands, and he dared to rely on the Nanjing city wall to resist hundreds of thousands, claiming to be one million, of the Taiping army. Lu Jianying believed that the city of Nanjing was strong, and Zheng Chenggong, who had a large number of artillery in the early Qing Dynasty, had nothing to do with it, and it was not a problem to defend against the Taiping army. At the beginning, the Taiping army was really helpless, although the strength of the Qing army in the city was 100 times that of the Qing army, it was still unable to break through the city defense. The Taiping army had concentrated artillery on the Nanjing city wall day and night, but the dense cannonballs were blocked by the fifteen-meter-thick city wall, and could only cause limited damage to the buildings on the city tower. Later, Yang Xiuqing dug a tunnel under the foundation of the Nanjing wall, filled the coffin with black powder, closed the tunnel and blasted it, blowing down the almost impregnable Nanjing city wall, thus seizing the city.

Whether this story is true or not Xu Lang doesn't know, but Xu Lang knows that this method may be available. As long as the city wall is blown up with black powder, Fuchun City will be taken, which should be much smaller than the casualties of climbing the city wall.

Xu Lang said his idea, and everyone felt that this method could be tried. Whether it's useful or not, digging a tunnel is a bit more cumbersome than bombing the walls for a day, but it consumes less ammo.

Han Wantao immediately made arrangements, first found someone to make a few wooden boxes, stuffed them with black powder, found a place where no one was there, dug a pit and buried them. Then, a stone wall was built on top of the city wall of Fuchun for blasting experiments. This method was really useful, and after several tests, I probably mastered the amount of gunpowder needed to blow up the city wall.

Xu Lang personally inspected the front line again and found a more suitable route. The entire tunnel had to be dug for more than a mile, and the tunnel was straight, and when it reached the bottom of the city wall, it turned two corners, so that the energy of the explosion could go up and not go back.

The artillery under the city began to roar again, and under the cover of the artillery, a company of soldiers brandished pickaxes and sapper shovels and began to dig tunnels. After they really started digging, Han Wantao and Xu Lang realized that this tunnel was not easy to dig. The drainage and support issues alone were a headache for both of them. It had collapsed twice before it had been dug for a few tens of meters, and the water in the tunnel was up to knees, so even if it was dug up, gunpowder could not be transported.

Han Wantao and other senior officers did not know much about authentic drainage and support methods, but fortunately, there were a few pirates and miners in the two divisions who worked in the Tiandu Iron Mine back then. Han Wantao consulted them for their opinions and knew a little bit about it.

The support problem is easy to solve, and it can be supported with wooden piles. The drainage problem is generally a drainage construction measure that excavates a small cross-sectional tunnel roughly parallel to the tunnel perpendicular to the direction of the flow of groundwater on the side of the tunnel in advance, which is used to drain or intercept the groundwater, and connects the open channel at the exit of the tunnel to discharge the water, or connects the drainage ditch with the tunnel ditch with the tunnel ditch with the channel.

But the problem is that the moat in Fuchun City is relatively wide, and if you want to dig a tunnel, you must first drain the water of the moat, and this amount of work makes Han Wantao and Xu Lang a headache.

Xu Lang found someone to make a preliminary estimate that it would take at least ten days to dig up this mile of tunnel.

"Why is it so troublesome to dig a tunnel?" Han Wantao complained, "It will take ten days, and in ten days, we can almost climb the wall and climb in." ”

"This is the way it is now, it's useless for you to be in a hurry." Xu Lang said, "Wan Tao, you have to get the final idea, you can't finish digging this tunnel, in fact, I'm more anxious than you." ”

"Dig, ten days is ten days." Han Wantao said hatefully, "It's okay to be able to lay down Fuchun in ten days." ”

Lin Zhaolong led the Second Division to continue to contain the Vietnamese in Fuchun City, and Xu Lang temporarily found all the people who knew a little about civil engineering, formed a new engineering company, and began to dig tunnels.

The engineer company first opened a canal under the cover of artillery fire and diverted the water from the moat. Then a small tunnel was dug parallel to the tunnel to hold back the groundwater, and finally a large amount of timber was brought in to start the excavation of the tunnel, which was more than a mile long.

Ten days later, the tunnel was dug and several wooden boxes filled with black powder were ready. The engineer company also made two fuses more than 400 meters long each out of cotton thread and black powder.

Everything was ready, the two cavalry regiments and the 1st Division were ready for everything, just waiting for the walls to rush in as soon as they were blown down.

The engineer company carried several large wooden boxes into the tunnel, stuffed them one by one in the innermost part of the tunnel, connected the two fuses to the gunpowder in the wooden boxes, and then carefully spread the fuses little by little along the tunnel and extended them backwards. This fuse has been tested, burning about 10 meters per second, and it takes 40 seconds to burn to the end, which is enough for sappers to run out of the tunnel. To be on the safe side, Xu Lang ordered the two fuses to be lit together.

Han Wantao and Xu Lang were lying behind a mound of earth and looking forward with their glasses raised, all the soldiers had withdrawn to the back of two miles away from the city wall, and no one knew how powerful the explosion of these black powders would be and where they could explode.

"It's out, it's out." Xu Lang pulled Han Wantao and kept shouting, "Our sappers have come out." ”

Two sappers came out of the tunnel with their hats covered, and after a few short runs, they jumped into a deep pit next to them. After about another 20 seconds, an earth-shattering explosion sounded, and the whole earth felt like it was shaking.

The smoke passed, and the walls of Fuchun City were blown down as expected.

"Cavalry regiment, charge!" The two cavalry commanders raised their scimitars at the same time, and the 2,000 horses began to accelerate.

But the speed of the horses had not yet risen, and the 2,000 cavalry had stopped again, and behind the bombed wall, a newly built wall stood to block the gap. The new wall was about the same height and thickness as the original wall, and artillery was placed on the wall.

"Oh yes." Han Wantao understood that the Vietnamese had not been idle in the past ten days. They must have known the intentions of the Yulin army, so they built a second wall to block the attack.

More than ten days of hard work were in vain, and a large amount of gunpowder was wasted, and all the senior officers sat in Han Wantao's camp tent with sad faces.

"Don't be discouraged." Xu Lang cheered everyone up, "After all, we still have achievements, at least we blew up a section of its city wall." ”

"What's the use of blowing it up, people have built a new one." Lin Zhaolong said, "We can't dig another tunnel, this method is known to the people of Annan, and it will definitely not work." ”

"We don't have to dig tunnels anymore, I have a way." Xu Lang smiled, "I don't know if you have noticed their new city wall." Of course, it doesn't matter if you don't pay attention. ”

"Xu Lang, if you have anything, just say it quickly, now is not the time to sell Guanzi." Han Wantao was a little dissatisfied.

Xu Lang smiled again: "This new city wall of theirs is not built with stones, you think, how strong the city wall will be after ten days of hard work, it will definitely not be able to withstand the bombardment of artillery." It will take us another two days to remove a few 24-pounder guns and 32-pounder guns from the battleship and bombard it with cannons. ”

"Chief of Staff, can you do it?" Ye Zhan asked, "These two kinds of guns are too heavy, and it is very troublesome to move them down from the battleship and transport them over." ”

"We don't have any other way." Xu Lang said, "Although this method is stupid, it should be the best way." ”

"So it was decided." Han Wantao's anger also came up, "Start carrying the cannon today." ”

After three days, two 32-pounder guns and four 24-pounder guns were placed 1,000 meters from the gap in the wall, and the bombardment of the wall from this place should have been the best.

The whole shelling lasted all day, and the Vietnamese also knew that this was their last line of defense, and risked artillery to strengthen the city walls.

"Xu Lang, how about it, are you sure that the city wall will be destroyed tomorrow?" After the troops were collected at night, Han Wantao convened another meeting of division-level officers.

"Don't worry, according to today's bombardment method, he will be blown down at noon tomorrow."

"Okay, I'll order now." Han Wantao was a little excited, he could finally defeat Fuchun, "Xu Tianbin, you will be in charge of commanding two cavalry regiments tomorrow, as long as the city wall collapses, you will immediately rush in." ”

"Yes, sir." Xu Tianbin replied.

"Ye Zhan, you command your first regiment to follow the cavalry charge. You have only one task, to control the gap, build fortifications, and never let the Nan'an people recapture the gap. ”

"Yes, sir."