Compared with Xiangyang, Kaifeng's city defense is actually not impregnable. Although the city wall alone is concerned, the city wall of Kaifeng is also very tall, but Kaifeng is located in the plain, and attacks can be launched from all directions, unlike Xiangyang, which is backed by mountains and water, and if you want to fight hard, you can only come from one side.

But even so, attacking a prepared city like Kaifeng is still a very difficult thing for the revolutionary army. Because the revolutionary army had never had experience in attacking a defended city before.

In the beginning, the main task of the revolutionary army was to find a way to fill the moat of Kaifeng. Before the Yuan Dynasty, the moat of Kaifeng was connected to the Bianhe River, but it was living water. It is not easy to fill the moat. However, after the Yuan Dynasty, because of the diversion of the Yellow River several times, the original several rivers flowing through Kaifeng were all silted, and now the only river with water near Kaifeng is the Yellow River. Because of the siltation of the Yellow River, the riverbed is much higher than that of Kaifeng City, which is naturally higher than the moat of Kaifeng. So the water can only be released into the moat through the sluice. However, the Yellow River is still some distance away from Kaifeng City, so the sluice gate is outside Kaifeng City, which is difficult to defend. Therefore, as long as the besieging side occupies the sluice, it can cut off the water source of the moat. Then it is no longer inconceivable to fill in the moat, or even to divert the water from the moat. In addition, the water of the Yellow River has been used as the source of the moat, and the consequence is that the moat is seriously silted, not only the river surface is not wide, but even the water is not much deeper.

The revolutionary army had the new soldiers take turns pushing wheelbarrows full of earth and rushing to the moat to fill the moat with earth.

The morale of the defenders in the city was good. Because the two guards of the Zhou Palace, the two chamberlains, and a servant of the Patrol Mansion were all distributing silver on the city wall at this time. All the armoured soldiers who went up to the city wall could get a reward of one tael of silver every day, and they would give it to their faces, without any money, and if they could keep it for ten days, it would be a real ten taels of silver. Even the auxiliary soldiers who helped carry the rolling wood and stones had a real three coins of silver every day.

At this time, the governor Gao Gao Ping also personally went up to the city wall to supervise the battle, and the chief soldier Chen Yongshou hurriedly greeted him.

"Lord Gao, the thieves have artillery, and the city is not safe, how did your lord get here?" Chen Yongshou said.

"Mr. Chen is here, but I can't come?" Gao Gao Ping said with a smile, "Besides, the general told me last time that this cannon cannons can't be used if they are caught, and although those rogues have cannons in their hands, they can't hit them accurately!" ”

As soon as the words fell, I saw a few white smoke rising from the side of the "thief army" in the distance, and after a while, there was a rumbling cannon. Then several cannonballs flew at a speed visible to the naked eye, one of them fell into the moat outside the city, stirring up a high column of water, and two with a rumbling whistling sound crossed the city wall and landed inside the city, smashing several houses in the palace of the king of Zhou. Another hit the wall with a muffled pop and then bounced off the wall.

"Is this a hit? Where did all this go? Gao Gaoping deliberately laughed out loud.

"What happened to the section of the wall that was hit?" Chen Yongshou said to a young general beside him.

The little general took the order, and after a while, he came back and reported back to Chen Yongshou: "Commander, the cannon just smashed a pit the size of a wine cup on the city bricks, there is no major damage, and the thief army will not use the cannon at all." ”

Gao Gao Ping listened to it and laughed: "Chief Chen Bing, you see, with the artillery skills of these thieves, how can this city not be safe?" ”

Chen Yongshou also laughed and said, "What the adults said is true." ”

He approached Gao Gaoping, and then lowered his voice and said, "My lord, the thief's cannon is actually not bad. It's just a test gun, and the test gun is like this, but it's actually not bad. The gunners in the thief army are estimated to be officers and soldiers who have surrendered to the thieves before, and the gunnery is actually not under our army. Now the morale of our army is high, and my lord is still ......"

Gao Gao Ping heard this, but said: "As soon as the thief army fired, I immediately ran away, what kind of system did it become?" Chen Zongbing don't say any more, when it's time to go down, this official will naturally go down. Well, Mr. Chen himself should have a lot of things, so don't delay the business because of this official. ”

As he was talking, a few more white mist rose on the opposite side, and a few more cannonballs flew over, but this time, the thieves' artillery was a lot more accurate, and three of the four cannonballs hit the city wall, and the other flew over the head of Chen Yongshou and fell into the city.

Gao Gaoping's face turned a little pale, but he knew that at this time, he couldn't show fear, so he took a deep breath and said loudly: "Chief Chen, do you say there is a problem with the gunpowder used by the thief?" Why is it that there is no strength at all on the city wall? ”

Chen Yongshou knew that the gunpowder used by the "thief army" should have been captured, and it was actually no different from that used by the imperial court officials and military. However, he also followed the high school and said: "What the adults said is true! The walls of Kaifeng are strong, but they can't be moved by their small cannons. ”

Gao Gao Ping listened to it and laughed. He asked again: "General Chen, our army also has artillery, why don't you fire back with artillery?" ”

Chen Yongshou hurriedly replied: "My lord doesn't know. Cannons are hard to hit. If it is used to hit a large area of the city wall, or a large area of enemy troops, it is easy to use, to hit a few small cannons so far away, a hundred cannons may not be able to hit. And one cannon can fire one or two hundred cannons at most. Coupled with the gunpowder and shells consumed, it is really worth the loss to hit the thieves' cannons at such a distance. ”

Gao Gao Ping listened, nodded and said, "I see." In that case, wouldn't the cannon defending the city suffer in vain against the besieging artillery? ”

Chen Yongshou heard this, and hurriedly explained: "My lord, the reason why we don't use artillery to fight back at them now is because artillery siege is not their kind of attack. My lord, you see their cannonballs, falling on the city wall, it doesn't hurt or itch, it can't hit the city wall at all. With this power, even if they destroy all those cannons, they can't break our walls. ”

Gao Gao Ping listened and said: "Chief Chen Bing, I heard that cannons are a sharp weapon for siege of cities, but how can the cannons in the hands of thieves not work like this?" ”

Chen Yongshou said: "Because thieves are afraid of death." My lord, as the saying goes, 'the end of the strong crossbow, you can't wear Lu Min'. If you really want to use artillery to attack the city, how can the artillery be placed so far. The cannonball flew so far, and the strength was exhausted, what else could it be for? But if they put the cannon at a distance that can really hit the city wall, then they will be close to the cannon of the last general, and the cannon of the last general will be accurate. This is like archery, the archery skills of the last general are not very good, and it will definitely not be possible to penetrate Yang in a hundred steps. However, if the thieves all ran to a place that was only one step away from the last general and stood still, then the general was confident that if he wanted to shoot him in the left eye, he would never shoot him in the right eye. ”

After listening to Chen Yongshou's words, Gao Gao Ping smiled and said: "After listening to Chen Zongbing's words, I am relieved." Haha......" he said as he stretched out his hand and pointed to the "thief army" outside the city, "Guts rats! ”

At this time, there were several shots from there, but this time they were so crooked that the four shells didn't hit a single shot.

Gao Gao Ping laughed a few more times, seeing the high morale of the people in the city, he felt that his purpose of coming to the city had been achieved, so he said to Chen Yongshou: "I still have some business to do, so I will go down first." Leave the affairs of the city to the general. ”

Chen Yongshou sent Gao Gao Ping to the city, and while walking down the city, Chen Yongshou said to Gao Gao Ping: "My lord, the artillery of the thief army is like this, in addition, I see that in the past two days, the attack of the thief army has a lot of tricks, but the troops invested are very small, and it doesn't look like he really wants to take Kaifeng, but it seems that he is taking the opportunity to train the army." In addition, the last general was also worried about whether the enemy army was thinking of sending reinforcements around the point. If there are reinforcements coming from the imperial court, you should be careful. ”

Gao Gao Ping nodded, but he was a little worried, if it was reported that the thief army was not attacking fiercely, Kaifeng City was not in danger, and the imperial court was busy now, should it not be just not to send reinforcements over?

……

That is, at the same time, in the cottage between the Dabie Mountains on the border of Hubei, Henan and Anhui, Lao Hui Ma Shouying was discussing things with He Yilong, another commander of the rebel army nicknamed Ge Liyan.

"Ge Liyan, are you saying that Huang Zide took Luoyang and Zhang Bingzhong took Xiangyang? Is this true? ”

"It's true! Back to the old man, this kind of big thing, can we still lie to you? Hehe, the two of them are really all-you-can-eat! Well, I heard that you still have the king of the world, and you have been talking to the court about Zhao'an. But the terms with the imperial court have never been negotiated, have they? He Yilong asked.

"Oh, isn't that just that when I was chased by the imperial court, I made a plan to delay the army." Ma Shouying said, "At that time, the Eight Kings and Cao Cao were all recruited." But now, the imperial court obviously can't hold on, who is going to recruit an at this time! ”

"You're wrong." He Yilong shook his head and said, "At this time, I just happened to talk to them about Zhao'an." ”

Ma Shouying's eyes widened, staring at He Yilong and said, "Ge Liyan, what do you mean?" ”

He Yilong laughed and said: "Now the imperial court will definitely transfer troops to deal with Huang Zide and Zhang Bingzhong, but if we don't recruit An, how can the officers and troops in Anhui dare to be easily transferred?" We pretended not to know the situation and accepted the recruitment. As soon as we are recruited, the officers and soldiers will naturally be transferred to other places, and then Anhui will be vacant here, let's rush out and grab him again, isn't it easy? If enough officials and soldiers are transferred, we may be able to kill directly to Jiangnan! ”

Ma Shouying listened to this, laughed and said, "Good for you, it's really a good calculation!" Let's pretend to recruit an first, and then when the official army leaves, let's grab him again! What a calculation! I won't hide it from you, in two days, Yang Zhuoran's people from the prison army will come to talk to us about Zhao'an. As you say, we can take a half step back and deceive them. ”