After the fortification was completed, the next step was to fill the moat. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Hangzhou's moat was 80 paces wide and connected to living water, so a ditch had to be built to divert the water away and then cut it off before it could be filled. The project was a huge one, but with the joint efforts of 100,000 migrant workers, it took only 10 days to cut the moat, and the next step was to fill it up.

The war is always cruel, at this time there will be no more casualties, tens of thousands of soldiers and 100,000 people, had to brave the defenders of the Suzhou artillery, bed crossbow bombardment to fill the river, although the Huainan Army's Suzhou artillery also continued to counterattack, but the casualties were still not small.

A few days later, the moat in Hangzhou was finally filled, but at the cost of thousands of men and soldiers, and the entire Huainan military camp was filled with wails. For all this, although Yang Wu couldn't bear it in his heart, he also knew that these were necessary prices to capture Hangzhou, so he could only try to appease and increase the bereavement.

Fortunately, during this time, the defenders' Suzhou artillery was also destroyed a lot, plus the resources in the city are limited after all, and the number of defenders is also limited, and the number of Suzhou cannons that can be manufactured and controlled will not be too much; On the Huainan side, the sufficient resources and sufficient troops allowed the Huainan army to create a large number of Suzhou artillery to bombard the defenders in the city.

Before the siege of the city, Yang Wu ordered the continuous manufacture and transportation of new Suzhou cannons from the rear; Therefore, a few days later, the number of Suzhou guns of the Huainan Army increased unabated, reaching an unprecedented 300, and the soldiers operating these weapons alone were as high as tens of thousands, in addition to 20,000 troops who were responsible for guarding them.

Fortunately, these tasks only need to be carried out by those state soldiers, and the real siege tasks are still carried out by the more elite foreign town soldiers and foreign armies.

As for the supply of stone bullets, there is no need to worry, as long as the kiln is made to take the soil and sinter it, the shape of the mud bomb is more round than the stone bullet, and after throwing it, it is easier to splash small pieces of soil and stones on the city wall, and the damage to the enemy is even stronger than throwing stone bullets.

So just a few days later, the defenders had to show weakness and transfer the Suzhou cannon that had been set up directly on the city wall to the rear of the city wall, and fire it with the help of the cover of the city wall. As a result, both the accuracy and the range have dropped a lot.

Next, the Huainan army began to build a wall along the city wall to completely encircle the enemy army in the city, and also to provide cover for their own siege army.

This process was the same as when the moat was filled before, and it was also within the range of the enemy's Suzhou artillery, so the process of building the wall was also a lot of losses; It wasn't until a little over a month later that the wall was erected and increased in height until it was finally flush with the walls of Hangzhou.

In the meantime, the defenders also rushed out many times to try to stop the Huainan army from building a wall, but they were all beaten back by the Huainan army, which had been prepared.

After the wall was built, it not only meant that the enemy army would be completely besieged in the city, but at the same time, the Huainan army also had cover when attacking the city, and the losses suffered were greatly reduced.

The Suzhou artillery of the Huainan Army could hide behind the wall and fire continuously, causing huge casualties to the defenders in the city.

At this point, after paying a huge price, the Huainan army was finally able to start attacking the city with peace of mind.

At the same time, the tide of the war elsewhere has changed dramatically.

First of all, Wang Maozhang's side, Yang Xingmi had ordered him to capture Taizhou and Mingzhou within two months, but as a result, Wang Maozhang captured these two places in more than a month. However, when Wang Maozhang had just withdrawn the main force and was about to rush to Hangzhou, there was another rebellion in Mingzhou, and a Mingzhou general who had surrendered on his own initiative took the opportunity to raise troops after the army left, wanting to stand on his own.

As a result, Wang Maozhang had to return to the army to suppress it, and this time and again, it took a lot of time. Moreover, after re-conquering Mingzhou, in order to prevent the same thing from happening again, Wang Maozhang had to divide his troops to guard everywhere, and finally rushed to Hangzhou to join Yang Wu's army with more than 10,000 troops.

In addition to Wang Maozhang's pacification of eastern Zhejiang, in Hunan, the 10,000-strong army led by Liu Cun suffered a major setback.

Two months ago, when Yang Wu had just led the army to officially begin the siege of Hangzhou, the 10,000 naval army led by Liu Cun also took Yuezhou at a very small price, and Xu Dexun, the assassin of Yuezhou, was forced to flee back to Tanzhou.

The victory in this battle made Liu Cun look down on the Hunan army even more, and once again asked Yang Xingmi to further attack Tanzhou, the place where Ma Yin was governed. Fortunately, Yang Xingmi's attention is now focused on Hangzhou, so it is naturally impossible to agree to Liu Cun's request.

In Tanzhou, Ma Yin stood on the city tower, looking at the Xiangjiang River in the distance, thinking about the news he had learned recently, and his heart was anxious.

What made him anxious was naturally the current Huainan Army's Ling Yan offensive.

Six years ago, when Ma Yin took over Liu Jianfeng's position and began to take charge of Hunan, only Tanzhou and Shaozhou were under his control among the seven states in Hunan, and the remaining five states, Hengzhou, Yongzhou, Daozhou, Chenzhou, and Lianzhou, were occupied by others.

It took more than a year for Ma Yin to finally control the entire Hunan, and began to expand the territory, ready to create a career, especially last year, when the Chengwei army marched east to compete with Huainan, Ma Yin sent Xu Dexun to lead an army of 10,000 and Langzhou Lei Yangong to loot Jiangling, which was very rewarding; After returning, Xu Dexun successfully persuaded the then Yuezhou Assassin to surrender, and as a result, Ma Yin's power also expanded rapidly.

It can be said that Ma Yin's situation at this time is very good in all aspects, but in this great situation, Huainan's aggressive offensive has made him burdened.

Cheng Wei and Du Hong, the fall of these two Jingxiang feudal towns, made him realize that Yang Xingmi was almost not satisfied with expanding in the southeast, and his tentacles had reached Jingxiang and reached his doorstep.

And the news that Yuezhou had fallen within two months due to lack of preparation not only made him feel extremely shocked, but also extremely panicked.

Liu Cun led only a partial division of 10,000 people, and although the defenders of Yuezhou had the problem of insufficient preparation, after all, there were nearly 10,000 troops, in this case, Yuezhou only defended for two months before it fell, so if the Huainan army attacked in the future, could Hunan resist it?

As for the question of whether the Huainan army will continue to attack him in the future, this does not need to be considered, he has captured Yuezhou, will the Huainan army stop there? Apparently impossible.

Fortunately, recent news has shown that the main force of the Huainan Army is now besieging Hangzhou on a large scale, and it seems that in the short term, Qian Biao is still the main target of Huainan, and he is only a secondary target. Therefore, this Huainan attack on Yuezhou should be just an outpost battle, and it should not continue to move south in a short period of time.

However, as a far-sighted hero, Ma Yin naturally did not feel relaxed because Huainan would not continue to attack for the time being, on the contrary, he thought of taking the opportunity to recover Yuezhou at the first time, and only by guarding Yuezhou, the gateway to Hunan, would Tanzhou be safe.

Therefore, just five days ago, he had already sent Qin Yanhui, the commander of the city capital, to lead 20,000 sailors down the river to attack Liu Cun. Although in terms of troops, the Hunan Army obviously has the upper hand, but the victories of the Huainan Army in the past few years have made him have no confidence at all.

If Hunan loses this battle, then there may be panic in Hunan in the future, and in the face of Huainan's attack in the future, I am afraid that those generals will flee in despair, and the whole Hunan may collapse without a fight.

Therefore, this battle is very important for him, whether he can continue to dominate Hunan, or whether he will perish under the attack of Huainan in the near future, it can be said that it depends on this battle.

Behind him, as if he knew Ma Yin's intentions, his subordinate commander Yang Dingzhen, the commander of the Jingjiang Army, stepped forward and said with a smile: "There is no need to worry about the commander, in the opinion of the last general, our army will win this battle, and the enemy will be defeated!" Therefore, as long as the festival commander waits for the good news with peace of mind! ”

At this time, Ma Yin's strength, fame, or time of rise were much worse than those other powerful feudal towns, so when Yang Xingmi, Qian Di, Zhong Chuan, etc. were all named princes or county kings by the imperial court, he was still just a festival envoy and had no title, so Yang Dingzhen only called him a festival commander.

After listening to Yang Dingzhen's words, Ma Yin couldn't help but be interested: "How does General Yang know that our army will win and the enemy army will be defeated?"

Yang Dingzhen said with a smile: "It's very simple, because the main force of Huainan is still besieging Hangzhou, and Ezhou has just fallen into the hands of Huainan for less than half a year, in this case, Liu Cun is impatient to lead only 10,000 troops to attack Yuezhou, what a light enemy?" Although he succeeded by luck, this further boosted Liu Cun's contempt for the enemy. ”

"On the other hand, our army, from the commander of Hunan to the commander below, all the generals regard Huainan as a great enemy, and their hearts are full of fear and fear. His subordinates felt that if the general knew that he was afraid, he would win, and if he was proud of the enemy, he would lose. So judging by the current situation, our army will be victorious and the enemy army will be defeated! ”

Ma Yin couldn't help but be convinced when he heard this, and the worry on his face gradually dissipated.

At this moment, a fast horse suddenly galloped outside the city, and the knight rode his horse at a gallop while shouting loudly: "Yuezhou victory!" Yuezhou victory! ”

Ma Yin's body shook and he almost couldn't stand, "Yuezhou really won?" Did Qin Yanhui really defeat Liu Cun? ”

……

Junshan of Dongting Lake, looking at the dozens of warships that were slowly sinking on the lake in the distance, and the hundreds of warships that had been captured by the enemy, Liu Cun felt very sad.

Just a year ago, it was here that Li Shenfu defeated the 100,000-strong army of Jingnan Jiedu with 10,000 sailors, and the forces of Jingxiang, Du Hong, Lei Yangong and other parties were terrified; However, only a year later, the original invincible army was buried in the same place because of his arrogance.

"The king, General Li, the last general is arrogant and underestimates the enemy, and with today's defeat, what face can he live in the world!" After speaking, Liu Cun was about to commit suicide by following Cheng Xun's example, but was rescued by his subordinate Miao Lan and fled from the battlefield in a hurry.

Since then, Yuezhou, which had just been occupied for less than a month, has fallen again, and even Ezhou is in danger of falling again.