"What's the solution?" Chen Yongfu hurriedly asked. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Gao Mingheng didn't answer, but asked: "Do you know why Kaifeng has not become the national capital since the Song Dynasty?" ”

Everyone shook their heads.

Gao Mingheng was very satisfied with everyone's ignorance, he paused, admired everyone's inquisitive eyes, and then said: "Because Kaifeng has a big weakness, that is, the terrain of Kaifeng City is too low, and it is ...... next to the Yellow River."

Speaking of which, everyone immediately knew what Gao Mingheng meant. That is: open the embankment of the Yellow River, let the water of the Yellow River rush over, and wash away the besieging Li Zicheng's army, along with the entire Kaifeng City!

"Governor Gao, isn't this good?" King Zhou was the first to question, of course, because he was a virtuous king who cherished the people, and of course, it was also possible because his property was in Kaifeng.

"Bring me the map." Gao Minghengdao.

One of the servants spread out a crude map of Kaifeng on the table in front of several men, carefully pressed it with a paperweight, and bowed back.

"Your Highness, Chief Chen, you see, the army of the thieves is deployed here, here, and here. This is the Yellow River. If we dig the Yellow River from this direction, the river will come from here and go straight to Li Zicheng's camp, and at that time, the siege of Kaifeng will naturally be lifted. Moreover, there were no troops near this section of the Yellow River. "Gao Minghengdao.

"What about Kaifeng City?" King Zhou asked.

"Dig from this location, and more of the river will overflow from outside the city, and not too much will come into the city. Besides, there's no way around it. It's better than a few months later, when everyone starves to death, and then lets Li Chuang break into the city, okay? Gao Mingheng said with a sneer.

King Zhou thought for a while, nodded and said, "Governor Gao has a point. However, to dig up the Yellow River, it takes a lot of manpower, and now that we are all surrounded by groups in the city, how could Li Chuang let us go out of the city to dig the Yellow River? ”

"Your Highness, this is not a problem. Kaifeng City is so big, Li Chuang can't really surround him tightly. It's still possible to get the message out there. In the vicinity of this section of the river, Li Chuang did not have a garrison, and although the officers and troops outside Kaifeng did not have the strength to relieve Kaifeng, it was not a problem to dig a section of the embankment. Gao Mingheng explained, "Nowadays, what we need most is a good and reliable messenger." I don't know if His Royal Highness King Zhou, or General Chen Bing, your subordinates, have suitable candidates. ”

"There is a man in my family who is very good and reliable, and he can do the work of delivering letters." Chen Yongfu said.

"In that case, the king agrees, but it is better to allow time for our own preparations." Zhou Wang said.

"That's natural, it's just Your Highness, these preparations must be kept secret, so that outsiders can't see the clues." Gao Mingheng said, "Now there are many rebellions of bandits in this city, if Li Zicheng is prepared, this matter will be ......."

"This king naturally knows. However, Governor Gao and General Chen have many subordinates, and they have to do things everywhere, so they must be even more careful. King Zhou said expressionlessly.

……

Digging up rivers and using water as a soldier is one of the methods commonly used in China since ancient times. As early as the Three Kingdoms period, Guan Yunchang played the trick of flooding the Seventh Army. In the later era, when the Yellow River was dug freely, Marshal Chang Kaishen, the founder of modern military logistics, also dug up the Yellow River and tried to flood the Japanese army.

However, this trick is not as good as it seems. Because the direction of the flow of water is uncontrolled, and when the army is stationed, it is generally preferred to choose higher places, which also buys them more time to escape. Therefore, in later generations, after Marshal Chang Kaishen dug up the Yellow River, in fact, he basically failed to drown a few Japanese soldiers, but on the contrary, drowned a large number of ordinary people.

Moreover, compared with Marshal Chang Kaishen, the technical means used by the Ming army in this era when digging the Yellow River were also much backward. Marshal Chang Kaishen could blow up the Yellow River embankment with explosives imported from goblins, oh no, from the Germans, but my officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty could only dig the embankment with hoes, and this efficiency was naturally much worse. Coupled with the drought in these years, the Yellow River is not in a state of high water level. (By the way, despite this, during the Chongzhen period, because there was no large-scale maintenance of the Yellow River embankment, although the Yellow River did not encounter any major floods that occurred once in many years, there were many cases of embankment breaking.) So the embankment of the Yellow River was indeed opened, but the amount of water released could not be compared with Marshal Chang Kaishen.

Of course, Li Zicheng's army was also stationed in a higher position, so when the flood came, they were not washed away immediately, which gave him time to reflect, so the intruders fled to a higher position that the flood could not reach. Then Li Zicheng asked people to count the number of people, but fortunately, there were only about 10,000 or 20,000 people missing. And considering the chaos when running away, it is not certain whether these missing people were washed away or scattered. In short, Li Zicheng's main force was not destroyed by the flood.

"If the dog will pick up the Yellow River, won't Lao Tzu? The dog thing doesn't look at the terrain of Kaifeng City, and actually wants to use such a trick to yin us! I'll give you a whole one! After being taken aback by the flood, Li Zicheng scolded angrily. He summoned all the generals who participated in the siege and told them that he planned to go to the Yellow River to open a bigger gap in the same way as the officers and soldiers did with an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

"What King Chuang said makes sense, let's also go to dig the Yellow River and drown those bastards." Liu Zongmin was the first to jump out in support.

"But if we really want to open the Yellow River, even if Kaifeng is flooded, and the city is full of water, it will be difficult for us to occupy it." Hao Shaoqi seems to have some opinions.

"What are we going to occupy it for?" Liu Zongmin suddenly laughed, and without waiting for Hao Shaoqi to answer, he continued, "We want to occupy it because it is a key point in the Central Plains, and if this point is in the hands of the officials and soldiers, they can rely on this to pose a threat to our activities." But if Kaifeng is flooded by the Yellow River, unless the imperial court first finds someone to block the Yellow River embankment, and then find a way to drain the water or something, otherwise, within a year or two, Kaifeng will be an unusable abandoned city. It can't be used as a support for the garrison, so why should we occupy it? It's good to capture it, but it's not bad to scrap it. Besides, we have practiced all kinds of siege methods, and we haven't played this trick of flooding the city yet. ”

Hao Shaoqi thought for a while and said, "What you said is, then I have no opinion." ”

The efficiency of the invasion army was very high, once the decision was formed, the next morning, a group of the invasion army came to the embankment of the Yellow River, and in the evening, relying on the large number of people, and the embankment was already in disrepair, they had already dug a hole nearly 100 meters wide, and the surging river water rolled down.

……

Kaifeng City is now a vast ocean, and when the officials and soldiers dug up the river embankment by themselves yesterday, part of the city area was already submerged. After the army dug up the Yellow River today, the entire Kaifeng city was completely flooded, the water depth in the city was generally more than one zhang, a large number of citizens were drowned, some citizens climbed to the crumbling roof to take refuge, but most of the walls of the houses of the civilians are made of plywood rammed earth, and these rammed earth did not use Sanhe soil, glutinous rice juice and the like, so these walls were soaked in water, and they were soft. So it didn't take long for the houses to collapse one by one, and the people lying on them fell into the water again.

The palace of the king of Zhou was also flooded. But the people of Zhou Wangfu had already prepared. Important supplies have been moved to higher rockeries or simply loaded onto ships. Originally, there were some buildings on the rockery of the Zhou Palace, which could have been inhabited, but now it is full of various things, so many people in the Zhou Palace's Mansion are now living on the boat.

……

Li Zicheng and some other generals stood tall. On the post, looking at the Kaifeng City in the distance.

"Hehe, the defender of Kaifeng City actually dared to dig the Yellow River first, isn't this looking for death?" Liu Zongmin pointed at Kaifeng City with a horsewhip and scolded with a smile.

"Now Kaifeng City is equivalent to being abandoned." Li Zicheng said, "Our next step is to consolidate our current territory. ”

"I don't think the court will watch it." Li Zicheng said, "Our emperor is an anxious person, I'm afraid he won't watch us slowly consolidate his territory, he will definitely make a move." ”

"What else can he do? It's not two years ago. Liu Zongmin said, "He just comes, are we afraid of him?" Besides, Zuo Liangyu's soldiers can't fight at all in two years, and the other soldiers are not much better, and the Guan Ning army has been beaten by the Tartars, so I'm afraid it won't be easy to move, where else can he have soldiers to move? ”

"Who knows? I heard that Sun Chuanting has returned to the position of governor of the three sides, although this person is hateful, but he can still fight. Be extra careful. Li became a self-enlightened man.

"Sun Chuanting can fight, but his court is not the court of three years ago, and the soldiers under him are not the soldiers of three years ago, and we are not us three years ago, even if he is covered in iron, how many nails can he hit?" Liu Zongmin said disapprerovingly.

"Sun Chuanting can fight, but the court has no money." Luo Rucai spoke, "If you fight normally, to be honest, I'm really a little cold Sun Chuanting, but the court has no money, and Sun Chuanting is full of weaknesses, so there is nothing to be afraid of." ”

"Can Cao Cao tell everyone about the truth here?" Li Zicheng said with a smile, he knew that although Luo Rucai was a little self-righteous, he was indeed a good hand when it came to fighting.

"Lao Li, this is not simple, whether it is training troops or sending troops to fight, it costs money, the court has no money, Sun Chuanting is difficult to train, the soldiers are not trained well, and many tricks cannot be used. And the imperial court has no money, and will not allow Sun Chuanting to train for a long time, it will definitely force him to fight quickly, once the fight starts, it may not be able to let him use a safe way of playing, and he must be allowed to fight quickly, and if he is quick to solve the problem, he will be in danger, and if he is not good at it, he will be full of loopholes. In this way, Sun Chuanting is the reincarnation of Zhuge Liang, what can he do? ”