Perhaps it underestimated the defensive capabilities of Beijing's walls.

Zhou Lang remembered what Marcus said that the appearance of gunpowder broke the castle ruled by the nobility. But in fact, during World War II, the city wall still played a considerable defensive role. There is a historical period in China, from Beijing to small county towns are demolishing the city wall, there are also some scholars and local officials trying to keep the city wall as an important cultural symbol, trying all kinds of methods, among which the idea of the Xi'an people is the most bizarre, local military scholars put forward a theory, that the city wall can protect against atomic bombs.

Atomic bomb protection is a joke, but the protection against 18th-century infantry artillery is much more effective. Zhou Lang bombarded for ten days, blasting out more than a dozen cracks, but the collapse of the city wall is still far away. He couldn't help but wonder, could it be that the walls of Europe were not bombarded, and the walls of China were stronger? European walls were mainly made of masonry, which was theoretically stronger. China's city walls are built in the form of rammed earth and bricks, and the cost is much cheaper, which is why tens of thousands of city walls can be built across the country.

Rammed earth is certainly not as hard as stone, but rammed earth is easier to absorb the impact of cannonballs, perhaps it is this soft and hard design that makes Zhou Lang's heavy artillery unable to make a difference.

If the officials of Beijing City still organize people to strengthen the city wall and fill the gap, it will be even more difficult to fight, and it will not be able to be bombarded, and if the other party still fills it, when will the city be destroyed.

The subordinates are more anxious than Zhou Lang, Beijing is in front of them, the great achievement is at your fingertips, who can calm down, Ma Dalei even asked for a battle to build a ladder to attack the city, willing to set up a military order, he said that his soldiers are cuirass and body protection, invulnerable, not afraid of the Qing army's birds, bows and arrows. This is pure nonsense, the bow and arrow may not be afraid, and the Qing army's bird hammer is also a hole in the breastplate.

There are various other notes, such as night raids, tunnels.

Zhou Lang carefully considered the method of digging tunnels, but finally gave up because Beijing's moat was too deep.

This is the capital, and it is a capital city with a bad geographical location, in order to deliver materials here, the Ming and Qing dynasties have wasted their strength, and they often flood the farmland of the two Huai, not to mention, about the vicinity of Beijing, the Ming Dynasty led the water of the Baihe River to dredge the canal, and the Kangxi River governed the Yongding River, and communicated these water systems with the Beijing moat. In particular, the Yongding River, formerly known as the Wuding River, was renamed the Yongding River after the Kangxi governance because it often flooded. With the water of these natural rivers being transported, the Beijing moat has abundant water, especially the east moat, which is used as a canal all year round.

It's not that you can't dig tunnels, but you have to drain the water first, which is a huge project. Whether it can be done professionally or not, manpower cannot be guaranteed. It is no wonder that the ancient siege warfare was surrounded by hundreds of thousands of troops for many years.

Zhou Lang did not rush time, directly attacking Beijing, it was already the fastest way to destroy the Qing Dynasty, according to the management, the fall of the capital is a sign of the death of the country, even if there is a clan separation, then it is another dynasty, such as the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Southern Ming Dynasty, the capital is occupied, and the clan is partial to the country.

Once the common people agree that this dynasty has perished, then it will not be difficult for those forces that have been divided to be destroyed, and Zhou Lang will have the opportunity to spread the word and determine the world.

But besieging Beijing, Zhou Lang did not have the confidence, he did not know the grain storage situation in Beijing, the grain storage of a capital city could not be less, and there was no catastrophe during the Qianlong period, the Manchu government has always had a system of purchasing grain, although there is corruption in various places, resulting in the emptiness of the official treasury, but this is Beijing, the emperor's nose is underground, and the official treasury is always empty.

If you want to spend a year in Beijing, it will lose the meaning of the raid, and it is better to cut off the wings first, and finally come faster in Beijing like Zhu Yuanzhang back then.

It's a pity that Jiaqing is not an escaping emperor, if he runs away, this matter will be simple.

Why didn't Jiaqing run?

Is the monarch dead?

If Jiaqing had confidence in Beijing's city defense, he probably wouldn't have run away, and the more Zhou Lang fell into a protracted battle, the less he would have run, even if the food in the city was tight, Jiaqing would not be hungry, on the contrary, he might be caught if he escaped.

If it was waiting for reinforcements, Zhou Lang's attack on Beijing would have been considered to encircle the point and send reinforcements, and field battles with the Qing army have always been the most effective way to destroy the opponent, and attacking cities one by one is the most inefficient way. If the siege of Beijing can allow the Manchu Qing to transfer troops from all over the country to Beijing to fight Zhou Lang for a decisive battle, it will not be a bad thing.

But until now, the reinforcements have not arrived for a long time, and Zhou Lang doesn't know if Jiaqing didn't have the edict of the king or they didn't have reinforcements at all.

In short, all kinds of information are not transparent, so Zhou Lang has no way to judge what measures to take. There is no better way, but to continue to let the artillery bombardment aimlessly, slowly consume the durability of Beijing City.

After 20 days of siege, there was finally a change, the city wall was still like that, and there were a few more cracks, but it was still far from the collapse, and it was the direction left by the west of the city for the Jiaqing monarchs to escape, and the people of Beijing City were fleeing.

Zhou Lang did not block the west of the city, the horses were still arranged, they captured a few people, they didn't look like poor people, although they were wearing tattered clothes, but they were all very rich.

After interrogation, it was revealed that these people were indeed rich businessmen in Beijing, not poor people. Only then did Zhou Lang know that the Qing army did not let go of the city gate to let the people flee out of the city, they bought off the Eight Banners guarding the city and let them out of the city privately. They said that the price in the city was clearly marked, and a hundred taels could buy a ticket out of the city, and someone specially handled this business and gave money, and he had a way to take people out of the city.

This group of Eight Banners Uncles is doing a good job.

Jiaqing did not let the people out of the city, explaining two reasons, it may be that there is really a lot of grain in Beijing, Jiaqing has no fear, not worried about the hunger and turmoil, or it may be that he plans to drive the people to defend the city at the last moment, these two results are not good for Zhou Lang.

When asked about the situation in the rich mall, the other party said that the whole city was under martial law, and asked him about the price of grain, and he said that the government had seized all the grain merchants, and now they all bought and sold at a flat price, and bought grain by person and day, but he could barely eat enough.

couldn't ask too much from the rich businessman, so Zhou Lang directly let him go.

In the days that followed, more and more people began to leave the city, mostly from the wealthy class, and ordinary people could not afford to buy tickets to leave the city.

The tide of the war is at a stalemate.

It's a mutual anxiety on both sides.

As the so-called concern is chaotic, it is precisely because of concern that both sides are confused.

Zhou Lang looked for the weaknesses of Beijing City everywhere but could not get it, but in Zhu Jue's eyes, Beijing City was full of flaws.

Reinforcements are not absent, Zhu Jue did not dare to mobilize, his deployment has been made with reference to Zhu Yuanzhang's Northern Expedition route before, Xu Da's first step is to attack Shandong from Lianghuai, so Zhu Jue has made precautions in Jianghuai and Shandong, and the heavy troops are pressed in the Yangzhou area, and the officers and soldiers can retreat to Xuzhou in the case of unfavorable operations, the purpose is to defend Shandong. According to Zhu Jue's opinion, the two Huai were too close to the south of the Yangtze River, and it was difficult for the Jianghuai to hold under the enemy's key attack, so they were allowed to retreat and lengthen the enemy's supply line. But as soon as Zhu Jue opened this opening, he created an excuse for the Qing army on the front line to retreat, and retreated in great strides.

After Xu Da occupied Shandong, he chose to capture Henan, and then Tongguan. There is no danger to defend in Henan, but Tongguan is the most famous dangerous pass for thousands of years, and there are very few successful cases of frontal attack in the past dynasties. As long as the enemy cannot capture Tongguan, it is necessary to guard against the Shaanxi and Gansu elite soldiers from attacking Henan, and they can only stay behind to block the periphery of Tongguan. Therefore, as long as Tong Pass is in hand, the enemy will not dare to attack Beijing with confidence.

Another key defense area is Jingxiang, Jingxiang is not lost, then Henan, Shanxi, Sichuan, Hunan, and even Yunnan and Guizhou, can be connected as one, and most of the country is in the hands of the Qing Dynasty. If Jingxiang is lost, several provinces are scattered, and the enemy breaks them one by one, which is as easy as a snap. Therefore, Zhu Jue transferred the army of Sichuan and Chu to defend Jingxiang, and the armies of Hunan and Yunnan and Guizhou assisted in the defense.

These armies can't move, and there is no point in moving, the defense force of Beijing City is enough, more than 200,000 people are stationed in Beijing, if they can't hold it, the reinforcements will also not be able to hold it. Adding people just adds more logistical burden.

The elite soldiers of Shaanxi, Gansu, Sichuan and Chu are not stronger than those in Beijing, which Zhu Jue is very sure of, because he mobilized a part of the army to suppress the Ten Thousand White Lotus Sect to deploy defenses in Beijing, and successively participated in the battles of Tianjin and Tongzhou.

Through the Russians, Zhu Jue learned that the enemy did not have any particularly obvious shortcomings, and that to defeat the enemy, he could only be stronger than them, and there was no trick in other than that.

Unlike what Nikolai felt, Zhu Jue didn't feel that he didn't know anything about military affairs, he had already read military books, and he had read more in recent years, strengthening training, and strictly enforcing military discipline, he had done all of this, and he couldn't beat the enemy, so he could only say that it was beyond the power of manpower, maybe it was the destiny of heaven. At this time, the idea of asking the Russians to help train the troops did not come to Zhu Jue's mind, and Nikolai thought that this was their wisest choice. Even Nikolai believed that the other party should ask himself to command the Qing army.

Zhu Jue's distrust of the Yi people, as well as prejudice, made him unable to have this kind of idea at all, all he could think of was still to defend the city, but Zhu Jue understood the truth that if he defended it for a long time, he would lose, how could there be a city that could not be attacked. I only hope that the thieves will not be able to supply logistics and have to withdraw their troops.

Therefore, Zhu Jue thought of the only active countermeasure was to recruit warriors in the rear and harass the enemy's grain routes.

Zhu Jue did not believe that the thieves could rely on the unstable sea routes to fight in Beijing for a long time, and the thieves would definitely collect grain in the surrounding areas, and they would definitely make the people angry and resentful long ago, as long as they were slightly agitated, the people would inevitably cause trouble everywhere. If the government can give reasonable guidance and lure each other with official positions and heavy rewards, there will be warriors who will respond to the imperial court's orders and punish thieves to protect the country.

However, before Zhu Qi could see that his strategy of recruiting warriors in the rear had worked, there was a bang, and the city gate building of Chaoyang Gate collapsed.