Luo Xuan left a few regimental commanders to lead 8,000 sailors to guard the warships, while he and Liang Peiyou personally led nearly 10,000 soldiers to the shore and attacked the capital of Ryukyu along the way. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Shurijo Castle, the royal city of the Ryukyus, is located on a limestone plateau about 120 meters high, about one mile long from east to west, half a mile from north to south, and very close to the pier.

In Luo Xuan's view, it is not as good as even a small county town in China. It's just too small. However, the more this is the case, the more difficult it is to storm it, because the city is small, and the defenders will be concentrated.

Moreover, Luo Jian looked around, and his face became even more gloomy, and the entire Shuri Castle was built on a towering rock platform, which was high above and easy to defend and difficult to attack. It seems that the reason why these Ryukyuan people dared to refuse their request and not accept the edict of the holy king was that this towering and dangerous capital was difficult to attack.

Liang Peiyou asked his soldiers to escort the two captured Ryukyu officials to Luo Xuan. The two men fled slowly, and before they could enter the city, the city gates were closed, and they could only be arrested honestly.

However, as soon as they were caught, these two people, one claimed to be Xiang Weixin, the secretary of the Ministry of Works, and the other claimed to be Mao Youfei, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, but what they said made Luo Xuan stunned.

"General Shangguo, Rong Xiaochen announced: Xiaochen's ancestral home is southern Fujian, and he has always been concerned about the homeland of Shangguo, such as today's general comes to recover Ryukyu, Xiaochen is infinitely happy, and he is willing to return to Shangguo with his clan and dedicate Shuri Castle to General Tian!" The sharp-beaked monkey bowed to the ground.

And another named Mao Youfei also chimed in: "That's true! The Heavenly General, the Shang royal family, all of them were grassy on the wall, on the one hand, they claimed to regard the Celestial Empire as the suzerain, and on the other hand, they secretly surrendered to the Satsuma Domain, and the Satsuma Domain was the actual suzerain. In particular, the three officials, Shang Hongxun, claimed to be the prime minister of the Celestial Empire, but in fact, in the Ryukyu and Satsuma domains, they all claimed to be the three officials. He gave the rewards and trade profits he had received from the kingdom to the Satsuma clan as tribute. Those of us who are close to the kingdom of God are deeply hated! The minister is also willing to follow the Tensho and recover the Ryukyus, and only asks the Tensho to let the Celestial return to his homeland. ”

Seeing that what they said was very sincere, and what they said was the same as that of the Central Plains people, Luo Xuan couldn't help but believe it a little, so he comforted: "In this case, the two of you will talk about how to conquer this Shuli City?" ”

"General Tian, the whole city of Shuli is a wooden structure except for the city walls. Therefore, what Shurijo Castle fears most is fire attack! It was burned down several times, and the current Shuri Castle, especially the Imperial Palace, has been rebuilt several times. So, Xiao Chen suggested that General Tian start with a fire attack, but if he can, he still hopes that General Tian will take pity on the ordinary Ryukyu people in the city, and try not to use fire attack. ”

"Yes, yes, General Tian, let the two ministers try to contact the cronies in the city and let them open the city gate as an internal officer."

Seeing these two people say this, Luo Jian was convinced that they were likely to really surrender to him, and comforted: "Ben will have his own main force!" After saying that, he ordered the two people to be taken down, and then he pondered how to attack the city.

Fire attack? As the two said, it is better to not use it or not, slaughter civilians, not to mention that the holy king will blame, and his conscience is not at ease. Digging tunnels, even worse, the whole city is built on rocks, and it is impossible to dig down. Moreover, the location of the castle is very high, and it seems that it is really difficult to attack the castle directly, and it seems that this Shuri Castle is really difficult to capture.

Just thinking about it, Xiang Weixin, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry of the Ryukyus, who had just been taken away, came back again, and when he saw Luo Xuan, he lay on the ground and knelt down and said: "General Tian, the minister suddenly remembered something, and he specially returned to General Tian to break the city!" ”

Seeing that Luo Xuan was interested, he raised his head and said loudly: "Shuri City is short of water!" There is only one source of water in the entire Shuri Castle, and it is located in the center of the castle, in the back garden of the royal palace, in a spring called "Ryudori", which is often used to fetch water from the bottom of the stone mountain in times of drought. It's just that Ryukyu Island has a rare drought all year round. ”

When Luo Outline heard it, he was overjoyed, yes, why didn't he notice it! This Shuri Castle was built on a stone slab, and the location was so high that there must have been a shortage of water.

So, Luo Outline discussed with Liang Peiyou, and called several staff officers from the staff to analyze, how to make Shuri City short of water?

A staff officer who was born as a miner in Shonan offered advice: dig tunnels and divert water sources!

After Luo Outline asked carefully, he was overjoyed and wrote down a credit to the staff officer. He led hundreds of soldiers in a hurry, and with his own excavation tools and hoes and shovels collected from the homes of the people on Ryukyu Island, he wanted to dig a trench not far from the castle.

Unexpectedly, the Ryukyu defenders in the city shot earthen cannons, bird guns, bows and arrows outside the city, and the captives injured several people, and hurriedly withdrew.

If you can't do it on the ground, it's underground. Luo Jian also asked thousands of people to start digging trenches from the four corners of Shuri Castle two miles away, and of course, not all of them, but a short ditch at intervals of several meters.

At first, it was not deep, but it was wet, but then it was slowly dug down to a depth of two meters, and water began to flow out of the ditch, and then it began to accumulate water when it was dug down. Luo Xuan ordered people to carry the water away with wooden barrels, so that the water continued to flow out. In addition, poke into the ground with a long bamboo to make the groundwater emerge faster.

Three days later, more than 3,000 people were exhausted from carrying water, but the effect was obvious, and the water coming out of the ground in the deep ditch excavated in four directions was much smaller, and it seemed that the groundwater was almost drawn out.

At this time, Shuri Castle was already in a panic, and it had already jumped into a hurry.

At this moment, Shang Hongxun, the third official, was in the palace to persuade the little king Shang Tai: "Your Majesty, it's better to surrender, maybe, my Shang clan can still keep the glory and wealth." When there is a chance in the future, I will slowly figure it out. It's not that you and I know the mistake, but that there are too many soldiers this day! Who would have thought that Shuri Castle, which was so impregnable and dangerous, would be so easily held in its lifeline? ”

The little king Shang Tai had red eyes: "Hold on for another day!" Perhaps, as soon as it rains today, it will be able to withstand it. ”

Prime Minister Shang Hongxun shook his head and sighed.

Just wanted to persuade a few more words, suddenly the side door of the palace was opened, and a royal palace branch official rushed in, and shouted urgently: "Your Majesty, the third official, the big thing is not good, the soldiers and civilians in the royal city have mutinied, and the two gates of Jishimen and Jiuqing Gate have been opened to welcome the enemy troops outside the city into the city!" ”

"What? The guards of the two city gates of Jishimen and Jiuqing Gate, why can't they look at the city gates? Shang Hongxun roared.

"Lord Sanshi, it was these two guards who set off a mutiny and took the initiative to open the city gate to let the enemy army enter the city. They said that they had not had water to drink for two days, and that as soon as they opened the gates, the enemy would give them water to drink......"

"It's over, it's over! It's all over......" Shang Hongxun collapsed to the ground.

The young Chantai also sat on the king's throne.

He had heard shouts of killing, and rushed into the palace from the outside.

.......... Recommend a historical Red Mansion essay by the beautiful author Yunren: "Confusing Red Mansions". (To be continued.) )