Just as Du Yonghe speculated, Zhu Youlang was indeed leading people to secretly dig tunnels under the southeast corner of the city. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Digging tunnels is a very common tactic in ancient siege warfare, and it is also a tactic that has been used rotten, its shortcomings are obvious, the amount of work is large, and it is easy to be destroyed by the defenders.

It is relatively easy to dig the tunnel under the city wall, but to dig into the city smoothly, it is not easy to open up the inner and outer roads or dig down the city wall, if you want to completely dig up the city wall, you have to dig a large enough hole under the city wall, during the period to ensure that there can be no collapse, the technical content is high, and the time required is also very long, usually ten days and half a month.

Digging tunnels for a long time without interruption is easy to be discovered by the defenders, and then calmly counterattacking, or digging tunnels in reverse and pouring water into the tunnels, releasing poison and smoke balls to smoke people to destroy the excavation process; Or guard at the mouth of the tunnel, one husband is the pass, kill the enemy troops emerging in the tunnel one by one, and then fill the tunnel with water, fill the soil, and annihilate the filling of the tunnel, so the tunnel technique is easy to crack with traditional methods, and it is no wonder that Du Yonghe is so confident.

The question is, is Zhu Youlang really just using ordinary authentic tactics? This point was not only unguessed by Du Yonghe, but also Jiao Lian, a cronie general who followed Zhu Youlang, and Wu Jihei was also puzzled.

This tunnel in front of everyone is very different from other tunnels, the tunnel mouth is not wide, the space inside is relatively narrow, only dug less than three hours, there are more than three meters long, from the point of view of the soil and stone transported, it is estimated that it only takes three or four days to dig to the city.

After looking at it for a long time, Jiao Lian was straight-hearted, he couldn't help it, and plucked up the courage to step forward and said: "Your Majesty, forgive the ministers for their courage, this tunnel is not dug correctly, it is too narrow, and it is not deep enough, I am afraid that it will not collapse the city wall!" ”

Zhu Youlang nodded: "I know that I didn't plan to use the tunnel to dig down the city wall. ”

Looking at everyone's puzzled expressions, he smiled mysteriously and said, "I want to use a new tactic to collapse the outer city, please be patient and wait for a few days." ”

In this way, the Ming soldiers pretended to attack the city during the day, and secretly dug tunnels at night while harassing the tired enemy.

Du Yonghe, who thought he had mastered the true purpose of the Ming army, was also very cooperative with the Ming army, and did not deliberately destroy the tunnels that the Ming army was digging outside the city. They were waiting, waiting for the tunnel to be almost dug to deal a fatal blow to the Ming army in the tunnel.

Because the new tunnel space is small and the amount of work is small, dozens of miners with the army dug in the middle of the city wall in less than three days, and when everything is ready.

Zhu Youlang gave an order, but saw more than a dozen miners carrying a thick coffin, shouting a trumpet, and carrying it into the tunnel. The coffin was very tightly sealed, and judging from the struggling expressions of the miners, it must have been filled with something, and it looked very heavy.

Jiao Lian, Wu Jisi and others looked at each other, not knowing what the emperor wanted to do.

Zhu Youlang didn't explain too much, just said that the answer would be revealed tomorrow.

The next day, the Ming army assembled outside the city as usual, and the crossbow team, artillery team, infantry phalanx, and card knife hand all entered the predetermined battle position in an orderly manner.

Du Yonghe also stood quietly at the head of the city, waiting for the Ming army to start the attack, a few days ago he was worried that the Ming army would attack with death force, increase his own casualties, and found that the Ming army was feinting these days, he was greatly relieved, the longer the Ming army dragged on outside the city, the better it was for him, and he wished that the Ming army would always be consumed like this.

"Ming Gouzi is going to attack the city again, the sons and daughters are ready for the master, and when they get to the base of the wall, smash them down and kill their mother!"

"Smash Ming Gouzi!" The Qing soldiers also held their breath in their chests, the battle in the past few days was too aggrieved, and those Ming dogs took advantage of the artillery to shoot at the city every day, so that they couldn't even take their heads.

Those Qing soldiers got the military order and were about to make a big move, when they suddenly heard "Boom!" in the southeast corner of the city. There was a loud thunderclap, followed by a shaking of the mountain under his feet, and then a huge thick pillar of smoke rose up, accompanied by countless gravel scattered in all directions, after the smoke and dust, a gap suddenly opened in a city wall in the southeast corner of the city more than 100 zhang away!

Du Yonghe looked for prestige and was shocked, the location of the gap was where the tunnel dug by the Ming army was located. The gap is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, open diagonally to both sides, all around is full of rubble, piled up one or two meters high, although the gap is small, but the defense ability is greatly reduced, as long as the Ming army bombards with artillery again, the gap can be expanded, so that the outer city completely loses its defensive ability.

"How is that possible? It's only been three days! It's only been three days! How did you dig a gap in such a solid brick wall? Du Yonghe was dumbfounded, his face was incredulous, and in three days, he used tunnels to dig up a corner of the solid stone city wall, which was beyond the limit of his imagination.

In fact, the miners in Zhu Youlang's heavy camp did not have such superb tunnel excavation skills, and the reason why they were able to collapse the city wall was not by tunnels, but by gunpowder! Blow up the walls with gunpowder!

Although the power of black powder is limited, as long as the quantity is large enough and the quality is good enough for the gunpowder to burn sufficiently, the impact of its instantaneous burst is enough to blow up the city walls.

During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period of the late Qing Dynasty, the tactic of putting gunpowder in a coffin to blow up the city wall was first launched by the Taiping army, and then bombed all the way from Jintian in Guangxi to Jinling.

The Qing army at the head of the city was stunned by the explosion all of a sudden, and many of them didn't even know that their waist knives fell to the ground, and the Qing army in the southeast corner of the gap was even more miserable, because the explosion was powerful, and they were blown up and lay on the ground, with stumps and broken arms everywhere, either dead or wounded, and most of those who were not killed were stunned by the shock wave.

In this scene, not only the Qing army was stunned, but even the Ming soldiers under the city were also dumbfounded, not knowing how the strong city wall suddenly collapsed after an explosion, only those miners and a few officers and colonels, such as Wu Jihei, Jiao Lian, Wang Fuzhi and others thought in their hearts and seemed to understand something.

Zhu Youlang saw this scene in his eyes, he nodded with satisfaction, because he was worried that the black powder made by the craftsmen was miscellaneous and not powerful enough, he deliberately added more gunpowder to make up for the gap in quality with quantity, but he didn't expect to use it in Zhaoqing for the first time, and the effect was not bad.

After successfully detonating the gunpowder and causing the southeast corner of Zhaoqing to collapse, Zhu Youlang ordered the gunners of the artillery post to concentrate their firepower and bombard the gap, widening the gap, and then blasting the earthen wall of the inner city out of the gap in one fell swoop, this time at all costs.

Under the skillful operation of the Portuguese gunners, the eleven guns turned their muzzles one after another, and after accurately measuring the distance with a ruler, they aimed at the southeast corner, and bombarded the southeast corner continuously, and there was a gap in the southeast corner.

"Quick! Fast! Throw the sack! Du Yonghe, who reacted, was so anxious that he jumped to his feet, and with hundreds of personal soldiers, he quickly rushed to the vicinity of the gap, trying to plug the gap.

"Report to the general, the sons and daughters can't rush up! Ming Gouzi's artillery is too fierce! A thousand general military academy led a few followers to run over, crying and mourning.

When Du Yonghe arrived near the gap and saw the scattered rocks and broken trees splashing, and the stumps and broken arms all over the ground, he felt how much firepower the Ming army was under from the gap.

"Is this the day that is going to kill me?" Du Yonghe muttered to himself, and slammed his fist against the wall with grief and indignation.

"It's not that we're incompetent, it's that the dog is too cunning! Fortunately, the inner city is still there, and the general must not be discouraged! Mr. Qian anxiously persuaded.