Chapter 26: Delayed Justice (7)
In siege warfare, the city gate is generally the most important thing to fight for, because once it is captured by the attacking side, the army can drive straight into the city. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info In comparison, the city walls are much inferior. In order to protect the city gates, a series of defense facilities such as suspension bridges, city gates, and urn cities were introduced, and the same was true in Guangzhou. But as the walls collapsed with mortar bombardment, the breach became a "gate" that caught the defenders off guard and had no gates.
That section of the city wall had been fired by several mortars in turn, and although many of the shells either flew into the city or failed to reach the city wall, there were still many shells that hit the city wall solidly. When the crack appeared, the city wall was already about to collapse, and with the bombardment of this cannon, with a piercing sound from the hit, the city wall rammed earth and the city bricks shattered from the inside out.
The loose walls could no longer bear their own weight, and the crumbling bricks fell or even collapsed due to gravity, and the rammed earth that had been shattered before the bricks could not bear it even more. Then, just like an earthquake, the originally flat area of the city wall began to break, and the collapsed area staggered a few times before sinking rapidly. Even in the process of sinking, fracture and crushing are carried out at the same time.
In an instant, the walls melted into a cloud of flying sand, and only the roar of the sky cracking and the continuous splashing of clods, masonry, and unknown debris from the dust swept across the surrounding area, sending the defenders who had lined up on their backs and their heads bleeding.
In front of him was the cold spears and firearms of the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Ming armies, and behind them was the collapsing city wall, Shang Kexi's troops and horses, who were still struggling to support and outperform the friendly forces on both wings, were the first to collapse in the loud noise behind them and the shroud of flying dust, just like the spread of infectious diseases at a speed that the naked eye could not keep up with. Just in the moment of collapse, the more than 20,000 defenders outside the city completely lost the courage to fight, and slammed into the guns of the Ming army left and right, and even in a panic.
The screams of fear were faintly visible in the cracks of the sky, and the flying dust and broken masonry splashed the defenders and attacked the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Ming armies at the same time, and the phalanx of the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Ming armies were not immune to being touched.
Fortunately, having seen the collapse of the city wall by mortar bombardment in Ganzhou and Quanzhou, the general staff of the army had already anticipated the impact that the collapse of the city wall might have on the attacking troops, and they put forward the simplest proposal to solve the problem.
In the next moment, amid the shouts of the captains of each team, the formation quickly changed, and it shrank into a column in an instant. The long card player in the front row held up the card and squatted half-squat, and the soldiers in the back squatted behind the long card player, which had begun on the Dalan Mountain that year, and has not been canceled so far, was originally set up to resist the attack of throwing knives and javelins, and it is no problem to face such a scene today.
The sound of crackling stones and clods of earth on the long cards, helmets, and half-body armor was heard, and the pain was inevitable, but it was not as bloody as Shang Jun's.
After a while, the smoke and dust began to dissipate, and the scene gradually became quieter, especially when you noticed that a huge V-shaped gap had appeared in the collapse of the city wall, and even the buildings inside the city could be faintly seen from outside the city, and the collapsed city wall created an extended slope while submerging the moat, and the moat turned into a smooth road.
After the sky collapsed, there was no time for the rest of the life after the catastrophe to rejoice, the Ming army of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Zhejiang had changed into a vertical formation, and a large number of defenders had been mixed in the air raids between the teams. It's just that these defenders were already frightened, and the moment they found that the Ming army had noticed them, they knelt on the ground and asked to surrender, for fear that they would be killed by the Ming army in a second of the night.
"Tell the teams in front of you to form a formation and enter the city, and those prisoners will be handed over to the follow-up troops to deal with, quickly!"
As soon as Zhang Zisheng's order was issued, the flag was pressed forward, the drum sounded like thunder, and the word "tiger" was shouted like a reflex, and the army began to kill the slope that was piled up with pieces of bricks, stones, clods of soil, and even human flesh.
The defenders at the gap were not spared, and even those who did not roll into the collapse watched in amazement.
Xu Erxian, who was the first to react, felt this scene most vividly in the city, the collapse of the city wall is not the most terrible, and there are no examples in history of the defenders using wooden fences and stones to plug the gap after the city wall was destroyed. Those things are still gratifying, it's not that they are not prepared, now they just need to organize people to block the city wall.
However, no matter how he shouted now, the guards around him were almost indifferent except for those who had already been scared away. It wasn't until he slashed the head of one of the defenders next to him to the ground that the defenders reacted. But by this time, it was too late.
The Min Zhong Division rolled forward, because it was not far from the city wall, the infantry team in the front quickly rushed to the gap, and advanced into the city in formation, and the follow-up troops began to kill along the slope of the city wall to the city wall on both sides. At the same time, after Ma Xin bowed his hand to Chen Wen, he set off with the Four Masters as Zhang Zisheng's stamina. The Luling Division and the Yuhang Division on both flanks continued to form formations to expel the rout, and the moat was the best cage.
The Ming army of Jiangsu and Zhejiang moved again, rushing into the city like a flood burst, and the auxiliary soldiers of the defenders in the city were ordered to carry those guards in a state of panic, but they did not take the things but they were the first to see the Ming army enter the city.
A moment later, Chen Wen looked from Shuai Qi and saw that most of the Min Central Division had already entered the city. Soon, the suspension bridge of the Great East Gate of Guangzhou fell, the city gate was opened, and the Four Ming Divisions simply turned to the Great East Gate, and the Ming army of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Zhejiang poured in at a faster speed.
Guangzhou is a city, there are two counties in it, Panyu in the east and Nanhai in the west. The Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Ming armies entered from the east of the city, and at the same time, they also needed to control an important part of the city.
As the first army to attack the city, the task of the Minzhong Division was to pursue and kill the defeated soldiers, capture the Pingnan Wangfu and capture important people including the father and son of Pingnan Wang Shang Kexi. The work of the next highest importance is done by the four masters who follow up, and the same is true for those who follow.
The Minzhong Division opened the way, and the Four Ming Divisions followed up, capturing the defeated soldiers and torturing the whereabouts of Shang Kexi and others, while attacking the Pingnan Wangfu according to the map provided by the Military Intelligence Department. Along the way, the defenders were invincible. Yushan, Fanshan and other places were successively captured by the Ming army, and the spread of the army took advantage of the situation to open the small north gate to lead the pursuit of the rout to the north of the Yuhang division into the city, and the southbound troops broke through the small south gate, attacked the new city that was expanded in the south of the city in the Ming Dynasty, and took advantage of the situation to open the small east gate of the new city to lead the Luling division into the city.
The four divisions entered the city in an all-round way, and Chen Wen also climbed the city wall of the Great East Gate. As early as the Dongjiang Army, the two generals Xu Erxian and Ban Zhifu, who had followed Shang Kexi, had been captured by the Ming army at this moment, one was on the city wall, and the other was squeezed down the moat by the defeated army with men and horses. The next moment, a team of fast horses came from outside the city, and Chen Wen, the military general led by him, recognized it at a glance, but the head that the military general was holding was very unfamiliar.
"The last general will be Youming, and the chief military officer under Shang Kexi's command will be Yunlong, dedicated to the marshal."
On Yu Youming's face, a deep wound with visible bones continued to tremble with a sonorous and powerful male voice. Come to think of it, this head is not easy to come by. Chen Wen looked at the subordinate general under Shang Kexi, who he had previously nicknamed the ogre, and then nodded to the young general in front of him.
"You're doing a good job, go down and heal first. If you break your appearance and can't marry a daughter-in-law, your father will complain about Ben Shuai in the future. ”
Chen Wen's approving response lies in Youming's heart, and warmth wanders in the meantime. At the beginning, the father and son depended on each other in this troubled world, but later he was the only one left. Even if Chen Wen helped him take revenge on Tian Xiong, the cold of loneliness still enveloped him. But Chen Wen just said this sentence, Yu Youming seemed to feel that his father was actually watching him by his side, watching him practice martial arts on the training ground, watching him kill generals and capture the flag on the battlefield, and probably looking forward to the day when he became famous and passed on to the Yu family.
"The last will obey."
With tears in his eyes, Yu Youming handed over the head of Yunlong to Chen Wen's guards, and after a flat-chested salute from the Huaxia Revival Association, he strode towards the temporary wounded house under the city.
During this period, the progress of the Ming army was rapid. Chenghuang Temple, Yuehua Academy, Gongbei Building, Yuexiu Academy, as well as Yuexiu Mountain and Zhenhai Building in the north of the city, Yongfengcang in the south of the city and the gates in the south of the city were successively recovered by the Ming army, and the army surrounded the Pingnan Wangfu with three layers inside and three layers outside, lest any important person in it be lost.
The Pingnan Wangfu covers an area of hundreds of acres, and the east end of the later generations is dominated by today's People's Park, and the west end is located in Guangzhou State Guest House and its vicinity, covering a very large area.
This palace was vigorously built after Shang Kexi captured Guangzhou, and the Jingnan palace that began to be built at the same time was not inferior to it, or even more luxurious.
At that time, the old city of Guangzhou was occupied by the "two kings", and "the city was surrounded by his sons and nephews and officials under the Han army", and as for the large and small yamen of the original local power, they were all driven to the outer city. Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao built a lot of construction in the old city of Guangzhou, and the two palaces "looked at each other from east to west, and were extremely majestic", and they were very magnificent.
These poor and extravagant desires are all exploited by the people of Guangdong. According to records, Geng Jimao is extravagant, claiming that the lion at the gate of the palace should be made of white stone, and some flatterers suggested: Zhaoqing area has the best stone production, so Geng Jimao flew to Zhaoqing, Gaoyao and other places to ask for it. The local officials and people were exhausted, and after many screenings, they selected two bodies of billet stone to apply. When it was transported to Zhaoqing Gorge, because of the heavy load, the ship sank in the Xijiang River together with the billet. I had to search again and offer it separately.
Later, that magistrate, Yang Yongjian, was transferred to the military department and became a Beijing official before he dared to write to the Qing court, pointing out that the land in Guangdong Province was really "unbearable to be exploited by the two kings", and stated that it had "tired the people's shortcomings" and amounted to more than 20 money.
Historically, the Qing court decided to move the southern domain of Jingnan and leave Guangdong, initially intending to send it to Sichuan, then to Guangxi, and finally to Fujian. Back and forth, it has been the sixteenth year of Shunzhi, and Guangdong has been occupied by the two kings since the fourth year of Yongli, that is, the seventh year of Shunzhi, and nearly ten years have passed. And the palace of Jingnan Domain has also become the second son of Shang Kexi, "Shang Zhixiao Mansion, which is especially magnificent." ”
Due to the rise of Chen Wen, Zheng Chenggong got a more favorable environment, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty was forced to move the Jingnan Domain to Fujian seven years ahead of schedule due to military factors. But in Quanzhou, the brand-new Jingnan Mansion still shocked Chen Wen and Zheng Chenggong at that time, whether it was Chen Wen's Yue Wangfu in Jinhua or Zheng Chenggong's Yanping County Mansion in Zhongzuo, compared with it, it was like a pigsty, and there was a world of difference.
The two palaces, now a palace and a courtyard, have all been besieged by the Ming army of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Zhejiang. Shang Kexi's cronies are still using the solidity of the palace to resist stubbornly, they are Shang Kexi's ironcore, many of them have followed Shang Kexi from Liaodong, and Shang Kexi's blood debt has never been less than their share, and they are bravely resisting here.
It will take time to capture the palace, but Chen Wen is not in a hurry at this time, but keeps sending orders to Zhang Zisheng, Ma Xin, Hou Guoyuan, An Youfu and others, and the army needs to occupy the city wall and various gates of Guangzhou as soon as possible, so as not to let Shang Kexi escape. However, according to the confession of the captured Shang Kexi's personal soldiers, Shang Kexi chose to flee after the city wall was blown down, that is, in the direction of the palace, and now the palace is still resisting, thinking that it is still inside.
Geng Jimao hoarded the goods in the palace, and Chen Wendu left them to Zheng Chenggong at that time, so that he could recover some strength as soon as possible, and only half of the war horses were taken away for the Northern Expedition.
This is a tacit understanding between the two sides, and without enough cavalry, Zheng Chenggong will not be able to officially compete with Chen Wen on land. Geng Jimao's private wealth is a lot, worth no less than one million taels of silver, but Chen Wen doesn't care, because Geng Jimao's source of wealth is only the two prefectures of Quanzhou and Xinghua and the trade with Liu Qingtai, while Shang Kexi is sitting on a province in Guangdong, even if the battle of Xinhui is rewritten because of Chen Wen, there is also half a province's territory, which is not an order of magnitude at all.
Chen Wen doesn't know how much, but the maritime trade in the Fujian Sea is monopolized by the Zheng family, and Geng Jimao can't eat it, but Shang Kexi sits in Guangzhou, and the oceans are endless, and this alone is enough to crush Geng Jimao.
The attack on the palace with the artillery bombardment of the courtyard wall, the Ming army rushed into the palace and entered the stage of street fighting, those still happy old people are in the army for many years, the elite of the corpse mountain and the sea of blood, it is indeed slowed down by the fierce offensive of the Ming army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang as always. However, the number of such elites is also extremely limited, and even with the familiarity of the location, it has not been able to last for too long.
Shang Zhixiao's mansion and Shang Kexi's palace were successively captured by the Ming army, but with the investigation of the personnel, Zhang Zisheng, who was personally sitting in front of the gate of the palace, soon discovered a big problem - Shang Kexi disappeared from the palace.
"Check, every secret room and secret passage must be turned out, even if you dig three feet into the ground, you have to dig out that dog traitor!"