By this time the sky was full of smoke and dust, and the Mongols who were crawling on the sand were like a swarm of ants, and they began to shoot arrows when they were within a hundred paces, and the walls around the north and east gates were also covered with a rain of arrows. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The Mongols kept insulting the generals and governors in the city, everyone was an old acquaintance, many Mongolians could speak Chinese, and many of the guards in the city understood a few words of Mongolian.

Zhang Jiude listened to a few words, and suddenly woke up and said: "It turns out that the matter of the northern captives going south is related to the war between He Yusheng and Tumut? ”

"Yes." Ma Chengen's face was flat, but there was a smile in his eyes that couldn't be hidden. He said: "Zhang Han once had a letter that Tumut had repeatedly invaded the border in the south and threatened the trade road, so under the order of the governor of the military gate and the general of the east road, he led two guards and the merchant group to attack northward together, and fought with the northern captives again. ”

"It's been less than a year, huh?" Zhang Jiude said in surprise.

"Last year's battle went well." Ma Chengen said calmly: "So I went again this year." ”

Everyone couldn't help but roll their eyes!

What do you mean that last year was very smooth, so this year I went again?

Beilu is a Tartar, a beast, a wolf pack, a nomadic people with horses and horses, accurate arrows, savage temper, physical strength far beyond the Han people of the farming nation, and in the vast and sparsely populated, vast grassland, and Yusheng last year said that he defeated the main force of Tumut, expanding the land for hundreds of miles, and the dynasty was shocked.

Of course, Zhang Jiude and others also heard about it when they were in Yansui, at that time, in order to cooperate with He Yusheng, Du Wenhuan, the general soldier of Yansui, was also under martial law, but fortunately, the northern captives were not going to commit crimes, and Zhang Jiude was quite dissatisfied at that time, thinking that a military attache from a merchant would go to war without authorization, and once the invasion of the northern captives into the towns was triggered, it was really worth the loss.

"General Ma, after this incident." Zhang Jiude said with an ugly face: "I want to impeach Zhang Han." ”

"Why?"

"Raising troops without authorization, provoking border provocations, and causing the Tartars to invade the south, this is the reason." Zhang Jiude said with a thin face on his face: "He is a businessman, and he thinks he is great if he trains thousands of soldiers?" Even if Wei Zhongxian supported him behind him, this official couldn't sit back and watch him disturb the nine sides! ”

Chen Hongfan also said dissatisfiedly: "I heard that Zhang Han is a young junior who has a hand in making money, and he has a good relationship with the chief soldier. However, we can't be in such a dangerous situation because of this. ”

Chen Hongfan said in an obvious mocking tone: "The chief soldier is a general, how can he get involved with a businessman!" ”

Ma Chengen said with a faint expression: "Zhang Wenlan is good at training, and the military gate of the governor may not be very clear, but the merchant soldiers are indeed a rare force." ”

Seeing that Ma Chengen deliberately hung himself out, Chen Hongfan was even more dissatisfied and said: "Strong soldiers? If he could lead troops to sweep away the trap now, he would have admitted that the merchant group training was a strong soldier! ”

Ma Chengen stared at Chen Hongfan and said, "Does General Chen intend to find fault?" Thousands of miles apart, how did the Datong soldiers come? ”

"That's it." Chen Hongfan sneered: "Thousands of miles away, he is there to steal the limelight and make a fortune, but we are here to accompany and tie up, what the hell is going on?" ”

Ma Chengen was even more dissatisfied, but the general soldier and the deputy general were about the same, and he couldn't control Chen Hongfan if he wasn't ordered to fight, and Chen Hongfan's words resonated with many generals, looking at everyone's faces, it must be the same idea, but because of Ma Chengen's status or friendship, it was not easy to say it in person.

"The North is near." Ma Chengen was quite depressed and ordered: "Light the fire and release the arrows." ”

With Ma Chengen's order, there was soon a gong sound, and then someone lit a fire, and ignited more than a dozen Franc machine cannons prepared on the city wall, as well as a few tiger squat cannons, and a few rockets called Shenji Arrows.

The cannon rumbled, a large area of the northern captives were knocked over on the sand, and the Ming army began to gather archers and fire arrows at the same time, which was much denser than the return fire just now, and the city was full of artillery, smoke, and a sense of chaos everywhere.

At this time, there was a sound of "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh......", several rounds of rockets were released by the divine arrows, the rockets made a whooshing sound, flying in the air like headless flies, most of the rockets flew aimlessly, some flew into the air, some were inserted into the sand early, and only a few fell in the crowd of Beiyu.

The two sides fired at each other at a distance of fifty or sixty paces, and the Ming army continued to fire firearms and rockets, and the rumbling sound of artillery and swishing rockets, coupled with the sound of collapsing bullets like cotton, became very noisy and noisy for several miles.

The sand slopes were soft and difficult to walk, and the further you went to the edge of the city, the more difficult it became, and many Mongols were about to sink into half of their bodies. The Mongols on the entire line were exhausted, and with the constant number of people being hit by artillery or rockets, or falling to the ground with arrows, the Ming army relied on battlements for protection, and at the same time, most of them were armored, and the casualties were quite limited.

After holding out for half an hour, the sound of gongs came from behind the battle, and the northern captives of the brigade retreated.

There was a wailing and groaning at the top of the city, and the corpses of the northern captives were left on the sandy slope opposite, and there were quite a few dead and wounded on the top of the city. The arrows of the northern captives were shot accurately, and the distance was close, even if they were wearing armor, they could not avoid being shot at the vital point.

Ma Chengen's expression was a little solemn, this was obviously a tentative attack, but the threat to the city was already great.

At this time, it was nearly noon, Wu Zhiwang took thousands of people to defend at other city gates, and the men carried the burden to deliver food to the city, and the originally low morale was boosted again.

"Ma Zongbing." Zhang Jiude said: "Do you want to strengthen the defense around the South Gate?" ”

"Not yet." Ma Chengen said: "The two gates on the south side are built with urn cities, and the defense is much less pressure than ours. The Beiyu is just bluffing, they didn't even build a ladder, and attacked a fart city. ”

At this time, a small school ran over and shouted, "The northern captives have destroyed people's houses and cut wood to build ladders in the southern area!" ”

Everyone looked at each other, and Ma Chengen's face became ugly.

"Zhang Han should be damned, and Yusheng's people should be damned!" Chen Hongfan scolded angrily and slapped the battlements.

Some border soldiers also cursed, their companions were killed or wounded, and when they heard that all this was brought by He Yusheng, of course they hated it in their hearts.

Of course they don't understand that this is Chen Hongfan and Ma Chengen fighting for power, otherwise Chen Hongfan would not behave like this.

……

"Haha, Yulin City will definitely take it!"

He laughed out loud, too high-pitched, and even a little nervous.

Although the Ming army's combat effectiveness was obviously higher than that of the Mongols, the strength was insufficient, and the number of defenders near the city gates was very sparse, and the area around the south gate was very obvious.

There are only a few woods outside the city of Yulin for more than ten miles, and the trees are insufficient, but this does not prevent the Mongols from making ladders, and the Taiji sent a large number of soldiers and horses to demolish the dwellings outside the city, and use the beams and pillars of the houses to build siege equipment.

"You can take it down." Huo Luochi said with a serious face: "At this time, we can't spare any effort, we must send out all the manpower, and build more equipment in the west gate and south gate, although there is a void, the north gate to the east gate is real, but the virtual and the real can be converted, we can't be rigid, if there is a chance in the south, we must also seriously attack it." The departments should not be afraid that Erlang will die in battle, and if Yulin is defeated, the gains will far outweigh the losses. ”

Everyone listened with reverence, and Huo Luochi was indeed the most respectable elder in the Mongolian tribe now.

……

Meanwhile.

"There's a mess ahead." Bai Yin wiped the sweat and sand from his face, his face had become like a flower-faced cat, and it looked a little funny.

Not only Bai Yin, but also Li Laibin and Zhang Wenming, Du Fulei and others behind him all looked the same.

In two and a half days, after passing through the Kubuqi Desert, people were almost out of strength when they arrived at the Red Salt Pond.

Originally, some of the stronger soldiers had lost weight twice, and some of them were originally thin, and they felt like they had become bamboo poles.

Different from the travelers of later generations, although the soldiers did not wear armor, they had to hold weapons in their hands, and there were various objects on their bodies, and they had to carry blankets and other heavy items on their backs, and they could not have the slightest help when walking, and they had to walk for at least ten hours in completely desertified and semi-desertified areas every day, surrounded by sand dunes, and it was a long stretch of yellow sand as far as the eye could see, walking for one day and two days, the scorching sun on their heads, the sweat on their bodies slowly formed salt crystals, everyone felt extremely thirsty, and many people couldn't even eat dry food...... Fortunately, it only took more than two days to pass through, and the long-distance march of this terrain was a great challenge to everyone's will.

When they arrived at the Red Salt Pond, the people ran and soaked in the salty water, and even the officers were lying directly in the clear water, drinking and soaking.

After resting for more than an hour, the army, which had recovered slightly from fatigue, regrouped and formed a two-way column, while Li Laibin released a large number of cavalry and formed a considerable number of small detachments to march quickly around to guard against unexpected situations.

The kind of situation where a large number of soldiers march in a row with flags is something that can only be seen in film and television dramas.

There was still a lot of sand blowing on the edge of the north, and after a while people were blowing sand all over their bodies, and no one cared about that, and the grass was soft and firm underfoot, and the eyes were basically green, and that was enough.

"Do you see the mountains to the north?" Bai Yin said again: "That's Camel Mountain." The northeast of Yulin City is the Camel Mountain, the north is the Hongshi Gorge, the terrain is precipitous, the west is the Yuci River, the north is the Mu Us Sandy Land, the size of about ten miles, it is a very small desert. ”

"In short," Bai Yin concluded, "Yulin City is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is difficult to take it down. Besides, there are a lot of garrisons in the town, and most of them are elites, and no tribe will have the idea of fighting the town of Daming before this. ”

Li Laibin nodded slightly, it seems that although Bai Yin is willing to be a guide, it does not mean that he completely agrees with Li Laibin's judgment. Now, it's a tactful reminder.

"Thank you." Li Laibin said: "Let's move on. ”