I don't know where the turning point is when the direct legion of the Fat Army led by Lu Fatzi was at a stalemate on the battlefield of Chaoyangmen, and the Yangzhou Legion of the Fat Army led by Gao Dejie also fell into a quagmire on the battlefield of Dongzhimen, turning the world upside down, but there was no hope of breaking the city. 【Reading.com】

In all fairness, with Gao Dejie's ability to use troops, if it is a decisive battle in the field, Gao Dejie's army can strangle the so-called hundreds of thousands of Qing troops in Yanjing City with one hand, and they don't even have to frown. However, when encountering a fortified city like Yanjing City, which has strong walls and well-fortified fortifications, Gao Dejie, like Lu Fatzi, inevitably has a feeling of strength and nowhere to go.

It's not that the new soldiers in the fat army team don't sell their lives, in order to leave a good impression on the new master, the new flag soldiers who helped the mite Qing Eight Banners to slaughter their compatriots frantically attacked the flag people thirty years ago, and the same black as thirty years ago, the two new flag soldiers who were invested in the two battlefields of Chaoyangmen and Dongzhimen in advance were all killed and wounded to the death and did not retreat, relying on two burning ladder cars and simple flying ladders, no less than ten times rushed to the four-zhang high Yanjing city wall, Even if the support was cut off on the city wall, none of the new troops surrendered to the Qing army, all of them fought to the death, repaying the fat, and at the same time causing huge casualties to the Qing army defending the city.

It's not that the weapons of the Fat Army are not advanced, just in terms of explosives, the Fat Army is at least a hundred years ahead of the Qing Army, not to mention that the siege force of the Fat Army is insufficient, the army of more than 140,000 Fat Army surrounds Yanjing East City in a semicircle, the flag is like a sea, the swords and guns are like a forest, the neat and strict queue can not see the head at a glance even on the wall of Yanjing City, the front array winds for more than ten miles, and the white felt hats of the soldiers of the Fat Army make it seem like a heavy snowfall has just fallen outside the east of Yanjing City, and there is a white and vast side everywhere. Even Lu Fatzi was the first time he commanded so many troops at the same time on the same battlefield.

The key is that the city defense of Yanjing is too strong, more than ten zhang wide moat, only two bridges less than two zhang wide can let the fat army siege team pass, although these two bridges are quite strong stone arch bridges, but the fat army soldiers and the fat army siege weapons walk on this straight and narrow bridge, which is equivalent to the defender's bow and arrow, musket and artillery live target, so that the defenders don't even need to aim, as long as they shoot at the bridge and fire arrows, they can basically shoot and wound the poor fat army soldiers, The siege battle lasted less than two hours, and the two bridges on the moat of Chaoyang Gate and Dongzhimen were already covered with the remains of the soldiers of the Fat Army, forcing the Fat Army to send people alone to push the corpses into the river, opening the way for the follow-up siege ladder trucks, and also revealing the dark red bridge deck full of blood of the soldiers of the Fat Army.

The city wall of Yanjing is the nightmare of the siege soldiers of the fat army, although the height of the city wall of the east wall of the inner city of Yanjing attacked by the fat army is only the third in the height of the four walls of the southeast and northwest of the inner city of Yanjing, but there is also an average height of eleven meters and four floors, with the dense bows and arrows, bullets, stones, sassalwoods and all kinds of defending weapons in the rain of hail, stepping on the wooden ladder to climb the four floors to kill the enemy and capture the city, the difficulty can be imagined, if it is not for the fierce artillery cover of superior artillery, the fat army may not even climb the city wall.

Even if there is superior artillery cover, it is not better there, in the earth-shaking shouts of killing, the sound of swords and guns colliding and the roar of artillery, countless fat army soldiers fell from the city wall with bloody screams, bloody internal organs, stumps and blood flowers were constantly sprinkled all over the sky, the fat army soldiers who were scalded to death by boiling oil and gold juice opened their skin and flesh, and the fat soldiers who were on fire rolled down from the ladder car, and the ladder car was also burning, the air was full of blood and the stench of burning the human body, and the pink moat was full of corpses, dense, more than half of the soldiers of the Fat Army who attacked the city were killed or wounded, but none of the soldiers of the Fat Army could stand firm on the city wall.

With the determination not to break the Qing Dynasty and not to withdraw the troops, the second wave of siege teams embarked on the journey again, stepping on the corpses of their companions and the wounded soldiers to charge forward, rushing through the moat stone bridge full of blood with arrows and lead bullets as dense as flying locusts, and once again put countless ladders on the city wall, and two more ladder cars also stepped forward in turn, under the push and pull of the fat soldiers inside and outside the ladder car, they quickly approached the Yanjing city wall, and the sound of shouting to their companions to remove the obstacles of the corpses blocking the road was endless.

The artillery of the Fat Army has not been idle, more than two hundred and sixty light and heavy artillery has not stopped since the beginning of the battle, thousands of Fat Army artillerymen take turns to load and reload, clean the barrel, aim and open fire, and the old Qing Annihilation who is responsible for directing the artillery team to calculate the shooting height has changed his usual taciturnity, shuttling back and forth in the artillery team, shouting and shouting so loudly that his voice is dumb, and it is also by the efforts of this old Qing Annihilation and countless Fat Army gunners that the artillery of the Fat Army has effectively suppressed the Qing artillery fire on the city wall, It also caused huge casualties to the Qing soldiers defending the city, and strongly supported the siege of the Fat Army from the side, which greatly weakened the geographical advantage of the Qing Army - it can even be said that if it were not for the efforts of the old Qing Annihilation and the artillerymen of the Fat Army, it would be difficult for the officers and men of the Fat Army to rush through the moat of Yanjing.

The sun gradually moved westward, the siege battle began from two o'clock, until it was close to Shen Shi was still in a stalemate, the first wave of siege team because the casualties were too heavy, forced to withdraw from the battlefield to rest, personally led the army to launch the first wave of siege Duan Yingju, the former Shandong governor was also carried back to Lu Fatzi on a stretcher by his own soldiers, six arrows in his body, was slashed twice by the Qing army, his left arm was broken shoulder to shoulder, and the five thousand troops he brought to the siege were only less than one-third.

Seeing Duan Yingju's tragic situation, the former Qing Dynasty Emperor Lu Fat pounced with tears in his eyes, personally pulled up Duan Yingju's only right hand stained with blood, and asked Duan Yingju about the situation in a loud voice, Duan Yingju smiled reluctantly, and wanted to say something impassioned to please the new master, but a mouthful of blood spurted out of his mouth, and his head tilted and he lost his breath on the spot. Lu Fatzi howled and cried, and promulgated the Jun decree in public: "According to the decree of Wang Jun, General Duan Yingju posthumously awarded the title of first-class brave and righteous duke, gave him martial arts, rewarded General Duan's family with one hundred taels of gold and one thousand taels of silver, and the eldest son of General Duan inherited the title of first-class Yongyi duke." ”

In the neat consent of the generals of the fat army, Duan Yingju was in tears one by one, glad that he was able to come back alive, and he was also glad that he had met a new master who said good things, did good deeds, and had good intentions, and treated them so kindly. Lu Fatzi wiped his tears and choked up and said: "The first wave of soldiers who besieged the city, those who died in battle, the pension was doubled, and those who came back alive will be rewarded with ten taels ......of silver per person, no, each person will be rewarded with twenty taels of silver!" Doctor Zhu, you must personally lead the military medical team to treat these brothers and do your best to rescue them! ”

"Thank you, Lord Wang!" The remnants of more than 1,000 new soldiers were overjoyed, and they knelt down and kowtowed to thank them. Lu Fatzi ordered the gang to add food and wine to these new soldiers, and treat them heavily, and then gritted his teeth and roared: "Yanjing is full of dogs and stubborn resistance, killing countless soldiers of my Great Zhou, and the crime is unforgivable, attacking the inner city of Yanjing, no matter men, women and children in the inner city, no one is allowed to leave this king!" ”

When the third wave of the Fat Army's siege team stepped forward, there was finally a burst of cheers on the wall of Yanjing City, which had been shouting to kill the earth-shattering, and the sappers of the Fat Army finally built ten pontoon bridges on the moat of Chaoyangmen after more than two hours, and the infantry of the Fat Army finally no longer had to rush to the road with the huge and heavy siege ladder truck, and could step on the pontoon bridge and rush directly to Yanjing City, giving way to the solid stone arch bridge to let the siege cloud car rush directly to the city, and the Qing army defenders were not so easy to shoot the fat soldiers who were stuck on the stone bridge. The Fat Army's troop input rate has increased dramatically.

Seeing this scene, a bunch of fierce generals of the Fat Army inevitably ran to Lu Fatzi to ask for battle, but Lu Fatzi refused again, and just sent a herald to sneak into Yanjing City and go there to understand the situation of the city. After spending a lot of time waiting, the herald came back and reported, "Lord Qiqi, our army engineers are desperately digging the city, but the wall of Yanjing City is too strong, and Mangou has been paying attention to using gunpowder stones to prevent our army from digging the city, and the fastest progress is only more than one zhang deep." ”

"Very good, wait patiently, there will be good news." Although the progress of digging the city was far from being as smooth as the fat army generals expected, Lu Fatzi nodded with great satisfaction and praised the sappers a few words.

"Lord Wang, the bottom of the wall of Yanjing City is at least five or six zhang thick, and we have only chiseled one zhang deep until now, and you still say it is very good?" Yao Qisheng asked suspiciously.

"Master Yao, you haven't used the tactics of digging a city, and you don't know that the most difficult thing to dig a city is the first zhang at the beginning." Lu Fatzi explained casually: "At the beginning of the chiseling, the safety of our army's engineers was protected by a thick wooden table, and Mangou only needed to use stones and oil to kill and injure our engineers, so it was the most difficult at that time, and the casualties of our army's engineers were also the largest. However, as long as a few feet are chiseled, our army sappers can hide in the holes they have dug themselves, and the full dogs on the city wall will have nothing to do with our army sappers, and the speed of our army sappers can also be greatly accelerated. ”

Yao Qisheng suddenly realized, and hurriedly slapped his ass, but Lu Fatzi smiled and said: "Of course, there is a way to solve this situation, that is, the defenders put down the warriors with ropes, and shoot arrows or incendiary bombs at the sappers in the hole in the wall, but fortunately, even if Jieshu Xiaoer knows this solution, his subordinates may not have the courage to go down to the city and die." ”

"The prince is well-informed, pedantic, and admired."

Yao Qisheng hurriedly slapped his ass again, but Lu Fatzi didn't take his stubble this time, and after raising the binoculars to observe for a while, Lu Fatzi arranged for a team of archers to step forward to replace the Fat Army archers who were covering with arrows behind the small fortifications, and maintain the suppression of the defenders of the city wall - it is very physically exhausting to draw a bow and release arrows.

The fat army sapper's action of digging the city, of course, did not hide the mite Qing garrison commander Jie Shu, who had already suffered a big loss, Jie Shu also arranged a special person to use the big stone ten thousand enemies to deal with this tactic, killing and injuring a lot of fat army sappers who chiseled the city in the melee, but what made Jie Shu hate the broken silver teeth was that the attack of the fat army was too fierce, almost containing the Qing army defenders who could be arranged on the city wall, and the Qing soldiers who were seriously inexperienced were not skilled enough to cooperate enough, and failed to eliminate all the fat army sappers who were hiding from the turtle under the wall chiseled, In several places, fish slipped through the net, and the bricks were chiseled open and began to advance into the inner walls of the city.

Judging by the time, it was found that the fat army sappers had dug at least seven or eight feet deep, and Jie Shu, who happened to know the way to crack it, immediately asked people to prepare cotton and gunpowder, wrapped the gunpowder in the cotton and sprinkled it on the cotton, ready to use it to burn the fat man army engineer rats who had been hiding in the hole in the wall and digging holes. But when it came time to recruit the brave warriors to go down to the city and throw incendiary bombs, something happened that made King Kang thunderous, and King Kang had already opened his mouth to issue a heavy reward, and none of the defenders, including King Kang's own soldiers and banner men, dared to stand up and volunteer to carry out this dangerous task.

It is not possible to blame the soldiers of the Qing army for being greedy for life and afraid of death, the danger of this task is no longer nine deaths, but ten deaths! The attack of the Fat Army was incomparably fierce, and the bows, arrows, guns and bullets were constantly whizzing over the edge of the city. And even if you are lucky enough to avoid the bow and arrow muskets of the Fat Army, there are still thousands of Fat Army soldiers waiting with knives under the city wall, and the Qing soldiers use ropes to go down the city, but I am afraid that if they haven't found the hole in the wall dug by the Fat Army sappers, they will be chopped into dumpling stuffing immediately!

"you, a bunch of incompetent rats who are greedy for life and afraid of death!" Seeing the bear-like appearance of a Qing soldier, King Kang was so angry that he scolded, and could only shout with red eyes: "Go down and burn a Lu dog mouse hole, come back alive, and reward a hundred taels of silver!" died, Lao Tzu asked the Qing Dynasty to give him the title of Hou Yinzi! ”

Still no one said anything, and many Qing soldiers whispered in their hearts, "Please ask the imperial court to seal the Hou Yinzi?" The imperial court has already gone to Shengjing, is it [***] useful to seal an empty marquis? Can it be eaten or worn as clothing? ”

"Dog minions, are you still a flag man?" King Kang used a trick and roared: "How powerful Lu Dog's explosives are, you haven't seen or heard of them!" This king can tell you that as long as you delay for a few more hours, as long as Lu Gou's infantry dig through half of the Yanjing city wall and bury explosives to set it on fire, no matter how strong the Yanjing city wall is, it will collapse immediately! Without the Yanjing City Wall, everyone will be finished together, not only will everyone be finished together, but the king and your family will also be finished together! If you want to live, stand up for this king and take a risk! ”

Considering that the Yanjing City wall would be finished as soon as it was broken, a few people with four surnames stood up and gritted their teeth to take over this dangerous mission, but just as King Kang was distracted, another and at the same time the sixth Fat Army ladder car leaned against the wall section on the side, and a large number of Fat Army soldiers howled and stepped up the steps, swarming onto the city wall. King Kang was shocked, so he had to quickly command the army to come forward to remedy, fight hand-to-hand with these fat army soldiers who flocked to the city, and concentrate all his strength to destroy this ladder car first.

The sixth ladder truck of the Fat Army siege ladder car on the wall of Yanjing City unexpectedly became the turning point of the whole battle, although four of the five ladder vehicles leaned on the wall of Yanjing City, but because the defenders of the Qing army concentrated rocket and oil shooting, they were quickly burned down by the fire when they leaned on the city wall, and they failed to continuously send the infantry of the Fat Army to the city wall.

When it was the turn of the sixth ladder truck to cross the bridge, the rockets prepared in advance in the hands of the Qing army had been exhausted, and they could only tear cotton and wrap the arrows dipped in fire oil to ignite and launch, and the density of the rockets was greatly reduced. When King Kang, who was distracted by the city-digging tactics of the fat army sappers, noticed this danger, it was too late to make up for it.

By the way, thirty-one years ago, Li Zicheng was using this huge siege ladder truck to break through the Yanjing Jiancheng, when the Ming army defending the city was greatly reduced because of the plague epidemic, Li Zicheng's army used the ladder car to attack Xizhi Gate, Fucheng Gate and Desheng Gate at the same time, and the three gates were successful at the same time. Coincidentally, thirty-one years later, it was such a siege weapon that broke the deadlock on the Yanjing battlefield, and in another period of history, the Eight-Nation Coalition Army also used a ladder to break through the Yanjing East Gate and break the battlefield deadlock - it can be seen that the eight characters of the Yanjing city wall are absolutely the same as the ladder.

The appearance of the unexpected turn, the fat army soldiers who had been blocked under Yanjing City for three or four hours with heavy casualties and difficult to advance were of course demoralized, shouting the slogan of the Great Zhou Dynasty and stepping on the ladder to the city endlessly, and dozens of warriors who rushed to the front also killed the Yanjing city wall, and grabbed a small foothold above the city wall for the first time.

Seeing this scene, of course, the defenders of the Qing army were scattered and their morale was greatly frustrated, but the fat army's side was full of joy, and Lu Fatzi was surprised, but also jumped up excitedly, applauded loudly, and shouted quickly: "The order is revealed, the blessing is blessed, and the artillery will concentrate on bombarding the city walls on both sides of the ladder truck, and make every effort to prevent the reinforcements of the dogs!" ”

"Order!" The herald rushed away, and Lu Fatzi turned to his godnephew An Jiarong next to him, and yelled, "Big nephew, it's up to you!" Eight hundred soldiers took their shields and went up! You must give me the position that has captured the city wall! ”

"Obey my uncle's orders!" An Jiarong, who had been waiting for an early itch, didn't say a word, hugged his fists and agreed, and immediately rushed down to organize the fat army's infantry to attack the ace soldiers.

"Li Xiongfei!" Lu Fatzi turned to Li Xiongfei, another general, and said loudly: "General Li, this king left you in Jiujiang back then, and you were implicated by this king and suffered countless hardships, today this king compensates you and brings your 4,000 direct team and two ladder cars to attack the city!" Tell your brothers and the brothers in front of you, no matter who it is, the first to attack Yanjing City, Fenghou! ”

"Thank you, Lord Wang! The last general is brave, this marquis, the last general is decided! ”

Li Xiongfei was very excited, and in the envious eyes of the fat army generals, he hugged his fists and agreed loudly, and he also rushed down to organize the team to attack, and Lu Fatzi sat back on the throne again, so excited that the fat on his face began to tremble, knowing that as long as the fat army could gain a firm foothold on the wall of Yanjing City, it would be easy to break through Yanjing.

"Quick! Fast! Stop Lu Dog! Throw torches, pour fire oil, and quickly burn Lu Gou's ladder cart! Come on, kill Lu Dog, otherwise Yanjing City will be in danger! ”

Diametrically opposed to the excited Fat Man Lu, at the same time, Prince Kang was so nervous that he almost stopped beating his heart, waving his hands without thumbs, just desperately urging the Qing soldiers to step forward to kill the enemy and make up for the leaks, and at all costs to drive the Fat Army soldiers who had rushed to the city wall off the city wall. However, what made King Kang angry was that although the Qing soldiers who rushed in front were fighting bloodily, there were fewer and fewer Yanjing soldiers and civilians who went to the city to help the battle from behind him, and when King Kang noticed that something was wrong and looked back at the situation under the city, he was stunned to find that the Yanjing soldiers and civilians under the city wall had already begun to flee, not only the ordinary people who voluntarily or involuntarily rushed to help the battle and carry weapons, but also some regular Qing soldiers wearing Qing army uniforms also began to flee!

"Mazie! Marzie! King Kang roared the name of his deputy Ma Qi with red eyes, and roared hysterically: "Ma Qi, where are you dog slave?!" Pull the people back up and defend the city! Fast! Find me Mazie, the dog minion! ”

"Lord Wang, Ma Shilang is there." A personal soldier pointed to a corpse on the city wall, and said timidly: "A stray arrow thrown by Lu Dog just now just hit the ...... Lord Shilang. ”

Prince Kang was stunned for a moment, then turned to a few of his own soldiers and shouted: "You all go down and order all the Qing civil and military officials under the city wall, and let them immediately pull the people and soldiers to the city to help the battle, and those who dare not go to the city to help the war will be beheaded!" ”

"Boom! Bang! Boom Boom! ”

Without waiting for Prince Kang's personal soldiers to agree, the cannonballs of the Fat Army had already smashed into the walls of Yanjing City on both sides of the ladder truck, and smashed into the crowd of the Qing army team that hurriedly came to reinforce and exploded, and the disgusting mite voice of the ghost crying wolf howl quickly echoed violently on the wall of Yanjing City. At the same time, the morale-boosting soldiers of the Fat Army stepped on the steps of the ladder and the corpses of both the enemy and the enemy, rushed up the Yanjing city wall one after another, and gradually stood on the city wall.

"Soldiers! Win! ”

"Big Zhou! Win! ”

The new neat slogan sounded on the battlefield, the eight hundred soldiers with their heads wrapped in white cloth held shields to protect the vital points, brandished the sharp Miao knife, and rushed to the front in a neat queue, and the main force of the four thousand fat army behind was led by Li Xiongfei, pushing the ladder car to follow, and the elite of the two fat army with combat effectiveness was definitely stronger than the previous siege team like the waves of the sea, roaring, roaring, surging towards the Yanjing city wall that had been gradually shaken, and the famous Chinese city that had been poisoned by mites to this day.

(To be continued)