readx; When Lu Xiangsheng, the premier of the military affairs department of the five provinces and four governments, and the secretary of the military department, led the official army into Zhengzhou, his mood was extremely heavy. The pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info this county, which was not large at that time but had a very long history, had been ravaged by the war. The northern city wall facing the Yellow River has largely ceased to exist, and almost all the houses in the city have been destroyed. Although most of them were demolished by Hong Chengchou to consolidate the city defenses, some of them were collapsed by inaccurate artillery shells by the officials and soldiers. Looking at the refugees who survived and shivered in the streets, Lu Xiangsheng felt deeply guilty, and even felt that he was one of their perpetrators.

Hong Chengchou's stubborn resistance was completely unexpected by Lu Xiangsheng. Since the southern bank of the Yellow River was broken through by the official army, the rebels retreated to the two cities of Zhengzhou and Kaifeng, intending to rely on the fortified city to continue to cut off the north-south passage.

According to Lu Xiangsheng's original idea, since Hong Chengchou could not hold out, he could use part of his troops to besiege Zhengzhou and Kaifeng, and he himself personally led the Tianxiong army to gallop to the aid of Pengcheng, which was besieged by Li Zicheng and other thieves.

However, this suggestion was categorically rejected by Zhu Youzhen. Zhu Youzhen believes that among the rebel armies in the western, central, and eastern routes, although Hong Chengchou's middle route has relatively the smallest number of troops, it is the one with the strongest combat effectiveness and is also the core and main force of the rebels. Although the official army could not be held back in the Yellow River, the main force of the Hong soldiers still existed, and with the temporary patchwork of troops, there were no less than 40,000 people.

Hong Chengchou is cunning and cunning, if the pressure on him is a little lighter, in case he suddenly makes a desperate bet and crosses the Yellow River from Zhengzhou and Kaifeng to the north, then Zhu Youzhen will not be able to stand it. Because the area around Beizhili was very empty, Zhu Youzhen had to turn around and chase Hong Chengchou, so his plan was all disrupted.

Therefore, although he knew that Pengcheng was in danger, Zhu Youzhen had to ask Lu Xiangsheng to concentrate his efforts and take Zhengzhou and Kaifeng first. Moreover, the main attacking force is still Meng Gong, and what Zhu Youzhen wants is to defeat Hong Bing steadily and uprightly at the minimum cost, so that all the conspiracies and tricks of Hong Chengchou cannot be played.

So from the day he crossed the Yellow River, Lu Xiangsheng led the army to attack Zhengzhou and Kaifeng step by step. As the main force, Meng Gong's division was divided into two, attacking Zhengzhou and Kaifeng respectively; Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong army and Li Laiheng's troops attacked Zhengzhou, and Hao Yongzhong's troops attacked Kaifeng. In fact, except for Meng Gong, the other departments were cavalry, and they couldn't make much effort when attacking the city, but they were responsible for protecting Meng Gong's troops, so that the rebels did not dare to rush out of the city.

The process of siege is simple to say. Take Zhengzhou as an example, after the official army set up camp, they first set up the Yuanrong cannon and the Xiaoyao cannon with a long range to bombard the city wall of Zhengzhou. At this time, the rebels had just returned to Zhengzhou after defeat, so they naturally couldn't hold out. As a result, Meng Gong advanced in an orderly manner, still building forward positions with sandbags, infantry stationed to consolidate positions, and rapid-fire guns, flowering cannons and other artillery with a relatively close range moved forward. After confirming that the rebels did not dare to come out, the position was rubbed forward little by little, until it was less than a hundred paces away from the city wall, and the birds could hit the head of the city.

The rebels also had artillery in the past, but they had been blown up by the officers and troops in the Battle of the Yellow River, so there was no way to force the officers and troops to advance this way, and the only way to deal with it was to shrink up and minimize the damage caused by the shelling.

And Meng Gong was also unceremonious, mobilizing all the Yuan Rong cannons, Xiaoyao cannons and rapid-fire cannons to fire a salvo at the city wall. At the first volley, the tower on the north gate of Zhengzhou was blown away, and a rebel "general" and dozens of soldiers who commanded the defense of the city were blown into meatloaf on the spot, and the rebels never dared to show their heads on the city again.

Then the artillery fire of the officers and soldiers turned to the city wall and continued to bombard it fiercely. In a small county like Zhengzhou, the city walls are all rammed earth walls, although they are well preserved, but how can they withstand the repeated bombardment of cannonballs. Soon, a city wall near the city gate was blown down, and Li Laiheng and other generals were eager to ask for battle, wanting to fight directly through the gap in the city wall.

In fact, according to Lu Xiangsheng's character, he couldn't wait to be the first to ride a horse into the city. However, Zhu Youzhen had already made a strict order: the rebels had a large number of troops, and if they did not annihilate their main force and start street battles, they would definitely suffer great losses. Therefore, we must not rush into the city, we must give full play to the advantages of artillery, and bombard Hong Chengchou to the point that he only has half a life left before launching a general attack.

Therefore, Lu Xiangsheng had no choice but to refuse Li Laiheng's invitation to fight. The rebels are also quite tenacious, before the official army began to attack Zhengzhou, Hong Chengchou ordered his subordinates to demolish the houses of the common people, and at this moment forced the people to use the demolished building materials to plug the gap.

The distance of 100 paces is really not too far, and the officers and soldiers can easily tell from the position that it is the common people who are moving east and west to block the city wall. At this time, Meng Gong hesitated: If he fired again, wouldn't it hit the people?

He hurriedly asked Lu Xiangsheng, Lu Xiangsheng gritted his teeth and said: "Hong Chengchou is so shameless that he uses the people as a shield. Of course, we must try to avoid accidentally injuring the people, Meng Gong, you can fire in another place, and see if the flood can be blocked! ”

Meng Gong had no choice but to order the artillery to turn the muzzle of the cannon and open fire on a distant city wall. After several rounds of salvos, this place was also bombarded, and Hong Chengchou still ordered the people to block it. In this way, on the first day of the siege, the artillery fire blasted four gaps in the northern city wall of Zhengzhou, but they were all blocked by Hong Chengchou.

The battle situation fell into a stalemate, and Lu Xiangsheng and others were anxious and discussed the siege method overnight. Not only must we take Zhengzhou as soon as possible, but we must also try to have zero casualties, and we must also take into account the people in the city, this battle is really difficult to fight!

But no matter how hard it is, you have to fight. After the brainstorming of the people, the next day the officers and troops changed their tactics, on the one hand, they continued to bombard the city wall with artillery, and on the other hand, sent a part of the infantry to continue to advance until they were only forty or fifty paces away from the city wall. Anyway, the rebels did not dare to garrison the city walls for a long time, and they did not have to be afraid of the enemy's bows and arrows.

Here, the officers and soldiers first built a lookout with sandbags as fast as they could. The platform is four feet high, which has exceeded the height of the Zhengzhou city wall, and the soldiers on it can clearly see the rebels' deployment behind the northern city wall.

He immediately informed the artillery in the rear with a banner, and the artillery immediately concentrated its fire and bombarded the section of the city wall where the rebels had gathered the most, and in an instant it collapsed. Then, without waiting for the rebels to react, a salvo of rapid-fire guns entered through the gap, and hundreds of rebels were instantly reimbursed! When Hong Chengchou transferred the people to plug the gap, the artillery had already stopped firing, and while cooling the cannon body, he was waiting for the next flag instructions.

And this time, the officers and soldiers did not just erect a lookout. After confirming that the rebels were unable to fight back, a large number of sappers and civilians were also brought up. There's only one thing they have to do: build a mountain of dirt!