Kong Youde was stunned for a moment, and then understood why Yue Tuo complained that the military law of Houjin was too strict, it turned out that everything has advantages and disadvantages, and the advantage of military discipline of Houjin is that unless it reaches the point of no return, soldiers generally will not abandon their officers and run away; But the downside is that once the battle is lost, the officers die in battle, and the soldiers will also go into exile for fear of punishment. The ones Hauge brought were all elites, and a few horses, even if they were defeated badly, they would not come back like a few, apparently most of the defeated soldiers were in exile because they were afraid of going back and being punished, which made Yue Tuo, who was desperate to find out what was going on from the mouths of the defeated soldiers, extremely frustrated.

"What should we do?" Kong Youde asked worriedly.

"I've sent out all the scouts I can out!" Yue Tuo said in a low voice: "If there is an enemy army that is close to us to a distance of about three days, I will know. ”

"So how do we deal with it?"

"Withdraw your troops!" Yue Tuo's voice was not loud, but it was very resolute.

"Withdrawing troops?" Kong Youde showed a surprised look on his face: "Withdraw without a fight?" ”

"Fighting?" Yue Tuo sneered: "We don't know who the enemy's commander is?" I wonder how many infantry they have? How many cavalry? How many artillery? What are you good at? What are you not good at? Are the soldiers well fed? Are there any arrears? Is there more veterans or more recruits? The only thing we know is that they just defeated Hauge and captured him alive. Yes, Hauge is an idiot, but not on the battlefield. We have been besieging the city for more than a month, the soldiers are tired, most of your Heavenly Blessing army is infantry, and there are more than a dozen red-coated cannons, and behind us, there is also an enemy castle, do you think we should fight? ”

Kong Youde lowered his head and did not speak, as Yue Tuo said, the Tianyou Army under his command can be said to be the largest and most experienced firearms unit in the Houjin army. In other words, if the initial battle with the enemy army hidden in the darkness is unfavorable, it is very likely that the dozen or so red-coated cannons will have to be abandoned, after all, in the vast grassland, the artillery will definitely not be able to get rid of the pursuit of the cavalry, which is an irreparable loss for Kong Youde.

"And what if we take the enemy city?"

"That's another story!" Yue Tuo laughed, he patted Kong Youde on the shoulder, and said in a low voice: "So don't stop your subordinates day and night these days, the sooner the better!" ”

New Naturalization City, West Point.

A wooden shed was erected at the top of the city, and the surface of the shed was covered with a mat made of tough reeds along the Yellow River. On the surface, this should have been a place for the defenders of the castle to take shelter from the wind and snow, but if we go into the wooden shed, we will find that this is not the case at all - on the inside of the wooden shed is a deep pit, and a large water tank is buckled upside down on the ground, the edge of the tank is deep in the earth, and a soldier is lying on the water tank, his ears pressed against the wall of the tank, as if listening to something.

"Gong Yu, is there any movement?" "One-eyed" asked impatiently, behind him stood Thomas and Du Guoying, since Gong Yu happened to hear the sound of the enemy digging tunnels that day, Du Guoying placed such equipment on the five sharp corners of the castle, the inverted water tank can amplify the movement underground, and the experienced listener can even judge the approximate location of the enemy underground. In this action, Gong Yu quickly showed his aptitude for ears - he was able to distinguish the sound of digging underground from other small noises compared to others, which was a remarkable skill.

"Shut up, 'One-Eye', you've disturbed him!" Du Guoying shouted in a low voice: "Don't get in the way, get outside!" ”

"Yes, sir!" The "one-eyed" crossed his hands and saluted, bowed and withdrew. The atmosphere in the wooden shed became more and more solemn, and suddenly Gong Yu stood up straight from the water tank: "My lord, please come and listen!" ”

Du Guoying and Thomas glanced at each other, Thomas limped to the water tank, listened, and soon his face showed a look of surprise, and said to Du Guoying: "General Du, come here and listen, the enemy has also started to work during the day!" ”

"Good!" Du Guoying listened attentively: "Act according to the pre-plan, and give these Tartars a little bit of power." ”

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, the sun crossed the zenith and slid towards the western horizon. The scarlet sun stained the surface of the Yellow River not far away, and except for the occasional trumpets and birdsong, the castle was quiet inside and outside. And this tranquility is nothing more than an illusion, and beneath the ground, hundreds of selected Heavenly Blessing Army soldiers are working hard in three parallel tunnels. Perhaps because of his background as a miner, Kong Youde is very proficient in the art of siege in the cave, he knows how to distinguish the soil quality, how to estimate the length and direction of the tunnel underground; He knows how to support the tunnels with wooden rafts woven from wooden stakes and rattan branches so that they are not crushed by their own weight, how to skillfully transport the excavated wasteland, and how to conceal the entrances and ventilation holes of the tunnels to avoid being discovered by the defenders. But the more he learned, the more he understood how dangerous it was to dig tunnels to siege the city. There are too many things that could not be foreseen in advance, hundreds of people are hidden in narrow and dark tunnels, unable to straighten their waists, crawling on the ground like dogs, and the foul air, heavy physical labor, and nervous mood are all greatly draining the energy of the soldiers, making them exhausted, and the slightest accident can cause catastrophic consequences. Either way, it's better than having soldiers brave arquebuses and cannons to attack an elaborate bastion.

On the inner side of the city wall, on the side of the defenders, a group of people were busy using hand-cranked gourds to transport bundles of firewood, oil, gunpowder, croton and sulfur into the tunnel, in the first few days, a tunnel was dug out from under the city wall, compared to the attackers, the defenders' tunnels were much wider and deeper, even enough for two wheelbarrows to push in parallel, which greatly accelerated the speed of the defenders, because the biggest problem in digging tunnels was how to transport the excavated wasteland. According to Thomas's plan, when the tunnel was about ten paces or so from the wall, a tunnel parallel to the wall was dug to the left and right, and this parallel tunnel was narrower, only a quarter of the width of the previous one, so that the attacker's tunnel would pass over the defender's tunnel, or cut it off, either the former or the latter would be enough to disrupt the enemy's plan.

See the sun finally set over the horizon and the night cover the land. Kong Youde finally breathed a sigh of relief, the night was the attacker's friend. According to his calculations, the base of the wall had been dug in, and if the work was hastily done, the Selectors would rush out of the ground at dawn the next day to seize the fort at the western corner from the panicked defenders, and these warriors must hold out until the robes outside the city took the gates, and every mistake in this series of actions would be fatal. Kong Youde was about to go to the tunnel to see the final preparations in person according to his usual habits, but was stopped by a black-faced strong man and said: "Brother Kong, just let me go on this matter, you don't have to go down in person." ”

"Virtuous brother!" Kong Youde pushed the man's arm away and said in a deep voice: "I've always been unsettled these days, and I always feel that if something happens, it's better to let me take a look!" "Then I'm going to go to the tunnel entrance.

"Huh!" The man grabbed a few steps to stop at the entrance of the tunnel, and said with a smile: "Brother Kong said this, don't you can't believe the little brother." ”

"This-" The other party said this, Kong Youde hesitated, it turned out that this man's surname was Geng Zhongming, and the word Yuntai was King Huaishun, one of the three Shun kings with the same name as Kong Youde. When Kong Youde was forced to mutiny in Wuqiao, Geng Zhongming happened to be in Dengzhou City. Due to the arrears of food and wages, the Shandong government's harsh treatment of the exiled Liao people, etc., the military people in southern Liaoning have been resentful of the imperial court for a long time, so when Kong Youde mutinied, Geng Zhongming not only did not send troops to suppress it, but secretly contacted the Liao people in Dengzhou City as the internal response of the rebels. When Kong Youde captured Dengzhou, he led many Liao people to jointly elect Kong Youde as the marshal, and openly confronted the Ming Dynasty under the banner of rebellion. In 1633, the rebels gradually could not withstand the onslaught of the Ming army, and Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming had to lead their troops across the sea to surrender to the Houjin. Later, Geng Zhongming became Kong Youde's deputy general, and the two of them could not be separated from Meng, and Meng was not out of focus. In this siege, the team of people who dug tunnels were drawn from Geng Zhongming's personal soldiers.

"In that case, then bother the virtuous brother!" Kong Youde thought for a while, lowered his voice and said: "Be careful about everything after you go down, come out immediately if you feel something is wrong, don't force it!" ”

"Big brother, don't worry, it's not the first time you've attacked the city authentically!" Geng Zhongming said with a smile: "If something happens, something will happen sooner, how can you wait until today?" Just wait for the good news! “

In the tunnel, the oil lamp emitted a faint light, like a little ghost fire, shining on everyone's body, like a ghost.

Gong Yu knelt on the ground, and a faint sound came from the top of his head, it was the enemy digging a tunnel, and as the distance got closer, the sound became more and more obvious, and even a slight vibration could be felt from the wall. To be honest, he was scared, it was the first time he had been so close to Dongyu. Yes, he has won against the Rogues and the Mongol Tartars, but this time the enemy is completely different. For more than 20 years, the Ming army was defeated again and again by the enemy overhead, and famous generals such as Liu Ling, Liu Dadao, Juniper, Ma Lin, Li Rubai, Man Gui, and Ma Shilong were defeated and killed. Invisibly, Dongyu has become a blue-faced, fanged, and invulnerable monster in the eyes of the Ming army. It's okay to defend the city, it's another thing to fight in the tunnels.

"Are you all ready?"

There was a stiff Chinese voice behind him, although Thomas had been under Liu Cheng for more than a year, and there was no problem with ordinary Chinese conversations, but he was still quite different from the native Han in terms of articulation and accent, but a considerable part of Liu Cheng's subordinates were all kinds of Mongolians, and his accent did not seem too strange.

"The firewood is piled up!"

"Sulfur and blowers are ready, too!"

"The bucket and the towel to cover the face have also been handed out!"

With one answer after another, Thomas nodded with satisfaction, but in the end, when he turned his eyes to Gong Yu's face, he found that the other party's face was pale and his eyes were straight, obviously stunned.

"Mr. Thomas asks you!"

The voice of his companion next to him woke Gong Yu up from his thoughts, he raised his head just in time to see Thomas's gaze, was startled, and hurriedly whispered: "I'm also ready, the place where the Dongyu tunnel passes through us has been marked and resisted with pillars!" “

"Good!" Thomas smiled, as if he had guessed his men's thoughts: "There's nothing to be afraid of, have you ever seen a mouse?" Later we will clean up these savages as easily as killing the rats in our house! ”

There was a burst of obviously suppressed laughter in the tunnel, and Gong Yu was in a much lighter mood due to the atmosphere. Thomas looked at his subordinates with satisfaction and ordered: "According to the plan at the beginning, the extra people will withdraw immediately, and the rest will cover their mouths and noses!" ”

According to his orders, most of the soldiers retreated to the other end of the tunnel, and the rest of the people also wrapped their mouths and noses in soaked cloth towels, and then lit firewood sprinkled with sulfur and croton, which had been sprinkled with clear oil beforehand, and quickly burned, emitting dense pungent smoke, although covered with wet cloths, those who remained still made a slight coughing sound, obviously, as the concentration of the gas increased, they could not hold on for a long time.

"Turn the blower and cut off the support column!" Thomas gave the order, and several figures ran to the pre-marked support column, cutting it down in two strokes. Without the support of the wooden stakes, the soil layer on top immediately made a dull sound, which was a precursor to collapse. The men didn't care much, so they dropped their axes and crawled back.

At this time, the smoke became thicker, and at the corner of the tunnel, several Ming soldiers were turning the blower with all their strength, and with their efforts, the irritating smoke drifted in the opposite direction of them, and the place where they were was much better.

In the tunnels of the Houjin army, the soldiers are wielding hoes and shovels at an almost frantic speed, and the soil layer in front of them is the foundation of the wall of the new naturalized city, which is built using the old site of the old naturalized city built by Altan Khan, and its foundation is very strong, and when a hoe digs up, only a small white spot can be exposed, and only small holes can be opened with steel drills and hammers, and then a crowbar is used to dig down a piece of soil. Due to the poor ventilation conditions, the temperature in the tunnels was alarmingly high, and many people simply took off their clothes and worked naked. Sweat and dirt stuck to the naked flesh, filled with digging and wheezing, like hell.

"Hurry up, work harder, dig through this section of the wall and dig it!" Geng Zhongming hissed, I don't know when his throat was already hoarse, the tense atmosphere, the foul air, and the high temperature were like three invisible hands squeezing the water in his body clean, and the water bladder had already been drunk. However, Geng Zhongming still resisted the urge to go up to breathe, and in his heart he had a faint competitive mentality towards Kong Youde, hoping to overwhelm this "big brother" who had always thought he was above him, and today was undoubtedly the best opportunity. In front of Yue Tuo and Shuobeile, who are in charge of the military department, what better feat could there be than this in the Naturalization City, which has been unable to be attacked for a long time? (To be continued.) )