"Hit!"

There was a burst of cheers from the gun position in the northwest corner of Helinger City, Kong Youde turned his head proudly, wanting to see an appreciative smile on Yue Tuo's face behind him, but the cold expression on Heshuo Belle's face made him a little disappointed, and he was thinking about whether he had done something wrong, but he heard Yue Tuo's voice: "That's it!" ”

"That's it?" Kong Youde didn't understand what Yue Tuo meant for a while, and asked rhetorically, "Don't fight?" ”

"No more fighting!" Yue Tuo turned around and walked under the city wall. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

"Why?" Kong Youde chased after him: "These gunners are the best under my command, and they will only get more and more accurate in the future!" ”

"It's useless!" Yue Tuo shook his head: "Master Kong, haven't you seen it yet?" Those digging are not soldiers, but a group of people, their ranks are very sparse, we can't kill a few of them at such a distance, we don't have so many shells and gunpowder to waste on these people! However, Yue Tuo still had an unspoken sentence: "Since the shelling cannot disrupt their work, there is no need to waste shells and gunpowder!" ”

"Okay!" Kong Youde nodded, he still believed in Yue Tuo's battlefield feeling, he smiled and comforted: "Heshuo Belle, in fact, you don't have to worry, it's so far away, if you dig a tunnel, you won't have to dig until next spring!" “

"No, I'm not worried that the Ming army will dig tunnels against us! We've all seen this method of digging tunnels, and we know how to deal with it. What I fear is that the enemy adopts a method that we have never seen and does not know how to deal with it, and that is what I am afraid of. Yue Tuo stopped and looked back at Kong Youde's eyes, Kong Youde saw clearly fear in Yue Tuo's eyes.

"This, how is this possible, hehe!" Kong Youde wanted to laugh twice, but found that he couldn't.

"I hope so!" Yue Tuo smiled and suddenly asked, "General Kong, do you believe in any bodhisattvas on weekdays?" ”

"Bodhisattva?" Kong Youde was a little confused by Yue Tuo's sudden change of topic, he shook his head and said: "Lord Yue Tuo, you should know that I followed my father to fight when I was a teenager, and I have been swords and swords for decades, and I haven't had a peaceful birthday in a few days, where will I believe these things!" ”

"Huh!" Yue Tuo suddenly laughed, he shook his head: "General Kong, I found that the two of us are very similar, we have been following our fathers and ancestors since we were children, and we always feel that it is more realistic to believe in those clay carvings and wood sculptures than to practice some martial arts and horsemanship, and the fifth uncle is the most devout to the shaman on weekdays, and how rich the worship is, what is the result?" Speaking of this, Yue Tuo sighed, with a thoughtful look, Kong Youde knew that the fifth uncle in Yue Tuo's mouth was Mang Gurtai in the "Four Great Beylers", this person was brave and good at fighting, he was originally very loved by Nurhachi, and he was also a son-in-law, in terms of background, his status was originally above Huang Taiji. However, his mother, Fucha, had an ambiguous relationship with the Great Bel Daishan, and although Nurhachi was furious when he learned about it, he couldn't bear to kill him, so he casually found a reason to abandon him. Fearing that this would affect the inheritance, Mang Gurtai actually killed his mother with his own hands to please Nurhachi, this kind of beastly behavior not only drove himself out of the ranks of Nurhachi's heirs, but also made Mang Gurtai feel guilty in his heart, and often offered gifts to the shaman to seek peace of mind, so among the high-ranking nobles of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Mang Gurtai has always been known for his devotion to the gods. But after his death, it was the shaman enshrined in his family who came out to testify that he tried to curse Huang Taiji, and the end was extremely miserable. Kong Youde naturally knew all this, but he didn't dare to speak at this time, so as not to make Yue Tuo unhappy.

"But I think today we should find a god and Buddha to pray for, and ask him to bless us to be able to repel the Ming army and survive Liaodong! I suggest General Kong, you do the same! Speaking of this, Yue Tuo smiled at Kong Youde and walked towards his residence.

Perhaps because of the prophecy, the Houjin army defending the city found that the enemy outside the city, having completed two horizontal moats (facing the two gates), began to dig eight jagged trenches, which were roughly perpendicular to the first moat and extended towards the city gate. At first, the Jin army defending the city laughed heartily at the enemy's actions: in their opinion, the generals of the Ming army must have gone crazy, what is the point of digging so many trenches? The Ming army also placed wicker baskets on the side of the trench and filled them with dirt, did they not know that this would only hinder the advance of the attacking army's soldiers and siege equipment; And these trenches are still dug crookedly, so they don't even have the ability to dig the trenches a little straighter?

But Yue Tuo is not as optimistic as their subordinates, since the beginning of the Ming army's trench work operation, Yue Tuo braved the cold wind outside the fortress early every morning, guarding the city gate and carefully observing the enemy's actions, although he still didn't understand the enemy's intentions to do this, but his intuition told him that the enemy must have a special purpose in doing this, and what is beneficial to the enemy is harmful to his own side, and he should try his best to stop the enemy.

By the fourth day, the distance between the front end of the Ming army's trench and the west gate was only about three miles, and this distance had already entered the best firing range of the red-coated artillery. Yue Tuo ordered his subordinates to fire a few cannons to harass the enemy, and this time he finally discovered the magic of this strange trench: the depth of the trench was two meters, and with the average height of the soldiers at that time, when they dug at the bottom of the trench, they would not even show their pickaxes, and most of the shells flew harmlessly from the top of the trench, or hit the inner wall of the trench, splashing the sky full of dust, even if a few shells from the same direction as the trench entered, at most they could kill one or two soldiers in this small section of trench. Although the cannon roared above the city and the dust was splashed on the ground, only a handful of Ming soldiers were killed. Soon, the Ming soldiers who were digging in the trenches also noticed this, and they began to laugh loudly at the enemies on the city, wielding their hoes even harder.

"That's what happened, that's what happened!" Yue Tuo muttered excitedly, at this time he almost wanted to admire the enemy who came up with this ingenious way to deal with the red-coated cannon, yes, the red-coated cannon was simply indestructible, and everything made by human hands such as iron armor, rushing carts and so on seemed so fragile in front of him, but that person actually used such a simple method to crack the power of the red-coated cannon-even if the red-coated cannon was powerful, could it lift the earth? And the zigzag-shaped trench prevented the shells from the side from killing too many soldiers at once. For a moment, Yue Tuo simply felt a kind of regret - why did he come up with such a simple and ingenious mind that did not belong to a certain Eight Banners disciple? He will definitely tell Huang Taiji and ask for credit for him.

"Heshuo Baylor, Heshuo Baylor!" Kong Youde's voice woke Yue Tuo from his reverie, he looked back at his colleagues, only to see the other party looking at him anxiously: "The red-clothed cannon can't hit the enemy in the trench, so you can only go out of the city and hack these gophers to death in the trench!" ”

"Hmm!" Yue Tuo nodded, turned around and shouted to his own soldiers: "Bring my horse over, I will personally meet these Ming troops!" ”

In the trench, a strong Jurchen man frantically waved a pickaxe, and under the chiseling of the steel hoe forged by the hydraulic forging hammer, the gray-black earth walls were broken and collapsed, and a companion next to him held a shield to cover him. Behind him, several of his companions, with their swift shovels, shoveled the pieces of earth into the half-man-high wicker baskets of the trench, and behind them, while deepening and widening the trench, several men inserted rows of sticks along the edge of the trench into the earth, forming two walls of the ditch made of wooden rows, so that the earth on both sides would not collapse and fill the trench. Although it was a cold winter wax moon, a white mist rose on everyone's forehead, which showed that their physical exertion was huge, and the frequency of their movements gradually slowed down.

"It's time, change!" Acton looked at the empty hourglass next to him and shouted, "You guys go down and eat!" ”

Hearing Acton's shout, the people breathed a sigh of relief, they dropped their tools and walked towards Acton panting, and several men who had been waiting for a long time hurriedly took their place. The men walked up to Acton, and Acton grabbed a handful of copper plates from the iron bucket on the table in front of him, gave one to each of them, and added another to the strong Jurchen man who used the pickaxe: "There is ready-made mutton soup and buckwheat buns in the back, and they are still hot to eat. ”

"Yes, Actun Ezhen (Manchu word for lord, chief)!" According to their custom, these Jurchen captives respectfully called Actun a thousand, carefully stored the copper plates, and the strong man who got the two copper plates asked carefully: "Ezhen, can I exchange this for wine?" ”

"Yes, but I advise you to put together all the clothes and bunks first, and then think about drinking!" Acton whispered that after digging the trench on the first day, the exhausted captives had been rewarded with a half-worn pair of leather boots each of them. Although they are not new boots, they are the difference between life and death for those who have to do heavy physical labor in the cold winter outside the plug. Just as the crowd was pleasantly surprised to try on their boots, Acton made a shocking announcement to the crowd: the old boots were paid for their work today, and as long as they had work, they would have it every day in the future; Although no cash will be given, they will be able to exchange for essential household items such as boots, blankets, clothes, more food, and even alcohol. Neither the Jurchens nor the Mongols believed their ears, and since ancient times, both inside and outside the Great Wall, a simple rule has been followed for captives - to make the defeated unlucky, not to mention paid for their work, and even to the food necessary to sustain their lives. The effect of paying the captives was immediate, and from the next day onwards, the progress of the work was dramatically accelerated, and the captives took on the most dangerous and arduous task of digging at the front of the trench and pouring the excavated earth into the wicker baskets on top of the trenches, forming a barrier where no firearms could harm the shooters behind the wicker baskets filled with broken earth, except for the red-coat cannons. Since the longitudinal approach to the trench did not allow too many people to work at the same time, the workers of each trench were divided into thirty teams, each of which had to work for only a quarter of an hour before retiring and leaving the next group to take turns, so as to ensure that the workers always maintained their physical strength. Although the shells whizzed overhead, and even fell into the trenches to break the people who were working, the captives continued to work hard, and this frenzied energy made the men and auxiliaries who carried the materials in a much safer position and carried the excess scraps of dirt in a frenzy.

West Gate, First Trench, Fort.

"Good, good!" Liu Cheng was satisfied with the red pen to paint a small section on the map, which marked the completion of this section of the trench. From the beginning of the water conservancy project in Yanzhou, he personally recruited and trained a group of talents who are good at civil engineering, plus the later training in Chaoyi, Hetao, and Guihua City, this group of talents has gradually grown up, with their help, Liu Chengcai dared to boast in front of Yang Sichang that the city of Haikou broke in a month.

"Lord Zhentai, is there any happy event?" Cao Wenzhao, who was standing on the side, asked cautiously, since he got Yang Sichang's permission, he brought his own soldiers to Liu Cheng's place, and said that he was ordered by the Supervisor and was dispatched by Lord Zhentai, but in fact, he wanted to steal a few tricks from Liu Cheng's side. In the past few days, he has been following the principle of seeing more and talking less, but after a few days, he only saw that Liu Cheng was just watching his men digging in this fort, and he didn't do anything else, he thought at first that this was just a trick to attract the attention of the defenders in the city, but the real killing move was hidden in the shadows. But the more I looked at it, the more I didn't like it, and I couldn't help it anymore today, so I had to ask Liu Cheng about it.

"Naturally, it was a happy event, and the progress of the project was much faster than I imagined!" Liu Cheng was already smiling from ear to ear: "If you continue to maintain this speed, you can dig the second trench two days in advance!" ”

"Siege progress?" Cao Wenzhao looked at the jagged trenches and hesitated for a while, when he escorted Yang Sichang to see Liu Cheng before, although he also entered the nest, he stood aside and only listened to a general outline, and did not see the tactics of how to use trench tactics to besiege. He was born as a disciple of the general, and he has also read some military books, and he also knows a lot about the tactics of siege in the era of cold weapons, or the earth mountain is near the building, or the cave is rushing to the car, or simply the ants are attached to the siege, but like this********, it is the first time to dig a trench, and he can also see that Liu Cheng dug a trench to reduce the damage of the enemy's firearms, but although the enemy's firearms can't hit you, but you can't attack the city on a large scale, so a narrow trench can accommodate several people in parallel? Even if the Tartars in the city don't fire a single shot, they will see you near the city, and you can stab those people with a spear. (To be continued.) )