readx; The reason why Hong Chengchou stubbornly defended Zhengzhou and Kaifeng was mainly because he felt that the number of officers and troops he faced was not much, only about 20,000, while his own Hong soldiers and miscellaneous troops combined exceeded 50,000. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoIf we add the people who were coerced by him to defend the city, there are as many as seventy or eighty thousand. In order to be able to drag down the officers and troops, he decided not to hesitate to spare half of the dead and wounded, but also to withstand as much as possible. Moreover, the official army did not encircle the two cities of Zhengzhou and Kaifeng, but only attacked from the north of the city, and he could not resist it and could retreat.

However, Hong Chengchou did not understand what a "people's war" was. Although the number of officers and troops was not large, and the total number of troops attacking Zhengzhou was 12,300, the number of civilians serving the officers and troops reached 50,000 or 60,000. Braving the bitter cold and starvation, these civilians continued to transport military supplies from distant Beijing to the front line. For Zhu Youzhen's modern warfare style of warfare, which mainly focuses on firearms, logistics supply is even more important than the operation itself. If there were no gunpowder and no shells, wouldn't the cannons and the cannons be ornaments?

Now, these people are resolutely engaged in the construction of fortifications, specifically to build a mountain high above the city wall with earth outside the city of Zhengzhou. At this time, the weather is freezing and it is not an easy task to take the soil. The people then roasted the permafrost with fire, and then took the soil, and the hardships can be imagined.

Fortunately, Zhengzhou is located in the Central Plains, and the permafrost layer in winter is not too thick, that is, more than a foot deep. After roasting the frozen soil, the soil below is not frozen, and it is labor-saving to dig it up. If it is replaced by the Liaodong region, this method will not work, because the permafrost there is more than five feet thick, and it is difficult to dig through it with manpower.

After collecting the soil, the people put it into sandbags and carried it to the lookout, where it was piled up little by little. When they reached a height slightly higher than the city walls, infantry armed with bird guns went up and fired at the rebels in the city.

Now the rebels finally woke up from a dream. If it was only shelled, they could still bear it, because in order to avoid accidentally injuring the people, the officers and soldiers basically only bombarded the city wall, and the rebels did not die much. However, the bird-gunners on the earth hill were aimed at shooting, and the effective range of the bird's guns was eighty paces, while the earth hill was only fifty paces from the city wall, and the height was constantly increasing; The Birdman is condescending on it and can very easily aim at the rebels and shoot. The earth mountain had just been piled up more than a foot long, and only a dozen bird-gunners had gone up, but in less than half a meal, nearly twenty rebels had already died at gunpoint!

This time, Hong Chengchou couldn't hold his breath, and he immediately organized a large number of archers to shoot arrows at the lookout and the dirt mountain, trying to press the official army back. However, they did not dare to go up to the wall and fire arrows, and they had already suffered a great loss in height; At this time, the north wind was blowing strongly, and the range of bows and arrows was greatly affected, and most of the arrows could not reach the top of the mountain at all and fell down.

On the side of the official army, it was non-stop, and the earth mountain became longer and longer, and in two days, it had become a soil ridge dozens of zhang long outside Zhengzhou City. The number of birds on the ridge had reached 500, and the rebels could no longer resist it, so they had to abandon the northern city wall and hide in the ruins of the city.

At this time, Lu Xiangsheng felt that it was time to go into the city, but he still sent it to Zhu Youzhen, who was in Luoyang, to report the battle situation in the past three days. It was thought that the emperor would immediately approve a general attack, but Zhu Youzhen's imperial approval was: "Bombard the whole city of Zhengzhou with artillery until the rebels surrender or abandon the city." Hong rebelled and said that I threw myself into a rat taboo, and I had to sacrifice the people of Zhengzhou to make them never think of this. If there is something to discuss in the court, I deserve it, and I have nothing to do with it. Chin this! ”

Of course, it was extremely painful for Zhu Youzhen to make this decision, but reason told him that it was necessary. Throughout the history of human warfare, civilian casualties have always been far greater than those of military personnel, and this is an objective law that cannot be changed. As a party to the war, the first thing to do is to protect yourself, and then you can think about reducing civilian casualties; If you can't do both, you must make a rational and calm decision. Otherwise, if you have suffered heavy casualties and don't even know if you can win, how can you still have the ability to protect the people?

Lu Xiangsheng had no choice but to act as ordered. The next day, all the artillery of the officers and soldiers adjusted their angles, and instead of bombarding the city walls, they carried out a deep attack on the city. Of course, Lu Xiangsheng still hoped to reduce the number of accidental attacks as much as possible, and he asked the soldiers on the lookout to mainly choose the places where the rebels were stationed, such as the county yamen, military camps, etc.

But Hong Chengchou is also very cunning, and most of the rebels have long been scattered throughout the city, and it is difficult to distinguish them from the civilians. In the end, Lu Xiangsheng had no choice but to tearfully ask the gunners to choose a place with many people and dense buildings to open fire, leaving only the east and south gates from bombardment. At this time, he hoped that Hong Chengchou would abandon the city and flee quickly, so that the people would suffer less crimes!

Fortunately, Hong Chengchou is not an iron warrior. After the official army finally launched a large-scale artillery bombardment of the whole city, Hong Chengchou's nerves finally collapsed. In particular, the Zhixian Yamen, where he was located, was taken care of by the Yuanrong Cannon and the Xiaoyao Cannon in the first round of shelling, and none of the houses survived, and all of them were bombed into broken bricks and tiles. If it weren't for his fate, he would have reported to Lord Yama a long time ago.

Since Hong Chengchou became the governor of Yansui, he has been promoted all the way by his military exploits, and he has fought countless battles, but he has never heard of or seen this kind of tactics in the official army; Only now did he understand that his various "strategies" were all vulnerable in the face of the roaring cannon! Until now, he can't help but regret a little, regretting that he shouldn't have "stood in the wrong line" and shouldn't have despised the young emperor... However, it's too late to regret it now!

In the end, it was Hong Chengchou's love general Gao Jie who snatched him out of the rubble, and pleaded with tears in his eyes: "Taishi, Zhengzhou can no longer be defended, let's retreat quickly!" ”

Hong Chengchou understood that under the indiscriminate shelling of the official army, Gao Jie's standard battalion also suffered a large number of casualties, which was absolutely unacceptable to him, a fierce general who was born as a thief and regarded the army as his personal property. If there were no generals such as Gao Jie, Liu Liangzuo, and Li Chengdong, he Hong Chengchou would be a lonely man, and even Li Zicheng and other thieves would be inferior. So he had to grit his teeth and say, "Now it's just like this!" However, in order to cover the retreat of the main force, the officers and soldiers transferred from other guards, as well as the newly recruited soldiers, had to hold on to the city until the last moment! ”

Two days after Hong Chengchou and Gao Jie led the main force to retreat, the rebels abandoned by them finally surrendered completely. Kaifeng was much the same as Zhengzhou, and was also recovered by the official army on the same day. There were almost no casualties among the officers and soldiers in this battle, while the rebels suffered thousands of casualties and nearly 10,000 prisoners, and the people of the two cities died of starvation and the total number of casualties was nearly 10,000!

Therefore, when he saw the people of Zhengzhou lying on the ruins mourning and crying, and looking at him with frightened eyes, Lu Xiangsheng finally couldn't help but burst into tears, knelt down in front of them, and cried loudly: "Fellow villagers, you have suffered!" ”