"Hmm!" Liu Cheng didn't hear the doubts in Cao Wen's edict, he was very satisfied with the progress, and he was even considering whether to move the second horizontal trench where the artillery was arranged a little further forward, so that the entire city could be included in the killing range of the mortar artillery, this kind of large-caliber, high-firing angle, and high-trajectory artillery was a sharp weapon for the siege party. For this siege www.biquge.info, Liu Cheng prepared 4 large-caliber mortar cannons, which could launch 60 kg and 45 kg solid iron bullets to a distance of up to 1,000 meters, with a minimum range of 120 meters. Due to its short stature and high arc trajectory, the mortar cannon could even fire at the target in the trench, while the red-coated cannon of the Houjin Army arranged in the city was originally a naval gun, and the trajectory was too straight, so it could not pose any threat to the mortar cannon hidden in the ground, and could only be beaten passively.

Seeing Liu Cheng's appearance of wandering into the world, Cao Wenzhao didn't dare to say much, the officialdom was the first level of the official to crush people, not to mention that Liu Cheng was probably more than one level older than him. He was thinking about how to remind this Zhentai lord without showing a trace, when he suddenly saw a group of Jurchen cavalry coming from the northwest corner of Helinger City, and hurriedly shouted: "My lord, the cavalry of the Tartars has come out!" ”

As a veteran general who has experienced a hundred battles, Yue Tuo will naturally not be stupid enough to open the gate to attack out of the city, the two gates of the west gate and the east gate are made of thick oak, and there are two layers of iron leaves nailed to the outside, even if it is opened with a winch, it will take a while, even if the general of the Ming army is a stupid donkey, he knows that the defenders are going to come out to counterattack. Therefore, he chose the Tumen in the northwest corner, which was a special design in ancient Chinese city defenses, that is, a secret exit from the official city gate. Mozi? Prepare for the sudden ": "The city is a hundred steps and a sudden door, and the sudden door is a kiln. "This special gate was used for two purposes: to lure the enemy to attack from here, and when the enemy rushed into the gate, to block the entrance with a traffic jam filled with flammable materials, and then to light the stoves on both sides and smoke and burn them; Another use is for the defenders to show weakness to make the enemy slack, and then rush out of the gate to attack the enemy and attack him unprepared. Yue Tuo chose the second purpose, there is a section of sheep and horse wall outside the gate, which can block the view of the attacking side, and when the Ming army besieging the city found it, it was no more than a hundred steps away from the nearest approaching trench.

"Donglu is out of the city, Dongyu is out of the city!" There was a nervous shout from inside the trench. Acton was a little surprised at first, but he had already been told what to do in this situation, and he stood up and shouted in his loudest voice: "Put down the guys, put them down, squat down in the trench, don't move, they won't hurt us!" ”

Several Mongol captives who were working were stunned for a moment, but even though they did according to Acton's orders, only one of the Jurchen captives dropped the pickaxe in his hand and grabbed the ditch wall as if climbing up, but was hugged by the quick-eyed Acton from behind, ripped it off, and scolded sharply: "What do you want to do?" ”

"Let go of me!" The man struggled and shouted, "I don't want to be a prisoner of the Han people, I want to go back to my own people!" ”

"Go back to the besieged city and starve?" Acton held down the captive and scolded in his ear: "Here you have food and clothing, run into that lonely city and wait to rob the dead rats to eat, right?" Don't you see how many Ming troops are outside the city? If Lord Liu's soldiers catch it again, do you think you can still catch something like this? ”

Acton's scolding had an effect, and the Jurchen captive's strength of struggle weakened, Acton noticed it, grabbed it, pushed it into the corner of the wall, and scolded: "You give me an honest squat, dare to move a little more and be careful that I will beat you to death!" ”

Seeing that no one dared to move any more, Acton turned back to check the situation inside the trench, and saw the shooters with the bird's guns climb up the wood wall, set the bird's guns on the wicker baskets full of broken earth, and aimed at the captives who were rushing towards them. A lieutenant climbed up the trench, drew his saber and raised it high, calculated the distance between the two sides, and slashed the saber down: "Fire!" ”

It was the first time that Acton had witnessed a salvo of birds at such a close distance, and he could clearly see that the eyes of one of the nearby gunners were burned by the fire from the medicine pool, and he let out a terrible scream, and dropped his weapon and fell to the bottom of the ditch. What a dangerous weapon! Acton shivered subconsciously.

Seeing the Ming army officer on the opposite side swinging his knife violently, Yue Tuo subconsciously pressed his upper body against the horse's back, and then he heard the sharp sound of high-speed lead bullets tearing through the air overhead. He knew that although this weapon was powerful, it would take a long time to reload, so he straightened up, drew his saber and shouted, "Rush over and kill him without a single piece of armor!" ”

Ignoring their comrades who had been shot off their horses, they waved their weapons and shouted loudly and rushed forward, but to their surprise, the enemies who had finished their guns did not turn and flee as they had done in the past, but jumped back into the trenches, shielded themselves with rattan signs, and raised their spears like frightened hedgehogs. In the face of this unexpected situation, the Jurchen cavalry was a little at a loss for a while, according to their past experience, once these firearms men finished putting down the guns in their hands and were rushed close by themselves, they only had to turn around and run away, and they only needed to ride their horses and slash and reap the results. But after they jumped into the trench, they had nothing to do with them on horseback, and they hesitated to dismount. At this moment, there were suddenly several sharp whistling in the air, and more than a dozen cavalrymen and horses were suddenly broken into pieces.

"It's a cannon! It's the cannon of the Ming army! The Jurchen knights looked to the place where the cannon was coming from, and saw that the enemy gunners were busy on the first few batteries in front of the first trench. It was a bit reluctant for the forts there to bombard the city walls, but it was still optimistic and competent to shoot these cavalrymen who were standing still around the trenches, anyway, the Ming army's own shooters and trench diggers were in the trenches, so they didn't have to worry about being accidentally injured by their own shells.

"Retreat, go back to the city!" Yue Tuo decisively issued the order to retreat, the situation is obvious, this is a trap that has been set up a long time ago, if he continues to stay on horseback, not only will he not be able to hurt the ground rats hiding in the trench, but also will become a live target for the Ming artillery behind; And if you jump off the trench yourself, you can certainly avoid the artillery bombardment of the Ming army, but you will only delay the time of death by a few minutes - the width of the trench can only accommodate two people in parallel, and no martial arts and strategies can be used, and the biggest possibility is to fight a mirasm war of attrition in which lives are exchanged for human lives. But the defenders in the city are only more than 2,000 people, and the total strength of the Ming army outside the city is not less than 30,000.

Looking at the back of the Jurchen cavalry leaving, Acton felt that the taste in his heart was very complicated, if his two defeats could still find one reason or another, the two sides were fighting for one life, and victory was once within their reach, then today in front of the general of the Ming Kingdom surnamed Liu, the elite soldiers of the Dajin Kingdom were in the hands of the opponent from beginning to end, and there was no chance of winning. It was not difficult to imagine that the work he was working on was only one part of his larger plan, and that these seemingly casual details had many meanings that he did not yet understand, Acton suddenly felt a little sympathetic to the former robes who were surrounded in the city.

"Acton Ezhen!" The sound of words behind him interrupted Acton's thoughts, and he turned to see that the Jurchen captive who had tried to climb out of the trench was looking at him with a look of shame. Acton punched him hard in the chest, then slapped him twice, and scolded: "Something with no long eyes, run, run, where are you running?" If I hadn't pulled you back, you'd be dead by now! ”

The Jurchen captive didn't dare to move after being beaten, but he lowered his head and didn't dare to speak, Acton kicked two more times, venting the evil anger in his chest, and then scolded fiercely: "Your work today is in vain, and the things you get are distributed to the people in the same team, okay, keep working!" ”

Everyone heard Actun say this, as if they had been amnestied, and hurriedly grabbed the tools and dug up the soil, especially the Jurchen man who was beaten just now, although he was beaten by Acton, he worked harder, everyone knew that Acton actually saved his life, otherwise he would definitely let the Ming army's guns kill, even if he could escape into the city of Helinger, seeing that this city was broken sooner or later, it would be a dead end sooner or later.

and within the city of Lingle.

"Water, give water!"

There was a rush in the city gate, the white-armored soldiers who had just fled into the city were in a state of embarrassment, these people who had just experienced a hard battle were thirsty, as soon as they grabbed the jug and poured it into their mouths, the blood dissolved into the water, the jug immediately turned red, some people fell off their horses while drinking, and the officer guarding the gate hurriedly instructed his men to carry the wounded inside to check the injury.

"Come on, help the lord get off the horse!"

Yue Tuo pushed away his subordinates from the horse and jumped off the horse, his face was so white and terrifying that the sharp-eyed man could see a thumb-sized hole in his right arm, and blood was flowing out of it.

"Heshuo Baylor, the wound on your right arm—" Kong Youde, who heard the news, did not look very good.

"Nothing remarkable, just rubbed a little!" Yue Tuo walked to a stone and sat down, and Goshha next to him hurriedly unfastened his armor and let the doctor treat him. Kong Youde watched the doctor busy taking out the lead bullet from the wound for Yue Tuo, but his heart was a mess, he saw the situation clearly on the city gate, the Ming army's previous arrangements that looked quite ridiculous had answers, and the soldiers in the trenches did not have to worry about being hurt by firearms - whether it was the enemy's or their own, so the Ming army's gunners hidden in the rear trenches could safely and boldly shoot the Jin soldiers who went out of the city to counterattack, but the Jin soldiers had nothing to do with the enemy in the trenches. Unless they also jump into the trenches and fight hand-to-hand.

"Heshuo Baylor, you're lucky this time, this lead bullet blocked the arm armor for a while, so it didn't hurt the bones and tendons! Next time, you may have such good luck, so be careful! The doctor finally took the lead bullet from Yue Tuo's shoulder, and then began to clean the wound and apply the medicine to bandage it, while babbling on and about. Yue Tuo was not annoyed, and said with a smile: "I understand, I trouble you this time, thank the doctor for me!" ”

After Goshha sent the doctor away, Kong Youde hesitated for a moment and said in a low voice: "Heshuo Belle, the next raid will bring some fire pots down, if those guys hide in the trenches, throw the fire pots below and burn them to death!" ”

"No need!" Yue Tuo moved his injured arm to make him feel better. Kong Youde asked in surprise: "Could it be that you have a better way?" ”

"Neither do I!" Yue Tuo shook his head: "The first section of the trench can allow two people to go side by side, even if you throw the fire pot down, how many people can be burned to death?" I'm afraid it's not as many of us as he killed with his guns, and those are just people digging in the dirt. This is tantamount to exchanging the lives of our warriors and those people, and we cannot afford to exchange them. ”

"Then let's just go out at night, their guns can't hit at night!"

"Then it's even more useless, and there is no one in the trench at night, what can we do? Did the trench be filled? Yue Tuo smiled dumbly, as he said, in ancient times, the purpose of the defenders of the city out of the city at night was often not to kill a few people, but to destroy the enemy's siege machinery, granaries and other important targets, but in those trenches there was nothing worth destroying.

"So, what should we do?"

"Wait!" Yue Tuo's answer was very simple: "They can't dig all the way to the bottom of the city wall!" “

Time passed quickly, eight days had passed in the blink of an eye, as Liu Cheng had estimated, to the west of Helinger City, the Ming army had completed the first part of the work approaching the trench and began to dig the second trench, at this time Liu Cheng made a slight modification to his plan, he planned to dig two at the same time instead of one, so that he could place more soldiers and light artillery in the trench to protect his trump card - the four siege mortars. In order to improve his relationship with Yang Sichang, he even arranged a nearby hill with a good view to invite the Overseer to come and watch the siege, and Yang Sichang gladly accepted.

"Master Overseer, please!" Liu Cheng made a gesture diligently, led Yang Sichang to the seat and sat down, on the left and right sides of the seat were surrounded by several layers of thick cloth curtains to shield the biting cold wind outside the plug, only the side facing the battlefield was exposed, and there were seven or eight braziers on both sides, although it could not be compared with the inside of the nest that night, but the soldiers on both sides who were wearing iron armor under the mound, climbing ice and lying on the snow were equivalent to heavenly people. (To be continued.) )