In the dead of night, the Jiannu camp outside the east gate of Datong was silent.

Most of the camps have been extinguished, except for a few tents in the central area, where there are burning sheep fat torches on the fence around the camp, and there is an arrow tower every twenty steps, and there are Jiannu guarding each tower.

From time to time, a group of patrols walked neatly along the fence, and the barracks were filled with a cold and solemn atmosphere.

Dressed in a black night coat, the red lady with a black cloth on her face is like a dexterous female leopard, agile in the shadow of the Jiannu camp, her figure seems to blend into the boundless shadows, and the sentry and patrol team set up on the arrow tower by Jiannu have not noticed her existence.

The red lady volunteered to come to the Jiannu camp to spy on the news.

In the past seven or eight days, Jiannu has only besieged Datong but not attacked, and the artillery has been fighting fiercely, and has been bombarding the middle section of the city wall between the East Gate and the Small East Gate, and it seems that he is determined to open the gap from here, but Li Yan judged that Jiannu had other plans, but he couldn't guess it for a while, so the red lady volunteered to sneak into the Jiannu camp to spy on the news.

Although Li Yan was worried about the safety of the Red Lady, he believed in the Red Lady's light skills and martial arts, even if he couldn't find out the news, it should be no problem to retreat, but Li Yan still asked Li Hu and Jing Maocheng to lurk outside the Jiannu camp with a few brothers with strong martial arts to take charge of the response.

It's a coincidence.

In order to prevent the Ming army in the city from discovering clues, the tunnel of Jiannu was dug from the camp of the Chinese army, and it could only be dug at night, because people would find out about transporting soil during the day, and they did not dare to light torches at night, so they could only transport the excavated soil in the dark, so the whole camp fell into darkness early at night.

This invisibly facilitates the actions of the red lady.

Therefore, the Red Lady almost didn't have much trouble touching the Chinese army camp of Jiannu, but when she arrived near the Chinese army camp, the guards of Jiannu gradually became tighter, and the Red Lady did not dare to be careless, so she put her delicate body close to the ground as much as possible, and squirmed forward a little bit under the cover of darkness.

It was a long, tedious and dangerous process, and for half an hour the red lady only squirmed forward less than ten feet, but fortunately the red lady was a woman, and she had enough patience and hard work to pay off, and she finally approached the most suspicious tent and heard the cooing sound of the wheels of the car.

In the dark, you can vaguely see that the bucket trucks are going in and out, the red lady observed carefully, and found that the bucket cars that went in were empty, but they were full of things when they came out, and a question floated in the red lady's mind, what is Jiannu transporting outside?

It's just a small tent, and there are so many things in it, as if it will never be finished.

Suddenly, the red lady understood that Jiannu was digging a tunnel, and all that was transported out of the tent was dirt!

■■■

When the day was about to dawn, the red lady and the others finally returned to the camp of Lei Gong Mountain, at this time Li Yan had been guarding the mountain pass all night, and saw that Li Yan's hair and eyebrows were cold dew, and the cloak was almost wet with dew, and the red lady's beautiful eyes turned red in an instant.

"Lady, are you back?"

Li Yan only said lightly, but the red lady heard the affection contained in this sentence.

The red lady tried her best not to let the tears in her eyes fall, in front of almost everyone, the red lady is as cold as ice, although beautiful but people dare not get close, only in front of Li Yan can the red lady behave like a woman, and it is a gentle woman like water.

"Xianggong." The red lady said with a sour nose, "The slave family has already found out." ”

"Oh?" Li Yanxi said, "Jiannu really has other plans? ”

"Hmm." The red lady nodded and said, "Jiannu's bombardment of the city wall is just a bluff, but in fact, they are secretly digging tunnels, intending to sneak into the city from underground. ”

Li Xuan on the side said: "Marshal, you must immediately relay this news to the officials and soldiers in the city." ”

Li Hu said disapprovingly: "Why do you want to tell the official army this news?" Wouldn't it be better to let Jiannu enter Datong and destroy all the officials and troops in the city? It saves us more effort in the future, because Jiannu will leave after a bit of captivity, and then we will be able to get Datong without much effort. ”

"Nonsense." Li Yan frowned and scolded, "Although the officials and soldiers are hateful, but the people are innocent, we must not watch Jiannu attack Datong, let alone watch the people in the city be slaughtered, not to mention that Wang Pu's officials and soldiers have helped us twice, the manly husband should have clear grievances, and the debts must be repaid." ”

Li Hu snorted and stopped talking.

"We must relay this news to Wang Pu as soon as possible." Li Yan said this, and said to Jing Mao, "Senior Brother Jing, Ben Shuai will repair a book, please shoot the letter into Datong City with an arrow." ”

Jing Maocheng replied respectfully: "Yes." ”

■■■

In Datong City, the total army is marching.

It was already late at night, but Wang Pu and Zhen Youcai were completely sleepy, and the two were discussing the tactics of Jiannu.

It's been so many days, Jiannu just bombards the city with artillery every day, and has never launched a decent siege, and even Jiannu's most commonly used cave siege tactics have not been used, Jiannu's behavior is very abnormal, there must be some unknown intention hidden in it.

Zhen Youcai said: "It's been eight days, but the city wall bombarded by the Hongyi cannon has only been injured a little bit, at this rate, even if it is two months, it may not be able to collapse the city wall, but Jiannu has no intention of changing tactics at all, which is a bit unusual. ”

Wang Pu said: "In other words, Jiannu has other plans. ”

Zhen Youcai said: "But what will be Jiannu's real intentions? ”

The two fell silent at the same time, each closed their eyes, and began to carefully sort out their thoughts, and after a long time, Zhen Youcai suddenly said: "General, there is a situation that seems quite abnormal. ”

Wang Pu said: "Let's hear it." ”

Zhen Youcai said: "In the past few days, the humble position has been paying attention to the reality of Jiannu, and found a strange situation, after nightfall, the Jiannu camp outside the north, west and south gates are all bright with torches, only the Jiannu camp outside the east gate is pitch black, and the fire is rarely seen. ”

"Could it be ......" Wang Pu's expression moved, and he said in a low voice, "What is Jiannu covering up?" ”

"Cover up what?" Zhen Youcai muttered, "If you don't light the torches, it's just to prevent us from seeing, what exactly does Jiannu want to cover up?" ”

The two of them thought hard for a long time and finally got nothing, and Wang Pu finally said: "We will never come up with a clue if we think like this, we have to think the other way, if we are Jiannu, what kind of siege measures will we take?" ”

Zhen Youcai immediately understood it, and said with his fingers: "If Jiannu's Hongyi cannon can't play a role, then they can only rely on traditional siege tactics, and the traditional siege tactics are nothing more than building ladders, building earth platforms, or flooding fire or something, but the most commonly used Jiannu is to siege the city in caves...... Huh, caves? ”

Cave siege was the most commonly used siege technique in the early days of Jiannu, and it was also the most stupid and helpless tactic.

The so-called cave siege is to let the infantry carry a tall and thick heavy turret shield close to the foot of the city wall, and then dig the foundation of the city wall under the cover of the lug shield, hollow out the foot of the city wall, form a passage, and then break into the city.

"Authentic!" Wang Pu and Zhen Youcai shouted almost at the same time, "Jiannu is digging a tunnel!" ”

At this time, the young lady suddenly walked in, still holding a thumb-thick wolf tooth arrow in her hand, and a scroll of letters inserted on the arrow, and said to Wang Pu: "General, someone outside the city just shot this letter into the city. ”

Wang Pu took the arrow from the young girl's hand, took down the letter and looked at it.

After reading it in a hurry, Wang Pu said to Zhen Youcai: "Youcai, this letter was shot in by Li Yan, Li Yan said in the letter that he had sent someone to sneak into the Jiannu camp to spy on it, and Jiannu was secretly digging a tunnel, and the location was outside the east gate, which was completely consistent with our conjecture." ”

As he spoke, Wang Pu handed the letter to Zhen Youcai again.

Zhen Youcai finished reading the letter, frowned and said, "It seems that Jiannu is digging tunnels, but how to deal with it?" ”

Wang Pudao: "It depends on what Jiannu is digging the tunnel for." ”

Zhen Youcai said: "Then you still need to think about it, of course, dig a few passages, enter the elite soldiers into the city, and then take the opportunity to seize the city gate......"

Halfway through the words, Zhen Youcai didn't say anything, because the five city gates of Datong have all been sealed, even if Jiannu sends a small number of elite soldiers into the city through tunnels, it can't play a big role, and it's really not difficult for the defenders to deal with a few tunnels.

"General." Zhen Youcai said in a low voice, "The city is heavily guarded, and it doesn't seem to be a threat for Jiannu to dig tunnels into the city?" ”

Wang Pu said: "If Jiannu only digs the tunnel under the city wall, and then buries tens of thousands of catties of gunpowder, it will be detonated and ......."

"Huh?" Zhen Youcai said in a speech, "Jiannu wants to blow up the city wall? ”

"I guess so." As he spoke, Wang Pu's tone became affirmative, and he said firmly, "This must be the case." ”

Zhen Youcai said: "If only we could find out the exact location of Jiannu's tunnel, then we can take precautions in advance and let Jiannu's wishful thinking fail." ”

Wang Pu's face suddenly flashed with a hint of hideousness, and said, "I have a way." ”

"Huh?" Zhen Youcai was surprised, "Could it be that General Fei already has a countermeasure?" ”

Wang Pu smiled, raised his head and shouted, "Lu Liu." ”

Lu Liu responded and said loudly: "Yes." ”

Wang Pu said: "Call the monk immediately." ”

"Yes."

Lu Liu suddenly agreed and took the order.

■■■

Build a large camp of slaves, and Dolgon makes an account.

Almost as soon as Wang Pu and Zhen Youcai knew the true intentions of Jiannu, Fan Wencheng had already hurriedly entered the tent and said to Dolgon: "Master, the tunnel has been dug to the foot of the city wall. ”

Dolgon rejoiced, "Really? ”

"Absolutely." Fan Wencheng said, "It's all dug to the foundation of the city wall, and I can't be wrong." ”

"Okay." Dolgon's expression suddenly became extremely hideous, and he looked up and shouted, "Someone." ”

A Goshha entered in response to the call, knelt on the ground and said, "What do you command?" ”

Dolgon said: "Let Tong Yang come to see this king immediately." ”

"Wow."

Goshha said yes and took the order.

Soon, the surname Tong Yang was sleepy-eyed, he was woken up from his sleep, and when he entered the account, Tong Yang's surname quickly knelt on the ground and said a thousand words: "The slave asks for peace to the master." ”

"That's it." Dolgon waved his hand and said, "Mr. Wen Cheng has dug the tunnel under the city of Datong, so you will take someone to fill the gunpowder and blow up the city wall of Datong to this king." ”

When Tong Yang's surname heard this, he suddenly came to his senses and asked, "How big a gap does the master need?" ”

Dolgon said, "How big of a gap can you blow?" ”

Tong Yang's surname said: "If you fill 20,000 catties of gunpowder, you should be able to blow up a gap of about ten zhang." ”

Dolgon said: "Then fill 20,000 catties!" ”

"Wow." Tong Yang's surname said, "The slave will take people to fill the gunpowder." ”

Tong Yang's surname is the only firearms expert in Jiannu, and Jiannu's Hongyi cannon is his imitation.

Tong Yang's surname also has a study of the explosive power of gunpowder, this guy first led people to expand the medicine room at the foot of the city wall, and then built stones on the four walls, filled the gaps with plaster, made a solid medicine room, filled with 20,000 catties of gunpowder, and then blocked the medicine room from the entrance through the stone wall, the thickness of the stone wall is several zhang, only the lower corner left an inch square of the medicine trough, sprinkled with the medicine inside, from the medicine room straight to the exit of the tunnel.

Two days later, everything was ready.

Dolgon took all the noble relatives of the Eight Banners of Jiannu, the Eight Banners of Mongolia, and the Eight Banners of the Han Army to the tunnel entrance, and Tong Yang handed over a torch to Dolgon, and said respectfully: "Master, everything is ready. ”

Dolgon took the torch, looked back at Haug coldly, and asked, "Are the elite soldiers of the two yellow flags ready?" ”

Haoge snorted lightly and responded, "Bai Yintu and Ao Bai have already led the three thousand elites of the two yellow flags to ambush outside the city. ”

"Okay." Dorgon said, "Then the king wished Aobai and Baiyintu victory and the first success." ”

Dorgon's words were beautiful, but his intentions were very sinister.

said that he wanted to give up the head attack of conquering Datong to Ao Bai and Bai Yintu, and give it to the two yellow flags, in fact, he wanted to take the opportunity to weaken the power of the two yellow flags, because the Datong guard would be Wang Pu, even if the city wall was blown up, it was inevitable that there would be a vicious battle.

Hauge knew that Dorgon wanted to take the opportunity to weaken the strength of the two yellow flags, but he had no choice, because now Dorgon was the regent, and he Haug was just a small county king, and he could only do what he was told.

Another regent Yue Tuo, who went with the army, also did not come forward to defend the two yellow flags, in the end, the two yellow flags are still too powerful, and Yue Tuo, who is the owner of the Zhenghong Banner, also hopes to take the opportunity to weaken the power of the two yellow flags, after all, the two yellow flags are too powerful, and it is not a good thing for the two red flags.

Dolgon smiled at Hauge, pressed down the torch in his hand and ignited the primer at the mouth of the tunnel, the black gunpowder was ignited by the flame of the torch, and the sparks quickly extended into the depths of the tunnel, and a faint smell of gunpowder soon spread in the air.

■■■

In Datong City, everything is ready.

As a modern person, it is not difficult to determine the exact location of the Jiannu tunnel, only need to buckle a few urns upside down on the ground, and then listen to the bottom of the urn with your ears for a while to roughly identify the direction, because the Jiannu tunnel has extended to the stone foundation of the Datong city wall, and the ground in the city is only twenty or thirty meters apart, and all the sounds made by Jiannu are not hidden.

Wang Pu had all the dwellings within fifty paces of the eastern wall be demolished, and then a stone wall was erected twenty paces away from the wall, six feet high, and the musketeers stood behind the stone wall, only the part above the shoulder was exposed, and it was just enough to mount the muskets on the wall to shoot.

……

(To be continued)