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"Young master, there is the Jinling City Wall in front!" On the deck of the Zhenyuan, Gu Ping pointed to the tall city wall that was faintly visible in the distance and said to Geng Jingzhong. Geng Jingzhong himself only passed by Nanjing City in his previous life, and did not visit the Ming City Wall, so he only knew from the book that the Ming City Wall was very tall, but he did not have many specific concepts, but he was used to associating with the Fuzhou City Wall and the Beijing City Wall, and in fact, as far as the whole of China is concerned, the Nanjing City Wall is the most spectacular.

The current city wall is different from the city wall that Geng Jingzhong passed by and glanced at in later generations, and the city was built in later generations, and many city walls were demolished since the Republic of China period, and not much remained. At this moment, the city wall is intact, a few decades ago it was still the capital of the former Ming Dynasty, the entire Nanjing small court and Beijing City are the same, and all the six departments and below have the Yamen gathered. Although the Qing court caused some damage to the Jinling city wall when it eliminated the Nanming regime, the Qing court began to repair the city wall after the unification, and it has never suffered damage over the years, making it even more spectacular.

"Every time I come to Jinling City and see this city wall, I will be shocked!" Geng Hou also sighed on the side, he is one of Geng Jingzhong's most loyal intelligence leaders, and he runs a lot of places, just he is right to go back and forth from Fuzhou to the capital, he will pass through Jinling City.

Geng Jingzhong also carefully observed the Ming city wall in the distance from the telescope: "It's really spectacular!" As far as his sight could see, the Guanyin Gate of Guocheng outside Jinling City was located, which was a famous place in Jinling City, Yanziji. And the location of their warship is the river on the side of Jiangxinzhou on the edge of Qixia Mountain. It happens to be facing a section of the city wall of this Guanyin Gate. The view is very wide!

Yanziji is located on the Zhidu Mountain in Jinling. Because the stone peak is abrupt on the river, it is empty on three sides, and it is like a swallow spreading its wings and about to fly. This Zhidu Mountain is more than 40 meters high, connects the river bank in the south, and the other three sides are surrounded by the river, and the terrain is very dangerous. The rocks are surging and surging, and it is an important Yangtze River ferry and a military important place. It is known as the first rock of the Yangtze River by the world, and it is the first of the three famous rocks of the Yangtze River. One of the Jiangning Naval Divisions is stationed here, but at this moment there are no more warships here, even if there are only a few small boats, and the large warships have been taken out by Wang Zhiding to fight with the Mawei Army, and at this moment, most of them are sunk at the bottom of the river, and the others are captured by the Mawei Army.

Looking at the majestic Jinling city wall, Geng Jingzhong felt that he was arrogant, if it weren't for the lack of ink in his stomach, he really wanted to recite a poem. In his previous life, he was a native of Jiangsu. For Nanjing, it is stronger than other places in terms of senses, and the geographical location of Nanjing City is indeed very good. The heritage is also very profound, so he decided a long time ago that if he achieved great things in the future, Nanjing City would be the capital. This city wall was built in the Ming Dynasty, just 300 years ago, from the beginning of the first year of Hongwu to the end of Hongwu, it lasted for 28 years, it is worthy of the name of the world's largest city wall.

"Ah Hou, you know the most about various places, just tell me about the walls of Jinling City!" Geng Jingzhong said to Geng Hou in the right rear.

"Yu Dadu, the city wall of Jinling City from the inside to the outside to form the palace city, the imperial city, the capital, the outer Guo quadruple city wall, is the pattern of the quadruple ring, but and generally follow the old system of the capital to take the square or rectangle, from the design point of view, it can be described as a unique idea, exquisite construction technology, the scale is magnificent and majestic, between the Jinling landscape of Zhong Lingyuxiu, the winding circle is more than seventy miles, and the outer outline of the city wall in front of you belongs to the Jinling city wall, the total length is more than one hundred and twenty miles!"

Geng Jingzhong was also shocked when he heard it, how much manpower and material resources would be spent on such a powerful and majestic city wall! This is the outer outline of the Jinling city wall, and the circumference is actually more than 120 li. He remembered that he had read some records in later generations, saying that after hundreds of years of vicissitudes, the three circles of city walls, such as the palace city, the imperial city, and the outer outline, had been completely destroyed, but only the tall capital city wall, except for the city gate and other wooden buildings, the city wall still stands. Therefore, the "Nanjing City Wall" and "Nanjing Ming City Wall" usually referred to the capital wall, not the outer outline city in front of you.

Legend has it that after Zhu Yuanzhang built Yingtianfu City (Jinling City), he took his sons to Zhongshan to observe the shape of the capital. They found that Miyagi was too close to Zhongshan, and if the cannons were erected on the mountain, the imperial palace would be easily hit, and there were some important commanding heights, such as Yuhuatai in the south and Shogunate Mountain in the north, which were left outside the city, which was very unfavorable to the defense of the city. So, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the construction of Waiguo City in the twenty-third year of Hongwu.

This outer Guo city is mainly built by using the loess hills around Jinling City, only in some weakly defended areas to build a part of the city wall and open 18 city gates, so it is commonly known as "Tuchengtou". Its circumference is claimed to be 180 li, but in fact it is 120 li, but the brick parts of each section add up to only about 40 li. This outer Guo is diamond-shaped, the northernmost city gate is the Guanyin gate in front of you, the easternmost is the Qilin Gate, the southernmost is the Jiagang Gate, the outer Guo city wall in the west is not enclosed, leaving the north and south two openings to extend to the Yangtze River respectively.

Starting from the Qilin Gate in the eastern suburbs, it passes through the Xianhe Gate, Yaofang Gate, Guanyin Gate, Foning Gate, Shangyuan Gate to the north until the Waijinchuan Gate by the river; From the Qilin Gate to the south, through the Cangbo Gate, the Gaoqiao Gate, the Upper Gate, the Jiagang Gate, the Fengtai Gate, the Big and Small Ande Gate, the Big and Small Elephant Gate, the Jiangdong Gate and the Fence Gate, also stop at the riverside, of which the Outer Jinchuan Gate and the Fence Gate were opened in the late Ming Dynasty. This is generally said that Nanjing has "Outer City Gate Eighteen". Although these outer cities were destroyed in later generations, people still use the names of these gates as local place names.

The city wall of Nanjing is a masterpiece of ancient Chinese military defense facilities and city wall construction technology. Regardless of historical value, ornamental value, archaeological value, architectural design, scale, function, etc., the city wall at home and abroad can not be compared, which can be described as another historical wonder after the Great Wall of Qin in China. Even in later generations, the remaining "Nanjing City Wall", that is, the Ming Dynasty Beijing City Wall, is also the largest surviving Beijing City Wall in China. Only by comparison can we know that the Nanjing Ming City Wall is not only the largest city wall in China, but also the largest city wall in the world. Even the famous city wall of Paris in Europe is much worse. The walls of Paris are sixty miles long. But it's half shorter than the Jinling city wall! Therefore, the Jinling City Wall was also selected as the world's largest city wall by the World Records Association in later generations.

"Emperor Hongwu is really admirable, the transformation of a beggar to an emperor is really unique in the ages, and he has such a bold spirit to build such a majestic city wall, amazing!" The battleship is getting closer and closer to the Jinling city wall, and the feeling is not very strong from a distance, and the closer it gets, the more different it feels, and Geng Jingzhong can't help but sigh. By the way, Zhu Yuanzhang was also praised!

In that year, when Zhu Yuanzhang invaded Nanjing, he began to carry out large-scale reconstruction of Jinling City. It took more than 20 years to build the largest city wall in the history of Nanjing. You must know that in the following 500 years in history, the city wall of Nanjing basically maintained the pattern since the Ming Dynasty. The most glorious page in the history of Jinling is the more than 20 years that Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the construction, it connects the stone city in the east, runs through the Qinhuai District in the south, and takes the Xuanwu Lake in the north, including the capital cities of the previous dynasties. In order to build this capital, Zhu Yuanzhang mobilized more than one million people to build the city, involving the vast areas of several provinces in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. It has a strong ethnic affinity and regional representativeness.

"Yes, the Metropolitan Governor, Hong Wuye is bold. It is completely worthy of being called the emperor of the ages. However, the city wall in front of me is only the outer Guo City, and there is another layer of city wall inside. The outermost outer city wall is not complete, but was built in a critical place. Intermittently, not fully connected to each other, there are still a lot of vacancies. But no matter which city wall it is, it is very strong, but it is a few points stronger than our Fuzhou City, even Beijing City cannot compare. Geng Hou continued.

"I know this, the beginning of the supervision seems to be the prime minister of the Ming Dynasty, Hu Weiyong, he is also a powerful person, every city brick was ordered by him to mark the name of the craftsman, so the quality of this city brick is all superior, so the material is good, and it is strange that the city wall made by artificial feet can be poor!" Geng Jingzhong knows this point, the responsibility for the city brick lettering is held accountable to the individual, this method was invented by Hu Weiyong, I have to say, this method is quite effective.

"In addition to this, even the structure of the city wall is also very powerful, and it has not needed major repairs for three hundred years. The walls are topped with brick-paved "pheasant moats" (jagged low, zigzag walls on the outer side of the top of the wall), all of which have stone drains to drain rainwater. Drainage holes were also installed at intervals at intervals at the base of the castle to drain the water from the inside of the castle walls. Therefore, the foundation engineering and protection engineering of Jinling City are very solid, standing for 300 years, still intact! However, it is not easy to go back and fight Jinling City, not to mention the outer Guo City, which is the capital inside, there are thirteen city gates, and there are two water passes. There are more than 10,000 battlements on the city wall, and more than 200 nests.

The upper part of the thirteen gates is built with towering towers, and the Jubao Gate is the most majestic. Among all the city gates, there are three city gates, Jubao, Sanshan and Tongji, each with four city walls, and the space between each two is the "urn city", which is very convenient for defense in wartime. The Jubao Gate is the strongest of these gates, and there is a "Tibetan Army Cave" underneath. As you know, most of the "Tibetan Army Caves" are actually closed brick door openings at the end, which can be used for soldiers to rest and store military supplies during wartime. However, we do not have this kind of "Tibetan army cave" in Fuzhou, and there is no one in the whole of Fujian and Guangdong. This kind of "Tibetan Army Cave" has two layers on the southernmost city wall of Jubaomen, and there are 13 in total, and there are 7 in the lower part of the city wall on the left and right sides, adding up to 27. Each cave can accommodate more than 100 soldiers, and a total of more than 3,000 soldiers can be hidden.

In addition, each gate of Jinling City has two gates inside and outside, and the outer one is the "jack gate" that is put down from the city head, which is very strong and has a remarkable defensive effect; Inside, there are two gates made of wood and iron. In normal times, pedestrians, cars, and horses pass from the city gate. However, if the Metropolitan Governor is unwilling to destroy the city wall with a large-scale salvo, he can let the soldiers push the chariot to the city and use explosives bags to blow up the city gate, which is also very simple. However, even so, we have to send a team of soldiers to suppress the Qing army on the city wall with firepower. ”

"This method will also be approved by the general!" Wang Zhenbang interjected in a timely manner, he was actually very eager to take Jinling City, although he was the head of the navy, but there was an army Zeng Yangxing in front of him, and he really wanted to take Jinling City before Zeng Yangxing took Suzhou. "Send a team from our warship to strike at the Qing army at the head of the city with muskets and light six-pounder guns. In this way, the soldiers in charge of going to the demolition under the city will be much safer. As long as we succeed in blowing up the city gates. The morale of the Qing army must have plummeted, hehe, in fact, our warships drove to the city of Jinling, and the city is estimated to have panicked, and the Qing army in the city has no morale! ”

"We'll talk about this later, we are not prepared to start attacking immediately, don't we, first occupy the water village of the Jiangning Water Division, and then talk about it, it will be tomorrow to attack Jinling City." But later, we can shoot a salvo first, and the target is one of the city walls, including the open space outside the city, and then choose some conspicuous places. Although I don't want Jinling City to suffer artillery fire, but this city wall is so thick, we can't do any damage if we fire a salvo or two rounds, so we won't fight today, but come to two rounds of artillery to give the Qing army in the city a dismount. Geng Jingzhong said with a smile.

"Dadu Governor Mingjian, I also heard that the city wall of Jinling City includes two parts: the city wall itself, the defense and drainage, and the defense and drainage of the city. The upper part of the city wall filling layer is capped and compacted with mortar mixed with tung oil, lime and yellow workers. It is about seven feet thick, and the bricks are made of mortar on both sides of the wall to the base of the wall, with nearly ten layers. It's very solid, and it can't be destroyed by a little shell.

Also, further west is the famous Qinhuai River, the entrance and exit of the Qinhuai River are respectively built with the East Water Pass and the West Water Pass, the water pass is equipped with three gates, the front and rear two are wooden gates, and the middle is set up with an iron gate to prevent the enemy from diving into the city. There are also 33 urn holes on the inner side of Dongshui Pass, which are divided into three layers (the upper two layers are Tibetan soldier caves), and the lower layer (the middle hole can be passed by boat) is open to water. In addition, Jinling City also has a number of culvert gates, such as the Jinchuan River Gate, the "Tongxin Dam" (i.e., Wumiao Gate) of Xuanwu Lake, the Banshan Garden Gate of Qianhu Lake and the Pipa Gate of Biwa Lake. These culvert gates, equipped with copper, iron pipes and copper sluices, can only enter the water but not people, the design is ingenious, the structure is reasonable.

The subordinates can choose the Xishui Pass in the Qinhuai River, and a cannon fire destroyed it, the location here is important but it is easy to build, and it is not distressing to destroy it! According to intelligence, all the troops in Jinling City added up to only 6,000, and most of the troops were taken by Rabu to the Jiaxing area to fight with the Zheng army and attack Jiaxing City. You must know that although there are not many troops in the city, you can recruit young and strong people to defend the city, although the time is in a hurry now, but you can still recruit a lot of them temporarily, after all, there are a lot of people in Jinling City, and it is not a problem to recruit three thousand people at will. But the number of people we landed ashore was not too large, and the number of Qing troops was the same, so we had to take some special measures. However, as long as we show great firepower, this is not a problem to storm the city! ”

Just when Geng Jingzhong, Wang Zhenbang, Geng Hou and others were talking and discussing on the Zhenyuan, many soldiers and people on the side of Jinling City discovered this fleet from afar, at first it was too far away to see clearly, and the white expanse was full of sails, and everyone thought that Wang Zhiding led the warships of the Jiangning Navy Division to return victoriously, but after the battleship group got closer and closer, they found the difference. The warships of the Jiangning Navy Division are not like this, although it is not clear how many there are for a while, but the obvious difference is that the warships of the Qing army are not so big! In particular, the 20 or so warships at the beginning, except for the five fifth-class battleships at the front, followed by the sixth squadron and the first squadron, and in the middle are the Yuanzi formation, all of which are third-class warships.

The size of the Mawei Army's third-class warships has reached 55 meters long, while the largest warship of the Qing Army is only 45 meters long, although the difference is only 10 meters, but the difference between the warships is 10 meters, and the difference is huge, and the most direct appearance can also be felt by people. The most appropriate analogy is that the difference between a donkey and a tall horse is less than one meter in length and less than one meter in height, but the difference in size is so direct.

Moreover, as the Mawei battleships got closer and closer, the people and soldiers around the outer city also noticed the difference between these warships, not only in terms of body size, but also in style. The ancient Chinese warships were the type of fortune ships or the ships of the war, at most they were the sand boats converted by the Qing army, except for those small boats, of course. And the Western type of sail warship in the east is still very rare, especially on the Yangtze River, there has never been such a sail warship, the easternmost Guanyin Gate tower on the Qing army first found the difference.

"Did Lord Admiral come back with a warship?" The Qing soldiers looked hard at the river in the distance, and it took a long time for someone to ask.

When looking at the Mawei battleship that was getting closer and closer, they also became more and more puzzled: "It doesn't seem to be, it doesn't feel like it!" ”

"No, the flag on it is, it seems to be a white tiger, ah, it's not good, it's the tiger flag, the rebellious horsetail navy, the flag they hang is the tiger flag, the enemy attack!" One of the captains who saw it finally saw the appearance of the battleship and the flag on it, and shouted hysterically in shock.

"Ahh The other Qing soldiers were also panicked, this horsetail army appeared here, it was obvious that the Qing army Jiangning Naval Division led by Wang Zhiding was defeated, and it was completely defeated, or the whole army was wiped out, otherwise why wouldn't they see any of the warships of their Jiangning Naval Division? You must know that the Yangtze River is a waterway that flows into the Yangtze River to the end, the Mawei Navy enters the Yangtze River from the mouth of the sea, and the Jiangning Navy Division is going to Jiangyin to fight with the Mawei Navy, either fleeing back in defeat, or coming back with the spoils of war as last time, in any case, it will not be the Mawei Army running here, since they are here, it can only mean one thing - their Jiangning Navy Division has been completely defeated, and has been completely wiped out by the Mawei Army, and their Jinling City is completely exposed to the enemy's artillery!

"Quick, what are you doing stupidly, ring the alarm quickly, you, yes, it's you, hurry up and go to the garrison yamen to report the news!" The military academy guarding the gate immediately ordered a few soldiers on his side, and his heart was also very panicked, this is just a small city gate, and it is also a foreign Guo City, and there are not many soldiers stationed, if the Mawei army comes over quickly to attack this Guanyin Gate, he will not be able to defend it. (To be continued......)