The swarthy waist knife was dull and unpretentious.

Except for Xiao Zhiyan, Jin Shenghuan, the oldest in the military tent, has never seen this waist knife. He was wondering why the regent gave Xiao Zhiyan a golden knife after the victory in Nanyang, and if he thought about it too much, he would be afraid, and Jin Shenghuan felt a slight chill down his spine.

When he first voted for the Ming Dynasty, he wanted to be the governor of Jiangxi, but Emperor Longwu did not allow it, nor did Zhai Zhe and Zheng Zhilong. If Dolgon had been relieved to give him the position of governor of Jiangxi at that time, he might not have been so quick to join the Ming Dynasty. After taking refuge in Zhai Zhe, he has been serving under Zuo Ruo's account, Zuo Ruo is strict in governing the army, and the sergeants in the army are not inferior to the Jurchens, and he is convinced.

But who is Xiao Zhiyan? In the army, it is only known that the general's mansion is diligent and left, and Xiao Zhiyan captured Duoduo, but it was just at the right time. After Zuo Ruo leaves, shouldn't he be the commander of the Huguang Army?

Xiao Zhiyan gave up his hand and ordered Zhang Qiu to return to his position.

Zhang Qiu bowed and retreated, and after giving out the knife, he was an ordinary general in the army.

Xiao Zhiyan said: "Listen to the generals, the regent also gave a hundred brocade robes, and ordered the general to reward the meritorious soldiers after the destruction of Nanyang City." The generals will return to the camp to convey the military order, the army will rest for one day today, and attack the city tomorrow, and those who have merit will be rewarded, and those who slack off will be beheaded."

He is rarely powerful. The regent gave him this waist knife to give him authority, and how could it not be a spur to him.

Xiao Zhiyan has always led the army with righteousness, and suddenly managed the eating, drinking, and Lazar of nearly 100,000 troops, and every day he felt that there were countless things piled up on the desk as soon as he opened his eyes. Fortunately, Jin Shenghuan, Xu Yiyang, Gong Chen and Li Dingguo can all manage the soldiers and horses of their headquarters, and the actual commander of the cavalry battalion of the Ming Dynasty has long been in charge. The Chinese army under his direct command consisted of only 5,000 horsemen.

After the tent was over, Xu Yiyang accompanied Zhang Qiu to check the situation of Nanyang City.

The two led more than 200 cavalry around the city for a week, Zhang Qiu pointed to the ruins at the head of the city and said: "The army is attacking the city very fiercely, and the Qing prisoners are almost unable to hold it" He first arrived, and praised it first, so as not to make people feel arrogant.

Xu Yiyang shook his horsewhip and said with a smile: "General Zhang is good at attacking cities, just talk about the problem." Nanyang is far inferior to Yangzhou, and I have waited here for half a month without progress, so I am really ashamed to worry the regent. ”

"Don't dare to point" Zhang Qiu pointed to the artillery array for three or four miles, "The last general will see that there are artillery arrays outside the four cities, so that the cannonballs cannot be concentrated, and it is better to cut off one of his fingers than to hurt his ten fingers."

Xu Yiyang sighed lightly in his heart and nodded yes.

The Ming army had a total of 100 iron cannons, which were evenly distributed outside the city on all sides. It's not that he didn't mention it to his father-in-law, but Jin Shenghuan and Gong Chenjun both said that without the cover of iron cannons, the soldiers could not attack the city. All departments competed for iron cannons, and Xiao Zhiyan simply divided the iron cannons equally in order to appease the generals. People have nothing to say, and the result also makes Nanyang City unstoppable.

He thought about it, afraid that he wouldn't listen to what Xiao Zhi said. Although Zhang Qiu's position is low, after all, it was the regent who was specially transferred to assist in the siege, and his father-in-law should listen to his construction and said: "What ideas does General Zhang have to say to the general, as long as he can capture Nanyang, he can use any method." ”

Zhang Qiu smiled: "That's nature" He turned around, and he was already confident, a city like Nanyang was nothing.

The two returned to the army, and Xu Yiyang accompanied Zhang Qiu and Xiao Zhiyan to discuss in the big tent of the Chinese army until dark.

At midnight of the same day, the Chinese army conveyed military orders to the battalions. The government soldiers carried the iron cannons placed outside the east and west cities of Nanyang City to the artillery positions at the south gate and the north gate respectively.

Zhang Qiu led the soldiers and horses of his headquarters to open a camp in the Xu Yiyang camp at the south gate, set up a wide tent, and dug tunnels in the tents overnight.

Excavation of tunnels is a technical task, and it should not be dug too deep to avoid the undercurrents underground, nor can it be deflected to ensure that the end point is under the city walls. Most of the soldiers under Zhang Qiu's command were miners, so they were familiar with these lives.

Just after the next day, the iron cannons outside the north and south of Nanyang bombarded together, and the iron balls rained.

Zhang Qiu and the others did not come out of the southern camp all day. The dirt dug out of the tunnels by the soldiers was piled up in nearby tents to prevent the defenders of the city from moving here.

The sound of iron artillery bombardment was dense, there was no gap, and half a day later, the roof of the north gate was smashed.

At the end of the day, the sound of the iron cannon stopped. The soldiers who were digging the tunnels also stopped to rest. The Ming army attacked the city from the four gates, and the Jin Shenghuan troops at the north gate climbed to the top of the city, although they were finally repelled by the defenders, which was not done after the siege of the city for half a month.

When it was about to get dark, the Ming army retreated, and the iron artillery continued to bombard, even all night long.

Late at night, Xu Yiyang came to the tent at the entrance of the tunnel. The soldiers were taking advantage of the thin moonlight to push the dirt from a few nearby tents into the distant tents and pile them up. According to Zhang Qiu's military order, not a little fresh mud can be exposed outside.

Zhang Qiu was squatting there looking at the dark deep hole underground, and when he saw Xu Yiyang coming in, he hurriedly got up and saluted.

"Mr. Xu"

"General Zhang"

Both of them are from eastern Zhejiang, with similar accents and extremely cordial.

Zhang Qiu said: "If there is no accident, after tomorrow night, you can dig under Nanyang City." ”

Xu Yiyang smacked his tongue again and again, this degree is too amazing.

Zhang Qiu explained: "I just need to dig the passage under Nanyang City, I don't need to dig too wide and wide, so that two or three people can pass through Guò" He dug the passage under Nanyang City and then expanded rampantly, burying gunpowder under the foundation.

He used his shovel to mark marks on the ground to indicate how to dig tunnels and how to siege the city.

Xu Yiyang praised: "I didn't expect that there are so many tricks in digging tunnels" Maybe it was influenced by his father-in-law, no matter who did something that surprised him, he liked to praise it, which made him have many friends.

"I'm specialized in this" Zhang Qiu was a little embarrassed, "After breaking through Yangzhou last year, the General's Mansion ordered me to form a siege army, so the General transferred me to Nanyang"

Xu Yiyang didn't know the changes in the Huaiyang army, and when he heard this, he praised again: "The prince really has foresight"

"At the beginning, I put pen to paper from Rong in order to go into battle to kill the enemy" Zhang Qiu's expression was a little gloomy, "I never thought of doing this kind of work to dig tunnels"

Xu Yiyang laughed, his voice was very loud, although he was laughing, there was a kind of sincerity in his eyes.

"General Zhang's words are different, if you think like this, wouldn't no one be an artilleryman? You must know that the salary of an artillery soldier is comparable to that of a sergeant. ”

Zhang Qiu revealed his thoughts to others for the first time, and after speaking, he was apprehensive. If these complaining words reach Li Zhi'an or the General's Mansion, it will not be a good thing for him.

Xu Yiyang deliberately showed envy: "After the city of Nanyang is broken, there are Luoyang, Kaifeng, and Henan, and General Zhang is only afraid that he will be promoted to the general army if he accumulates military achievements."

Soldiers go into battle to kill the enemy for military pay and reward, and military generals are for marquis promotion.

When the world is peaceful, will the generals still be useful?

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