The guards who summoned the ministers had already left, and Mo Jingyao was pacing back and forth in the empty hall, suddenly overjoyed, and suddenly worried, and it was really difficult to choose.

"The ancestors of the past had a will: the luck of the Zimo family has ended, and the revival of the Li family is a few days. It is advisable for us to avoid living in other countries, cultivate our strength, and wait for the time to serve their destiny. Mo Jingyao thought for a moment and muttered to himself: "Although the name of the Li Dynasty is right, the power belongs to the Zheng Mansion. People who love are more important, and their wind and breath are no different from the four Xuankuan and easy. At the same time, the politics of the ancestors Mingde and Taizheng have not been forgotten by those who are consolidated in the hearts of the people. Therefore, the fortune of heaven has been returned, but the hearts of the people have not been returned to me. Confucian scribes, too, often shovel and bury the light, isn't it waiting for me to be in the middle of the Mo's and come into the world? If the Ming army breaks Zheng, this is a good opportunity for the prosperity of the Mo family, and we must not ......miss it, and we must not miss it."

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"Have Xuanguang reinforcements arrived?"

"Have Fushou reinforcements arrived?"

"Has Buck's arrived?"

…………

Zhu Yongxing's inquiry was finished, and he felt quite funny, how could this be a bit like "Are you gone to work, are you gone to school...... However, a decent city finally appeared in front of him, which made him a little excited. Attacking the city and plundering the land, the moment to witness this new history is coming again.

"There are almost more than 20,000 Annan soldiers gathered in Anpei, right?" Ma Bao made a rough calculation, looked at the middle-aged man who came to report the news, and waited for his confirmation.

This middle-aged man is of Chinese descent, and he has been the eyes and ears of the Zheng family's businessman Annan for many years, and he has been secretly ordered to spy on the news. In fact, he didn't have much experience as a spy, and the information he obtained was not detailed. Regarding Ma Bao's inquiry, he hesitated and did not dare to answer.

"Twenty thousand, thirty thousand, but it's just a turtle ear in an urn." Zhu Yongxing smiled and waved his hand, which was regarded as relieving the embarrassment of this rookie.

Ma Bao retracted his gaze and said to Zhu Yongxing, "Your Highness." The enemies near An Pei have basically been transferred to this city, and as long as they win with one drum, they will take the surrounding land as if they were probing for something. ”

Zhu Yongxing nodded and said: "Surround the three queyi, if the enemy is defeated and goes out of the city, you can use cavalry to pursue and win easily." If it is a street battle in the middle of the city - it is not appropriate, our army does not need to go deep after breaking the city, and bombard it with artillery. Shock their courage and force them to surrender. ”

"Your Highness is wise, our army is long in field battles, and street battles are entangled, I am afraid that it will increase casualties." Ma Bao agreed, and did not forget to compliment.

Zhu Yongxing smiled faintly, urged the horse to go, and walked around the city under the protection of the guards. Observe the city defenses and look for weak points in the breach.

Twenty miles north of Ampe City. After a field battle between the Ming army and the Annan soldiers, the easily defeated Annan soldiers were defeated and fled back to Anpei, so that Zheng Hua, the prince of Anpei County, completely dispelled the confidence of fighting with the Ming army in the field again, and began to hold the city with all his might, waiting for Thang Long to send more reinforcements.

Although Anpei's city walls were not very tall and strong, Zheng Hua felt that the Ming army had come from afar. It is unlikely to carry heavy artillery, and the siege equipment also needs to be built temporarily, and there are many Annan soldiers in the city, so there is still great hope for holding on.

So, when the Ming army was encamped outside the city. Zheng Hua stood at the head of the city and looked at the city with cold eyes, and confidently cheered up the surrounding Annan soldiers.

"The remnants of the Ming army were forced by the Qing army, and they could no longer gain a foothold in China, so they wanted to come to my Annan to seize land and live. However, how can it last if the labor is far away? When his division is exhausted, our army will arrive together, and there will be no doubt about victory. ”

"The county prince is high!"

"Adults are familiar with the art of war, and they know how to see it!"

"In my lord's words, it really made the last general's mouth open!"

A group of sighing voices sounded around him, and Zheng Hua stroked his beard and smiled, showing a smug face.

There was no moat outside the city, only a hastily dug trench, and a few newly nailed wooden stakes outside the walls. Obviously, the Ming army advanced too fast, so that the defenders of Anpei did not have enough time to strengthen the city defenses. Even the dilapidated city walls were hastily repaired, and the masonry and stone were of different degrees and colors, looking like a hundred clothes with countless patches.

The main force of the Ming army set up a village at the north gate, and the cavalry patrolled outside the east and west gates to deter the enemy in the city. Although the Ming army could block all four city gates, Zhu Yongxing did not want the Annan soldiers to fight the trapped beasts, so the south gate was left to enter and exit.

After observation, Zhu Yongxing found that the three gates of Anpei did not have a tall urn city structure, but only built simple city towers to enhance the defense capability of the city gates. The east gate is even more dilapidated, there is not even a simple city tower, and there are few artillery pieces to defend the city. So, he decided to choose this place as a breakthrough.

"My lord, the Ming army has divided its troops, and the soldiers are also lined up at the east and west gates, and they have begun to dig trenches outside the city gates."

The county prince Zheng Hua waved his hand, indicating that he had already known the Tao. At this time, he was in the north gate tower, and the actions of the Ming army under the city were clearly visible.

"Liezhai Chen Bing is going to attack the city? But what does it mean to dig a trench? Zheng Hua was a little puzzled, is this Ming army going to attack or besiege? After watching it for a long time, he didn't know the essentials, so he had to respond to all changes with no change, and ordered the soldiers defending the city to tighten their guard and not relax.

In fact, the judgment of the Annamite people was wrong, the Ming army did not dig trenches to besiege, but approached with trenches, and several Z-shaped trenches approached the city gate at a speed visible to the naked eye, until about 150 meters. Then the earth was dug and the wall was dug up, and slowly a shelter was formed facing the city gate.

"In the battle of Guandu in the past, Yuan Shao once built a building turret, piled up soil like a mountain, and shot Cao Ying with arrows." Zheng Hua is not a straw bag fool, he even knows some stories of the Three Kingdoms, strokes his beard and mutters to himself: "Does the Ming army want to follow suit?" ”

"Your Excellency is wise." An Annan general immediately sent it to him, "The Ming army has some tricks, and it is difficult to escape the eyes of adults, and this battle will be lost." ”

With a pat on the ass, Zheng Hua strengthened his judgment, sneered and pointed outside the city, and said, "Build soil for mountains? How can a mud be built without stone and wood? The Ming army was good at field warfare, but it was clumsy in attacking cities. The enemy is sharp, and I should hold on. When his food is exhausted, he will go away. In this way, the city has no worries. ”

"Yes, yes! It is the rainy season, the soil is soft, and it is really whimsical and foolish to want to build soil as a mountain. The adults are well versed in the art of war, and An Pei is solid, and the Ming army will definitely return with a feather. Another sycophant was sent, Zheng Hua pretended to be reserved, and cast his wise and profound gaze outside the city, full of disdain and contempt.

If it weren't for the rainy season, the soil was too soft, and Lao Tzu would let you take a dirt plane. Zhu Yongxing set up the Wang Qi at the north gate, but the main attack was at the east gate, and now he is regretting that he cannot carry out tunnel blasting. Fortunately, this is the city of Annam, which cannot be compared with the fortified city of China. If there is an urn city, or three gates and three walls, wow, it will be a headache to think about.

For the fortified city, let alone in ancient times, even in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period, whether it was a Chinese self-made copper cannon, an iron cannon, or a foreign iron cannon imported from abroad, there was not enough ability to overcome the walled city. It seems that the only way to conquer the city held by the enemy is to attack the city through tunnels.

Before the application of gunpowder, there were two purposes of cave attack, one was to dig tunnels into the city, and the other was to destroy the city walls. It is very difficult to attack the city from the tunnel, and the tunnel must be very wide enough to accommodate a large number of soldiers to enter the city quickly. Therefore, it is common to dig not all the way through the wall, but to hollow out the underside of the wall, and then use strong wooden stakes to support the foundation of the wall above. When a section of the wall was completely hollowed out, the men were evacuated and the wooden piles that supported the foundations of the wall were set on fire, causing the wall to collapse.

In the Ming Dynasty, the use of gunpowder to blast the city wall during the cave attack began to appear, Li Zicheng attacked Luoyang, Zhang Xianzhong attacked Chongqing, Chengdu, all used this method. But the real widespread use of tunnel blasting was during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Although there is now a precedent for tunnel blasting, Zhu Yongxing still believes that there is a lot of room for improvement and improvement in this tactic. Because he studied physics, he was half a military enthusiast, and he also looked up a lot of information when he wrote books in his previous life. Therefore, Zhu Yongxing has very advanced theoretical knowledge of how to increase the power of the explosion and improve the blasting efficiency, such as sealing the medicine chamber more scientifically, better controlling the direction of the impact of the explosion, and concave charge energy accumulation, etc., but it needs to be tested and perfected in practice.

Now, since the natural environment does not allow for tunnel blasting, Zhu Yongxing decided to use artillery bombardment and external blasting to attack Anpei.

In principle, the bombardment cannon is very similar to a large-caliber mortar gun, with a large firing angle and a high ballistic arc, which can be used to bombard targets with close distances, obstacles in the middle space, and cannot be fired horizontally. Zhu Yongxing's next goal is to cast the "Big Poleon" and "Little Napoleon" field guns similar to those used in the American Civil War, as well as the giant mortars used in siege.

All three guns can be cast in bronze, and they are all front-loading smoothbore guns, which are simple in structure and low in cost. Although heavier than the Steel Cannon, it is not very easy to move, but it is sturdy and easy to make, and can increase the range of the Sky Cannon by several times.

Attaching importance to firearms, to artillery, to artillery, this is the inherent opinion formed by the traverser based on the trajectory of the development of military history.

About three hours later, the Ming army made all the preparations for the siege of the city, not only to set up an artillery position with a protective function outside the city gate, but also to tie dozens of ladders with bamboo trees.

After the arrangement was completed, Zhu Yongxing left the royal flag and rushed to the east gate with dozens of personal guards to personally command the siege operation.

When they were on the road, the craftsmen took a break in the car, and when they stopped to camp, they began to work overtime. The Sky Cannon is nothing more than an iron bucket, which is relatively easy to make. Now there are nearly 30 bombardment cannons in the army, and along the way, they buy gunpowder processing shells from various Tusi, and Yuanjiang Nasong has supplied another batch, plus the ones captured from Annam, and the ammunition is also very sufficient. (To be continued......)