Xu Shaoan didn't expect someone to suddenly interrupt him, and listened to the meaning of his words, obviously not taking himself seriously. Especially in front of Chai Rong, who values himself very much, saying these words is obviously not very supportive of Chai Rong's decision to summon him. So, Xu Shaoan turned his head to look, but found that the person who said this was none other than Zhang Yongde, the commander of the palace who had repeatedly embarrassed the people in front of the Golden Palace-this was what Xu Shaoan asked Zhao Kuangyin afterwards.

Seeing that it was this person who was singing against him, Xu Shao'an felt down-to-earth. Although I don't understand that this Zhang Yongde Weishenme always can't get along with his own people, in Xu Shao'an's opinion, since this Zhang Yongde failed to prevent Chai Rong from accepting the so-called investment of the crossing crowd on top of the Golden Palace, then as long as he comes up with a feasible plan this time, the other party's cynicism will not affect Chai Rong's decision.

Therefore, Xu Shaoan said neither humbly nor arrogantly: "If it is according to the traditional practice of the Middle-earth army, what General Zhang said is naturally good. However, the method of destroying the city wall mentioned by the last general was not to tear down the wall and cut down the city, but to bury the black powder under the city wall, or fill it in the hole of the city gate, and use its great power to blow up the city wall or city gate, so as to open the way for the cavalry army behind to enter the city. ”

"It's the rainy season in Huainan now, and the soil is too soft, so it's not easy to dig tunnels underground. In addition, the moat of Shouzhou City is deep and wide, and it is even more difficult for the tunnel to pass under it, which is difficult to achieve by burying black powder under the city wall. After listening to Xu Shaoan's plan, Zhao Kuangyin analyzed objectively on the side.

In this way, the method of filling the hole in the city gate was used. It's just that I don't know how much black powder is needed to blow up the city gate, and whether there is enough space in the city gate hole to put this black powder. Chai Rong made a choice, but still asked with some concern.

Xu Shaoan replied, "The minister has carefully observed the size of the city gate hole with a telescope just now, and it is estimated that there is no problem with filling 10,000 catties of black powder inside. ”

"Is this 10,000 catties of black powder enough to blow up the city gate?" Zhao Kuangyin asked.

"As long as it is filled properly, it is more than enough to blow up the castle tower on it," Xu Shaoan said with great confidence.

Xu Shao'an's answer made Chai Rong, Zhao Kuangyin and the other generals around them breathe a sigh of relief, in their opinion, as long as the black powder is transported to the city gate cave, this Shouzhou City is the bag of the Great Zhou - as for how to transport the black powder, for these generals who can fight well, it is not a problem that cannot be solved.

As a result, while the generals expressed their support for Xu Shao'an's plan—Chai Rong had already decided to use this method, and Zhang Yongde was not good at contradicting it again—they offered suggestions and proposed many ways to safely deliver black powder to the city gate. For example, some generals suggested that the carts could be lined up in a long line, and the black powder could be passed to the city gate from a safe place away from the city wall. Some generals suggested that enough soldiers could be arranged, like throwing earth to bury a moat, relying on manpower to deliver gunpowder packs directly to the city gates, and so on.

After careful consideration, Chai Rong finally accepted the safer method of connecting the carts in a series and passing them through by manpower inside - it was too exposed for the soldiers to carry directly to the city, in case someone was hit by the rockets fired by the opponent or ignited by the fire oil poured by the opponent under the city, it was likely to cause the black powder to explode in advance, thus causing a series of chain explosions.

Subsequently, Xu Shao'an made a request that the cannons and muskets of the gods could provide cover for the carts transporting black powder. On the other hand, according to the functions of the various siege equipment existing in the Zhou army, it was proposed that gunpowder bags wrapped with thistle terrestris and broken iron pieces should be thrown onto the city wall through stone throwers and large arrows, or thrown into the city to kill and injure the enemy army.

Chai Rong approved all of Xu Shao'an's suggestions and requests, and ordered Xu Shao'an, with the assistance of Zhao Kuangyin and Liu Guangyi, to be fully responsible for the processing and use of gunpowder packs. In a sense, Xu Shao'an has now become the commander-in-chief of the Zhou army's siege, and all the siege equipment of the Zhou army is handed over to him to dispatch.

In the face of Chai Rong's trust in himself, for a moment, Xu Shaoan even had an impulse to "die for his confidant". Fortunately, this impulse only existed in a flash of thought, and when Xu Shaoan replied to Chai Rong, "Obey the order", reason had already returned to his mind - although Xu Shao'an had a limited understanding of history, he had heard of the so-called emperor's imperial technique, and he still had enough resistance to Chai Rong's behavior with some co-optation. ,

The plan for the siege has been decided, and the rest is to implement it. After Xu Shao'an returned to the Zhou army camp with Chai Rong, he began to prepare a series of equipment needed for the siege with the support of Zhao Kuangyin and Liu Guangyi.

Xu Shao'an first ordered the craftsmen of the ordnance supervision who came with him to pour out the black powder that was originally contained in the large wooden barrel and repacked it into burlap bags of various sizes so that they could be used in different combat units. For example, a pack of 100 catties is used for a heavy stone thrower, a pack of 50 catties is used for blowing up the city gate hole, a pack of 10 catties is used for a light stone thrower and a bed crossbow, a pack of two catties or even a catty is used for a stepping crossbow or a crossbow, and so on.

Among them, the gunpowder bag used for the stone thrower and the bed crossbow is doped with tribulus terrestris or iron sand in order to increase the lethality - one or two catties of a pack is inconvenient to add other sundries due to the small amount of medicine and the small volume of the gunpowder bag, which is basically used to shoot on the enemy's city head to form smoke and disturb the enemy's line of sight.

Because of Chai Rong's will, all the combat units and logistics personnel of the Zhou army under Shouzhou City were very cooperative with Xu Shao'an's instructions and arrangements, so the preparations for the siege went smoothly. With everyone's full cooperation, it only took three days to prepare everything to stop, just waiting for the day of the general attack set by Chai Rong himself.

On the morning of the 231st day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar of the third year of Xiande, the siege battle, which had been stagnant for more than ten days, began again. After receiving a report that the Zhou army, the general defending the city, had moved, Liu Rengan, the commander of Shouzhou Jiedu, hurriedly supported his sick body and led a group of men down to the north city wall to watch the movement of the Zhou army.

At a glance, Liu Renzhen found that the arrangement of the Zhou army under the city today seemed to be different from that of previous days. Although the infantry and cavalry formations of the Zhou army were no different from those of the past, and the types of various siege equipment were similar, the way of placing various siege equipment was very different from the past. Not to mention what kind of divine weapons were the four huge tubes in the middle of the Zhou army's array, let's just say that the sections of wooden walls erected behind the Zhou army's stone throwers and bed crossbows had already made him a little confused.

He discussed with the generals around him for a long time, but he didn't understand what the function of the wooden wall behind the stone thrower was. It can be said that it is to prevent the counterattack of the stone throwers in the city, but the wooden wall is standing behind the stone throwers of the Zhou army, and it is impossible to provide protection for the stone throwers and the soldiers who operate the stone throwers. There is no need to hide soldiers behind the wall.

In addition, in front of the array of the Zhou army's infantry, the nearly 100 chariots lined up in a row made Liu Renzhen even more puzzled, and he couldn't understand what the Zhou army was preparing to prepare so many chariots at one time. If it is said that it is to cover the soldiers to dig tunnels under the city, this number is too much, could it be that Chai Rong plans to dig tunnels in several rows under Shouzhou City, so as to disperse the Liliang of the defenders in the city, so as to ensure that at least one column can succeed? But after thinking about it, Liu Renzhen felt that it was wrong. The method of digging tunnels under the city in order to dig up the city wall was not unused by the Zhou army, but because it was implemented many times but never succeeded once, the other party had already given up this method, which was time-consuming and laborious, and the success rate was very low. At this time, the veterans of the Zhou army division were tired, and the rainy season had arrived, and the logistics supply was difficult, so it was obvious that there was not enough time to take such a stupid method to attack the city.

Just when Liu Renzhen and his subordinates were worried about these inexplicable actions of the Zhou army, behind a wooden wall several zhang long, Chai Rong was listening to Xu Shao'an's introduction to the specific tactics adopted in the upcoming siege war, together with Zhao Kuangyin, Zhang Yongde, Li Chongjin and other generals, as well as a group of civil servants.

Xu Shao'an first replied to Chai Rong about the role of these wooden walls erected behind the stone throwers, and he said: "Qi Yu Bixia, the reason why the minister ordered people to erect wooden walls behind these stone throwers, bed crossbows, and the four bronze cannons is mainly to prevent the soldiers from making mistakes when operating these equipment, causing the gunpowder packs to explode in this formation, and other gunpowder packs to be fired. ”

As he spoke, he pointed to the wooden wall in front of him and continued: "Bixia, please see, these wooden walls separate the stone thrower, bed crossbow and other equipment in front of the back from the gunpowder bag to be fired, so that even if the gunpowder bag in front is accidentally exploded by accident, under the barrier of the wooden wall, the gunpowder bag in the back will not be in danger of being detonated." ”

Everyone nodded again and again, and Chai Rong praised Xu Shaoan in public for being thoughtful and a good material for being a general. Xu Shaoan was naturally humble when he heard this. Subsequently, Xu Shaoan introduced the tactical arrangements of the siege to Chai Rong and others, and he said: "Bixia, the siege method formulated by the minister is divided into four steps. ,

In the first step, heavy equipment such as bronze cannons, stone throwers, and bed crossbows were concentrated to deliver gunpowder packs to the northern part of Shouzhou City, killing and injuring the enemy's defenders on the city wall, so that they would not dare to defend the city wall in a short period of time.

The second step is to prepare for the firepower in the early stage, well, that is, after the task of delivering gunpowder packs in a centralized manner is completed, on the premise of maintaining the deterrence of the enemy, gradually slow down the speed of these heavy equipment to deliver gunpowder packs. Then, under the cover of crossbowmen armed with gunpowder crossbows, the infantry operated the carts to move towards Jinghuai Gate and set up a delivery channel for gunpowder packs.

In the third step, when the cart is in position, the trebuchet stops firing to prevent accidental damage, and the crossbowmen continue to keep the defenders of the city under control. If necessary, the bronze cannon and bed crossbow can be moved forward to fire at close range at enemy troops near the city gates. After all, the accuracy of these two instruments is much higher than that of a stone thrower, and it can continue to use gunpowder packs to kill and injure enemy soldiers without accidentally injuring one's own people. At the same time, the soldiers in the cart began to pass the gunpowder packets into the city gate hole with all their might, until the city gate hole was buried.

After the above three steps are completed, you can take the zuihou step, which is also the most thrilling step, to explode the city gate. ”

Speaking of this, Xu Shaoan paused slightly, and added: "Bixia, based on the experience that Chen learned overseas, after the explosion, the enemy troops located near the left of the explosion point will naturally be killed on the spot, and the enemy troops who are a little farther away will not die immediately, but they will be somewhat injured, and usually these people will be in a state of ignorance for a while, and it will take a short time to regain consciousness.

Therefore, the minister asked Bixia to send an order to all units of our army, and as soon as the city gate exploded, he immediately led the army to rush there and kill it, taking advantage of the gap when the enemy army had not yet recovered his consciousness, and took the city gate in one go. In this way, even if the enemy army in the city counterattacks, it will not be able to change the overall situation. ”

Regarding Xu Shaoan's siege method, Chai Rong naturally had no objections. He immediately sent people to give orders to the generals of the various departments, ordering them to attack with the explosion of the city gates. Then, he led a group of civil and military ministers and Xu Shao'an to climb a huge watchtower, ready to experience this unique siege battle for themselves.

Xu Shaoan originally wanted to stay below and personally direct the firing of various instruments, but Chai Rong did not agree - in his opinion, although Xu Shaoan had taken various precautions, the gunpowder was too suspenseful and too powerful, and he absolutely could not agree to any accident with the only minister in the court who was proficient in the use of firearms.

At the beginning of the morning, as Xu Shao'an waved the small red flag in his hand twice from side to side on the watchtower, the siege equipment position below immediately became lively. The soldiers in charge of igniting the fire brought the ignition object in their hands close to the powder bag that had been placed in place, lit the fuse on it, and after waiting a few seconds to confirm that the fuse had been ignited, they raised their right hands and waved it down again.

With the arm of the ignition soldier waved downward, the soldiers in charge of the operation of the instrument moved almost simultaneously, and in the roar of the four bronze cannons, more than a dozen heavy stone throwers, dozens of bed crossbows, hundreds of light stone throwers, and nearly a thousand gunpowder bags of various sizes and sparks were thrown into the Shouzhou defenders who were still speculating about the actions of the Zhou army.

);