Chapter 126 - The Strategy of Calming the Hair (II)

In the early morning of this day, a thunderous roar suddenly sounded, breaking the tranquility of Hangzhou.

At first, there were two lonely sounds, but then it simply became continuous, and even the ground trembled slightly in the roar.

“…… It's a cannon! Coming from the southeast! It's the thief's warship firing its cannon at the tide gate! ”

With the above-mentioned panicked shouts, the whole city was like boiling water, and there was a lot of chaos.

Between the streets and alleys, all kinds of alarm bells and gongs sounded together. In addition to the constant sound of cannons in the distance, there are also men, women and children crying and exclaiming, mules, horses, pigs and cattle being frightened and howling, as well as scolding and crying in the south and north tones...... A moment later, under the urging of whistles and leather whips, the soldiers and civilians in the city trembled and picked up their swords and guns, and slowly gathered, everyone stretched their necks from time to time, and looked in the direction of the cannon sound to look at the sharp whistling sound of breaking through the air, and the rumbling explosion was still coming from a distance......

Tide Gate, was built in the Southern Song Dynasty Gaozong Shaoxing period, because the city gate is close to the Qiantang River, twice a day can wait for the tide, so named the tide gate. The tide of the Qiantang River comes every day as scheduled, unchanged for eternity, and often attracts literati from all walks of life to come here to watch the tide and enjoy the scenery.

However, at this morning's tide gate, along with the tide of the Qiantang River, there were also black warships and cannonballs whistling in the sky!

On the Qiantang River, which was filled with morning fog, the huge steam ironclad fleet had already anchored on the shore and took turns pouring fire on the tide gate near the riverside. Meteor-like fires rose from the surface of the river and slammed into the towering and sturdy city walls, blasting the bricks and stones of the city for a while, and the smoke and dust lingered.

On the other side of the city wall of Hangzhou, the poor defenders could not even fire back with artillery, because except for the tiger squat cannon weighing dozens of catties and with a range of only a few hundred steps, there was not even a decent heavy artillery in the city of Hangzhou. In the southern part of Fujian and Guangdong, because of the large number of pirates, there were still some artillery batteries scattered along the coastal ports, as well as artillery purchased from the Dutch and Portuguese. However, in Hangzhou, which is relatively peaceful in the north, the city defense is still at the level of science and technology of the Song Dynasty......

So, after trying to counterattack from the city with the only bed crossbow and tiger squat cannon, but desperately found that they couldn't even hit the riverside tidal flats, in the face of hundreds of naval guns roaring in turn, the only thing the Ming army could do at the head of the city was to hold their heads and run away.

As a result, the tide gate, which was under the "key care", was soon hit by intensive artillery fire, the city walls collapsed one after another, the city towers fell down with a bang, raising a cloud of dust, and even a rain of rubble fell around them, and a large amount of shattered rubble fell from the air, splashed far away, and even smashed on the heads of the citizens, and suddenly shook the city into chaos, and everyone was rumoring that the thieves were about to attack the city.

Next, another solid bullet that was mismarked and shot at Zhu Yuan flew high over the city wall and smashed into the side of a team of Ding Zhuang who had just been requisitioned on the street.

However, just when the whole city of Hangzhou was panicking, the warships stopped shelling, anchored again, and gradually left

Alerted by several aides, the frightened Governor Liu hurriedly mobilized the people again, urgently demolished the houses and walls, gathered some wood and stone to repair the city walls, and ordered people to climb to a high place to pay attention to the observation, so as to provide early warning when the next shelling began.

But until noon, the citizens of Hangzhou, who had raised their hearts to their throats, did not hear the sound of the cannon again.

At least on this day, Hangzhou was not the main target of the "Australian thieves".

The fleet's bombardment of the tide gate in the early morning was just a reminder to these stupid Hangzhou gentry not to treat the tiger as a sick cat......

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On the wharf of the private harbor of Phoenix Villa, four shallow-water heavy gunboats temporarily converted from steam paddle liner tugboats are spitting black smoke and sounding their whistles, and together with several other steam ships with shallow drafts, they are heading upriver in the direction of Fuyang in the upper reaches of the Qiantang River.

The rest of the ships with a deep draft and could not enter the upstream section of the Fuyang County River also sounded their whistles together and sent the strike fleet off.

Next to the wharf, a group of short-haired soldiers carrying rifles, also holding a variety of flags, drove along the bank of the Qiantang River to the southwest.

After a warning bombardment of the Houchao Gate in Hangzhou, Major General Sun Yang raised 4,000 troops and went upstream to attack Fuyang County.

Although the fire attack fleet organized by Fuyang County before, which could be called a joke, under the full monitoring and fire interception of the Phoenix Villa Headquarters, not a single arson ship could rush into the fleet anchorage on the Qiantang River and cause damage to the "thief warship". But there are still two or three "heroes who dare to die" with strong martial arts, after jumping off the arson boat, actually swimming across the icy and biting winter river, sneaking into the riverside military camp at the foot of Phoenix Mountain, killing a negligent sentry with a short knife with their hand, and creating a small riot before being surrounded and captured.

After the battle, summing up the lessons learned, the traverser officers of the Phoenix Villa Headquarters agreed that the previously neglected Fuyang County seemed to be a big trouble for the Hangzhou Raiders this time, although the combat effectiveness of the Ming army in Fuyang was not worth mentioning at all, but I was afraid that the Ming Dynasty gentry in Fuyang County would know the taste from now on, and constantly take advantage of the geographical advantages of living upstream and smooth sailing, and send dead soldiers to drive small boats down the river in three days, and sneak into the Phoenix Mountain military camp at night to wreak havoc...... In that case, it would be unbearable.

I remember that in most martial arts novels, those chivalrous men used similar methods to promote their strengths and avoid weaknesses, and only a few people dragged down the imperial army...... Although this time and space at the end of the Ming Dynasty is not a martial arts world, there seem to be many people in the rivers and lakes of the three religions and nine streams, and the vast majority of the so-called "heroes" are playing the role of "doing dirty work" for the gentry and other financial owners, which is very similar to the violent groups in Japan in later generations......

At this critical juncture, the officials and gentry around Hangzhou may not be able to suddenly conjure up an army that can fight well to defend against the enemy, but it seems very possible to invite a few outlaws with strong martial arts and no regard for life and death to make trouble in Phoenix Villa.

Therefore, before launching a general attack on Hangzhou, it seems necessary to pull out this nasty nail behind it in order to ensure the safety of the back road.

It just so happened that Fuyang County was close to the river bank, and the battleships could hit the shells from one end of the county town to the other on the water, so Major General Sun Yang decided to take Fuyang County to conduct an actual combat training in urban fortification before attacking Hangzhou. Anyway, relying on the firepower coverage of the river fleet, the battle of Fuyang is a must-win situation, and the problem is only how much damage to the troops.

On the other hand, Major General Sun Yang, who lacked understanding of the Ming people's feelings, was also preparing to test the resistance of the local gentry and countrymen in a desperate situation through the Battle of Fuyang. See if they will burst out in despair with a super-level combat power, or will they curl up like quails and wait for death.

Only by correctly assessing the intensity of resistance of the people in the occupied areas can we formulate a more appropriate strategy for occupation and rule.

In addition, how to suppress riots, how to establish rule, and how to stabilize order after occupying the city are all new things for Major General Sun Yang.

It would be a tragedy if it accidentally messed up and turned Hangzhou into Baghdad or Damascus, which would be full of explosions in later generations.

There is a cloud in the art of war, even if it is a tiger fighting a rabbit, you must do your best and think it through!

After the decision was made to launch the Fuyang Campaign, Wang Qiu originally suggested that the attacking troops should be sent directly into Fuyang County with random gates, but they were rejected by Major General Sun Yang, according to his statement, the number of random gates is limited, and it is impossible to abuse them at will in every battle. If even such a small battle with no doubt on victory has to be cheated with random doors, then this kind of army will really have to be cultivated as a young master soldier.

Since this is the case, Wang Qiu was also happy and relaxed, waved goodbye to Major General Sun Yang at the foot of Phoenix Mountain, and wished him success in this war horse.

Next, after Major General Sun Yang led the crowd to Fuyang, the remaining troops on the Phoenix Villa side were handed over to Wang Qiulai to command, so that this college student, who had never been to a military school, also had the addiction of being a general...... If it is a real comrade of the People's Liberation Army, of course, it is impossible to give it to a layman as a toy to spoil it, but these second- and third-rate miscellaneous armies composed of natives of this time and space don't need to care so much.

Anyway, there is no strong enemy in front of him, as long as Wang Qiu still has a basic IQ, these ragtag armies will definitely not be able to play no matter how they play.

But in any case, Wang Qiu, who was in charge of thousands of modern armies for the first time, was still full of excitement and excitement as if he had received some fresh toy, eager to make full use of this short period of military power and do something interesting on the battlefield......

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On the other hand, after witnessing the astonishing destruction of the Houchao Gate in Hangzhou by the thieves' naval artillery, the prefect Liu Mengqian, who was deeply worried about the war situation, immediately cordially met with Comrade Gao Xuan, the outstanding representative of the Ming Dynasty and the "No. 1 Master of Trouble" in Hangzhou, and asked him about the countermeasures.

And Gao Xuanxiucai thought about it for a moment, then pretended to be old and supported his chin with a folding fan, and said unhurriedly: "...... Adults, the students have said before that the thief artillery is cast by the method of cutting the heart, and its yin is vicious and vicious, and it hurts the heavens and the peace, which can be called the common anger of people and gods, so it only needs to be broken by the filth of yin and yang. However, my Daming artillery has five elements, and I am not afraid of external objects, why don't you order the craftsman to cast a cannon in a big way, thinking that it is a sharp weapon for thieves? ”

“…… Alas, the benefits of my Ming artillery, this official has heard of it for a long time, but the artillery pattern is also a secret of the imperial court. Although there are many blacksmiths in the city, none of them know the mechanism. And it took a lot of time to cast the cannon, and now it is no longer urgent. I wonder what Mr. has to say? Governor Liu replied with a depressed face.

“…… Coincidentally, the student recently read a book, and came across a wonderful object in the book, which may be used in the current war situation......"

I saw Gao Xuan smiling, pretending to open the folding fan with a chic "click", and gently shook it a few times, ignoring the cold weather that was dripping into ice right now, "...... The name of this thing is called the wooden cannon, it is to take the whole giant wood hollowed out, the outer solid with iron nails and iron belts, although its prestige is not as good as the red-clothed cannon, it can not be long, but it costs very little, the effect is outstanding, it can be called a cheap and high-quality thing to save the time, if you are interested, you may wish to give it a try......"

After listening to Gao Xuan's introduction and boasting, Liu Mengqian's prefect was overjoyed, as if he had drunk ice water in the dog days, and immediately decided to build a large number of wooden cannons according to the method given by Gao Xuan, and make a Jedi counterattack against the thieves outside Hangzhou, so that they could see the power of my Daming firearms!

Immediately afterwards, with the order of the prefect, all the big trees in Hangzhou City were unlucky, and the weeping willows, elms, and pines that had become timber were almost all chopped up by the roots. Due to the lack of large trees in the city, the pillars and beams of several temples were even demolished.

However, although the idea of adapting to the local conditions and building wooden cannons to ward off the enemy is good, it is true that craftsmen can build wooden cannons much faster than casting bronze cannons. But if you start from scratch together, it will take some time...... In order to buy time to build the cannon and prevent the thieves from attacking the city before the wooden cannon was completed, the prefect remembered a wonderful idea he had heard at the "Pinghu Conference" and immediately concocted it left and right.

So, when Wang Qiu appeared under the city of Hangzhou with a group of soldiers and horses, he was stunned to see a long tablet of the god on the head of the city......

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Geographically speaking, Hangzhou is not only a city that is easy to defend but also a city that is easy to attack and difficult to defend.

It is said that Hangzhou is easy to defend and difficult to attack, because Hangzhou is surrounded by mountains and rivers, the terrain is excellent, there are Phoenix Mountain and Jade Emperor Mountain as the screen in the south of the city, there is West Lake as the barrier in the west of the city, and the surging Qiantang River is in the southeast. In these three directions, because of the limitation of the terrain, the siege force could not be used at all, even if there were thousands of troops and horses, it was in vain between the west lake and the west city wall of Hangzhou, the widest point was only 100 steps, and the narrowest was only more than 30 steps. Large-scale siege equipment such as nest cars and rushing cars could not be transported at all. In the area of Houchaomen and Wangjiangmen, the east city wall of Hangzhou is also built close to the Qiantang River, and there is only a few hundred meters between the city wall and the river bank.

In short, for the enemy from the south or west, Hangzhou is indeed a difficult bone to gnaw.

It is said that Hangzhou is easy to attack and difficult to defend, because as a part of the Hangjiahu Plain, the north of Hangzhou City is a flat river, and there is no danger to defend at all, but the enemies who have attacked Hangzhou since ancient times seem to be mostly from the north: the Qing Dynasty destroyed the Southern Ming Dynasty, and the Mongols destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, all of which were the same......

However, the problem in front of Wang Qiu was that no matter which direction he attacked the city, the troops he had at hand were far from enough.

The allied forces invested in this Hangzhou attack were only 7,000 in total. Among them, 4,000 troops with relatively effective combat effectiveness have been led up the river by Major General Sun Yang to attack the county seat of Fuyang with the shallow water heavy artillery fleet. Of the remaining 3,000 people, at least 1,000 people must be left to garrison the base camp of Phoenix Villa. After deducting the battle damage and the wounded and sick during this period, there are only more than 1,000 troops who can really pull him out for walking.

Among the battleships anchored on the Qiantang River, there were still thousands of sailors, but Wang Qiu was not authorized and could not command them.

Besides, this is China, not Soviet Russia, and there has never been a tradition of letting sailors fight for urban fortifications.

Because the number of troops is too small, no matter which direction it is outside Hangzhou, it can be placed, but there is no need to worry about how to choose the battlefield.

Of course, with the firepower that transcends the times, even if there are only more than a thousand people, or even only Wang Qiu alone, it is an easy thing to destroy the city wall of Hangzhou, as long as Wang Qiu puts on Doraemon's superman suit and smashes it with one punch.

But the problem is that it's one thing to break down the walls, it's another thing to crush the city and win street battles. With more than a thousand soldiers and horses who are not familiar with the place, he can't contain the chaos after the city is broken, and he doesn't want to end up with only a piece of burnt rubble and hundreds of thousands of charred corpses......

Therefore, Wang Qiu silently calculated for a long time in his heart, and finally gave up the honor of conquering Hangzhou alone, with his special identity, he didn't need such a feat to add glory to it...... Instead, he only planned to take these more than 1,000 soldiers and horses to hold an armed parade, go to the city of Hangzhou to show off his might, casually put a few guns and cannons to have a good time, and by the way, scare the people in the city.

As for the occupation of Hangzhou, let's wait until Major General Sun Yang returns from Fuyang County!

So, Wang Qiu took a relaxed attitude of an armed outing, led more than 1,000 miscellaneous soldiers mainly from the Japanese security forces, dragged two light one-pound bronze field cannons, leisurely walked through the snow-capped Su Causeway, Lonely Mountain and White Causeway, and even enjoyed the scenery of "broken bridge and remnant snow" with great interest, before arriving outside the Wulin Gate Wanyan Liang, the king of Hailing in the Jin Kingdom in the past years, once claimed to "raise millions of troops on the West Lake, and immediately the first peak of Wushan", but he couldn't really look at the West Lake until he died. And I'm really marching on the West Lake now...... He was not without narcissistic reverie.

It's a pity that there seem to be fewer soldiers and horses with me, and the momentum is really not enough......

Then, when Wang Qiu finally stood outside the Wulin Gate with a miscellaneous army, ready to shoot and say hello to the people in the city, he saw an incredible spectacle Hangzhou's Wulin Gate City Tower and the city walls on both sides were hung with countless large and small wooden boards, many of which looked like they had just been unloaded, and the eye-catching handwriting on them was painted with paint, turning into extra-large tablets, some of which read "Taizu Qiyun Liji Ying Wu Ruiwen Shende Shenggong to the Ming Emperor of Great Filial Piety", and others were written " Emperor Gaozong was ordered to rejuvenate the whole merit to the Holy God Wuwen Zhaoren Xianxiao Emperor"......

Wang Qiu took the binoculars and took a closer look, and was immediately stunned, which one is this? And who are these two emperors?

For this inexplicable strange thing, Wang Qiu felt that his brain was a little confused, so he waved his hand silently, and ordered the troops to retreat temporarily, not to rush to fire at the city, but to find a place to rest for a while, and at the same time, he himself had to find someone to ask what was going on.

At the same time, watching these menacing thieves stay under the city wall for a while, they actually retreated without a fight, which suddenly triggered bursts of enthusiastic cheers on the city wall, my Hangzhou scholars are really resourceful, and these thieves were really frightened away by the god card of the Great Song Emperor!

The scholar who had previously proposed the idea of retreating from the enemy at the Pingqi Conference was immediately cordially received and publicly praised by the prefect Liu Mengqian, promising to give him a meritorious name. After the scholar left happily, Governor Liu also thought very regretfully, but unfortunately in the morning, he did not expect the thief warship to fire from outside the tide gate, if the wall by the river was full of tablets at that time, the thief would not have a chance to take advantage of it......