The officers and troops could not withstand such a large-scale artillery bombardment, so they could only retreat in defeat and hide behind the wall again.

The rebels took advantage of the situation to counterattack, and repeated the previous steps of attacking the wall, and before dark, the rebels captured the second line of defense, and the officers and troops retreated to the third line.

As the last cannon fire ended, the first day of fighting was over, and the rebel army advanced about two miles, and the officers and troops retreated two miles.

As night fell, both sides temporarily withdraw.

At the foot of Taiping Mountain, Zhu Di's Chinese army camp is brightly lit.

Zhu Di's face was gloomy and he was looking at the map, the siege was unfavorable, and the field battle was lost.

The imperial court has an army of nearly 600,000 people, but it can't help the rebels.

The artillery of the rebels is really too fierce.

Zhu Di has tried his best to consume and resist the rebel artillery, but it still seems to be useless.

The key rebels are also really cunning, the artillery is not wasted, it is not used to work, it is all fought in the crowd.

At this time, the generals gathered in the camp, Wu Da, Xu Cheng, Jiang Shan, Tan Qing, Tong Xin, Xu Shan, Ma Ying and other generals were all there.

"The rebel artillery is so sharp, and there are so many, everyone is combined, how should we fight tomorrow?" Zhu Di had no choice but to say well.

There was a moment of silence in the tent.

The Hongwu artillery of the official army was completely lost in the siege of the city, and even if it was not lost, it would not be possible to play with such high efficiency as the rebels, and now it is in a position of being fully beaten.

Not to mention these people, even if Xu Da is alive and Lan Yu is resurrected, I'm afraid he won't be able to think of a way.

After all, such a large-scale use of artillery like Zhu Gaoxu, even at the end of the Ming Dynasty, did not.

"Dumb?" Zhu Di saw that everyone was silent, and he was immediately angry.

"Your Majesty is angry." Jiang Shan took the lead in kneeling.

One after another, they knelt on the ground.

"Get up, I want you to find a way, not kneel." Zhu Di said angrily.

Jiang Shan stood up again, and everyone got up one after another.

"I'll see." Jiang Shan thought hard: "You can only rely on the fortified city to defend and consume their artillery, but this is not a long-term solution." ”

Jiang Shan's meaning is that the rebels occupy too much territory and can make artillery in a steady stream, even if they rely on the big city to be firm for a while, it is impossible to hold on to it forever.

It is still necessary to leave the rebels without silver, without people, and unable to make artillery.

But Zhu Di had already tried, trying to raid Fuzhou and cut off Zhu Gaoxu's roots.

Now that Zhu Gaoxu's roots have not been broken, his Beijing division has faced the threat of rebel sailors and artillery.

"It's better to fight with the rebels." Tong Xin, the general of the Fan Cavalry, said suddenly.

Zhu Di turned his head to look at him.

"Today, the rebels actually only fired one round of artillery, and we collapsed."

"The minister sees very clearly, the rebels' artillery is a cannon after a cannon, and the interval is not long, so it sounds like it is continuous, the minister estimates that the total number of rebel artillery is about a hundred, as long as the brothers are not afraid, continuous rushing, their artillery will soon be dumbfounded."

Tong Xin meant, we have a lot of soldiers, if we don't count the casualties and rush forward, withstand the artillery fire, maybe there is a chance to change the rebels.

However, the premise of such a fight is whether the officers and soldiers can withstand artillery fire.

Once you can't withstand it, it may turn into a big defeat.

Ma Ying, the former military governor, also said at this time: "The rebel artillery is mainly more powerful in the crowd, and it also puts pressure on the soldiers. ”

"Last year's defeat in Guangxi was because our official army was too dense."

"The last general thinks that in another day's battle, the formation can be opened and not too dense, so that no matter how many artillery the rebels have, the power will be greatly reduced."

The Ming army has always liked to form a group in battle, especially in a large battle of hundreds of thousands of people, only when they are densely packed together, it is suitable for command.

Otherwise, the battlefield of hundreds of thousands of people will be laid out for many miles, and the commander will not be able to control the overall situation.

"It is still necessary to train the soldiers to have the confidence and courage not to be afraid of artillery." Yulin avant-garde commander Wang Xu'er said.

During the day today, many people were not defeated by artillery, but were deterred by the sound and might of artillery.

Especially when you see a friendly army hit by an artillery shot at close range, that kind of tragic scene can easily make part of the Ming army collapse.

Zhu Di's mind was also circling.

The situation is a bit bad, when he was in trouble before, he felt that the five or six hundred thousand troops of the Southern Army were not scary, and he had the courage to win.

Now that I have more soldiers, I have no confidence.

He suddenly understood Li Jinglong's mood a little now.

With five or six hundred thousand soldiers and horses, he is afraid of defeat, and he must be in the same mood as he is now.

How to win?

Only by defeating the rebels on the battlefield head-on.

But the artillery of the frontal rebels was too fierce, and the way he fought when he was in trouble was no longer good.

When he was in trouble, he rushed forward with tens of thousands of paces at every turn, and if he succeeded, the officers and troops were defeated, and he was always defeated, and he could still retreat with his whole body.

What now?

The opponent's artillery was waiting for him, and Zhu Di did not dare to lead the army forward in person.

In case you get hit by a shot, it's hilarious.

Zhu thought about it, but there was still no good way to fight artillery.

At this time, he considered two ways to fight, one was what Tong Xin said, regardless of the casualties, he ordered an all-out attack, and hundreds of thousands of people rushed forward together, forming a huge battlefield, and the rebel artillery would definitely not be able to hit the overall situation.

If this style of play is successful, it will certainly win a big victory and destroy all the artillery of the rebels, but if he loses, he will face the biggest defeat.

The second way to play is to withdraw the troops and retreat into Zhili, and then divide the heavy troops to garrison all places, and like Jingnan, they will defend without fighting.

If the rebels attack the city, they will suffer heavy casualties.

But what he can defend now is only Zhili, Beiping, Shandong and other provinces, with the ability of a rebel, to hold on, he himself may not be able to withstand it, and it will be difficult to run out of grain and grass.

And whether Zhu Gaoxu can attack the fortified city or not is a problem.

When the siege is not attacked, it will be difficult for him to last.

"Tomorrow I will guard first, and summon Zhu Neng and them over."

Zhu Di thought about it again and again and decided to hold on for a few days without fighting.

The next day, the rebels attacked again.

The officers and troops defended layer by layer, using earthen walls and deep ditches, and repeated offensive and defensive battles, but they did not have particularly good means to deal with the rebels, mainly because there were not enough heavy firearms, and although there were a large number of bowl-mouth guns, the rate of fire was slow and the power was not strong.

There are chariots in front of the rebel army, a rain of arrows in the middle, and artillery in the back, and a three-dimensional attack, invincible.

The two sides fought for a day, and the officers and troops retreated another mile.

Zhu Di counted the cannons of the rebel army every day, and kept thinking in his heart, explosion, explosion, explosion, I wish all the artillery of the rebel army would explode.

He hoped that this kind of positional warfare would constantly consume the artillery of the rebel army.

However, when the rebels faced the mud walls and trenches, the artillery was rarely used, and a dozen guns were fired intermittently, sometimes only once in a quarter of an hour.

Apparently not intended to be used on fortifications, reserved for dealing with their foot riders.

On the third day, there were officers and soldiers who defended very well, and fought fiercely with the rebel army for half a day, not losing an inch of land, but the colleagues around them were defeated and retreated, and they had no choice but to retreat.

Zhu Di was overjoyed and immediately summoned thousands of households.

Qianhu's name is Ge Zheng, who is tall and quite heroic.

Zhu Di said happily: "How do you keep it?" The rebels fought as if they didn't want to die. ”

"Back to Your Majesty." Ge Zhengdao.

They stood behind the mud wall and saw the rebels approaching with a cart, then jumped on the cart and stabbed them with their spears in condescending.

Moreover, the rebels have an endless stream of hidden weapons in their hands, fighting and fighting, and may throw a short knife or short axe from the back and side, which is very inferior.

The rebels are not fighting on their own, and the left and right will help.

Ge is returning his body in the way of others.

He ordered his subordinates to prepare the mud and sand, and as soon as the rebels arrived in front of him, there was an uproar, and everyone threw a face of mud and sand at the rebels, and the rebels who threw them couldn't open their eyes, and then stabbed and slashed, as long as they killed a wave, it would be more troublesome for the rebels to get on the cart behind.

And they were fighting hand-to-hand with the rebels in the front row, and the back row was specially throwing mud and sand, which was very disgusting, and the rebels on the opposite side could hardly open their eyes, and soon some rebels learned to throw mud and sand at them in the back row.

The battle between the two armies turned into children throwing at each other, which was funny and disgusting.

However, it is more difficult for the rebels to bend down and grab the mud and sand from the ground, and it is easy to accidentally fall, and on such a large battlefield, once they fall, it is difficult to get up, and the officers and soldiers have a mud wall in front of them, and it is easier to clasp a handful with their hands than the rebels.

He also thought of kerosene.

People brought fire oil, and when the rebel car arrived, there was an uproar, and a pot of fire oil was poured over the wall, and then the rocket was fired, which could directly burn a piece, and if the rebels couldn't dodge, they would also be burned.

"Good, well done, well done." Zhu Di listened to the ecstasy, it was really good to deal with the rebel with such a method, and immediately issued an order, and Shengge was the commander of the Jinwu guard.

and summoned the whole army to learn this defensive technique.

Sure enough, the next day, the rebel army attacked again, and there were setbacks everywhere, and the progress was slow, and every gram of a column of walls had to pay a heavy price.

After only half an hour of attacking, Zhu Gaoxu Mingjin withdrew his troops, and the rebel army retreated like a tide.

There was jubilation in the ranks of the officers and soldiers, as if they had won the battle.

In the morning of the same day, the rebels hurriedly attacked for a while and then retreated, waiting until the afternoon.

Boom, in the sound of heavy wood rolling, trebuchets appeared in the rebel army.

Zhu Gaoxu's second killing weapon came out.

Zhu Di was stunned after getting the news from a distance, and there was a return cannon used in the field? Aren't they all used to siege cities?

The officers and soldiers thought it was a return cannon used by the Yuan Dynasty.

But it looks slightly larger than the return cannon.

The trebuchet was extremely lethal, and Zhu Gaoxu didn't want to give too many casualties to the officers and soldiers at first, after all, the opposite side would be his own soldiers and horses in the future.

Unexpectedly, Zhu Di didn't know how to lift, and actually used such a vicious method in hand-to-hand combat.

Now that field warfare is the same as siege warfare, every time a wall is captured, vehicles and personnel will be lost, and Zhu Gaoxu is certainly not happy.

But his trebuchet was a siege weapon and a secret weapon, and it was useless when fighting Jingzhou.

This will also be used directly to throw stones.

There are groups of mountains nearby, and it is relatively easy to make rocks.

All kinds of big stones were thrown forward, and the mud wall in front of the officers and soldiers fell down when they were smashed, and they couldn't stand it at all.

Many people don't even dare to stay behind the wall, and once they are hit, they will fall down with the wall.

Bang bang

In the afternoon of the same day, the rebels did not attack, but only smashed the trebuchet and pushed forward more than a mile.

After occupying the territory of the official army, all the stones can be reused.

After that, the rebel army approached layer by layer, and those who could not attack were on the trebuchet, and in the middle were repelled by the official army, and retreated more than a mile, almost losing the trebuchet.

The two sides come and go, every inch of land must be contested, and on the whole, the officials and the army are retreating step by step.

A few days later, Zhu Neng and Chen Zhi, who had retreated to Jiujiang, brought the defeated troops of Fuzhou to the foot of Taiping Mountain, and the large array of the official army had been shrunk by ten miles by the rebel army, and Tongshan County also fell into the hands of the rebel army.

Zhu Neng and Chen Zhi garrisoned 10,000 people in Jiujiang and Nankang, plus more than 50,000 of them who retreated from Fuzhou.

After receiving the order this time, he brought 45,000 cavalry to the scene, and the officers and soldiers immediately recovered their blood.

Before convening the generals, Zhu Di summoned a small number of henchmen.

Among them, there are five people: Zhu Neng, Chen Zhi, Wang Cong, Tong Xin, and Tan Qing.

Zhu Di said, behind us is Taiping Mountain, Jiugong Mountain on the south side, and Fushui River on the north side, just guard the west side.

The rebels stormed the west, and in less than ten days, we retreated ten miles, and then retreated, and then retreated, and then we were at the junction of Taiping Mountain and Fushui River.

I decided to fight the rebels to the death.

Zhu Di's strategy is to start building pontoon bridges tomorrow, building ten pontoon bridges that are about ten steps wide.

It will take three days to build.

Three days later, a large-scale counteroffensive began, concentrating 350,000 soldiers and horses into the battlefield at the same time, regardless of casualties, scattering formations, facing artillery, wave after wave of rush, with continuous consumption, the rebel artillery and troops.

During these three days, all units should preach every day, spread out their formations during the attack, be careful of the artillery, and at the same time tell the officers and men that the rebel artillery will be useless if it hits a few more rounds, and everyone should not be afraid.

(End of chapter)