By the end of November, 100,000 officers and troops outside the city had actually left, and only 400,000 remained.

At this time, the ditch wall outside the city was basically perfected, and it was almost impossible for the rebels to rush out.

Zhu Gaoxu ordered the siege of the city, and the fire oil bombs began to play.

Zhu Di has received the news of the destruction of Yongping City, and has made various preparations, and the walls are not piled up randomly, only water and sand are released.

But despite this, Zhu Gaoxu concentrated all the trebuchets this time, there were 200 of them, and they were thrown with a bang, and the city was in flames.

On the first day, it was not attacked, but the city of Beiping also suffered heavy losses, and many oil bombs were thrown into the city and burned everywhere.

Before the siege of the city the next day, Yuan Heng was lowered from the city wall to negotiate with Zhu Gaoxu.

Zhu Gaoxu wanted to laugh when he heard this, but he also wanted to know what other tricks Zhu Di had: "Let him come." ”

Soon he saw Yuan Heng.

"Meet the King of Han." After Yuan Heng came in, he said with a calm expression.

"Bold." There was a roar of angry scolding all around.

Zhu Gaoxu smiled disapprovingly and waved his hand: "I am already the Son of Heaven, and your name is King Han, and you can't change the facts. ”

Yuan Jue said, Your Majesty admits defeat and is willing to let the emperor be in the Han Dynasty.

"Hahaha." There was a lot of laughter all around, but Yuan Heng still looked calm and had a natural expression.

Zhu Gaoxu was also amused, my father is really thick-skinned, but if he is not thick-skinned, he will not succeed.

When Xiang Yu lost to Liu Bang, he was not thick-skinned enough.

Therefore, if you want to be an emperor, you must first have a thick skin, and if you want to succeed in your career, you must have a thick skin.

"What else? What do you say? Zhu Gaoxu asked with a smile.

Zhu Di, this guy is really thick-skinned.

He said that he was willing to surrender, and then Chan gave up the throne, and Zhu Gaoxu asked him to lead his troops north into the grassland in the name of the emperor, and he left the Central Plains with tens of thousands of brothers to help fight Mongolia, and he would not return to the Central Plains in the future.

Yuan Jue finally said: "Your Majesty finally said, you help me tell Gao Xu, I swear to heaven that I will not return to the Central Plains in the future." ”

Bah, Zhu Di swore not to believe it, and still wanted to fool me?

Zhu Gaoxu said seriously: "Although I am not his own child, I have the grace of nurturing, and I don't want to be aggressive, he just needs to talk and count, surrender and open the door, I will do what he wants." ”

Yuan Heng was overjoyed when he heard this: "King Han, you give the order first." ”

"You let Zhu Di open the door and surrender first."

"It's better for King Han to make an order first."

"It's better for him to open the door first."

Then the two looked at each other and looked at each other.

Of course, Yuan Hui knows that Zhu Gaoxu is even more shameless than Zhu Di, if he can believe his words, sows can go up the tree, and he must be allowed to make an order first.

Yuan Heng's face turned red, and he didn't know what he was talking about.

Suddenly.

When, Zhu Gaoxu took out a short sword from his sleeve and threw it on the ground.

Yuan Heng was shocked and frightened, dumbfounded.

"Yuan Jue, don't be afraid, after you go back, secretly stab Zhu Di to death with a sword." Zhu Gaoxu said: "I swear by the sky to make your Yuan family rich." ”

“。。” Yuan Heng looked at him in disbelief.

He stared at Zhu Gaoxu for a long time before stammering: "You-you-—— are you still -——?" ”

Zhu Gaoxu also looked calm: "If you don't do this, someone else will do it." ”

Hiss, Yuan Heng's face changed greatly.

I only heard Zhu Gaoxu say slowly: "Once anyone reaches the end of the road, they are likely to become traitors and leave, those who can be trusted, how do you know that they will stab you in the back?" ”

Yuan Heng became even more frightened.

This time, Zhu Gaoxu proposed to replace the captured Xue Lu, Liu Rong, Tan Qing, Jin Zhong and other civil and military personnel in exchange for the families of the surrenderers.

Zhu Di agreed to change, but among these people, will there be anyone who wants to betray His Majesty?

"Zhu Gaoxu, you are the most terrifying person I have ever met." Yuan Heng said in a trembling voice: "He is also the most shameless person." ”

"Yuan Jue, you seem to have misunderstood shamelessness."

"If I win, I am wise, and if I am defeated, I can be called shameless."

Since ancient times, heroes have been judged by victory or defeat, and those who have achieved victory on the battlefield can unscrupulously change the history books, thus portraying tragedy as comedy and evil as good.

"I, Yuan Hui, will not be as you wish." Yuan Heng said sharply.

"Someone, send off." Zhu Gaoxu said immediately.

Yuan Hui returned to the city, and Zhu Di was furious after hearing this, which forced him to work hard.

At this time, Yuan Heng wanted to speak and stopped, and Zhu Di saw something: "What else do you haven't said?" ”

Yuan Hui really didn't want to say it, that is, he was afraid of falling for Zhu Gaoxu, and he was afraid that there would really be such a thing.

Zhu Di asked a few words, but he could only tell the truth.

"This beast." Zhu Di jumped three feet again.

actually wanted to let Yuan Heng stab himself in the back with a knife.

Wait, if you don't do it, someone else will?

Is this discord or is it true?

It's so shameless to be a rebel.

Zhu Di's heart became even more irritable.

In the afternoon of the same day, he convened the generals again, especially looking at Xue Lu and the others who had just been exchanged, looking left and right, feeling that everyone would betray themselves.

He shook his head desperately, secretly reminding himself, don't be fooled, don't be fooled, the rebel is cunning, deliberately so.

But no matter what he thought, he was still scared, and he didn't dare to let Xue Lu and the others get close.

At this point, he regretted replacing these people with them.

The siege continued the next day, and only part of Zhu Gaoxu's trebuchet was throwing stones, and a small amount of fire bombs were thrown.

The fierce fire oil was not just a casual deal, he finally collected some from all directions, and he couldn't use it up all at once.

He has more than 200 trebuchets every day, and he doesn't know how much fierce fire oil he has to throw, which he has to throw every day, and the entire Ming Dynasty is not enough for him.

Even so, the damage of so many trebuchets to the head of the city was quite large, and the rebels suffered few casualties, and their morale was very low, and they did not dare to stay at the head of the city and near the city walls.

At the same time that the official army was slamming into Beiping City, not far from Beiping, under Tongzhou City, a large number of Tusi soldiers and horses were gathering.

This group of Tusi soldiers is the elite who have been trained in the queue, not only climbing the mountains as if they were walking on flat ground, but also being disciplined, and they have made a lot of contributions in the rebellion war.

Zhu Gaoxu will also be under the city, and after two days of fighting, he knew that Beiping City was not easy to fight, and it must rely on ants.

The artillery was of little use, and the trebuchets didn't have so much fire oil for him.

If there is gasoline in later generations, or an unlimited amount of fierce fire oil, Zhu Gaoxu is still more confident.

Now it seems that in the end, it will depend on ant possession.

He wants to conquer Beiping before the cold winter comes, and he can only use ants to attach the fastest.

The city wall of Tongzhou is also quite tall, about one meter shorter than Beiping City.

At this time, there were twenty ladders erected under the city, and twenty rows of Tusi soldiers were divided behind the ladders.

All the toast soldiers were tightly wrapped.

They wore the most elite armor of the Ming army, and there was also a layer of dark armor (cotton armor) inside.

This cotton armor is unique to the Ming army in the north, and Zhu Gaoxu found a group of new ones after capturing Yongping, Shanhaiguan and other places.

"Look at your shields?" At this time, Na Hua, the general of the Tusi Division, said loudly.

The toast soldiers raised their left hands and shook them with their right hands.

On their left arm, an iron-clad wooden shield about 40 centimeters wide and 60 centimeters long was fixed.

There are two leather rings inside the shield wall, which fit over the arm and are fixed to the left forearm.

When fixed in this way, they can sometimes leave their left hand without grasping the shield wall.

And above the inside of the shield, there is also a short axe and a blow arrow.

"Look at the helmet." Nahua shouted again.

Everyone touched the helmet.

These helmets were all just built at the end of last year, learning Western-style full defense, from the head to the neck, and there is a layer of sheepskin wrapping underneath, covering the shoulders, and only the eyes are exposed.

When such a helmet is put in, even if hot water and oil are poured on it, it will flow to the shoulders and it will not be possible to leak through the collar of the neck.

There is also a large amount of cotton fleece stuffed into the helmet to prevent the impact of boulders and wood, which can cause a heavy blow to the head.

In addition, on the outermost part of the armor on their bodies, a layer of fire cloth was pasted to prevent fire and scalding.

Each man had a sword stuck behind his waist.

This is a specially built double-edged sword, abandoning the usual knives of the Ming military, with a length of about one meter, and is used for melee hand-to-hand combat.

These twenty teams of Tusi soldiers, each with a hundred people, a total of two thousand people, can be said to be armed to the teeth.

This is also a new siege force built by Zhu Gaoxu since he entered the Beijing Division last year.

"Tongzhou City is three zhang two (about ten meters), ten breaths are superior, twelve breaths are secondary, and fifteen breaths are not qualified, have you heard it?" Nahua shouted.

"Wow" the audience responded.

"Ready."

Wow, everyone came to the bottom of the ladder, they had shields tied to their left hands, their swords behind their waists, and they were holding the ladders behind their backs.

Nahua looked up at the head of the city, and someone above made a gesture to him.

"Up." Nahua waved his hand heavily.

Whoosh, the first soldier and monkey, rushing up so fast that they didn't even look at it, and they didn't stop.

One by one, they followed, swishing, and climbing up frantically.

They had been training in the Jingshi for several months before, and the most important thing was not to be afraid of death, and speed.

Climb up must be fast, don't hesitate, don't look up at the top.

Because they have a shield tied to their left hand, and when they climb, the shield of their left hand is almost on their heads.

In less than ten breaths, the first one had already arrived at the battlement.

I saw his mouth make a blow arrow movement.

Then he did a somersault and jumped.

The whole process was fast and urgent, like a monkey.

People climbed up one after another, all at a fast speed.

Someone was clocking in the city.

"Ten breaths."

"Eleven breaths."

"You're eleven breaths."

"Twelve breaths."

There is no stopwatch in this era, most of the estimates are gross estimates, and there must be errors, but if you really climb slowly, you can see it in the comparison with other ladders on the side.

Twenty ladders, 100 people per team, the first five all 100 people climbed the ladder first, each person will be rewarded with one or two silver, a pound of sugar.

In the first round, the top five people who climbed the ladder were cheering, and the rest of the people who didn't climb were scolding, saying so-and-so, you climbed slowly just now.

That one said I twisted my foot and didn't step on it well, and I won't next time.

This said that I just stepped on the air, unexpectedly.

After a short rest, everyone came down from the city and returned to the bottom of the ladder, and the second round began.

Zhu Gaoxu watched under the city for a while, and sometimes someone climbed too fast in the middle, accidentally fell from the small surface, and fell half to death.

He touched his head and thought for a moment: "Pay for the collection of quilts in the city and spread them under the ladder to prevent falls." ”

"Collect more fire cloth for later use."

(End of chapter)