Zhang Changgeng's confidants were extremely afraid of Deng Ming. Last year, the battle between Huguang Green Camp and Deng Ming was invincible, which made them have no confidence in the Qing army, and even defending the city was useless. Xiangyang, Zhongxiang and later Huangzhou all went downstairs. The Qing army stationed in Hanyang might be even worse. Many of them were captured by Zhou Peigong and were once lined up behind Zhou Peigong to introduce it to Deng Ming. If they fought with other Ming generals, these generals could still be used, but when they fought with Deng Ming, Zhang Changgeng believed that these people suffered from severe "battlefield fear of Deng" and were not afraid of defeat and surrender at all. Such subordinates could not be expected.

Originally, the most serious "Deng's phobia" was Zhou Peigong. In the spread of surrender defeatist remarks such as "Deng's name can only be taken by wisdom but not against it", Peigong in Huguang was the most active for weeks, and even Zhang Changgeng could not compare with him. However, in recent times, especially in the past month, Zhou Peigong has changed his personalities, transforming from the largest dove faction in Huguang to the most determined dove faction. The transformation was so radical and rapid that both factions were extremely surprised and uncomfortable. A month has passed, and many scholars in Huguang are still confused and have not yet figured out why the original dove leader turned into a hawkish banner overnight.

However, as the governor of Huguang, Zhang Changgen certainly understood the reason. He heard that Zhou Peigong used the kickbacks given by Deng Ming to invest in his hometown, but the Ming army broke the bridges across the river and confiscated Zhou Peigong's land after getting all the weapons. After hearing that Zhang Changgeng was also quite sympathetic to Zhou Peigong after this incident, he couldn't help but remember that when Zhou Peigong brought back his first bag of gold, he refused to accept the small account he gave him. This made Zhang Changgen feel that Zhou Peigong was a loyal and reliable subordinate, who was loving money, but not too greedy. He was not pedantic and had a bottom line. Is there any subordinate in the world who can be more reassuring? Zhang Changgeng therefore relied more on Zhou Peigong - he didn't know how much money Zhou Peigong had received, and Deng Ming had a strong sense of business confidentiality.

In addition to sympathy, Zhang Changgeng planned to pay some compensation for Zhou Peigong out of his own pocket. A month ago, he called Zhou Peigong for a private conversation. Since Deng Ming had refused to rebel and refused him, Governor Zhang would give him another share. The reward Zhang Changgen prepared for Zhou Peigong was 2,000 taels of silver. When Zhang Changgen was the governor, he could almost make so much money a year. Now he would give Zhou Peigong a new prefect at one time so much money at one time. It should be said that it is very interesting.

However, to Zhang Changgeng's surprise, Zhou Peigong politely declined his red envelope, saying that as a subordinate, he would not be able to take such a large sum of money from his boss for the past trivial matters. The Governor of Huguang might as well save it first, and then talk about this matter after he helps the Governor recover the lost land in Hubei in the future - the land, houses, and fish ponds with a market value of more than 300,000 taels of silver were taken away by Li Laiheng. The cost of purchasing these properties was more than that, and Zhou Peigong hated Li Laiheng to his bones. He guessed that Deng Ming had long been thinking of destroying bridges across the river, and thought of his almost innocent joy when he bought the land, and believed that he was fooled, Zhou Peigong was also full of resentment towards Deng Ming.

Seeing that Prince Zhou Pei volunteered, Zhang Changgeng was overjoyed. Anyway, he was unwilling to go to the front line to fight Deng Ming. Zhou Peigong was indeed the best candidate for Hanyang commander. Not only did Zhang Changgeng not have to worry about him leaving the city and fleeing, but he could hope that Prince Zhou Peigong would exert 120% of his combat power due to hatred.

After encouraging Zhou Peigong, Zhang Changgen sent the guerrillas of Biao Battalion to serve as deputy to the prefect Zhou. This guerrillas of Biao Battalion was the commander of Hu Quancai's personal military camp. After the incident of "Deng Ming assassinating Hu Quancai", Zhang Changgen took all the Biao Battalion of the former governor of Huguang. Now the guerrillas of Biao Battalion have been devoted to Zhang Changgeng and are loyal.

Zhou Peigong said that he needed to promote some scholars to enrich his staff. The people he proposed were all hawks in Wuhan, and Zhang Changgeng had long heard of the names of these people. Without exception, they were all Hubei scholars with family property in the Ming army controlled area. Even if their land was not confiscated by the Ming army, they were subject to high taxes. These scholars lie in bed every night and cannot forget how to fight back to their hometown.

On weekdays, these hawks lobbyed their relatives and friends everywhere, asking them to actively donate funds and pay to the Governor's Office, which helped Zhang Changgeng revitalize his military. Moreover, under the influence of these hawks, the gentry of Huguang's view of the Ming army became worse and worse, and they were very afraid that the Ming army would continue to advance and occupy their hometown.

Zhang Changgeng happily agreed to all of Zhou Peigong's requests, and allocated some food and salary from the treasury. After ordering his staff to transport various arms to Hanyang as soon as possible, Zhang Changgeng announced the dismissal of the meeting and left Zhou Peigong alone.

"Brother Zhou, can't you really talk about Deng Ming?" After everyone left, Zhang Changgeng, who also suffered from severe "Deng fear", no longer concealed his thoughts and said straight to the point.

"My master clearly understands that Deng Ming is capricious, and the officials think that negotiating with him is like seeking a skin with a tiger." Zhou Pei said righteously and sternly.

Seeing that Zhou Peigong was firm in his attitude, Zhang Changgeng sighed softly, but he did not force it, but just reminded: "If Hanyang is as safe as Mount Tai, it is best, but if Hanyang is in danger of being protected, Brother Zhou should not do anything to break things. Ensuring Hanyang's safety is the most important thing."

Many of the guards here in Wuchang were captured by Deng Ming. In the battle of Zhongxiang, a few of them escaped with Zhang Changgeng, and the mainstream was captured. As for ordinary soldiers, they were not too many of them captured, and some of them had already received three severance expenses from Deng Ming. After learning that Deng Ming was invading, Zhang Changgen had sent an envoy to Zhongxiang to draw northern troops back to Wuchang. However, if Hanyang was easily lost, Zhang Changgeng was worried that a chain reaction would occur, which would completely scare the already unreliable army.

The next day, Zhou Peigong led a large number of staff to escort military supplies into Hanyang. Compared with Wuchang City, the garrison situation in Hanyang is much worse, and the thickness of the city wall and the depth of the trench are much worse. However, Zhou Peigong felt that as long as he was not quickly broken through the city wall, it would be enough to stick to it.

"Deng Ming rushed straight to Hanyang. Although he was aggressive, his potential was insufficient." Zhou Peigong analyzed to his aides and guards: "Without clearing the surrounding strongholds, his troops would not be able to be fully deployed, and there would be danger of being harassed by our army at any time. I guess his wishful thinking was to take Hanyang in one go, intimidate our army, and let the defenders of the fortresses in the west retreat on their own. Now Deng Mingli is fighting quickly, and our army is defending. As long as we persist for a few days, reinforcements from the upper reaches of the Han River will return to reinforce us one after another. At that time, Deng Mingdun's troops are under the city of solid troops and the road ahead is not stable, so he can only retreat."

After the analysis was completed, Zhou Peigong began to assign tasks. Now almost all the hawkish civil and military officials in Huguang were concentrated in Hanyang City. The hatred of destroying the family and seizing wealth completely overwhelmed their fear of Deng Ming. Like other hawkish people, Zhou Peigong knew that if he wanted to regain his family property, he had to break Deng Ming's myth first, otherwise the Huguang Green Camp would tremble as soon as he saw Deng Ming's banner. How could he counterattack the Ming army and recover the lost territory?

Zhou Peigong did not spend much effort on the arrangement of the plum blossom piles and trenches around the city gate, but only made a simple process. According to his consistent experience in fighting Deng Ming, the opponent's attack focus was never on the city gate, and Zhou Peigong was more concerned about the safety of the city wall. However, it was obviously impossible to strengthen the entire city wall, and even if Zhou Peigong had done some work in advance, it was too late.

Therefore, Zhou Peigong's main countermeasures were placed in the city. He dug a hole along the entire city wall, buried a large urn every other section, and arranged a blind man with particularly sensitive ears. If the Ming army found signs of digging tunnels, the Qing army would monitor the underground. Before, when Prince Zhou Peigong was responsible for strengthening the city defense in Hanyang, he built some shallow canals in the city. Now with the order of Zhou Peigong, these channels were also stored. Such a small amount of water was obviously not enough to deal with the traditional acupoint attack, but Zhou Peigong and other Qing army generals conducted some research in Huangzhou and other places. They found that the current acupoint attack tactics against the Ming army could be destroyed as long as there was a little water. If the Ming army returned to the traditional method, the Qing army would have enough time to dig a pond.

First, blind people were sent to monitor, and then quickly blocked them with a small amount of water. This is Zhou Peigong's tactical idea. The huge threat to the Ming army's new tactics mainly comes from the speed of the implementation of this tactic. Generally speaking, in just one day, the Ming army can complete the preparations for destroying the city wall. The Qing army needs to dig ditches on the inside of the city wall during this period and set up a large urn for monitoring. The workload is also very large and time is very tight.

"If some preparations were not made in advance, then we must send troops out of the city to camp and prevent the enemy from approaching the city wall until the city is ready." Looking at the Ming army's fleet, Zhou Peigong was thinking about various problems in his tactics in his mind: "But Hanyang is ready this time, and there is no need to try his best to keep the enemy from a safe distance."

Although he did not intend to fight the Ming army in field, Zhou Peigong still set up a camp outside each city gate and deployed a small number of soldiers. It would take at least one day for the Ming army to dig tunnels. These camps could effectively threaten the Ming army soldiers who were conducting civil engineering operations, forcing the Ming army to dispatch more troops to protect the tunnels. In this way, the Qing army could determine their main attack and feint attack by observing the deployment of the Ming army.

In addition to the ditches and large urns, Zhou Peigong also invited a group of monks to help, many of whom were white-bearded and fluttered in the Tao. If Deng Ming's explosion was just a cover and was essentially evil magic, these monks could effectively restrain themselves. In addition, Zhou Peigong also considered another possibility, that is, Deng Ming did not use evil magic but the Five Thunders* method - this is not something that monks can restrain, and there must be another response.

After the Ming army landed, the Ming army did not immediately launch an attack on Hanyang, but camped for a day, then set off a large-scale operation and divided it into several teams to fill the trenches with all their might. After seeing the Ming army's actions, Zhou Peigong did not dare to take it lightly, and hurriedly gathered monks and blind people, and took their place after the trenches that the Ming army tried to fill.

The Ming army kept filling the trenches, and there was no sign of digging tunnels. In the past morning, several trenches were paved out of the passage by the Ming army.

"Strange." Zhou Peigong found that the Ming army's actions were completely different from what he saw in Zhong Xiang. At that time, the Ming army dug tunnels first and then started to fill the trenches. Afterwards, Zhou Peigong devoted himself to the idea and figured out the truth: the Ming army needed to first determine whether the tunnel could be dug smoothly under the city wall. If it encountered big stones or groundwater, the Ming army would choose another route. Filling the trenches first may become useless - as long as it is not close to the city gate and simply filling the trenches, it will be difficult for the Qing army to interfere with it, but after all, it is a very labor-intensive work.

But this time, the Ming army seemed to have no intention of digging tunnels at all. Although there was no abnormality on the city wall, Zhou Peigong still ordered the blind man to lie on the large urns buried underground to listen to them over and over again, but all the reports were normal.

The normal reports everywhere made Zhou Peigong even more uneasy: "Is it really a magic trick?"

Seeing that the Ming army had almost filled the trench, Zhou Peigong did not dare to neglect and quickly ordered the monk to start chanting scriptures. Suddenly, a Sanskrit sound sounded behind the walls of Hanyang. The kind-eyed masters sat upright on the cushions, knocking on the wooden fish rhythmically, singing loudly, and spitting out scriptures with endless magic power.

After the Ming army in the west of the city filled a large section of the trench, a large number of soldiers began to line up behind the trench.

"Not good!" Zhou Peigong saw that the Ming army had already taken the siege and rushed here in person. The blind people kept reporting that there was nothing unusual. The masters' loud chanting sounds soared into the sky. The Qing army on the city wall opened their eyes wide and looked at the Ming army's positions, hoping that a disheveled demon suddenly rushed out from behind the formation and shouted at the Hanyang city wall: "Who breaks my magic?" Then they vomited blood and died, but they had not been able to do it.

"Is it really the Five Thunders and the Law? Is it true that the Heaven does not bless the court?" Zhou Peigong murmured in his heart. He suspected that the thing he was most worried about would happen. After Zhou Peigong's careful research, he found that the Five Thunders and the Law was not the magic power of the caster himself, but to ask the strong men of the Heavenly Court to defeat the thunder. If Deng Ming used such an open and upright magic, it proved that the Heavenly Court was still favoring Nan Ming, and it was certain that the destiny of heaven had not changed at all: "If so, where should I go?"

Although he was confused, the difficulties in front of him were still coming. Zhou Peigong ordered a killer move. With his order, countless Qing troops posted yellow notes on the ground of this section of the city wall with the title of Jade Emperor and the Supreme Laojun, and many tablets were placed on them.

Since the Five Thunders Laws are to be launched by the Heavenly Soldiers and Generals, they can't smash the tablets of Jade Emperor and Laojun Taishang, right?

Despite this, Zhou Peigong still avoided that section of the city wall. After all, I don’t know what the gods are thinking. In addition, wouldn’t it be bad if they meet a god with bad eyes or reckless temperament?

The Ming army opposite had been arranged. Zhou Peigong looked up at the sky for a while and looked down at the enemy. He neither noticed the changes in the wind and clouds in the sky nor saw demons vomiting blood. The blind people still claimed that there was no abnormal noise underground. Finally, Zhou Peigong found that the Ming army's queue was separated to both sides, but the ones coming out in the middle were not demons with disheveled hair, but several similar things like rushing cars.

"What is this, is the big clock?" After seeing the strange-shaped vehicle, Zhou Peigong felt a question in his heart.

When Deng Ming first saw Liu Tichun's new equipment, he also regarded them as big bells. Except for the materials, all the materials were iron, this blasting equipment was very similar to the big bells in the temple. Now the thick inner walls of these iron bells are filled with gunpowder, which were loaded on a newly designed siege cart and pushed towards the Hanyang wall by Ming soldiers.

When Liu Tichun used tunnel blasting in the previous few times, although the speed and effect of the cave attack were greatly improved, it still took a day and a night to dig tunnels. Moreover, the cave attack was subject to many restrictions. For example, Chongqing City is not suitable for tunnel blasting. The city wall is located on the rocky mountain, and there are not many places for the Ming army to dig and blast.

In order to further shorten the preparation time and eliminate the interference of groundwater and rock formations as much as possible, Liu Tichun designed a new type of blasting vehicle. The iron clock at the front is the main blasting device, and below is a sturdy wooden transport vehicle. During the advancement, a fireproof board will be added to the front of the iron clock; after approaching the city wall, the fireproof board will be removed, and the clock mouth will be directly on the city wall; after removing the wheels below, the heavy blasting vehicle will sit on the ground and tightly fix the iron clock to the city wall.

The center of gravity of this kind of vehicle is much lower than that of the ladder truck, and the total weight is much lighter, so the propulsion speed is several times faster than that of the ladder truck. Once the iron clock is pushed onto the city wall through the trench, the pry bar can be pulled off the wheels, causing the vehicle to lose its ability to move. It takes less than a few seconds to be arranged and then ignite the fuse and retreat.

This kind of external blasting may not be effective against a super city wall like Nanjing, but it has great destructive power to ordinary city walls. According to Liu Tichun's research, even if the iron bell is exploded, it will cause serious damage to the city wall structure, and the towering city wall is likely to collapse.

In Deng Ming's understanding, the reason behind this is probably similar to the gangsters who bombed the bank's vault in later generations. However, the black gunpowder burned too low to explode in the open space. However, at the moment when the iron bell could not withstand the pressure and shattered, the explosion had already appeared, and the shock waves caused damage to the structure of the city wall.

According to Deng Ming's reconnaissance, there were about 20,000 Qing troops in Wuchang and Hanyang, and it was estimated that more than 6,000 were armored. Even if the reinforcements around were not taken into account, there were still a large number of citizens and gentry with ambiguous attitudes in the city. If you want to use street fighting to capture Wuhan, it may not be impossible, but the casualties of the Ming army will not be very small, and it will also exhaust the Ming army's mobile forces and become garrison troops. Besides, the occupation of Wuhan cannot maximize its interests. If Zhang Changgeng knew the tactful, Wuhan would be more valuable in his hands than in Deng Ming's hands.

Yesterday, after discovering that Hanyang had raised the banner of Zhou Peigong, the Ming army did not launch an attack immediately but looked forward to the other party's envoy, but after waiting for a day, he did not see anyone coming. Deng Ming then realized that the situation in Wuchang had changed. Today, the Ming army pushed four blasting cars in one breath. Since Zhang Changgeng and Zhou Peigong had the idea of ​​fighting, Deng Ming was determined to smash it with the fastest speed and greatest force under the city of Hanyang.
Chapter completed!