Hearing the orders of Hu Quancai, the General of Hanyang bowed his head to obey. He felt that the guards of Yunyang, Gucheng and other cities were stupid enough, and he had no idea how long it would take to attack the acupuncture point. He did not know how to observe the progress of the attacking party's project, and was actually tempted to leave the city by such insignificant tricks.

"Student understand." Zhou Peigong also bowed to Hu Quancai. The task he gave him this time was to help the defenders praise military affairs, but Zhou Peigong also knew that he didn't need to do anything, just watch it from the side. There would definitely be a heavy pen mark on his subsequent contribution.

When the reinforcements from Wuchang arrived in Zhongxiang, the guards left only one south-facing city gate that could still be passed. The rest of the city gates were blocked, and they were just waiting for them to enter the city. Seeing that the General Hanyang led the reinforcements, a large stone fell into the ground in the chest of the prefect of Anlu Mansion, he hurriedly urged them to enter the city, preparing to follow the instructions of the governor to tighten the last city gate.

"If the thieves had only 40,000 when they arrived in Yunyang, then the total number of them would not exceed 60,000 now, of which there were only about 15,000 soldiers in armor. There was no need for our army to enter Zhongxiang City." The general stepped on the terrain around the city, and felt that it might be better to set up a camp outside each city gate and put hundreds of soldiers. Under the cover of the city wall, soldiers outside the city could attack and retreat to defend. The Ming army could not let go before driving the Qing army into the city. However, the general quickly gave up this idea and felt that it was contrary to Governor Hu's order to defend the city: "Zhongxiang is not far from Wuchang, and reinforcements will soon arrive. Why should I go against Governor General?"

Thinking of this, the general no longer considered military issues, but led the entire army into the city. When he saw a large number of reinforcements entering the city gate, the cheers of Zhong Xiang's defenders resounded throughout the city. The joyful prefect immediately ordered the auxiliary soldiers to seal the last city gate.

Early the morning of the second day after the Qing army arrived, just dawn, the Ming army's front army arrived at Zhongxiang City.

"It's already June 23rd. Supervisor Wen said that Zheng Chenggong would enter the Yangtze River in about early July or mid-July." Deng Ming and his guards arrived at Zhongxiang with the Ming army's front army. He silently calculated the time in his heart, feeling that there was not much time left to stay in Huguang. After capturing Zhongxiang, he went to Wuchang for a walk. Then, if the Ming army should go home, he would go to Nanjing with the guards.

Liu Tichun was the one who commanded the front army of the Ming army. Deng Ming asked him about the key points of attack and defense of the city at any time along the way.

The previous attack on Yicheng was the easiest time since his expedition. After Liu Tichun arrived in Yicheng, he soon discovered that the city had sealed all four gates. There was no need to worry about the Qing army leaving the city to counterattack. The Ming army launched a bold attack and declared the city to break in less than a day.

On the way to Zhongxiang, the Ming army did not find long-range explorers of the Qing army on the Han River. Until it was very close to Zhongxiang, there were still no large number of Qing soldiers and whistles. So Liu Tichun suspected that Zhong Xiang had blocked the city gates by himself, like Yicheng. Otherwise, it would have been so close to the city, even if it was not dawn, the Qing army detectives who were detecting the Ming army's virtual and real horses should have buzzed like a group of flies.

If Zhong Xiang did block the city gate and had to enter and exit by hanging baskets from the city wall, at most he could only send a few sporadic spies. The sporadic spies of the Qing army could not detect the situation of the Ming army, and the reconnaissance ability of such sporadic spies was very limited, and they could not pass important information back to the city in time - if they could find it.

Before Liu Tichun and Deng Ming got off the ship, a group of horses sent to Zhong Xiang had returned. It was reported that Liu Tichun and Zhong Xiang's four gates were closed and no people were in and out. The horses discovered that a basket had been placed on the city tower to the south. The Qing soldiers who walked out untied a horse tied to the city wall and headed to the southeast.

After hearing this, Liu Tichun was more convinced that his previous judgment was correct, but he still needed the final confirmation. The Qing army had blocked the city gate at present, and the possibility of going out of the city to pursue was very small. Liu Tichun chose a few agile and experienced scouts, and put them in heavy armor and held a large shield to enter Zhong Xiang's bow and arrow range, trying to detect the city gate at close range.

While waiting for the investigation, the Ming army set up camp near Zhongxiang and sent a search team to find the horses hidden outside the city. Although it may not be found, it will not miss too much after repeated searches. If people in the city want to go out of the city to Wuchang to report the news, these envoys will have to walk to the Huguang Governor's Mansion with their legs.

"The city gate is the most dangerous place, and both armies will strive for it. Once the city gate falls, it will be lost. Because of this, blocking the city gate is the most popular thing for civil servants. He thinks that since the city gate is so dangerous, I will just block it?" While waiting for the investigation results, Liu Tichun sighed to Deng Ming: "Civil officials who have never fought a war will not do this, because they don't know that the city gate is so dangerous; those who know that they will lose as much as they know that blocking the city gate will not do this; on the contrary, those who like to do this most. They know that the city gate is the most dangerous place, but they don't know the use of the city gate."

Soon the scouts returned to the camp one after another and reported to Liu Tichun that Zhong Xiang's city gate was completely blocked. Liu Tichun sneered: "The dog officials in the city will not defend the city at all."

Under normal circumstances, the left-behind troops monitoring the city gates must be guarded against the defenders, so they need to have strong strength. If the troops do not reach several times the strength of the city, the attacking side cannot completely surround the city. If there are many city gates, then the attacking side will be difficult to completely cut off the connection between inside and outside the city even if there are ten times the strength of the city.

For example, a giant city with as many as thirteen city gates like Nanjing not only has many city gates, but also has a very long circumference of the city wall. If you want to completely surround the city and cut off internal and external traffic, your troops will be spread very scattered. Leaving troops everywhere will lead to weak everywhere. The city can see the deployment outside the city clearly from a high point. Any weak links may be concentratedly attacked by the defenders in the city. Surrounding such a giant city with a large number of city gates is very difficult and has a high risk. In Deng Ming's original history, Yang Xiuqing led hundreds of thousands of Taiping troops to attack Nanjing, and there were only 5,000 defenders, but Yang Xiuqing was unable to completely surround Nanjing.

But now when Zhongxiang's city gate is blocked, the situation is completely different. It is enough to keep a small amount of surveillance troops in front of the city gate. If the defenders are found to be busy and want to open the blocked city gate, they will issue early warnings to the main force; if reinforcements arrive outside the city, the defenders cannot leave the city to support them; if the enemy soldiers retreat or want to siege the city to fight for reinforcements, the defenders in the city cannot pursue or interfere.

"There are probably too few troops in the city, and it may be only more than one thousand armored soldiers." After interrogating the prisoners before, Liu Tichun learned that although there were thousands of defenders in Zhongxiang City, not many of them had armor, which was worse than Gucheng's self-defense ability. Liu Tichun also gave Deng Ming a defensive knowledge: "For the defenders, the city gates must not be blocked. If the troops are rich and are not too disparate compared with the enemy soldiers outside, troops should be sent to camp outside each city gate.

Setting up a camp outside the gate can protect the most dangerous place of the city gate, and after setting up this camp, it will be difficult for the enemy soldiers to block you in the city. Before pulling out these camps, I don’t know if the defenders have smuggled a large number of troops out of the city, and the attacking party cannot siege the city with peace of mind. If you attack these camps, the defenders will be able to move back and retreat freely, and there will be a city head to help you see the route of attack, as well as the city head, the bows and arrows on the city wall, and the earth and stone support, the attack will become very difficult."

"How many people should be left to defend the village in front of the city gate?" Deng Ming asked enthusiastically. The advantage of traveling with veterans such as Hao Yaoqi and Liu Tichun is that they can learn a lot of military knowledge, and they have seen various situations.

"Sir, I will never guess that the number of troops in this kind of city gate camp is suitable for the number of troops. Strong troops are naturally more threatening, but fewer troops are also beneficial to the fact that fewer troops are." Seeing Deng Ming's face, Liu Tichun smiled and said, "Even if there are only one or two soldiers in the camp, the role is very large. If there are few soldiers, the camp will be small and the troops can attack. For example, if there are ten thousand people in the city gate camp, the camp will be large and it will require 30,000 people to siege, and the hundreds of archers on the city gate behind the city gate will be nothing. If there are only one hundred people in the city gate camp, the camp will be small and can only send 500 people to attack. At that time, the hundreds of archers on the city gate behind the camp would be amazing."

Liu Tichun also pointed out that even if the city gate camp is small, as long as it covers the attackers' vision and makes the attackers unable to understand the entry and exit of the city gate, it will be a huge threat to the attackers. Whether it is a hole attack or a city climb, the camp must be removed first before it dares to attack the city wall nearby. It may take a long time for 500 people to attack such a small camp. During this period, the tens of thousands of siege troops behind it are eating for nothing. Regardless of whether they are driven back to the city in the end, this small city gate camp has won a long time for the defenders.

"The people in Zhongxiang City don't know how to defend the city at all." Liu Tichun reiterated his point of view again.

The topic of discussion between him and Deng Ming quickly turned to the blasting of the city wall. Liu Tichun recently figured out a new method that could greatly reduce the preparation time for acupuncture. He planned to use Zhong Xiang's city to experiment.

In addition to digging the tunnel, the Ming army also took a lot of time to close the tunnel every time. After Deng Ming repeatedly explained patiently, Liu Tichun and his blasting team members understood the significance of sealing for blasting. That is, a large mass of air should be sprayed out. After fully sealing the tunnel, the gas could only look for the air discharge hole upwards. If the tunnel was not sealed strong enough and could not block the gas, it would open the tunnel and escape, rather than destroying the city wall structure upwards. Therefore, the tunnel must be blocked for more than ten meters and supported by wooden stakes to ensure that the solidity of the tunnel is greater than that of the city wall.

In order to facilitate Liu Tichun's blasting team members' understanding, Deng Ming briefly talked about the pressure and pressure formulas he could still recall, and drew some stress analysis diagrams for them. Liu Tichun, who was so treasured, took these formulas and patterns back and studied them carefully with the blasting team members.

After capturing Yicheng, a certain blasting team member of Liu Tichun suddenly thought that if the tunnel that was stuffed with a coffin was no longer straightforward and turned a corner at the end, then it seemed that it would be enough to seal the corner, and the earth at the end of the corner was the earth. For example, the tunnel was in the north-south direction at the beginning, and then turned an eastward. According to the schematic diagram of the Third Prince, the filler at the corner seemed to be able to continue to squeeze the earth to the west without being pushed southward along the tunnel.

If this conjecture is true, the reinforcement time of authentic filling and reinforcement can be greatly shortened.

When Liu Tichun brought the blasting team members to ask Deng Ming about his opinion, Deng Ming also felt that this opinion was very good. However, Deng Ming pointed out that his schematic diagram was ideal, and there were actually other problems, such as part of the gas penetrated into the gap between the filler and the end of the tunnel, and also generated a thrust out of the tunnel.

However, all these are easy to solve. Deng Ming thought about junior high school physics and drew another picture. Instead of digging corners at the end of the vertical direction, but instead of digging a section in advance, changing the structure of the character "factory" into the structure of the character "bu". Moreover, Deng Ming thought that the soil is not rigid and may be compressed and deformed, so he would fill it with an additional section in the vertical direction of the tunnel. As long as the general direction of this idea is correct, the sealing speed can be greatly accelerated, and the time saved is conservatively estimated to be one hour.

This time, the excavation of Zhong Xiang adopted this new idea. Liu Tichun divided the excavation and blasting team into two groups, and dug from the north and south directions of the city at the same time. Since we knew that the Qing army had no possibility of leaving the city to counterattack, the Ming army dug the tunnel at full speed and estimated that it would be completed tomorrow morning.

Liu Tichun is already very skilled in creating fuses and preventing moisture from the outer packaging of gunpowder. Even in this way, he has already gained a lot of experience in controlling the time of fuses. In addition to adopting the new method of closure, Liu Tichun plans to blast in both north and south directions tomorrow morning, and advance in two directions to assault Zhongxiang. The Han River in the west of the city and a lake in the east. Liu Tichun feels that this attack on both sides can leave the Qing army with no way to escape.

"Because Zhong Xiang has no military strength, he can fight like this and end the battle faster." Liu Tichun told Deng Ming that the two attacks are not without risks, because advancing from both sides at the same time between a city is equivalent to diluting his own military strength and giving the opponent a chance to break each one: "At present, our military strength is ten times that of Zhong Xiang. Although the troops are divided into two groups, each of them is more than several times that of theirs, otherwise the attack will be safe."

On the day the Ming army arrived, most of the tunnel had been completed by the sunset. At this time, the blasting team under General Liu was busy preparing blasting materials. In the past, there was no idea about pressure, pressure and stress. Everyone would draw the picture of how the third prince filled the soil at the beginning. However, after the simple popularization of the third prince, several members of the blasting team with more flexible brains had more ideas. In recent days, one of them has been studying the blasting force diagrams drawn by Deng Ming, and looked over and over again.

"How much gunpowder does we need to overturn the city wall above, and how long does it take to close the tunnel? Can we calculate it?" The man discussed with his companions around him in a very unconfident tone.

So far, Deng Ming can give a qualitative explanation of how thick the sealing layer can be, but he cannot count it because he can't count it at all. The doubtful blasting team member paused for a moment and felt more problems circling in his heart. When he heard these theories of the Third Prince, he felt his mind was very confused. After thinking about it carefully for a few days, he seemed to suddenly realize and understood it all at once. But after thinking more deeply, he felt that there were more questions than not knowing these theories: "If the cannon is the same, then how thick should the cannon chamber be cast and how much gunpowder is needed to fire. Can we also calculate a number?"

At this moment, another blasting team member rushed into the heavily guarded camp and shouted: "The gunpowder particles are ground, come and pack the bags for me."

This greeting attracted everyone's attention, including the person who asked the question just now, who threw down Deng Ming's drawings and ran out to help.

When attacking Gucheng, a coffin was damp, and the gunpowder that had not exploded was dug out from the ground by Liu Tichun's blasting team members. Liu Tichun was unwilling to waste it, so he asked his subordinates to dry the gunpowder and continue to use it in the future. However, after the damp gunpowder was dried, it condensed into pieces, so he had to carefully grind it into particles. At first, the people in the blasting team were worried that this gunpowder would not be used or its power was greatly reduced. However, when used in several direct blasting tests of the city wall, people felt strange, as if this granulated gunpowder was more powerful, and was larger than the gunpowder powder that needed to be stirred in advance.

After reporting this to Liu Tichun, his first reaction was nonsense. It was obvious that water defeated fire, but the gunpowder that was injected with water was good enough. How could it be more powerful? However, Liu Tichun thought about it again and thought that just a few days ago, he thought that gunpowder could not be used to bomb the city at all, so he did not whip the soldiers who came to report, but asked them to do two more experiments quietly.

The experimental results are still subverting the traditional saying of "water overcomes fire". Liu Tichun secretly speculated that this gunpowder may be soaked in water like a metal weapon that needs to be quenched. Why do both the gold that produces water and the fire that is overcome by water need to be used for this? Liu Tichun felt clueless about this. He did not tell Deng Ming about this because he still believed that this was mostly an illusion. If he told Deng Ming and others that it was collective illusion that he might be unanimously ridiculed.

The scale of previous experiments was too small. This time, Liu Tichun secretly ordered that the same amount of gunpowder should be used in the blasting on both sides of the city, but one coffin used ordinary gunpowder powder, and the other coffin was made of gunpowder particles that were soaked in water and dried. If the explosion proved that the effectiveness was different, Liu Tichun would ask the omniscient third prince Huode. The other party obviously understood the various principles of fire very thoroughly.

...

"The enemy will not attack the city at all."

This was the first thought of the Hanyang General when he saw the deployment of troops outside the city.

The Ming army outside the city actually dug tunnels from both sides of the city at the same time, which looked quite like a posture of attacking the holes on both sides at the same time. This posture may scare people who have not experienced the war. For example, the young scholar Zhou Peigong seemed worried, but for the Hanyang General, it was nothing worth mentioning.

The General of Hanyang knew clearly that the manpower required for acupuncture was very time-consuming. Although the distance between the two sides seemed to be similar, each one was a project that took more than ten days to complete, and the completion time was not long. Can one place be completed without burning the pillars after completion, and it was necessary to wait for the other side to burn together after completion? Are you not afraid of missing a fleeting opportunity and being flooded by the defenders?

Even if both sides can burn together, will it happen that they will not collapse together? Even if both places are successful, will the time for the burning be fine? The time will be short of time. The soldiers on one side have already beaten to the death, and they still have to leave half of the commando on the other side of the city waiting for the city wall to collapse? What if it doesn't collapse in the end?

The most critical point is that the General of Hanyang believes that even if the attacks on both sides are completed at the same time, the city walls will not be able to collapse one after another. At the same time, there is no great benefit to attacking from both sides of the city, which is to make the city break a little faster, but this requires the risk of division of troops.

Now there are 40,000 or 50,000 soldiers outside the city. The Hanyang General estimated that there may be 10,000 soldiers among them. Apart from the necessary surveillance and the battalion troops, there can be about 7,000 soldiers to be used to attack the city. Excluding some reserves from the rear, the generals' guards have only about 3,000 soldiers who attack the city on each side as the main force. The rest are auxiliary soldiers with suspicious combat power, which is not advantageous for Zhong Xiang, who has 5,000 soldiers. The Qing army can first defend on one side, concentrate troops to regain the gap on one side, eliminate the Ming army entering the city, and then turn around to fight against the Ming army on the other side. Zhong Xiang has Han River and lakes in the east and west. If the Ming army conducts such a north-south attack, if it succeeds, it will certainly leave the Qing soldiers in the city with no way to escape, but once it is obstructed, it will be difficult to mobilize the troops.

In short, such deployment will give the Qing army more chances to turn the tables. The Hanyang General sneered and despised the guards in Yunyang, Gucheng and other places before. This insignificant trick to lure the enemy can also succeed, which shows how incompetent the generals in these two places are.

But this contempt for the generals of the Ming army did not last long, because the leading generals outside the city were said to include Liu Tichun, Yuan Zongdi, and Hao Yaoqi. The three of them had much more experience in leading troops than the generals of Hanyang. If these three people did not understand what siege was, then the Hanyang defenders were outsiders who did not know the soldiers at all.

"How strange." The general hesitated for a while, and finally decided to be careful to sail the ten thousand-year-old ship, immediately organized people to dig canals and ponds, ready to irrigate at any time.

After a busy night, the next morning, the canal was just beginning, and there was only a shallow pit where the pond was dug, which was not even a prototype. However, the general was not nervous about it. The attacking the city wall required a large cellar at least one meter high and several meter wide on the ground. The canals and ponds on the surface overnight looked like this. Then the underground project was at most a tunnel for digging a tunnel for transporting soil.

But at this time the Ming army's performance became even more strange. The general squinted his eyes at the Ming army lined up outside the city, and it looked really serious.

"If I hadn't known that they had just started digging yesterday..." The general did not finish the second half of the sentence. If he hadn't really known that the Ming army had just arrived at Zhong Xiang's city yesterday, he would have thought that it was more than ten days later, the acupuncture had been completed, and it was urgent to launch an attack on the city, so the Ming army would have listed such a formation.

At this time, similar news came from the other side of the city, and the general rushed there to observe it.

"It's really a general attack." The General Hanyang felt infinite confusion: "It's just one night, at most, at most a tunnel underground was dug to transport soil. Do they want to attack? They are sure that the city wall will collapse, and both sides will collapse together?"

If someone else was doing such a thing, the general would probably sneer and go back to the yamen to sleep, but outside the city there were Liu Tichun and others with great reputations.

"Come, I will pass my orders and the whole city will be on guard."—

Reply to the reader Melon Farmer: I update it every day as soon as I pass zero, so I have to finish writing during the day and sleep at night. If I change it to update during the day, I worry that I will always feel that I still have time, so I don’t hurry up during the day, and finally I have to stay up late and work hard...

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