Chapter 216 The First City in the World
Fu Zonglong's defeat led to the overall defeat of the officers and soldiers. Diao Zheng seized the opportunity and led his troops to attack Zhou Yuji's troops. Although Zhou Yuji was brave, he was unable to save the defeat, so he had to lead the troops to retreat. After meeting with Fu Zonglong, he protected Fu Zonglong and retreated to Shunde Mansion.
After Diao Zhenghui and Chen Yongfu, he chased Fu Zonglong fiercely. He chased Fu Zonglong for three days, killed thousands of officers and soldiers, and captured nearly 10,000 officers and soldiers. Then he gave up the pursuit. Under Zhou Yuji's palace, Fu Zonglong was able to escape back to Shunde Mansion. When he didn't go there, he also came back with 40,000 troops. There were less than 20,000 left, especially the newly integrated Ma Ke's troops and horses, which basically surrendered to Xing Tian's army, making Fu Zonglong temporarily lose the ability to continue to attack Xing Tian's army.
Diao Zheng returned to the area around Zhangde Mansion, blocking Fu Zonglong's road south again. At this point, the danger of Luoyang was also announced to be lifted. After Niu Jinxing learned the news, he did not dare to neglect it, so he quickly sent someone to report the victory to Xiao Tianjian. After Xiao Tianjian learned about it, he also relieved his heart. Although he was not nervous at all, but After all, Luoyang has a great relationship. If Diao Zheng commits a crime, there is no doubt that Luoyang is in danger. Now his wife and children are in Luoyang. If he wants to say something not nervous at all, then he is not a human being!
After saying this, everyone was relieved, so they turned their attention to the battle of Nanjing in front of them.
Xiao Tianjian walked to the front of the large sand table, and the generals gathered around the sand table. He pointed to Nanjing on the sand table with a wooden stick and smiled, "This is Nanjing City, the capital of Daming!" Let's have a look! After taking Nanjing, Daming can basically be announced, and this Nanjing is actually a big meal, depending on our appetite! Whether you can eat it or not depends on your teeth!"
The generals looked at the city model on the sand table. After listening to Xiao Tianjian's words, they all laughed and shouted one by one, "Please don't worry! Our teeth are fine! Hey hey!"
During this period, there was also Yan Shuting, Liu Yaoben's subordinate. At the beginning, he was hit by an arrow in the face in Yanggu County. He shot through his cheek on the spot. Even the tip of his tongue was cut off, and several big teeth on both sides were shot off. Now the injury has returned to the team. When he spoke, he was a little confused. The arrow scar on it formed two dimple-like pits, which seemed that he was much more shy, but the voice was the loudest, and his voice was the loudest, but it was not clear, which made the generals laugh.
However, all the generals also knew that this boy was fierce. After being hit by an arrow, the arrow was inserted in his face. His mouth was full of blood and he could not speak, but he fought to the death in the army. As a result, Wu Sangui was defeated and fled. Therefore, although he can't speak clearly now, no one really laughed at him.
Looking at the rising morale of the generals, Xiao Tianjian naturally had a few more confidence, so he nodded to calm down the generals, and then pointed to the sand table and said, "But don't underestimate the enemy. After all, this is the capital of Daming. Ding Qirui has exhausted his efforts to operate here for more than a year. The firepower of the defenders is now very strong, and there are Hongyi in the city. There are nearly 20 cannons, some of which have just been bought from the red-haired ghost recently. They are very powerful!
In addition to the Hongyi cannon, Ding Qirui has also cast a lot of other cannons. There is no problem if the number is more than 100, and the firepower is not at a disadvantage compared with us!
Moreover, Jiangnan is rich, and Ding Qirui is not short of food and salary. At present, the number of officers and soldiers he has gathered around Nanjing is also 70,000, which is similar to our military strength, and the wall of Nanjing is tall and strong. Needless to say, this city can be said to be the strongest city we have to attack in the past few years. Even the wall of Luzhou Prefecture can't be compared with it. If you underestimate the enemy, we will suffer a big loss!"
Xiao Tianjian saw that the generals were a little underestimated, so he specially reminded them.
At this time, the generals put away their smiles on their faces, and their faces became solemn. Although Nanjing is a super-large city, it can't be compared with the scale of the city of later generations. The two armies gathered more than 100,000 horses here at the same time, which can be said to be an unprecedented battle. Although the combat power of the Xing Tianjun It's very strong, but to attack such a strong city, there are so many defenders, and the artillery is also very powerful. If you want to capture Nanjing, it's really not a simple thing.
So Xiao Tianjian asked Li Xin to take over and began to explain the detailed layout of the Nanjing garrison to the generals.
This pre-war meeting lasted for a day. The generals basically have an intuitive understanding of the urban defense layout of Nanjing City. This can be said to know themselves and know their opponents. Before the war, they can understand such a detailed situation of the enemy in detail, which is undoubtedly very helpful for the next step of attacking Nanjing City.
In this era, Nanjing City can be called the largest city in the world, which is beyond doubt. After Zhu Chongba founded the country, the Jiqing Road in the Yuan Dynasty was Ying Tianfu. On the original basis, Nanjing City was ordered to be renovated, just to burn a large number of bricks used in Nanjing City, and several provinces were used. The force of ten prefectures and nearly 100 states was jointly completed. After the firing, it was transported by water to Nanjing City for the construction of the city, and more than 200,000 craftsmen across the country were mobilized to build the city of Nanjing City.
The length of the wall around Nanjing City, which was originally built, is claimed to be 90 miles. In fact, it has reached nearly 70 miles. The bottom of the wall is more than ten meters wide, and the height has reached nearly 20 meters. The foundation of the city wall is almost all paved with large stone strips, and the top is built with city bricks. There are many plate towers on the wall, and 10,000 towers alone are built. There are more than 7,000 gates, and each gate is inside and outside, forming the urn city. There are many Tibetan caves under the wall inside the urn city. Each cave can hide hundreds of soldiers, and 3,000 soldiers can be hidden in each urn city. There are also huge and strong towers built above the gate, and cannons are used to defend the city, so Nanjing City is here. Under such construction, it can be said to be extremely strong. Whether it is the area of the city or the size of the city wall, it is much larger than the city of Paris in this era. It is no exaggeration to call it the first city in the world.
Later, Zhu Chongba found that the mountains outside the city were very unfavorable to the city defense. Once the cannons were mounted on the mountain, they could bomb the imperial city in the city, so he ordered the construction of an earthen city outside the main city, most of which were rammed with earth, but some of them were built of city bricks, and the outer Guo reached more than 100. It takes at least a day to run around the city, even if it is fast.
Therefore, after the completion of Waiguo, Nanjing City, together with the imperial city in the east of the inner city, has formed three internal and external floors. Such a large city can accommodate three million people inside. Even if the size of such a city is placed hundreds of years later, it can be called a super-large city.
Therefore, although Xing Tianjun has organized more than 70,000 people, if he attacks a city like Nanjing, the number of these 70,000 people is still a little insufficient. What's more, Ding Qirui has almost the same number of officers and soldiers in the city inside and outside Nanjing. If he mobilizes the people in Nanjing to help the battle. If the people support the court, it will not be a problem to easily draw out more than 100,000 yuan to help the people.
It was not until the generals thoroughly understood the situation in Nanjing City that everyone had to put away their previous relaxed mood and pay attention to the siege again.
Judging from the retracted request, Ding Qirui knew very well where the weakness of the officers and soldiers was, so this time when he gathered heavy troops in Nanjing, he did not consider sending troops out of Nanjing to defeat Xing Tianjun outside the city, but placed all these 70,000 troops in the inner and outer city walls, and set up the outer city wall first. With the first line of defense, most of the troops are deployed between the inner and outer cities, and the total strength of the outer city has reached 50,000. In order to ensure that the Nanjing city is not lost, in addition to the outer city, more than 20,000 elites are also stationed in the inner city. These are the backbone of the officers and soldiers. Once the outer city fails, he will immediately The posture of withdrawing into the inner city and continuing to defend.
And in order to ensure that Nanjing City will not be lost, and it is also convenient to control the officers and soldiers in the outer city, Ding Qirui put a large amount of grain and ammunition in the inner city for reserve, and regularly allocates it to the officers and soldiers stationed in the outer city, in case a large number of grain will be lost once the outer city is lost. Therefore, if you only occupy the outer city, it is far from attacking. For the purpose of Nanjing City, the officers and soldiers of the inner city still have the ability to stick to the inner city for a long time. Even if Xing Tianjun takes away the outer city, they may eventually have to withdraw from Nanjing City because they can't withstand the huge food consumption problem.
Therefore, it is not easy to fight this battle. Even such a strong army as Xing Tianjun is the same. The key depends on the morale of the defenders in the city.
At this point, the situation is more favorable to Xing Tianjun. Although there are a large number of officers and soldiers in the city, most of them are soldiers and horses who have just been recruited by Ding Qirui in the past year or two. Everyone is very clear about the drills of officers and soldiers. Under good circumstances, it is good to practice twice a month. Some officers and soldiers are recruited. After the fundraising, officials are always greedy and lose money. Sometimes they may not be able to practice once in a month or two. Compared with Xing Tianjun, who has to practice almost every day in his spare time, their training level can be said to be very pitiful.
In addition, the Nanjing garrison are not all from around Nanjing. In order to defend Nanjing City, Ding Qirui transferred almost all the officers and soldiers that Nanzhili can call to Nanjing City. Among them, there are not only officers and soldiers from Yangzhou Prefecture, Zhenjiang Prefecture, Songjiang Prefecture and Changzhou Prefecture, but also soldiers and horses from the local Yingtianfu, and some soldiers and horses transferred from Xuzhou. Of course, there are also the defeated soldiers in Taiping Prefecture, Chizhou Prefecture, Anqing Prefecture and Luzhou Prefecture, so it is very mixed. There are not many soldiers who can really fight among these officers and soldiers, and there are very few generals who are good at fighting. Sun Yingyuan is roughly one of the most capable generals, and the rest of the provinces are mobilized. It can be said that most of the military generals are wine bags and rice bags. When fishing for money, they stretch out their hands longer than anyone else, but fight a war, hehe! That's another matter.
Therefore, although the number of officers and soldiers is quite large, the orders are not unified. Each army will have their own small calculations. Some of them have even secretly contacted Xing Tianjun about the surrender, so at this point, Xiao Tianjian still has considerable confidence in taking down Nanjing City. However, Xiao Tianjian will not easily disclose these things to his subordinates for the time being. After all, once the news is leaked, it may have a great impact, so Xiao Tianjian concealed this when he reported the situation of the enemy.
No matter what dynasty, at the end of the period, there will often be some capable and loyal ministers, but there will be a large number of greedy people who are afraid of death. At this time, in fact, many officials and even military generals have also seen that the building of the Ming Dynasty is about to collapse. There is no better way to deal with this Xing Tianjun, so some people began to secretly look for a way out for themselves. The fast-handed thie is slow. At this time, whoever runs ahead may seek greater benefits for his family in the future. Therefore, Ding Qirui has arranged so many soldiers and horses in Nanjing City. In fact, There is a lot of water in it, and many of them are already planning for their future.
Another point is the hearts of the people. In recent years, with the gradual development and growth of the Xingtian Army, a large number of territories have been eroded, making the area under the court's control smaller and smaller. Especially after the Xing Tianjun won Huguang last year, the attack on the court has been very large, so that the court can collect taxes. Less and less, the loss of some territory in Huguang, Henan, Shanxi and even Nanzhili and Jiangxi has undoubtedly dug up a considerable piece of the fiscal revenue of the imperial court.
On the contrary, in order to deal with Xing Tianjun, the imperial court needs to recruit more soldiers and horses and build more armor. It spends more and more money. A group of officers and soldiers are put into the battlefield and are eaten by the Xing Tianjun in a blink of an eye, so it is like a bottomless hole. How much money is invested in it, and in the end, it is often cheaper for Xing Tianjun.
But it won't work if you don't do this. By this time, the Chongzhen monster circle has completely gone to a dead end. On the one hand, the court in the capital has to meet the needs of the needs of the northern officers and soldiers, and it is impossible to fill the taxes collected by Lianlian's slaves in Beizhili, Shandong, Xuanda and other places. It is needed, so the only places where the imperial court can ask for money are Nanzhili, Liangguang, Fujian and other places, and Nanzhili is the richest area of the Ming Dynasty, so most of the heavy burden falls on the people in the Nanzhili area. Although the gentry don't look at the hustle and bustle, they want them to take money for the court, they won't do it. Therefore, the heavy tax can only be borne by the ordinary people at the bottom.
After two years of exploitation, it can be said that the people in the Nanzhili area have been squeezed out of the oil in the bones, so the people in the Nanzhili area can't bear it for a long time. They can't wait for Xing Tianjun to come quickly to overthrow the rule of the government and avoid the extreme burden on them, so there is no need to say more about the hearts of the people. Most of the people are inclined to Xing Tianjun.
At present, before the Xing Tianjun has not yet reached the outside of Nanjing, the people in many places in Nanzhili have begun to spontaneously organize and make a lot of noise. As soon as the Xing Tianjun arrives, they can be exempted from harsh taxes, so this is also the basis of Xiao Tianjian and Xing Tianjun.
Many factors boil down together. Xiao Tianjian believes that although Nanjing City is strong, it is not impossible to break through. Luzhou City is a typical example. The strongest city is often broken from the inside. He believes that this will be repeated in Nanjing City again.
So at the end of August, Xiao Tianjian ordered that all kinds of troops began to march towards Nanjing City. Almost on every road leading to Nanjing City, a large number of soldiers and horses of the Xing Tian Army appeared. In addition, a large number of people who got the news also merged into the team one after another and carried him. Our tools have joined the ranks of helping the Xingtian Army.