Daming pirates

When Yu Xiaotian heard this, he put his pipe on the table, his eyes lit up, and he immediately asked Liu Tong: "Can this clever tiger persuade Yang Guozhu to switch sides?"

Liu Tong shook his head and said: "I'm afraid this won't work. Yang Guozhu has a loyal character. Although he also hates Yang Sichang and Gao Qiqian, it's probably impossible to persuade him to switch sides!"

Yu Xiaotian touched his chin, leaned on the back of the chair, picked up the pipe again, took a puff and then asked: "What about Gao Minghu?"

Liu Tong showed a wicked smile at this time, nodded and said: "There is hope! This time, the lord came to the capital under the banner of Qingjun, and named Yang Sichang, Gao Qiqian, Xue Guoguan, Liu Yuliang and others to be killed, and he was making a statement

It was clearly stated in it that he would protest against Lu Jun's family, which made Gao Minghu quite happy.

Although Gao Minghu did not explicitly say that he would open the city to surrender, his attitude was obviously very ambiguous! Yesterday, his subordinates sent people to contact our people in the city and asked them to tell Gao Minghu that as long as the lord enters the capital, he will be the first to kill Gao Minghu.

Qi Qian and Yang Sichang avenge Lu Junmen!

There is no news in the city yet, but according to Beizhong's estimate, Gao Minghu is very likely to defect. This time, the lord took Chaoyang Gate as the main target and pretended to attack Dongzhimen, which indeed played into Beizhong's plan!

But I would like to remind my lord, once you start attacking Dongzhimen, don’t fight too hard there, suppress the shooting as much as possible, and don’t cause too many casualties, otherwise I don’t know how things will change! This Gao Minghu is said to be very considerate of his soldiers.

, but don’t let those guys from the 4th and 7th Brigade go down the wrong path and kill Gao Minghu too!”

After hearing this, Yu Xiaotian immediately burst into laughter, stood up, walked to Liu Tong, slapped Liu Tong hard on the shoulder, and said with a smile: "If the siege is successful this time, you, Liu Tong, will be the leader."

First achievement! Okay! Just do as you say, come and ask Qiu Qinghui, commander of the Fourth Brigade, to come see me immediately..."

As the Yu's army's offensive unfolded, the entire capital city was immediately enveloped in the roar of cannons. More than a hundred cannons of various types were lined up outside the Chaoyang Gate and Dongzhi Gate, forming a fortified structure.

There is an artillery position, one cannon after another, and the black muzzle points directly at the city head.

Following Yu Xiaotian's order, the general offensive began. The Yu Jiajun once again showed off their special skills, first bombarding with artillery, and then charging with infantry.

Outside Chaoyang Gate, more than a dozen 24-pound siege artillery began to roar at the same time, spitting out dazzling rays of light, flashing out balls of flames, and then rising into large clouds of gunpowder smoke.

The huge sound of artillery immediately resounded over the entire capital, and the remaining twelve-pound field cannons and a small number of six-pound long cannons, not to be outdone, began to fire alternately.

Dozens of cannons, one after another, hit the capital city wall like a hail of cannonballs. The bricks and stones on the city wall were flying everywhere, and the defenders screamed and screamed into the sky.

A careful observation will reveal that although the Yu Jiajun's artillery fire was very fierce, it did not concentrate on one point to bombard the city wall. Instead, all the firepower was concentrated between the crenellations of the city wall, as if they were shooting targets.

Knock out the crenels.

The crenellations are an important part of the ancient Chinese city wall, also generally referred to as the female wall. They are mainly used for the defenders to hide or look out, and are used to shoot arrows through the lower part of the city wall, which plays a very important role.

This time, the Yu family army reached a consensus on the way to attack the city. They all realized that it was basically impossible to blow down a section of the city wall with the artillery they had on hand, and they also

We don't have that much ammunition, and we can't afford to waste that much time.

Therefore, they must use the fastest speed possible to disintegrate the fighting will of the defenders on the city wall, and also eliminate the various types of artillery placed on the city wall. These artillery will pose a huge threat to the siege troops, and they must

Knock it out as soon as possible to clear the way for the next siege troops.

If you want to do this, you must first destroy these dense crenellations. If the crenellations are destroyed, the defenders on the city wall will lose their support and cover, and then they will become the hunting targets of the Yu Jiajun musketeers.

Otherwise, if the defenders hide behind the crenellations, they can not only easily look out of the city, but also use the crenellations as cover to shoot arrows or muskets down the city from the perforations under the crenellations.

In addition, a large number of artillery will use the crenel cover to fire towards the city. This will seriously weaken the lethality of the muskets in the hands of the Yu Jiajun infantry and cause immeasurable casualties to the attacking Yu Jiajun soldiers.

Therefore, before the general offensive began, Yu Xiaotian ordered the artillerymen to concentrate all their firepower on the crenellations first, look for the artillery pieces on the crenellations, and knock them out before the infantry attack began.

Therefore, before the war started, the artillery units had already divided the areas they were responsible for in company units, and even each crenel was assigned to each gun.

When the general offensive order was issued, the artillerymen immediately aimed at the targets selected in advance and began the first round of fierce bombardment.

The accuracy of the first round of artillery salvo was not very high. The artillerymen needed a calibration process, so some of the artillery shells landed on the city wall, making big holes in the city wall and flying many city bricks.

Some city bricks were removed, revealing the main body of the rammed earth city wall underneath the city bricks.

In addition, some of the cannonballs were fired high, flying directly over the city wall and into the city. Then, after they were exhausted, they fell heavily into some houses and courtyards in the city.

Some of the twenty-four-pounder shells simply flew several miles away and landed far away in the city. They destroyed several houses on the spot and caused screams and screams to be heard in the city.

.

As long as it is a war, it will inevitably cause civilian casualties. This is also an unavoidable thing. It just puts some pressure on the people in the city. After all, the banner raised by Yu Xiaotian this time is not the Qingjun side. On the surface, he has to deal with it.

He was not the emperor, nor was he trying to overthrow the Ming Dynasty, but he was targeting some of the courtiers in the court who were eating people's food and not doing anything for others.

Even just yesterday, Yu Xiaotian ordered his men to conduct a propaganda campaign against the defenders in the city at Chaoyang Gate, Dongzhi Gate, Guangqu Gate, and Zuo'an Gate, ordering the defenders to give up resistance, or to call them by name.

At the request of the Holy Emperor, more than 40 ministers including Yang Sichang, Gao Qiqian, Chen Xinjia, and Xue Guoguan were bound up and sent out of the city to be dealt with by Yu Jiajun.

If the current emperor agrees to the conditions proposed by Yu Jiajun and hands over these traitors who have brought harm to the country and the people, then Yu Xiaotian expresses his willingness to withdraw his troops and return to Fujian immediately.

In fact, these words are only meant for ordinary soldiers and ordinary people to listen. The purpose of this is to divide the relationship between ordinary officers and soldiers, ordinary people and these ministers, making them feel that it is not worthwhile to fight with the Yu family army. They are tantamount to

It's really not worth it to work for these officials.

And the result of Yu Xiaotian's doing this has indeed been quite effective. Through this period of influencing public opinion, Yu Xiaotian has widely publicized the daily actions of these ministers and their bad deeds in advance.

spread.

It can be said that these people have already become rotten fish and shrimps in the minds of ordinary officers, soldiers and ordinary people, and their reputation has been ruined.

So now that Yu Xiaotian proposes to kill these guys, it can be said that he complies with the people's will and is quite popular among the ordinary lower classes.

Of course, Yu Xiaotian also knew very well that if he forced the palace like this, the current Emperor Chongzhen in the palace would definitely not agree. If he agreed to Yu Xiaotian's request, what dignity would he have as an emperor? In this world

Isn't it Yu Xiaotian who has the final say? He will arrest whoever Yu Xiaotian says to arrest, and he will kill whomever he says to kill. What kind of thing is he, His Majesty the Emperor?

Therefore, the ultimate goal of such publicity is to undermine the fighting spirit of the defenders, making the defenders feel that it is not worth it to hold on to the city and fight to the death with the Yu family army.

Moreover, Yu Xiaotian also had his men holding loudspeakers and constantly preaching to the soldiers and generals guarding the city, saying that the Yu family's army came to Beijing only to clear the emperor's side, and would never kill innocent people indiscriminately. As long as the defenders opened the city to welcome them in,

The capital will ensure their safety and protect their property.

Such propaganda is obviously very lethal. After the Yu Jiajun continued to preach for a day, the court did not respond at all, but the morale of the defenders was already getting lower and lower. Many people complained privately.

I think this battle is really not worth fighting.

They fought against Jiannu because Jiannu was a foreign invader and a robber. If you didn't fight him, he would kill you, so they had to fight. But Yu Jiajun and others knew that this time they were serious about going north.

Those who came to build slaves actually destroyed the army of slave builders. When they rebelled, the imperial court forced them to have no choice. Now they want to come to Qingjun's side. What are they going to do? Fighting to the death with the Yu family's army, even more so.

Too unworthy.

Moreover, Yu Jiajun made it clear that he would not kill innocent people indiscriminately if he did not do anything to them after entering the city. They soldiers were just eating food and getting paid, so they were considered innocent people. How could they avoid falling out with Yu Jiajun?

Don't be so angry.

However, the defenders did not want to fight in their hearts, but Gao Qiqian was the bastard who was determined to fight! Because this time when Yu Xiaotian attacked the capital, he made it very clear that after entering the capital by name, he must be taken first

The head on the item speaks volumes.

So once Yu Xiaotian is allowed to attack the city, his life will be in danger immediately. This is something that cannot be agreed to. The lower part of him is gone. If the upper part is cut off again, it will be too tragic.

Therefore, he still attaches great importance to the head on his neck.

(Thanks to my friend Jian Wu Piao Xiang for the tip!)