In the late Ming Dynasty, rising from the grassland

Chapter 224 The little castle is not easy to bully
"Rui Lang, how about we attack a few small cities first, replenish some food supplies, and then directly concentrate our troops to go to Xuan Mansion for a decisive battle with the Ming army?"

"This is indeed feasible, but what about the civilians recruited from military households?"

Lin Rui frowned. The only thing they didn't take advantage of was the weather, but now they were really in trouble because of the unfavorable weather.

If it were not winter, even if Datong City could not be breached, he could choose to besiege it for a long time.

Then, while the main force was training its troops and waiting for work, a small number of soldiers and horses led the young men to attack small castles and replenish food supplies.

But it will only get colder in the future. These weak military civilians who lack cotton-padded clothes cannot move in the wild at all, but have become a huge burden to them.

After all, 40 people, plus their own more than 10 horses, consume about 40 shi of food every day, and they only carried [-] shi of food this time.

It was impossible to transport grain from the Hetao, and there was no time.

"How about we go blackmail first like we did before?" Na Muzhong's eyes lit up and he suddenly said.

"Those military attachés and landowners are not stupid either. Our attack this time is obviously fierce, and we can't just spend a little money, food and supplies. Since they are ready to fight to the end, they will not give out any more food and supplies."

Lin Rui shook his head and explained.

Apparently, they had learned from the military and civilians who had defected to them that the military attachés and landowners from various places had not only expanded their families aggressively a while ago, but also no longer allowed civilians and military households to enter the castle or fort to take shelter when the beacon fire was ignited.

Therefore, it is no longer possible to imagine that the ordinary soldiers and civilians in the city could be tempted to rebel and take the castle easily.

Otherwise, Zhou Meng would not have led more than 3 military households, but he has not yet captured Yulin Acropolis, and in the end he had to attack small towns and forts.

"You have to give it a try, right?" Namuzhong said, but still refused to give up.

"Then give it a try. If it doesn't work, attack Datong again and see if you can attack the city in one go. If not, then attack those small castles!"

Lin Rui could only nod after thinking about it. After all, the food could only last for half a month. No matter what, raising food was the first priority.

Although it is troublesome to attack small towns and small forts, if you cannot capture three big cities, you can only attack small forts first, slowly collect supplies and food, and wait for the Ming army to take the initiative.

After all, field battles ultimately rely on elite infantry and cavalry. As for the [-] garrison, they are just soy sauce, so even if they suffer heavy losses during the siege, they will not affect the situation of the battle.

Although the Ming army that came this time may have exceeded 20, it is estimated that only a small part can actually fight, and each general has his own thoughts, otherwise he would not encounter Jiannu and be defeated in every battle.

After the agreement was reached, Lin Rui sent cavalry to various castles near Datong to threaten and extort.

The result was as he expected. Almost all the landowners and military attachés said that unless Lin Rui could personally go to the city to guarantee that he would not attack their castle in the future, they would not give out a grain of grain or a piece of cotton cloth.

Lin Rui obviously would not guarantee it, so he no longer hesitated and directly issued the order to attack the city.

"boom!"

With loud noises, one hundred red-coated cannons took the lead in firing, concentrating on the city head and wall in the south.

Not long after the cannon sounded, a hundred trebuchets began to throw stones from all sides of Datong.

Since there are 20 military civilians, except for [-] to [-] strong men who can help push the ladder, the others can only hide in the temporary camp to warm themselves by fire and cannot participate in the battle. Therefore, Lin Rui can only choose to concentrate his troops to attack Nancheng, and the other three sides It's a feint.

Although the projectiles fired directly from the red cannons are very powerful, the city wall of Datong City was built in the early Ming Dynasty. Therefore, a hundred red cannons bombarded for a full quarter of an hour and shot out hundreds of projectiles. The layer of green bricks wrapped around the city wall was shattered and fell away, but there was still a long way to go before the city wall collapsed.

Instead, the tower was riddled with holes from the stones thrown by the trebuchet.

Seeing this, Lin Rui had no choice but to order the cannon to be advanced another hundred steps, and the solid iron balls were replaced with shotguns and fired towards the city head.

At this moment, everyone in the city was frightened when they heard the sound of cannons that sounded like thunder, especially some small merchants near the city wall. They were afraid that if they were unlucky, huge rocks would fall from the sky onto the roofs of their houses.

The defenders on the wall were holding their weapons and hiding behind the walls, while more people were hiding under the walls, ready to rush to the top of the city for reinforcements at any time.

It has to be said that the generals of the Ming Dynasty were not good at fighting in the field, but they still had two brushes to defend the city. Under Wang Pu's command and arrangement, after bombarding for so long, there has been no major chaos on the four walls.

Lin Rui also knows that whether it is a cannon or a trebuchet, it is a psychological shock. Once the opponent adapts, it will not have much effect.

So after bombarding again for about a quarter of an hour, the order to attack the city was issued, and the cannons and trebuchets stopped bombarding and throwing stones.

Immediately, ten thousand young men pushed hundreds of ladders slowly towards the city wall from all sides. Behind each ladder were ten or twenty elite sword and shield soldiers and spearmen. This time Lin Rui attacked the city. Only two thousand real elite infantrymen are planned to participate in the battle.

However, the five thousand longbowmen and the more than 2 garrison troops carrying ladders and shields did not charge immediately. After all, the speed of the ladder was too slow. In order to be able to do it in one go, the ladder and the garrison must arrive at the base of the city wall at the same time. Attack.

There are only more than 5000 garrison troops and 15 ladders on the east, west, north and west sides. However, there are a full 55 garrison troops and [-] ladders on the south side of the main attack. All [-] longbowmen are also concentrated in the south.

In fact, it's not like Lin Rui never thought of imitating the Taiping Army back then, digging a tunnel directly under the wall, and then using coffins to hold gunpowder to blow up the wall.

But let alone the fact that the ground is frozen, it will be very difficult to dig. There is also a lack of professional tomb robbers in the army. Digging tunnels through the moat and under the wall also requires skills.

"attack!"

When the ladder was only twenty or thirty steps away from the city wall, the archers and gunmen on the top of the city had already started firing muskets and arrows to intercept, and then Lin Rui drew his sword and shouted.

The drumming of war drums also sounded in an instant, and more than 2 garrison troops on all sides immediately rushed forward with ladders and shouts.

"Come on!"

"Kill..."

Five thousand longbowmen also trotted to keep up with their bows and arrows.When the ladder was pushed under the base of the city wall and the top baffle was lowered and hit on the wall stacks, the kerosene tanks were smashed directly over. At this time, the garrison also rushed to the bottom of the wall and put the ladder on the top of the wall. , began to climb, to relieve the pressure on the elite on the ladder.

"Smash me!"

"withstand!"

The battle between the two sides immediately entered a fierce battle. Countless rolling logs, rocks, and golden liquid poured down from the top of the wall, causing heavy casualties to the garrison attacking the city, causing them to howl like ghosts and wolves.

Similarly, the defenders on the top of the city were also shot by the longbowmen. They frequently fell to the ground and let out shrill screams.

It is obvious that today's longbowmen have already mastered their archery skills. They can hit [-]% of the time with a direct shot from a hundred paces away, and even [-]% of the time from a distance of fifty paces.

As for the defenders on the top of the city, whether they were musketeers or archers, it was difficult to hit them a hundred steps away. The archers could still throw the lead pellets at random, but the musketeers had no idea where the lead shot was going.

Lin Rui also sighed as he watched the ladders being ignited by the fire oil cans and the subsequent soldiers and horses unable to rush along the ladders to the city.

Over thousands of years, the Han people's city defense technology has been almost perfected to the point of impeccable. If you want to capture a military town like Datong with heavy troops, apart from conventional means, I am afraid that the only remaining options are a long-term siege or the use of human lives. Pile.

It is simply impossible to win it all at once by taking advantage of some tricks.

Otherwise, it would not have happened. Over the past 200 years, the Mongols have attacked Datong City countless times, but Datong City has never been conquered.

"Mingjin retreat!"

Seeing that not many of the two hundred elites who rushed to the top of the city were left, and dozens of ladders were set on fire, and no one in the garrison could climb up the ladder to the top of the city, Lin Rui had no choice but to give the order road.

It is impossible to attack by force, so we can only stop the loss in time and pick up the weak persimmons.

As the harsh sound of ringing gold rang out, the garrison that was on the verge of collapse suddenly turned around and ran away as if they had been granted amnesty.

The remaining elite sword and shield soldiers and spear soldiers also began to retreat, and Ten Thousand Qingzhuang was the first to escape.

There were also bursts of cheers from the top of the city.

For such an intense attack, Wang Pu did not feel any pressure at all. One thousand servants only invested half of it, and [-] frontier troops also only invested half to defend Nancheng. As for the other three sides, they were all defended by servants of big families in the city. The nursing home is here to guard it.

"Rui Lang, we lost more than 4000 people in the battle just now, including [-] ordinary young men, [-] elite veterans, and the rest were all garrison troops!"

Na Muzhong walked up to report the report, but she was secretly stunned. In just one cup of tea, 4000 people were reimbursed. If they really wanted to attack Datong City regardless of casualties, they still didn't know how many casualties they would have to pay.

At this moment, she finally saw how difficult it was to really storm a fortified city heavily garrisoned by the Han people.

No wonder the Han people like to build cities and walls so much.

"Ok!"

Lin Rui nodded, but didn't care much. It would be good to use these casualties as a lesson. At this moment, he also realized that in the future, facing a fortified city like Datong, he would have to outwit it, not force it.

The next day, Lin Rui no longer thought about eating a big fat man in one bite, but honestly divided his troops to attack Baihu Fort.

Sure enough, the Baihu Fort, which was over a foot tall, was much easier to fight. Facing the concentrated bombardment of a hundred red cannons, it basically only took an hour or two to knock down a section of the city wall.

But what Lin Rui didn't expect was that when they broke through the first Baihu Fort, the opponent chose to burn them all. When they saw that they couldn't hold on, they directly set fire to the government office and the granary.

Although the fire was extinguished in time, Lin Rui felt a numbness in his scalp and a chill in his spine when he looked at the burned-out food supplies and the charred corpses, including men and women, old and weak.

"Tell me, why did your master choose to self-immolate? Even if we attack, I won't necessarily kill them all, right?"

Lin Rui grabbed a servant who surrendered and said sternly. He really couldn't figure out why this Baihu was so decisive. Could it be that Lin Rui's evil reputation had reached this point?

"Return, return to your Majesty, the master said that if you attack him, he will not escape death. It is better for you to get nothing." The servant replied tremblingly.

"Since he knew that he would die if we attacked, why didn't he open the city and surrender early?" Lin Rui's face was as black as coal. If the military attachés in Datong were so stubborn, then what the hell.

"The master said that if he surrenders and the court blames him later, he will also confiscate his house and exterminate his family. If he chooses to die for his country, the eldest son and the third son will still inherit the official position in the future!"

"Didn't your eldest son and third son get burned to death?"

Lin Rui looked at the dozens of charred corpses and wondered.

"Your Majesty, before you come, I have sent the third young master and the young masters to Qianhu Station, and the eldest young master and young masters have been sent to the Acropolis." The servant replied cautiously.

"Damn it, you can still do this."

"So, except for your master, all those who died were female members of the family?"

Lin Rui was so angry that he yelled and cursed. He said how could this Baihu be so decisive? It turned out that he had sent away his son and grandson, and probably also transferred part of his property.

"There are also the second young master and two young masters."

"Rui Lang, we attacked so many Baihu Forts last time, why didn't this happen?"

"That's because they were not prepared last time, and our strength was not as strong as it is now."

At this time, Lin Rui also wanted to understand what was going on, and said in a deep voice that he estimated that the military attachés in the entire Datong area were prepared in this way. If this was the case, then the problem would be difficult.

(End of this chapter)