Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 182: What is it like to follow Taizu to fight for the country?
"call out!"

Ainengqi drew his bow and shot an arrow at the drone.

The drone pilot didn't react in time, and with a "whoosh", the drone was shot down to the ground.

Ai Nengqi then said to Zhang Xianzhong: "Father, this must be a treacherous plot by the enemy."

"Yeah, you did a great job."

Zhang Xianzhong woke up as if from a dream, his eyes full of murderous intent, he said: "They are trying to deceive me by playing tricks. Tell the soldiers, don't pay any attention to them. If they come, we will kill them with knives!"

"Yes."

Ai Nengqi then ordered the messenger to shout on the city wall, telling the soldiers defending the city that it was an enemy trick and asked them not to be fooled.

In the distance, where Xu Da's troops were located, the drone pilot looked at Xu Da with embarrassment.

He just tried it. The drone was from DJI and was of very good quality. The arrow just scraped the plastic shell underneath the drone, and it fell into the mud, so it wasn't damaged.

However, due to loss of balance and falling, the drone's wings fell to the ground, making it unable to fly. Judging from the current situation, the drone should be scrapped.

Xu Da was speechless.

This was the biggest loss since Zhu went to war - a drone.

What a shame.

It seems that Zhang Xianzhong doesn't give me, Old Xu, any face.

"Set up the cannon!"

He did not hesitate any longer and gave an order, and the messenger took out a walkie-talkie and ordered the soldiers in the rear to push out the artillery.

This is different from the young Zhu Di who traveled thousands of miles to help Sun Chuanting and could only bring a rifle and a light mortar.

Since the straight-line distance between Hengyang and Changsha is only 110 kilometers and the actual distance is no more than 200 kilometers, Xu Da brought rapid-fire artillery with him.

This Ming Dynasty Shenwei General rapid-fire cannon, which is based on Li Yunlong's Italian cannon, also known as the French Miss 75, is made entirely of steel metal. The raw materials are all high-strength light steel that Zhu Yunfeng obtained from modern times.

车轮则用的是现代橡胶车轮，整体重量甚至只有970公斤，比原型法国M1897型75mm火炮的1160公斤还要轻将近200公斤。

It is also much stronger than the prototype in structure, power and range.

Even during World War I and World War II, the parameters of this artillery were top-notch.

As for the end of the Ming Dynasty in 1643 AD, it was like a powerful Mahayana cultivator running to a world where there were no immortal cultivators.

It's basically a random killing.

The soldiers in the rear pushed over hundreds of Shenwei general cannons.

Then they arranged the artillery camp positions.

Zhang Xianzhong's troops actually also had artillery, but their artillery, like Li Zicheng's, had an effective range of only one mile and could not threaten the Ming army two miles away.

Everyone watched quietly, and those on the city wall saw so many cannons pointed at the top of the city, which caused a commotion.

Ai Nengqi and Sun Kewang shouted: "Don't panic, don't get confused, they can't hit us."

"Their artillery can only reach one mile and cannot reach the city walls."

"Watch your formation, watch your formation."

"If you are really scared, just hide behind the city wall. When they have used up all their shells and launch an attack, that is when we can counterattack."

They shouted loudly and quickly stabilized the morale of the troops.

The soldiers naturally recognized that the other side had artillery, although the style of the other side's artillery was different from theirs. But in their understanding, artillery could not fire that far, so they gradually calmed down.

However, the Ming army had already set up an artillery camp. Xu Da sat on his horse, raised his right hand, and shouted, "Load!"

"Load!"

The captain of the guard picked up the intercom.

The artillerymen quickly took action, opening the breech blocks and loading the shells into the chamber.

"emission!"

"emission!"

"Bang bang bang bang!"

There was no hesitation and no dragging of feet.

Once loading is complete, fire immediately.

"Boohoo!"

The sound of cannonballs breaking through the air swept across, and everyone on the city wall raised their heads.

"Bang bang bang bang bang bang!"

next second.

Explosions were heard on the city walls.

Before anyone could react, smoke filled the air and dust covered the city walls. Many people were blown to pieces, and there was not a single person left standing on the entire northern wall of Hengzhou City.

Not to mention a single person standing, there was not even the sound of screaming. The only sound on the entire city wall was the constant "bang bang bang" of explosions.

Occasionally, you can see broken limbs and bodies flying high up from the city walls and falling outside the city.

at the same time.

In a small forest about ten miles away from Hengzhou, a team was taking a detour.

Li Dingguo was stationed in the west of Hengyang City, about five or six miles away from the city, forming a pincer attack on the city and could launch an attack on the flank of Zuo Liangyu's troops at any time.

However, Zhang Xianzhong discovered that the other side did not bring their family camp, so he ordered Li Dingguo to immediately detour north and directly attack Changsha overnight.

He received the order at noon, so he asked his soldiers to take all the dry food and set off immediately. They were passing a small forest and not far away at the foot of the mountain was Zhengshui. After crossing Zhengshui, they could go to Hengyang County in later generations, cross Hengshan Mountain, and go directly to Xiangtan and Changsha.

As a result, just as they set out, their soldiers saw a scene that they would never forget.

The horrifying sound of the explosion spread in all directions, and the rumbling sound from the top of Hengzhou City was endless. White smoke five or six feet high rose from above, and a large section of the city wall collapsed.

'what's the situation? ’

Li Dingguo stared at the scene in disbelief.

Was Hengzhou City struck by lightning?

And even if it was struck by lightning, it couldn't cause such an exaggerated power.

Everyone looked towards Hengzhou in amazement.

It was very far away from them, so far that they could only vaguely see the outline of the city, but the smoke covering the entire city could not be faked.

And the explosions continued. In less than half a quarter of an hour, they saw that most of the Hengzhou city wall had collapsed.

"What's going on with the king?"

"Oh no! It must be the Ming dogs attacking the city."

"How can they blow up the city wall?"

"Who knows? What should we do now?"

The soldiers of Li Dingguo's army were talking about this.

Everyone looked at Li Dingguo, who could only grit his teeth and say, "Send the order, return to the army."

Now it seems that Hengyang cannot be defended, and we can only see if it can be rescued.

He had just set out and now he had to go back.

Outside Hengzhou City, shouts of killing were heard everywhere.

"Kill!"

"rush!"

"Don't let any thief go."

After dozens of rounds of artillery bombardment, Xu Da waved his hand to signal a general attack.

Groups of Ming soldiers rushed like a tide towards the bombarded Hengzhou City.

If the tank is the king of land warfare, then artillery is the god of land warfare.

This can be seen from the battle between Da Mao and Er Mao.

Modern warfare has actually begun to abandon human gun combat and turn to information warfare and long-range firepower warfare. When the two sides start fighting, drones and satellites directly lock the target, and then artillery fire from a distance of several kilometers or even dozens or hundreds of kilometers.

Although drones are a new form of warfare, their role on the battlefield is limited to individual combat and reconnaissance operations. They can only take out a single tank at best, and are simply incomparable to artillery.

In modern warfare, artillery is a god, and it was even more so in ancient times.

There are more than one hundred rapid-fire cannons with an effective range of up to 10 kilometers and a maximum firing rate of 15 rounds per minute, or an average of about 10 rounds.

Basically, in just seven or eight minutes, the southern city wall of Hengzhou City received nearly 8000 75mm howitzer shells.

what is this concept?

During the counterattack against Vietnam, in the Battle of Lang Son, Xu Shiyou mobilized 30 artillery pieces and tens of thousands of artillery shells to bomb Lang Son City for minutes.

30 minutes later, Lang Son, a city built of reinforced concrete, was razed to the ground, and there was almost no intact house in the city.

Although the Ming army did not have as many artillery pieces and shells as in the Battle of Lang Son, the scale of the ancient city walls was also not as large as a city in later generations.

Generally speaking, the area of ​​an ancient county town was only three or four square kilometers, and the slightly larger ones did not exceed ten square kilometers. After all, the area of ​​ancient capitals such as Chang'an, Luoyang, Nanjing, and Beijing was only maintained at 50 square kilometers.

Therefore, the power of the artillery shells that Hengzhou suffered was even more intensive. In just half a quarter of an hour, most of the northern city walls collapsed, and countless people died on the walls. Even the city was affected by the artillery fire. Many houses collapsed near the north gate, and Zhang Xianzhong suffered countless casualties.

Zuo Liangyu saw this scene from a distance and couldn't help swallowing.

Fortunately, I know the times.

Otherwise, I would have been blown to the sky and no trace left.

At this point, there is basically no suspense.

A large number of Ming soldiers rushed into the city and launched a siege on the remaining troops of Zhang Xianzhong. Some of Zhang Xianzhong's remaining forces in the city quickly surrendered, while others resisted stubbornly, but were soon subdued.

When night fell, after an inventory, it was found that Zhang Xianzhong, Sun Kewang, Ai Nengqi and others were killed on the spot in the artillery bombardment.

At the same time, a large number of Zhang Xianzhong's soldiers suffered heavy casualties, with more than 10,000 people killed or wounded.

The remaining 10,000 people basically surrendered.

Li Dingguo was originally going to Changsha, but he was at a loss after Hengzhou City was broken. At first, he wanted to return to Hengzhou for support, but Hengzhou fell before he could do so. He had no choice but to take his troops and join Liu Wenxiu.

That night Xu Da sent someone to inform Liu Wenxiu and Li Dingguo, ordering them to surrender immediately, otherwise they would suffer the same fate as Zhang Xianzhong.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Liu Wenxiu and Li Dingguo dared not resist any longer and surrendered to the Ming army.

Since then.

Old Zhu had only been in Ming Dynasty for a little over twenty days.

The three largest forces in the late Ming Dynasty were the two rebel armies of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, one of which was crippled and the other was eliminated. The military leader Zuo Liangyu was successfully recruited by Zhu.

After the war, Xu Da reported the situation to Zhu Yuanzhang. Upon learning that Zhang Xianzhong had been defeated, Zhu Yuanzhang was not surprised but simply called everyone to a meeting.

at night.

In the tent of Zhu Yuanzhang, the commander of the Changsha Prince Ji Palace, a radio communication from Xu Da was just received, saying that Zhang Xianzhong's rebellion had been put down.

Old Zhu stood beside the table, overlooking the map above.

After a while, civil servants including Lu Daqi, Liu Xizuo, Zhou Ernan, and Li Qiande came in.

Also among them were Tang He, Mao Xiang, Jiang Li, Zhu Yunfeng and Ji He.

Everyone bowed to Lao Zhu first.

Then Lao Zhu waved his hand to signal them to come to the table.

"Xu Da has already conquered Hengzhou and wiped out Zhang Xianzhong's forces."

Zhu pointed to the direction of Hengyang on the map and said, "Now Hunan is completely under my control. Lü Daqi, I order you to lead the civil officials to quickly restore order in Hunan and quell small bandit gangs in various places. First, improve public security. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. If anyone takes advantage of the national crisis to cause chaos everywhere, they will be killed without mercy."

"Yes."

Lu Daqi quickly bowed in response.

"In addition, we must investigate local officials to understand their local reputation and conduct, and bring corrupt officials to justice. I know that the power of the gentry in the late Ming Dynasty was huge and complicated, and you were one of them."

Old Zhu looked at Lu Daqi and others with a sinister look and said, "But what I want is clean government, so that the landowners and gentry can return the land to the people, so that the people can have land to plant, clothes to wear, and food to eat."

"I only want the result, not the process. You should know what to do."

"I will not let any of those gentry bullies who colluded with local officials to exploit the people go. Those officials who embezzled state money and grain, and those generals who took empty salaries and withheld salaries, all deserve to die."

"I entrusted these tasks to you because I value your integrity as officials and your integrity in not doing evil."

"But if I find out that you are corrupt and colluding with them, you will lose your heads. Do you understand?"

The words were calm, but the content was horrifying.

Thinking of the fact that the heads of officials killed by the founding emperor could be piled up like a mountain to form a memorial, and even the prime minister and other nobles were slaughtered like pigs and dogs, Lu Daqi and others couldn't help but shudder, and their feet were cold.

"Yes Yes Yes."

Several civil servants wiped the sweat from their foreheads.

Is this the feeling of oppression that Taizu felt?

It's so scary.

I feel like my head is moving if I don’t answer a question well.

At this time, some people should be thankful that they are honest officials serving the country.

Otherwise, the grass on the grave would probably be three feet high by now.

"Now that Hunan has been pacified, the next step will be Hubei and Jiangxi."

Old Zhu looked at the map and said, "Jiangxi was conquered by the edict. Hubei still has Li Zicheng's troops. Do you know how many people they have?"

Zhu Yunfeng took the information and said, "Ancestor, I have checked it out. When Li Zicheng attacked Shaanxi, he left Yang Yanchang to guard Xiangyang, Ren Guangrong to guard Jingzhou, Bai Wang to guard Chengtian, Zhou Fengwu to guard Zhengzhou, Ma Shouying to occupy Lizhou, and Luo Dain to Anlu. The total force should be only 20,000 to 30,000 people, but now that Li Zicheng has been defeated, he is likely to retreat from Ruzhou to Nanyang. Once a war breaks out, he will probably rush to help."

"That's a good way to catch them all."

Old Zhu nodded and said, "Tang He."

"His Majesty."

Tang He stood up.

"You lead 500 people to the north to join Feng Sheng and Fu Youde, and set out for Wuchang immediately to recapture Chengtian Prefecture and De'an Prefecture first. I will go to Wuchang in person afterwards."

Lao Zhu made arrangements.

"Yes."

Tang He agreed.

Zhu Yunfeng scratched his head, came to Zhu Yuanzhang and whispered: "Ancestor, there is no one to guard the house? You can't let me do it."

Guarding the house means guarding the stone tablet of Prince Ji’s Mansion.

To be honest, everything in the late Ming Dynasty could be abandoned, but the stone tablet was the top priority.

Even Xu Da might not be able to trust him 100% to guard the stone tablet.

Only Zhu Biao, Zhu Di, Zhu Yunfeng and Ji He, four people who know each other well, can do such a thing.

But Zhu Di was still in the north and had not returned, and Zhu Biao was the emperor of the Hongwu Dynasty.

As for Zhu Yunfeng and Ji He.

It would be fine to let them eat, drink, and have fun, travel to the late Ming Dynasty, see the scenery, and sigh about the oppression of ancient feudal society, but it would be really difficult for them to stay at home.

It’s not that the two of them are complete losers, but people who lived in peacetime have never fought in a war and have no experience or ability in this area.

There's nothing wrong with giving advice, making comments, and being a keyboard warrior.

The real prototype was immediately revealed.

We can't ask them to move their machine gun position five meters to the left to do some micro-management.

Old Zhu glanced at him and replied, "Take it with you, and you can come with me."

"Ow."

Zhu Yunfeng suddenly understood and nodded, "I understand."

That's just right.

You can experience the process of Zhu Yuanzhang building his empire.

(End of this chapter)