Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 309 It’s better to rely on yourself than to rely on others

The Ming army's camps stretched for dozens of miles, and the main force began to extend to the east and west, appearing to be surrounding Beijing.

This was naturally intended to project momentum and create pressure on Beijing, prompting the Qing army in the city to quickly gather reinforcements from the surrounding areas so that the Tartars could be wiped out in one fell swoop.

The Qing army did not immediately launch a counterattack, but instead waited to see how things would develop.

Since the Ming army had not yet attacked the city, the Tartars inside the city did not feel any pressure and naturally chose to wait for the right opportunity.

It must be said that this was a smart tactic.

If we rashly leave the city because the Ming army is moving outside, it would be tantamount to suicide.

Although the Qing court did not know exactly what methods the Ming army used to annihilate Ao Bai and Yue Le, they did not want to try it.

The two sides faced off inside and outside the city. On February 10, the Ming army built fortifications, and on February 11, the Ming army built an outer fence and also built a high platform in the camp.

A large banner with the character "Zhu" hung on the high platform, its banner obscuring the sky and towering above the Manchu city walls, seemingly trying to outshine the Tartars.

The Green Standard Army soldiers on the city wall have been discussing this a lot these past few days.

They were actually conscripted by the Qing army under the pretext of tax exemption, and they were mostly from Hebei and the surrounding areas.

News spread slowly in rural areas, and the Manchu rulers kept them under closed military training, preventing them from contacting the outside world, so they naturally didn't know what was happening outside.

Many people thought they were just coming to serve as soldiers and get paid, never imagining that they would suddenly have to fight a war, and against the Ming army that was rumored to have been wiped out.

It should be noted that in the eighteenth year of the Shunzhi reign, when the Ming Dynasty fell, many of the Green Standard Army soldiers who were in their twenties were only a few years old. They hadn't heard of the Ming Dynasty for many years and naturally didn't know of their existence.

In the blink of an eye, the banners of the Ming Dynasty appeared outside Beijing.

It feels like I've been a citizen of the Jin Dynasty for eighteen years, and the Shu Han Dynasty has been gone for over twenty years, and suddenly one day the army of the Han Dynasty appears outside Luoyang—it's just so absurd.

A strange atmosphere was spreading through the military.

However, the Qing government had anticipated this situation and therefore made two preparations.

One method was to deceive the newly recruited Green Standard Army in the city, telling them that the troops outside the city were Henan rebels who were attacking while the capital was undefended, and that the main force of the Qing army in the south would soon march north to their aid.

Secondly, they dispatched tens of thousands of Manchu, Han, and Mongol Eight Banners troops to supervise the battle, watching the Green Standard Army soldiers guarding the city walls with cold eyes every day, and not allowing them to communicate much.

Under pressure, this atmosphere was gradually suppressed.

A few days later.

The Ming army completed the entire siege deployment.

Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Fu Youde, Feng Sheng, and others to personally lead a portion of their troops to join the forces of Li Dingguo, Bai Wenxuan, Yuan Zongdi, and Li Laiheng, awaiting the opportune moment.

At the same time, he ordered Lan Yu, Tang Shengzong, Lu Zhongheng and others to each lead a thousand men northward, traversing the rear of the Manchu Qing dynasty, and swaggering to various passes.

Although these passes were certainly guarded by Qing troops, they only brought assault rifles, machine guns, grenades, and mortars. They did not bring heavy firepower such as howitzers or unmanned helicopters.

But enough.

Fu Youde and his group entered the Southern Ming army and made it clear that they would not interfere in military affairs.

In fact, with their rich combat experience and high personal prestige, Fu Youde and Feng Sheng were more than capable of commanding the Southern Ming army.

However, it still comes down to the same point.

Zhu Yuanzhang had to see the growth of the Southern Ming army.

If Hongwu has to carry everything, what's the difference between him and a giant baby?
Therefore, they need to make progress.

Otherwise, Zhu and his men will be going back this year. How can we entrust the national defense mission to a group of soldiers who can't win battles?
However, as the saying goes, the wisdom of the common people is boundless.

Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan actually wanted to ask Fu Youde, Feng Sheng, and others for their opinions.

But they remained silent and instead wrote letters to each other in the camp to discuss solutions.

Since they were both from farming backgrounds, Li Dingguo actually came up with an idea.

In the days since they besieged the city, they have been observing the city's defense layout every day. In order to improve their capabilities, Lao Zhu specifically forbade them from using drones, but gave them the blueprints drawn by Yan Ermei.

By observing the defenses outside the city and using the city's blueprints, Li Dingguo and his team devised several attack directions and strategies.

Then he took these strategies to Fu Youde and Feng Sheng for advice.

Although the Hongwu generals did not explicitly say which strategy was feasible, they still explained the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed plans to them, thus completing their plans.

From another perspective, it also helps them grow, broaden their horizons, and improve their strategic and tactical thinking.

With the guidance, Li Dingguo and others felt much more at ease and were able to try things out with confidence.

In fact, they are not incompetent, but rather lack confidence.

After so many years of repeated defeats, the Qing court's power grew increasingly formidable, severely damaging their confidence.

Even if they have a good idea and a solution, they hesitate to use it.

Now that Hongwu is backing them up, their confidence has soared.

Whether it was the generals or the soldiers, everyone believed they could win, thus creating a strong conviction that they could achieve victory.

With this belief, and after winning more battles in the future, we can become a truly strong army.

This is what is known as the spirit of the army.

Old Zhu saw that Li Dingguo and his men were not truly incompetent, but simply lacked self-confidence. That's why he was willing to give them multiple opportunities, essentially teaching them how to fight.

So on February 16, six days after the Ming army arrived outside Beijing, they launched their first offensive.

In the past few days, in addition to building fortifications and arranging tactics, the Ming army has also been cutting down a large number of trees and building stairs in preparation for attacking the city.

Ancient warfare employed a variety of siege weapons, such as battering rams, catapults, and siege ladders.

However, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, sieges mainly relied on cannons. For example, in the Battle of Songjin, the Ming and Qing armies basically bombarded the city with cannons.

The Southern Ming army also had cannons, which were mostly captured from the Qing army and Zheng Chenggong, but they did not bring them with them on this northward expedition.

Compared to the cannons of the Hongwu Army, the Qing army's red-coated cannons were no different from scrap metal.

At this moment, Li Dingguo and his team began to make arrangements.

At a command, the artillery battalion where Fu Youde, Feng Sheng, and others were stationed began bombarding the city gate with mortars.

It wasn't used on a large scale; in fact, it was only used to fire a few shells.

This was Zhu De's previous strategy: once Li Dingguo and his men attacked, he would fire a few cannonballs to put pressure on the Qing army, and then let Li Dingguo and his men launch an offensive to further pressure the Qing army.

If the Qing dynasty had placed all its troops in Beijing for defense, it wouldn't have been so troublesome. Unfortunately, the Qing army's forces were dispersed, requiring them to engage in such a siege-and-attack strategy.

After a few shells, the area near the city gate suffered heavy damage. Li Longyun's Italian cannons were 75 mm in caliber, while the Ming army's mortars were 60 mm in caliber.

However, this does not mean that Italian cannons are more powerful than mortars.

Because times are different.

Artillery used during World War II was far inferior to that of later generations in terms of both power and technology.

Moreover, it's the domestically produced Type 93 mortar, which is powerful, has a fast rate of fire, is inexpensive to manufacture, and is durable, making it extremely cost-effective.

Therefore, if an Italian cannon could blast open the gate of Ping'an County with a single shot, a few mortar shots from the Ming army could naturally also breach the gates of Beijing. Li Dingguo fired at Fucheng Gate; after a few shells, flames shot up from the city wall, creating several small, man-sized clouds of explosion, followed by flying bricks and stones, and the gate tower collapsed.

The nearby Qing soldiers were killed instantly. Even those not at the epicenter of the explosion were still shaken by the terrifying shockwave, causing them to bleed from all seven orifices and lose their senses.

The Qing troops around the city gate were wiped out in an instant, and the Qing troops further away stared in disbelief at what they saw.

Before they could react, the Ming army outside the city surged toward the city gate like a tidal wave, shouting and yelling.

"Kill!"

"Kill the Tartars! Kill the Tartars!"

"Hurry up!"

The Ming soldiers carried ladders and rushed toward the city gate.

There was a moat outside the city, but their ladders were specially made. The wooden ends used for fixing were made of hardwood thicker than a thigh, and the ladders were more than ten meters long and could be laid down at an angle, allowing people to cross the moat and climb onto the city wall.

The most ingenious part is that an iron wire runs horizontally through the top of the wood to fix it in place, and two iron hooks are set on the two large hardwoods so that it can be hung on the inside of the city wall.

These are siege ladders commonly used in ancient times for attacking cities. Building these ladders was not easy; it required cutting down a large number of hardwoods in the mountains.

Over the course of several days, the Ming army had only managed to produce one or two thousand sets of armor, but that was enough for the time being.

The Qing army was stunned by the mortar fire. By the time they came to their senses, the Ming army had already rushed to the city walls, set up ladders, and begun to climb up.

"Fight back, fight back!"

"Where are the archers? Shoot! Shoot!"

"Go get a spear and stab me! Or I'll kill you!"

Along the city wall stretching three or four kilometers south of Fucheng Gate, the Qing army's supervisory team was the first to react, forcing the soldiers to fight back with knives.

These newly recruited Green Standard Army soldiers are not the well-trained Green Standard Army troops of the past.

The earliest Green Standard Army consisted mainly of generals who had surrendered to the Ming army. They were veterans who had fought for many years, with rich combat experience and considerable strength.

However, these Green Standard Army soldiers had already been exhausted in the Battle of Chongqing and many battles in Jiangnan, leaving only tens of thousands remaining in Beijing.

The remaining tens of thousands of Green Standard Army soldiers, with veterans mentoring new recruits, became the officers of these newly recruited soldiers. At the same time, the Qing court ordered a supervisory team composed of Manchu, Han, and Mongol Eight Banners to force them to fight.

This can be considered as ensuring a certain level of combat effectiveness.

Therefore, although these newly recruited Green Standard Army soldiers were initially stunned by the bombing, they were eventually brought to their senses by the urging of the supervisory team and the veteran Green Standard Army soldiers, and they awkwardly launched a counterattack.

Arrows began to fall like raindrops, and various stones, logs, and lime were thrown out.

While raising their shields, the Ming soldiers continued to climb the ladders, while archers below provided cover on the city walls. They bravely jumped onto the walls to fight the Qing soldiers.

Battles raged along the city wall, which stretched for one or two kilometers. Some soldiers desperately chopped down the Ming army's ladders, while others used spears to stab outwards. Still others fought against the Ming soldiers who came up to them, only to be quickly cut down.

Their training time was too short. Although the Ming army had suffered repeated defeats, it was still a battle-hardened army that had followed Li Dingguo, Bai Wenxuan, Li Laiheng, and Yuan Zongdi in their campaigns for many years. Their combat experience was far superior to that of these new recruits.

Coupled with the carefully laid-out tactics of Li Dingguo and his men, in less than a quarter of an hour, several city gates of Beijing were breached, and fighting broke out everywhere on the city walls.

The fighting was exceptionally fierce at Xizhimen, Fuchengmen, and Guangningmen on the west side, and at Dongzhimen, Chaoyangmen, and Guangqumen on the east side.

Therefore, the Qing army had no choice but to send in its reserves.

In fact, the main force of the Qing army, including Ebilun himself, was not at the besieged city gates, but at Yongding Gate on the south side.

Zhu Yuanzhang's Hongwu army stood guard outside Yongding Gate, occasionally firing cannonballs at the gate. Although they did not attack, the pressure they exerted was immense, making Ebilun dare not divide his troops.

The battle did not last long. After the Qing army's reserve reinforcements arrived, Zhu Yuanzhang used a walkie-talkie to instruct Fu Youde, Feng Sheng, and others to throw a few cannonballs into the city to cover the Ming army's retreat.

What he needed to do was to put pressure on the Qing army, making them feel that the city was on the verge of collapse and that they needed to immediately transfer troops from the north.

Under the cover of artillery fire, the Ming army quickly withdrew like a tide, leaving the Qing troops on the city walls paralyzed for a time.

The pungent smell of blood mingled with the lingering smoke of gunpowder, and corpses were everywhere—some of the enemy, some of their own.

For these new recruits, less than half an hour had passed, but the life-or-death battle felt like half a century had gone by.

The veterans, however, had gotten used to it. They sat there, panting heavily, their eyes cold and numb.

Drones streaked across the sky.

Zhu Yunfeng went back to playing the game when the battle just started, and only glanced at it after the battle ended.

On the high platform outside Yongding Gate, the warm spring sun shone, but due to the influence of the Little Ice Age, there was little warmth. Instead, a howling cold wind blew, making people feel a bit chilly.

"Isn't it a bit wrong to do this? These are human lives at stake."

Zhu Yunfeng glanced at it and felt a pang of pity.

"Don't be so saintly."

Old Zhu sat in his chair, expressionless, and said, "You understand the saying 'a kind heart cannot command an army.' If I deliberately used the Qing army as bait to annihilate them, then I was wrong. But if the purpose is to train a strong army to protect the Ming Dynasty after we leave, then that's a different matter."

"Ok."

After thinking about it, Zhu Yunfeng had to agree with Old Zhu's idea.

Although this is not a game, those Ming soldiers were living, breathing people.

However, the Southern Ming Dynasty today is tantamount to starting a new dynasty.

The founding armies of every dynasty were powerful and invincible.

Only with such a founding army could a newly established dynasty sweep across all directions and overcome all foreign enemies.

Although there are also negative examples such as the Jin and Song dynasties.

But it was precisely because of this that the Jin Dynasty collapsed in a short period of time, and the Song Dynasty was never a unified dynasty, becoming a symbol of weakness.

Therefore, if the newly established Ming Dynasty wanted to become a powerful nation like the Han, Tang, and Hongwu Ming Dynasties, it needed to have a strong army that had experienced the ravages of war.

Otherwise, what's the difference between the Southern Ming Dynasty and the Jin and Song Dynasties?
Once Old Zhu and his men left, it wasn't long before the Mongol Tartars swept in, and even clowns like Annamite and Japanese pirates dared to come and take a bite. What was the point then?
Therefore, with Zhu De already helping them complete 90% of the nation-building work, the remaining 10%...

Even though the Hongwu army helped them complete the major part, the Southern Ming army also had to participate in the final step of tempering, so that it could barely be considered a founding army and be able to deal with foreign invasions after Zhu Yuanzhang and his men left!
"All right."

Seeing Zhu Yunfeng's somewhat reluctant expression, Old Zhu still said, "The fallen soldiers will be cared for, and their families will be properly settled. How can there be no death in war? Modern countries have advanced technology, precisely to reduce the bloodshed of their soldiers, but they still die on the battlefield. Unless we can help the Southern Ming establish industrialization, allowing them to crush backward productive forces with advanced productivity, but there are so many dynasties ahead of us in line, why should we help them first?"

"Having parents is not as good as having your own. You must first improve your own strength so that you can live with dignity. Otherwise, you will only be a puppet that we have supported throughout your life. What kind of Ming Dynasty would that be?"

Old Zhu patted Zhu Yunfeng on the shoulder.

Children and grandchildren should also strive to be self-reliant.

If you rely on your parents and ancestors for everything, you will eventually become a useless person.

Therefore, there are some things that the newly established Ming Dynasty Chengwu regime had to go through, and there are some things that they had to make their own choices about.

In fact, Lao Zhu had already thought it through.

At most, he would simply eliminate the Manchus, Mongols, and traitors who had sided with foreign powers in and around Beijing.

In the future, if we can break through the pass and sweep across the land beyond, we will still have to rely on the Ming Dynasty itself!

(End of this chapter)