Chapter 38: Seizing the Cannon

When Yuan Shizhong and Zhang Xuan arrived at Yanli Village, they discovered that Luo Rucai had also arrived.

When Luo Rucai arrived, he explained that this meeting was not just about the defeat of Xiao Yuanying.

In any meeting, the big guys are always late.

After Yuan Shizhong and Zhang Xuan took their seats, Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai came over together.

Li Zicheng simply said a few words, and then the topic shifted to the defeat of Xiao Yuanying.

"I heard that Xiao Yuan's camp suffered a defeat at the gates of Kaifeng City, and even General Wang suffered misfortune. I would like General Yuan to tell you what happened?" Li Zicheng said slowly.

There didn't seem to be any oppression in his words. It was just that Yuan Shizhong had just lost a general, and now he asked him to tell how he was defeated in front of the generals in Cao's camp. Li Zicheng did not give Yuan Shizhong any face.

Zhang Xuan was afraid that Yuan Shizhong couldn't bear it anymore and would have some conflict with Li Zicheng, so he immediately said: "The general is also here, so let me tell you about it."

Then, without waiting for Li Zicheng to speak, he started speaking first.

First, we will describe the artillery blasting method used by Xiao Yuanying, how Hu Quede placed explosives in the city wall, and finally blew a big gap in the city. How Yuan Shizhong made a decisive decision and sent Wang Xianzu to attack the city.

After Wang Xianzu rushed into the city wall, he found that there was a city inside the city. How could he rush out with all his strength? How could the four officers and soldiers used artillery to shoot loose shells on the two walls to block the gap.

In the end, Wang Xianzu died in battle and was beheaded by the army, and his head was sent to Xiaoyuan's camp.

Every sentence after sentence, Zhang Xuan tried his best to consider the words, which was objective and fair, and could not attribute the mistakes to Yuan Shizhong's command.

It's not that our army doesn't work hard, but that the enemy's army is too cunning.

But even so, Yuan Shizhong listened, clenching his hands into fists and making a clicking sound with his teeth.

For Yuan Shizhong, having his right and left arm trapped in Kaifeng City was nothing short of a heart-wrenching pain.

After listening, Li Zicheng said nothing. But the generals started talking about it.

"Why did the officers and soldiers move so fast?" Liu Zongmin asked: "Did they build a second wall in the city from the beginning?"

As soon as Liu Zongmin said this, all the generals nodded silently.

Build another city wall from within the city wall. You must know that the city wall of Kaifeng Prefecture is more than twenty miles long.

This is a truly huge project, and it is a bit incredible that it was built so silently.

After all, everyone thought that the Kaifeng city wall was indestructible before, so why bother?

"This city wall was not built in the past few days, but is ready-made." Li Xin said.

If there is anyone among the top leaders of the rebel army who is most familiar with Kaifeng City, it is none other than Li

Believed.

Qi County, where Li Xin is located, is only a stone's throw away from Kaifeng City. Li Xin has been to Kaifeng City many times for study tours, and is very familiar with every plant and tree in Kaifeng City. He almost understands it by heart.

"Ready-made, how can it be ready-made?" Liu Zongmin said.

"It's the back wall of Prince Zhou's Mansion." Li Xin said: "Prince Zhou's Mansion was built together with the city wall of Kaifeng Mansion. The second city wall behind the north city wall must have relied on the city wall of Prince Zhou's Mansion."

Zhang Xuan suddenly realized what Li Xin said.

In fact, the Prince of Zhou's Mansion is on the central axis of Kaifeng City, and the reason why the north gate of Kaifeng Mansion is oriented eastward is because it is to avoid the Prince of Zhou's Mansion, and all the streets that run from north to south of Kaifeng City are oriented eastward.

Zhang Xuan immediately made an estimate in his mind.

The section of the city wall that Xiao Yuanying attacked from the front was the middle section of the north city wall. In other words, the back of this section of the city wall faced the back wall of the Zhou Palace.

Because climbers breached the embankments, the rebel camps were set up on higher ground. Xiao Yuan's camp was a little west of Kaifeng City. The city walls, gates, and corners were the strongest, with turrets on them.

The city wall is already high, and the turrets above it can only be higher.

So Zhang Xuan naturally placed the attack point on the city wall, but now it seems that it was a mistake.

Zhang Xuan thought of the people who died trying to conquer Kaifeng City, and he felt guilty in his heart.

After the army turned back from Zhuxian Town, that is, on the first day of June, it continued to attack the city for more than 20 days.

Although there were some adjustments to the intensity of the siege, when testing siege methods, they were often only tried briefly. But even so, there were hundreds of casualties every day, not to mention the strong attacks in the past few days, which were even more littered with corpses.

It is impossible to count the organizational problems of the rebels and the detailed number of deaths, but Zhang Xuan himself estimated that there were about 20,000 to 30,000 people.

Even though there are people who cannot survive near Kaifeng coming to join the rebels every day, Xiao Yuanying has not become weaker in a series of battles, but has become stronger. But Zhang Xuan still cannot forgive himself.

Even if it's just 20,000 people.

Twenty thousand people, twenty thousand people. Just because of his own wrong estimation, the death of these two thousand people became meaningless.

"In this case," Li Zicheng said, "it is not suitable to attack from Beicheng."

Even Zhang Xuan couldn't refute Li Zicheng's words.

After all, the current situation here is that if you want to attack the city from the North City, it will consume too much manpower and material resources, and it is not cost-effective at all.

It is impossible for Kaifeng City to build another city wall behind the other three walls in just a few days.

Knowing that it is difficult to fight but continuing to fight is not the behavior of a wise man.

"In this way, Xiao Yuan has worked hard for half a month, so let's take a rest. Next, let me break into the camp and attack." Li Zicheng said.

"Please rest assured, King Chuang. Brothers, please conserve your energy."

After a while, we will definitely be able to capture Kaifeng City in one fell swoop. However, Xiao Yuan Camp will no longer be the main attack force. Should we move the artillery in Xiao Yuan Camp to the invasion camp?" Liu Zongmin said with a hint of joy.

Zhang Xuan suddenly came out of his guilt and accurately judged the meaning of breaking into the camp.

After all the previous efforts of Xiao Yuanying, they finally figured out a way to conquer Kaifeng City. As long as they found a prescription and grabbed some medicine, even if it took a little more time, they should be able to conquer Kaifeng City. Chuangying did not want to give up the honor of conquering Kaifeng City to Xiao Yuanying.

After all, conquering Kaifeng City is not just about honor, but also other things, such as the right to dispose of materials in Kaifeng City.

Another purpose is probably these more than a hundred artillery pieces.

These more than a hundred artillery pieces used up all the iron materials saved by Cao Ying. Even if there were more iron materials later, they could not be supplied in large quantities.

Therefore, the cannon never fired at the two hundred doors.

However, the ownership of these artillery is very problematic. According to the raw materials invested, there are about 20 in Xiaoyuan camp, and the rest are in Chuang camp and Cao camp.

It's just that the things are here in Xiaoyuanying. Caoying wants them, and Xiaoyuanying is determined to have them. But if they are placed here in Chuangying, it may not be so convenient when asking for them.

Yuan Shizhong said: "I have no problem lending the artillery of Xiao Yuanying to Chuangying. There is only one condition. After King Chuang breaks through Kaifeng City, if he can deal with Chen Yongfu and his son, I will kill them thousands of times in sacrifice to the king."

The spirit of brothers is in heaven.”

"Okay." Li Zicheng said, "I agree to this."

Zhang Xuan sighed secretly in his heart. It was obvious that Yuan Shizhong hated Chen Yongfu very much. The force of the attack on the camp was so great that it was difficult for Cao Ying to get artillery, but he thought Luo Ru would have the means to get over.

But Xiao Yuanying?

When the things were in the hands of Chuangying, Chuangying had countless reasons not to return them, and Yuan Shizhong was helpless. It was clear that Yuan Shizhong would rather lose twenty artillery pieces in order to breathe a sigh of relief.

However, Luo Rucai remained silent from beginning to end, as if he had reached some kind of deal with Chuangying.

Anyway, on the second day, more than a hundred artillery pieces were taken away by the camp breakers.

As for the transaction between Cao Ying and Chuang Ying, Zhang Xuan vaguely guessed that it should be based on the distribution of materials in Kaifeng City, or the intensity of the siege. The strength of Cao Ying's troops has never been strong.

.Used in siege, it seems to achieve twice the result with half the effort. Therefore, in this siege, Chuangying sent many troops to assist Cao Ying in the siege.

But which one it was, Zhang Xuan couldn't figure it out for a while.

"Third brother, I still want to attack the city tomorrow." Yuan Shizhong said: "I am unwilling to avenge brother Wang. Third brother, you are resourceful. Please think of a way for me."

"This----" Zhang Xuan said, "Let me think about it carefully." For a moment, Zhang Xuan had no choice.
Chapter completed!