Zhao Bing did not take these scattered resistance forces particularly seriously. Compared with the current plan to advance north, it was just a problem of scabies. Once they recovered the central city, established a regime, and completed land reform. Without the support of the old regime and lost economic support, it became a lonely reef in the vast ocean and was difficult to make a difference.

Therefore, these remaining stubborn forces have exhausted food and grass and no foreign aid, and there are only two ways to go. One is to evolve into real bandits, relying on robbery to maintain them. Such behavior is unpopular, hateful, and lose the sympathy of the people. They will only become more isolated and wiped out sooner or later; the other is to go down the mountain to surrender and accept revenge at the end of the road.

According to Sun Kai, a vacuum area of ​​dozens of miles wide appeared between the enemy and us, and it also became a place for the scouts of both sides to confront each other. When Zhao Bing thought it was not a good thing for them, the enemy seemed to show weakness and retreat, but from another perspective, it may not be that he wanted to concentrate his strength to resist stubbornly.

"How are you preparing supplies now?" Zhao Bing asked.

"Now our army has received a total of 100,000 stones of grain, reserved 200,000 kilograms of meat, a few sauces, and 300,000 kilograms of horses, which can be eaten by the entire army for three months, and it is conservative for more than two months. The ammunition reserve is also reserved according to the battle standards, with 20,000 kilograms of gunpowder, 1 million bullets, and 50,000 various shells, which can be used for more than a month of continuous combat. Now it has been distributed to the division and regiment as planned." Sun Kai replied.

"Well, the first-level regiment guarantee must reach half a month of self-sufficiency, and the construction of the military station must be rolled out to ensure smooth reception and delivery!" Zhao Bing nodded. According to the plan, the second phase of the battle will last for two months, open the road to Dadu, and complete the cleaning of the outer city.

The reason why food reserves need to be reserved for three months is that food will also be consumed during combat and marching. Infants do not have horses to transport, their physical strength is consumed very quickly. Infantry food during combat is extremely high, so they can maintain long-term combat consumption. Once the food supply is insufficient, their combat effectiveness and resilience will be severely degraded, especially it has a great impact on the morale of the army.

Spring plowing is imminent. In order to ensure that the farming season is not delayed, most of the recruited servants must return to their hometowns to ensure a bumper harvest of summer grain. This requires improving the self-sufficiency of each department's supplies. After February, the north will be in spring, the rivers will be thawed and the ports will be unblocked, and the sea transport and canals can be used to transport materials to ensure the supply of the army.

"Your Majesty, my subordinates think that they should launch an attack as soon as possible. If they delay further, once the rivers thaw, they need to cross the river and build bridges, which greatly affects the speed of the march and is not conducive to subsequent combat!" Sun Kai suggested.

"I won't wait too long!" Zhao Bing said with a chuckling.

It is true that there are also many rivers in the north. At this time, nine out of ten rivers and lakes have dried up, only names are left, but no water, and it is much wider than modern times. This has become a natural barrier to block the march. As long as you defend the ferry, you can block millions of troops.

But winter is different. The rivers are frozen, and the river becomes a smooth road. The choice of crossing the river is more casual. In addition to avoiding the pain of building bridges, the enemy is unable to defend. This is also because Zhao Bing sets the launch of the second battle after the New Year, so that they can use the rivers to advance quickly and complete the encirclement of Dadu.

"That's good!" Sun Kai said with a smile.

"The enemy facing your four armies is Gaocheng. Can you understand their preparations for war?" Zhao Bing's plan was to encircle Zhending City with the Third Army and the Fifth Army from both wings, and the Fourth Army in the center was responsible for the frontal attack. The first thing they faced was Gaocheng.

"Your Majesty, Gaocheng is actively preparing for war, and the city defense facilities are becoming more and more complete." Sun Kai looked at the emperor with some resentment, as if he was blaming His Majesty for suddenly giving up the advance north and the entire army moved to rest, giving the enemy enough time to prepare for war.

"According to the scouts sent by our army, Gaocheng County Magistrate Dong Wenzhi recruited refugees in large numbers. Because of his good reputation, many people fled to the surrounding counties, and tens of thousands of young and strong people were seized. They also stepped up their training in accordance with the army formation. At the same time, when the Yuan Dynasty court lifted the military ban, they summoned craftsmen to build weapons and create crossbows, and all the surrounding trees were cut off."

"At the same time, Dong Zhe supervised the people to repair the city defense day and night. The city wall alone was raised by three feet, and the city tower was even more high by about a meter. A wooden wall was added to the top of the city, and the tent was opened. The moat outside the city was widened and deepened, and the sheep and horse wall was built with the excavated soil, and a fortress was built outside the four gates..."

Sun Kai was worried that His Majesty would not understand, so he took a piece of paper to draw a city map, marking the enemy's city defense facilities and explaining it. Zhao Bing also frowned as he listened, and gradually felt that Dong Wenzhi was really not a man who talked about it on paper. His arrangement of city defense facilities not only followed the responsibility of guarding the city, but also reasonably equipped various weapons on it, turning the small Gaocheng into an iron hedgehog.

Zhao Bing knew very well that in the city offensive and defensive battle, the defense side had a natural advantage, and the attacking side not only required a lot of time, but also had to suffer major casualties.

For the attacking party, the first thing to do in the attack is to clear out obstacles outside the city, that is, fill the moat and trenches. Moats and trenches are sometimes combined into one. In summer and autumn, the trenches are introduced into the river and become moats; in winter and spring, the guard blocks the trenches in advance and releases the water inside, because there are many stakes and wooden trenches buried at the bottom of the trenches. If a person accidentally falls off the air, he will be pricked and cool.

According to the city construction standards, county-level city moats such as Gaocheng, the trench has at least four zhang wide and a depth of at least five zhang. It deepens and widens the moat again. Therefore, the attacking side has to spend a lot of effort to fill it up, and the attacking side first needs to remove the horse-rejecting pile in front of the moat. This horse-rejecting pile is not used to resist horses, but to block the enemy's siege equipment.

At this time, the siege needs to use firepower on three sides to fill the moat with earth, rock, firewood and corpses. Sometimes the siege has no other way, and can only fill it with people's lives one after another. Only by filling the moat can we touch the city wall to attack the city. Because the task of filling the moat is too dangerous and heavy, many generals will use auxiliary soldiers and civilians to fill it.

At this time, most of the attacking troops drove away the people around the city to fill the pits and moats with arrows. When the filling was completed, a layer of corpses were piled under the city wall. For this reason, the generals would let the personal guards take charge of the military commander. If they escaped at the battle and retreated, they would be killed immediately and kill without mercy.

Secondly, they will promise that if they complete the task, they will not go to the battlefield again, which will bring hope to the auxiliary soldiers and civilians - they can survive by surviving. Finally, they often use a binding method, such as only after completing the task can they have food to eat, and after completing the task many times, they can leave this ranks and enter the ranks of the warriors.

Of course, the ancients were not all fools. In order to ensure the safety of the clearing troops, trench chariots emerged. A high barrier was erected in front of the trench chariots to resist the arrows shot from the opposite side. It also contained sand and gravel or bags for filling rivers. When the trench chariots approached the moat, as long as they opened the window, they could easily throw the stones into it.

If the moat is wider, it will not be filled in the first place. There are also trench fillers. A chariot has folded bridge boards on it. When you put down the bridge board in front of the trench, it will become a wooden bridge for soldiers to pass through. At the same time, the trencher and his own shooter will also project long-range firepower to the city wall to cover the river-filling troops.

For the defender, the moat is the first line of defense. The defender usually has three or four artificial obstacles behind the river, mainly including thorns, deer antler wood, trapped horse pits, horse-resisting rifles, sheep and horse walls, etc. It either prevents the enemy from traversing, or prevents the enemy, especially the cavalry, from approaching.

The most important line of defense is the Sheep and Horse Wall, which is built on a low wall about ten steps away from the city wall and five feet high. Ambush is set up inside the wall and spears are used to attack the enemies crossing the moat. Even if the enemy passes the Sheep and Horse Wall, the area between the Sheep and Horse Wall is relatively narrow, which is not conducive to the deployment of troops, and it is impossible to use siege equipment. Instead, it is conducive to the defenders to exert the power of the city-defying ordnance.

So this is the most violent time for the battle. The defender must prevent the attacking party from climbing the city tower and will prepare a large number of rolling wood stones. The rolling stones are made by stonemasons, with moderate shape and weight, suitable for throwing, and are specifically used for defending the city. Rolling wood is a log with both length and weight, with iron nails on the wood, and ropes and chains at both ends of the log.

The soldiers guarding the city do not need to show their heads by the enemy's rain of arrows and attack. They can hide behind the battlements of the city walls, just aim at the place where the enemy's ladder hooks are hooked, wave their arms to hook the stone along the ladder and throw them down, or roll the rolling wood down the ladder. Even if the enemy soldiers who were climbing the ladder raised their shields to block the stone, the huge impact force generated by the stone hitting the shield will make him unable to stabilize his body and be smashed down the ladder.

Similarly, there is "Wolf Teeth Paw", which is a weapon hanging on the city wall. It is made of a wooden board with hundreds of Wolf Teeth Steel nails placed on it. When defending the city, when the enemy reaches the designated position, press the throwing mechanism directly, the Wolf Teeth Paw will directly smash it down, which has the effect of killing the enemy on a large scale. After the rolling wood, Wolf Teeth Paw and other equipment are thrown out, you can use a winch or a rope chain to pull it back. These weapons are not consumables and can be used continuously, and the enemy cannot reach the city wall at all.

In addition to using rolling wood and stones to smash it, the guard also has two types of killing tools: boiling oil and Jintang. Pour the boiling oil in a large pot, or spray the turbulent oil with a spray drum, and then ignite it with a rocket; Jintang is boiling water, and when the enemy line up to the city, the guarding water will pour it straight down. No matter how thick the enemy is wearing, the boiling water will be poured over, and all the body will be covered with bruises...
Chapter completed!