Not only did Wei Xuezeng think this way, but he also acted this way.
One day, during the truce, he sent one of his advisors who was more eloquent to the city to persuade Liu Dongyang and Bo Bai. Who knew that Liu Dongyang and Bo Bai were somewhat deranged because they were surrounded on all sides. They directly proposed to be the commander of the Ningxia army to defend Ningxia. The official army was not allowed to enter and the Ming court could not send people to replace their positions. This directly exposed their ambition to separate Ningxia to ensure their safety. This persuasion was equivalent to not persuading them to surrender and they even gave up Ningxia. How could it be possible?
This made Wei Xuezeng furious.
However, in order to have a glimmer of hope for a peaceful solution, Wei Xuezeng ignored Ye Mengxiong's dissuasion and ordered people to enter the city again to visit Bo Bai and Liu Dongyang. He tried to sow discord between the two of them. He used the argument that Bo Bai was originally a Mongolian and Liu Dongyang was a Han to encourage Liu Dongyang to kill Bo Bai and open the city to surrender. In the end, he was tricked by Liu Dongyang and Bo Bai together. Bo Bai was actually in Liu Dongyang's mansion. This poor lobbyist was pushed to the top of the city wall and fried in front of Wei Xuezeng …
Wei Xuezeng was so angry that he almost fainted. Ye Mengxiong ordered the Ming Army to open fire and bombard the city. Liu Dongyang and Bo Bai were bombed back to the city. However, the Ming Army's morale was dampened because of this. Wei Xuezeng was furious.
Time passed slowly, and no matter what strategy Wei Xueceng used, he was unable to deal any significant damage to the rebel army. The method of feinting a few times and then attacking once in a while had more or less reduced the Ming army's losses. After half a month of siege, more than three thousand people had died. Of this, the disinfection method that Xiao Ruxun offered up had played a great role.
Xiao Ruxun brought over the doctors from Pinglu City and every castle to form a rescue camp. All the lightly injured soldiers were disinfected with strong alcohol and properly bandaged. The condition of the injured was very stable and the death rate was greatly reduced. This caused Wei Xuezeng and Ye Mengxiong to feel a trace of surprise in their depression.
At the beginning of the fourth month, the imperial edict from the court arrived. The Emperor ordered to promote the former Ningxia General Pinglu City Garrison Commander, Xiao Ruxun, to be promoted to Commander Tongzhi to be the Ningxia Army Commander. He was to control all the troops and horses and listen to Wei Xuezeng's orders to fight. He also rewarded Xiao Ruxun with honors and money. He even specially asked the military supervisor, Mei Guozhen, to bring a message. He said that if he made another great contribution in quelling the war, he would be heavily rewarded.
Mei Guozhen smiled and expressed that the Emperor had personally ordered to bring a message to a military general. This was the first time in the history of Wanli that Zongbing Xiao had done so!
Xiao Ruxun immediately expressed his loyalty. His expression was so solemn that it was hard to doubt his loyalty.
Ma Gui was once again promoted to Datong's Deputy Army Commander due to his military achievements. However, he did not have as many preferential treatment. Xiao Ruxun's Pinglu City Garrison was also required to examine the heads of the 9,000 soldiers they killed. Based on the heads, they would be rewarded with silver. This was even ordered by the Emperor himself.
This could only be said to be infuriating. In any case, Ma Gui was filled with envy and jealousy. Second Brother Xiao Ruhui was also somewhat remorseful that he was not placed in an important position. His younger brother became the Army Commander at the age of 22 and became the head of all the soldiers and officers here. He would represent the officers and soldiers here to communicate with the civil officials. However, he himself was only promoted to You Ji General … If he did not work harder! He was about to be completely surpassed by his younger brother!
Mei Guozhen also brought an imperial sword and bestowed it to Wei Xuezeng. He gave Wei Xuezeng the right to act first and report later. All the generals were awestruck.
In the following strategy meeting, Ningxia's Army Commander Xiao Ruxun was given special permission to participate. The other generals, even Deputy Army Commander Li Zhi, did not receive such treatment … This caused the other generals to be somewhat dissatisfied. However, they could not do anything about it. Xiao Ruxun's achievements were very solid. Especially the achievement of annihilating Mighty Rabbit's 3000 cavalry. This was enough to make these officers shrink their heads.
"What? Burying gunpowder underground and blowing up the city wall? Those barrels of gunpowder we saw on the road were for this matter? "
This was the first news that Mei Guozhen received after becoming the Army Supervisor! So this was the reason why he saw Wei Xuezeng gathering gunpowder from all over the country?
He was stunned on the spot and did not recover for a long time. So you guys haven't made any progress in the past ten days? Are you guys digging tunnels to blow up the city wall? Mei Guozhen felt like he had heard a fantasy story. Looking at Wei Xuezeng and Ye Mengxiong, who did not seem to be lying, he knew that it was true. He also learned that this tactic was proposed by Xiao Ruxun. "Army Supervisor Mei, please take a look. This is the complete map of Ningxia's city wall.
"Army Supervisor Mei, please take a look. This is the complete map of Ningxia's city walls. There are four city gates with a barbican in front and two city walls behind them. That is to say, including the barbican, one city gate is protected by four city walls. Not only do we need to attack one city gate, but we also need to be on guard against the bandits who have set up an ambush on top of the city walls and attack us from above. When I defeated the rebel army at Pinglu City, I relied on two city walls, but Ningxia has four.
Our army only has forty thousand soldiers, while the bandits have at least twenty thousand soldiers. Complemented by the strong city walls, our army is at a disadvantage in terms of military strength. Previously, our army used a large army to attack Ningxia City. Within three days, we lost a thousand soldiers, but we didn't even manage to take down a barbican. The loss of soldiers is too great, and we cannot accept it. Thus, attacking Ningxia City by force is the worst plan. "
"I, the Army Supervisor, understand this point. The art of war says that attacking the city is the worst, attacking the heart is the best. Not attacking such a strong city is also the right choice, but using gunpowder to blow up the city wall, what kind of tactic is this? I, the Army Supervisor, am familiar with the history of war. Since the invention of firearms in the Song Dynasty, there has never been such a tactic. Who would have thought that gunpowder could blow up the city wall? Then what's the point of the city wall? "
Mei Guozhen was quite confused.
Xiao Ruxun said, "No one has used it before, but that doesn't mean it won't work. Moreover, the predecessors didn't really understand the power of gunpowder. Perhaps the power of a single cannon isn't that great, but hundreds of cannons firing in a row is still quite terrifying. Although cannons can't do anything to a strong city wall, it's not necessarily the same with gunpowder. We will use gunpowder to blow up the city wall from below, and the key point is to seal the entire space!
I once studied firearms in depth, and discovered that the reason why gunpowder is so powerful is not because it can explode by itself. In fact, if a pile of gunpowder is placed in an open space, it will only burn and smoke, and not explode. Army Supervisor, please take a look. "
Xiao Ruxun squatted down and poured a handful of gunpowder on the ground. Then, he lit it with a match. As expected, the gunpowder only emitted a dazzling light and smoke, and made a sound, but there was no sign of an explosion.
"However, if the gunpowder is placed in a closed space and completely sealed, leaving only the fuse, it will become a firearm."
Xiao Ruxun took out a small bamboo tube, which contained gunpowder and a fuse. This was a special demonstration firearm. After lighting the fuse, he covered a wooden bowl with a lid. Everyone stood a little further away. With a bang, the wooden bowl was blown up into the sky, and then fell down again.
"This is the tactical principle that I thought of. If a large amount of gunpowder is placed in a closed space and ignited, the entire space will inevitably explode. This space is directly under a city wall, so when it explodes, what will happen to the city wall?"
Mei Guozhen looked at the wooden bowl rolling on the ground, stunned on the spot. Wei Xuezeng and Ye Mengxiong had already seen Xiao Ruxun's demonstration, so they were confident.
"In that case, this is really a feasible way?" Mei Guozhen frowned and thought carefully, "But after all, this is an action that has never been done before. Zong Bing Xiao, how confident are you?"
Xiao Ruxun said resolutely, "Eighty percent!"
"Eighty percent …" Mei Guozhen looked at the incomparably sturdy city of Ningxia on the map, and slowly shook his head, "But after we blow up the city wall, how long will it take to repair it? It is not easy to build the city wall of Ningxia, once it is blown up, will there be a great loss? "
Xiao Ruxun shook his head.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
