Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 32, Begin the Siege

Since ancient times, Huaizhou has been a battleground for military strategists. Located between the North and South Grand Canals, it is connected to the Yellow River in the north, the Yangtze River in the south, and the Huai River in the west. It is known as the "throat of the north and south, the control of the world", and has extremely high military strategic value.

At the same time, Huaizhou is also the world's grain transportation center. The grain ship manufacturing in the city is second to none in the country. With just a little modification, it can become a first-class warship factory.

By then, Fang Yong will be able to form a large fleet, and the entire Huainan and Hefei areas will be within his attack range.

Therefore, Fang Yong was determined to gain Huaizhou.

In Huaizhou, the prefect of Huaizhou was also terrified when he learned of Fang Yong's attack.

The prefect of Huaizhou had already appealed for help, but neither the Governor of Suzhou nor the imperial court had responded at all.

The prefect of Huaizhou had no choice but to defend the city on his own. He collected money and grain from the wealthy families in the city and summoned the young and strong men in the city to form a temporary garrison of 5,000 people. Together with the original officers and soldiers in the Huaizhou area, he barely gathered less than 8,000 people.

Relying on the strong defenses of Huaizhou City, the prefect of Huaizhou also gained some confidence in fighting against Fang Yong.

Not to mention repelling Fang Yong, at least we should be able to hold out until the imperial reinforcements arrive, right?

Outside the city, Fang Yong’s military tent was discussing the siege plan.

Since ancient times, siege battles have been extremely brutal, and only strong generals can take on the task.

Among them, only Ma Laohei and Niu Jin were former government troops and had war experience among the generals under Fang Yong. Therefore, Fang Yong decided to let these two lead the main attack respectively, and the others would be responsible for assisting.

If one wants to attack Huaizhou City, the first thing to be attacked is a wide moat.

Ma Laohei and Fang Yong suggested:

"The moat of Huaizhou is too wide. If we storm it, there will be heavy casualties. We can send soldiers to pretend to fill up the moat to lure the defenders. Then send elite soldiers to dig tunnels and attack them by surprise. This way, we can break Huaizhou City."

Fang Yong himself had no practical experience in siege, but from the knowledge he gained from military books, there were only three ways to cross the moat: filling the river, building a floating bridge, and digging a tunnel.

The first two are both carried out in the open in front of the defenders, so they consume a lot of manpower; the latter is more covert and can catch the enemy by surprise, but the disadvantage is that once discovered by the enemy, all efforts will be in vain, and sometimes the defenders will suffer the consequences.

Fang Yong thought about it and looked at Niu Jin, wanting to hear what Niu Jin thought.

Niu Jin was a dull person. When he saw Fang Yong looking at him, he just said:

"All at the general's command."

Fang Yong thought for a while and asked Ma Laohei:

"Is there anyone in the army who is good at digging tunnels?"

The reason I ask this is that digging a tunnel is a technical job. Without skilled experience, you cannot control the distance and direction, and it is easy to collapse.

Ma Laohei replied: "There are none in the army, but there are a few people in the water fort who are tomb robbers and are good at digging tunnels. I have asked them, and as long as many people work continuously, it will take less than half a month to dig the moat."

Fang Yong nodded, made up his mind, and said:

"Okay, let's follow this plan! Lao Ma, send people to dig tunnels quickly, and dig a few more."

"Niu Jin, you lead the men to launch a feint attack from the front and fill up the river at the same time. If Lao Ma's plan is discovered, you will take the responsibility of the main attack."

"Li Sheng, take your men to clear the obstacles around the camp and conduct a thorough reconnaissance of the surroundings. Do not let the enemy spies get close!"

After everything was arranged, the battle to attack Huai officially began.

A few rumbling gunshots marked the beginning of the brutal war.

Under the cover of chariots and trench-filling vehicles, the soldiers approached the moat with shields on their heads and filled the river with earth, rocks and firewood.

There were six cannons and many crossbows deployed on the city wall of Huaizhou. The Huaizhou defender ordered his men to continuously bombard the soldiers filling the river below.

Soldiers died from time to time and the battle was extremely brutal.

On Fang Yong's side, there were also artillery counterattacks.

Xue Dacuizi bought forty cannons, but unfortunately only twenty-four gunners familiar with drills have been trained so far, so they cannot be used all.

Fang Yongling divided the eight men into three groups and continued to bombard the city wall. At this time, the shells were still solid bullets, so they could not directly destroy the city wall.

However, Fang Yong's artillery were the latest research and development results of the Daxi Ministry of Industry. They had a long range and high accuracy, and their number was greater than that of the artillery on Huaizhou City. Therefore, in a short period of time, not only did they not fall into a disadvantage due to the unfavorable terrain, but they also suppressed the defenders on Huaizhou City so much that they could not raise their heads.

The defender on the city wall was obviously an amateur who didn't know the ins and outs of artillery. Seeing that his side was at a disadvantage, he became anxious and forced the gunners to fire quickly.

His cannon was an old one that had been used for decades and was already out of service. Now he gave blind orders and ordered the gunners to fire continuously. After a few shots, the cannon exploded with a bang.

The defenders' mistake boosted Fang Yong's morale, and the soldiers' progress in filling the river accelerated sharply.

However, casualties are still unavoidable.

Time passed day by day, and by the ninth day, the casualties of the soldiers had reached more than a thousand.

Morale began to noticeably decline.

However, the government troops were not having a good time either. Under Fang Yong's continuous bombardment, the enemy's death toll was not much less than that of Fang Yong's side, and the six cannons on the city were also destroyed one by one during this period.

In order to boost morale, Fang Yong slaughtered cattle and pigs to reward the entire army. He issued a large amount of pensions to the wounded and dead soldiers, with a reward of four taels of silver for the slightly injured, ten taels of silver for the seriously injured, and twenty taels of silver for the dead.

With the rewards of real money, the soldiers' morale burst out again.

In contrast, the defenders had no reward to receive, and their morale dropped quickly.

However, Fang Yong quickly revised the reward regulations he had just formulated, changing the four taels for the lightly injured to one tael, because he found that some uninjured soldiers would deliberately injure themselves in battle to defraud pensions...

Practice makes perfect, this saying is indeed true.

The battle continued, and on the thirteenth day, Ma Laohei's tunnel successfully dug across the moat and collapsed a corner of the city wall.

A large number of soldiers passed through the moat through tunnels and began the siege, and casualties began to increase sharply.

However, because the gap in the corner of the city wall was too small and the number of people who could pass through the tunnel was limited, the gap was quickly blocked by the defenders.

At this time, the soldiers filling the river in the rear had not stopped.

Only by filling the river could large troops and large siege equipment enter.

Fortunately, the defenders on the city now have no time to take care of the moat.

They were engaged in a fierce battle with Ma Laohei's soldiers.

On the sixteenth day, a passage was successfully filled in the moat.

The first siege tower successfully arrived at the city of Huai'an

The siege tower is a very large siege weapon, like a mobile blockhouse, with wooden planks as curtains and covered with cowhide to protect against arrows and stones.

Soldiers living in the chariots could shoot at soldiers on the city walls, spy on the city's strengths and weaknesses, estimate the number of enemies, and provide important intelligence support for sieges.

Fang Yong had built several tower vehicles when preparing for the siege, and all of them were sent to the battlefield, causing heavy casualties to the government troops.

In addition to the tower cars, the rest of the soldiers launched the attack with ladders and wooden curtains. Fang Yong promised that whoever climbed the city first would be rewarded with 500 taels of silver and be granted the title of centurion!

Fang Yong's army's offensive became more and more fierce.

The soldiers defending the city found it increasingly difficult to resist. The rolling logs and stones were being consumed rapidly and were almost exhausted.

By the 22nd day, more than 3,500 people on Fang Yong's side had died.

Although the number of defenders was smaller than that of Fang Yong, more than 2,000 people died.

The death of more than 3,500 people was no big deal to Fang Yong's army of 50,000 people, and they were quickly replenished from the reserve.

The situation was different for the defenders. They had less than 8,000 people in total, and more than 2,000 people had died, which was more than a quarter of them. There were loopholes in many parts of the defense, especially the gap that Ma Laohei had dug out earlier. They were almost on the verge of collapse.

The city is about to be broken.

(End of this chapter)