Chapter 174 Hefei
Yang Feng is indeed planning to do this.
What restricts the Ming army's offensive capabilities was mainly logistics supply. At this time, transportation was basically based on the river channel. Land transportation was only possible for short-distance, but long-distance was completely unrealistic.
But what should I do if there is no river channel?
Even if there are rivers, the north still needs to be frozen in winter. What should I do then?
Now let alone other places, even if he attacks from Luoyang to Guanzhong, the logistics problems are difficult to solve. Land is nothing more than the hukou road of Wushan. It is completely unrealistic to rely on that rugged mountain road to support the ammunition consumption of tens of thousands of troops. This is not the era of cold weapons. As long as there is food supply, one person can fight with a knife. The Ming army's artillery bullets and rockets have to be transported from the rear, and it is impossible to support them by land. Not to mention anything else, just a heavy rocket is pulled by a carriage. Walking on that ancient mountain road is an exaggeration.
As for the waterway, it is the Yellow River shipping.
Sanmenxia.
This is not the era when Sanmenxia Reservoir was built. The surging Yellow River flowed freely to the east, and the three gates of gods, ghosts and people were the real gate of hell. It is also unrealistic to expect this channel to support him in attacking Guanzhong, even Longyou, Hexi, and even the Western Regions. What's more, after passing Xi'an, the waterway was basically completely cut off. He could not expect the carriage to pull ammunition to supply the army to play a thousand-mile expedition, right?
Only railway construction can be built.
In the future, if he wants to attack westward, he can only learn how the United States advances westward. Wherever the railway extends, the territory of the Ming Empire will extend.
The first step is to build the section from Luoyang to Tongguan to support him to capture Guanzhong. This is the shortest-term goal. The canal and the Yellow River Galluo River combined transport, transporting materials to Luoyang first, and then from Luoyang to Tongguan. Of course, the premise is that he has to capture Tongguan first, so that he can support him to capture Xi'an.
Then build it from Haizhou, Lianyungang to Xuzhou, and build it step by step to Luoyang, completely getting rid of the shadow of the Yellow River and the canal frozen and cut off shipping. The materials from the south can be transported directly from Lianyungang to Guanzhong by railway, which can support him to attack from Xi'an further. This section is difficult to build from Luoyang to Tongguan, and it is not difficult to lay railway tracks in other places. Even if the technology of building bridges on the Yellow River is relatively difficult, it is impossible to ferry first.
The really difficult part of this railway is actually the Baoji to Tianshui section, which is the cecum of the Longhai Railway.
However, by then, the overall situation in the world had basically been decided. It was no big deal for him to repair it with the whole country. Isn’t it just a labor force? Americans spread the rocky mountain with the bones of Chinese workers. At worst, they could use the bones of prisoners of war to spend this section. After this section, there was no too difficult place to go to Tianshan. The rest was a matter of time. As he said, ten years would not work for twenty years, twenty years would not work for thirty years. He probably wouldn’t have much pressure to live for another fifty years. If he still couldn’t practice the Netherlands in fifty years, then he might as well find a place to kill him.
After all, he doesn't lack time.
Just as Yang Feng was standing on the train and was vigorously motivated, a new round of large-scale attacks by the Ming army had already begun.
Hefei.
"The Qing soldiers will die and never surrender!"
The governor and admiral of Anhui, Yu Chenglong, another famous minister in the Kangxi Dynasty who was often confused with Yu Chenglong, stood on the Nanxun Gate and waved his sword and shouted hysterically. His face, with a sick flush on his white hair and beard.
The Chaohu defenders surrendered without fighting and let go of the gate to Chaohu. The Ming army's inland river fleet went north along the Hubei and entered the Fei River to reach the city of Hefei. Governor Yu, the Zhenglan Banner of the Han army, had no choice but to fight to the end, sacrifice his life for justice and kill himself. Anyway, it would be a hard worker to die of exhaustion when it fell into the hands of the Ming army. It would be better to do a vigorous battle. Maybe Taizu Taizong is blessed by the spirit of heaven. The Qing Dynasty will have the day of revival. At that time, he believed that he would be immortal.
But it is obvious that loyal ministers are not that easy to be.
"Open fire!"
On the artillery positions of the Ming army outside Hefei City, a fifteen-pound rifled cannon was aimed at the city wall in the artillery position blocked by the earth wall. With the commander's command, it continued to spray out blazing flames. The shells roared forward and hit the city wall with huge force. Although it was just ordinary solid shells, the weight and kinetic energy of the shells were still cracked. The bricks were then broken into the rammed earth inside, causing large pieces of rammed earth to collapse.
There is no Armor bullet, nor flower bullet.
This is not in line with the Ming army's always violent style.
The reason is very simple.
There are more than 30,000 elderly, weak, women and children tied to the walls of Hefei.
If it weren't for these hostages, Yu Chenglong would have even farted, what would he do to stop the Ming army with the army of more than 10,000 Eight Banners refugees and coats in his hands? Although Hefei is also famously tall and strong, it would not be able to stop the heavy rockets. The trick Ashan and others thought of at the beginning was their only hope. Although Ashan and others failed, it did not mean that this tactic was not good. If it were not against the Yang Yaoren, such tactics would be very effective.
Isn’t it very successful now?
"Master Futai is a master, and the thief army is helpless now."
At the Nanxun Gate, a group of green worms surrounded the governor and exclaimed in unison. A large number of people tied by ropes behind them were glaring at each other. Beside these people, the armed Eight Banners, Baoyi women and old people were holding swords and watching tremblingly in the sound of cannons. The barely useful bannermen and Baoyi men were operating cannons and constantly firing at the Ming army artillery positions outside the city. There were even many loyal and righteous green worms who were also helping them.
Well, now the green insects have also recognized Yang Feng’s true face.
The imperial examination has not been held so far, and the local people's official selection model has basically fixed. For the Qingzhe, this is simply equated with the unforgivable painting. In the past, he did not see his true face clearly. In addition, he was confused by his respect for Wang Yangming, and he always had a trace of fantasy about him. But now any scholar with a little backbone will no longer be with this demon. Especially after he nominally educated distant people and actually exiled Yan Shenggong and thousands of Jinshi Juren, he was completely on the opposite side of the Qingzhe. Even the Wang Yangming faction he respected has been expelled from the Confucian ranks by Zhu Pahui faction, which is absolutely mainstream.
Of course, this is outside the Ming army controlled area.
In fact, the situation was basically overwhelmed within the Ming army's controlled area, and the eight-legged essay was completely thrown into the garbage dump. On the contrary, the Wang Yangming faction, especially the rebellious Taizhou faction, began to gradually become a trend, and even Yang Feng's official selection model was embellished as a retro wise move. Now the war between the Ming and Qing dynasties has gradually transformed towards the Confucian and Taoist war as Yang Feng wished.
The green worms were sincerely admiring. A high-rise shell roared over their heads and then hit the city tower. Although it was not a flowering bullet, it still caused the tiles and bricks on the city tower to fall like raindrops. Many hostages and the old and weak guards of the Eight Banners below were immediately smashed into wail. Even the green worms were broken by broken bricks, and they jumped straight into pain.
"The heavenly disaster is the Qing Dynasty, and this demon is born in the prosperous era. Qiuxu is in the blink of an eye, but the people are in trouble, and they are in danger of this disaster!"
Looking at this scene, Governor Yu couldn't help but sigh with compassion.
"Sir, Luzhou has always been a place of loyalty and righteousness. The people have been blessed with the grace of the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. Although they wish they could go to the battlefield to kill the thieves, they could build this Great Wall of flesh and blood for the Emperor at this time, even if they were crushed to pieces, they would have no regrets!"
A green worm said righteously.
"Uh, this is well said!"
Governor Yu patted his shoulder and said.
The people behind them who were tied up by many flowers were all so angry that they looked angry, and they were obviously defeated by these two shameless people.
However, this move did make the Ming army very passive, because it could not use flowering shells, especially Arc shells. Although solid shells could also collapse the city walls, in order to achieve the effect of flat firing, the cannons must be pushed forward within two miles as much as possible so as to fully exert the power of solid shells. However, in this way, the range advantage of the Ming army cannons was gone. In fact, they became counterattacks with Qing army cannons within range. The Ming army could directly bombard the city walls, and the Qing army could also bombard the Ming army artillery on the city walls. Even if there were a large number of snipers who sniped the Qing army gunners from a long range, the Ming army cannons were still destroyed after a period of bombing.
"This is not possible. Even if we can open the Hefei walls, our brothers will have to brave the firepower of the Tartars, especially when crossing the moat, there will probably be one or two thousand casualties."
In the Ming Army command, He Jin, the commander of the Fourth Army, said.
Now the total strength of the Ming army has exceeded 30 brigades, which are organized exactly as Yang Feng originally envisioned. They are composed of four infantry brigades, one cavalry brigade and one heavy artillery brigade. Currently, there are five armies in total, two of which are in the north, one in the south of the Yangtze River, and the other two armies are used for combat in Huainan. The first army goes north along the canal, and the fourth army goes out to Hefei to attack Shouchun and then heads to Henan, but the first battle is blocked under the city of Hefei.
"There is no problem to collapse the city wall. The Tartars' artillery was very bad. Although the artillery suffered a little loss, it was not big. Now the artillery fire is concentrated to bombard the Nanxun Gate. It is estimated that it will be almost blown open by noon. No matter how strong the city wall is, it is just a rammed earth. Solid shells are just a matter of time. However, when facing the firepower on the city wall during the assault, it cannot be suppressed by the Arctic bomb fire, which is indeed inevitable to suffer major casualties."
his chief of staff said.
"But the prince has strict orders, and a large number of casualties must be avoided. If the Armored bomb and the Flowering Bullets are really used, at least thousands of people will be killed or injured."
Then he said helplessly.
"Okay, it seems we have to think of some good tricks. After taking Hefei, I have to chop Yu Chenglong."
He Jin said with a gloomy face. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!