"There is sufficient manpower, and the equipment to prepare for the siege from tomorrow." Zhao Shiwu said: "Of course this is an open line. The hidden line covers the top of the city with a large number of artillery, so that the Northern Legion dare not emerge at all, and then take the opportunity to attack it."

Tang Wangzong stepped forward and said, "You can test the cannon tomorrow morning, but my subordinates have observed that Qingcheng is all made of brick walls and the foundation of the wall is made of stone. Such a city is very strong. Even if the cannons keep bombarding, at most it will destroy the city walls and cross the city towers. If the Beilu have experience, it will avoid the cannon during the shelling and then go to the city after the cannon is stopped, and the bombardment effect will be very limited. Only in the first round of bombardment, it may achieve considerable results."

With Tang Wangzong's words, Zhang Han also looked at the city. Qingcheng was indeed small and solid. Just by bombardment by cannons, it might have created countless deep hole pits on the wall, but it is indeed unlikely to cross the city.

The artillery of this era is still too small in terms of power.

"It's enough for the artillery to do its duty." Zhang Han nodded, not caring about it.

"The problem is that I am afraid of lack of water." Zhao Shiwu frowned and said, "Bei Lu refused to defend the city. In addition to not knowing what was going on in siege and defending the city, it may also be because our army could not stay in the Qingcheng area for a long time."

From the map, Heihe is only a short distance from Guihua City, but this short distance is only a gap on the map. The actual distance is more than ten miles, while the distance from the Huihe River flows north and south is even further away. There are only these two rivers in Qingcheng area. There were not many residents in the city, and most of them were scattered and grazing. For Mongolian herders, a dozen or twenty miles were not a big deal. If you can run back and forth a day, there must be well water in the city to quench thirst. It is really not possible. Where there is no water source, the herders can survive by drinking goat milk or horse milk. For the merchant army, these methods are definitely not possible. When the army comes, each soldier is filled with water, and the carriages of the cooks are also filled with big buckets of clear water. But if the war is delayed for ten or eight days, the water source will become a big problem.

"Of course we can dig wells back then." Li Dongxue, who has always been taciturn and only focused on practical work, said with a smile: "This matter will be left to the Military and Political Department. In a while, he will take people to investigate the appropriate places to dig wells overnight."

"Eighty thousand people, a few wells cannot solve the big problem." Li Shenming frowned and said, "We should seize the time and use manpower to quickly capture the city."

"There is no doubt that the Northern Barbarians will be defeated." Kong Minxing also spoke: "But from the actual situation, I think we should find a way to break the city quickly. Even if we cannot break through immediately, we should make the Northern Barbarians in the city be scared and force them to surrender."

Zhang Han subconsciously said, "Forcing him to surrender? Qingcheng is full of northern barbarians, and there are very few Han people, so it is not as good as Banshengcheng."

Kong Minxing smiled and said, "According to the summary of the war situation last year, there are many conflicts within the Beilu. Xi Lingse is incompetent and has stolen power. The geniuses have long been dissatisfied with their corps. Now our army is in a hurry. If they can defend the city, they can still cooperate. If they see the city, they will be destroyed. If they are desperate every day, they may be afraid that civil strife will arise from this. At that time, it is very likely that the city will be won without fighting."

When everyone heard this, their eyes lit up.

A general smiled and said, "Mr. Kong is really amazing. He is not only a juren, but also a farming place and can also understand war."

Everyone laughed.

Kong Minxing shook his head and said, "I just provide an idea. How to do it specifically is not something I can participate in. If I continue talking about it, it will be a real talk."

Zhang Han smiled and nodded. This is true smart people, who know how to advance and retreat.

In this era, those who can pass the imperial examinations and Jinshi and make achievements in miscellaneous studies are undoubtedly the top talents.

Kong Minxing is a representative figure. He may have had some knowledge of military science in the past. Nowadays, scholars who have pursuits will read military books and history books, and prepare in advance when presiding over military and political affairs in the future. Of course, the top scholars can do this. Those who only understand the Four Books and Five Classics, and are stunned and ignorant, are the norm for normal scholars. Kong Minxing was not revealed before, but after stepping in outside, he tried his best to make suggestions. Today's matter is just a gesture, but to express his feelings to all the people in the core circle.

"Xiping, what do you say?"

Zhang Han turned his attention to Xia Xiping, the young man he most favored, although he is no more than Xia Xiping.

"I have some thoughts." Xia Xiping's eyes were still very calm and calm, without any feeling of being flattered or too much pressure. His attitude was calm, just like a few friends chatting under the lamp.

"Since there is, let's say it quickly." Zhang Han smiled and scolded: "Everyone is hungry, waiting for dinner."

Sun Jingting said speechlessly: "Wen Lan, please be careful, what your identity is, what a barrier is this? What are you doing when you are concerned about eating?"

Zhang Han quickly bowed to his hand to apologize.

This brother-in-law, who is separated by two floors, has become more and more serious recently. Zhang Han vaguely understands Sun Jingting... It's like a small family suddenly becomes rich, or someone in the family becomes a high-ranking official. Ordinary people will become frivolous and arrogant when they encounter such a situation. Sun Jingting is on the other hand. When his family is big and his business is big, he will be more cautious and even his personality will change. This mentality is like someone who wins millions of lottery tickets, and after receiving the money, he will be worried about gains and losses, and even psychologically unbalanced. Sun Jingting is also an imbalance, but at least it is a change in the better.

However, Li Shenming, Zhang Han felt that this old friend often showed a proud look on his face. Fortunately, Li Shenming did not make any marks, and Zhang Han was unwilling to worry about some trivial matters.

There was only the matter in Bansheng City. Zhang Han and Wang Yong felt something was wrong. There was a vague feeling that there was an internal struggle for power and profit. Zhang Han ordered Wang Yong to force Liu Quan to commit suicide, and used this to cut off the mastermind behind Liu Quan and warned the possible black shadows behind Liu Quan. At this time, everyone was riding under Qingcheng to discuss the matter of seizing the city. Everyone talked and the atmosphere was very harmonious. Zhang Han also asked himself: Are you too suspicious?

Amid the laughter of everyone, Xia Xiping also smiled and then said, "From the perspective of subordinates, the best way is to attack the hill."

"You mean," Zhang Han pondered: "Pile soil high above the city wall, and then jumped to attack it?"

"Yes, my subordinates believe that our advantages are not only higher than those of the Beilu, but also the engineering soldiers and baggage soldiers are also powers that cannot be ignored. In addition, there are 20,000 civilians who can use manpower. We have long-range firepower to suppress it, and pile up soil to make a hill opposite the Beilu city wall, which is two hundred steps wide and higher than the city wall. It may only take one or two days to achieve a mound."

"This project is not small..." Sun Jingting said: "But it is a feasible method."

Zhang Han thought about it and said, "It's indeed a good way, it's much better than ants attacking the city."

In fact, Zhang Han had considered the method of using explosives to explode the city. Anyway, the Beilu who had firepower suppressed and could not raise his head. He asked the engineers to dig tunnels under the city and buried thousands of kilograms of explosives. He would teach you how strong Qingcheng was, and he would definitely blow up half of the city walls. Li Zicheng also seemed to have used this method to attack Kaifeng. Since all the ancients could use it, Yusheng's gunpowder was a good way to explode the city.

But Xia Xiping's advice seems to be more appropriate. It takes a long time to dig tunnels, and if the effect of bombing the city is not ideal, you have to come again. Unlike piles of soil and sealing hills, it is a conspiracy. Pile soil to make hills in front of you. This is a serious destruction to the spirit of the defenders in the city. The Beilu will watch the earth mounds slowly rise, and before the city wall, the Shang regiments pile up a mountain of earth, and then be shot down by the high and condescending ones. Then the earth mound is directly covered on the city wall. The defense function of the city wall is useless.

For this method, there must be a moat and corresponding auxiliary city guarding facilities, such as arrow towers, several trenches, and a large number of deer antlers and horse-resisting horses. The arrow towers and moats are combined. The protections made it impossible for the siege party to immediately mound the soil under the city wall. The project volume was too large and gave up. However, there was only a bare city wall here in Qingcheng. Maybe when Altan Khan built this city, he never expected that it would be a day after being attacked by the Ming people.

With this in mind, Zhang Han said with a decisive thought: "That's it, Fengqiu attack the city!"

"yes!"

Everyone present bowed immediately.

...

Zhang Han woke up early the next day.

There was a lot of noise in the military camp. The cooks started to raise fires and cook when it was still dark. When Zhang Han got up, many baggage soldiers and civilians were squatting on the ground to eat.

Everyone cooks food from the team. Each team has a large iron bucket of soup. Of course, what you drink in the morning is not a meat soup, but a rice soup made of millet. Each person has two big meat buns, and the food is full of oil.

If you are in a normal camp, you will usually have a table of side dishes in the morning, such as pickled radish sticks, pickled cabbage, pickled beans, pickled cucumbers, and paired with two steamed buns or wheat cakes, and rice porridge. This is the food that every soldier in the army loves.

There are usually meat food at noon and at night, and each baggage soldier is metered at two taels per day. If there is an important project, it is metered at three taels or four taels per day. If there is a meat food at morning, noon and evening, it is not necessary to eat it. Just keep your stomach tight and your stomach stuck.

Regardless of the baggage and combat soldiers, they give eggs every day, sometimes duck eggs, and sometimes eggs. Recently, because the scale of duck raising has expanded dozens of times, there are more duck eggs. However, duck laying eggs is not as fixed as chicken laying eggs. Picking up duck eggs is very troublesome, but it is also considered supply.
Chapter completed!