"The first level of the thief will be rewarded with twenty taels of silver, the officer who beheads the fifth level will be promoted to one level, and the first to attack the head of the city will be promoted to the third level. There will be a special military judge to count all the soldiers' combat exploits, and there will never be any presumptuous deeds, as long as the soldiers fight bravely to kill the enemy, they do not have to worry about not getting rewards.

Of course, there are rewards and punishments, and those who retreat in battle, disobey military orders, and retreat without authorization will be punished according to military discipline! ”

In the Ming Army Camp in the east of Puzhou City, Pingyang Prefecture, Yu Feng, the chief soldier, was giving a lecture to his subordinate officers.

The entire tent was filled with officers, there were as many as thirty or forty people, and all the officers of more than 1,000 households in Shanxi were here, even Jiang Xuan, the chief soldier of Shanxi.

Since Chen Yue led his troops from Datong in the north into Shanxi, he has successively recruited and transferred the defenders in Shanxi along the way, and now there are nearly 50,000 Shanxi soldiers who have arrived in Puzhou with the army.

Some time ago, after relying on tough means to transfer Jiang Jiu and other generals to the Chinese army, and then beheaded a group of officers who refused to obey orders, the Shanxi soldiers immediately became obedient. In the face of the supreme power of Chen Yue, the king of Qi, and the strong combat power of the Northern Expeditionary Army, these soldiers did not dare to make a mistake. After all, the strong man is the king in the army, and only strong strength can make people obey, which is also the reason why the Ming army, which was originally a scumbag in combat effectiveness, immediately rose to a higher level after surrendering to the Manchu Dynasty. Because under the tough methods of the Eight Banners, these green battalion soldiers did not dare to contribute any longer. And now the situation is very similar.

Of course, Chen Yue's treatment of these Shanxi local armies was not only tough, but a combination of grace and power. As long as the army can complete the task according to the order, there will be a large number of rewards, and the officers will be promoted and rewarded.

It was still wartime, and Chen Yue had no time to reorganize these Shanxi soldiers, so he could only use war to transform them, rely on war to eliminate the weak and retain the strong, and finally achieve the goal of completely integrating into the Northern Expeditionary Army.

So now, Yu Feng's orders, from Jiang Hao to ordinary officers, dare not despise it at all.

After announcing the rewards and punishments, Yu Feng then made arrangements for the attack on Puzhou, and then asked the generals to go back and prepare.

"General Yu, although Puzhou City is not big, it has high walls and deep moats, and if you attack it, you will be afraid that the brothers will suffer too many casualties. Are we fully prepared before attacking the city? ”

After the generals retreated, Jiang Hao said to Yu Feng with a sad face. Now although Jiang Hao still retains the position of chief soldier in Shanxi, he has been separated from the army, except for hundreds of families, he can no longer command any army, and he is only equivalent to a senior staff officer in the army.

Jiang Hao himself also knows that he is not a descendant of the King of Qi, and if he wants to have a good future in the Ming Army, he must show his ability and must have a good attitude, so he has been working hard to cooperate these days.

However, now, Yu Feng wanted to expel the Shanxi soldiers to attack Puzhou, thinking about the casualties that would occur in the siege, Jiang Hao still couldn't help but persuade.

"Ready? What else do I need to prepare? There are only more than 10,000 thieves in Pucheng City, but we use 100,000 troops to capture Puzhou, is there still a problem? Yu Feng asked with a cold face.

Jiang Hao hurriedly explained: "That's not what the last general meant. The last general said that after all, the casualties of attacking the city by relying on the ladder will be a little large, and more crashes and shield cars should be prepared. ”

Yu Feng shook his head: "There is not so much time, so be it, Mr. Jiang, you just need to do your own things well." ”

"Yes!" Jiang Hao could only hold his fists and agree.

Jiang Jiu's current task is to lead his personal guards as a team of supervisors, and all Shanxi soldiers who violate military law in the battle will be personally dealt with by him. Although the power seems to be very large, Jiang Hao is very bitter in his heart, Chen Yue, the king of Qi, has completely controlled the Shanxi soldiers, and can completely deal with the soldiers who violate the military law by himself, but he puts the power in the hands of Jiang Huang, who seems to respect the authority of Jiang Huang, the chief soldier of Shanxi, but it is undoubtedly causing the confrontation between Jiang Hao and the Shanxi officers and soldiers.

Dealing with officers and soldiers who violate military law by strong means will undoubtedly make other officers and soldiers afraid and hateful, and then deviate from him, the former boss, and if he bends the law for personal gain, he will be taken down by Yu Feng justifiably.

Therefore, Jiang Hao knew that it was impossible to treat Shanxi soldiers as his private army from now on.

The city of Puzhou is three feet eight feet high, the dish is seven feet high, and there are moats on three sides in the southeast, north and south, and the west side of Puzhou is the surging Yellow River.

As an important ferry connecting Shanxi and Shaanxi, for thousands of years, the location of Puzhou has been extremely important, and it is also a place where soldiers must fight, whether it is from Shanxi to Guanzhong, or from Guanzhong to Shanxi, they have to pass through Puzhou.

Therefore, after Yuan Zongdi retreated from Pingyang Mansion, most of his troops retreated across the Yellow River, but he left an army of 10,000 people to defend the city in Puzhou, east of the river.

Although Puzhou became an isolated city, the Shun army could support it through the Yellow River. With the loss of Puzhou, the Ming army could cross the river from the ferry into Shanxi and attack Daqing Pass, where the Shun army was entrenched on the other side of the river.

Yu Feng's method of attacking Puzhou was very simple, that is, relying on the cloud ladder to forcibly attack the city.

Groups of Shanxi soldiers were driven to the city and carried the ladder to the city. Arrows rained down on the city, and from time to time the Ming army fell to the ground with arrows.

Although Yu Feng used the Shanxi soldiers as cannon fodder, he did not have the intention of destroying the Shanxi soldiers by war. In order to take Puzhou as soon as possible, in order to suppress the Shun army in the city, he sent elite musketeers to suppress the Shun archers on the city wall to cover the siege of the Shanxi soldiers.

Dozens of carts were pushed into the moat, more than a dozen temporary pontoon bridges were built, under the cover of the firecrackers, the Ming soldiers carrying the ladder approached the city wall along the pontoon bridge, put the ladder on the head of the city, and the Shanxi soldiers began to climb and attack the city.

And the head of the city fell like rain, ash bottles, boiling oil were poured from the city wall from time to time, and countless Ming troops screamed and fell to the head of the city.

Under normal circumstances, it was impossible for local Ming troops like Shanxi soldiers to conduct such a tragic siege battle, and they would retreat if they suffered a slight casualty.

However, now, tens of thousands of heavily armed soldiers of the Northern Expeditionary Army were arrayed a few miles away from the city wall, and Jiang Hao was standing a mile away from the battlefield with hundreds of family members, and no one dared to retreat at this time.

And even in the Shanxi army, there is no shortage of bloody braves, thinking of the rewards promised by the generals, many soldiers climbed up with red eyes.

And the Ming army's desperate siege of the city also caused great pressure on the Shun army in the city. Especially the Ming army under the city, forcing the archers of the Shun army to dare not show their heads at all.

Soon, the Ming army climbed down the ladder to the top of the city, and then was stabbed under the city by the soldiers of the Shun army.

There is the first and there is the second, and in the morning, the Ming army attacked the city several times, causing great casualties to the Shun army defending the city.

Under the pressure of the besieging Ming army, the Shun army in the city did not see it at all, and under the city wall twenty zhang away from the city gate in the east city, a group of Ming soldiers with iron picks and chisels had dug a big hole more than three feet wide and one zhang deep at the root of the city.

A coffin filled with gunpowder was carried over the pontoon bridge and stuffed into a hole, which was then refilled with masonry.

The long fuse was ignited, and the nearby Ming army fled like crazy along the pontoon bridge back out of the moat.

More than ten breaths later, after an earth-shattering loud noise, the earth shook the mountains, in the eyes of tens of thousands of eyes inside and outside the city, a section of the city wall several zhang wide flew towards the air, and then fell heavily, the earth shook the mountains, the bricks and stones flew together, and the dust filled half of the sky.

At this moment, the Shun army on the city wall, the Shanxi soldiers who were attacking the city a little farther away, many people were shocked to the point that their ears were deaf and bleeding from their mouths and noses, and many people were smashed by flying bricks and stones.

Under the frightened eyes of countless people, the dust gradually dispersed, and a section of the city wall that was more than 20 zhang long had disappeared without a trace, and Puzhou City was like a girl who had been stripped of her clothes, revealing the mystery of the city to the Ming army outside the city.

Gunpowder bombed the city, and once again it was used in siege warfare.

After the shock, the Ming army outside the city was overjoyed, and countless soldiers shouted excitedly, holding weapons and rushing towards the gap in the city wall.

At this time, the Shun army in Puzhou City had lost all morale, and most people's hearts were full of fear.

They had never heard of the Ming army's means of attacking the city, and they didn't know why the city wall became like this, and they thought that the Ming army had used ghost and god means such as heavenly thunder.

This fear of the unknown left them no longer strong to resist, and countless people fled from the walls crying out.

The west gate of Puzhou opened, and countless soldiers fled towards the Yellow River crossing in the west of the city.

Yu Feng naturally would not let go of this opportunity to beat the water dogs, and had already sent Ma Chuang to lead an army to intercept it.

The Ming army carried out a fierce attack on the Shun army who fled to the ferry with tiger squatting artillery fire and rockets, countless Shun soldiers fell in a pool of blood, more people were forced to jump into the surging Yellow River, and there were very few soldiers who could grab the ferry and successfully escape to the other side.

One day broke through Puzhou and annihilated tens of thousands of Shun troops, at this moment the Ming army showed a strong combat effectiveness to deter Yuan Zongdi on the other side of the river, but also made the Ming army in Jiang Hao and other Shanxi generals frightened, now they understand how powerful it is to defeat the Manchurian Northern Expeditionary Army, at this moment is the original dissidents have also rested some thoughts, and no longer dare to think about it.

The next step in conquering Puzhou is naturally to cross the Yellow River and march to Shaanxi on the other side, but this is not easy.

The surging Yellow River is very fast, and most of the ferries are controlled by the Shun army, so it is not so easy to cross the Yellow River.

Since the Tang Dynasty, there are pontoon bridges on both sides of the Yellow River in Pujindu, but in the later Yuan-Jin battle, the Jin soldiers burned down the pontoon bridge in Pujindu. Since then, the Yellow River pontoon bridge was destroyed and built, but the Yellow River was diverted during the Wanli period at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and the river moved more than a mile to the west, flooding the four iron oxen that were used as anchors in the west of the river to pull the pontoon iron cables.

Therefore, if you want to cross the river into Shaanxi, you must recruit enough boats. Yu Feng had to stop in Puzhou and send people to collect ships upstream and downstream.

At this time, the battle in Tongguan was extremely fierce.

The Shun army deployed more than 100,000 troops on the north bank of the Yellow River in Tongguan and the nearby mountains for more than ten miles, firmly blocking the Ming army's road to enter Shaanxi through Tongguan.

Since ancient times, from Luoyang, Henan Province into Guanzhong, there is only one road in Tongguan Hangu Pass, and the mountains and ravines here, the terrain is extremely complex, and it is not conducive to the deployment of troops at all.

If you want to attack Guanzhong, you can only storm Tongguan, which is heavily guarded by the Shun army. The Shun army built more than ten fortresses on various plateaus outside Tongguan, and it was very difficult to break the Shun army into Guanzhong in a short time.

As a result, Chen Yue ordered a large number of artillery pieces to be mobilized, and there were more than forty red-coated cannons alone, and fired fiercely at the fortress of the Shun army.

In the roar of the red-coated cannons, the mud of the Shun army fortress flew together, and the hastily built fortress camp could not stop the bombardment of the red-coated cannons at all.

Seeing that the camp of the Shun army was broken, the soldiers of the Ming army, who had an absolute advantage in strength, rushed in and launched a fierce attack on the camp, besieging and killing the remnants of the enemy inside.

There are more than 1,000 troops stationed in one camp, and they can't resist for long at all.

In just three days, the Ming army broke through five or six fortresses outside Tongguan, and seeing that it was impossible to stop the speed of the Ming army's entry, Li Guo had to withdraw his soldiers into Tongguan and abandon the fortresses outside.

"Lord Wang, all the thieves are cowering in Tongguan, although we have the advantage of red-clothed cannons, but it is also difficult to break Tongguan and annihilate the Shun army. His subordinates suggested that an army could be sent to take a boat from Fenglingdu to the west into the Wei River, go around to the Shun army in Tongguan, and attack from behind, which would inevitably defeat the Shun army in one fell swoop. Li Yi suggested to Chen Yue.

Chen Yue shook his head: "It is too dangerous for the lone army to penetrate into the Shun army, now that we have an absolute advantage, there is no need to take risks." Remember, we are not trying to annihilate the Shun army, but to force them to do what we want. ”

According to Li Yi's suggestion, of course, sending an army can go around to Tongguan, but because there are not many ferries at all, the army that can be sent is limited, at most a few thousand, but in the face of more than 100,000 Shun troops, it is still unknown how much of a role it can play, think about it carefully, Li Yi also had to give up his idea.

At this moment, Yu Feng's good news of conquering Puzhou came, and Chen Yue was very happy.

"Yu Feng captured Puzhou, it won't take long to cross the Yellow River, and then he will be able to bypass Tongguan from the north, and Li Guo will retreat!"

"The prince is wise!" Li Yi praised.

In the next few days, Chen Yue did not try to send troops to attack the Shun army in Tongguan, but arranged dozens of artillery pieces outside the pass, and carried out artillery bombardment every day to put pressure on the Shun army in Tongguan.

Dozens of red-clothed cannons fired, its majesty shook the sky, the cannonballs fell to the head of Tongguan City, smashed the city stacks of saucers flew together, the city wall was crumbling, and the Shun soldiers in the pass were full of fear.

Li Guo, the commander of the Shun army, was worried that the Ming army would attack, and from time to time sent troops to repair the destroyed city walls while the Ming army's artillery was stopped.

At this time, hundreds of Yellow River boats requisitioned all the way from Luoyang were under the leadership of Xu Qingtian, pulled by thousands of soldiers with fiber ropes, along the Yellow River upstream, heading for Puzhou in the north.

For Chen Yue, the key to victory and defeat was not Tongguan, but Puzhou in the north. As long as Yu Feng can lead the army to cross the Yellow River and occupy Daqing Pass, and open up the road into Shaanxi, the situation in Shaanxi will be decided.

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