Liu Feng was transferred to Huanghu Mountain, which is a riverside hill with a length of four miles and a height of more than 20 zhang, this mountain is the gateway to Wuchang, if the Ming army captures Huanghu Mountain, and erects a cannon on the mountain, the whole city of Wuchang is under the threat of Ming artillery fire. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

In order to stabilize the defense of Wuchang City, Zhou Peigong proposed to build a fort on Huanghu Mountain.

After all, red mud is expensive, and the old method is still used to build forts on Huanghu Mountain: mining stones on the mountain, using glutinous rice and mud to bond, building eight large and small forts on the mountain, and casting 5,000 catties of heavy artillery to carry it up the mountain. Once the war began, the heavy artillery on the hill could be condescending and block the passage near Wuchang.

Under the city of Shaozhou, the Ming army was preparing to attack the city.

After taking Shaozhou, go upstream along the Wujiang River to reach the southern foot of Nanling. Over the South Ridge, it is Hunan.

"Report!" A spy walked into the camp of the Chinese army and handed Wang Xinyu the latest information.

Wang Xinyu read it and handed the information to Wang Yuyou: "Qinggou has also learned to be smart, buy cement from our Nanyang Company and build bunker fortifications, they think they can hold Wuchang in this way?" ”

Wang Yuyou took the information and read it again: "Tartar is a master!" It's a good one with Wuchang as the center, surrounded by earthen cities and guards, fortresses dotted around, and ravines and trenches are as dense as spider webs! In the age of firearms, such a formation is probably the best means of defense, right? ”

"When our army reaches the city of Wuchang, it will take another year." Wang Xinyu said.

"Won't the Tartar fortifications be stronger in a year?" Wang Yuyou asked.

Wang Xinyu smiled confidently: "Destruction is always easier than construction!" The Tartars spent so much silver to buy cement from the Honkin and go back to build the fortifications. They didn't know how many new artillery pieces could be built in this year. At the rate of one gun a month, by the time we hit Wuchang, there will be twelve rifled guns! Together with the current four, there are a total of sixteen rifled guns, and we can also build larger caliber rifled guns! ”

The cement fortress was very strong, but the Qing court had a small steel production and was reluctant to use iron cores to strengthen the concrete, and such cement fortresses were originally not as strong as the fortresses of the Ming army. What's more, the rifled cannon in Wang Xinyu's hand is the best weapon to use against the Qing army's fortress!

At present, the rifled guns used by the army are three-pounder rifled guns, and the time of a year is not long or short, and it is not impossible to build rifled guns with a larger caliber and greater power within this year.

Originally, Wang Xinyu didn't want to build more backward large-caliber front-loading rifled guns, but only wanted to wait until the steam engine came out, solve the technical problems, and directly put the back-loading rifled guns. But looking at this now, the Qing army is building a lot of construction in Wuchang, and it may be necessary to build two to three twelve-pounder front-loading rifled guns to play with them.

However, it is still very early to attack Wuchang, and the most important thing at present is to capture Shaozhou first.

There were not many Qing troops in Shaozhou City, but Zhizhou was stubborn, and the Ming army refused to open the city and surrender for an hour. So Wang Xinyu ordered to prepare for the siege.

Attacking the small Shaozhou City did not require much preparation, more than 100 cannons of various kinds were set up, aimed at the head of the city for a while, and then drove Shang Zhixin and Shang Zhixiao's troops to rush forward with a simple ladder.

The cannon roared, the earth flew sideways, the arrow tower of Shaozhou City collapsed, the city gate collapsed, the city wall was smashed out of the craters, and the female wall battlements were blasted out of a gap. The fierce artillery bombardment made it impossible for the Qing army to gain a firm foothold at all.

"Attack!" Zeng Yangxing, who was in charge of commanding the siege, gave an order.

The Cantonese army carried a simple ladder and launched an attack on Shaozhou City with a shout; The Min army behind followed, using birds, bows and arrows, to cover the arrival of the Cantonese army in the city. As for the main force of the Qiongzhou Army itself, as long as the artillery is fired and a few cold shots are fired with rifled guns, the other soldiers can move a stool and sit there to watch the excitement.

However, in one hour, the city of Shaozhou was broken, the Qing court Zhizhou committed suicide, and more than 500 people were killed in the city, and the remaining more than 2,000 people surrendered.

Wang Yuyou walked into the state ya, saw the body of Zhizhou hanging on the beam, and snorted coldly: "The mantis arm is a car, and you can't do it!" Even the elite main force of Qinggou has been defeated, not to mention the local chicken tile dog? ”

Five days later, the Ming army arrived at the foot of Lechang City. The Lechang County Commander took the initiative to open the city gate and surrender to the Ming army. Ten days later, Pingshi County, the northernmost county in Guangdong, also fell into the hands of the Ming army without bloodshed, and Pingshi County ordered Kaicheng to surrender. At this point, the Ming army has opened the door to Hunan, and the next step is to attack Chenzhou.

From Pingshi to Chenzhou, there is no large river that can provide navigation for the Ming army's naval division, and all the grain, grass and heavy materials can only be transported by land. However, fortunately, Wang Xinyu, who seized Guangdong, already has a large population, and can recruit a large number of people from the local people, and the people will take on the transportation task.

……

Guangxi Lingqu, which used to be an important passage from the Pearl River basin to the Yangtze River basin, was repaired many times from the second year of Yongle to the twenty-third year of Chenghua, but it was damaged by floods many times, and the channel of the Lingqu was blocked, and it was no longer navigable.

Liu Guoxuan stood on the edge of the Ling Canal, watching the water of the Ling Canal flow slowly. A group of sailor generals under his command are sending people to survey the Ling Canal and prepare to start repairing the Ling Canal channel.

Even the Ling Canal, which was originally navigable, was only two feet eight feet wide and four feet deep in a few neck-pinching sections, and could only navigate small ships below the centipede clipper, and the large inland river ships of the Ming Army's naval division could not pass through. If the inland river schooners and shallow water gunboats used by the Ming army in large numbers can pass through, at least a channel four zhang wide and eight feet deep is needed, so that a huge scale of construction must be carried out to meet the requirements of the Ming army's naval divisions.

If according to the plan, the Battle of Wuchang would start in a year's time, then Liu Guoxuan would only have seven or eight months left to repair the Lingqu channel.

It is not easy to complete such a large-scale project in seven or eight months.

After investigation, Liu Guoxuan judged that in order for the Lingqu to pass through the inland river schooner warships and the inland river shallow gunboats, it was necessary to recruit at least 50,000 people and carry out more than two years of construction work before the Lingqu could meet the requirements for passing large warships. It will take more than a year to recruit 100,000 people.

What if we recruit more people? That's impossible, because the Ling Canal is so long, and no matter how many people are engaged in construction, it can't be placed.

The canal dug by Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty took millions of migrant workers and three years to dig through. But how long is the Sui Canal? Millions of migrant workers can be laid out in one word; How long is the spiritual canal? Being able to accommodate 100,000 migrant workers at the same time is almost the limit. Too many migrant workers are recruited, and not only is the food supply a very complex issue, but it also affects local production, which will cause a lot of complaints and leave a bad impression on the common people.

"50,000, at most we can only recruit 50,000 people, plus our own army and people, 80,000 people will start construction at the same time!" Guo Zhiqi, the first assistant who came from afar to Guangxi to select local officials, resolutely disagreed with the recruitment of more people.

At that time, Emperor Yang of Sui spent the whole country to dig the Grand Canal, but he also lost the country.

He Bin proposed a plan: "We can simply clean up the river, just rely on the current manpower we have at hand, let the small boat pass first, and cooperate with the army of King Gongchang to enter Hunan." After the army of King Gongchang reached Hengzhou, we recruited Minzhuang to construct and let most of the ships pass. ”

Liu Guoxuan shook his head in disappointment: "If the large warships can't pass, it will have a great impact on the future attack on Wuchang and Anqing." Without large ships, it is difficult to control the Yangtze River channel. ”

Guo Zhiqi said: "As long as 80,000 people are enough!" After eight months of construction, the rainy season will come next spring and the water level will skyrocket, and our large ships will be able to pass! Guo has assisted His Majesty in Guangxi for many years and has a fairly good understanding of the situation in Guangxi. ”

According to Guo Zhiqi's requirements, the channel only needs to be excavated to a depth of five feet, and the width needs to be increased to more than three zhang. There is no need for too deep waterways, the construction difficulty can be reduced a lot, and people do not need to risk the construction in the water above their heads, only need to dig two to three feet. In the case of a difficult construction area, an aqueduct will be dug to divert the water and drain the water from this section of the riverbed before excavation.

After half a month of preparations, the Ming army began to repair the Ling Canal. Within this half month, Bai Wenxuan's army was the Chinese army, and the Lujia Green Battalion Army surrendered in Guangxi was the vanguard, attacking from Guilin, attacking Hunan, Lianke Lingling, Yongzhou, Qiyang and other cities, creating favorable conditions for the Ming army to repair the Ling Canal.

After Bai Wenxuan conquered Yongzhou Mansion, he did not move, no longer rashly advanced, but took Yongzhou as the center, arranged defenses, avoided the counterattack of the Qing army, and waited for the news that the main force of the Ming army, Qiongzhou Army, which attacked in the middle, to seize Chenzhou, and then sent troops to Hengzhou, when the two armies attacked Hengzhou.

The towns near the Lingqu had fallen into the hands of the Ming army, and Liu Guoxuan began to repair the Lingqu.

The people who repaired the Lingqu were all half-soldiers and half-people, and they had not yet used civilian labor. The more than 10,000 people brought by Liu Guoxuan, plus the 20,000 people recruited by Ma Xiong in Guangxi, a total of 30,000 people, were put into the work of repairing the Ling Canal.

After years of siltation, the water in the Lingqu is not deep, and the deepest part is not more than a person's depth, and the shallow place is only above people's knees.

The sun is scorching and the sun is big. The construction workers jumped into the water shirtless, using the cold water to cool themselves, removing the stones blocking the channel from the water and digging up the sediment that had accumulated for years.

The dug up sediment was carried away by boat, and the stones clogged up at the bottom of the river were removed piece by piece.

Busy people are busy all day long, because everyone is tanned because of standing in the water and basking in the sun. But fortunately, the work is in turns, and the labor intensity of each person is not very high.

Among the construction workers, there was a man about 40 years old who looked like an old farmer, and he also worked hard all day on the Lingqu construction site with everyone.

"No, I've got to find a way to escape! I am a student of Jackie Chan and a student of the Daqing Hall, but today I am working as a coolie with these vulgar mountain villagers! The middle-aged man said secretly in his heart. (To be continued.) )