Zhang Changgeng's henchmen were extremely afraid of Deng Ming, and last year's Huguang Green Battalion was invincible in the battle with Deng Ming, which made them have no confidence in the Qing army, even if it was useless to defend the city, Xiangyang, Zhong Xiang and later Huangzhou were all in one drum. And the Qing troops stationed in Hanyang are probably even worse, many of them were captured in Zhongxiang with Zhou Peigong, and once lined up behind Zhou Peigong to be introduced to Deng Ming. If they were fighting with other Ming generals, these generals could still be used, but when they fought with Deng Ming, Zhang Changgeng thought that these people suffered from Yan zhòng's "battlefield phobia", but they were not afraid of defeat and surrender at all, and such subordinates could not be counted on at all.

Originally, Zhou Peigong was the most "afraid of Deng", and in spreading the remarks of surrender defeatism that "Deng Ming can only be outwitted and cannot be defeated", Zhou Peigong was the most active in the whole Huguang for several weeks, and even Zhang Changgeng could not compare with him. However, in recent times, especially in the past month, Zhou Peigong has simply changed from the largest main peace faction in Huguang to the most determined main battle faction. A month has passed since the radical and rapid transformation of the two factions, and many of the Huguang scholars are still confused, and have not yet figured out why the original dovish leader has become a hawk overnight.

However, Zhang Changgeng, as the governor of Huguang, of course understands the reason. He heard that Zhou Peigong used the kickbacks given by Deng Ming to buy some properties in his hometown, but as a result, the Ming army crossed the river and demolished the bridge, and after getting all the weapons, they confiscated Zhou Peigong's land. After hearing about this, Zhang Changgeng also sympathized with Zhou Peigong, he couldn't help but remember that when Zhou Peigong brought back the first burden of gold, he resolutely refused to accept the small account he gave, which made Zhang Changgeng feel that Zhou Peigong was a loyal and reliable subordinate, with a love for money, but not too greedy; is not pedantic, has a bottom line, is there a more reassuring subordinate in the world? Zhang Changgeng therefore relied more heavily on Zhou Peigong - he didn't know how much money Zhou Peigong had taken, and Deng Ming had a strong sense of business secrecy.

In addition to sympathy, Zhang Changgeng planned to compensate Zhou Peigong out of his own pocket. A month ago, he called Zhou Peigong to have a private conversation, and since Deng Ming relied on his kickbacks, Governor Zhang would give him another share. Zhang Changgeng prepared a remuneration of 2,000 taels of silver for Zhou Peigong, when Zhang Changgeng was the governor, he could almost make so much money a year, and now he gives Zhou Peigong a new prefect such a large amount of money, which should be said to be very interesting.

However, to Zhang Changgeng's surprise, Zhou Peigong politely declined his red envelope, saying that as a subordinate, it was not good for him to take such a large amount of money from his boss for trivial things in the past. The governor of Huguang might as well save it first, and then talk about it after he helps the governor recover the lost land in Hubei in the future -- the land, houses, and fish ponds with a market value of more than 300,000 taels of silver were all taken away by Li Laiheng, and the cost of purchasing these family properties was more than that, and Zhou Peigong hated Li Laiheng to the bone. He guessed that Deng Ming had already crossed the river and demolished the bridge, thinking of the almost innocent joy when he bought the land, and Zhou Peigong, who believed that he had been fooled, was also full of resentment towards Deng Ming.

Seeing that Zhou Peigong took the initiative to ask for help, Zhang Changgeng was overjoyed, anyway, he was unwilling to go to the front line to confront Deng Ming. Zhou Peigong is indeed the best candidate for the commander of Hanyang, and Zhang Changgeng not only does not have to worry about him abandoning the city and fleeing, but can expect Zhou Peigong to exert 120% combat effectiveness because of hatred.

After encouraging Zhou Peigong a few words, Zhang Changgeng sent the standard battalion guerrillas to Zhou Zhifu as a deputy. This standard battalion guerrilla was the former commander of Hu Quancai's pro-military battalion. After the incident of "Deng Ming's assassination of Hu Quancai", Zhang Changgeng took all the standard battalions of the original governor of Huguang as orders, and now the standard battalion guerrillas have become desperate and loyal to Zhang Changgeng.

Zhou Peigong said he needed to promote some scholars to flesh out his staff. The people he proposed were all hawks here in Wuhan, and Zhang Changgeng had already heard the names of these people, all of whom were Hubei scholars whose family property was in the Ming military-controlled zhì area. Even if their land was not confiscated by the Ming army, they were taxed exorbitantly, and these scholars could not forget how to fight back to their hometown every night when they lay in bed.

In Pingrì, these hawks lobbied their relatives and friends everywhere, asking them to enthusiastically donate money to the governor's palace, which helped Zhang Changgeng a lot to revive his armaments. Moreover, under the influence of these hawks, the Gentry of Huguang also became worse and worse in their perception of the Ming army, and were very afraid that the Ming army would continue to advance and occupy their hometown.

Zhang Changgeng happily agreed to all of Zhou Peigong's requests, and allocated him some food and salary from the treasury. After ordering his staff to transport all kinds of armaments to Hanyang, Zhang Changgeng announced the dissolution of the meeting, leaving Zhou Peigong alone.

"Brother Zhou, can't Deng Ming really talk about it?" After everyone left, Zhang Changgeng, who also suffered from Yan zhòng's "fear of Deng", no longer concealed it and said his thoughts straight to the point.

"My lord is clear, Deng Ming is capricious, and the lower officials think that negotiating with him is tantamount to seeking skin with a tiger." Zhou Pei said righteously and solemnly.

Seeing Zhou Peigong's firm attitude, Zhang Changgeng sighed softly in his heart, but he didn't force it, but just advised: "If Hanyang is as safe as Mount Tai, it is naturally the best, but if Hanyang is in danger, Brother Zhou should not do anything that would rather be broken." Ensuring the safety of Hanyang is the most important thing. ”

Many of the guards here in Wuchang were also captured by Deng Ming, and the battle of Zhongxiang followed Zhang Changgeng to escape a few, and it was the mainstream who was captured. As for ordinary soldiers, being captured twice is not much, and some have already received severance pay from Deng Ming three times. After learning that Deng Ming was coming, Zhang Changgeng had already sent an envoy to Zhongxiang to send troops from the north to aid Wuchang. However, if Hanyang was lost, Zhang Changgeng feared that a chain reaction would occur, which would completely discourage the already unreliable army.

The next day, Zhou Peigong took a large number of staff members and escorted the military baggage into Hanyang. Compared with Wuchang City, the garrison situation here in Hanyang is much worse, and the thickness of the city wall and the depth of the trench are much inferior. However, Zhou Peigong felt that as long as the city wall was not quickly broken, it was enough to hold on.

"Deng Ming came straight to Hanyang, although the momentum is violent, but in fact, there is not enough stamina." Zhou Peigong analyzed to his staff and guards: "Without clearing the surrounding strongholds, his forces will not be able to be fully deployed, and there is a danger that our army will disturb the grain routes and messengers at any time." I guess his wishful thinking was to take Hanyang with one drum and intimidate our army so that the defenders of the western fortress would retreat on their own. Now Deng Mingli is fighting quickly, our army is holding on, as long as it holds on for a few days, the reinforcements from the upper reaches of the Han River will return to reinforce us one after another. ”

After the analysis was completed, Zhou Peigong began to assign tasks. Now there are almost all the hawkish civil and military forces in Huguang concentrated in Hanyang City, and their hatred of breaking the family and seizing wealth completely overwhelms their fear of Deng Ming. Zhou Peigong, like other hawks, knew that if he wanted to take back his family property, he must first break the myth of Deng Ming, otherwise the Huguang Green Battalion would tremble when he saw Deng Ming's banner, so how could he counterattack the Ming army and recover the lost territory?

For the plum blossom piles and moats around the city gate, Zhou Peigong did not spend too much jīng effort to arrange them, but only carried out some simple treatment. According to the consistent experience of fighting with Deng Ming, the focus of the opponent's attack was never on the city gate, and Zhou Peigong was more concerned about the safety of the city wall. However, it was obviously an impossible task to reinforce along the entire city wall, even if Zhou Peigong had carried out some work beforehand, it was too late.

Shut down

Therefore, Zhou Peigong's main countermeasures were placed in the city. He dug pits along the entire city wall, buried a large urn at intervals, and arranged a blind man with particularly sensitive ears, and if he found signs of digging tunnels by the Ming army, the Qing army would listen to the underground. When Zhou Peigong presided over the reinforcement of Hanyang's city defenses, he built some shallow canals in the city, and now with Zhou Peigong's order, these channels have also been impounded. Such a small amount of water was obviously not enough to deal with the traditional cave attack, but Zhou Peigong and other Qing generals conducted some research in Huangzhou and other places, and they found that against the current cave attack tactics of the Ming army, only a small amount of water could be destroyed. If the Ming army returned to traditional methods, then the Qing army would also have enough time to dig ponds.

Sending blind people to listen first, and then quickly blocking them with a small amount of water is Zhou Peigong's tactical idea. The great threat of the new tactics of the Ming army mainly came from the speed with which they were deployed, and in general, in just one day, the Ming army could complete the preparations for the destruction of the city walls. During this time, the Qing army needed to dig ditches on the inside of the city wall and set up large urns for monitoring, and the workload was also very large, and the time was very tight.

"If some preparations were not made in advance, then it would be necessary to send troops and horses out of the city and set up camp to prevent the enemy from approaching the city walls until the city was ready." Looking at the fleet of the Ming army from afar, Zhou Peigong pondered various problems with his tactics in his heart: "But this time Hanyang is ready, and there is no need to desperately block the enemy from a safe distance." ”

Although he did not plan to fight the Ming army in the field, Zhou Peigong still set up a camp outside each city gate and deployed a small number of soldiers. It took at least a day for the Ming army to dig tunnels, and these camps could effectively threaten the Ming soldiers who were carrying out civil engineering work, forcing the Ming army to send more troops to protect the tunnels. In this way, the Qing army could observe the deployment of the Ming army and determine their main attack and feint.

In addition to the ditch and the big urn, Zhou Peigong also invited a group of monks to help, many of whom were white-bearded and enlightened people. If Deng Ming's blasting was just a disguise, and the essence was still evil magic, these monks could effectively restrain it. In addition, Zhou Peigong also considered another possibility, that is, Deng Ming did not use evil arts, but the Five Thunder Righteous * method - this is not something that a monk can restrain and must have another response.

After the Ming army landed, they did not immediately attack Hanyang, but first camped for a day of rest, and then went out in a big way, divided into several teams to fill in the trenches. After seeing the actions of the Ming army, Zhou Peigong did not dare to take it lightly, and hurriedly gathered the monks and blind men, and took their places after the trenches that the Ming army tried to fill in each section.

The Ming army has been stuffy and filled the trenches, and there has been no sign of digging tunnels, and several trenches have been paved out by the Ming army in the morning.

"Strange." Zhou Peigong found that the actions of the Ming army were completely different from what he had seen in Zhongxiang at the beginning. At that time, the Ming army dug the tunnel first and then began to fill the trench, and afterwards Zhou Peigong pondered and figured out the truth: the Ming army needed to judge whether the tunnel could be dug down the city wall to the root, and if it encountered boulders or underground water, the Ming army would choose another route. It is very likely that filling in the trench first will become useless - as long as it is not close to the city gate, it will be difficult for the Qing army to interfere with it, but after all, it is also a lot of work.

But this time the Ming army did not seem to have any intention of digging tunnels at all, although there was no abnormality on the city wall, Zhou Peigong still ordered the blind to lie down on those large urns buried in the ground over and over again to listen, but all the reports were also normal.

There were normal reports everywhere, which made Zhou Peigong even more uneasy: "Is it really witchcraft?" ”

Seeing that the Ming army had almost filled the trench, Zhou Peigong did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly ordered the monk to start chanting, and suddenly a Sanskrit sound sounded behind the Hanyang city wall. The benevolent masters sat on top of the futon, rhythmically knocking on the wooden fish, chanting loudly, spitting out verses with boundless power.

After the Ming army in the west of the city filled in a large section of the trench, a large number of armor soldiers began to line up behind the trench.

"Not good!" Zhou Peigong saw that the Ming army had already put on a posture of attacking the city, and hurriedly rushed here in person. The blind people kept reporting that there was no abnormality, and the loud chanting of the masters rushed straight to Xiao Han, and the Qing troops on the city wall looked at the position of the Ming army one by one with wide eyes, hoping that suddenly a demon with a cloak would rush out from behind the formation, and shout at the Hanyang city wall: "Who broke my spell?" Then they vomited blood and died, but they never got their way.

"Is it really the Five Thunder Righteous Law? Could it be that the heavens really don't bless the court? Zhou Peigong muttered in his heart, he doubted that what he was most worried about would happen. After Zhou Peigong's painstaking research, it was found that the Five Thunder Righteous * Law was not the divine power of Shi Fa himself, but to invite the wrestlers of the Heavenly Court to fight the thunder. If Deng Ming really used such an upright spell, then it proved that Heavenly Court was still favoring Nanming, and it was certain that the Heavenly Mandate had not undergone any shift: "If this is the case, where should I go?" ”

Although I am confused, I still have to get through the difficulties in front of me. Zhou Peigong ordered to use a killer move, and with his order, countless Qing troops pasted yellow notes on the ground on this section of the city wall with the names of the Jade Emperor and Taishang Laojunzun, and also placed a lot of their tablets.

Since the Five Thunder Zheng * Law is going to be launched by the Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Generals, then they can't smash the tablets of the Jade Emperor and Taishang Laojun, right?

Despite this, Zhou Peigong still avoided that section of the city wall far away, after all, he didn't know what the immortals thought, and besides, wouldn't it be bad if he met an immortal with bad eyes or reckless eyes?

The Ming army on the opposite side has been lined up, Zhou Peigong looked up at the sky for a while, and looked down at the enemy for a while, he neither noticed the changes in the sky, nor did he see a demon come out to vomit blood, and the blind people still claimed that there was no abnormal sound underground. Finally, Zhou Peigong found that the queue of the Ming army was separated to both sides, but what came out in the middle was not a demon with a cloak, but a few things similar to rushing cars.

"What is this, Big Bell?" After seeing the strange-shaped vehicle, a question arose in Zhou Peigong's heart.

When Deng Ming first saw Liu Tichun's new equipment, he also regarded them as big bells, except that the materials were all iron, this kind of blasting equipment was very close to the shape of the big bell in the temple. Now the thick inner walls of these iron bells are filled with gunpowder, loaded on newly designed siege vehicles, and are pushed by Ming soldiers towards the walls of Hanyang.

When Liu Tichun used the tunnel blast a few times before, although the speed and effect of the cave attack had increased a lot, it still took a day and a night to dig the tunnel. Moreover, there are many restrictions on cave attack, for example, Chóngqìng City is not suitable for tunnel blasting, and the city wall is located on a rocky mountain, so there are not many places for the Ming army to dig and blast.

In order to further shorten the preparation time and eliminate the interference of groundwater and rock formations as much as possible, Liu Tichun designed a new type of blasting truck. The iron bell at the foremost is the main blasting device, and underneath it is a sturdy wooden transporter. In the process of propulsion, a fireproof board will be added to the front of the iron bell; After approaching the city wall, remove the fireproof board and put the bell mouth directly on the city wall; After removing the lower wheels, the heavy demolition cart sat on the ground and fastened the iron bell to the city wall.

The center of gravity of this vehicle is much lower than that of a ladder truck, and the total weight is much lighter, so the propulsion speed is several times faster than that of a ladder truck. Once the ditch has been opened and the iron bell is pressed against the wall, the wheels can be dislodged by pulling the pry bar, making the vehicle incapacitated, and it will take a few seconds to set it up, and then light the fuse to retreat.

This kind of external blasting may not be effective against the super city wall of Nanjing, but it has great destructive power against the general city wall. According to Liu Tichun's research, even if the iron bell is blown up, it will cause severe damage to the city wall structure, and the towering city wall is likely to collapse.

In Deng Ming's understanding, the reason for this is probably similar to the bandits who blew up the bank's vault in later generations, except that the black powder burning rate was too low to form an explosion in the open space, but at the moment when the iron bell could not resist the pressure and shattered, the explosion had already appeared, and the shock wave caused damage to the structure of the city wall.

According to Deng Ming's reconnaissance, there were probably more than 20,000 Qing troops in Wuchang and Hanyang, and it is estimated that there were more than 6,000 armor. If you want to use street fighting to take Wuhan, it may not be impossible, but the casualties of the Ming army will not be small, and it will also exhaust the mobile strength of the Ming army and become a garrison force. Besides, the occupation of Wuhan cannot maximize benefits, and if Zhang Changgeng is interested, Wuhan is more valuable in his hands than in the hands of Deng Ming.

After discovering that the banner of Zhou Peigong was raised in Hanyang yesterday, the Ming army did not immediately attack but looked forward to the other party's envoy, but after waiting for a day and not seeing anyone coming, Deng Ming realized that the shape of Wuchang had changed. Today, the Ming army pushed four blasting trucks up in one go, and since Zhang Changgeng and Zhou Peigong had the idea of having a fight, then Deng Ming was determined to smash it with the fastest speed and the greatest strength under this Hanyang City.