Chapter 618: Under the Yujing City!

The second type of red cannon is a heavy artillery, weighing about two thousand kilograms, suitable for attacking castles. Compared with the previous red cannon, this type of red cannon not only has its power increased by about half, but also has a longer range to two miles. It is enough to deal with ordinary county towns and prefectural cities...

While the power and range have been greatly increased, the weight of this type of red cannon has only increased by a few hundred pounds. Although it is not as convenient to transport and carry as the light red cannon and requires a special transportation team, it is not too troublesome.

The Type 3 Red Cannon was developed by the Fengwu Army Ordnance Manufacturing Bureau based on the needs of attacking fortified cities. It is a super heavy cannon weighing more than 5,000 kilograms. This type of cannon is not only specially made in terms of the cannon itself, but also the shells themselves.

Although this huge cannon is very troublesome, its power is worthy of its weight. In actual combat, for a city with a wall only half a meter thick, this heavy artillery can blow a hole in it with just two or three shots.

Even when facing a strong city like Yujing with a wall ten feet thick, one shot can create a pit. If you are lucky and hit it seven or eight times in a row, you can also blast a hole in the wall. It is an absolute weapon for destroying a city and a country!
In addition, the range of this giant cannon reaches an astonishing five miles. Of course, in order to improve the accuracy of the artillery fire, it is best to shorten the distance.

In order to capture Yujing City this time, the Fengwu Army mobilized a lot of manpower and material resources, and brought five of these super heavy artillery and twenty Type 2 red cannons to Yuan Song's troops who were besieging Yujing.

Although the Type II Red Cannon could also reach Yujing City, in order to ensure the safety of the artillery, Yuan Song still ordered the use of Type III Red Cannon for bombardment...
Because the shells for the Type III artillery are specially manufactured, the production at the Ordnance Manufacturing Bureau is not very high. Although Ye Mingsheng ordered everyone to ensure the supply of artillery to the Yujing front, the long distance and the loss during transportation resulted in not many shells being delivered.

However, Yuan Song did not seem to care about this and continued to bombard, as if he wanted to harass the Henan Army soldiers in Yujing City, making them unable to have a moment's peace and keeping their spirits under high pressure.

However, in Gu Shouting's opinion, Yuan Song was wasting artillery shells. He should store as many artillery shells as possible and use them in the general offensive, instead of using the precious artillery shells to harass the enemy at this time.

As if seeing Gu Shouting's confusion, Yuan Song smiled and said:

"These shells will be useless if they get damp. The weather is fine now. When it gets colder and more humid, the non-combat losses of these shells will be even greater. So instead of letting them get damp in the warehouse, it's better to fire them out and kill as many as possible!"

"And the most important point is that our commander-in-chief has figured it out and does not want to attack Yujing by force!"

“In this battle between Hebei and Henan, our army annihilated nearly 100,000 soldiers of Henan, and suffered at least 10,000 casualties ourselves. If we attack Yujing by force, the casualties will at least double. Our commander does not want to pay such a high price, so he wants to slowly take down Yujing City. Therefore, there is no need to keep all these shells. Fire them out and let these bastards in the city feel the pressure...

"Yujing City is indeed not short of food now, and can sustain for two or three months without any problem, but the food will eventually run out. The cities surrounding Yujing are all under the control of our army. We will have a place to live when winter comes, so we will just wait it out with them. Yujing is now a dead city, and there is no way they can turn the tables!"

As Yuan Song continued to talk, Gu Shouting finally understood her intention and said with great satisfaction:
"Master Yuan, you are indeed a man of foresight!"

Just as Yuan Song and Gu Shouting were standing on the watchtower and watching the effects of the bombardment, a man with a bandage on his arm on the city wall of Yujing was observing the camp of the Fengwu Army with a cold expression. This man was Gao Dingshan, who escaped death in the Battle of Sanchaling!

In the Battle of Sanchaling, Gao Dingshan, who suffered a crushing defeat, was filled with shame and anger. He wanted to die to atone for his crime, but his subordinates did not want to die. Seeing that the situation was not good, they ignored Gao Dingshan's orders and forcibly took him back to Yujing!

During the time he returned to Yujing, Gao Dingshan slowly walked out of the shadow of the Battle of Sanchaling. Although his arm was injured when he fled from Sanchaling, Gao Dingshan, who was eager to take revenge on the Fengwu Army, went into battle with his injuries and tried his best to organize and train the young and strong men in Yujing City, hoping to turn them into qualified soldiers and strengthen the city defense of Yujing.

Gao Dingshan was also very confident in Yujing's city defense. In his opinion, Yujing was one of the strongest cities in the Great Zhou. The city defense facilities such as the city wall and the moat were all complete. Although most of the main forces of the Yu Army had been annihilated by the Fengwu Army, with the replenishment of young and strong men, the Yu Army's defense force had become sufficient...

And the most important point is that Yujing has no shortage of food. Yujing's warehouses store hundreds of thousands of stones of food, which is enough for hundreds of thousands of people in Yujing to eat for several months!
Based on the above advantages, when everyone in Yujing City was worried about when the Fengwu Army would start attacking the city and whether Yujing City could be defended, Gao Dingshan was actually looking forward to the Fengwu Army's attack. He was eager to see the Fengwu Army's bloody appearance under the solid walls of Yujing, and only in this way could he avenge his annihilation in Sanchaling! The news that Xu Zhaojie led the Anqing Army to the north made Gao Zongchang and Gao Dingshan, the father and son, overjoyed. They urgently hoped that Xu Zhaojie could defeat the Fengwu Army and relieve the siege of Yujing, so that they could take advantage of the situation to recover other places in Hebei and Henan that were captured by the Fengwu Army.

However, what disappointed Gao family father and son was that Xu Zhaojie, whom they had placed high hopes on, made a feint in Fengqiu and then ran away, leaving them trapped in the isolated city of Yujing. After blocking Yujing’s contact with the outside world, the First Army led by Yuan Song launched several tentative attacks on Yujing. However, it did not launch a large-scale siege as Gao Dingshan had expected, but instead began a disgusting artillery attack...
At the beginning, Gao Dingshan and his men mocked the Fengwu Army's disturbing night bombardment, calling Yuan Song a coward without courage, and told him that if the Fengwu Army did not dare to attack the city, they should just get out and go home to hug their children.

Seeing that Yuan Song was not fooled and his plan to make the Fengwu Army flow like a river of blood outside the Yujing City was about to fail, Gao Dingshan, who was extremely anxious, imitated the ancient sages and sent someone to send Yuan Song a set of women's clothing and rouge and powder, in order to mock Yuan Song for being as timid as a woman.

Faced with Gao Dingshan's low-level provocation, Yuan Song naturally would not be fooled. He continued to do his own thing and did not attack the city. He continued to bombard Yujing City irregularly. Although this bombardment did not cause any serious damage to the soldiers of the Henan Army defending the city, with the most casualties in one explosion being only more than 80 people, but as time went on, the feeling of being unable to fight back and being passively beaten did considerable damage to the morale of the defending soldiers!
Gao Dingshan had thought about this before. In order to destroy the artillery positions of the Fengwu Army, he sent out suicide squads for three consecutive night attacks. However, Yuan Song had long been prepared for this move. These three night attacks were all in vain. Not only did they fail to destroy a single cannon of the Fengwu Army, but they also killed thousands of elite suicide squads.

Although judging from the total number of Yujing’s troops now, the death of thousands of people is not a big deal for the Henan Army, but one thing should be known, although Yujing has a large number of troops now, 70% to 80% of them are young and strong, and there are not many elite veterans. Only veterans can succeed in carrying out such a night attack mission, and letting those young and strong people who were small vendors, farmers, and craftsmen a month ago dare to do such a job is purely sending themselves to death, and there will be no other result·····························
Having learned from the three failed night attacks, although Gao Dingshan was very angry about the Fengwu Army's artillery bombardment, he also learned a lesson and dared not send troops out to attack the Fengwu Army's artillery positions at night again. He would rather suffer some blow to morale than let his few veteran soldiers lose their lives again.

Although Yujing had never suffered any serious blow, and the originally terrified people in the city gradually calmed down, Gao Dingshan became impatient. After this period of confrontation, he gradually saw clearly the strategy of the Fengwu Army, which was that the Fengwu Army wanted to slowly wear down Yujing.

Although the Fengwu Army blocked the passage between Yujing and the outside world, it could not block the exchange of information between Yujing and the outside world. Gao Dingshan already knew through carrier pigeons that the Fengwu Army had controlled a large area of ​​land in Hebei and Henan, including Fengqiu. It would not be long before the Fengwu Army would occupy the entire territory of Hebei and Henan except Yujing, and by then Yujing would become an isolated city.

Although Yujing is not short of food now, it cannot get replenishment from the outside world. No matter how much food there is in the city, it will all run out one day. Before, Gao Zongchang and Gao Dingshan, the father and son, still hoped that the arrival of winter would allow the Fengwu Army to retreat. But now the Fengwu Army has captured all the towns and cities around Yujing. When winter comes, they can go anywhere to spend the winter and continue to blockade Yujing.

In this way, the strong city of Yujing will collapse sooner or later. When Gao Dingshan realized this, his heart was very painful. The Fengwu Army's tactics were like cutting meat with a blunt knife, slowly killing you...
You know clearly what he wants to do but you are powerless to stop him. You can only watch yourself getting weaker day by day!
Regarding the current situation, Gao Zongchang and Gao Dingshan, the father and son, have very serious disagreements. Gao Dingshan, who is only 31 years old this year, is full of vigor and vitality. He cannot accept such a miserable death. So he wants to take advantage of the fact that the Henan Army still has a chance to fight and go out of the city to have a decisive battle with Yuan Song outside the city. Even if he dies, he wants to die in a blazing manner and not in such a miserable and cowardly way!

The old and frail Gao Zongchang wanted to wait and see if God would favor them until the last moment! Whether he could wait for Ye Mingsheng to suddenly die of a serious illness, or other black swan events, although his father did not say it explicitly, Gao Dingshan knew that things had come to this point, and his father did not want to fight the Fengwu Army!

So I thought I would see how my luck would be in the end. If I was lucky enough to wait until the Fengwu Army retreated, it would be like picking up a pie in the sky. If I couldn't wait that long, I would surrender and give Yujing City to Ye Mingsheng. Although Ye Mingsheng has always been known for his eagle-eyed and wolfish ambitions, judging from the way the Fengwu Army treated the prisoners and Ye Mingsheng's usual style of doing things, this wolf cub is not a tyrannical person who would kill all without mercy.

Besides, there is no life-and-death feud between the Gao family and Ye Mingsheng, so it will not really come to the point of a fight to the death. Therefore, as long as the Gao family expresses their willingness to surrender and peacefully hand over Yujing City, Ye Mingsheng will most likely not make things difficult for them, and it is not impossible for them to be sent out of the country with courtesy. At worst, they can become a rich man, and the safety of their entire family will be guaranteed...

Although he was reluctant to admit it, the logic in his heart told Gao Dingshan that his father's idea was the best choice for their entire family at the moment. In this chaotic world, it would be best if they could sit on the throne. If not, they would have to settle for the next best thing and make a living.

Although he was still unwilling in his heart and wanted to give it a try with the Fengwu Army and fight for a glimmer of hope in the desperate situation, Gao Dingshan's attitude gradually softened. He was ready to acquiesce in his father's plan and leave it to fate to see what luck the Gao family father and son would have!

Perhaps it was God's will that Gao Dingshan finally got the chance he had been waiting for. Just yesterday, when Gao Dingshan drank a few glasses of wine to drown his sorrows and was about to find a concubine to vent his anger, he received a message from a carrier pigeon that Cao Changping of Qi and Lu had sent 30,000 troops, led by the veteran Duan Yanfeng, to support Hebei and Henan, and had currently tied down tens of thousands of troops including the 3rd and 4th Divisions of the Fengwu Army!

Although Gao Dingshan felt that they could not defeat the Fengwu Army based on his past understanding, the emergence of this news still brought ripples of hope to his gradually dying heart.

According to Gao Dingshan's understanding of the Fengwu Army's deployment, if the news is true, it means that he now only needs to face the Fengwu Army's First Army outside the city. As long as he can defeat this First Army, it will cause a series of chain reactions, and the entire Hebei-Henan situation will undergo earth-shaking changes!

Since there is always a way out, and God has given him the opportunity, Gao Dingshan must seize it and never give up until the last moment...
(End of this chapter)