Chapter 705: Survive in humiliation? Burn your bridges?
On May 26th, at the time of Si, Ji and Yu were at the gate of Shenzhou City.

Under the gaze of tens of thousands of Liang army soldiers on and under the city walls, Ye Mingsheng, dressed in military uniform and looking very heroic, appeared in front of the battle formation, and beside him were one hundred carefully selected soldiers from the Fengwu army...
Looking at the Shenzhou City in front of him, although he could not see the faces of the Zhennan Army soldiers on the city wall, Ye Mingsheng could feel that his old boss, Xu Zhaojie, the former commander of the Xuanwu Imperial Army, was standing on the city wall and watching him.

Thinking of this, Ye Mingsheng couldn't help but show a playful smile on his face and then said lightly:
"Xu Zhaojie, how are you these days?"

As Ye Mingsheng finished speaking, the one hundred fat and strong Fengwu Army soldiers beside him also raised simple loudspeakers and shouted towards Shenzhou City.

"Xu Zhaojie, how are you these days?"

Although the new loudspeaker manufactured by the Second Manufacturing Bureau was not as effective as later loudspeakers, these one hundred Fengwu Army soldiers were all carefully selected with loud voices. With one hundred people shouting at full speed and the support of the loudspeaker, the effect was still very impressive.

About half a cup of tea had passed since the voice fell. Seeing Xu Zhaojie pretending to be dead in Shenzhou City and not answering, Ye Mingsheng's smile undoubtedly deepened by three points. He then continued to say lightly:
"Xu Zhaojie, why are you doing this? You know that Anqing City is under the control of our army. Shenzhou has no external aid and has become a dead city!"

“Although you have committed many evil deeds, betrayed the emperor’s grace, and brought shame to the common people, and your crimes are heinous and innumerable, but God is merciful, and I am unwilling to commit more murders. As long as you come to your senses and commit suicide to atone for your sins, I can guarantee the safety of your family...”

As Ye Mingsheng's voice fell, the one hundred soldiers who received the order also shouted along. Just like before, Xu Zhaojie in Shenzhou City did not respond.

Seeing that Xu Zhaojie was determined to play the turtle, Ye Mingsheng could only shake his head in boredom, and then instructed Yuan Song beside him:

"Since Xu Zhaojie is unwilling to answer, let's blast them until they speak!"

"Yes!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Ye Mingsheng turned around and left to return to the military camp. With Ye Mingsheng's order, the five heavy siege artillery that had just been assembled and specially used for attacking the city were pushed to the specially selected artillery positions and began to pour ammunition towards Shenzhou City.

These five heavy siege guns have a very slow firing rate and weigh tens of thousands of pounds, making transportation very cumbersome. They need to be disassembled before transportation and then assembled at the destination. The ammunition they fire also needs to be specially made and the shooting accuracy is not high. Although they have many disadvantages, their advantages are that they have a long range and strong power.

Although Shenzhou is called a state, it is actually just an ordinary state capital in Jiyu Province with two counties under its jurisdiction. It is not a strategic location, so the city walls are not strong. The thickest part of the city wall is only ten and a half feet, and the general thickness is only ten feet. Therefore, as long as the heavy artillery concentrates its firepower and bombards a certain section of the city wall, it will be enough to collapse this section of the city wall...

At this time, Xu Zhaojie on the city wall looked as pale as a pig's liver, which was extremely ugly. He knew very well that Ye Mingsheng did it on purpose. He wanted to humiliate him in front of the two armies and in front of tens of thousands of soldiers. Of course, he could also find a group of loudmouths from the Zhennan Army to curse Ye Mingsheng on the city wall, but that would be meaningless!

These meaningless verbal disputes cannot change the passive situation of the Zhennan Army at all!
Just as Xu Zhaojie was trying hard to think of a way to break the impasse, he heard the whistling sound of a shell breaking through the wind.

"Master Hou, be careful!"

As the sound of breaking wind appeared, the loyal guards immediately surrounded Xu Zhaojie to protect him. The next second, several loud explosions were heard. None of the five shells fired by the Fengwu Army's artillery position hit the city wall, and all hit the open space outside the city.

This immediately caused the ridicule of the Zhennan Army soldiers on the city wall. They used the dirtiest words to mock the Fengwu Army's artillery, saying that they were silver guns and candlesticks and were of no use at all.

Although the soldiers of the Zhennan Army were cursing happily, Xu Zhaojie on the city wall was not very happy. Although he did not understand the artillery of the Fengwu Army, based on his many years of military experience, he estimated that the artillery positions of the Fengwu Army were at least three miles away for safety.

And generally speaking, the shooting accuracy of heavy artillery like this should not be very high. Therefore, if such a heavy artillery is used to fire from three miles away, it is unlikely that the first wave can hit the target. It will take at least a morning of adjustment before it can even hit the edge of the city wall...
However, just when the soldiers of the Zhennan Army were tired of cursing for a while and Xu Zhaojie was about to leave, the artillery position of the Fengwu Army adjusted the shooting parameters and fired shells again. Although four of the five shells this time missed the target, one hit the target and directly shook the city wall.

Although this shell hit the city wall, Xu Zhaojie felt as if it had hit his heart. Having joined the army in his teens, he could clearly feel the heart-wrenching destructive power of this heavy artillery. He thought that the Fengwu Army would need a whole morning to adjust the shooting parameters, but the artillery of the Fengwu Army used facts to make him feel the limits of his cognition.

As the first shell hit the city wall, it was soon followed by the second, and the third... Watching the damage done by the shells to the city wall, Xu Zhaojie felt pain in his heart, but he also clearly realized that if the Fengwu Army continued to bombard the city wall like this, the city wall of Shenzhou would not be able to hold out for long.

There are only two options before him now. Either destroy the artillery positions of the Fengwu Army or destroy all the heavy artillery. I believe that such powerful heavy artillery is also very precious in the Fengwu Army. There will definitely not be many in stock. If one is blown up, there will be one less. Even if it can be transported from other places, it will take a long time. If it cannot be destroyed, then it is necessary to evacuate Shenzhou as soon as possible. Otherwise, if the heavy artillery bombards the city wall and collapses, the protective effect of the city will be greatly reduced. Shenzhou City will really become a dead city to bury Xu Zhaojie, as Ye Mingsheng just said!
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At noon, in the Fengwu Army camp

Yuan Song reported to Ye Mingsheng the effect of the artillery siege. Hearing that five or six shells had hit the city wall in the morning, Ye Mingsheng nodded with satisfaction. With Xu Zhaojie's ability, since he had decided to defend Shenzhou City, he must have managed Shenzhou City perfectly and was just waiting for him to suffer a bloody defeat in Shenzhou City!

Now that he understood Xu Zhaojie's plan, Ye Mingsheng would not be so foolish as to send troops to attack the city. Although the soldiers of his Fengwu Army were not afraid of death, they were all born by their parents and had parents, wives and children. As the commander, he had to be responsible for their lives and would not resort to the human bomb charge trick.

So Ye Mingsheng decided to give Xu Zhaojie a dimensionality reduction attack. He would use the heavy siege artillery he brought from Yijing to replace his own soldiers to attack the city and blow up Xu Zhaojie's turtle shell. This time he brought 500 artillery shells from Yijing, which were enough for ten days, and the subsequent artillery shell transportation would also keep up. He was really curious about how many days Xu Zhaojie's turtle shell could withstand!

After a moment of silence, Ye Mingsheng asked Yuan Song:

"Which path do you think Xu Zhaojie will choose?"

These words made Yuan Song fall into deep thought. He knew that Ye Mingsheng was not asking him whether Xu Zhaojie would choose to break through or to blow up the artillery position of the Fengwu Army.

Xu Zhaojie might need to send troops to attack the artillery positions at night in order to blow up the Fengwu Army’s heavy artillery, but Xu Zhaojie would definitely not defend Shenzhou to the death. The reason was very simple. Ye Mingsheng had just boasted under the city of Shenzhou, saying that the Fengwu Army had already captured Anqing...

But as far as the current situation is concerned, although Anqing City is still in the hands of the Zhennan Army, it will be captured in just three or four days under the fierce attack of Zhang Meng's troops of the Fourth Army. As long as Anqing City is captured, Xu Zhaojie's retreat will be cut off, and the 120,000 troops of the Fengwu Army will encircle him, and Xu Zhaojie himself will become the dog in the battle.

If Huainan could send out a reinforcement force of more than 30,000 troops, Xu Zhaojie might still have room to struggle. However, with the defeat of Zhao Daqi and the 30,000 Huainan reinforcements under the city of Anqing, the remaining new troops Xu Zhaojie was preparing in Huainan were just some rookies who had just joined the army for one or two months.

Even if these people were sent to the battlefield, they would not have much combat effectiveness. Letting them come and fight the ferocious Fengwu Army head-on would not be a battle but simply seeking death!

With Xu Zhaojie’s ability, he would definitely be able to clearly recognize how dangerous his current situation is without any reinforcements. Therefore, he would never sit and wait for the Fengwu Army to complete their layout and completely lock him down. To be honest, if he had not received the news a day late, giving the Fengwu Army time to maneuver here, he might have escaped today...
At present, it is almost certain that Xu Zhaojie will lead his troops to abandon the city and flee, so the key to Ye Mingsheng’s problem is not that Xu Zhaojie will escape, but where Xu Zhaojie will escape to. This is a question that concerns Xu Zhaojie’s life!
After pondering for a whole cup of tea, Yuan Song shook his head and said apologetically:

"Your Excellency, I don't know where Xu Zhaojie will flee to, but if I were him, I would flee to Huainan and would not stay in Anqing any longer!"

After getting this answer, Ye Mingsheng nodded slightly and waved his hand, and Yuan Song immediately said goodbye and left.

After Yuan Song left, Ye Mingsheng was silent for a while, then came to the sand table in the tent. At this time, his mood was very complicated and tangled. He didn't know whether he should expect Xu Zhaojie to escape to Huainan or to Anqing.

Anqing is the Zhennan Army, and it is the place where Xu Zhaojie rose again. Half of the Zhennan Army commanders and above are from Anqing, and many of the veterans of the Zhennan Army are also from Anqing. These people themselves may follow Xu Zhaojie to flee to Huainan, but their family members cannot leave. Therefore, once Xu Zhaojie flees to Huainan and leaves his subordinates' families to himself, he will face the situation of alienation from his subordinates and the defection of generals and soldiers.

By then, I will ask the Coordination Office to contact the forces in Huainan that are dissatisfied with Xu Zhaojie's rule, which will be enough to cause chaos in Xu Zhaojie's rear. Although it is unlikely to overthrow Xu Zhaojie's rule in Huainan, it will definitely make Xu Zhaojie too busy to take care of himself and he will not have too much manpower and material resources to gather to launch an external invasion.

Therefore, in Ye Mingsheng's view, Xu Zhaojie's escape to Huainan is equivalent to living a life of slow death. Xu Zhaojie must have understood this point. If he returned in defeat like this, those Huainan people who had been suppressed by him with bloody and cruel means would definitely become restless again. In such a situation, could he still suppress them by force like he did last time?

And if you want to escape to Anqing, that is another problem...
The one who fled to Anqing was Xu Zhaojie. The previously planned route was to go through Chengfeng County. Because there were 10,000 soldiers in Chengfeng County as a backup, fleeing to Anqing would be simpler and faster than fleeing to Huainan. However, the disadvantage was that if the city of Anqing was conquered by the Fengwu Army, fleeing back to other prefectures and counties in Anqing would be safer than staying in Shenzhou, but to be honest, it would not change the fate of being shut out.

However, there is one advantage to escaping back to Anqing, that is, Xu Zhaojie has been operating in Anqing for several years, and he still has some mass base. If he flees back to other prefectures and counties in Anqing, he will have more room for activities, and he can even temporarily recruit more soldiers and horses. Facing the encirclement and suppression of the Fengwu Army, he can use this to hold on for more time, waiting for the progress of the Luoan Imperial Army on the Yunbing battlefield, and then fight a life-and-death race with Ye Mingsheng!
Let’s see whether he can hold out longer in Anqing or the Fengwu Army can hold out longer in Yunbing!
Thinking of this, Ye Mingsheng couldn't help but shift his gaze to the Jinzhong coordinates on the map. He already knew He Jingyun's order asking Peng Ce to hold on to Wankang County until June 1st.

Although he didn't know whether Wankang County was still in the hands of the Fengwu Army at this time, Ye Mingsheng knew that the fall of Wankang County was a foregone conclusion. With the fall of Wankang County, the southern line of Jinzhong City would be wide open, and the outer defense system of Jinzhong City would be broken one by one.

By then, the Luoan Imperial Army will besiege Jinzhong City. Ye Mingsheng is prepared for this. After the war started, he formed the Tenth Division with the bonds borrowed from Dadongsheng under financial pressure. At present, the Tenth Division has not completed the task of recruiting soldiers. It has only recruited half of the troops, 10,000 people. These people are the reserve troops that Ye Mingsheng finally gave to Yunbing...
"We're doing a small survey. Do you have any suggestions for the direction of the plot in terms of the harem and the struggle for hegemony? For example, how should this war end? Who will win the harem struggle? To what extent will the struggle last? All these aspects are worth listening to your suggestions!"

(End of this chapter)