Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 1074: Fake Surrender

Annan had been fighting with Champa for many years, and among other things, they actually had quite a few good generals with combat experience. The sound of ping-pong could be heard from under the city wall, and the Ming army soldiers did not use ladders or even swords, but only carried pickaxes and shields, going back and forth under the city wall. The Annan army generals on the city wall were not all stupid, and naturally some of them guessed what the Ming army wanted to do.

"Be careful, the Ming people want to dig down the city wall!"

"Where's the kerosene? Bring it here!"

"Burning gold juice! Pour it on the heads of these Ming people..."

On the city wall, the soldiers who were originally a little confused soon became busy following the instructions of their generals.

Soon, hot oil and gold juice poured down the wall, and there were screams in the Ming army camp, and many soldiers were sacrificed. Fortunately, the hole in the wall had taken shape at this time, and some soldiers who rushed to the corner of the wall hid in the hole, thus avoiding the tragedy of being poured by kerosene and hot gold juice.

Even so, the area under the walls of Thang Long City had already become a purgatory. Zhu Su saw this and felt heartbroken.

"How's the hole in the wall going?" he asked with a dark face.

"Your Highness, three holes have been dug in the wall. They have been dug into the wall and rammed earth. Each one is big and deep enough to accommodate more than ten people!"

Soon the news from the front was brought back. The city walls of Annan were similar to those of the Central Plains. They were built with rammed earth first and then covered with bricks and stones. Bricks and stones could resist arrows and weapons, prevent digging, and ensure that the city walls would be used for hundreds of years. The inner rammed earth could absorb the kinetic energy of catapults, artillery, etc., so that the city walls could stand even after being hit by these heavy weapons.

If you want to use gunpowder to blow down the city wall, it will be basically ineffective unless you dig into the rammed earth layer.

"Good!" Zhu Su shouted. The kerosene and gold shields poured down from the city were simply impossible to resist, and the casualties caused to the Ming army were too great. Although it would be more stable to dig through the rammed earth city, he could no longer bear such a huge loss for the Ming army.

"Put the prepared gunpowder bags into the hole and detonate the city wall!"

The messenger hurriedly took the order and left. Soon, the Ming soldiers who were originally holding pickaxes replaced the pickaxes with explosive packs. Zhu Su's thumb nail had already pierced into his palm. Whether or not to capture Thang Long City depended on this one move.

Soldiers rushed forward to fill the city wall with explosive packs, and then ignited them with rockets. With a loud bang, smoke and dust rose, bricks and stones flew everywhere, and the city wall, which was just neat and tall, collapsed in an instant, and bursts of screams came from the ruins.

"A million victory! A million victory!" The morale of the Ming army was immediately boosted, and the vanguard of the Ming army, which had been ready for battle, immediately began to advance. This time, it was Mu Ying who served as the vanguard of the vanguard.

He had been stationed in Yunnan and had not fought a war for many years, but this time he was eager to fight and was eager to win the military merit of being the first to land.

In terms of bravery, Mu Ying was not inferior to Lan Yu. He was the first to charge. Before the smoke of gunpowder had dispersed, Mu Ying had already rushed to the ruins. The soldiers under Hu Jin's command were still frightened by the earth-shaking movement. Seeing the Ming army approaching, they hurriedly rushed forward to block the gap. Mu Ying held the sword in his hand, like a killing god, and in a blink of an eye, he had chopped down five or six Annan soldiers who rushed up.

Seeing their leader so brave, the Ming army charged forward desperately, and soon broke through the human wall set up by Hu Jin's soldiers and advanced towards the city. The Ming army cheered, and Zhu Su was also secretly excited, thinking that the battle was already won, but unexpectedly, after a while, he saw Mu Ying and his men retreating from the gap again.

"Brother Mu Ying, what's going on inside?" Zhu Su asked him hurriedly after Mu Ying came back.

"The enemy army built a city wall inside. After we broke in, I saw there was another city wall inside. There were people on the city wall mobilizing the defenders and archers everywhere. I saw that the situation was not good, so I quickly retreated." Mu Ying said.

The generals were speechless. There was actually a city wall built inside. Fortunately, Mu Ying saw the opportunity quickly. The attackers inside the city wall were ambushed on all sides, and the attack area was wider than outside the city. If Mu Ying attacked by force, the rain of arrows from all directions would pour down, and the whole army might be wiped out.

Moreover, there was a city wall inside, so even the old trick was difficult to use: when outside the city, you only needed to guard against attacks from the city wall. If you were under the city, you basically didn't need to guard against rain of arrows and flying arrows. You just had to quickly dig bricks and stones and run back.

But in the city, there were enemies on all sides, and the difficulty of digging bricks and retreating was several times greater. Without suffering several times the loss, there was basically no chance of success.

But if the loss is too great, then this method of blasting will be meaningless.

On this day, the Ming army had no choice but to withdraw its troops, and its morale was once again dampened.

For several days, the Ming army maintained a siege and did not intend to attack the city. On this day, Zhu Su, Li Wenzhong and others were gathered in the general's tent, thinking hard about how to break the city. Unexpectedly, when the army was halfway through the discussion, they heard a commotion outside.

When they went out to check, they found that the group of Annan soldiers on the city wall were mocking the Ming army, and some of them even took off their pants and urinated under the city.

When everyone saw this, they were all furious and asked to fight.

"This is Hu Jin's provocation. Don't be provoked by him." Zhu Su said. He was also a little upset. Although he knew it was Hu Jin's provocation, if he endured it, the morale of the Ming army would continue to decline.

But going to war was not an option. Regardless of whether or not they were sure of breaking the city, the fact that Hu Jinyi dared to provoke the Ming army was enough to show that he believed that his defense measures in the city were extremely sufficient. Going to war at this time was undoubtedly what Hu Jinyi wanted.

"Damn it." The generals knew the truth, but they just couldn't bear it. Seeing Zhu Su, the commander-in-chief, refused, they didn't say much.

Lan Yu took a look at the Annan soldier on the city wall who took off his pants and mocked the Ming Dynasty. He angrily drew his bow and shot an arrow, hitting the man right in the anus.

The man fell down the city wall screaming, which actually restored some of the morale of the Ming army.

Zhu Su and everyone else returned to the general's tent in frustration.

"Alas, Hu Jinyi is holding his ground and refusing to come out. What can we do?" Mu Ying shook his head and sighed.

"If we fail to take Hu Jin's Thang Long, our plan to recover Annan will fail." Li Wenzhong also shook his head. "Thang Long is the capital of Annan. If we fail to take Thang Long, even if our Ming Dynasty takes over the rest of Annan, the people of Annan will not be able to return."

"For now, perhaps the best strategy is to ask Your Majesty to send more civilians to surround the enemy without attacking them, and wait for the barbarians to run out of food and die on their own. "

"Hu Jinli had already fortified his city and cleared the fields, and those noble families also have a lot of food stored in their homes. It would be extremely difficult to wait until they run out of food," said Lan Yu.

The military meeting reached a bottleneck again, and everyone was speechless.

"Oh, it would be great if we could instigate a rebellion inside the city." Li Jinglong suddenly said.

When everyone heard this, they looked at each other and laughed. Do I need Li Jinglong to tell me this? Since the army arrived, Zhu Su had tried countless ways to incite rebellion.

From throwing slogans to tying letters to arrows to persuade soldiers to rebel, all these methods have been tried, but none of them worked. Zhu Su guessed that Hu Jinyi and the nobles in the city used money to consolidate the morale of their soldiers. After all, they were now desperate and had accumulated wealth for several lifetimes. It was time to spend it.

The strategy of "spending money lavishly" can sometimes indeed significantly boost military morale.

"If it's really not possible, we have no choice but to write a letter to Yingtian and request more civilians to transport grain." Zhu Su said. Transporting grain from the country would cause great losses. Even if the Ming treasury was abundant, if the siege lasted for three to five years, the Ming would also suffer a lot. Didn't you see that Zhang Shicheng used the power of a city to fight against the army of Prime Minister Tuotuo of the Yuan Dynasty, and directly ruined the finances of the Yuan Dynasty... Sometimes, if the city is well defended, it can indeed delay the attackers until they run out of ammunition and food.

Everyone nodded helplessly, and all agreed to this method. Just as they were about to disband, a messenger suddenly ran in from outside and reported that Cao Yuan and Nguyen Viet's troops had finished searching for the wandering Annan people and came to report. Zhu Su still needed to give instructions on how to arrange it.

"Your Highness, just arrange them to ensure the safety of the people," Lan Yu suggested.

Suddenly, Zhu Su came up with an idea.

"and many more."

"Call Cao Yuan and the rebel generals. I have something to discuss with them," Zhu Su said.

The generals were startled and their spirits perked up. Mu Ying asked, "Your Highness, have you figured out a way to break the city?"

"It's not certain that we can take the city, but maybe we can plant an insider in Shenglong City," said Zhu Su.

"Put in an insider?" The generals looked at each other in confusion. Lan Yu asked in confusion, "Your Highness, Thang Long City is now closed and outsiders can hardly enter the city. How can we plant an insider in the city?"

"Ordinary people are naturally not allowed to enter the city." Zhu Su said. "But what if someone comes into the city alone to seek refuge with Hu Jinyi?"

"If I go into the city alone, even if Hu Jilin is willing to take me up to the city, he will definitely be wary." Li Wenzhong said. "Even if I enter the city, Hu Jilin will definitely not trust me."

"It's naturally hard to do anything."

"Of course I know." Zhu Su smiled. "But what if this person directly reveals that he is entering the city to pretend to surrender, and expresses his willingness to help Hu Jinyi capture and kill me?"

"Show your cards and pretend to surrender?" Li Wenzhong, Lan Yu, Mu Ying and others looked at each other, and then said, "That also requires making Hu Jinyi believe that this person is really showing his cards."

"Your Highness, how do you plan to make this person gain the trust of Hu Jinli?" He looked like he was listening attentively.

Zhu Su smiled lightly and said, "Of course there is a way."

"As far as I know, Hu Jinyi doesn't know that Le Loi is dead..."

……

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"

At night, in the Annan Palace, Hu Ji was still sitting in his study, worrying about the war situation. He was very fond of beautiful women, and normally, he would be in the room of one of his wives or concubines at this time.

But in the past few days, the Ming army was besieging the city. Although he had made many preparations, united the nobles, and bribed the soldiers, he still felt uneasy and couldn't sleep well.

Only when I was busy planning for war could I feel a little at ease.

At this time, he heard hurried footsteps and shouts, and hurriedly stood up and walked out. He saw a eunuch running towards him with his heels kicking his buttocks. Hu Ji asked hurriedly: "What's wrong? Could it be that the Ming army has entered the city?"

"No, no..." the eunuch denied breathlessly, "Yes, a man came down from the city, claiming that he wanted to surrender to Dayu, and that he had important military information of the Ming army to reveal..."

"Oh... that's good." Hearing that it wasn't the Ming army that broke into the city, Hu Jinyi first breathed a sigh of relief. Then he reacted: "You said, someone wants to surrender to my Dayu?"

"Yes," said the eunuch. "The soldiers guarding the city dare not act on their own, so I came to ask your Majesty for your decision."

"Hmph, the Ming army has run out of tricks and has resorted to such a crude method of feigning surrender..." Hu Jinli waved his hands with a look of disdain.

"Uh... yes. Then, I will report this to the officers and soldiers. Do you want to ignore it?"

"...wait." Hu Jinyi thought for a moment and stopped the eunuch who was about to leave. Upon hearing this, the eunuch quickly turned back and pretended to listen attentively.

"Since we have nothing to do, we might as well humiliate this Ming man who pretended to surrender. Hanging his head up will surely further undermine the morale of the Ming army." Hu Jinyi stroked his beard, a sly look flashed in his eyes, which made the eunuch feel a chill in his heart.

"Yes, I will tell the soldiers to bring the man up to your majesty..."

Hu Jilin said, and by the way, he simply decided not to stay in the study, and turned to walk towards the front hall.

Soon, the Ming man outside the city who claimed to surrender was brought up. Hu Jinyi sat in the hall. Below him were two rows of soldiers in shining helmets and armor, staring at the man with eager eyes, as if they wanted to give him a warning.

"Who is coming?" Hu Jinli asked calmly.

"I am Yang Jingchang, and I pay my respects to His Majesty the Great Yu." Ma Jingchang bowed to Hu Jilin. Although he called him His Majesty, he was actually just bowing, which made him look neither humble nor arrogant. Hu Jilin raised his eyebrows, slightly unhappy.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. He had already made up his mind that if this man said he was coming to surrender, he would immediately expose his false surrender, humiliate him in his panic, and then chop off his head to show his loyalty to the Ming army.

Ma Jingchang still looked neither humble nor arrogant, and said calmly: "I came here to pretend to surrender to Dayu."

Hu Jinyi: ???

This sentence immediately made Hu Jilin feel helpless. In this world, is there anyone who claims to be here to surrender falsely?

However, this answer successfully aroused Hu Ji's curiosity. So Hu Ji asked: "Since you came here to pretend to surrender, why do you dare to say it?"

"Aren't you afraid that I will chop off your head?"

"Haha, of course I'm not afraid. Although I came here to pretend to surrender, I actually surrendered for real. The Ming army wanted me to pretend to surrender, so I just went with the flow and pretended to surrender. Your Majesty wants to chop off my head, but you don't know that my head left on my neck is much more valuable."

"I can fetch the head of Zhou Wang Zhu Su for Dayu. Your Majesty, which one do you think is more valuable, mine or Zhou Wang Zhu Su's head?"

(End of this chapter)