Chapter 219 Mission Completed, City Conquered
The dam construction is to build dams from both sides of the river to the center of the river, and finally connect them in the center of the river. This is the last step in the dam construction and also the most critical step.
The reason why it was so smooth was that the water flow in the upper reaches of the Wei River was relatively shallow and the river surface was relatively narrow, which made it much easier than Nanliang's dam building in the lower reaches of the Huai River.
Moreover, the new city hastily built by the Qinzhou rebels was completely incomparable to Shouyang, an important town on the southern front that Fushan Weir was fighting against.
Shouyang, also known as Shouchun, is the most important town in Huainan today.
The so-called guarding the Yangtze and the Huai River means that at this time, because the Yunmengze has not disappeared yet, the water network flow in the entire Jianghuai area is very large, and Shouyang is the throat that controls the Huai River.
During the Three Kingdoms period, Yuan Shu, whose bones are now buried in the grave, proclaimed himself emperor and established his regime in Shouyang. The Battle of Feishui, where Fu Jian marched south, was fought. The so-called Feishui is a tributary between the Huaihe River and Chaohu Lake. The main battlefield of the Battle of Feishui was near Shouyang.
After entering the era of confrontation between the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Shouyang changed hands repeatedly between the North and the South, and became a key town fought over by both sides.
A mere new city cannot be compared with Shouyang.
While Su Ze was stunned, the civilians shouted slogans and lowered the last batch of bamboo cages. Then the soldiers brought in sand and soil for reinforcement, and the entire dam was closed.
After the water is stored, the dam will still burst, so it does not need to be built that strong. Su Ze asked Su Tong (the city builder of Tongwan City) who was in charge of the dam construction:
"How long will it take to store water before the new city can be flooded?"
Su Tong immediately said, "My Lord, judging from the flow rate upstream, it will take seven or eight days at the shortest and ten days at the longest."
Su Ze frowned and asked, "Will it take so long?"
Su Tong quickly said: "This section of the Wei River has a flat riverbed and a low flow, so we chose to build a dam here. The construction difficulty is the lowest, so it takes a longer time to store water."
However, Su Ze couldn't do anything about the water storage issue, even if he had a cheat. He could only say:
"Pay more attention to the river dams during this period and make sure the rising water does not break the dams."
At this moment, Su Xiang (the boastful astronomy student) who had been behind Su Ze suddenly said:
"My Lord, it won't take seven or eight days, or even ten days. The reservoir will be full of water tomorrow!"
Su Ze looked at him in confusion, and Su Xiang pointed to the sky and said:
"My Lord, it's going to rain!"
As soon as Su Xiang finished speaking, he heard a roar from afar, followed by bean-sized raindrops falling from above his head.
The guards quickly brought a bamboo hat to Su Ze, but Su Ze did not wear it. Instead, he pointed to the distance and said:
“Will the river dam burst due to heavy rain and rising water?”
Su Tong quickly looked towards the river dam and said:
"Not at the moment, but if the rain gets heavier, the river dam may be in danger. Please assign a group of river protection teams to me to reinforce the river dam."
Su Ze naturally nodded in agreement, and even assigned several strong men behind him to Su Tong.
He turned to Su Xiang and asked:
"How did you calculate that it would rain today? When will the rain last?"
Su Xiang was grinning and was about to brag to please Su Ze, but Su Ze shouted at him:
"Military information is urgent, hurry up and tell me!"
Su Xiang was so frightened that he was shaking all over, so he could only speak honestly:
"My Lord, it's not that I have the ability to predict the future, but I asked the old farmers nearby and looked through the genealogical records of more than a dozen fortress owners who have lived nearby for a long time. I found that it often rains heavily here at night in the summer. Many family trees record the summer floods that destroyed the farmland along the river."
I thought it was metaphysics, but it turns out you are doing big data analysis.
Isn’t this the method of analyzing historical meteorological data?
Su Ze suddenly realized and asked:
"Then how do you know it will rain today?"
Su Xiang said, "In fact, I didn't know it would rain today. I just knew it was easy to rain at night in summer, so I often said so. If I was right, I could brag about it for a few years. But I didn't expect it to rain today."
It turns out this guy just wants to brag!
Su Ze looked at the raindrops as big as beans, feeling mixed emotions of joy and sorrow.
The good news is that this night rain may shorten the time it takes for the dam to store water, so that I can capture the new city sooner and complete the system's task.
What I am worried about is that if the rain this night is too heavy, the dam will be washed away before it can store enough water. Wouldn’t that be a waste of manpower just like the construction of Fushan Weir in Nanliang?
Forget it. As for the war, I have made sufficient preparations. The rest I can only do my best and leave the rest to fate.
Su Ze called the messenger and asked him to go to Murong Shaozong's camp immediately and let the army on the front line prepare for battle. If the dam could not store enough water and burst, they should also be prepared to attack the city in advance.
Su Ze looked up at the sky, and it was up to God what would happen next.
Just as Su Xiang had expected, the summer rain lasted all night. Su Tong led the civilians to guard the dam all night and finally managed to hold it.
In Su Tong's words, if it rains a little more, the dam will not be able to be defended.
When the sun rose in the morning, it was clear after the rain. Su Ze looked at the dam filled with river water and said to Su Tong and Su Xiang beside him:
"We have conquered Xincheng today, and I will give you credit for your achievements."
Then Su Ze called the messenger and ordered him to pass on the message:
"Pass my order to break the dike in one hour. Let Murong Shaozong's troops near the new city prepare and wait for an opportunity to attack the city."
The messenger rode away hurriedly. Su Ze looked at the sparkling dam. Now that luck was on his side, it all depended on whether his soldiers would risk their lives.
-
Murong Shaozong did not sleep all night yesterday. He waited until Su Ze's messenger arrived and informed him that the dam upstream had been filled with water. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.
The dam is fine, now it's up to him.
Murong Shaozong called his brigade commanders and instructed them to plan the siege.
Using water to attack cities has a very long history in the East, dating back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, when Zhi Bo besieged Jinyang for a long time but failed to capture it, he finally resorted to the method of diverting water to attack the city.
When Bai Qi went to attack Chu, he built the Baiqi Canal to divert water into Yancheng, thus opening the gates of Chu without bloodshed.
Murong Shaozong also read the chapter on using water to attack cities in "The Art of War".
Before traveling through time, Su Ze didn't understand why diverting water to attack a city, which was common in Eastern history, was rare in Western history.
Now he understood that the key to diverting water to attack a city was not to use water to break down the city walls, but to divert water to soak the rammed earth walls. Before the Ming and Qing Dynasties, most of the city walls in the Central Plains were rammed earth.
The famous Tongwan City is built entirely of rammed earth. This method of city construction is convenient in obtaining materials, and the rammed earth walls are actually very strong. They can withstand major wars as long as they are maintained in a timely manner.
However, most of the fortress buildings in the West are castles, and most of the castles are built on high ground and made of stone. They cannot be destroyed by water siege. Therefore, when faced with such stone lumps, the West prefers to use siege tools such as catapults.
After the invention of firearms, they spread through Central Asia and were also used in Eurasia to make cannons to attack stone city walls.
The most interesting thing about history is that stone walls are afraid of catapults and artillery, but rammed earth walls are not afraid of these kinetic weapons.
The reason is also very physical. The rammed earth wall has stronger elasticity, and kinetic weapons such as catapults and artillery will have their force unloaded when they hit it. The rammed earth wall can also "self-collapse" similar to the anti-missile armor on a tank, collapsing part of the outer wall to dissipate the kinetic energy of the kinetic weapons.
The strongest city wall in the world combines the advantages of Eastern rammed earth walls and Western brick and stone walls. This wall built at the intersection of Europe and Asia is called the Theodosian Wall.
The Theodosian Wall was built as a double wall, with the inner wall consisting of a solid structure, 5 meters thick and 12 meters high. The outer wall was made of carefully cut limestone blocks, while the core of the wall was made of plaster pressed with lime and broken bricks.
The rock blocks protect the core mortar and prevent the wall from being eroded by water.
The internal plaster can dissipate the kinetic energy of kinetic weapons, so that the city wall will not collapse under artillery attacks.
The new city built by the Qinzhou rebels also had a rammed earth wall.
The new city was on the north bank of the Wei River. When Murong Shaozong was besieging the city, he was making siege equipment while raising the height of the south bank of the Wei River.
The place where Murong Shaozong set up camp was also the highest place in the vicinity.
Everything is ready, all we need is the east wind!
As the rushing water broke through the prepared breach, the great force of nature quickly destroyed the river dam that the laborers had built day and night.
Su Ze finally understood what it meant for a thousand-mile dam to be destroyed by an ant hole. As long as the water flow tore a hole in it, the rest of the dam would be as thin as paper. The sand and sacks piled on the dam were quickly swept into the rushing river.
The fierce river water rushed out of the riverbed, and both sides of the river bank became a swamp in an instant. Su Ze rode on his horse and watched the Wei River break through the river dam. He said to [Daxia Dragon Bird Preparation]:
"To the new city."
Even Su Ze's BMW Benxiao could not catch up with the speed of the rushing river.
Murong Shaozong, who was preparing to attack the city, heard the sound of the river rushing and saw a huge wave sweeping everything and rushing towards the new city in the river bend.
Mo Zhe Niansheng, standing on the city wall, had a pale face. He was different from his younger brother Mo Zhe Tiansheng. He had been familiar with military books since childhood and knew the severity of the city walls being flooded.
So that’s it, this is Su Ze’s killer move!
But Mo Zhe Niansheng smiled bitterly again. Even if he knew, what would it matter? From the moment the new city was besieged, even if he knew that Su Ze was building a dam upstream, he had no ability to leave the city to stop it.
The rushing Wei River hit the south bank reinforced by Murong Shaozong and immediately rushed out of the riverbed. After finding an outlet to pour out, the water quickly escaped from the river channel and flooded the depression near the new city.
There is an urn in the south of the city with the lowest terrain, and the Wei River flows directly into the urn, flooding the military camp inside the urn.
The soldiers guarding the city wall were trapped in the water before they could escape from the barracks. The arsenal and granary were directly destroyed by the flood, and the weapons and food floated to the surface.
Mo Zhe Niansheng looked at the city wall submerged in water and knew that the city wall would collapse after a few days of water soaking, so he simply withdrew his soldiers and gave up guarding the city wall.
After a peak in water flow, the Wei River gradually calmed down. The direct river erosion did not cause much damage to the new city, but the river erosion diverted half of the city wall submerged in water.
While the rebels in the new city were still reeling from the might of nature, drums of attack were sounded from the opposite side.
All I saw was a well-organized military town in Murong Shaozong's camp opposite, driving the prisoners they had collected in the past few days to attack the new city.
The battering ram, with wooden boards covered with felt, was pushed under the city wall by the drivers. The defenders on the wall began to shoot arrows, but the arrows were all absorbed by the felt and finally nailed to the wooden boards. Soon the battering ram was covered with arrow feathers like a hedgehog.
Then some tall wooden mechanical devices were assembled, and the knowledgeable rebels recognized them as Thunderbolt Chariots, which were the catapults used by Cao Cao when he fought against Yuan Shao.
The goal of these catapults was not to bring down the city walls, but the parapets and arrow towers on the walls. The first thunder chariot that was assembled threw a huge stone, which landed right on the battlements of the parapet, crushing the archer who had just poked his head out into a pulp.
The next battle was a simple siege.
The reason why Su Ze did not stay in the camp was that he trusted Murong Shaozong.
Murong Shaozong was calm and steady in employing troops, and his style was very different from Hou Jing's. He would not take risks if he could avoid them, and focused on making sure nothing could go wrong.
This way of fighting can easily be described as a stupid fight.
Hou Jing was a gambler who always wanted to win the most money with the smallest chips.
Murong Shaozong is the banker, and his main focus is on being rich and powerful. Anyway, the winning rate is on my side. As long as I have sufficient capital, even if you win some at first, you will eventually lose to me due to the probability difference.
In reality, the battlefield is not like a casino, there are many ways to win by surprise.
In reality, no general has unlimited chips, and he has to make choices among limited resources.
Therefore, there is no question of who is superior or inferior in their fighting styles.
When Su Ze rode back to the camp on horseback, Murong Shaozong had already led his troops out of the camp and went to the front line to command in person.
"Where is your lieutenant general?"
Murong Shaozong's guard said, "General, the lieutenant general felt that he could not see the defense situation of the new city from here, so he took a boat to check near the new city."
Su Ze had a strange look on his face. It turned out that you, Murong Shaozong, were so steady in fighting, but why were you so careless with yourself?
In the historical timeline before Su Ze traveled through time, Murong Shaozong was spying on the city by boat during the siege of Yingchuan, but the wind blew the boat under the city and he was shot by arrows from the defenders. He knew it was difficult to escape, so he was forced to jump into the water and die.
So your habit of risking your life to explore the enemy city started now?
Su Ze said with a cold face: "Nonsense! A gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall! If he makes a mistake, what will happen to our army? Hurry up and bring your lieutenant general back, confiscate his ship, and forbid him to approach Xincheng to spy on the enemy!"
Su Ze was furious, and when Murong Shaozong came back, he scolded him again, but still let him lead the troops.
In the first year of Zhengguang, June 23rd.
The city wall, which had been soaked in the Wei River for many days, finally showed signs of collapse, and the arrow towers and parapets on this section of the city wall were also cleared away by the Thunderbolt Chariot.
Seeing that the time was ripe, Murong Shaozong appointed Su Deng (a vanguard warrior strong enough to lift a tripod) as the commander of the vanguard camp and selected the best soldiers in the army to launch the largest-scale siege.
The fierce fighting lasted until the afternoon, when Suden finally broke a gap in the city wall. More soldiers rushed up and the new city was broken.
(End of this chapter)