On the next day, the cooks of the Ulsan army started cooking before dawn, and after the whole army had a full meal early in the morning, they pulled out their camp and marched towards the royal capital. Wei Ren led the army to the east gate, Wei Ci went to the south gate, Zhou Cheng was in charge of the north gate, and Chu Chao Hui led the center army to surround the west gate.
After learning that the army of Ulsan was already stationed 50 miles away from the royal capital, Yi Ji wrote a secret letter to the king of Tang that night, in which she pleaded with the king of Tang to retreat back to Tang, so that the Wu soldiers on the border could get away and go back to the royal capital to save the king. As long as the king of Tang did as promised, Yi Ji would not only give away the coast of the East China Sea and compensate for the expenses of the Tang army, but also pay a huge amount of money to Tang every year in the future.
In addition to pleading in the secret letter, Yi Ji also threatened the King of Tang, if the King of Tang disregarded the interests of the allies and insisted on sending troops to take the East China Sea, in the end, the result will be more than worth it, and swallow the bitter fruit. Because Zheng Chu two people will not be as good as her to talk to, Azure Mountain after the destruction of the royal capital, free hands, the first to deal with will only be his king of Tang, at that time, the king of Tang not only can not get the East Coast of the sea, and will not have the money to compensate. The interests between them are related, and it can be said that they share the same honor and disgrace.
Ri Ji's messenger left the city through the north gate, ran quickly to the border, and disappeared into the vast darkness. The next day the Azure Mountain army was at the city, the four city gates were closed, and the royal capital lost contact with the outside world.
Kang Dafu was heavily armed and patrolling the city walls with his own soldiers. Looking from the walls, Ulsan had sent as many as 20,000 soldiers this time, and there were also a dense number of auxiliaries behind the army. The auxiliary soldiers that Dr. Kang thought of were actually merchants and footmen, as well as auxiliary soldier captives from the road crossing who followed the army home. Auxiliary soldier prisoners have rations on their bodies, on the way home can not be hungry, some merchants hands lack of food transportation footmen, see these have been fed to restore the strength of the auxiliary soldier prisoners, the spirit of certain, with a little pay to hire them to help transport grain and grass.
Ulsan's campaign against Wangdu was in early October, and the Spring Festival would be celebrated in a little over two months. The auxiliary soldiers were all commoners, poor at home, and no one wanted to refuse a good job that could make money along the way. They helped the army crusading against Wangdu to carry food, so they could go home and have more money for New Year's Eve, which was a good thing that fell from the sky.
The auxiliary soldiers transported the grain and grass from Ulsan, and psychologically regarded themselves as people from Ulsan's side, hoping that Ulsan's army would achieve a great victory. Fan Jin, who was ordered by Chu Chaohui to follow the army on the march, made a great deal of propaganda and brainwashing among the auxiliary soldiers, depicting for the auxiliary soldiers the brilliant life prospects of the people of Wu after Zheng Yuming became the lord of the state of Wu, which led to the auxiliary soldiers' yearning in their hearts, and they hoped that the army of the Ulsan Mountain would defeat the adulterous princess quickly, so that they would live a good life with no worries about food and clothing.
In fact, Fan Jin's brainwashing efforts only reinforced the auxiliary soldiers' favorable impression of Zheng Yuming. The footmen who were transporting grain with the auxiliary soldiers were showing up.
The footmen were either foreign refugees who fled to Ulsan or local civilians, and they all knew Ulsan well. The great changes in the villages of Nambu and Houpo were not to be mentioned, but Dacheng developed at a very fast pace after the reforms implemented by Wei Shen. Most of the residents of Dacheng lived a life where they had money left over at home, while the civilians in other parts of Ulsan, because of the planting of potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, and rice, said goodbye to the sleepy life of starvation for a year and were able to have enough to eat all the time. All the changes in the Ulsan area were because of Zheng Yuming, against Ripple Ji's reckless behavior of raising taxes and pulling in strong men, the auxiliary soldiers' position of right and wrong stood firmly on Zheng Yuming's side.
Tang's army presses in early August, the blocking Wu army exits the king's capital in mid-August, and Ri Ji stages a coup in late August. West Sima led a crusade against Ulsan in mid-September, and was defeated at the Ulsan Road Crossing at the end of September.
It was in the middle of October when Ulsan's army surrounded the royal capital, Kangseong, and it was already the beginning of winter, when all the leaves of the woods turned yellow and fell to the ground with the autumn wind. The generals of Ulsan had already added jackets to their bodies.
Zheng Yuming and the Hussar General, some of the nobles of Ulsan, and the defecting feudal lords stood looking out on a high slope, which was surrounded by three hundred elite soldiers led by Ma Ren on guard.
"My lord, why didn't General Chu attack the city walls, but just went under the city gates to dig a hole in the ground?" The hussar general put down his binoculars, he was quite interested in this apparatus that could see things from a distance and hogged it after taking it from Zheng Yuming's hand.
"The casualties of a strong attack on the city walls are too great, digging a hole in the ground is much less expensive." Zheng Yuming looked at the hussar general who was observing with his binoculars again and smiled.
"But the bottom of the city wall is stone, the foundation is tight, can't dig at all." Hussar General shook his head, feeling that the soldiers under the leadership of Chu Chao Hui were too afraid of death, digging holes in the ground are repairing a not afraid of fire and oil burning iron cover drive cover.
Driving under the car can hide twenty soldiers, driving first with stones to fill the trench in front of the city wall, trench filled also do not let the soldiers rushed over to take the city ladder attack, but hide in the iron cover driving under the car, run to the root of the city wall to dig passages and holes in the ground. Because of the iron cover protection, the city wall with stone smashing and fire attack, oil pouring can not hurt the soldiers life, only the soldiers exposed skin was splashed with oil fire blisters.
"It's only good if the foundation is tight, General Chu is not trying to dig through into the city." Zheng Yuming still smiling did not give the hussar general more explanation. Chu Chaohui was using explosives to blow up the city, the higher the sealing pressure around the buried explosives, the greater the explosion power.
"Why is that?" The Hussar General pursued.
"General Chu has a kind of sharp weapon, the more it is used in a tightly closed place, the more powerful it is, and with this kind of sharp weapon, you don't need to work hard to climb the wall to seize the city." The hussar general refused to give the telescope back to Zheng Yuming, Zheng Yuming had to use a hitch on his forehead to look out with his naked eyes.
"There is this kind of sharp weapon?" Hussar General will be convinced, but also holding the binoculars to observe refused to put down.
The four city gates of the royal capital, only the west and north city gates, which Chu Chao Hui and Zhou Cheng were responsible for, were digging tunnels and holes in the ground, and the troops led by Wei Ren and Guo Si were feinting, they attracted a large portion of the royal capital's military defense.
Jiang Dafu took his personal guards around the city walls for a day, feeling that the Ulsan army has nothing to fear, Wei Ren and Guo Si attacked the city are not violent, attacking a bit but also retreated back to rest for a while before continuing. The western and northern city gates, on the other hand, besides shooting crossbows and arrows at the walls, just knew nothing but digging passages and holes in the ground.
After seeing the Ulsan soldiers digging holes in the city wall, Jiang Dafu laughed contemptuously, the foundation of the city wall was more than two meters deep, the Ulsan soldiers could not dig at all, they were wasting their efforts. On the contrary, the crossbow arrows shot by the Ulsan crossbowmen at the city wall from time to time are very powerful, with a high hitting rate and high strength, and the soldiers were often pierced through the body after being hit by the arrows, and their deaths were very scary.
Dr. Kang took a look at the setting sun and breathed a sigh of relief. After dark, blind lights and darkness, the army of Ulsan attacked for a day without success, surely they had to sound the retreat.
After sunset, the soldiers of Ulsan outside the four gates of the city ceased their movements, ate their supper well outside the range of the bows and arrows of the city walls, and waited in silent array for orders. It was now the middle of the month, and the moon rose very large and bright at night, illuminating the land very clearly.
No one on the wall dared to go down to eat, and they watched the Ulsan army vigilantly, hoping that the Ulsan army would retreat back to the camp so that they could eat and rest.
"Still fighting at night?" Hussar general wiped his mouth, high slopes on the lookout are not back to the rear camp, but on the spot to eat some dry food, Ulsan's dry food is a kind of fried rice, is the rice washed and dried and put in an iron pot to fry, marching does not have the conditions of burying pots of rice can be eaten directly, there are conditions can be boiled in water. The dry food was very flavorful, but after eating it, I drank water and felt a bit sick.
"Well, the city will be broken tonight." Zheng Yuming took the binoculars to observe while the hussar general was eating fried rice, and realized that the racked carts had already returned, and the soldiers who dug holes to bury the explosives had already completed their task.
"Why isn't General Chu giving orders yet." The hussar general walked around impatiently, after the city broke down, he would personally lead a team of men to capture Ripple Ji, without cutting Ripple Ji into a thousand pieces, he couldn't eliminate the pain in his heart.
"General Chu is waiting for a signal." Zheng Yuming had just finished speaking when five or six Kongming lanterns rose in Wangcheng.
Chu Chao Hui in front of the west city gate smiled slightly after seeing the Kong Ming Lantern, that was the agreement between Da Niu and Da Zhuang who sneaked into the royal capital last night and him, the Kong Ming Lantern will be released if the Huben of the royal palace is successful in the curtailing of the royal palace, and when he sees this signal, it means that the families of the East Sima and the South Sima will be safe, and that the Azure Mountain army can formally attack the city without any fear.
A ''wooo'' sound of military trumpets came out in the silent night, and the trumpets resounded over and around the royal capital. The Ulsan army that stood still in front of the city wall immediately began to move, Wei Ren and Guo Huben once again issued the order to attack the city, this time the attack was no longer a pretense, but a raging one. Iron frame wagons appeared under the western and northern city gates once again, the soldiers in the iron frame wagons drilled into the tunnels and lit the fuse, then returned to the frame wagons to carry them and run back desperately.
Zheng Yuming was fully focused on the green smoke coming out of the tunnel entrance, calculating the explosion time of the explosives buried in the hole in the ground at the bottom of the city wall. All the remaining explosives in Ulsan were buried under these two gates, although Chu Chao Hui boasted that the explosives he personally instructed to manufacture were very powerful, Zheng Yuming only saw the fireworks like rockets and was a little unsure about Chu Chao Hui's boasts of powerful explosives, but Chu Chao Hui's childhood environment made Zheng Yuming feel that he should believe it again.
Zheng Yuming was waiting with bated breath, the explosives under the western and northern gates exploded at about the same time. Only heard a few loud bangs, the two city gates in the fire and smoke filled with no trace, collapsed next to the gates scattered with mutilated corpses, surrounded by soldiers still alive and standing bewildered, and soon issued a fear of hissing, but these hissing soldiers can not hear their own voices, and also can not hear the voices of the soldiers around them, their ears were deafened, some of the soldiers near the gates of the city was not blown up, but also not long live, they Blood flowed out of their mouths, these people's internal organs were injured by the shock.
The Ulsan soldiers who were standing by outside the western and northern castles were also stunned, and if they had not been forewarned in advance, along with their usual strict training and discipline, such a loud noise and horrific scene would have caused them to go into disarray.
Standing on the high slope, people were farther away from the city wall, but the loud noise and explosion still scared the Hussar General's telescope in his hand almost fell, and some nobles and feudal lords sat on the ground in shock with weak legs.
After the smoke from the city gates cleared a bit, the Ulsan charge trumpet blew, and first the cavalry broke into the city through the collapsed gates first, and then the soldiers poured in like a tidal wave. The soldiers of the royal capital near the city wall either crouched to the ground shivering in fear because of the explosion, or they were completely disoriented, scurrying around like headless flies. When the Ulsan soldiers saw these soldiers who were in a state of mental collapse and didn't know how to resist, they didn't kill them, but just knocked them out with the back of their swords.
The cavalry entered the city and split into three, two with infantry to open the south and east city gates so that Wei Ren and Guo Huben's men could enter the city, and one commanded by Wei Qing to break straight into the royal palace. Wei Qing's main task is not to capture Yi Ji, but to occupy the royal palace treasury, the treasury is Zheng Yuming repeatedly emphasized to seize the place first. In Zheng Yuming's eyes, the treasure is much more important than catching Ri Ji's mother and son.