It was pretty much what Nikan expected.

Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming in the city made preparations for a large-scale attack on the Ming army after Li Jiuzheng failed in his desperate attack.

For half a month, Kong Youde completely gave up the idea of ​​opening a gap in the east, west, and south to break out of the encirclement. He also completely gave up defense on the distance from the earth wall to the city, and focused all his defense on the city wall.

During Sun Yuanhua's time, Dengzhou City had hundreds of artillery pieces, including dozens of Hongyi cannons that could be used in field battles. With Sun Yuanhua as the leader and generals like Zhang Tao as their example, the other firearms were top notch in terms of both quantity and quality.

The leader of Ming Dynasty in this era.

The "swarm of bees", "thousands of horses galloping", Rumi guns, Wankou guns, Fran machine guns, and red Yi cannons were all piled up on the city wall. In half a month, except for Jin Guoqi and Wu Xiang, outside the city

The cavalry troops were not fighting, and the remaining infantry troops, including Liu Liangzuo, received strict orders from the emperor to break the city within a month. By this time, the emperor already knew that Nikan was coming.

At the same time, the Shanhaiguan cavalry who had no war mission (cannot be called Guan Ning cavalry here, the real Guan Ning cavalry had already followed Zu Dashou to the Qing Dynasty) became the supervising team of Zhu Dadian and Gao Qiqian.

Any city infantry who slacks off will be severely punished.

For a time, even Chen Hongfan, Liu Zeqing, Liu Liangzuo and others, who had a bad reputation in later generations and were listed in the biography of traitorous officials by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, were very energetic and took turns to attack Dengzhou City.

As the saying goes, "Double the enemy, attack it by five, and surround it by ten." Zhu Dadian's army outside now only has more than 40,000 civilians, and the rebels in the city initially had more than 20,000. Li Jiucheng

Naturally, others often go out of the city to challenge.

After Li Jiucheng was annihilated, Kong Youde naturally defended the city and did not dare to leave the city, letting the Ming army attack.

As a result, the offensive and defensive momentum was different. With the addition of firearms, half a month later, the Ming army outside the city was reduced to only more than 10,000 people, and the rebels in the city were only left with 5,000 or 6,000 people.

—Fewer people than the number of people who escaped from Dengzhou Watergate in history.

At this time, no matter whether it was outside the city or inside the city, there was no energy left to fight anymore.

The Ming army outside the city is unwilling to attack again, but the rebels in the city are unable to fight as hard as they did in the first half month. What's more, after this half month, the gunpowder in the city has been exhausted.

.

However, the nearly 10,000 rebels (plus the young and strong) were still not something that the Ming army outside the city could covet.

Therefore, no matter how Zhu Dadian and Gao Qiqian tried to intimidate or induce them, all the major generals stayed behind closed doors.

Finally, Gao Qiqian found Nikan and prepared to let his troops attack the city, but Nikan naturally refused.

But what he said next cheered up Gao Qiqian.

"Master Gao, the autumn and winter are coming soon. Our army has suffered a lot of damage, and the rebels in the city are not much better. They are surrounded on all sides. With the protection of Ning's cavalry, it is no longer possible to break out from the land.

Now, while there is no ice at the port, we have no choice but to fight our way overseas to break through.”

"There are two naval forces of Zhou Wenyu and Gong Zhengxiang guarding the outer sea, and Ben Khan's navy is stationed a few miles away. It is impossible for the rebels to break through from the sea."

"However, the wind direction has been unpredictable in recent days. It is still necessary for two adults to remind generals Zhou and Gong to pay close attention to the movements of the enemy navy."

"Breakout from the sea?"

Gao Qiqian couldn't help being a little happy when he heard that the emperor's order to him was to "recover Dengzhou". The rebels ran away from the sea. That was the matter of Denglai Navy and Dongjiang Town Commander Huang Long.

So not only did he not listen to Nikan's advice, but he secretly transferred Zhou Wenyu's fleet to Changshan Island, deliberately leaving the seaport open to allow the rebels to leave Dengzhou as soon as possible, so as to achieve his goal of "recovering Dengzhou within the month" ", fulfilling the emperor's strict orders.

The changes on the sea were completely caught by the rebels who were deployed on the Watergate Tower.

One day in early September, there was a sudden strong wind on the sea near Dengzhou.

Nikan, who had already placed his main position in Penglai Port, about three miles northwest of Dengzhou, couldn't help but feel worried when he saw it - could that happen in history?

In the past half month, he has placed Zhu Ketu's infantry and cavalry troops near the west gate of Dengzhou near Shuicheng, so that his troops can occupy Shuicheng first when the rebels prepare to break out - Shuicheng is the core area of ​​Dengzhou City. Important people and things should be there.

It is very difficult to sail a sailboat on the sea in such windy weather, but to the north of Watergate is a long and narrow waterway. To the east of the waterway is a sandbar about 60 feet long, and to the west is the mainland.

Originally, this long and narrow waterway was already crowded with Gong Zhengxiang's ships, but under the strong wind, the ships could no longer stay in the middle of the waterway. Finally, Gong Zhengxiang ordered to temporarily berth at the dock near the mainland. .

At this time, strong winds were blowing, and huge waves on the sea kept coming. It was completely impossible for the ships in the group to turn calmly and sail to the intended destination. However, if they did not turn, the ships would easily collide with each other. Choosing the lesser of two powers, Gong Zhengxiang gave the order to turn around and dock at the dock.

At this time, the water gate that had been closed for several months suddenly opened, and dozens of clippers rushed out!

Gong Zhengxiang naturally noticed this, and quickly ordered the ships to stop docking, but turned to move forward to meet the enemy again. Now his fleet was in chaos, and Gong Zhengxiang's own ship, a three-decker sand ship, also Collided with another warship.

Gong Zhengxiang fell into the water!

At this time, the clippers led by Sun Long himself arrived. These clippers were all rowing boats, and each ship was filled with combat soldiers who only had swords, bows and arrows!

As in history, Gong Zhengxiang's fleet, which was swaying in the strong winds and huge waves, had no chance to counterattack, while Sun Long's fleet freely shuttled between the large ships and attacked.

After half a day, the weather with strong winds and huge waves finally improved. However, except for a few ships in Gong Zhengxiang's fleet, most of them were captured by Sun Long's clippers!

Gong Zhengxiang was captured!

By the time Zhou Wenyu from Changshan Island came over after hearing the news, Sun Long had already brought all the captured ships back to Shuimen!

Nikan was a little hesitant after learning about this.

Ordinarily, in weather like this, Sun Long defeated Gong Zhengxiang again and captured a large number of ships. Kong Youde should strike while the iron is hot and break out from the sea quickly - this is what he did in history. Why is he back in Dengzhou now?

The destruction of Gong Zhengxiang's fleet did not dissuade Kong Youde from escaping. Under his strict order, Zhou Wenyu returned to Changshan Island.

The time has come to late September, and there are only a few days left before the time required by the emperor!

Nikan hesitated again and again, but in the end he allowed Sun Jiaji to sail the entire fleet to the narrow waterway outside the water gate at the risk of being destroyed by strong winds and waves, and launched an attack on the water gate that day.

Five days later, Sun Jiaji's fleet destroyed all the artillery placed on the water gate and shot down the iron fence inside the water gate while losing three large ships!

Minato is at your fingertips!

However, to be cautious, Nikan still asked a large ship to enter the water gate first to test it out.

Not long after, the big ship came back.

"Great Khan, apart from the gunners on the city walls, no other rebels were found in Watergate!"

"ah?!"

Nikan was shocked, things were completely out of his control!

It is said that no matter in history or now, Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming still had to escape from Shuimen to the open sea to join Jiannu. How could they disappear from the world?

He quickly ordered half of the ships to sail to Shuicheng, let the sailors take control of Shuicheng, and asked other ships to load Zhuktu's more than 4,000 cavalry and sail into Shuicheng.

By the time Nikan's army completely entered Shuicheng, the sky had darkened.

"Great Khan, there are only young men and women from the city on the outer city walls, not even a single rebel!"

"How is that possible?!" Nikan was shocked when he heard this.

"Xiurong" reported to Sun Chuanyu, "Kong Youde detained Qingzhuang's family in Shuicheng and asked Qingzhuang to guard the outer city. Since the Ming army outside the city did not attack the city in the past few days, he took advantage of it!

"

"What about Kong Youde and the others?"

"No trace!"

"It's impossible. Dengzhou City is not big, and there are at least ten thousand of them. How can they hide them? What's more, there are more than ten thousand people, so why hide?"

"Xiurong", Sun Chuanyu couldn't help but be a little surprised when he saw that the anxious look on Nikan's face was no less than when he fought with Jiannu before, "Isn't it a good thing that Kong Youde ran away? We will control the entire city, and then we will take over the craftsmen in the city.

And take away the Han people who are willing to surrender to our army."

"It's not that simple," Nikan said, "Didn't you ask if there's anything strange in the city these days?"

Sun Chuanyu shook his head, "Originally, there was a civil servant from Denglai and several local households in the city. After asking, there was no important information. They just said that three days ago, there were Kong Youde's cavalry patrolling the outer city. From the first

There has been no movement since three days, but since the young and strong family members guarding the outer city wall are all detained in Shuicheng, the young and strong people in the outer city dare not move rashly."

"What about the families of the rebels? Have they all disappeared? It's completely impossible."

"Hey," Sun Chuanyu smiled, "Xiurong, we found some so-called family members of the rebels in the residences near the city wall in the outer city. They were mostly old men and women in their fifties and sixties. It was these old men who led the young people.

Zhuang is defending the city, but they don't know the whereabouts of the rebels."

"Where are Gong Zhengxiang's sailors?"

"They are all detained in Shuicheng Prison, about 1,500 people."

"Bang!" Nikan slapped the table and knocked the teacup on it to the ground, "Damn it, did all these people fly away? Did they escape from Earth? Huh?"

"Escape?" Sun Chuanyu raised his eyebrows, "Xiurong, it is really possible. Could it be that they dug a tunnel outside the city to lead to the outside?"

After hearing this, Nikan immediately fell down on his chair and let out a long sigh.

"Oh, after all the calculations, I actually forgot about this. It's probably like this. Hurry and check every house on the east and west sides of the outer city. There must be an authentic entrance."

"Then should our army pursue the east and west sides respectively?"

"Forget it, they probably started digging tunnels after Li Jiucheng's tribe was destroyed. After they went out, they probably walked along the coastline. They walked for at least three days. In my opinion, they probably went south, where Zhifu is.

The navy of the island must have attacked this place and then escaped by boat."

In the middle of the night, Sun Chuanyu received news that a tunnel had been discovered in a large private house on the east side of the outer city.

Looking at the tunnel, which was about six feet high, three feet wide and more than three feet deep underground, Nikan sat down on the ground.
Chapter completed!