Chapter 832
Betrayal
Chapter 832 Betrayal
If such a thing happened in Sishang, Xu Ruo would definitely be angry.
But it happened here, and after listening to such rhetoric, Xu Ruo couldn't get angry, thinking that what these people said seemed to make sense.
What are the common people on the top of the city defending?
He didn't know, and neither did those Zheng people who sang love songs amidst the sound of gunfire.
Not long after, someone came to the top of the city and called Xu Ruo who was on the wall aside.
"Is there an order from above?"
The person who came to call him nodded and said, "So I told you to go back and have a meeting."
Xu Ruo hurried back to the Mo family's stronghold in Xinzheng, and the main figures of the Mo family who were active in Zhengcheng had already gathered.
Xu Ruo then asked, "What do you mean? Are we going to guard or not?"
The person in charge of the Mohist organization in Zhengdi and the person in charge of the Mohist organization from Sishang this time asked him: "You went to the city to wait and see for a long time, and you also participated in the change in Feidi that year. In your opinion, can you hold on?" Can you live?"
Xu Ruo shook his head and said: "You don't say how far you can defend, I can't say whether you can hold it. If there is no external help, sooner or later it will fall. But if you hold it for a month or two, it is possible from the military alone To do it, the premise is that Zheng people must know why to fight."
"In other words, if you want to defend the city for a month or two, waiting for the situation in the world to change, then the top priority is politics, not military. It's no use either."
Everyone present also nodded. Since they took charge of the Propaganda Department more than ten years ago, they have always emphasized that the military serves politics, and politics counteracts the military. They are very clear about this.
The people of Zheng didn't want to fight at all, and they couldn't find a reason to fight this battle. If this problem is not resolved, even the geniuses of heaven and grand princes hope that Sun Wuzi will be resurrected, there is no way.
The Mohist who presided over the meeting said: "It is indeed the case, but there is no news about whether the superiors will fight or not. However, if there is a fight in the future, and Zheng Cheng is in hand, then the initiative is on our side."
"Don't talk about those issues of changing politics, just say that if Zheng people are willing to defend, from a purely military point of view, how can they defend for a month or two?"
From a military point of view alone, Xinzheng is not easy to defend.
According to previous combat experience, the city wall is the key to the victory or defeat of the city defense. Once the city wall is breached, the defense of the entire city will be over.
In the era of bows, crossbows and bronze weapons, Xinzheng's ten-meter-high city wall is the greatest advantage, which will bring great damage to the attacking party.
But with the advent of gunpowder, this advantage has turned into a disadvantage. The rammed earth wall cannot stop the bombardment of iron bullets, let alone the explosion of using gunpowder to explode the base after excavation.
Wei Han's artillery is not too many, the caliber is not too large, and the technology is average.
But even so, according to the current bombardment frequency, at most seven days, the city wall will be bombed down.
Once the city wall was blown down and entered through the gap, Xinzheng fell within a day.
So far, gunpowder has not been used to attack the capital of any country. Once Xinzheng is destroyed by gunpowder, the city defense system and offensive and defensive tactics of the entire Zhuxia will change. The fall of Xinzheng will announce the end of the old city defense.
Now it seems that breaking the city is not difficult.
Xu Ruo had thought about this issue, and many people present had thought about it, so when Xu Ruo said that he could actually stick to it for a month or two, everyone had doubts in their hearts.
But this is just a discussion meeting, everyone stared at Xu Ruo, Xu Ruo said: "If you really want to wait for a month or two to wait for the situation in the world to change, there is no way."
"Since the city wall is a weak point, why do we have to stick to the city wall?"
"Abandon the city wall, pretend to stand firm, and buy us seven days."
"Organize the people, retreat a hundred steps, demolish the houses, and build a simple concave-convex fortress line of defense according to the methods of Pengcheng or Dangshan in Peiyi. It doesn't need to be too high or too strong."
"In this way, even if the city wall collapses, we can still retreat to the city defense system we are familiar with and eliminate Wei and Han's artillery advantage. Even if they capture the city wall, it will still be useless."
"Since you want to defend, you also know that this kind of rammed earth, high but not thick city wall can't be defended, why do you have to focus on the city wall?"
"Besides, double everywhere is empty everywhere, so Wei and Han have to attack in one direction. Since they chose to concentrate the copper cannons in one place, then we only need to deploy another line of defense behind their attack direction."
It was just a word that awakened the dreamer. This time Sishang sent to Zheng Guo, there were some people who were good at building city walls, or Mo Shou, who were mainly responsible for building city walls and defenses, and they all had refined geometry Learning and nine numbers and some architecture.
Originally, the reason why the Mohists persuaded Zheng Guo to contact the Mohists was that Xinzheng must be able to hold on to the mediation of various countries.
What Zheng people didn't expect was that it wasn't just South Korea who attacked Zheng this time, but Wei Guo, which Zheng Junchen imagined could be used as foreign aid, also joined with South Korea.
Xu Ruo just put forward a suggestion and an idea. How to arrange the second line of defense and abandon the city wall is not something he needs to consider.
But the idea itself is worth enough.
A few people who are proficient in this kind of knowledge thought about it for a while, and then praised: "It's really a clever strategy."
"If the Wei and Han troops separated their cannons, they would not be able to break through the city wall; if they separated them and used the cannons as crossbows instead of bombarding the city wall, then the city wall could be defended, and their means of attacking the city would still be the same as yours; if they were used collectively, Then we can predict the direction of their main attack, build a fort, build a thick layer of soil to defend the artillery, concentrate the muskets, bows and crossbows, and the copper cannons in the city, and their copper cannons will be difficult to break."
That's exactly what Xu Ruo meant.
Defending the city wall was a tactic before the gunpowder era.
It’s not that rammed earth can’t defend against artillery, but that with the advent of copper cannons, the city walls should move in the direction of thicker slope buffers, more geometric included angles, and larger horses.
The old city walls cannot stop the artillery, and the rammed earth layer of the plate structure can be easily blasted away. How to avoid the artillery of the Wei and Han coalition forces is the key to defending the city.
Xu Ruo believes that it is impossible to rely on Xinzheng's strength to defend the city, and defending the isolated city will always be a dead end, and external reinforcements are necessary to relieve the siege.
But if you can't support it for a month or two, you can't wait for reinforcements. If you want to support it for a month or two, the attitude of Zheng people's willingness to fight is very important. You need to consider tactics only if Zheng people are willing to fight.
His tactic was to quickly build a new simple city defense behind the old city wall using the Mohist's organization technique.
This kind of simple city defense is impossible for too long, but Xu Ruo believes that if it can solve the problem of the people daring to fight, it should be no problem to defend for a month or two.
But the crux of the problem is...why did Zheng people defend the city?Why do you have to work hard to defend the city?
The old clan-state system has collapsed, and the new common national religion has not yet been established. Zheng people have no concept of the motherland that moved them. Scholars are loyal to the masters who gave them fiefdoms. Classes dominate but the broad masses of common people. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the war of hundreds of scholars and tens of thousands of apprentices has become a formation confrontation of tens of thousands of 10,000+ people. In this case, what can be used to persuade Zheng people to defend the city?
Mohist, who presided over the meeting, didn't talk about this issue for the time being, but let everyone discuss whether Xu Ruo's suggestion was feasible.
Many of them had experience on the battlefield, and many of them were from majors. After a little discussion, they all agreed with Xu Ruo's idea.
The Mohist who presided over the meeting said: "So, if the problem of Zheng people's desire to fight can be solved, is it possible to defend for a month or two until the situation in the world changes?"
Everyone thought it was indeed possible, and the Mohist said, "Before the Lord sent us here, he made it very clear about this task."
"Aggression is just, and war without declaration is unjust. This is true. But aren't all wars unjust?"
"What is the purpose of our non-offensive? This is what we must figure out."
"It's like there is a mountain of gold and jade on the edge of the East China Sea. Someone knew the direction and told us to go east, so we went east. But there was no way to go east. After asking, we knew that there was a way to go east. First go west and then east, so shall we go west first?"
"Some people say that it is wrong to go west, and we should go east. This is within us, and it is called 'in', or it is an old-fashioned dogma."
"As Zi Mozi said, Shun's government was good at that time, but not at this time; like Yu's water control, at that time it was the top priority in the world, but not at this time."
"The speculation here lies in what is our purpose. Is non-offensive the purpose? Or is it a means? We must make it clear that our goal is to benefit the people and the world, and non-attack is just a means."
"You also know that the giants have been fighting against the ancient faction who established the country without attacking. This is a big issue of right and wrong, and it should not be underestimated."
Speaking of which, the issue of the program of activities in Zheng State this time has actually been brought up.
The internal struggle of the Mohist school is semi-public. The debate on whether Feigong is an end or a means has been debated since Mo Zi's death, and it was not until two or three years after Shi became a juzi that the debate came to a conclusion.
The non-offensive and nationalist faction has basically stepped aside now, and the pure non-offensive and peace-war faction of the non-offensive faction has basically faded out of Mohist political activities.
This time, Zheng Guo's declaration of non-aggression must be clearly explained to everyone involved, so that there will be no doubts and confusion on the issue of the route.
The Mohist who presided over the meeting continued: "Before, the central government sent people to Zheng to discuss joining the non-aggressive alliance. The premise was that Zheng Guo must carry out reforms to benefit the people. In the country, non-aggressive war is beneficial to the people.”
"If non-offensive is the purpose rather than the means, then there is no need for Zheng Jun to carry out reforms."
"Precisely because non-attack is one of the means to benefit the people and the world, we didn't accept Zheng Jun's tiger charm to defend the city before."
"Will Zheng Guo defend or not? It's not up to us, but to Zheng Jun and the nobles."
"What kind of attitude should we stand in dealing with this matter? Comrades, we need to think about what happened to Zimozi, Ziqinzi, and Shizi guarding Shangqiu in the past. What can we do to benefit the people of Zheng to the greatest extent? , and this is not a difficult problem to solve."
(End of this chapter)
If such a thing happened in Sishang, Xu Ruo would definitely be angry.
But it happened here, and after listening to such rhetoric, Xu Ruo couldn't get angry, thinking that what these people said seemed to make sense.
What are the common people on the top of the city defending?
He didn't know, and neither did those Zheng people who sang love songs amidst the sound of gunfire.
Not long after, someone came to the top of the city and called Xu Ruo who was on the wall aside.
"Is there an order from above?"
The person who came to call him nodded and said, "So I told you to go back and have a meeting."
Xu Ruo hurried back to the Mo family's stronghold in Xinzheng, and the main figures of the Mo family who were active in Zhengcheng had already gathered.
Xu Ruo then asked, "What do you mean? Are we going to guard or not?"
The person in charge of the Mohist organization in Zhengdi and the person in charge of the Mohist organization from Sishang this time asked him: "You went to the city to wait and see for a long time, and you also participated in the change in Feidi that year. In your opinion, can you hold on?" Can you live?"
Xu Ruo shook his head and said: "You don't say how far you can defend, I can't say whether you can hold it. If there is no external help, sooner or later it will fall. But if you hold it for a month or two, it is possible from the military alone To do it, the premise is that Zheng people must know why to fight."
"In other words, if you want to defend the city for a month or two, waiting for the situation in the world to change, then the top priority is politics, not military. It's no use either."
Everyone present also nodded. Since they took charge of the Propaganda Department more than ten years ago, they have always emphasized that the military serves politics, and politics counteracts the military. They are very clear about this.
The people of Zheng didn't want to fight at all, and they couldn't find a reason to fight this battle. If this problem is not resolved, even the geniuses of heaven and grand princes hope that Sun Wuzi will be resurrected, there is no way.
The Mohist who presided over the meeting said: "It is indeed the case, but there is no news about whether the superiors will fight or not. However, if there is a fight in the future, and Zheng Cheng is in hand, then the initiative is on our side."
"Don't talk about those issues of changing politics, just say that if Zheng people are willing to defend, from a purely military point of view, how can they defend for a month or two?"
From a military point of view alone, Xinzheng is not easy to defend.
According to previous combat experience, the city wall is the key to the victory or defeat of the city defense. Once the city wall is breached, the defense of the entire city will be over.
In the era of bows, crossbows and bronze weapons, Xinzheng's ten-meter-high city wall is the greatest advantage, which will bring great damage to the attacking party.
But with the advent of gunpowder, this advantage has turned into a disadvantage. The rammed earth wall cannot stop the bombardment of iron bullets, let alone the explosion of using gunpowder to explode the base after excavation.
Wei Han's artillery is not too many, the caliber is not too large, and the technology is average.
But even so, according to the current bombardment frequency, at most seven days, the city wall will be bombed down.
Once the city wall was blown down and entered through the gap, Xinzheng fell within a day.
So far, gunpowder has not been used to attack the capital of any country. Once Xinzheng is destroyed by gunpowder, the city defense system and offensive and defensive tactics of the entire Zhuxia will change. The fall of Xinzheng will announce the end of the old city defense.
Now it seems that breaking the city is not difficult.
Xu Ruo had thought about this issue, and many people present had thought about it, so when Xu Ruo said that he could actually stick to it for a month or two, everyone had doubts in their hearts.
But this is just a discussion meeting, everyone stared at Xu Ruo, Xu Ruo said: "If you really want to wait for a month or two to wait for the situation in the world to change, there is no way."
"Since the city wall is a weak point, why do we have to stick to the city wall?"
"Abandon the city wall, pretend to stand firm, and buy us seven days."
"Organize the people, retreat a hundred steps, demolish the houses, and build a simple concave-convex fortress line of defense according to the methods of Pengcheng or Dangshan in Peiyi. It doesn't need to be too high or too strong."
"In this way, even if the city wall collapses, we can still retreat to the city defense system we are familiar with and eliminate Wei and Han's artillery advantage. Even if they capture the city wall, it will still be useless."
"Since you want to defend, you also know that this kind of rammed earth, high but not thick city wall can't be defended, why do you have to focus on the city wall?"
"Besides, double everywhere is empty everywhere, so Wei and Han have to attack in one direction. Since they chose to concentrate the copper cannons in one place, then we only need to deploy another line of defense behind their attack direction."
It was just a word that awakened the dreamer. This time Sishang sent to Zheng Guo, there were some people who were good at building city walls, or Mo Shou, who were mainly responsible for building city walls and defenses, and they all had refined geometry Learning and nine numbers and some architecture.
Originally, the reason why the Mohists persuaded Zheng Guo to contact the Mohists was that Xinzheng must be able to hold on to the mediation of various countries.
What Zheng people didn't expect was that it wasn't just South Korea who attacked Zheng this time, but Wei Guo, which Zheng Junchen imagined could be used as foreign aid, also joined with South Korea.
Xu Ruo just put forward a suggestion and an idea. How to arrange the second line of defense and abandon the city wall is not something he needs to consider.
But the idea itself is worth enough.
A few people who are proficient in this kind of knowledge thought about it for a while, and then praised: "It's really a clever strategy."
"If the Wei and Han troops separated their cannons, they would not be able to break through the city wall; if they separated them and used the cannons as crossbows instead of bombarding the city wall, then the city wall could be defended, and their means of attacking the city would still be the same as yours; if they were used collectively, Then we can predict the direction of their main attack, build a fort, build a thick layer of soil to defend the artillery, concentrate the muskets, bows and crossbows, and the copper cannons in the city, and their copper cannons will be difficult to break."
That's exactly what Xu Ruo meant.
Defending the city wall was a tactic before the gunpowder era.
It’s not that rammed earth can’t defend against artillery, but that with the advent of copper cannons, the city walls should move in the direction of thicker slope buffers, more geometric included angles, and larger horses.
The old city walls cannot stop the artillery, and the rammed earth layer of the plate structure can be easily blasted away. How to avoid the artillery of the Wei and Han coalition forces is the key to defending the city.
Xu Ruo believes that it is impossible to rely on Xinzheng's strength to defend the city, and defending the isolated city will always be a dead end, and external reinforcements are necessary to relieve the siege.
But if you can't support it for a month or two, you can't wait for reinforcements. If you want to support it for a month or two, the attitude of Zheng people's willingness to fight is very important. You need to consider tactics only if Zheng people are willing to fight.
His tactic was to quickly build a new simple city defense behind the old city wall using the Mohist's organization technique.
This kind of simple city defense is impossible for too long, but Xu Ruo believes that if it can solve the problem of the people daring to fight, it should be no problem to defend for a month or two.
But the crux of the problem is...why did Zheng people defend the city?Why do you have to work hard to defend the city?
The old clan-state system has collapsed, and the new common national religion has not yet been established. Zheng people have no concept of the motherland that moved them. Scholars are loyal to the masters who gave them fiefdoms. Classes dominate but the broad masses of common people. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the war of hundreds of scholars and tens of thousands of apprentices has become a formation confrontation of tens of thousands of 10,000+ people. In this case, what can be used to persuade Zheng people to defend the city?
Mohist, who presided over the meeting, didn't talk about this issue for the time being, but let everyone discuss whether Xu Ruo's suggestion was feasible.
Many of them had experience on the battlefield, and many of them were from majors. After a little discussion, they all agreed with Xu Ruo's idea.
The Mohist who presided over the meeting said: "So, if the problem of Zheng people's desire to fight can be solved, is it possible to defend for a month or two until the situation in the world changes?"
Everyone thought it was indeed possible, and the Mohist said, "Before the Lord sent us here, he made it very clear about this task."
"Aggression is just, and war without declaration is unjust. This is true. But aren't all wars unjust?"
"What is the purpose of our non-offensive? This is what we must figure out."
"It's like there is a mountain of gold and jade on the edge of the East China Sea. Someone knew the direction and told us to go east, so we went east. But there was no way to go east. After asking, we knew that there was a way to go east. First go west and then east, so shall we go west first?"
"Some people say that it is wrong to go west, and we should go east. This is within us, and it is called 'in', or it is an old-fashioned dogma."
"As Zi Mozi said, Shun's government was good at that time, but not at this time; like Yu's water control, at that time it was the top priority in the world, but not at this time."
"The speculation here lies in what is our purpose. Is non-offensive the purpose? Or is it a means? We must make it clear that our goal is to benefit the people and the world, and non-attack is just a means."
"You also know that the giants have been fighting against the ancient faction who established the country without attacking. This is a big issue of right and wrong, and it should not be underestimated."
Speaking of which, the issue of the program of activities in Zheng State this time has actually been brought up.
The internal struggle of the Mohist school is semi-public. The debate on whether Feigong is an end or a means has been debated since Mo Zi's death, and it was not until two or three years after Shi became a juzi that the debate came to a conclusion.
The non-offensive and nationalist faction has basically stepped aside now, and the pure non-offensive and peace-war faction of the non-offensive faction has basically faded out of Mohist political activities.
This time, Zheng Guo's declaration of non-aggression must be clearly explained to everyone involved, so that there will be no doubts and confusion on the issue of the route.
The Mohist who presided over the meeting continued: "Before, the central government sent people to Zheng to discuss joining the non-aggressive alliance. The premise was that Zheng Guo must carry out reforms to benefit the people. In the country, non-aggressive war is beneficial to the people.”
"If non-offensive is the purpose rather than the means, then there is no need for Zheng Jun to carry out reforms."
"Precisely because non-attack is one of the means to benefit the people and the world, we didn't accept Zheng Jun's tiger charm to defend the city before."
"Will Zheng Guo defend or not? It's not up to us, but to Zheng Jun and the nobles."
"What kind of attitude should we stand in dealing with this matter? Comrades, we need to think about what happened to Zimozi, Ziqinzi, and Shizi guarding Shangqiu in the past. What can we do to benefit the people of Zheng to the greatest extent? , and this is not a difficult problem to solve."
(End of this chapter)