Near the inner city of Youzhou, the last remaining resistance and the majority of existing enemies have been basically eliminated. As a price, this is a ruined city that was repeatedly beaten and demolished, as well as the ruins and embers after the fire. After all, as a blocking position that the Pinglu Army spent a lot of effort to prepare, compared with other positions that can only be rushed early As for the other party, enough firewood, oil, and carbon have already been piled up here; once they find that nothing can be done, they will decisively set fire to the situation and destroy both the jade and the stone.
But as the saying goes, there are advantages and disadvantages; therefore, the circle of buildings and residential areas surrounding the inner city were easily cleared out, and became a position for the Huai army to continue besieging and attacking the inner city.
At present, although the Huai Army has not yet begun to formally attack the city, but only uses various large and small cannons piled under the city to bombard the city wall day and night; but the city wall that is constantly trembling under the feet, and those incomplete and submerged in the masonry and rubble The remains of the city walls, crenellations and towers are enough to reflect the various emotions of most people who were in danger.
What¡¯s more desperate is that as the Huai army gradually takes control of the gates of the outer city and clears more and more passages, the number of artillery forts and artillery arrays gathered under the city to bombard them is also increasing day by day, and there is no end in sight to this trend. Even the gunners of the Huai Army who were facing each other were able to stand majestically on the edge of the forts piled high everywhere, and took turns shooting and suppressing the city walls without stopping.
Among the roaring artillery forts, Mr. Zhou, the deputy general of the artillery regiment, felt that he might have never heard of so many cannons in his life, such as big cannons, small cannons, long cannons, short cannons, light cannons and heavy cannons, field cannons, and mortar cannons. , mountain artillery, cavalry artillery; city defense artillery, scattering artillery, rotating artillery, double-deck artillery. . .
It seems that the preparations before the war were extremely thorough, and the army advanced all the way through flat plains with few obstacles. Roads were built across mountains and rivers, bridges were built, and roads were renovated and strengthened. Due to various reasons that transportation and transshipment were exceptionally smooth and sufficient, a large number of artillery pieces of various colors produced and equipped in Huaidi were gathered together and sent to the front in batches.
Hundreds of Huai Army artillery pieces of all kinds were concentrated on three sides of the city wall within the perimeter of the siege camp, which was only six or seven miles away. There were more than twenty numbers in the artillery regiment alone, and the amount of gunpowder consumed every day was calculated by the number of vehicles. To calculate, just to collect water for gun barrel cooling would require thousands of dedicated laborers, and an additional temporary diversion channel would be dug from the branch of the Gaoliang River that passes through the city.
In his personal opinion, there may not be many opportunities to gather so many artillery pieces together for a long time in the future; it is only this extremely majestic Youzhou City that is worthy of doing so and has such conditions. .
But the effect achieved is also particularly significant. On only the fourth day after the invasion of Youzhou City, the top of the inner city wall had been basically smashed and flattened. With the speed and efficiency visible to the naked eye, it was reduced to the point where no one could stand or move anymore. superfluous things. As for counterattacks and sneak attacks from the inner city, due to the sufficient density of artillery stacking in the front, they were easily blown to pieces or wiped out on the spot by concentrated fire.
In the end, the only ones that can pose a threat to them are those that hide behind impenetrable high walls and rely on unpredictable and unpredictable parabolas to create limited probability of killing and symbolic counterattacks. ; But obviously in the eyes of the commander in charge of this site, this is not enough.
So now, he was standing next to a heavy siege gun that was lying flat and taller than him, carefully looking at every detail; he didn't know where the Jiansheng Army was in the rear. How did he transport this intimidating big guy all the way from Huaidi and into Youzhou City?
Just lining up among a bunch of large and small artillery carts and preset artillery forts that came first, it stood out from the crowd and attracted attention; and this huge thing, which was stereotyped as a Yuan-style siege cannon, was obviously the first on the battlefield. trend, so a senior artillery leader like Zhou Laoguan, who was already responsible for command and coordination in the rear, was specially transferred to be responsible for corresponding supervision matters.
Because of his age, according to the originally arranged life trajectory, he should have been transferred to the second-line army long ago, and specifically began to teach his artillery training experience in the army as an artillery instructor. Granny Luo settled down; but this time the call for the expansion of the army in Huai Town and the Northern Expedition still made him voluntarily give up the daily life that he had been accustomed to in settling down, and once again devoted himself to this new expedition in the name of the Governor's Palace of Peking. Gone in the great cause.
Because he has a feeling and intuition about this, if he misses this battle, there may be fewer and fewer opportunities to go to the battlefield again in the future. With such emotions and thoughts, he meticulously completed the up and down inspection of the cannon again, and then blew the whistle in his mouth.
As the whine of the special whistle sounded, dozens of stacks of medicine cakes wrapped in fire paper were filled into the thick and deep inner tube one by one using a thick-headed rod, and then the thick cannons lifted by the turntable machine , also slides in along the obliquely warped muzzle, but unlike the previous spherical cannons, the cannon used by this siege cannon is a barrel-shaped cylindrical head, and finally is stuffed with a breathable cannon. The wooden decking is compacted over and over again.
Then insert the trigger, which looks like a portable lamp, from the large wedge-shaped hole above the gun body. With the terminology and password given by the sighter, the oil-filled thick wheel shaft is turned to carefully adjust the position and shooting range. Finally, he is left alone. Zhou Laoguan personally pulled the firing rope off the cannon.
After a moment's delay, there was an extremely heavy bang, which made him feel that something was being shattered invisibly. In an instant, all the sounds of everything in the world were lost, and the huge fireball spurted out in an instant and the sky-covering sky and the sun were covered. The smoke cloud almost filled and obscured the vision of everyone in front; then there were countless waves of smoky air that rolled back, and dust and gravel were stirred up from the ground. In an instant, his lower body was submerged, and he was shocked. He was numb and trembling from the top of his feet to the roots of his legs.
The moment when Mr. Zhou even felt that he could no longer control his urination and was about to become incontinent, it was like reestablishing the stagnant time that flowed, and all kinds of sounds and noises seemed to suddenly return, with roars coming and going from far and near. There were sounds, the sound of the city being smashed and peeled off or splashing, mixed with the sounds of slogans and orders coming one after another around them, and the faint whines and screams in the distance.
There is a moist feeling in the nose and ears, but when I touch it, it is blood flowing out. Then, in the dizziness of the residual buzzing, he remembered to search and explore the results of his victory, and saw that there was a big hole missing in the upper part of the city gate in the distance and a deep hole embedded in it. The cannon is only slightly deformed.
"It seems a little off."
Old man Zhou couldn't help but sigh, and continued to order to adjust the angle to prepare for the next round of firing.
"Prepare to load the special ammunition Aim directly at the city gate"
Before he finished speaking, the sighting hand holding the instrument beside him couldn't help shouting.
"Look, it's falling"
Later, Mr. Zhou saw that in the gap that was larger than the ordinary pits and potholes near the fields, with cracks like spider webs, the cannon suddenly fell with a heavy weight, and the surrounding bricks and stones around the door were pulled down. Pieces collapsed piece by piece, and large tracts of dust and smoke billowed out between the buildings, and the inner rammed earth and thick door frame capitals were vaguely exposed.
However, this is like an invisible signal and the beginning of a sudden trigger. In an instant, the doorway filled with smoke and dust suddenly opened from the inside out with a rapid clang, and fierce roars and thunderous sound of horse hooves emerged. It was the cavalry who had gathered in the city at some point. During the assault, they were seen rushing out of the city gate like a surging wave, and spreading privately like mercury pouring down the ground.
I saw these cavalry quickly dispersed into groups of three or five, flying over the obstacles and uneven ground of the battlefield with superb riding skills and tacit understanding. The reflections of countless men and horses running and galloping in armor were like Flashing like a school of fish, it flashed towards the preface in an instant.
The vibrations, sounds and smoke caused by the flying hooves of many horses even interrupted and overwhelmed the bombardment of the forward artillery fire for a time, causing some of the nearby artillery positions to have obvious varying degrees of morale shaken and people turning around and running away. There were signs, and they rushed straight to a distance of fifty or sixty steps.
Then, the small cannons and long cannon arrays preset in front of the artillery fort positions, which had always lacked a corresponding presence due to their relatively small size and light weight, seemed to come to life in an instant, and suddenly they were lined up in a row. Xiang was on fire. In an instant, these cavalrymen, who were rushing forward and within reach within a few breaths, felt that the sky suddenly darkened for an instant, and the overwhelming spray of coarse-grained shotguns and iron pellets swept over them like a violent storm. and raged among most of their people.
?The blood mist bloomed one after another and the limbs penetrated and torn from front to back, suddenly tearing apart a long bloody storm out of thin air in the irregular group of cavalry, and the pungent and strong smell of blood lingered in front of the formation for a long time.
Although these light and small artillery columns in the front row only had time to roar for one round, and were chopped down and destroyed by the remaining cavalry as they rushed in, the outcome of this surprise attack and encounter was basically doomed from the beginning. as more musketry columns surged out from behind the forts, with the sharp spikes of the musket muzzles quickly filling in the knocked down and overturned artillery columns, those who had stopped to chop and chop lost their speed and The remaining mobile cavalry is, in a sense, catching a turtle in a urn;
In the end, not even one of these fish that slipped through the net was able to escape, and they all? Desperate and powerless, they were assassinated and advanced in an orderly manner; the mounts were poked and knocked over one after another, and were killed, assassinated, and even knocked unconscious and captured on the ground.