"Damn! It's the same thing again!" Whether it's Sasuka through a telescope, or Niulu Zhangjing and Xu Youxin of Manahai and Alam, as well as his subordinate officers, they can all see it with their naked eyes, not far away. Wu Changqing's soldiers and horses relied on the city wall of Hongqiao Town and formed a formation outside the city. However, the Qing army's retreat just now gave Wu Changqing time to retreat and rearrange his defense line. He declined Ji Changming¡¯s offer to lead his troops to retreat into the city to rest. Ji Changming only asked Ji Changming to pull his two infantry battalions and one artillery battalion out of the city, and arranged for civilians to urgently repair a fortification outside the city. ¡°It doesn¡¯t need to be particularly strong, just a parapet that can cover the bodies of the brothers!¡± Therefore, in the eyes of Qing generals such as Sasuka and Xu Youxin, this tactic was a repeat of the same old tune. However, Sasuka recalled several head-on confrontations with the South Guangdong Army in Hexiwu and Tashan. On those occasions, the South Guangdong Army relied on fortifications to inflict heavy casualties on the Qing Army. Or rely on and transform fortifications, step by step, putting great pressure on the Qing army. Nowadays, a curved breast wall with a height of half a person has been vaguely formed. Behind the South Guangdong Army, thousands of civilians and auxiliary soldiers are constantly carrying linen bags from the ramp on the city, using these huge and heavy bags. Build a parapet. Occasionally, something leaked out from the cracks in the linen bag and sprinkled on the ground, forming a dotted line. "The bastard Southern Barbarians are indeed rich! They actually used good rice to build fortifications!" Countless Qing officers and soldiers also discovered this scene and cursed in their hearts. This move undoubtedly mobilized the Qing troops for war. Wu Changqing also seems to be very trusting. The victory just now may have made him underestimate the Qing army. He lined up his troops from south to north with their backs against the parapet, facing west. The three infantry battalions formed three thin lines, and the artillery of the artillery battalion between the infantry battalions was placed slightly forward on both wings of the battalion formation. The other infantry battalion and the Guards, Cavalry Signal Team, and Baggage Team in his hands stood with guns behind the parapet as a reserve team. There were dozens of other vehicles that seemed to be baggage trucks lined up behind them. It seemed that they were either baggage trucks or health team vehicles. With such a close distance, the strength and configuration of both sides' troops can be clearly seen. Sasuka sneered, turned to Xu Youxin, who was only an arm's length away from his golden dragon tapestry, and said with a smile: "From my point of view, this Nanman leader is nothing more than that! He just took advantage of it. He dared to engage in a field battle with our Qing soldiers before the fortifications were complete. And, General Xu, come and see!" He pointed at the ramp in use behind the parapet, "This ramp. , it must have been built to match the garrison outside the city. Although it looks quite rough at this time and is not yet completed, it can be used if you defeat the southern barbarians in front of you. The ramp is used as a bait to lure the Southern Barbarians to fight for this road into the city!" "My lord has been on the battlefield for a long time, so you are right!" "Mana Hai!" " "Here!" "Send someone with Ben Mele's command arrow to urge the soldiers and horses in the rear, and ask them to come quickly with artillery!" At his order, the sound of hoofbeats sounded in the Qing army's formation, and a group of soldiers galloped back and forth. The Qing army came out of the formation. Groups of Qing soldiers formed a dense formation in front of the formation. At the front were more than a thousand archers and firecrackers, with the firecrackers in front and the archers behind. Their mission was to engage in firefights with the Southern Guangdong Army's guns and gain time and space for the troops behind them. As long as they can consume the ammunition of the South Guangdong Army's musketry soldiers and let them fire two muskets, the spearmen and sword and shield soldiers behind will come and start a hand-to-hand fight with the South Guangdong Army. Behind these more than a thousand people were more sword and shield soldiers and spear soldiers. The sword and shield soldiers were all veterans of Xu Youxin's subordinates. They basically had armor on their bodies and iron helmets on their heads. The pikemen were much colder. Most of them only had a piece of armor without iron and cotton on their bodies and a felt hat on their head. It¡¯s no wonder that most of these people are strong men who were kidnapped and dragged along the way south, and they are cannon fodder among cannon fodder. From the perspective of the military leaders, these people can just be given a stick with a pig iron spearhead tied to it. They are all used to charge into the battle array and climb the city anyway. Who will give them good swords, guns, equipment and armor? Nearly two thousand pikemen, under the punches, kicks, riding whips and curses of the officers, barely maintained their formation and did not herd the sheep. Slowly marching behind the archers and gunmen. Behind them were less than a thousand sword and shield soldiers. The team of sword and shield soldiers was much more orderly. After all, they were considered the elite of Xu Youxin's army. behind them. With the sound of hoofbeats, hundreds of cavalrymen acted as assault force and supervisory team, with sharp swords and axes in their hands. It¡¯s rainingThe weather has stopped, but the autumn wind is even colder. As the Qing infantry and cavalry slowly approached, the wilderness outside Hongqiao Town became increasingly murderous. The war was about to come. Wu Changqing, who was standing under his banner behind the parapet, exhaled softly and looked at the soldiers beside him. They all had their lips tightly closed and their teeth clenched, and their faces seemed a little distorted. . There was silence around him, except for the subtle breathing sounds that people tried their best to suppress, which were torn away by the autumn wind without a trace in an instant. Through those less eye-catching ground markers, Wu Changqing and Ji Changming at the top of the city can clearly judge the approximate distance between the Qing soldiers and their positions. In the blink of an eye, the archers at the front had moved forward for more than a hundred steps, and the outlines of their facial features could be vaguely distinguished. This proved that these Qing soldiers wearing only cotton armor or iron-inlaid cotton armor had already It was already within the effective range of the South Cantonese Army's artillery. ¡°If it were the severe winter season, Wu Changqing would have already ordered the cannon to be fired. However, now that the rain had just stopped, the ground was a slippery mud, and the bouncing lethality of the solid shells was reduced to a minimum. Therefore, the enemy must be placed as close as possible in order to fully utilize the power of the cannon. Seeing that the Qing army had marched forward for more than 200 steps, Wu Changqing could clearly distinguish the soldiers' eyebrows. Wu Changqing decisively waved the flag in his hand downwards. "Artillery team, fire!" The artillery team, which had already loaded the shells and shortened the fuses, immediately began to speak. Rumbles rolled past like huge thunder, bursts of gray-white smoke rose into the sky, and bursts of artillery shells roared towards the Qing army. At this distance, the dozen six-pound cannons placed on the Wu Changqing regiment's defense line basically fired flatly. The trajectory of the shells at this time was approximately a straight line. As long as it can be seen with the naked eye, artillery can hit it. Amidst the roaring sound, hot iron balls weighing several kilograms hit the Qing army. The iron ball rushed through the crowd, directly leading out a path of blood. The dozen or so small bullets fired from the cannons were flying around, and the Qing soldiers screamed and fell to the ground one by one. "It's a pity that although there was a commotion among the Qing troops, it was generally fine and they were still marching slowly. The ground was slippery and muddy, and the shells could not bounce after landing, making it impossible to carry out secondary damage. "No chaos! Charge forward! As long as you are close and can shoot with bows and arrows, the Nanman cannons will not be able to hurt you!" In addition to the weather helping the Qing soldiers, the officers in the team who were shouting hoarsely and desperately suppressing them also played a role. Huge effect. Without their yelling and scolding to stop them, these archers and fire gun soldiers would have collapsed long ago. I don¡¯t know when the autumn rain in the sky stopped falling. What fell on people¡¯s faces and bodies was graupel between rain and ice. This thing is called snow rice or rice snow in many local slangs, and it is also clearly classified as a close relative of snow. Its arrival marks the beginning of further cold weather and the beginning of cooling. The snowy rice that fell bit by bit on the Qing army¡¯s offensive formation wetted their red tassels, their swords, guns, and tassels, and their clothes, armor, and shoes. Soon, these snow rice will moisten the ground under their feet together with their flesh and blood. The falling of the snow rice lifted the spirits of the South Guangdong Army! It's not that the South Guangdong Army is not afraid of wind and snow. On the contrary, the main components of the army are people from warm areas and even subtropical and tropical areas, and they have a deep-seated fear of the cold. However, with the blessing of a large amount of cold-proof clothing and equipment, they are now cheering inwardly: "Let's go down! Let's go down quickly! The bigger, the better, the more, the better! It is best to freeze the ground to a solid solid state immediately, and So that you Tatars can enjoy our hot shells!" "Let these Nikans hurry up! Otherwise, if you wait so long, the gunpowder will get wet and won't be able to fire, and this attack will be over. It's all wasted effort again!" Niu Luzhang Jingmanahai held a short-handled crescent ax in his hand and kept yelling. "Don't panic! Just charge forward!" Sasuka is much more scheming and cunning than the middle and lower-level officers like Manahai. He also knew that Xu Youxin's troops would not be able to defeat Hongqiao Town no matter what. However, it is impossible to use thousands of surrendered Green Camp soldiers in exchange for the position of the South Guangdong Army, understand their tactics and tactics, find out their firepower equipment, consume some of their ammunition, and kill a few by the way. Not for? Do you really think that the regent's master has too much money and food to use up, and must use it to feed these wastes? With all that money and food, how about we cast a few more cannons? "Stand up!" Seeing that the front line of the Qing army has entered the range of the three-pounder cannon, the six-pounder cannon and eight-pounder cannon shells from the battalion's artillery have fallen into the middle of the Qing army's queue. At this time, Wu ChangqingAfter ordering the battalion officers of each battalion, the officers and soldiers who had been sitting on the ground to rest stood up with a bang and began to consciously check the weapons in their hands without the officer's order. Whether the faucet, trigger, and flint can spark and fire normally, and whether the spring has been affected by moisture, which affects its performance. Has the dust cap on the gun port been removed? "Five hundred stepsFour hundred and fifty stepsFour hundred stepsThree hundred stepsTwo hundred and fifty steps" The observers of the artillery team. Constantly reporting the distance between the Qing army and the South Cantonese army's front line based on various reference objects that had been calibrated in advance, let the artillery team leaders adjust various settings such as the elevation angle of the muzzle and the scale. Along with the distance they reported, the gunners issued a series of actions and commands almost instinctively formed by muscle memory. Under his command, the ammunition handlers used huge backpacks to carry the powder packages and shells to the gun positions. The loaders followed the gunner's instructions to load the medicine packages, and then pressed them with the push rod a few times to ensure that they were at the bottom of the gun barrel. , then slowly sent the shell into the barrel, and then pushed it into place with the ejector rod. Immediately afterwards, dazzling flames flashed across the artillery position, white smoke rose up, and artillery shells roared out. The charging Qing troops would then see fiery iron fire. The ball spun and hit them. Among them, the most crazy ones are those big Buddhas. A Folang machine equipped with ten muskets. These muskets can ensure the continuity of firepower in a short period of time. Continuously fired cannons one after another into the ranks of the Qing army. Among all the muskets, the loaded cannon is basically the same as a baby¡¯s fist. It¡¯s not about killing a few with one shot, it¡¯s just about penetrating objects blocking the trajectory of the shot! Just imagine, at a distance of two to three hundred steps, no matter how many layers of armor you wear, a high-speed rotating iron ball flying towards you will hit a huge bloody hole in your body, and there is no way to survive. . Even if you are lucky and are not hit from the front, if this thing passes by you, rubs against you, or touches you, most of the time you will not die. But you will be tossing and wailing in bed because of your injuries, which is too miserable to watch. A cannonball passed over the heads of the Qing army's queue, causing several Qing soldiers to feel the heat for a moment. This fleeting heat made them realize what it means to go from the world to hell, and then from the gate of hell. It felt like my mouth had crawled onto the floor of the human world. "However, the officers riding on horses behind them to supervise the battle were not so lucky. A battalion officer who was riding on a horse, waving a whip, shouting and scolding the soldiers, was passed by by this cannon, and he didn't feel anything strange at first. When he wanted to wave the riding crop in his hand, he found that his right hand and the riding whip fell to the ground. Only then did he realize that the cannon had taken away half of his arm! Suddenly, he hugged his stump and started wailing! "However, compared with his colleagues, he is extremely lucky. The shell only took away a small part of his arm, but for his colleagues on the left and right, a shell directly smashed the head of the battalion officer of the left battalion into a red and white mass, a corpse covered in three layers of heavy armor. Still sitting upright on the horse, large spurts of blood shot out from his headless neck like a fountain. The body was twisting desperately. After a while, the headless body suddenly fell off the horse. An iron ball directly punched a huge bloody hole in the body of a battalion officer. A huge ball of flesh and blood was wrapped around the iron ball and flew several meters away. An officer was very clever. When he saw that several of his colleagues were the first choice targets for artillery shells because they were riding on horses, he immediately turned over and jumped off the horse. He was guarded by several soldiers in the middle, thinking that this would be foolproof. However, a cannonball landed in the crowd and opened a gap in the team in front of him. It jumped forward and directly grazed the right side of his face. His nose was knocked off and his right cheekbone was damaged. The bones were shattered, and half of his lips and teeth were gone. The entire right side of the face was smashed in! He subconsciously touched his face and found that his hands were covered with flesh, blood, bones and debris, and he immediately let out an inhuman scream. If it weren¡¯t for the hundreds of Eight Banners cavalry at the rear of the team holding swords, spears and axes to supervise the battle, under such artillery fire and such casualties, I am afraid that this green battalion would have collapsed several times! Even so, Xu Youxin, who was watching the battle from a distance, was so distressed that he almost fell off his horse! These soldiers and horses, although the spearmen were the strong men and stragglers he had brought along the way, the archers, fire, guns, swords and shields were the assets he had accumulated over the years. If you lose this time, what will you do in the future? ! "Don't be afraid! Just rush forward! After a round of artillery fire, you must not be able to fire for at least a moment! Just rush forward and defeat them!" Sassu Kamele did not care at all about the casualty cost of this idea. After two rounds of artillery fire, the artillery salvo turned into taking turns.In order to prevent the gun body from overheating, the shooting interval of the artillery was widened. "The Nanman's cannon is dead! I'll charge forward! Whoever goes up first will be rewarded with ten silver coins! If you kill a Nanman, you will be rewarded with twenty silver coins! Anyone who dares to cower will be cut down on the spot!" The officers supervising the battle in the queue Taking the opportunity to wave the sword, the carrot and the stick came together. Seeing that the artillery fire on the opposite side gradually became sparse, and the distance between our own troops was getting closer and closer, the archers and gunmen in the Qing army became bolder, and arrows began to fly through the air, flying towards the South Cantonese Army. queue. "One hundred and fifty steps! Check the guns!" "One hundred and twenty steps! First column, squatting position! Second row, standing position! Fire guns ready!" "Eighty steps! The artillery stops firing!" At sixty At a distance of a few steps, the gunmen of the Qing army stopped and began to raise their guns and fire at the Southern Guangdong Army on the opposite side. The archers lined up and started shooting. Dense arrows passed over the open space between the two armies and landed in the formation of the South Cantonese Army. For a time, bang, bang, pop, pop, and tinkling sounds merged into a chaotic sound in people's ears. The sound of fire cannons being fired, the muffled sound of arrows hitting people's bodies, the impact of arrows falling on helmets and breastplates, and the screams of the injured were endless. Fortunately, the weather was humid, and the arrows and bowstrings were soaked by the rain, greatly reducing their power. Even so, people continued to fall to the ground and were carried down by the soldiers of the health battalion, and their positions were quickly filled. "Sixty steps! Fire!" The dense sound of firecrackers sounded continuously, and the thick gray-white smoke formed a barrier of death. :. :