Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 519: Portuguese Instructor

On June 11th, [-]th year of Chongzhen, as orders were passed down, countless banners outside Shengjing City fluttered in the wind, and the unique red armor of the Ming army rushed towards Shengjing City like a vast ocean, destroying everything.

The generals from all walks of life were neatly dressed and rode high-spirited horses, and led their subordinates to march forward according to the pre-divided areas.

All the generals and soldiers were full of self-confidence and pride, because they knew in their hearts that what they were participating in was a battle to destroy the country. It will be a supreme honor to be able to personally participate in this battle to destroy another country for the first time, and what awaits them will also be rich rewards and promotions.

Since all the officers and troops of the Ming Dynasty were equipped with Jinyiwei Supervising Army, the soldiers no longer had to worry about the superiors being greedy for their own rewards, and their own achievements would be counted by the Supervising Army. A lot of papers will be handed out to my own hands.

The money for burning and burial of the war dead and the disabled and the money for meritorious service will be sent to the homes by the imperial court, so there is no need to worry about the imperial court reneging on their promises.

Every time after the post-war statistical list of the dead and disabled is reported, at most half a year, the supervising army will show the soldiers the copybook stamped with the big seal of the original government of the dead and disabled soldiers. The handprints of the people's handprints prove that all the money for burning and burying the pensions has been in place. This kind of upright behavior of the court has never been seen in 200 years. It is this seemingly small move that inspires every soldier to fight bravely against the enemy. .

Because they are no longer afraid that no one will take care of them after being killed or injured in battle. They have the most stable support in their hearts, and their families will benefit from this for life.

All these changes come from the emperor. Every supervisor has mentioned countless times that the treatment enjoyed by the soldiers in recent years was handled by the imperial court after the emperor's decree, and the emperor even used money from internal funds In the words of the emperor, this move is to prevent the soldiers from bleeding, sweating and crying.

This subtle change has already brought about a huge change in the psychology of all soldiers and mid-level and lower-ranking officers.

The original traditional concept of being a soldier of a certain general has completely disappeared. Most of the soldiers already know that they are soldiers of the emperor and the court, and all the benefits they enjoy are given by the emperor.

Under this general consensus, if any general wants to disobey the orders of the emperor and the court, or even join forces to fight against the court, the ending will be very miserable.

At the hour of the hour, following Sun Chuanting's order, the thundering roar of the red barbarian cannons rang out from the east, west, and south gates of Shengjing City, marking the beginning of the last major battle between the Ming army and the Qing army.

In charge of attacking the south gate of the Qing army were [-] Qin troops, commanded by the commander-in-chief Zhou Yuji himself.

Due to the small size of Shengjing City, and there are still nearly [-] Ming troops outside the city except those sent out, and the Ming army did not adopt the traditional ants to attack the city, so most of the Ming troops only Can line up outside, enviously watching the friendly troops who received the attack mission launch the attack.

One mile away from the south gate of Shengjing City, after receiving the attack order from Zhou Yuji, one of the ten Hongyi cannons placed in a line was tested, and the Portuguese instructor Francisco personally fired the cannon.

"Duang"!After a loud bang, a projectile weighing five catties drew a not-so-high parabola in the air, then quickly slammed into the thick city gate, and hit the target accurately.

Even though the back of the city gate was blocked with masonry burlap, this projectile with huge kinetic energy still punched a hole about a foot in the city gate.

After seeing the effect of the shelling, Francisco nodded in satisfaction, muttered a sentence in his native language, and then loudly ordered in his unskilled Ming Mandarin: "Reset, clear the chamber, and reload!"

More than a dozen loaders nearby rushed forward quickly, chanting to reset the heavy cannon, and then cleared and reloaded it. In less than a hundred breaths, the Hongyi cannon returned to the firing state.

Francisco stepped forward again, and several loaders began to adjust the position of the artillery under his orders. Several Ming Army gunners came forward to observe carefully, and kept in mind every move of the high-nosed and deep-eyed instructor.

After spending tens of breaths of time to re-adjust the orientation, Francisco nodded again with satisfaction, and then he quickly walked to the adjacent cannon, commanding the loaders to adjust the firing orientation, and he was in the process of There are also two Portuguese instructors doing the same action.

After all the cannons had been calibrated again, Francisco let out a roar, and a Ming army standard bearer beside him waved the red flag in his hand. The ten cannons fired almost at the same time, and the ten projectiles were indistinguishable. They flew across the sky one after another, and then slammed into the city gate fiercely.

In the end, eight of the ten projectiles hit the target directly, and two of them had a slight deviation and hit the brick wall of the city gate. It was either crushed or fell off, exposing the thick rammed earth inside.

The eight projectiles that hit the target one after another smashed the city gate to pieces in an instant, and the bricks and stones blocked behind the city gate were clearly visible.

Francisco yelled loudly again, the loader and the gunners of the Ming army began to get busy, and the ten cannons were ready again after more than a hundred breaths. This time Francisco did not step forward to proofread himself, but Order the gunners of the Ming army to go into battle by themselves according to the demonstration just now.

In fact, in the daily drills, the gunners of the Ming army have already possessed a very high level of artillery handling under the careful teaching of these Portuguese instructors, but the drills are different from actual combat. They need a strong psychological quality in the battle to be able to use the guns in normal times. The accumulation of drills is displayed to the greatest extent.

Tens of breaths later, ten cannons fired the second round. Five projectiles hit the target in this volley. Francisco on the side reluctantly nodded. This result was worse than usual, but Not too bad.

In the end, after four rounds of bombardment, the south gate of Shengjing City was finally smashed to pieces by projectiles, and the obstacles behind were completely exposed.

During the Ming army's bombardment, the Qing army did not take any countermeasures except that there were many Qing troops outcropping on the top of the city to watch.

It wasn't that they didn't want to fight back. The cannons at the top of Shengjing City had long been taken to Songjin by Huang Taiji when he personally conquered, and they were all thrown there in the end. Now, except for some small cannons, the Qing army defending the city was powerless to launch a counterattack.

Seeing that the city gate was dilapidated, Zhou Yuji gave an order, and two hundred young men from the supply battalion carried giant axes, chainsaws, hoes, and iron shovels, and pushed their carts towards the city gate. Roaring again, this time the target became the city tower and the nearby crenels, the purpose was to suppress and kill the Qing army at the top of the city, and cover the supply battalion to reach the city gate smoothly for demolition.

The 500 musketeers of the Qin Army also lined up, and when they reached a distance of [-] steps from the city gate, they formed a team of [-] people and began to shoot uninterruptedly at the top of the city.

This distance of seventy steps happened to be outside the range of the bows and arrows of the Qing army, but it happened to be within the gunpowder formation improved by gunpowder.

The Ming army's move really worked. The Qing army and many bannermen who were ambushing on the top of the city and on the towers were ready to use bows and arrows, stones, gold juice, rolling logs, etc. to kill the Ming army approaching the gate, but they were killed by Hongyi. Under the suppression of cannons and firecrackers, they couldn't lift their heads at all, so they could only let the supply battalion destroy the city gates and demolish bricks and stones.

　Thanks for the sweet and non-salty tip.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)