Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 524
After two hours of fierce fighting, the Ming army finally rushed from the east, west, and south to the place hundreds of steps outside the Shengjing Palace. The large and small flags look extraordinarily dazzling under the scorching sun.

At this time, only a few hundred paces within the north gate of Shengjing City was still under the control of the Qing army. Of course, this control was only deliberately given up by the Ming army according to the prior strategy.

The purpose of this is to disintegrate the fighting will of the Qing army, so that they will no longer fight to the death when they see that there is still a way to survive, thereby reducing the casualties of the Ming army itself.

This is now beginning to bear fruit.

Seeing that the general situation is gone, I don’t know how the news got out. Many Qing soldiers and Eight Banners began to flee from various streets and alleys to the north gate of Shengjing. Those who escaped first had already started to tear down the bricks blocking the gate. Those who escaped one after another quickly joined the fervent labor.

During this process, no Ming army came to intercept the siege.

During the initial demolition and excavation, there were only a small number of Qing soldiers and bannermen. Amidst the rumble of cannons and murmurs in the city, they were demolishing bricks and stones, while looking around in fear, for fear that the Ming army would suddenly come from the streets and alleys. kill it.

With the progress of the demolition and the continuous participation of clan members, these Eight Banners masters finally felt relieved, and the entire demolition and excavation project gradually began to speed up.

It is not that no one thought that there would be an ambush by the Ming army outside the city, but now only by escaping from the city can they have a chance to survive, otherwise staying in the city will only lead to death.

Zhou Yuji, the high-spirited commander of the Qin Army, stood on a pile of bricks and stones, watching the fortifications piled up by the Qing army more than two hundred steps away, relying on an archway. Senior generals, everyone's faces were filled with expressions of joy and pride.

In front of the group of generals, on the avenue paved with blue bricks, which is nearly ten feet wide, four Franco cannons and two Weiyuan general cannons are lined up. Just the fortifications, the densely packed figures of the Qing army behind the fortifications can be faintly seen from a height.

At this moment, there were faint gunfire from the east and west, and the Ming army from these two routes had already launched an attack on the Qing army.

The first victory in the invasion of Shengjing has been won by the Qin army, and now the other two groups must compete for the first victory in attacking the palace, and the Qin army cannot let all the credit be snatched away.

"General system! Let's start fighting? The friendly army will fight in when it's too late!"

"That's right! Commander-in-Chief, hurry up and order!"

"General system, we have the main entrance in front of us, and the other allies are opening the side entrances. Those small gates will be difficult to get in for a while. I think if we want to break into the pseudo-imperial palace, we still have to rely on our Qin army!"

After hearing the sound of the cannon, all the generals looked impatient and urged Zhou Yuji to order an attack. The gunners in front also looked back frequently, waiting for the command from the superior to fire.

These generals didn't think too much about it. For them, of course, the more credit they have, the more generous the rewards will be in the future. The first army to attack the so-called Qing Palace will definitely attract the emperor's attention. A great honor.

Seeing the anxious expressions on the faces of the generals, Zhou Yuji, who didn't want to fight for credit, sighed secretly, and then put aside distracting thoughts and shouted in a deep voice: "Let's start!"

A sharp horn blew, and the gunner in front quickly ignited the fuze. A deafening roar resounded through the entire street. Four solid projectiles and two flowering projectiles shot out of the gun chamber with a slight whistling sound. It smashed towards the archway more than two hundred steps away.

The Qing army, who had suffered from shells several times, had already learned how to behave. After the sound of the Ming army’s horn, most of the Qing army either stuck to the palace wall or dodged to one side, trying to avoid the trajectory of the solid projectile. kill route.

Although this approach is feasible, the main target of the Ming army's bombardment this time was not to kill and injure Qing soldiers, but to bombard the parapet built with masonry and burlap.

After the four solid projectiles were fired in a volley, the gunner quickly adjusted the shooting angle according to the direction of the impact point, and the loader had already filled the guns. The four projectiles fired in the second wave were no longer salvos, but one after the other. It hit the fortifications blocking the entire passage.

As for the explosive shells fired by General Weiyuan, there is no need to worry about these at all. The two shells directly crossed the fortifications and exploded on the blue brick ground. There was a scream of explosion.

After nine rounds of firing from Frang's machine gun and three firings of General Weiyuan's cannon, most of the fortifications under the archway were blown down by bullets, and the Qing army behind the fortifications also suffered heavy casualties. A row of 20 people formed a gun formation and began to move forward in unison.

This time, there were no spearmen covering the flanks, because the two sides needed to leave enough room for the front row gunners to rotate. If they were arranged with spearmen, the gunners would not be able to guarantee continuous firepower.

This small phalanx is followed by one hundred archers, twenty grenadiers, and two hundred sword and shield players. Their main responsibility is to deal with the worst-case scenario.In case the Qing army rushed forward regardless of casualties, long-range combat units such as musketeers could not cope with close combat, and would suffer a great loss without the protection of the rear.

The Qing army, which had already suffered hundreds of casualties under the bombardment of shells, saw that the Ming army's cannons stopped firing, and when a large group of infantry was forced over, the soul that had just been blown away returned to the body, a Jialazhangjing Roaring loudly, about a thousand Qing troops began to line up to fight the Ming army.

Just as the Qing army gathered together, the roar of the cannon sounded again. The gunners of the Ming army raised the muzzle and fired at the Qing army. He went to the dense Qing army.

The killing effect this time has increased the power of the shells to the extreme. After the four solid projectiles landed, they made a bloody alley in the Qing army. Each bullet killed more than ten Qing soldiers before stopping. scroll.

And the flowering bombs that fell on the crowd were no less impressive. Two shells that exploded in succession overturned more than [-] Qing troops to the ground.

The phalanx of the Ming army involuntarily accelerated its pace, advancing quickly when the Qing army was in chaos, and soon reached a place more than [-] steps away from the front of the Qing army. The leader Qian gave an order, and the trumpeter The trumpet was sounded, and the entire phalanx stopped moving forward and then began to regroup. At this time, the chaotic Qing army had not yet escaped from the chaos.

"Ten steps forward!"

After spending more than a dozen breaths to align, Ming Army Chief Qian shouted orders, and with the short sound of horns, the phalanx of musketeers moved forward in unison, stood still ten steps forward, and then formed a three-stage strike formation.

The archers on the flanks of the Qing army in the front row had no time to wait for the order to form a volley, and the surviving archers drew their bows and arrows to shoot at the Ming army, and the Ming army's firecrackers fired almost at the same time.

The screams from the camps on both sides sounded one after another. Some of the gunners of the Ming army in the front row were shot and fell to the ground after being shot, but the continuous firepower output of the gun array knocked down the Qing army one by one from fifty paces away. .

After the first three rows of the Ming army finished fighting, the gunners dragged the comrades who fell to the ground with arrows and quickly circled around from both sides, and gave way to the gunners who had set up their positions in the last three rows. The gunners went forward to fire in the same way, while the gunners who turned to the rear finished loading before the first round was finished. If this formation flowed smoothly, no matter how many Qing troops were, it would be impossible to get close.

The artillery of the Ming army in the rear line fired another round, and the gun formation also hit a round and a half. With the bombardment of this wave of projectiles, the courageous Qing army could no longer hold on under the situation of huge casualties. The Qing army in the formation began to flee backwards, and soon this scene spread, and the moraleless brigade of the Qing army finally collapsed and fled.

　I exchanged recommendations with a colleague from the Baiyin League just now. The title of the book is "The Industrial Revolution of Ming Dynasty". Friends can take a look.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)