Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 264 Gateball
Artillery could not raze the rammed earth wall to the ground. After the collapse, the wall was still ten feet high, but the broken earth that had fallen from it formed a gentle slope, allowing the attackers to climb up without the help of ladders.

"County Magistrate Cao, my heavy artillery can only make such a small gap in the city wall. The next step is up to the Tongan soldiers!"

Lin Hai felt a little painful when he said this, as the effect of the bombardment was still somewhat different from what he had imagined. Therefore, his 20 300-jin cannons fired an average of about rounds.

Calculated based on the barrel life, this is almost equivalent to scrapping 10 new cannons, and thousands of taels of silver were spent on that collapsed section of the city wall, not to mention the consumption of gunpowder and shells.

Of course, as long as they win in the end, most of the shells can be recycled. And the war is fought for money, there is nothing to say, not to mention that Wanggang has already made a lot of money.

It is not difficult to attack the city wall when it has collapsed like this. Since Magistrate Cao is eager to suppress the bandits, Lin Hai is unwilling to let the vanguard bureau, which has suffered heavy casualties, fight again, so he lets the Tongan soldiers go first.

This kind of battle could not be fought in formation, and all that was needed was bravery. The Huiyou Company used mortars to cover the Tongan soldiers as they approached the collapsed city wall, and then they engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the pirates on the gentle slope.

In terms of personal bravery, the local soldiers were certainly not as good as the pirates, but with the enthusiasm to defend their hometown, the Tongan local soldiers organized death squads to take turns fighting the pirates in charge of guarding the hometown. The gentle slope was littered with corpses in just one morning.

During the truce, ten mortars continued to fire shrapnel at the back of the gentle slope. The Zheng army did not know when the next round of charge would come, so they could only keep a small number of troops on guard near the gentle slope. The pirates assigned to the mission often suffered heavy casualties.

Since the shells fired by the mortar flew relatively slowly and their trajectories were easy to see, the pirates quickly gained experience and were able to predict the impact points and dodge them.

It takes a lot of luck to avoid the damage from the cannonballs, because the cannonballs will bounce or continue to roll when they hit the ground. Some brave people, seeing that they cannot avoid the damage radius, simply run towards the cannonballs and use the back of a knife or axe to knock them into a low place.

This is a real gamble, as dangerous as playing Russian roulette with a revolver. Many soldiers in the Civil War did this and called it "gateball". Soldiers who escaped unscathed could get a $150 reward for winning a game of gateball.

Zheng Zhilong also offered a generous reward to the troops guarding the east city wall. However, under the repeated attacks of the Tongan militia and artillery posts, no one was willing to fight soon, so he had to send the Marines led by Wang Mengxiong, who was well paid.

Firing mortars was too dangerous. Although the Ming army had been equipped with them for a long time, they had not used them much in actual combat. It was the first time for the pirates of Zheng's army to face shrapnel shells, and their morale was very low.

In another time and space, decades later, when Koxinga attacked Fort Zeelandia in Tainan, he was also repelled by the mortars deployed by the Dutch in the moat. The VOC soldiers took the opportunity to advance and nail down the cannons of Zheng's army. After that, Koxinga chose the strategy of surrounding but not attacking.

The pirates under Zheng Zhilong were naturally no match for the Ming army under his son's command decades later. Even the two thousand elite marines were far inferior. After barely holding out for most of the day, they all clamored to go on strike.

"Boss, let's go out of the city and fight a decisive battle!" After Wang Mengxiong personally fought off a wave of attacks from the Tongan soldiers, he came to the rear to meet Zheng Zhilong covered in blood.

The morale of Zheng's army has dropped to freezing point. Once the city wall is breached, this last breath of energy will be completely lost, and there may be no street fighting.

"Leave the city?" Zheng Zhilong muttered, as if he was sleepwalking.

"Boss, our army has no way to retreat. We must fight a decisive battle with Lin the bandit as soon as possible!" Wang Mengxiong stepped forward and came in front of Zheng Zhilong, shouting with his eyes wide open.

"No, no, we can't leave the city, Lin Hai is waiting outside the city..." Zheng Zhilong was frightened by the shout, his face full of panic. "If the boss doesn't give the order, we will all die without a burial place!" Wang Mengxiong didn't care about much else, and grabbed Zheng Zhilong's shoulder with his big hand like an iron clamp, and at the same time, he pressed the hilt of the knife at his waist with his other hand.

"How dare you! Do you want to rebel?" Zheng Zhipeng on the side drew out his knife with a clang.

"Back off!" Zheng Zhilong shouted softly. Wang Mengxiong's hand was extremely strong, and his mind finally became clear after feeling the pain. He knew that the situation would only get worse if he dragged on.

"Pass on my order. The entire army will have a good meal and go out of the city for a decisive battle at the end of the ten-day month and the beginning of the evening of the lunar month!" Zheng Zhilong's face turned red like a peach blossom and his voice trembled slightly.

"Yes, Boss!" Wang Mengxiong put down his hands, stepped back, and bowed his head to accept the order.

Dusk gradually enveloped Jiahe Island, and the Tongan soldiers finally stopped attacking the gap in the city wall. Most of these soldiers were farmers, and many of them suffered from night blindness, so they were still blind even with torches at night.

This was the main reason why Zheng Zhilong waited until it was completely dark before leaving the city for the decisive battle.

Seafood such as marine fish and kelp are rich in vitamin A, so pirates rarely suffer from night blindness. Zheng Zhilong often took advantage of this when fighting against the Ming army in the past.

However, that evening, before the night attack, when the pirates were eating and drinking in the city, Zheng Zhilong suddenly changed his mind.

He summoned Wang Mengxiong alone and asked, "Brother, our army's morale is low now. What if we leave the city and the brothers scatter in the dark?"

"Master, are you worrying too much?" Wang Mengxiong hesitated and replied, "Our army has no boats. Just like the King of Chu who burned his boats and burned his cauldrons, all the brothers know that there is no way to retreat, so they will not flee."

"Brother, when it comes to scheming, you are still not as good as me." Zheng Zhilong shook his head and said, "Jiahe Island is dozens of miles in radius, and there are many mountains and forests. Can the forest bandits kill everyone? In the end, only you and I have no way out."

Wang Mengxiong was shocked when he heard this, and he had to admit that what Zheng Zhilong said made sense.

All Lin Hai wanted was the head of Zheng Zhilong, the bandit leader. He would certainly not let go of the other traitorous generals from the imperial court. There was really no need for the others to escape from Jiahe Island. They could just disperse into the mountains and forests and save their lives.

If Lin Hai was not a fool, he would definitely choose to surrender ordinary pirates and offer a reward to Zheng Zhilong and Wang Mengxiong. By then, even Zheng Zhipeng might have a chance to survive if he was willing to surrender with his cousin's head.

"Having said that, I think that not all the brothers may understand what the boss said?" Wang Mengxiong couldn't help but hesitate after hearing what Zheng Zhilong said.

"With more than 10,000 brothers, there will always be someone who can figure it out. As long as someone takes the lead in making trouble, with the current morale of our army, it will definitely be a situation of disarray."

(End of this chapter)