Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 2103 Shelling
Chang Qingyun felt very frightened, his crotch seemed to have a strong urge to urinate, Chang Qingyun forcibly held back, but his legs were already so weak that he couldn't stand up.Chang Qingyun immediately recalled the sense of fear when Chengmai was defeated. Suddenly, his forehead felt a chill, and he couldn't help but think of the humiliation of being forcibly shaved by the Australians. Suddenly, a terrible thought came to his mind, whether this kind of humiliation will happen again once?

He looked around in a panic, as an aide, he had no family members or soldiers to use, and a few servants were just doing their job on weekdays, and he would never work for him when he was in danger, it was really hard to trust him with his life.

At last, Yang Erdong didn't forget "If Mr. Chang has good or bad, you are the only one to ask!" He quickly dragged Chang Qingyun all the way and dug a hole for hiding soldiers at the bottom of the city wall - at that time, the city had already been built to prevent the enemy from long-range projection. The awareness of weapons, so a cave reinforced with bricks and stones was built inside the wall. The defenders can hide in the cave from the artillery stones and arrows of the attacking enemy, and they can also rest inside, which is equivalent to a barracks—— Pull him into the cave of Tibetan soldiers.

The muffled sound of the cannon continued, and one could feel the vibration of the city wall under the bombardment of the shells.The flames of the oil lamps in the alcove flickered in shock.Gradually, shells crossed the city wall and landed in the city. The shells shot into the city dragged white smoke and made a sharp whistling sound. When they hit the houses, they smashed the houses to pieces, and when they hit the streets, they immediately raised a piece of mud. If the gravel hits a person, it will break an arm or leg if it is light, and it will be torn in half if it is serious, and the flesh and blood will fly.

Chang Qingyun and his servants were sitting on the ground of the cave, surrounded by some officers and men defending the city. They held their heads with their hands, covered their ears, and closed their eyes tightly, as if this could suppress the great fear caused by the shelling.

An iron ball with hissing sparks fell from the sky, followed by a flash of flames, and the violent blast caused by the blast rushed into the cave in an instant, extinguishing the oil lamp on the wall, and there was a burst of screams, curses and wailing in the cave immediately Voice.Chang Qingyun huddled tightly against the wall, he no longer felt the urge to urinate, and only hoped that this terrible time would pass quickly.

Under the continuous bombardment, the city wall of Wuzhou slowly collapsed like a castle of sand.The city walls were filled with smoke and flames were still flickering.Because the smoke from the artillery was too thick, Zhang Dapao ordered the firing to stop two hours after the firing.On the one hand, it cools down the barrel.On the one hand, let the smoke disperse and make it easier to observe.

After more than ten minutes, the smoke on the city wall and the artillery positions cleared away.Zhang Dapao used binoculars to observe the Wuzhou city wall after the first round of bombardment, and read out two lines of poems taught to him by the veteran Zhang Bolin: "When the wind blows, the clouds fly, and the cannon fires, hit his mother!"

The results of the first round of shelling were good. The entire south wall of Wuzhou City could no longer be called complete. The city tower had been bombarded by shells, leaving only ruins. The power of the 130mm cannon is even greater. Every time a shot is fired, a large part of the city wall will be blasted away, leaving countless small gaps.

The defensive facilities such as Qiaolou, Wopu, Mamian, parapets, and crenels on the original city wall were riddled with holes under artillery fire.These traditional masonry fortifications were already very fragile after the invention of artillery.

The biggest problem is instead the walls themselves.

The ancient Chinese city walls were almost all built of rammed earth for thousands of years.The thickness is at least 3 to 4 meters.The rammed walls are very thick and strong and can last for many years with proper maintenance.Most of the city walls in the Ming Dynasty were built in the era of Zhu Yuanzhang. Not only did most of the repairs take place until the end of the Qing Dynasty, but they were still a continuous mountain of earth after a hundred years after the bricks were removed.

For such a city wall, it is impossible for traditional smoothbore artillery to directly open holes in the wall.Even in the Revolution of [-], when the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Revolutionary Army attacked Nanjing, most of them used various small and medium-caliber rifled field artillery equipped by the new army in the late Qing Dynasty. The city wall was blown down, forcing Zhang Xun's braided army to abandon the city and leave.

The damage to the south wall of Wuzhou seems to be miserable, with many gaps, but no section has collapsed.Zhang Dapao was not too surprised. When he was in the gunnery training class, the instructor mentioned this point: Don't underestimate the thickness of the city wall. For the field artillery of the Fubo Army, or even the artillery equipped by the siege artillery, there is no What kind of cannon can easily blow down the rammed earth wall.

Even with their naval 130mm rifled guns, it's really hard to gnaw through the walls.However, the artillery fire had at least completely destroyed the defense system at the top of the city, and he could no longer see any signs of active Ming army officers and soldiers in the binoculars.

According to the attack mode of siege warfare trained by the army in the past, the assault can be launched at this time.The infantry climbed the city with ladders, and the artillery and light infantry suppressed the defenders at the top of the city to counterattack.A single charge can take down the city wall.However, the troops outside the south city were only "containment" - a feigned attack on the south wall. In order to attract the enemy's attention, the real main attack direction was the north, in order to block the retreat route of the Ming army fleeing north.

To be honest, Zhang Dapao couldn't quite understand the chief's "combat determination", according to Zhang Dapao's assumption.If all the artillery firepower at hand is concentrated, coupled with the cooperation of the West Detachment of the Pearl River Task Force, a section of the city wall will be smashed down to open a breach wide enough, and then the engineers will build a pontoon bridge, and the infantry can quickly enter the city through the gap.Destroy the enemy army.

To do this, Zhang Dapao will undoubtedly win the first victory in the Wuzhou Battle.

But the battle plan is another one, a feint attack in the south city, and the main attack is in the north.At the combat meeting, Zhu Mingxia roughly explained the reasons for this determination to fight.

First, the general idea of ​​the Fubo Army has always been to fight a war of annihilation.Do not focus on the gains and losses of one city or one place, emphasize the war of annihilation, and do not advocate the war of defeat.Therefore, we cannot simply defeat the Ming army and let them sneak around Guangxi.

Second, according to the information sent back by the intelligence personnel in the city, the Ming army was going to set fire to the city.According to predictions, once the Fubo army entered the city quickly, the Ming army, who knew that the city would be destroyed, would immediately set fire to it, and it was very likely that they would end up with the city of Wuzhou.

Zhang Dapao knew that the Senate was both generous and stingy.No expense was spared during the war and construction, but after the war, collecting the loot was really counting pennies and pennies.

If Wuzhou is to be beaten to pieces, and thousands of people will die, the chief's face will not look very good.Unlike the government, the first thing the chief wants is people.To the Senate, a broken city doesn't matter, the people are the most critical "trophies".

So Zhang Dapao's contribution can only be "assistant".Since you want to feint, you must make the feint full of weight, so that the enemy will mistakenly think that the direction of the feint is the direction of the main attack-the momentum must be great.

Although it was a feint attack, Zhang Dapao still planned to open a few holes in the south wall of Wuzhou City, so that the Ming army guarding the city in Wuzhou would be shrouded in fear of the Fubo army attacking at any time day and night.

So Zhang Dapao is not stingy with shells at all, let Lianqin nagging, I don't intend to save shells for you.The first round of shelling alone consumed one-third of the solid ammunition stock of the siege artillery battalion.Zhang Dapao lightly asked his logistics officer to go back to the joint logistics headquarters of the First Brigade on Changzhou Island to discuss ammunition; the joint logistics team was taken aback, and after allocating the ammunition, they went to the translation office and sent a telegram to the joint logistics headquarters of the South China Army in Sanshui; After Hong Huangnan received the telegram, he was also taken aback. Such a fight would wipe out his family in a few days. However, after sighing, he approved the first brigade's request for ammunition, and then sent another letter The telegram returned to Lingao; when the telegram reached the shell factory, the workers gritted their teeth and continued to work overtime. They had already worked overtime for several months and didn't care about a few more weeks.

Any city wall has a common weakness, and that is the city gate. The city wall can be constructed of solid rammed earth, but the city gate can only be made of wood.In the face of shells, wood is really vulnerable, not to mention that 130mm cannons can easily penetrate the shells of ships.

So Zhang Dapao ordered that three 130mm cannons be aimed at Dezhengmen, Nanxunmen and Yangmingmen respectively, and the rest of the artillery would concentrate their firepower to blast open the city gates.

Immediately, all kinds of cannons poured out their tongues of fire again, smashing large and small solid bullets fiercely at the three city gates. These cast iron shells hit the wooden city gates, feeling like they were hitting thin paper.The Yangming Gate was the first to be blasted open, and the smoke and dust billowed immediately. After a while, through the telescope, Zhang Dapao saw that the inside of the Yangming Gate was not a normal passage leading to the city, but a thousand-thousand-thousand Pitted mounds of dirt.

Dezheng Gate and Nanxun Gate were blasted open one after another. Zhang Dapao knew what was inside the gate without looking.

The Ming army blocked the door.

Blocking the gate is the ultimate means to make up for the weakness of the city gate, but this is equivalent to giving up the initiative at the same time. Since ancient times, the defenders have always paid attention to the initiative of going out of the city, sending troops out of the city from time to time to harass, disrupt and destroy the attacking side's operations subordinate.Especially the Ming army paid special attention to the competition for the gate of the city when defending the city.Not only will they set up a stronghold outside the city gate to cover the city gate when conditions permit, but they will also organize small troops to rush out from the city gate to counterattack and disrupt the enemy's attack when necessary.

Once the city gate is blocked, it is tantamount to giving up the initiative and completely dying.

For these temporary city walls built temporarily with bricks, wood and mud behind the city gate, it is only a matter of time before they are bombarded with 130mm cannons.However, the reason why a feint is a feint is that it is not a real attack.Zhang Dapao reckoned that enough solid shells had been dropped on the city wall of Wuzhou, and if the bombardment continued at such a high intensity, all the solid shells in stock would be consumed by the artillery without waiting until evening.

Zhang Dapao ordered all the artillery to stop bombarding the city wall, and the gunners cleaned the barrels.Prepare for the next wave of shelling.

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Next time I will update Volume 308 - Guangzhou Governance Chapter [-]

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(End of this chapter)