Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 454 Flesh Mill ([-])

"The follow-up service is equivalent to the military team in our army. They have no formal uniforms, no military pay, no weapons, and no honor. They live like walking dead." Gao Shan exhaled a smoke ring and continued to explain to his comrades : "Most of the people in the vicinity were relocated to Zhifu Island and Kongtong Island by us. It was difficult for the Qing army to recruit manpower nearby. The status of a follower is not even as good as that of the Qing army. Forced to fill trenches or consume our ammunition. Don't look at me with such eyes, this situation often occurs on the battlefield of Ming Dynasty, even Wallenstein and Gustav, didn't they do this in Germany What kind of thing? There are horses or mules to ride even the coats and slaves, the Qing army is very mobile."

Several people stopped talking, and they all put their heads to the observation hole and looked outside.In the distance, more and more people appeared on the horizon.Most of them rode war horses, and some of the few others pulled carriages, while others led mules and horses. They gradually poured into the view of the people on the east bank from the west and south.

Driven by the soldiers of the Qing army, a lot of tattered coats and followers began to build camps, dig trenches, and build artillery emplacements with crude tools.Because the walls of the nearby Ninghai Prefecture, Fushan County, Wendeng County and even some guards have been demolished by the East Coast people, the usable building materials have become the houses of the East Coast People, and the unusable ones have also been thrown into the port for filling. It was difficult for the Qing army to find a place to garrison nearby, so they had to camp on the spot in the wild.

There are no trees within a hundred miles of Yantai Fort, and people from the east coast have already organized their hands to cut them down completely in the past year.Part of it was used to retort charcoal as fuel, and part of it became a large area of ​​resettlement wooden houses on Zhifu Island and Kongtong Island. It became a problem for the Qing army to build camps.Because no one would carry a lot of wood all the way from the starting point, it would be too silly.Then, if the Qing army wanted to obtain enough wood to build camps for tens of thousands of people, they had to go hundreds of miles away to find it, which would consume a lot of their manpower and material resources.

……

On March 1645, 3, it was sunny and the northwest wind was five.

"Boom! Boom!" Two 12-pound long-barreled cannons located in the center of the south city wall opened fire one after another.The artillerymen from the East Bank watched from the top of the city that the Qing army artillerymen had been working hard for a long time before setting up the artillery positions. This efficiency made everyone watching from the top of the city anxious for them.After finally waiting for the gunners of the Qing army to clean up the artillery, the artillerymen of the Yantai Fortress Garrison Team, who had already aimed and aimed, estimated and estimated, immediately fired the first two shells of the day under the order of Li Wenchang.

Even though the people on the east bank where the Qing army set up the cannon had tried and measured it in advance, and there were detailed data in the shooting table, the shooting accuracy of the artillery of this era is still not comparable to that of later generations.Both shells missed. The first shell was fired too far, and fell directly into the crowd behind the Qing army's artillery. It made a bloody path all the way, and all the people who collided with it were bloody; the other shell It was a little closer to the artillery position of the Qing army, but it was still more than ten meters away, and the few followers who were picking up soil were scared away.

Greatly affected by the wind.Li Wenchang made a conclusion in his heart, but he remained calm and waited for the gunners to adjust themselves, adjust the amount of charge, and adjust the elevation angle of the barrel.The Qing army has placed six cannons on the front line, four of which seem to be imitation red cannons, and the weight is estimated to be one or two thousand catties, and the other two seem to be smaller caliber cannons, but the barrels are quite long , it doesn't look like the range will be too bad.

The artillery team of the Qing army arrived yesterday, only a little more than three days behind the vanguard.Along with the Red Artillery Team, there were also a large number of infantry and cavalry, auxiliary soldiers in coats and followers, as well as conscripted masters from the Ming Dynasty. The number of people was no less than 3.Together with these people and the thousands of cavalry that arrived on the first day, almost all the elite main force of the Qing army had arrived.After all, even if they have an army of [-] to [-], it is impossible to transfer all of them here.It is impossible not to send troops to stay in the important cities of Laizhou and Dengzhou, and it is impossible not to send troops to escort the logistics transportation line. This will inevitably greatly weaken the strength of the Qing army on the front line.

At the beginning of this month, when he learned that the Qing army had entered the territory of Laizhou Prefecture, Mo Ming immediately loaded Qin Shangxing and his key officers on two armed transport ships, and then drove them to the outer sea of ​​Dengzhou Port.At this time, part of the cavalry of the Qing army had arrived outside the city of Dengzhou, and the hearts of the people in the city were floating. Since Yang Wei was unwilling to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, Yang Wei had already lost control of the situation.After sending people ashore to communicate, only a few 3000 of the [-] Ming troops in Dengzhou City were willing to follow Qin Shangxing and others to Yantai, and the rest decided to surrender under the instigation of the gentry in the city.Seeing that the general situation was over, Yang Wei, who did not want to join the people from the east bank, decided to cut his hair and go to the mountains. Some of his hard-core men also led the troops out of the city to scatter. The Qing army entered the city.

Facing a famous city like Dengzhou, it is naturally impossible for the Qing army not to send troops to stay behind. They scattered the 2000 Ming troops who surrendered, and then stayed in the city with 5 infantry who came later.Later, when we traveled to Fushan County, although the foundations of the city walls here had been destroyed by the people from the east coast, the Qing army still kept 3 people stationed because it was located at the grain road transshipment node; Those who escorted food and grass on the way and stayed behind in Qingzhou and Laizhou, after several divisions, there were actually only about 4 troops who could be used to attack Yantai, of which there were about [-] soldiers (including [-] Manchurian soldiers).More than half of the more than [-] people (including [-] masters) who have arrived so far are soldiers, basically the main force has arrived. The follow-up more than [-] people (including [-] masters) are expected to gather in the next two days.

After the arrival of the Qing army, they organized Baoyi and Master to dig gun emplacements and set up cannons overnight in the south of Yantai Fort that night, showing their urgency.If you think about it, it will be the season of leaning and yellowing. The 8 to [-] Qing troops sent troops to the city of Yantai. This consumption is not ordinary.Not to mention that there are still a large number of slave laborers, these people also need food.It is conceivable that Fang Dayou in Jinan had to spend a lot of energy to support the rations of nearly [-] people (more than [-] Qing troops + [-] masters) and a large number of beans for war horses and pack animals on the front line.It is certain to seek alms from the big landlords in Jinan, Dongchang, and Yanzhou. The two prefectures of Qingzhou and Laizhou also have to scrape three feet of land, and Dengzhou has nothing to say.Just like this, I don't know how long it can last, so the Qing army is quick to make a decision, and it is not good for a long battle.

People on the east coast saw the Qing army raising fire to build artillery emplacements last night.Li Renjun, the commander of the 105th company of the army who was on duty at night, made a careful estimate and found that the artillery position of the Qing army was about [-] meters away from the south wall of Yantai Fort.This distance should be the best range for the red cannons of the Qing army. At this distance, their artillery can send shells to the city wall of Yantai without a large elevation angle, and it also has a certain amount of kinetic energy and destructive power.

In this way, their cannons should be much stronger than the batch that Sun Yuanhua cast in the first place.Sun Yuanhua's guns back then, according to the shooting table given to him by the Westerners, had the largest range at an elevation angle of 45 degrees, about 600 meters.In the 100th century, more than 18 years later, an 18-pound long-barreled siege gun by the British bombarded the Spanish city wall at a distance of 1000 yards (more than 900 meters). The shell damaged the city wall by a little more than an inch and was considered ineffective.As for the many books in the late Ming Dynasty that said that the range of the red-clothed cannon was "corroded ten miles", it was purely an exaggeration and nonsense by civil officials who did not understand military affairs.

You know, Mingren is just an imitation 12-pound naval gun, and the material used is not as good as the iron of the original British artillery, and the range will only be close but not far.The best 12-pound naval gun of the East Coast has a limit range of 1600 meters, but there are very few such guns. The range of a large number of 12-pound naval guns equipped with low magnification ratio will not exceed 1200 meters, and the effective range is only about 800 meters.Therefore, the effective range of the red cannons (12 pounds) of the Qing army was as much as 500 meters, which still surprised Li Renjun.They must have greatly increased the thickness and length of the cannon barrel in order to increase the range of the cannon. I don't know how heavy their cannon is. It is estimated that it is difficult to stop a thousand catties.

Last night, a total of six places of the Qing army raised fire to build artillery emplacements at the same time, all of which were located outside the southern city wall.As for the west city wall, they had to cross a large swamp in the floodplain area of ​​the Dagu Jiahe River. At this time, some areas had begun to thaw, and every day after the sun rose during the day, they were full of quagmire, making it difficult for people to walk, let alone cannons.As for the east city wall, the Qing army is not so stupid. There are still two armed transport ships of the navy parked in the harbor. Although they are not professional warships, the artillery on one side of the two ships adds up to about ten guns, and they are all at range. For the heavy artillery that is far away, the Qing army would not dare to come here to make trouble.Therefore, the southern city wall became the place of decisive battle between the two sides.

Li Wenchang learned the news early this morning when he replaced Li Renjun, and immediately went to the top of the city to urge the gunners to knock down the artillery pieces of the Qing army.After the two guns were fired, several gun crew members immediately got busy, clearing the chamber, resetting, charging the powder, loading the bomb, and adjusting the elevation angle of the gun barrel. The movements were extremely skillful.And while they were busy, the artillery on the protrusions on both sides of the city wall also started firing.

The first to fire were also two 12-pound cannons, and they were also two guns staring at one artillery position of the Qing army, trying to knock out one first.The two shells also missed. One hit the mound under the Qing artillery emplacement without causing any impact; the other hit a carriage behind the emplacement, directly breaking the carriage apart. , the two draft horses were stung by the flying sawdust, and immediately neighed.

(End of this chapter)