Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 459 Flesh Mill ([-])

After destroying the artillery, the entire battlefield fell silent like this.The Qing army still left some infantry to guard against the people from the east coast of the city going out to attack, but most of them had already started to retreat to the camp as a whole.The Eight Banners coaters dispatched again, holding knives and horsewhips to drive the poor masters to build camps, while digging ditches outside Yantai Fort to collect soil. It seemed that they wanted to pile up earth walls.But it doesn't look like this at all. Could it be that they still want to dig a series of dense traffic trenches?

Li Wenchang watched from the top of the city, he felt that the current situation was very interesting.The Qing army obviously foresaw the heavy casualties that would be suffered by storming Yantai Fort, a fortified city with fierce firepower, but they had to do so.Therefore, they can only take all means to avoid various losses. For example, building earth walls and digging traffic trenches in front of them is a good way, but the amount of work is really too big, and only the large and powerful Qing army can afford it.

Originally, every Qing army had to start from 2000 meters away. Not only was the journey long, but it was also constantly bombarded by cannons along the way. This was very damaging to morale. The one in the morning hadn’t even reached the range of 200 meters from the city wall on the east bank. The army that collapsed within the country is proof.Now that there are traffic trenches, the Qing army is obviously able to advance the starting position to a range of 1000 meters, which greatly reduces their casualties, because the threat to them from the iron bullets bouncing on the ground is greatly reduced.

If an earthen wall is placed in front of the winding traffic trench, then it can somewhat conceal their various actions, and the effect should be quite good.They only need to pile up the soil dug out of the traffic trench in front of them. The soil wall is soft and thick, which can absorb the kinetic energy of the shells well. As long as it is made very thick, the artillery of the East Coast people can strike at a distance of 1000 meters. not big.

Now everyone in Shandong knows that Hauge, Prince Su of the Qing Dynasty, personally led an army of 30 (known to the outside world) to conquer the yellow-clothed pirates. hit.Moreover, many people in Shandong are watching, such as those hidden anti-Qing armed forces, do you think they are all good?They stopped for a while, obviously because the Qing army was powerful and temporarily avoided its edge. Once the Qing army's 5-strong army was frustrated under the city of Yantai, these people would 100% jump out to make trouble again.

So, the fight against Yantai involved a lot of things, it was a political battle!A political battle that must be won!Since the calculation is a political account, things such as casualties of officers and soldiers and material consumption are all small things. Whether Yantai can be taken down, and whether the yellow-clothed pirates on the east coast can be wiped out are the key to the problem.Regarding this point, the Qing army was full of confidence, but now they are really a little uncertain.Although the city is not big, it cannot be completely besieged due to its proximity to the sea, so it can only be attacked by force, but the goddamn yellow-clothed thieves are firing so fiercely, how many people must be filled in to take it down.

There was no fighting for the next two days on March 3 and 10, but the Qing army had a large number of main force reinforcements.So far, the troops they have gathered under the city have officially exceeded 11 people (excluding the master), and after two days of preparations, early this morning, the Qing army lined up outside the camp again, and it seems that they are ready to start A new round of attack.

The main force of today's attack is still the new attached army. After they lined up at the gate of the camp, they slowly entered the traffic trenches, and then moved forward along these winding trenches.Two days was too tight for the construction of the earth wall, coupled with the harassment from the artillery on the east bank from time to time, so they only hastily built a one-meter-high earth wall in front of the battle, and the thickness was not very good , was repeatedly penetrated by solid artillery shells on the east bank.Therefore, the people on the east bank on the top of the city can see the movement of the Qing army in many aspects.

However, the traffic trenches they built were not useless, because the solid shells fired by the long-range artillery of the people on the east bank could no longer cause them much damage, and the hit rate dropped greatly.Because if a shell is not in the traffic trench, it is difficult to hurt anyone. Even if the shell jumps into the traffic trench, after being blocked by the narrow two walls, the kinetic energy of the shell will be exhausted quickly, and the damage will be greatly reduced. .At least, it is hard to see the previous scene of relying on ricochets to injure a group of people on flat ground.

In two days, although tens of thousands of civilians were mobilized to participate in the construction of the traffic trench and the earth wall, the Qing army still only pushed the traffic trench to within 1000 meters from Yantai Fort.They couldn't get any closer, firstly because they didn't have enough time, and secondly because if they were any closer, they would be effectively attacked by the six artillery pieces of the East Coasters, and the casualties of the trench diggers would increase dramatically.Under the threat of the explosive bombs fired by the people on the east coast, they couldn't hold on for long before they collapsed. That kind of terrifying explosive shells couldn't be resisted by manpower. Even if they paid tens of thousands of casualties, they might not be able to dig this traffic trench. become.

In fact, they already felt the pain when digging the traffic trench 1000 meters away.At that time, only two artillery pieces fired some solid shells that could effectively kill them, occasionally mixed with a small amount of explosive shells.In this way, 500 people were killed or injured by the civilian men who had been digging ditches in two days, and even more than 1000 people were killed or injured by the Eight Banners who supervised the coat and follower, which is shocking.The Qing army, who really couldn't imagine the price it would take to push the traffic trench to within [-] meters, quickly recognized the reality. They began to build an earth wall on one side of the trench, and then left a few gaps on the top of the earth wall, and used it as a starting position.

Speaking of which, today is the first time they have practiced this tactic. It took a long time for more than 1000 Qing soldiers to turn out of the winding traffic trenches, and then the knives and axes still went first. Although many obstacles were destroyed the day before yesterday, they still did not clear them thoroughly, so these people were responsible Do this job.At this time, they had realized the difficulty of the barbed wire fences of the people on the east coast, so they decided to chop off the wires with knives and axes, and then burn the stakes.It is conceivable how low their chances of surviving the various types of artillery on the east coast were, so they all turned pale, but they had no choice but to hope that they were lucky enough not to be hit by the artillery.

Immediately behind them was a crowd holding kerosene and holding torches. They chanted and followed behind the axemen at a relatively fast speed.On the left, right, and rear of them, there are a large number of civilian men carrying earth bags. They follow behind these Qing army auxiliary soldiers with pale faces and trembling.Their task was to throw the earthbags on their shoulders behind the barbed wire.Because the hateful pirates in yellow clothes on the east coast have set up two barbed wire fences under the city, and the distance between the two barbed wire fences is about ten meters.The distance of more than ten meters is not flat ground. In fact, it is filled with dense iron picks, and the gaps between the iron picks are also full of barbed wire.These must be filled in, otherwise people will not be able to pass.

The whole process was the same as the previous two times, and the artillery of the East Coasters caused heavy casualties to these.The only difference between the Qing army and the previous two is that the starting position is closer, and the time spent under artillery on the way is also shorter.But they still failed to rush under the walls of Yantai Fort, because the remaining wooden piles and barbed wire fences in front greatly hindered their actions. Some peasants carrying soil bags tried to cross the barbed wire scattered on the ground, but they were quickly fired. down.Some people even tripped over the barbed wire, and the scene was chaotic.In the end, after paying more than 400 casualties, the Qing army of more than 1000 retreated again.Their only achievement was to clear most of the remaining first wooden stakes and barbed wire under Yantai Fort ahead, and at the same time threw a few sparse soil bags behind the barbed wire.

But today the Qing army seems to be very determined.After this wave of people retreated from both sides, the second wave of more than a thousand people immediately stepped forward.Their attire and equipment were exactly the same as before, and this time they lasted a little longer, but the results were not even as good as the previous wave.The corpses, tools, earth bags and other things scattered everywhere on the ground greatly hindered everyone's actions. After they also paid more than 400 casualties, they barely filled the distance between some two barbed wire fences and turned around. Fleeing, declaring that this operation was a complete failure.

After two consecutive waves of people retreated in a short period of time, the Qing army, which had suffered nearly a thousand casualties today, remained unmoved.After executing a group of the fastest-running rout soldiers again, the third wave of shocks began again, and [-] green battalion auxiliary soldiers recruited in Henan rushed up howling.They arrived here yesterday, and they were all from the Ming army.Perhaps the commanders of the Qing army were fed up with those sluggish rural soldiers, so they sent this "regular" Green Battalion in their eyes, hoping to clear up the road ahead as soon as possible. all obstacles.

Their performance seems to be much better than the previous two waves of the Qing army. They rushed to the front with uninterrupted fierce artillery fire, and then covered the ground with soil bags, door panels, etc. Cover it with iron signs, barbed wire, etc., so that the follow-up troops can pass through this place safely and smoothly.When this was done, they even went so far as to hack a second barbed wire furiously with axes, pouring kerosene on the stakes, and setting them on fire.

After all the artillery of the East Coast people joined in the attack on them, they paid nearly 500 casualties before they collapsed, which is impressive.But this is just a siege battle, and they will be so "war-resistant" when there is a supervisory team in the rear to supervise the battle.If they can achieve one-third of the casualties before retreating in a field battle, then they will be a first-class strong army.

After they retreated, there were not many things under Yantai Fort that could stop the enemy.At most, the Qing army on the opposite side only needs to organize another offensive to completely remove these obstacles, and then they can come over with the ladder to attack the city.

(End of this chapter)