Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 574 Support ([-])

For artillery battles, the East Coast Artillery is the best!In this regard, Bernini's temporary second lieutenant, who is the deputy commander of the artillery company, is full of confidence.

Regarding the strength of his colleagues in the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, he had already experienced it once in Yantai Fort: Compared with the artillery of European countries, the level was far below the average.Want to engage in artillery battles with people from the East Coast at such a level?Although they have a certain range advantage on the top of the city, firstly, their cannons have a small range and secondly, their caliber is not large, so they seem a little powerless when facing the four east coast artillery.

At noon, the two sides finally decided the outcome after firing countless shells.One artillery piece of the Qing army was destroyed, and one was bombed due to excessive firing. As for the artillery on the east coast, two were also destroyed, but the artillery carriages were slightly damaged.

Two of the four artillery pieces were destroyed, and the Qing army's artillery fire stopped for a while.But they stopped, the artillery on the east bank did not give them time, the remaining 6 artillery immediately shifted their targets, and bombarded the city wall, and the key bombardment was naturally destroyed by the red cannons of the Qing army more than a year ago. That's it.At the same time, the infantry and cavalry on the east bank were also ready to attack outside the city, ready to intercept the Qing army leaving the city at any time to protect the safety of the artillery.In addition, 4 squadrons (1000 people) of the third brigade of the weak combat force were sent out to collect food and grass in the nearby countryside.

So the battlefield was deadlocked in such a strange situation.The Qing army in Yangzhou city was similar in number to the east bank army outside the city, but they did not dare to go out to fight. This reminded Shi Tingzhu of the Ming army in Liaodong. Out of town to fight.

Back then, the Eight Banners soldiers lacked siege weapons, so they could only besiege the city of the Ming army for a long time, but now the bandits in yellow are different!Their yellow-clothed cannons are famous all over the world. Not only are they extremely light in weight, but their range, power and accuracy are far superior to those of the red-clothed cannons.How can this city be guarded? !The current plan, it seems, can only wait for the Qing army from Gaoyou Prefecture, Taizhou, Xinghua, Baoying and other counties to come for reinforcements, in order to attack the bandits in yellow on both sides.Shi Tingzhu didn't dare to think about defeating them, but it was still possible to force out this group of daring bandits.But the problem is that the total number of Qing troops in Gaoyouzhou and other places is no more than [-], and they are all green battalion soldiers from Henan who are not very powerful. Do they dare to come?Thinking of this, Shi Tingzhu didn't dare to confirm again.

The cruel facts shattered Shi Tingzhu's last illusion.Because until the night of May 5 when the north city wall of Yangzhou collapsed in a large area, the reinforcements never appeared, and even their messengers failed to enter Yangzhou City, but were intercepted and killed outside the city gate.Although Shi Tingzhu and others organized a large number of civilians to block the gap at night, and at the same time sent selected soldiers out of the city to attack the artillery team of the East Coasters, but after the initial attack went smoothly and destroyed two artillery pieces of the East Coasters, The East Coast Army, which came back to its senses, immediately organized a counterattack. The dense volleys of guns and black soldiers in armor pushed back the invading elite of the Qing army.In the second half of the night, the Qing army launched two more offensives, but they failed to achieve results.

After dawn on May 5, Mo Ming first ordered the beheading of more than a hundred Zhai Cong'e soldiers who took the lead in fleeing last night.Last night, when they guarded behind the barbed wire fence and a trench, they failed to resist the sudden attack of the elite Qing army and broke up, causing a section of the barbed wire fence to be breached and two artillery pieces destroyed.This fact made Mo Ming extremely angry. Although Zhai Cong'e pleaded for mercy in every possible way, he still ordered the beheading of more than a hundred defeated soldiers in public, in order to rectify the military law.

After strict military discipline, the infantry who had already put on steel armor dispersed into small square formations, and then, with the support of the other 8 short-barreled howitzers of the artillery company, stepped on a section of the moat that was filled overnight, towards the north city wall of Yangzhou for about 12 minutes. Advance through the gap of more than ten feet.There are faintly some Qing troops repairing the gap, but it doesn't matter, the metal storm formed by 4 east coast artillery ([-] of them have been lost) will make no one stand in this gap.

The two infantry battalions of the Black Eight Banners (more than 1500 people) wore steel armor and held brand-new 4.2-meter spears on both sides. In the middle was Zhai Cong'e, who was the pioneer, with less than 2000 people. They lined up in four units with 500 people. A small phalanx, in the gap between the phalanx is the field howitzer who is constantly advancing with the phalanx, behind the artillery is the army's 104th company, 105th company and a team of musketeers, a total of 730 musketeers, the above more than 4000 battles The soldiers formed the first attack force on Yangzhou City.

After they set off, 4 squadrons of the third brigade of the stand-up team (had returned from collecting food) and a black eight-banner infantry battalion remained, with a total of about 1800 soldiers left to guard the camp.Mo Ming led the relatively elite First Brigade, the Army's 102nd Company, and the Cavalry Brigade to form the second echelon, ready to deal with various emergencies at any time.Along with these about 5000 soldiers, there were 2500 trembling soldiers holding spears.

For siege warfare, the East Coast people have long had a set of effective guidelines.That is to give full play to the firepower of the artillery, let the artillery play the leading role, destroy the enemy's stronghold or any attack action with firepower, and try to avoid falling into the situation of hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.Of course, the real success depends on the quality of the soldiers and grassroots officers. If they are all well-trained local troops, then the Qing army will naturally have no chance to approach under the intensive artillery fire and volleys of guns.But if it is a soldier from Zhai Cong'e's gang of bandits, although the training time is not short, it is really hard to say how he will be beaten...

The area of ​​Yangzhou City is very large. There are rivers, theaters, gardens, temples, military camps and other buildings in the city. It is crowded and prosperous.A year and a half ago, Duoduo, who led the army to break through Yangzhou City, did not dare to carry out a brutal massacre because the army on the east bank was watching.Although Yangzhou gentry and civilians were extorted a lot afterwards, they saved their lives in the end, much better than in history. At this moment, Yangzhou City, which has been under the rule of the Qing court for more than a year, quickly disappeared due to Its geographical location has restored most of its prosperity.

This is what the army from the east bank saw after entering the city.Although the Qing army blocking the gap resisted fiercely, how could their flesh and blood be able to defeat the metal projectiles flying out of the muzzle? Therefore, after nearly 300 people were killed and injured, the two battalions of Jiangxi soldiers who blocked the gap ignored it. Following the officer's order, they began to retreat along the main street in the north wing of the city.Coincidentally at this time, more than [-] Yangzhou regiments came to reinforce Beixiang Street. These people collided with the two retreating Jiangxi battalions, and there were curses, shouts, and warnings. Yours, I say mine, no one can understand what the other is saying, in short, it is extremely confusing.

At this time, the east bank army that had just poured into the city was also a little dizzy.Whether it was Zhai Cong'e's 104 Qingzhou soldiers who took the lead, or the [-] or [-] East Coast musketeers who came in after them, they were all taken aback by the prosperity of Yangzhou City.Especially those musketeers from the [-]th Company of the Army in Ping'an County, the "metropolis". When did they see such a prosperous Tongdu Dayi?Orient Port, Buenos Aires, Asunción and even Lima, which were talked about in the past, are scum in front of this magnificent oriental city. How can those cities full of monotonous and heavy style stone buildings compare with this Compared to a magical city!

"Don't be distracted! Archers quickly seize the commanding heights on both sides of the street!" "Eight Banners New Army Infantry Battalion, Musketeers Guard Artillery Clean up the buildings on both sides!" "Don't rush in! Get closer to the brothers around you, clear one place and occupy another , Don’t leave nails in the rear!” “Attention, there are still Qing troops ahead, be careful of their counterattack!” “Quickly notify the military team to come up, bring fire extinguishing tools and animal-powered water pumps, and be careful of enemy fire attacks!”

Before Mao Desheng, who served as the former commander-in-chief of the enemy, said anything, the commands of the middle and low-level officers below had already been heard one after another. Their professional combat quality and rich combat experience ensured that they could make reasonable decisions at any time. They are one of the greatest assets of this force.

Sure enough, the Qing army launched a counterattack. The retreating Jiangxi soldiers and the Yangzhou regiments continued to attack the gap in the north city, but the black soldiers in heavy armor and holding 4.2-meter spears formed a dense formation, driving these enemies far away. far block.In the gap between them, more than 700 musketeers calmly fired their muskets, not to mention 8 cannons filled with grapeshot and shotgun. In short, the rushing Qing army fell down like cutting wheat, Hundreds of people were killed or injured in a short period of time, which caused their morale to collapse again.

Yangzhou city is divided into two parts, the old city and the new city. People from the east bank naturally entered the old city.Zhai Cong'er received Mao Desheng's instructions and began to lead his sons to clean up the buildings on both sides.Qingzhou soldiers who had uniformly changed into the khaki military uniforms and big caps on the east bank broke open the closed gates of the buildings on both sides of the street fiercely. Some Qing soldiers hiding inside were unable to resist and were stabbed to death by random spears.The Gongyuan, Huaiyang Guild Hall (Salt Merchant Guild Hall), and Opera Garden fell into the hands of the army on the east bank one after another.At noon, after a not-so-intense struggle, after paying 80 casualties, Changpingcang was also conquered.Because the soldiers under his command were killed and injured in the attack on Changping Cang, Zhai Cong'e beheaded hundreds of Qing soldiers who surrendered in the former Jiangbei Four Towns Huang Degong Department in anger.

In the afternoon, Mo Ming personally led more than 500 soldiers and a large number of soldiers into the city, while 300 cavalry brigades remained outside the city to support them.The 102 to [-] soldiers who have just entered the city have been in the battle many times before and after, and they usually practice some battle formation skills. At this time, under the command of Captain Zhang Xudong, the captain of the first regiment of the Standing Team, they began to march towards the new city. direction expansion.Mo Ming allocated two artillery pieces to them. The fierce artillery fire first killed the Qing army guarding the stone bridge (the new city and the old city are separated by a river), and then broke into the new city. After some regular battles, they captured the two streets. The alley was merged with a temple, and with the assistance of the troops directly under the headquarters of the first regiment (more than [-] people), the [-]nd company of the army and some artillery, it blocked the two counterattacks of the Qing army.

By the evening of May 5th, the army on the east bank had occupied a quarter of Yangzhou city, and even the government office had been captured by Zhai Cong'e's troops after a hard-fought battle. And more than a thousand Jiangxi Qing troops were wiped out inside and outside the Yamen of Yangzhou Prefecture. This made the Qing army, especially Shi Tingzhu, very distressed.You know, these are all Han army flag soldiers, the Han army flags that have been trained one after another since Huang Taiji's era.At that time, there was only one banner, which was led by Shi Tingzhu alone. Later, it was gradually divided into two banners, and finally evolved into the eight banners of Han Dynasty today.Each of these people is extremely precious, and now they have lost several hundred in the First World War. In Yangzhou City, how do you let Shi Tingzhu live? Many people in it were brought out by him over the years, and this is all his capital. !Now that he died so easily in Yangzhou City, no one can accept it.

After nightfall, under Mo Ming's order, the army on the east bank gave up some areas that were not easy to defend, and then shrank its troops, waiting for dawn to continue launching a new offensive.Of course, in some of the urban areas they had already occupied, a large number of North Korean masters under the leadership of the soldiers began to collect the loot, and at the same time began to transport them to the camp outside the city. This kind of action lasted all night and continued after dawn.

(End of this chapter)