Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 879 Siege Operation
It was the beginning of October and the autumn harvest was over. After Dorgon sent cavalry to protect the food, the autumn harvest was basically guaranteed. But just as he was about to go south to support Yangzhou, the Ming army, disguised as Japanese pirates, changed the way of fighting and scattered the original harassing troops. The Ming army gathered together and attacked the city along the coast.

The location chosen by the Ming army was mainly mountainous Shandong. Xie Qian guarded North Korea to prevent the Qing army from attacking North Korea. , Weifang, Huangxian, Penglai and other places.

The thousands of miles of coastline made it difficult for the Qing army to defend against such an enemy from the sea. The Ming army robbed a large amount of supplies and transported them to North Korea. It was not until the siege of Wendeng County, Dengzhou Prefecture that they were defeated by Qing general Wang Zhongqing. obstructed

Dorgon assembled an army of 2 people and went to Jinan, but he had to leave 3 people to guard Shandong to prevent the Ming army from continuing to cholera Shandong prefectures and counties. In the end, Gushan Heluohui could only lead [-] people to go south and join Xuzhou After the [-] green battalion, go to rescue Yangzhou.

The Ming army of North Korea contained the Qing army in Beizhi and Shandong for nearly a month. During this period, Zhang Mingzhen had already completed the defense in Huai'an and Sizhou, and of course He Luohui was blocked to the north of the Huaihe River.

Although the reinforcements from Hefei were defeated by Li Guo and fled to Hefei, and the reinforcements from Beijing were blocked in Huai'an, the Ming army under the city of Yangzhou still felt tremendous pressure.

When the time comes to October, it will be winter at most for more than a month. If this year is still as cold as last year, the entire Yangzhou campaign will fail.

After more than a month of siege operations, a ditch more than ten miles long and five feet wide has already approached Yangzhou City under the hard work of hundreds of thousands of people day and night.

At this time, under the city of Yangzhou, there was a grand and magnificent battle scene. The Ming army piled up earth platforms under the city, with wooden boards on them, covered with wet cowhide, to defend against the shells and artillery stones of the Qing army.

The artillery of the Ming army fired at the top of the city and fired at the same city. The sound of "booming" guns sounded from time to time, and white smoke rose from the top of the city. Rotten, but because there is a layer of cowhide on the wooden board, it did not cause sawdust to splash.

In the artillery formation of the Ming army under the city, the gunners will take out the numbered medicine packs wrapped in cotton cloth and written on them in the smoke, take them out of the wooden box, push them into the gun chamber with wooden sticks, load the iron bullets, and then use them. The awl pierces the charge through the fire door, pours the primer, the soldiers in front put down a baffle covering the muzzle, and the gunner immediately brings the torch close to the primer.

After a long illness, he became a good doctor. After several years of war, the Ming army summed up a lot of experience. Like the gunpowder's propellant, they used small pottery bottles to pre-pack it, so as to achieve quantitative launch and avoid tension on the battlefield. Putting less gunpowder greatly reduced the probability of the Ming army's guns exploding, and the promotion of this experience became the medicine kit of the Ming army's artillery.

The military inspectors absorbed the experience of gunpowder gunners in the quantification of medicine cans, and conducted hundreds of test shots for each type of artillery to find a reasonable range of medicine and form a standard. Beforehand, the quantitative gunpowder was wrapped in cotton cloth. , more different charges are numbered, and each kind of artillery during combat, such as the red cannon, takes the charge pack numbered "A" and launches it directly.

These small changes have greatly increased the lifespan of the Ming army's artillery, and at the same time, the rate of fire is much faster than that of the Qing army. More importantly, the gunner's fear of exploding the barrel has gradually disappeared, and the soldiers have the courage to use guns and cannons. When I got up, I felt that these weapons could be trusted.

Accompanied by the flickering of sparks, clouds of white smoke rose, and a deafening cannon burst out from the artillery position. The cannon body retreated violently, and the soldiers against the wooden stakes of the cannon body were all loosened by the collision. White smoke covered the fort, and white clouds were everywhere under the city.

Cannonballs weighing more than ten kilograms hit the city wall, and the dust on the west city was flying. Under the impact of the iron bullets, the city wall was broken, and the wall bricks were shattered and deeply sunken. In the middle, dense white water splashed.

At this time, artillery fire roared above and below the city, and iron bullets intertwined, as if playing a passionate piece of music.

Amidst the huge roar of the shells, the shells hit the city wall, the vibrations brought about, and under the terrifying atmosphere created, tens of thousands of peasants pushed their wheelbarrows, from the deep ditch more than two feet deep, like densely packed fish Group, transport the excavated soil away.

The shelling of the Ming army was to cover the digging of the peasants. As they dug closer to the moat, the artillery of the Qing army on the city could kill hundreds of peasants every day. This quickly caused panic among the peasants. Chen Bangyan had to mobilize heavy artillery , fought with the Qing army at the head of the city, and dug ditches under cover.

At the same time, the Ming army absorbed Wang Yan's experience in attacking Wanxian. They spread a layer of logs thicker than an arm on the ditches within the range of the Qing army's artillery, and covered them with wet cowhide. It was much safer for the peasants to dig underneath.

The Qing army was very clear about the Ming army's intentions, and the artillery and artillery vehicles in the city were all focused on this.

Burning fireballs shot up in the sky from time to time. They were fired from artillery vehicles hidden behind the city wall by the Qing army. They were made of bamboo into a circle, filled with cotton soaked in kerosene, and wrapped in a layer of cotton cloth. Pour kerosene, then ignite it, throw it out of the city with a trebuchet, roll it on the logs laid by the Ming army, and ignite a raging fire.

However, the Ming army spread cowhide on the logs, and the fire could not burn through for a while. The soldiers of the Ming army who were hiding behind the baffles on both sides rushed out from the gap between the Qing army's firing, picked up a long pole with a hook, and set the burning fire The fireball hooks away.

In addition to fireballs, the Qing army also fired cannon stones, and a huge boulder weighing [-] jin was thrown out, hit the log, and broke immediately, but it was wrapped in cowhide and did not hurt the peasants below.

In Yangzhou's offensive and defensive battles, apart from the intense shooting of canals, the most tragic battle was the battle for the high ground outside the western city.

When Duoduo attacked Yangzhou back then, he was very impressed with Gaopo outside the west city. It was precisely because he controlled Gaopo from the beginning that he easily stormed across the west city, and then attacked the city several times from here until Wang Yan attacked Gaopo , His strategy of attacking Yangzhou changed from hard attack to long-term siege.

Therefore, Duoduo attached great importance to the high slopes outside the west city, and sent 5000 troops from the Qing Dynasty Ezu Huisai to garrison on the mountain, and built a stone village on it, which was very difficult to attack.

At this time, when tens of thousands of civilians were digging the canal, artillery shells and arrows rained intertwined under the high slope of the west city, forming a dense and large net.

The soldiers of the Ming army were in this net, pushing the shield chariot and holding the shield, charging towards Gaopo.

Behind the siege troops, hundreds of artillery, hiding behind wooden boards, are raising their muzzles and pouring firepower at the stone village on the hillside.

Liu Shun, who was in charge of the command, walked back and forth in front of the formation with a saber in one hand, stopped from time to time, and looked anxiously at the dense Ming army on the hillside, shouting to climb up, and people were constantly shot by the arrows of the Qing army. Roll down from above.

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