Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 892 The Arrival of Fierce Battle

The cannons roared, the gongs and drums vibrated, tens of thousands of lions lined up outside the city, and their murderous aura locked the sky. A mountain of soldiers was unearthed, and a hundred large ships rushed out along the river. sky.

On the city of Yangzhou, the battle drums were rumbling, and the Qing army in the whole city was ready for battle. Forty thousand Qing soldiers were defending, and the Qing soldiers entered their positions one after another, especially the [-] Qing troops who were responsible for defending the west city. Therefore, the Qing army naturally also focused on defense.

Groups of red-topped bamboo hats were running on the streets of the city. The officers panicked and led the soldiers to the foot of the west city. Most of the soldiers ran directly to manipulate the stone cannons. Behind the city wall, three or four hundred artillery carts were pulled and rattled. .

Relatively speaking, manipulating the artillery carts hidden behind the city wall is a safer job. After all, the Ming army can't attack, and the Ming army has many weapons and fewer bows and arrows. They don't worry about being shot by arrows. The Qing soldiers at the post undoubtedly breathed a sigh of relief.

Compared with the artillery carts, the situation of the archers of the Qing army is also better. Most of them are also under the city, lined up squarely, and they are relatively difficult to be attacked by the Ming army who are attacking the city, but a small part of them are allocated The archers and other arms who went to the city were unlucky.

At this time, the Ming army artillery team on the high slope was clearing the fortifications of the Qing army on the city at fixed points to facilitate the attack of the Ming army soldiers. The fortifications of the Qing army on the city were under the orange flames sprayed by the Ming army artillery , has been mostly cleaned up by iron bullets.

A team of Qing soldiers who were required to defend last time ran to the bottom of the steps. The people in front heard the loud noise of the city, the collapse of the bricks and the wailing, and stopped unconsciously, with a panicked look on their faces. Looking at the top of the city, and when they stopped, thousands of Qing troops were blocked under the steps in a short while.

Seeing this, a Baijia Niulu who was in charge of the battle immediately led more than a dozen bannermen to separate from the crowd, and when he came up, he shouted and cursed: "What are you doing, waiting to die? Don't go to the city yet!"

Seeing that it was the Eight Banners supervising the battle, the Green Battalion soldiers in front couldn't help shrinking their necks, looked at each other timidly, and then gritted their teeth and rushed to the top of the wall.

These green battalion soldiers rushed up to the top of the city like a school of fish going upstream against the water, and then scattered around the top of the city as if shocked, looking for places to hide.

When the Qing army set up defenses, the warships of the Ming army had already rushed into the moat. The oars on both sides of the big ship swayed and began to move closer to the top of the city.

If the artillery of the Ming army was on the plain outside the west city, at this time, the shooting range of the artillery would be blocked by the warships of the Ming army, causing accidental injuries, while the artillery on the Qing army city could fully bombard the warships of the Ming army, but The Ming army occupied the high slope outside the west city, and the situation was different.

The artillery of the Ming army is arranged at a high place, and when it is condescending to shoot at the top of the city, not only will it not be blocked by the warships from now on, but it can continue to suppress the top of the city for the warships. Only after the soldiers of the Ming army ascended the city will they stop. Or bombard the streets and cause chaos in the city.

The warship of the Ming army sailed into the canal, and the gun windows on the side of the warship opened immediately, and the black hole protruded from the muzzle, and white smoke suddenly rose. , One after the other, the moment the iron bullets were ejected, they retreated suddenly, and the barrels at the gun windows retracted one by one.

The warships of the Ming army were the first to provoke and get angry, and the rubble splashed on the top of the city. A row of Qing troops who were about to launch rockets squatted down in a hurry under the shelling. The lowered artillery fired sporadic rain of bullets, the shells fell into the water, and the water column splashed.

The defense of the west city was personally commanded by Duoduo. When the warships of the Ming army rushed into the moat, the Qing army behind the city wall began to counterattack. Dense arrows soared into the clouds, and dense artillery stones were thrown away. It flew over and hit the warship in the moat, making a loud noise.

These cannon stones, with the force of a thousand catties, smashed into the water and splashed waves that were higher than the ship building, and the spray fell like a torrential rain, drenching the Ming soldiers on the ship building who fired guns at the top of the city. This made it impossible for many gunners to fire their guns.

Although the big ship was hung with baffles and covered with cowhide, the side of the ship could still be smashed when the boulder hit it, but the toughness of the wet cowhide was hesitant. In the moat.

Compared with large ships, small boats are much more dangerous in the face of artillery stones. In a round of artillery stones by the Qing army, two small boats were directly smashed and then sank into the moat.

At this time, the archers of the Qing army presented a magnificent scene to the battlefield. There were tens of thousands of archers of the Qing army behind the city. They lined up in nine rows and divided into three groups. A cloud of fire was formed, and thousands of rockets, like a rain of meteors, shot at the big ship overwhelmingly.

The rockets nailed the sides of the battlefield in an instant. Although the warships of the Ming army were covered with cowhide, under the impact of the cannon stones and rockets, some were smashed and tilted, and some were ignited.After many boats were set on fire, the soldiers jumped into the water one after another and swam back to the other side.

The artillery stones of the Qing army still caused great damage to the warships, especially when Duoduo concentrated the artillery vehicles at the exit of the canal, so that many warships would be hit by several artillery stones as soon as they came out of the canal.

This is the Ming army's war drums beating urgently, and the Chinese army urged the warships to approach the city wall immediately. Fangzheng, who was lined up in the field by the Ming army, also began to push down the city carrying equipment and planks.

The earthen wall built by the Ming army on the edge of the Grand Canal was built according to the scale of the West City. The attacking army trained under the earthen wall for more than two months. expected.

At this time, Li Yuanyin of the Tang Dynasty was in charge of the vanguard. He saw that the Qing army's artillery was fierce and had smashed many warships, so he immediately let the warships approach the city wall.

There is a characteristic of cannon stone throwing. The trajectory of the cannon stone is a parabola. The target cannot be too close to the cannon cart, otherwise the projectile cannon stone will not be able to hit it.

Li Yuanyin's boat issued a flag, and the drums on the boat suddenly sounded. Amidst the drums, ten large ships in the vanguard approached the city head one after another. As they approached, the power of the Qing army's rockets was revealed.

In the cabin, the sailors with bare upper body shouted chant, swung the oars rapidly, and the ship rushed towards the city wall with dense rockets.

As the distance approached, the rockets fired by the Qing army in the city soared into the sky in waves. When they flew to the headspace, the gravity of the arrows caused the arrows to roar down and shoot towards the warship like raindrops.

The soldiers of the Ming army on the deck were holding their shields, and the rockets were constantly nailed to the ship's planks and shields. Clusters of flames ignited, and some soldiers fell to the ground with arrows, but the surrounding soldiers were full of fear and held their knives. , holding the shield, staring at the top of the city, without a trace of commotion.

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(End of this chapter)