The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 502
When the dust settled, Deng Shan, who had run two miles away, turned his head to watch, and immediately slapped his lieutenant happily, and laughed loudly: "It's not in vain that I risked my life to come here! See? I really blew up the city of Nanjing!" opened!"

His soldiers also cheered excitedly, "Hey! The city of Nanjing is broken!"

"This cotton is powerful enough, the battlements were blasted into the sky just now!"

"No, it made my ears go deaf..."

"It's so big that it's enough for three horses to go in side by side! Look at how the captives are still shrunk inside."

Not far from them, Zhu Linmi, who was in command at the front line, was also staring at the location where the explosives were buried. When he saw the dark gap in the middle of the city wall under the moonlight, he felt relieved suddenly.

You must know that the nature of nitrocellulose is very unstable, so although its power is amazing, later generations seldom directly use nitrocellulose that has not been stabilized as military explosives.

The action tonight was also extremely risky. Just now, if Jianlu's shell hit the iron drum transporting the explosives, no, even if it fell within three feet, the huge vibration might detonate the nitrocellulose.

Fortunately, everything was safe and sound, and Deng Shan succeeded!
Zhu Linmi immediately turned her head and said to the herald officer, "Commander, start the general attack!"

Immediately, low-pitched horns sounded in all directions.First, nearly forty cannons that had been hiding in the night focused their firepower on the gap that was blown up just now, in order to suppress the captive soldiers who might go to defend.

Then the three thousand Dragon Guard infantry formed a column of twenty rows, shouting loudly "Kill—" and rushed towards the breach in the east of the city.

Huang Ding, who was in charge of the Qing army's defense in the east of the city, was completely wiped out in the violent explosion just now.The soldiers at the top of the city were even more frightened by the terrifying momentum of the nitrocellulose and retreated one after another. In addition, more than ten rounds of artillery shells followed, and no one dared to step forward to defend at this time.

Therefore, the forward of the Dragon Guards managed to control the breach on the east side of the city without any resistance, and then climbed up the city wall from the inner side of the city to build a line of defense.

Immediately after them, led by the hussars, nearly the Wanming Army brigade poured into the city of Nanjing, and even the thirty Franc cannons took hold in the city.

However, the main attacking troops of the Ming army, who had been waiting for the fierce street battle with Jianlu, were a little surprised—they had been aiming at the guns and cannons for a long time, but they couldn't find a target to hit.

It is said that it is all the "credit" of Hong Chengchou's plan to postpone the surrender for a month.Zhu Linmi was not as gentlemanly as Zheng Chenggong in history. He ordered Jin Yiwei, who was lurking in Nanjing City, to spread the news of Hong Chengchou's begging for surrender early in the morning, which made the Qing army panic and demoralized.

At this time Huang Ding was dead, and when the soldiers from the east of the city saw the Ming army rushing into the city, they all shouted "The city is broken" and "The Ming army has come in", and rushed towards the other gates.

The soldiers of the Qing army elsewhere heard a loud noise from the east, and saw the "broken soldiers" coming from the brigade. They were convinced that Nanjing City was in danger, so they immediately threw away their weapons and ran together.As a result, the fleeing team grew bigger and bigger, sweeping across Nanjing in less than an hour.

Yang Chengzu led his confidant generals to personally draw their swords into battle, beheading three or four hundred deserters in a row, and only then could the situation be stabilized.

He summoned an officer who came from the east of the city and asked, "How is the situation in the east of the city? Where is your general soldier Huang?"

"General, general," the officer stammered, "the east of the city was blown down by tens of feet, and tens of thousands of Ming troops swarmed in, firing cannons in all directions...Huang and Huang Zongbing have been killed... "

Yang Chengzu only felt a buzzing in his head, and turned his head to look at the four or five thousand soldiers who had gathered around him with great difficulty, all of them looked terrified, and immediately came to a judgment in his heart-going to the east of the city for reinforcements must be death!

He looked down the city again, and saw torches stretching out, and he didn't know how many Ming troops were there, and there were also a large number of earth barriers and arrow towers staring at the gate.

With the lesson of Yang Zhihe's death when he was blocked by the earth barrier last time, Zhu Linmi told him that these fortifications outside the city were all fake, and he certainly couldn't believe it.In fact, the fortifications outside the city, next to the artillery battalion, are real ones. Recently, the engineer battalion of the Dragon Guards has been busy rushing to get the siege equipment, and there is no time to build these things at all.

Yang Chengzu hesitated for a moment, pointed to a general and said, "You take 800 people to continue to stand firm." He waved to the rest, "The rest follow me to the west of the city and join Lord Guan's troops!"

It was the same situation with Hu Maozhen. He led his troops to the west of the city under the pressure of the continuous earth fortifications and archery towers outside the city.

When the two arrived at the west of the city almost at the same time, they were overjoyed—this side should not be the main attack direction of the Ming army. There are only a few scattered torches outside the city, and the earth barrier is only more than 20 feet wide. It should be easy to bypass.

Guan Zhongzhong is the farthest from the east of the city, and has the fewest deserters, and his lineup is fairly neat.The three of them gathered their men and horses together and managed to gather an army of [-]. While sending people to pick up Hong Chengchou, at the same time they opened the west gate wide and rushed out.

……

Hong Chengchou received soldiers to report the military situation twice tonight. The first time was tens of thousands of Ming troops besieging the city from all sides. Not long after, he only heard a loud noise, and then someone came to report that the east of the city had been broken and exploded, and the Ming army swarmed And enter.

At the beginning, he was still extremely calm. There were still 5 horses in the city. Even if the city was breached, as long as the troops gathered to defend it, it should not be difficult to hold it.

But then dozens of cavalry came to cover him and retreat to the west of the city.

Hong Chengchou was shocked immediately, he stopped the visitor and asked, "Why did the army retreat to the west instead of going to the east of the city to defend against the enemy?"

The officer said urgently: "Lord Dutang, the Ming army is coming so fiercely that it cannot be stopped at all!
"Mr. Huang has died before the battle, and Mr. Yang and others have also lost their troops. Right now, there are only [-] remnants left. If they don't retreat, they will be blocked in the city..." He dared not say that Huang Ding was killed. killed, and most of the main force of the Qing army collapsed on its own.

Hong Chengchou frowned, and suddenly thought of a question, "You said that Yang Chengzu, Guan Xiaozhong, and Hu Maozhen's troops were all gathered in Ximen? Why didn't they break through the siege nearby?"

"My lord, there are large groups of enemy troops in the north, south and south, and they have built a lot of earth fortifications and archery towers. Only the west side has the weakest attack..."

Hong Chengchou was taken aback when he heard the words, and immediately closed his eyes tightly, and sat down on the chair, "That's all. You can go on your own, don't worry about me."

"My lord, the Ming army has not yet attacked, and General Yang's plan, we should go to Jianyang and continue to hold on, we should..."

"What are you still guarding?" Hong Chengchou waved his hands dejectedly, "You generals have fought all your life, can't you see such an obvious encirclement?!"

Before he finished speaking, some of his confidantes came striding into the house and said in a panic: "Lord Dutang, the Southern Army has already passed Daqing Street, please make a quick decision!"

Hong Chengchou just stayed there and didn't say a word for a long time.After a while, they heard the sound of gunfire in the distance. The general stomped his feet, turned around and went out, shouting loudly: "Close the door, go up to the wall! Hold on to the chief minister's yamen!"

　Thanks: Desperadoes for their generosity!I asked for a day off yesterday, and you still support me so much, which makes me both happy and ashamed!I am so grateful, I have nothing to repay!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)