The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 743 Bombarding Beijing
Zhu Linmi looked at the two people in front of her as if she was watching a clown performance, Zhang Duan couldn't help but wiped off his cold sweat nervously, and continued: "Your Majesty, there are more than [-] Jianzhou troops under the Tanbai Army in Beijing, plus Beizhili and Liaodong soldiers. The Green Battalion recruited has a total of [-] troops.

"In addition to the excellent firearms and armor, these soldiers and horses also have nearly a hundred cannons, and countless rolling stones, kerosene, etc. are used to defend the city.

"Tan Bai made an oath when the puppet emperor left Beijing that he would defend the city to the death, and that the city would be destroyed and the people in the city would be destroyed.

"At this time, there are 4 to [-] stones of grain in the city, which is known to the guilty ministers and others, at least enough to feed the bandit army for more than half a year! And there should be other grain and grass hidden elsewhere. Your Majesty... If the bandits leave the city for a decisive battle, it will definitely not be the case. The opponent of the imperial army, but if Tan Bai decides to defend the city to the death, with more than [-] imperial troops, it will be difficult to win Beijing.

"As long as His Majesty is merciful and leaves us to serve the imperial court, we will be able to march into the city tomorrow, otherwise..."

Zhu Linmei interrupted him with a sneer, "A group of traitors who are at the top of their heads and betray their country, what qualifications do they have to bargain with me?
"When the intruders come, you welcome the intruders, and when the Jianlu enter the pass, you embrace the Jianlu. Now, just watching the imperial army besiege the city, you want to come to be a minister. It's a good idea.

"But I can't leave you traitors to endanger Daming!"

Zhang Duan shivered in fright.In fact, as Zhu Linming said, these "Old Ministers of the Ming Dynasty" are good at adapting to the situation, no matter who the emperor in Beijing is, they can get along well.

They originally expected that the emperor of the Ming Dynasty would treat him with great courtesy when he heard that the high-ranking officials of the Qing court came to vote and that he could easily regain Beijing, but they never expected that Zhu Linmi would hardly look at him.

Zhang Duan still gritted his teeth and said forcefully: "Your Majesty, the walls of Beijing are high and thick. Since the Taizu built this city, it has never been breached by anyone! Back then, Yu Qianyu was able to resist and go ahead with the newly recruited soldiers in a hurry. The army is outside the city, how can Tan Bai be elite?

"When it is dragged into winter, it will be even more difficult to use the army. After the spring of the next year, the Liaodong captives will gather an army to make a comeback..."

Zhu Linmei originally wanted to hear some information about the prisoners in the city, but now seeing that they had nothing to say, she stopped talking nonsense and threw the surrender form sent by Gang Lin and the others to the two of them, "Here you go!" In three days, the first ten people to open the city will be saved from death, and the rest will be beheaded."

When Cao Rong and Zhang Duan saw the content of the surrender form, their faces were ashen with fright. It turned out that Jianlu had planned to give up Beijing, and he came to negotiate terms with the court, which was ridiculous.

Zhang Duan swallowed forcefully, struggled and said, "Your Majesty, beware of deceitful thieves..."

"Hehe," Zhu Linmi glanced at him contemptuously, "I never planned to make peace with Jianlu. To tell you the truth, I have mobilized three hundred cannons, which will be delivered to the city in a few days. Don't let the great Ming army stand!"

What he said was a little exaggerated.Counting the captured Jianlu before, the Ming army now has more than 300 cannons, but only a hundred of them are heavy cannons weighing more than [-] pounds.The other small-caliber guns and Franc cannons are basically useless in sieges.

Fortunately, he had already prepared for it. When he first recovered Jinan, he ordered the Nanjing Armament Bureau to urgently build a batch of 24-pound guns. Now all of them have made good luck and came to Beijing.

In addition, he also has the means of "guaranteeing the bottom line" - nitrocellulose.Ma Lin is on the way with equipment and craftsmen for making nitrocellulose.It's just that after the Battle of Nanjing, Jianlu must have been prepared for the bombing of the city, and he would not use this trick unless it was a last resort.

Three hundred cannons? !Both Cao Rong and Zhang Duan were twitching in their hearts, and were about to say something more, but they saw Zhu Linmi waving at Shi Lin and said, "By the way, let Zhao Shichao come back, take these two guys to watch the chopping, and send them back after it's over." city."

"Yes!"

The two came out of the tent in a daze, and carefully asked Shi Lin: "Dare to ask the general, who are you going to kill?"

The latter sneered, "The emissary who cut off the captives and surrendered, there seems to be a Baylor named Duran, and the captives' political minister Gang Lin..."

On the wall of Deshengmen in Beijing, Tan Bai used binoculars to repeatedly observe the deployment of the Ming army below the city, his face turned from blue to black, and then from black to blue.

More than two miles away from the city, the tens of thousands of Ming troops lined up in two straight dark green lines, like two indestructible steel cables, across the gate of Desheng. The bayonets lined up in the formation dazzled the eyes, and the banners fluttered in the wind. .

In front of the infantry battle formation of the Ming army, hundreds of cannons lined up, and the dark muzzles reflected the sunlight, like hundreds of ferocious wild beasts staring at the eyes of their prey, which made people shudder.

This is not just taking some small cannons such as tiger crouching cannons and Weiyuan cannons to make up the number.According to Tan Bai's observations in the past few days, the smallest cannon is also a thousand-jin Flang machine.He knew very well that the Flang cannon of the Ming army did not know what method it used, and its power was by no means weaker than the red cannon in his hand.

And the more than a hundred heavy artillery pieces in the middle of the Ming army's position made him feel the most palpitations.Among them, even the smaller cannons are at least more than [-] catties, and those near the inside are even more heavy cannons of more than [-] catties, as many as thirty!
Those weighing more than three thousand catties are 24-pound guns, and those weighing five thousand catties are [-]-pound cannons.

Tan Bai originally made careful arrangements for the defense of the city, planning to rely on the strong Beijing city wall to defend it until winter.But facing so many heavy artillery at this time, he was completely at a loss as to how long the city wall under his feet could last.

He also sent troops out of the city to raid the artillery array many times, but without exception, he was beaten back by the terrifying firepower of the Ming army, killing more than a thousand people.

After that, except for the occasional sneak attack at night, he never dared to leave the city easily.

And the Ming army didn't seem to be in a hurry to attack the city, but just kept transporting cannons to the north of the city, and arranged them neatly.

But today, Tan Bai was particularly worried, because the enemy had not added new cannons for a long time, which meant that all the Ming army's cannons should have arrived, and the next thing to do was self-evident - bombard the city.

Sure enough, after another three hours, a hill of shells piled up behind the artillery positions of the Ming army.However, due to safety regulations, the gunpowder was left separately a mile away, and was transported to the front line continuously by shuttle carriages.

The second day of the fifth month of the first year of Hanxing in the Ming Dynasty.

Shen time.

As the two red flares rose into the sky, all the gunners raised their sabers at the same time in the nearly two-mile-wide artillery position of the Ming army.

All 140 cannons of nine pounds and above have already been loaded with ammunition, and the observers have repeatedly aimed hundreds of times, all eager to try.

Zhao Zhibi, commander-in-chief of the artillery battalion, said in a low voice to the herald: "Shoot the artillery!"

The sabers in the hands of more than a hundred gunners fell together, and they shouted in unison, "Let go!"

In an instant, monstrous flames spewed out from the muzzles of 140 black holes, and a loud bang like landslides and ground cracks spread seven or eight miles away!
(End of this chapter)