On the afternoon of the 23rd of the first lunar month of the seventh year of Chongzhen, Zhuang Langwei was covered by rising smoke and smoke.
Amidst the creaking of wheels and the neighing of horses, impassioned military music sounded in the north of the city. Hundreds of small and medium-sized field artillery were lined up outside the city and fired one after another. Amidst the sound of cannons that shook the sky, each artillery shell shrieked towards the city.
Chengtou.
The solid iron bullets were firmly embedded in the battlements, and more shells passed over the city head and smashed into the houses in the nine streets and eighteen lanes of the city, smashing the tile roofs and frightening the family members of the Banner Army living in the city, and they rushed to the streets. p>
Seeing this scene, Jing Xiaoliu, who was standing on the horse path inside the north city wall to avoid the shells, his eyes wide open, cursed, grabbed the collar of the soldier beside him, and shouted into his ear: "Come here! You go and assemble."
The people in the city, drive them all to Nanweng City, the shells will explode! They will be blown up in the street!"
In Jing Xiaoliu's heart, even though he had only occupied the city for half a month, the more than a thousand people in the city were his.
Because most of these military families, who are so poor that their families of three or four only have one ragged cotton-padded jacket, have already been eating the food of the generalissimo as early as this autumn.
Not to mention that in order to calm people's hearts, Jing Xiaoliu had already told them that the military rations in this city were for them to eat together. If the army invaded, they would not be able to see this food.
It was the first time for the rural soldiers to encounter a battle with heavy artillery fire. They were so frightened that they could no longer speak. As soon as they nodded after hearing this, they heard a short and abrupt scream on the road.
Then, as if a ball had been exploded, there was a bang, and a black cannonball flew through the air, sprinkling a patch of red on the crowded horse road.
The village soldiers were immediately in chaos. The village soldiers who were listening to Jing Xiaoliu's order turned around and were about to run down the horse path. Jing Xiaoliu raised his arm to catch him, and slapped his face twice with his hand before he emphasized.
Said: "Remember, let them go to get the rations first. They are not allowed to push carts. They can take as much as they want. It is not the east, west and north gates. We are driving them to the Wengcheng of the south gate."
"Well, South Gate Wengcheng!"
Before the officers and soldiers fired the artillery, Jing Xiaoliu looked on the city wall. There were only about 3,000 officers and soldiers, and they were not strong enough to spread out and surround the small city. They would not be able to block the south gate for a while.
"When the people in the South Gate Urn City are full, open the city gate and let them all out. Run south as far as you can until tomorrow morning, when you see the red city, it will be safe."
In fact, Jing Xiaoliu thought about leaving these women and children to defend the city, but after some consideration, he thought it was not necessary and it was better to let them out of the city.
If six hundred more or less well-trained men cannot defend the city, then adding a thousand women and children will not be able to defend it.
There is no point in harming other people’s lives again.
Just as he gave the order, explosive bombs with fuses exploded one after another on the city wall, some of which were explosive bombs, and some of which were poisonous smoke bombs. The city was filled with smoke and choked with people crying.
Fortunately, Jing Xiaoliu's troops were hiding on the horse path inside the city wall. The artillery fire of the troops outside the city was mainly concentrated on attacking the city gate tower and battlements, which would not hurt them for a while.
Even so, Jing Xiaoliu was frightened. The non-stop artillery fire outside the city made him secretly sigh in his heart, wondering what Xie Erhu did in Songshan, so that the Gansu Army outside the city did not even build a siege position.
, push the train to the city and launch a fierce attack.
When rogues attack a city, they know how to build equipment first and then dig trenches. How can there be such a strategy of attacking without caring about them?
It's not that Ding Shaoyin outside the city didn't know the truth about digging trenches. Zhuang Lang's defense was empty. If the defenders inside the city were not mentally strong enough, they would open the city and surrender... This is something everyone knows.
But Ding Shaoyin knew that he had no time, no time to dig trenches, and no time to build decent siege equipment. All he could rely on were the artillery in his hands and the crude ladders he made on the fly.
Because although the defense force of Zhuanglang Guard City is empty, the right time and place are not in his favor.
In the middle of this river valley is the Zhuanglang River, which is forty paces at the narrowest point and sixty paces at the widest point. Zhuanglang Acropolis is in the east of the river, backed by mountains.
There is a spacious mountain road leading to the river valley from both the West Mountain and the East Mountain. The West Mountain Road is to the north, and the soldiers stationed at West Datong River Fort can attack from behind; the East Mountain Road is to the south, and the cavalry attacking Songshan Castle will enter the valley from the south of the city.<
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It was this terrain and situation that made Ding Shaoyin dare not send troops across the river to pass through Hexi and circle to the outer city of the South Gate. He could only attack the north wall in the east of Hedong, and he had to do it quickly.
Because according to Ding Shaoyin's understanding of the surrounding terrain, from the time the beacon tower of Zhuanglang Acropolis was lit, his battalion of Liangzhou troops had only one day to safely attack the city.
Marching has different speeds, and Ding Shaoyin can only calculate based on the enemy's extremely fast march.
One day later, the Mongolian cavalry in the Songshan area can rush out from the mountains to reinforce Zhuang Langwei, and two days later, the soldiers from Xidatong Fort can also arrive behind them.
Of course, according to intelligence from the rear, his reinforcements are already on the way, and Gansu Commander-in-Chief Yang Jiamo's Biao Battalion is rushing southward.
The reinforcements are indeed strong reinforcements. Yang Jiamo has the heavy responsibility of Gansu defense and cannot leave. The superintendent of the Gansu General Military Base Camp is called Chai Shihua.
Chai Shihua is from Xining Guards, but he is very reliable to the court because his family members are all dead.
His father's name was Chai Guozhu. During the Wanli period, he earned the title of brave champion of the three armies by shooting a horse shoe from his crotch. He was a hereditary centurion. He was re-elected as the commander-in-chief of Gansu and Shaanxi at the age of thirty.
Yin, Li Zhen Shanhaiguan, Shenyang, in the early years of Tianqi, the governor Zuo died of illness, and he was a highly respected minister.
His uncle's name was Chai Guodong, who led a battalion as a general in the Battle of Sarhu and was killed in the Eastern Route Army of the Dusong Division; his brother's name was Chai Shixiu, who also held the position of deputy commander-in-chief of the Chinese Army during the Tianqi period.
Killed in Liaodong.
Chai Shihua was the only one left in the family, who was also an enterprising and brave general. He had served as the garrison of Cai Qi Fort earlier, and when the tigers and rabbits crashed against the side wall, he rushed to the aid of the Zhenfan Guards three times in a year, and also raised funds to repair the city walls.
More than a hundred war horses were added to the fort.
Although his official position is only that of a staff general, his reputation in the army is extremely high. Even the Turpan people outside Jiayuguan stood in awe when they heard the name of General Chai.
However, no matter how reliable this army is, no matter how eager the march is, it is still two hundred miles away. The water far away cannot quench the thirst of the people nearby. It will take at least two days to reach the battlefield.
Ding Shaoyin became fierce and ordered his men to capture the city tonight.
The artillery used most by the Liangzhou Army is the northwest marauder artillery cart. The cart is a three-wheeled cart with two large wheels in the front and a small wheel in the middle behind. Each cart carries three marauder-killing cannons forged from pure iron weighing 95 kilograms.
, shoot a pound of shells.
This is a small field gun with a forged gun body that is strong and durable. It is usually used in field battles to fire at close range of fifty steps to the enemy.
Compared with various other light cannons in the same battle position, the various parameters of the prisoner-destroying cannon are not very good. The Zhuzhu cannon is lighter than it, the Fran machine is faster than it, and the Weiyuan cannon newly manufactured by the imperial court is not as heavy as it.
The entire group of artillery destroyers is similar, but its power is much greater.
One of its advantages is that it is cheap.
A barbarian-killing cannon only costs five taels of silver, and when attached to a chariot, a gun crew only costs sixteen taels of silver, and it does not require casting, so there is no need to build a large shaft furnace.
The place is very friendly.
No other weapon can allow a border guard station to easily unleash the firepower of one hundred and fifty or even two hundred cannons.
The northwest frontier army did not need to attack the city, not to mention that the artillery of this era did not have the ability to penetrate a three-foot-thick brick-covered earth wall in a short time. Even if there were such artillery, before Liu Chengzong appeared, the cities in the northwest belonged to the Ming army themselves.
.
What they need to deal with is the strong Mongolian men with soft bows and fast horses who come and go like the wind. The captive-killing cannon is the most suitable weapon for the northwest frontier army.
Even if they now need to attack Zhuanglang Guards City, the enemy cannons can still suppress the city artillery with the goose eggs they shoot out.
Mixed in among the large number of gun carriages for destroying the captives is the Feiyun Cannon, whose full name is Feiyun Thunder Cannon. It was a cannon specially used to open spent shells during the Jiajing period.
The shape of its cannon body is between the general cannon and the bowl-mouth cannon. The core technology is all on the cannonball. The cannonball has a cylindrical wooden horse and a bullet holder. It shoots out parabolas. The hollow shells are put into the city head.
In the city.
The ignition mechanism of the artillery shell is that the hollow iron bullet is filled with gunpowder and iron pieces, stuffed into the tube and ignited. The tube is easily knocked off or extinguished when it lands, and the misfire rate is high.
Most of the time, it can only be used as a mortar. A mortar is to shoot out a cannonball, fall in a parabola, and hit people.
But even if two of them can explode one, it will be enough to shock the defenders in the city.
When several shells exploded at the top of the city, sending out pieces of gunpowder smoke, Ding Shaoyin, who personally stood at the artillery position to supervise the battle, waved forward.
The artillery at the top of the city has been suppressed. Only a few Fran cannons hiding behind the battlements still have gunners beside them, but their reluctance to fire has already made it clear to Ding Shaoyin.
"The Franco machine in the city is equipped with loose powder and fires rockets."
The battle flags were fluttering and the enemy-killing cannons were still being fired. The Liangzhou Guards Banner Troops pushing fire chariots in the military formation crossed the artillery position and moved forward. They adjusted the rocket vehicles to a suitable angle at a distance of 200 steps from the city.
Hundreds of tigers galloped together, rising up huge clouds of smoke, and launched thousands of rockets towards the city.
Amidst the screams of gunpowder, the scattered rockets rushed towards the city head with streaks of tail flames, drawing irregular trajectories in mid-air. Some of them were stuck on the adobe of the city wall that was in disrepair, and some were hit on the bricks of the city.
They fell, and some even crossed the city walls, shooting randomly in all directions.
The smoke immediately covered the launching position and the city head at the same time, and the defenders at the city head were also suppressed and unable to raise their heads.
In fact, the defenders at the top of the city were almost driven crazy with fear.
Jing Xiaoliu's troops were already insufficient, and there were scattered soldiers guarding the north and west walls. There were only 300 defenders on the entire north wall. They were worried that they would be disabled during the shelling stage, so most of the soldiers were ordered to hide on the slopes on the inside of the wall.
On the horse road, only a few artillerymen remained behind the city wall.
Everyone knows that it is sheer fantasy to expect these artillerymen to face hundreds of light artillery pieces and use Fran machine cannons to shoot at them when shells the size of goose eggs are everywhere.
The rural soldiers of Dongguan Minzhuang have never received artillery training at all. Using artillery to fire a few cannons into an open space on the school grounds is completely different from being suppressed by hundreds of cannons on the battlefield.
Even if they were facing the Liangzhou Guard's banner army, it was their grandfather and Dayun who defeated three thousand barbarians in one thousand and two battles at Songshan. Their fathers and generals were killed in the Sarhu, and their elder brother aided the Liao Dynasty in Luanzhou, Zunhua with the Tatars from the East.
The banner army attacking the big city and facing the big formation.
Gun smoke filled the air everywhere, but the sound of artillery fire outside the city continued. Finally, when the gun smoke gradually dissipated, the country soldiers and artillerymen huddled behind the battlements dared to take a look at the city through the battlements.
With just one glance, the ghosts of the deceased were so scared that they turned back to the road and shouted in horror: "General! The ladder is coming to the city!"
Just as thousands of rockets spread out a cloud of gunpowder smoke on the city, obscuring the view, Ding Shaoyin's flag army passed through the artillery position and pushed the simply modified siege vehicles to the edge of the city.
The bases of all the chariots are box trucks from the chariot camp. Some have fixed long ladders, some are connected to the beams and hung with wooden curtains, and there are temporary corridors made of chariots and wooden boards. The long ladders with hooks have been borrowed.
Smoke of gunfire covered the city wall, and groups of flag soldiers were climbing up ladders from all directions on the city wall.
Jing Xiaoliu, who was hiding on the horse path, stared when he heard this, drew his sword and waved his hand behind him, saying: "Fight with them!"
The orders of the generals were sounded one after another, and groups of rural soldiers hiding on the horse road rushed to various parts of the city wall with guns, spears and firearms. They rushed to the crenellations of the ladders hooked to the city wall, picked up the defensive equipment and threw it down the city. p>
Suddenly, there were shouts of killing all over the city. The Franco machine installed on the horse-facing wall was about to fire a cannon at the side of the siege army, when a hanging wooden curtain was stuck in the face. A cannon was fired and the wooden curtain was shattered.
Light penetrates everywhere, but it is difficult to harm the troops under the city.
Before there was time to reload and fire the second cannon, the fierce fire oil tanks under the city sprayed burning kerosene onto the three-foot-high horse-faced wall, and several artillerymen were immediately burned into flames.
This was not over yet, several loaded muskets were also ignited, and the forged muskets became small sprays on the horse-facing wall, spraying the particles in all directions. Suddenly, the horse-facing wall was plunged into a sea of fire.
A living person standing.
On the other side, the chained wolf-toothed clapper was thrown into the city by the village soldiers. Several flag soldiers who climbed onto the city with knives were beaten into pieces amidst the screams, and even the wooden ladder was broken in the middle.
, the flag soldier who was lucky enough not to be photographed also fell from the ladder and fell to pieces.
Soon, several green bricks were thrown by the defenders under gunfire against the heavy fire oil tank, smashing the oil tank to pieces. Several burning quilts were thrown down, igniting the fire oil all over the place, and the entire city became a sea of flames.<
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One long ladder after another was destroyed, and finally one long ladder was not discovered by the defenders. It was set up on the east wall. Several flag soldiers filed up, immediately signaled support to the bottom of the city, and formed a small formation to attack westward.<
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When the defenders discovered that the enemy had entered the city, they quickly organized their troops to form formations on the city wall.
At this moment, Ding Shaoyin, who was at the foot of the city, received the news that the banner army had successfully climbed onto the city. He waved his hand, and behind rows of sidecars, the Liangzhou Guards banner troops opened their bows and threw a hail of arrows towards the city.
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Before the hastily assembled rural soldiers had time to respond to the impact, they were shot down by a hail of head-on arrows.
Fortunately, the Fran cannon on another horse-facing wall successfully fired at this time, knocking out half of the flag troops waiting to attack the city under the ladder. The troops who climbed the city had no successors and were killed in the blink of an eye.
It was quickly set on fire by the defenders.
The Liangzhou Army's first siege failed.
There was no trace of disappointment on Ding Shaoyin's face at the bottom of the city. He had tested out the approximate strength of the garrison on the city and ordered: "Divide a thousand banner troops into three gates and make wooden ladders. Seize the opportunity to climb the city and send an order to the north city."
General, let the flag army rest for a while and attack again before dark!"
