The accent of the person shouting was very strange. It was not a Central Plains accent, nor a Shaanxi accent, but the broken Chinese of the Xinjiang Uighurs who grilled mutton skewers in the city. Liu Ziguang was so happy when he heard it, was this a war? How could it be like collecting debts?
Don't let us down, Xixia humanities are also very sophisticated.
No one in Tongguan City answered the Xixia people's questions. The entire city was in a tight formation, and the atmosphere was tense from top to bottom. Officers gave orders one after another, and the soldiers hid behind the crenellations and did not dare to show their heads. When the Xixia people saw no one in the city answering, they started to curse.
He said: "The barbarians don't keep their word..." Before he could finish his words, an arrow pierced the man's throat. The Xixia man's body swayed before it fell down. Someone next to him grabbed the body and rode back.
The cavalry retreated fifty steps like a tide before stopping.
Liu Ziguang turned to look, Wu Sangui's face was livid, he withdrew his bow and said: "Fire!" The city was suddenly filled with smoke, and all kinds of artillery and muskets were fired at the same time. The sound was deafening, and the fiery projectiles hit the Xixia army, and they were immediately knocked down.
Suddenly, the Xia soldiers retreated while shouting at their horses, but their formation was not disordered.
After the Xixia people retreated beyond the shooting range, the officers ordered a ceasefire. It took a while for the gunpowder smoke above the city to clear. The soldiers were busy loading gunpowder and cannonballs, waiting for the enemy to attack again. Looking at the bottom of the city, dozens of people were already lying there.
A bloody corpse.
There is a big gap between the city defense artillery of the Western Army and that of the Red Shirt Army. They still use solid black powder shells, and the fire muskets are also a generation behind. They are front-mounted flintlock muskets with limited range and power. The Xixia people can do nothing if they retreat two miles away.
If you don't want to stop them, the most you can do is use artillery at a higher elevation to harass them.
Liu Ziguang was a little strange. The Xixia people said that they wanted to get money as agreed, and Wu Sangui shot him in time. It looked like he was killing someone to silence him, but the enemy could only put this kind of thing aside for now.
The Xixia people came with 10,000 cavalry and more than 20,000 infantry. The force was not considered strong. Now they withdrew to a safe distance and began to unload the things on the oxcart. Looking through the telescope, they saw huge wooden components.
They can be connected with iron pins, and there are long ropes and piles of cannonball-like things, which are return cannons. They need to assemble the return cannons for siege.
Liu Ziguang had seen Hui Hui Cannon before. It was like an oversized howitzer. It could hurl huge rocks and burning objects into the city in a parabola. The more gunners, the greater the weight and distance of the launch. Some of them had four hundred or five hundred people.
The gunner's return cannon can even project hundreds of kilograms of stones up to a thousand steps away. This thing definitely belongs to the series of large-scale killer weapons. It is not inferior to the power of artillery. Judging from the posture of the Xixia people, it seems that they have prepared many return cannons.
If they were assembled to bombard Tongguan, it would be enough for the people in the city to drink a pot.
No, we must rush out of the city to destroy these weapons before the assembly of the Huihui artillery is completed. Otherwise, blindly passive defense will only suffer losses. Now there are tens of thousands of people in the city, and there are strong reinforcements from the rear. It is far from the difficult situation under the Liguo City that day. Going out of the city
Counterattack is absolutely possible.
Liu Ziguang knew that Wu Sangui was the main defender of the city, so he went over and said, "Uncle Chang, now is the best time to leave the city for a counterattack. It will be too late when their return artillery is loaded."
Wu Sangui said: "The Commander-in-Chief has an order to kill anyone who leaves the city without permission. Even if the military order is as high as the mountain, we dare not disobey it."
Liu Ziguang said: "This is not the way to fight. You must know that the best defense is to attack. I think the Xixia army is just like this. It is much worse than the Manchu and Qing Dynasty chain horses. Uncle Zhang, if you lend me three thousand cavalry, I will definitely be able to defeat them."
Their cannons were burned to the ground."
Wu Sangui's eyes lit up, but then dimmed again, and said: "Brother, it's not that my younger brother won't help. Governor Yuan's military laws are very strict. No matter whether we win or lose when we go out to fight in the city, we will never escape death, so we can only and must defend Tongguan."
Liu Ziguang said: "What's the point? Are the Western Army afraid of being beaten? You are afraid of me, but you are not afraid. I will go to Governor Yuan to reason."
When he found Yuan Chonghuan on the archery tower and explained his reasoning, Governor Yuan's face suddenly turned ugly and he said: "The general has just arrived and has no idea. The Xixia people are cunning. If he rushes out of the city, he is bound to be ambushed by them. How to deal with the barbarians? How should I deal with the barbarians?"
Properly speaking, when Huang Taiji was seriously injured in the Xuzhou city and the Qing army defeated 500,000 soldiers, it was the work of this governor. In terms of defending the city... the general was still a little inferior."
Liu Ziguang hit a big nail, and walked down the archery tower angrily. Looking in the distance, he saw that the Xixia people's back-to-back artillery chassis had been set up. Those shells as huge as wine jars were not ordinary stones at first glance, but were made with added materials.
A big killer. At a glance, there are at least fifty return cannons of different sizes being assembled. Tongguan City will definitely experience a catastrophe later.
There is wilderness as far as the eye can see outside the city, and even the trees on the mountains have been cut down. It is sheer nonsense to say that the Xixia people are hiding an ambush. There are more than ten thousand cavalry in total. I really don’t know what Yuan Chonghuan is worried about. Liu Ziguang went to Wu Sangui again and said: "Uncle Zhang
, I won’t lend you any more soldiers, just open the door for me and I will go out with my own 300 troops to charge."
Wu Sangui looked troubled: "This..."
Liu Ziguang said: "Supervisor Yuan only said that anyone who leaves the city will beheaded, but he didn't say whoever opens the door will beheaded. What are you afraid of? I think the supervisor does not dare to touch my head easily. Don't worry, you still have my ability."
Not sure?"
Wu Sangui was still hesitating when suddenly a thunderous voice next to him said kindly: "I am willing to lead my troops to follow the Marquis out of the city!" It turned out to be Wu Sangui's brave general Jin Shengheng. In fact, Jin Shengheng was Liu Ziguang's man. He followed Zuo Liangyu in the rebellion.
, it was Liu Ziguang who recruited him regardless of past suspicions, gave him an official position and asked him to follow Wu Sangui south to Changsha to quell the chaos. It was because of Liu Ziguang's support that he climbed to the height he is today. This man was born as a bandit in the Central Plains, and he put loyalty first. Seeing the past
The benefactor came to the front line but had no military power and could only lead three hundred soldiers out of the city to meet the enemy. Jin Shengheng's heroic spirit suddenly emerged, so he said such a sentence.
"General Jin is indeed very heroic, but don't interfere in this matter. The Xixia people are too powerful. You should all hide in the city. I can go alone." Liu Ziguang said.
"The life of the general was given by the Marquis. I hope that the Marquis will give the general a chance to repay the favor. Righteousness is what a man values in heaven and earth. Even if he dies, it doesn't matter." Jin Shengheng said firmly, and Liu Ziguang couldn't help but praise: "
Got it!"
Jin Shengheng has five hundred soldiers under his command. They are all old bandits who have traveled across the Central Plains. Their horsemanship skills are quite good. Liu Ziguang's three hundred soldiers are the best among them. They are all heroes. Not to mention there are ten thousand cavalry outside.
Well, so what if it’s just one hundred thousand? It’s not like I’ve never done this before. Back then, 800 slaves fought against the Eight Banners chain horses under the Liguo City, 3,000 tiger warriors fought against the 100,000 Dorgon army under the Jinan City, and 300 people fought against the 100,000 Dorgon army at the Wuchang River.
Against 20,000 rebels, a thousand paratroopers faced off against 130,000 Qing troops in Beijing. Every time it was not a heroic feat of one against ten. Today, these beggar-like Xixia cavalry outside are wearing a broken barbed wire fence and holding scimitars, bows and arrows.
They are so arrogant that their brothers have long disliked them.
Seeing Wu Sangui's hesitation, Liu Ziguang knew that Wu Sangui was actually opposed to defending the city, so he patted him on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry, no matter you win or lose, I'll be there for you, so just open the door."
Wu Sangui was silent for a moment, and then shouted to the people below the city: "Open the door!" Liu Ziguang cupped his fists and said, "Thank you." He turned around and went down to the city. Jin Shengheng followed him without saying a word. Wu Sangui sighed and said to himself: "Brother,
Actually, I want to go with you."
Liu Ziguang's 300 men and Jin Shengheng's 500 men had already prepared their troops. As soon as the city gate opened, they poured out like a tidal wave, like a stream of iron flowing straight into the rear of the Xixia army.
On the archery tower, Yuan Chonghuan saw that someone had left the city to fight, and he immediately became furious: "Who left the city without authorization? Do you take the governor's ban as a child's play?" Someone next to him whispered: "Master Governor, judging from the flag, it seems that Marquis Zhenwu has gone out."
Liu Ziguang took the lead and rushed to the front. He was walking in a hurry. He was not even wearing any armor. He was just wearing a red shirt. At his waist was the White Rainbow Sword that had been with him for many years. Under his crotch was the red rabbit chasing the wind and the horse. His four hooves spread out like a ball of fire.
Galloping forward, followed closely by 300 brothers who followed him in life and death, each with sheet metal breastplates, shrimp tail helmets, cowhide armed belts and cross shawls, each with two four-shot fire guns and a Lianfeng horn
The special-grade sabers produced, the saddles also have riding bows and carved feather arrows. Whether they are playing with fire blunderbuss or playing with bows and arrows, they are all top players, and their riding skills are even better. Many of these people are originally from Mongolia.
People, Turks and other nomadic peoples, but now they only have one identity, that is, the Red Shirt Army.
Jin Shengheng's troops were a little worse in quality, but they were all covered in fish scale armor and were equipped with swords, bows, arrows and spears. Everyone leveled their spears and followed the general with shouts of "kill" and rushed forward.
The Xixia people did not expect that the Ming army would actually come out of the city to counterattack. At this moment, they were sitting cross-legged on their horses, drinking kumiss and eating naan. When they heard the thunderous sound of horse hooves hitting the ground, they hurriedly dropped their food and came to fight, waiting for them to gather.
Forming a decent formation and outflanking them from both sides, the Ming army had already rushed into the infantry formation, waving their sabers and slashing at the engineers who were assembling the artillery pieces.
Wu Sangui stood at the top of the city and watched the battlefield. Liu Ziguang's 800 men had already rushed into the enemy's formation, and the enemy's cavalry surrounded them from both sides and cut off their retreat. A fierce battle was unfolding, and the bright red soldiers could be seen over there.
The Western General's flag cut into the Xixia army's formation without any resistance like a sharp blade. The Xixia army recognized that it was the enemy's command flag and immediately gathered troops to surround it, but it was unable to stop the flag from rushing left and right.
Liu Ziguang, who rushed into the enemy's formation, wielded his Baihong Sword and slashed left and right. As if entering an uninhabited land, the infantry of the Xixia Army had extremely weak combat effectiveness and dispersed as soon as they charged. It seemed that they were just coolie troops used to pull the cannon ropes. They rushed in quickly.
When he got to the returning artillery pieces, he remembered that he didn't bring any fire starters, but it didn't matter. There were many enemies here. Liu Ziguang's sensitive sense of smell told him that those wine jar-like artillery shells tied with hemp rope were filled with flammable materials.
With the fire burning, he stretched out his hand and shouted sternly: "Grenade on!"