Chapter five hundred and thirty fourth confrontation
Not long after, the Qing army had pushed the artillery to a place 700 steps away from the front of the Dahua Army's formation and then stopped. A soldier named Han Banner had already started busy setting up the artillery position.
As the supreme commander of the Han Banner, Kong Youde was not idle either, leading a group of generals to patrol around.
"Crack, crackle, crackle..."
"Hurry up, speed up, let the Chinese army on the opposite side know how powerful we are."
"Hurry up, you idiot, did you dream about girls again last night? Why are you not energetic at all today?"
On the position of the Qing army's artillery camp, the sound of whips beating the soldiers, scoldings and words of encouragement were mixed together, creating a chaotic scene.
Looking at this scene, Kong Youde and the surrounding generals not only did not feel angry, but instead nodded frequently in relief.
Kong Youde smiled slightly and turned back to the generals and said: "Yes, it seems that the men are very attentive. As long as the artillery can be set up smoothly, it can inflict heavy damage on the Chinese army. Then it will be time for our Qing cavalry to dispatch.
"
"Your Majesty is wise!"
Most of the generals in the Han banner were former Ming generals who had surrendered with Kong Youde. Naturally, they wanted to flatter Kong Youde.
Kong Youde narrowed his eyes proudly and looked forward. The Chinese army's position more than 700 steps away seemed very blurry to his naked eyes, but he knew very well that once the hundreds of general cannons in his hands were used,
, what a huge blow it will cause to the other party.
However, what Dorgon said to him last night emerged in Kong Youde's mind now.
"King respectfully, you are a general who was surrendered by the former Ming Dynasty. On the surface, the emperor treats you people very well, but you know the emperor's body and bones. To be disrespectful, the emperor has only a few years to live. Once the emperor takes over
Beng, the one who will most likely succeed to the throne in the future is Hauge. You can imagine for yourself that once Hauge succeeds to the throne, he has always been hostile to you Han people. What will happen to you Han ministers?
Don’t you need me to remind you? Therefore, for your future sake, I advise you to cooperate with me obediently..."
Thinking of this, Kong Youde felt that the good mood that was a little gratifying just now had disappeared. Dorgon's meaning was very clear, that is, he wanted Kong Youde to let go in today's artillery battle, and he must not hit the artillery of the Chinese Army too badly.
, otherwise once the Chinese army was defeated, the prestige of Huang Taiji in the Qing Dynasty would be more stable, and he would be free to deal with the disobedient ministers in order to pave the way for his son's succession.
Others don't know about Huang Taiji's health, but important Manchu ministers like Kong Youde know very well that in recent years, Huang Taiji's health has been declining rapidly. Once when attending a court meeting, Huang Taiji actually suffered from coughing.
It was so powerful that it had to be suspended. From this moment on, Kong Youde and a group of important officials of the Manchu Qing Dynasty began to realize that Huang Taiji might not be able to survive for a few more years.
Thinking of this, Kong Youde felt very depressed. Of course he knew what Dorgon was thinking, which was to use the power of the Chinese army on the opposite side to force Huang Taiji not to eliminate his dissidents before his death. As long as he could survive until Huang Taiji died, the rest
Is Hauge still the opponent of the wily Dorgon?
But then again, in a battle of this scale, would Kong Youde dare to let go easily? You know, Huang Taiji was watching him eagerly from behind.
Just when Kong Youde was in a dilemma, more than half of the artillery below had been set up, and the heavy muzzles were pointed diagonally towards the sky. The gunners also lifted boxes of projectiles and gunpowder from carts.
Come down.
At this moment, a thunder-like muffled sound suddenly sounded from the front. When this sound reached Kong Youde's ears, Kong Youde and many others could already see faintly visible small black dots flying towards them.
Kong Youde's face suddenly stiffened, and immediately his back was covered with fine white sweat. After a few seconds, Kong Youde shouted loudly: "No. It's an artillery attack from the Chinese Army. Everyone, hurry up and hide."
open!"
As soon as Kong Youde finished speaking, the faint thunder began to become sharper and turned into a rapid whistling sound.
Immediately afterwards, a sharp whistling sound passed through my ears. Then the first artillery shell exploded less than fifty steps away from Kong Youde.
"boom....."
There was a loud noise accompanied by a huge plume of black smoke rising into the sky. A cannon weighing more than 3,000 kilograms was overturned to the ground with the explosion. Dozens of packs of black gunpowder placed around it were also detonated in an instant.
, and at the same time, it also blew more than a dozen gunners around into pieces.
"Boom boom boom..."
As if it was a trigger, more artillery shells fell on the Qing artillery positions, billowing black smoke rose everywhere, and the detonated shells caused various irregular shrapnel to fly everywhere.
Kong Youde was stunned by this sudden blow. He stared blankly at the messy battlefield around him, his expression dull for a while.
Kong Youde was like this, not to mention the other gunners of the Han Army Flag. They were either stunned on the spot or running around like headless flies with their heads in their hands. They didn't come back to their senses until the sound of the cannons gradually subsided for a while.
The artillery at this time was not as fast as later generations. After firing the cannonball, the gunners had to use a long piece of wood tied with cloth strips and dip it in clean water to clean the remaining gunpowder residue in the barrel. This was also a way to quickly cool down before firing.
Reload the silk-wrapped medicine bag and projectiles into the muzzle. The process is tedious and naturally takes a long time. There is always no more than three to five minutes to complete the tedious reloading work.
However, in these short few minutes, Kong Youde also reacted. At this moment, he was no longer in the mood to let off steam. He had seen Dahua's shelling yesterday, but when the shell really fell on his head
, he can truly feel the power of this explosive bomb.
"Quick, everyone set up the artillery and shoot out the projectiles as quickly as possible!"
After coming back to his senses, Kong Youde could no longer care about anything else. He waved the whip in his hand and roared hysterically on the artillery position. He knew very well that if he could not give the opponent a fierce counterattack as soon as possible, let alone let go, he would be in trouble.
Even his own life may not be safe, because Huang Taiji will not show mercy to a defeated loser.
Fortunately, although the shelling just now seemed very violent, the damage to the Qing artillery camp was not that serious. Because it was the first round of shelling, the accuracy was still not satisfactory. Some shells fell in the air in front.
On the ground, some fell behind the artillery camp, and only about a quarter of the projectiles actually landed on the artillery position.
Therefore, although seven or eight artillery pieces were blown up, for the Han Army Banner, which had hundreds of general cannons, this blow was not enough to make them lose their combat effectiveness. Under the urging of the jumping Kong Youde and the impatient officers,
, the gunners of the artillery battalion quickly completed the erection work, and solid projectiles were stuffed into the gun bore one by one.
"Quick, load the cannonballs and fire from a distance of 700 steps!"
"Bang bang bang..."
On the Qing army's position, a low roar also began to sound, and projectiles began to fly quickly towards the Dahua army's position.
"Bombardment!"
"Cannon attack, put up your shields, put up your shields quickly!"
Seeing bursts of fire flashing through the Qing army's position in front, in the infantry square formation, one officer after another quickly shouted and ordered the soldiers to erect their shields, although they themselves knew that no matter how strong they were,
Even the shield can't withstand the impact of projectiles weighing seven or eight kilograms, but it's still better than nothing.
Black solid projectiles traced chaotic trajectories in the air, and soon began to fall on the Dahua Army's position. Due to the Qing army's random firing, there is no need to mention the accuracy. The whole word is a mess, plus the artillery camp
It was at the very rear of the entire army, so few projectiles could land on the artillery camp, so the order of the artillery camp was quite orderly.
But the infantry formation in front was not so relaxed. In this round of artillery, several projectiles just landed in the neatly arranged formation. Every falling projectile would leave a long trail.
There were blood stains, and the military formation was still in a dense formation, so the casualties were not small. The falling of more than ten projectiles caused more than 100 casualties to the Dahua Army.
Although the training of the Dahua Army is very strict, the sergeants still involuntarily showed fear in the face of the irresistible bombardment. This has nothing to do with training, but is purely the inner fear of human beings when facing death.
Although the casualties caused by this round of shelling to the Chinese army were not very large, the impact on morale was not small, and it also caused slight commotion in some of the originally solemn and silent formations.
All this was seen by Dong Guo. When he saw this scene, he secretly complained in his heart. What is this? His artillery battalion was inferior to Qing Dynasty in terms of quantity, quality and training of artillery.
The army was more than a step ahead, but he was unexpectedly caught off guard by the firearms battalion of the Qing army, which he had always looked down upon. He would definitely be scolded to death by Wang Zhi after a while.
Sure enough, before Dong Guo could order a counterattack, Wang Zhi's roaring voice came from behind.
"Dong Guo, how did you become the commander-in-chief of the artillery battalion, but you are still a guerrilla appointed by the emperor? I think you are a piece of shit. Tell me whether you can do a good job. If not, you can tell me as soon as possible.
I’ll replace you as soon as possible!”
Wang Zhi was indeed furious. Before the battle officially started, the Qing army's artillery caught him off guard. Hundreds of sergeants were killed by the Qing army's artillery before a single shot was fired. This made
He felt extremely angry, and even with his usually calm temperament, he couldn't help but get angry.