Before Liang Jun's long-distance bombardment but before landing, the generals were not allowed to leave Jinghaimen to avoid the bombardment. In the early morning of the 16th, Chongwen Hall summoned civil and military generals of fifth rank or above for a court meeting, and a dispute arose.
In the eyes of many people, Liang Jun's declaration of war and yesterday's posture on the river outside Jinghai Gate to bombard target ships revealed full contempt and provocation.
In the eyes of bloody people, this is unbearable.
The thin young man wanted to go to Jinghai Gate in person and lead the Chu generals to fight. How could he endure the Chu generals to hide aside during the bombardment and make Liang Jun laugh?
If the generals of the Royal Guards did not dare to stand on the Jinghai Gate when Liang Jun was bombarding, how could Da Chu have any dignity, and how could it inspire the morale of the entire city's soldiers and civilians to live or die with Jinling City?
Of course, many people still think that the main feature of Liang Jun's new smoothbore cannon is its long range. But yesterday, seeing how the projectiles penetrated the ship wall, the power seemed to be weaker than that of the cyclone cannon at close range.
The imperial guards prepared for the war for three or four months. In addition to the wooden frames inside the city tower for reinforcement, double-layer logs were used to build wooden sheds on both sides of the city walls. Everyone thought that this could effectively reduce the risk of the city defenders being shelled.
casualties; even if they have to bear some casualties, it is the duty of the guards and generals who have been favored over the years.
At this time, it was a critical moment for the survival of Chu. The young emperor's bravery and bravery still won the support of many officials in the Chongwen Palace. There were even several young censors who kowtowed to Hanlin and asked to board the Jinghai Gate to meet the imperial guards.
The pro-army generals defended the city together.
Yang En, Gu Zhilong and others firmly opposed it, emphasizing that in normal operations, when the enemy uses tornado cannons to attack a city, the defenders should try their best to adopt more flexible tactics to reduce their own casualties as much as possible.
Only when the enemy attacked the city with cyclone cannons and simultaneously captured the city, they had no choice but to risk the stone bombardment and stick to the city wall.
If Liang Jun only used the warships parked on the river to carry out bombardment today, none of his generals would land ashore or directly attack the city wall. Of course, Da Chu's generals would hide in a safer place first to avoid directly facing Liang Jun's bombardment.
, we cannot let the generals who were loyal to Da Chu die in vain under the bombardment.
At this time, Shen Yang was already very old. He was sitting on the throne next to the royal case, without saying a word. It seemed that the last bit of energy in his old body was about to be drained out.
"The generals will temporarily avoid the two sides to confirm that Liang Jun's artillery attack is not too powerful, and then it will not be too late to mount the wall to defend. In the end, the Chu State will still rely on the generals, and all the ministers should be sorry for it." Qingyang made a final decision and calmed down.
Due to the dispute, Shen Yang, Yang En, Gu Zhilong, Du Chongtao, Zhou Bingwu, Zhang Ping and almost all the civil and military officials of the fifth rank and above in the court escorted the young emperor to Jingjiang Gate to supervise the battle.
When the civil and military officials filed out of the house surrounded by the young emperor, the huge Chongwen Hall became empty. Qingyang sat behind the imperial case and felt lost for a moment. She didn't know what she was looking forward to.
Lei Cheng staggered in and said: "Your Majesty, you have no intention of harming Your Majesty or killing the civil and military officials of the Chu and Manchu dynasties. Please relax, Your Majesty. Today's Jingjiang Gate will not be the target of Daliang gunboat bombardment. Your Majesty."
Even water is strictly ordered
The army must avoid ricochet situations. Of course, no matter how generous and righteous your Majesty, the world has been divided and it has been more than thirty years since the founding of Chu. Too many people will not be willing to give up their existing rights and interests easily.
, a battle between Liang and Chu is inevitable - now I only hope that the artillery battle at Jinghaimen can make many ministers let go of their obsessions..."
"I hope it's as you said," Qingyang said sadly. "Zheng Yu, Zheng Hui, Zheng Chang, Zhang Chao, Zhang Han, Zhang Wei and his son are all firmly opposed to moving the capital. They are just waiting for the day when Jinling can no longer support it.
For Liang Jun to break through first, they can happily go to Han Qian to sell it at a good price without any burden, and can continue to maintain their wealth. A weak woman in the Ai family is powerless to die - and now Gu Zhilong's attitude is also
As a result, he was also bribed by you, right?"
"That's not true yet, but it's true that Gu Zhilong has his own private thoughts and calculations," Lei Cheng said.
"You can have a rest..." Qingyang waved his hand, signaling Lei Cheng to step back.
"By the way, your Majesty finally completed an old poem and presented it to the Queen Mother with an old slave..." Lei Cheng took out a folded silk book from his sleeves and presented it to the imperial case before he staggered
leave.
Qingyang hesitated for a long time before opening the silk book and scanning his eyes from top to bottom:
"The great river goes eastward, and the waves are swept away, and the heroes of the ages. To the west of the fort, there is the human road, the Red Cliff of Zhou Lang of the Three Kingdoms. The rocks penetrate the sky, the waves crash on the shore, and thousands of piles of snow are rolled up. The country is picturesque, and there are so many heroes at that time. I think about it from afar.
In the days of Gong Jin, Xiao Qiao was married for the first time, with a majestic appearance. She wore a feather fan and a silk scarf, and while chatting and laughing, her oars and oars disappeared into ashes. She was wandering around in her homeland, and she laughed at me affectionately. She was born early. Life is like a dream, and one of her statues still shines in the moonlight of the river..."
Qingyang sat there in a daze for a moment, his slender, jade-like fingers couldn't help but caress the ten numbers, "I think back to Gong Jin's time, when Xiao Qiao got married for the first time, and she looked majestic and handsome"...
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Worried that the cannonballs would miss the city wall and hit Jingjiang Gate three to four hundred steps behind, the gunboats lined up on the river outside Jinghai Gate did not aim at the tower on the city gate. Instead, they lowered their muzzles and aimed
The Wengcheng outside Jinghai Gate and the city walls on both sides were shelled.
In order to ensure that the impact point falls within the scope of Jinghaimen, more than a dozen gunboats conducted test firings from near to far, and even anchored directly in the center of the river and parked at fixed positions to avoid deviations as much as possible.
Solid bullets can easily penetrate the ship wall when bombarding a warehouse. Therefore, the destructive power to the overall structure of the ship's hull seems to be inferior to that of a cyclone cannon throwing stone bullets weighing hundreds or even two to three hundred kilograms at close range. However,
In fact, after a solid bullet weighing twelve kilograms is fired, the accumulated impact force is ten times that of a stone bullet weighing one hundred kilograms.
This is completely reflected when bombarding the city wall, which is covered with city bricks and is a completely hard impact.
In comparison, to prevent shelling, rammed earth walls are much more practical than brick-clad walls. They can absorb the impact of shells more effectively and can withstand shelling for a longer period of time.
First there were sporadic test firings, and soon there were more than a dozen gunboats, with nearly a hundred forward-loaded smoothbore cannons on one side firing salvos. Seeing bricks and stones flying in the distance, and dust and smoke rising, I felt that the ground beneath my feet was shaking.
There are also occasional
One or two solid bullets crossed the city wall and landed on the open space in front of Jingjiang Gate. Even if they did not hit the Jingjiang Gate Gate Tower, they made the faces of the civil and military officials of Dachu who were watching the battle on the Jingjiang Gate Gate Tower turn pale and their hands and feet became weak.
"The barbican has collapsed!"
The bombardment had not lasted long, and the generals on the lookout in the west tower of the imperial city rushed to the Jingjiang Gate and reported loudly.
"The barbican collapsed?"
Everyone looked at Yang En in panic. Jinling City was mainly built under the auspices of Yang En. No one knew the strength of the Weng City better than Yang En.
Yang En smiled sadly, what could he say?
In the later stages of the Jinling Rebellion, the army besieged Jinling City. In the end, the rebels could not hold on in the fierce attrition battle and took the initiative to abandon the city and cross the river to escape.
At that time, the entire northern section of the city defense system along the river had not withstood the test of war - after all, the space on the side of the river for troops to deploy was too limited - however, at that time, both sides surrounded the south, west, and east sides of Jinling City.
Guocheng launched a bloody attack that lasted for several months. The strength or weakness of Jinling City's city defense system has been tested in actual combat.
At that time, the barbicans of Chongyi Gate and Xihua Gate were bombarded by dozens of cyclone cannons and lasted for more than ten days before they were completely destroyed.
Moreover, due to the rupture and collapse of the solid city walls under the bombardment of the cyclone cannon, it is a relatively long process. During this process, as long as the defenders' will to resist is strong enough and their organizational power is strong enough, they can organize the soldiers and civilians in the city in time to use
Bricks, stones, and wooden palisade walls can be used to repair cracked or collapsed city walls at any time, so that at the extreme, a fortified city can even hold on for several years in the face of powerful enemies, until the food supply is completely exhausted.
However, in the face of Liang Jun's bombardment, they thought that the barrier wall was so fragile and collapsed so easily and quickly. At this time, even if the soldiers and civilians in the city were fearless about life and death, the speed of repairing the city wall was far slower than the destruction, and it was easy to collapse in a short time.
The enemy opened a gap for a large number of troops to attack directly into the city.
In the face of Liang Jun's new war equipment, the city wall was no longer a solid barrier that the defenders could rely on.
The barbican collapsed, and the bombardment continued, but the main bullet points were concentrated on the walls on both sides. The officials of Dachu who were watching the battle from the Jingjiang Gate Tower soon saw cracks on the inside of the walls on both wings, and the masonry collapsed.
I don’t know how long it took, maybe it was a long time, maybe it was a short time. The main reason was that everyone was terrified, worried that a shell would hit where they were standing at any time, and they couldn’t feel the passage of time for a while - due to the damage to the walls on both sides.
The damage was so serious that the overall structure of Jinghai City Gate was damaged and could no longer support the tower above the city gate, which was more than four feet high. Amidst the "squeaking and squeaking" sound that made people feel extremely uncomfortable, the Jinghai Gate collapsed.
The city tower collapsed together with the city gate below.
This time the collapse caused an even louder noise, smoke and dust rose up, and even gravel hit the Jingjiang Gate tower, causing the shield to rattle loudly.
When the smoke and dust fell, the entire Jinghai Gate was completely reduced to a pile of ruins, while the Liang Jun gunboats in the distance had already assembled their formation and slowly retreated to the north bank.
The skinny young man wouldn't even be able to stand on the tower if Zhang Ping hadn't secretly stretched out his hand to support his back behind him...