Chapter five hundred and seventy-eight of the whole army
In order to conquer Guangzhou, a city that had greatly strengthened its defense power, the Tang Dynasty King's Division also spent a lot of money, deploying almost half of its main force.
Not to mention anything else, the first infantry brigade alone can account for almost half of the main force of the Tang Dynasty King's Division.
Not to mention the First Artillery Battalion and the Guards Artillery Battalion, these two artillery battalions are currently the most powerful artillery battalions in the Tang Dynasty King's Division.
The First Artillery Battalion has three teams with a total of eighteen five-pound field guns, one team of seven-pound field guns, and five twelve-pounders (used in
The standard of the Tang Dynasty was nine kilograms of bullets, two thousand three hundred kilograms of cannon), four six-pound (five kilograms), and six three-and-a-half-pound (three kilograms) artillery pieces.
The Guards Artillery Battalion has two teams of twelve five-pound field guns and one team of seven-pound field guns.
In total, there are five nine-pound heavy guns, twelve seven-pound field guns, thirty-four five-pound field guns, and six three-pound field guns.
In addition, the 1st Infantry Brigade also has twelve three-pound shotguns and six five-pound shotguns.
The total number of various types of artillery has reached nearly 80, and these artillery are not the bowl-mouth cannons in the hands of the Ming army. They are artillery with a very short range like the small-mouth Franco machine cannon. Among them, the smallest three-pound shotgun has an effective range.
Both can reach 150 meters.
The effective range of those field artillery can generally reach more than 350 meters, and the range of seven-pound and nine-pound heavy artillery can reach more than 450 meters.
This kind of artillery strength actually far exceeded that of the Ming army in the city, and also exceeded the sum of the other artillery units of the Tang Dynasty King's Division.
In addition to the artillery force, other units are also strong. The two infantry regiments in the 1st Infantry Brigade, the 3rd Garrison Brigade, and the Liuzhou Independent Regiment are all strong forces.
For the fifth day of the storming operation, the Tang Dynasty King Division will mobilize more than 1,400 people from the Liuzhou Independent Regiment (less than one battalion), and 1,500 elite temporary commandos from the regular army and garrison will be mobilized.
The remaining people.
This force of 3,000 people is the core force of this offensive!
However, when launching a formal attack on the wall, the Tang Dynasty King will still make the final preparation, which is blasting!
The last time he attacked Wuzhou, he was able to rush in successfully because of the successful blasting, and this time, Li Xuan naturally wanted to continue using this method.
But when the order to blast was passed on, the east wall of Guangzhou did not explode as expected, but a huge fireworks was set off.
Although the noise was extremely huge and the smoke and dust raised were dozens of meters high, Li Xuan's face turned dark when he saw this scene because the blasting failed.
Although the gunpowder buried under the city wall exploded, it failed to collapse the city wall. It only blasted a large crater outside the city wall. If this happens, you don't need to ask. It must be that the location of the gunpowder was miscalculated when the gunpowder was buried.
After seeing this, Li Xuan turned around and glanced at several senior staff officers of the Operations Department responsible for blasting matters and the battalion commander of the Guards Engineer Battalion.
These people were already sweating on their foreheads, and they went straight to the line, knelt down and shouted that I was guilty!
Li Xuan couldn't bear the thought of dragging them out and killing them!
Then he said: "The storming is suspended and a second blast is organized. If this happens again next time..."
Li Xuan did not say what will happen if the blasting fails next time, but everyone knows that if the blasting fails next time, I am afraid none of these people will be able to escape being shot or beheaded!
To organize the second blast, the time required is definitely not a day or two, and the waste of time is considered a trivial matter. The key point is that the amount of gunpowder required for one blast is not a small amount.
To blow down such an extremely thick city wall, a huge amount of gunpowder would be used. If these gunpowder were used as propellant, it would be enough for the army under Guangzhou City to maintain high-intensity combat for a month.
The expected first general attack was not successfully implemented. Although Li Xuan was disappointed and even angry, he could only continue to wait.
Wang Yue in the city thought that the wall had collapsed again after hearing the loud noise from the east wall. He was about to mobilize his reserve troops to attack the pit. However, he did not expect that the east wall did not collapse. He just saw a huge
fireworks, which reassured him a lot.
But even so, he still didn't dare to relax. Instead, he felt scared for a while.
The city wall was blasted and collapsed, causing the city to fall. He had already experienced this kind of thing once in Wuzhou, but what made him a little helpless was that it was difficult to defend against this kind of thing.
Because these pseudo-Tang thieves were digging holes almost everywhere, although I also sent soldiers to conduct reverse excavations in the city, they also destroyed many tunnels of the pseudo-tang thieves, and even killed many pseudo-tang thieves who were digging tunnels.
Army, but to be honest, this kind of thing is hard to guard against.
These pseudo-Tang rebels were determined to dig tunnels. They destroyed one and two tunnels, but it was impossible to prevent them both.
To this end, he has also prepared a variety of defensive methods, the most important of which is to prepare a reserve team!
He believed that the last time the city of Wuzhou was breached, the most critical factor was that he did not have enough reserves to block the breach in time after the city wall was blasted. Moreover, the soldiers in the reserves were not elite enough, and ordinary light armored infantry could not stop them at all.
The heavy infantry of the pseudo-Tang thief army armed to the teeth.
So this time, he has prepared a large number of strategic reserves, and they are all elite troops!
The Guangzhou battalion led by Yu Dayou had 3,000 men.
There are 5,000 people under his direct supervision!
There are only more than 20,000 defenders in the city, but he has mobilized 8,000 troops to serve as strategic reserves, and they are also the most elite troops.
Especially his own supervisor, who had an entire musketeer battalion with more than 1,500 people.
Among the more than 3,000 people left, there is also a trap camp established by imitating the heavy armored infantry of the Puppet Tang thief army, with more than 1,000 people, and more than 200 heavy armored sword and shield soldiers.
These elite troops are now stationed in key places within the city, ready to support operations at the top of the city at any time.
As for the more than 10,000 people on the city who were exposed to the artillery and muskets of the puppet Tang rebels, they were just ordinary guardsmen and even ordinary young men.
Li Xuan outside the city naturally didn't know, and Wang Yue inside the city also learned to be smart.
But even if you know it, so what, you still have to fight what should be fought!
After the first general attack ended in vain, the artillery of the Tang Dynasty King's Division continued to suppress the Ming army's artillery, while the engineering troops prepared to dig tunnels for the second blast. Naturally, they were inevitably discovered by the Ming army in the process, resulting in the loss of manpower.
But in the end, the engineer battalion succeeded in secretly digging a tunnel and re-burying the gunpowder. This time, the staff of the several combat divisions responsible for calculating the direction swore that the direction of the blast this time was absolutely correct.
They are risking their lives as a guarantee!
So, on the ninth day of the Battle of Guangzhou, the Tang Dynasty King's Division outside the city once again prepared to launch a general attack. The soldiers of the Liuzhou Independent Regiment and the three assault battalions were already well prepared and were waiting for the city wall to be successfully blasted.
"Now that everything is ready, let's start!" After Li Xuan gave the decisive order, he looked directly at a certain section of the north city wall. If this time it was not very unlucky, the blasting should go smoothly, and there will be a section there.
Huge gap.
After Li Xuan gave the order, the battalion commander of the Guards Engineer Battalion asked the young staff officer in front of him nervously: "Captain Lin, is this right?"
Staff Lin first said in a firm tone: "It's absolutely correct. We have repeatedly calculated it no less than thirty times. I even went to the tunnel to measure it personally. I personally measured the installation position of the gunpowder and the detonation design.
You can’t go wrong this time!”
However, even though he was very confident in what he said, Staff Lin showed a trace of hesitation after he finished speaking: "How about we wait and calculate it again?"
When the battalion commander of the engineering battalion heard this, he couldn't help but become even more nervous: "Commander Lin, this must not go wrong, otherwise, my life and property may be at risk, brother!"
After hearing this, Staff Officer Lin also took a deep breath: "Battle Commander Fang, you are right. My colleagues and I will calculate it again and make sure it is correct before detonating it!"
Li Xuan looked at the few people not far away and muttered, but he still picked up the banknotes and the abacus and started calculating again. He did not rush them!
If the blast fails this time, he will kill someone!
Not to mention anything else, the value of the gunpowder wasted in the two blasts was enough to be worth a hundred lives of these people!
After another full quarter of an hour, Staff Lin and several other staff officers looked at each other, and then nodded. At this time, Staff Lin said to the Guards Engineer Battalion Commander Fang: "The data is confirmed to be correct, let's light the fire!
"
After hearing this, Battalion Commander Fang still showed hesitation, but soon he gritted his teeth and said: "Send the order, light the fire and detonate!"
After Battalion Commander Fang gave the order, an officer on the front line lit the match himself. The match burned all the way, and then crossed a long distance to reach a large number of gunpowder barrels in the tunnel under the city wall.
And the next moment, a loud noise suddenly came from a certain section of the northern city wall of Guangzhou City. As the loud noise sounded, huge plumes of smoke began to rise!
At the same time, countless people were looking at the smoke. At this time, many soldiers of the Tang Dynasty King's Division showed ecstatic expressions!
I saw that that section of the city wall was completely in ruins, which meant that there was a huge gap in this section of the extremely tall city wall!
At this time, Li Xuan also put down the single-channel telescope and said: "Send the order for the entire army to attack!"
After the second blast was successful, it was natural for the whole army to attack. At this time, the Liuzhou Independent Regiment and the soldiers of the three temporary assault battalions began to run hard and rushed towards the gap where the smoke had not cleared.
At the same time, Wang Yue, who was watching the battle at the top of the city, also had a cold look on his face, and then shouted loudly: "Quick, hurry up, we must not let the rebel army rush through the gap!"