July 16, the 49th year of Yongchang, Luo'an County, Nanhai Prefecture.
Cheng Lingfeng led a group of subordinate civil and military officials to the top of the city, and took out his gold-plated single-channel telescope to look outside the city!
Just a few hundred meters outside the city, there is a long parapet trench, which is the defense line built by the Jian family's troops, and behind these defense lines, there are artillery pieces.
Most of them were five-pound field guns, but about a quarter were nine-pound field guns, and a few were fourteen-pound heavy cannons and eighteen-pound mortars.
On the positions of these artillery pieces, the artillerymen were continuing to reload, and then fired, firing shells into the city one after another.
In the sight of the single-channel telescope, Cheng Lingfeng watched as the opponent's nine-pound field cannon fired, and a huge shell flew six to seven hundred meters before landing on the top of the city.
But the shell did not hit the city wall, but exploded directly on top of the city.
After the explosion, people could clearly see a cloud of white smoke rising up, but what they couldn't see was that at that moment, countless small steel balls shot out in all directions with the explosion of the shell, directly covering the
The area below the city head is at least ten meters.
The few soldiers who showed up and were not hidden in the bulletproof fortifications suddenly had blood holes on their bodies.
In the face of shrapnel, soldiers without artillery fortifications have almost no ability to resist.
Shrapnel, or shrapnel (xian) as some people call it, or shrapnel (san) as some people call it, or shrapnel, in short, it is just such a thing.
This thing is a new type of ammunition that appeared in the Heng'ao War. The shells are filled with many steel balls. The shells detonate when they are launched over the enemy. After detonation, they cover a large area with a large number of steel balls, killing and injuring the enemy's effective strength.
Later, with the continuous improvement of fuzes, the emergence of wooden pallets and other new technologies, the technology of grenades and shrapnel grenades became more perfect and more powerful.
At the same time, it is also because everyone's fortifications are very strong, and parapets are often built in field battles, which greatly reduces the power of traditional solid bullets. Therefore, shrapnel shells, together with grenades, have become the favorite weapons of various vassals and towns to use to kill the enemy's effective forces.
Cannonballs.
It's just that they have been used for a long time, and now the troops in various vassal towns also know how to repair artillery holes when conducting defensive operations, but later the artillerymen began to play with large-charge grenades, and even solid bullets were not given up.
Use different shells depending on the situation.
In Cheng Lingfeng's opinion, the shrapnel fired by the enemy was nothing more than that. Their city defenses had complete anti-shell defenses. The shock waves of heavy grenades could not be protected against, but they could still protect against shrapnel fragments, steel balls, etc.
.
As long as the soldiers don't run out of the artillery fortifications stupidly.
What Cheng Lingfeng was really worried about was the heavy grenades launched by the opponent.
That thing is a big killer!
Sure enough, their heavy artillery is also in action!
One of the 18-pound short-barreled howitzers, or mortars, opened fire quickly, and a huge 18-pound shell drew an obvious curve in the sky, and then hit the top of the city.
boom!
The violent explosion almost flattened the city wall at the impact point, and the violent impact destroyed everything it encountered, and completely blew away a nearby simple anti-gun fortification made of sandbags, wooden beams, etc.
You don't need to look closely to know that the soldiers hiding inside must be dead.
The threat of these heavy artillery is too great. If they continue to fight like this, the city will definitely not be able to defend it.
You must take the initiative!
When Cheng Lingfeng saw this, he immediately turned back to look at a young man behind him: "Hongsui, are your cavalry ready?"
The young man immediately stepped out and said: "Don't worry, sir, the cavalry brigade of the Ministry of Staff has already maneuvered into place according to the predetermined plan, and will be able to attack at dawn tomorrow!"
"very good!"
"After your cavalry attacks, I will order the entire army to counterattack. Success or failure depends on this. I hope you all can work together!"
"Cut off the head of the traitor in Jianminggang, and Luo'an County will still be ours!"
At the same time, on the other side, Jian Minggang was also discussing the siege with others.
"We can't delay it any longer. It's been almost half a month now. If we delay it any longer, it's hard to say whether Feng Haozhong and the others will change. We must get rid of the Cheng family as soon as possible so that we can update the details in the future.
Good control of the situation!”
"If it is delayed for too long, not only Feng Haozhong and the others will change, but Guang'an and Hexi counties will also change. Once they notice the emptiness within our Luo'an, they will most likely take advantage of it!"
At the same time, more than 20 kilometers north of Luo'an County, two troops, one in front and one behind, were marching feebly southward. The one in front only had over a thousand people, and the one in the back was about the same number.
These two waves of troops naturally entangled each other all the way from Guang'an City, almost fighting each other before returning to Jian Liangzhi's temporary brigade and Cheng Hongbin's sixth brigade near the county town.
It's just that they have already lost many soldiers and generals in this fight, and they even have very few weapons and ammunition left, but they are still entangled with each other.
When Luo'an County and surrounding areas were busy fighting, there were only two people in a large conference room in Chongguang City, and there were no other staff outside the conference room, and even the surrounding houses were empty.
Within a few dozen meters, there were only the two people in the conference room.
Among these two people, one is the actual owner of Chongguang City, the commander of the Third Division Feng Haozhong.
The other person, wearing inconspicuous casual clothes, about forty years old, holding a folding fan, was listening to him: "Master Feng, believe me, our sincerity is very sufficient."
"The initial one-time support of 500,000 yuan in military expenses for your department is enough to provide food for 10,000 troops for half a month and even enough ammunition for your department to fight three large-scale battles. This is only part of our sincerity."
"As long as Mr. Feng gives up Chongguang City and leads his troops back to Luo An's army, our second batch of assistance will arrive immediately. If you need it, we can even directly send troops to help you seize the position of county guard."
"We very much hope that you, your lord, can be the governor of Luo'an County, because only your lord knows that there is no point in continuing the war between the two armies!"
"The war between the two counties that has lasted for many years is just Cheng Lingfeng's whim. It only increases the casualties of the two counties and has no meaning at all."
"Even if your Luo'an army can defeat our Guang'an army for a while, just like the previous battle of Chongguang City, but so what."
"Hexi County, Hedong County and even Luohai County do not want to see a unified two counties. This is why the eight thousand cavalry from Hexi County appeared when your troops entered the hinterland of Guang'an!"