national surname chiming

Chapter 296 Taking Wan County Lightly
Wan County, which belonged to Kuizhou Prefecture at the end of Ming Dynasty, is still [-] miles away from Zhiba County, Chongqing Prefecture.

The distance seems to be quite far, but even if the officials of later generations do not understand geography at all, they probably know that Wanxian is under the jurisdiction of Chongqing—because the famous Chongqing grilled fish in the 21st century originated from there.Later, when people from other parts of Chongqing saw that this business was interesting, they also came to do it, and the locals set up another signboard of "Wanzhou Grilled Fish".

And a place that is famous for its grilled fish, of course, has a riverside and a lot of water.

The Wanxian city in the late Ming Dynasty happened to be located at a corner of the Yangtze River. It was built on the back of the wharf. The Yangtze River was on the north, south, east, and only the west was land.

It has been an important port city before the Yangtze River came out of Sichuan since ancient times.If the ship coming from the upstream is too big, or the bottom of the ship is not suitable for navigating through the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, it will change to another ship here, which is convenient for passing through the Qutang Gorge, and then continue the subsequent voyage.

Therefore, the city defense facilities of the entire city are the strongest in the west of the city, followed by the south and north of the city, and the weakest in the east of the city.

Outside the east gate of the county seat, there is a port area one or two miles deep. The terrain is flat, but the city wall is not high.Because the north and south sides are sandwiched by the Yangtze River, the city wall in the south and north of the city has been built to the Yangtze River, and the enemy attacking from land is not afraid of detouring to the flat area in the east of the city to attack the city.

Whenever the attacking party dared to go around the south or north of the city from the west of the city, turn back to the east and then attack the city, they would have been shot and killed by the defenders on the north and south walls on the way, so they couldn't do it.

Qin Liangyu is well versed in the geography of the prefectures in central Sichuan, and of course he knows these well, so when he first arrived in Wanxian County, he suggested that Zhu Shuren arrange the troops of Wang Guangchang and Wang Guangxing, who will be in charge of the first wave of the main attack, to the west of the city to assemble the attacking force. City equipment, ready to storm.

But Zhu Shuren also sat on the boat and observed Wanxian carefully for a long time, but finally made a decision that was completely opposite to that of the locals.

Zhu Shuren pointed at the city wall with a jade bone fan, and said proudly:

"Deploy the two guerrilla kings to the fleet on the east side of the city. Don't be in a hurry. Mr. Qin, please take [-] white soldiers and set up a formation in the west of the city to prepare the siege equipment. First, make noise to attack the morale of the thieves' defenders, persuade them to surrender if they can, and attack if they can't persuade them to surrender.

After you do something on that side, here on the east side, I will let the two king guerrillas land on the pier outside the water gate in the east of the city, and then attack from this side.I think the east wall of the city is low and seems to be in disrepair, so it should be easier to break. "

Qin Liangyu was stunned: "Attack from the east of the city? My surname, I know that you have won many battles, but you don't necessarily know the geography of Central Sichuan!
Outside the east wall of the city, there seemed to be a wharf and neighborhood more than a mile deep, allowing soldiers and horses to line up calmly after landing, so as not to be rushed out by the defenders halfway and attacked and driven down the Yangtze River.

But have you ever thought about what to do with siege weapons if you directly attack the city after hastily landing in an array?It is impossible to unload the ladder, rush car, and trench car directly to the dock by ship, and it is impossible to let the pawns land and build siege equipment now.

This means that the pawns who disembarked from the pier can only attack the city with the simplest equipment such as flying ladders and hitting logs.Such a crude equipment is enough to offset the disadvantages brought to the defender by the low and dilapidated city wall in the east of the city! "

But Zhu Shuren didn't care, just sneered: "With such a short and broken city wall in the east, cutting a few moso bamboos temporarily and making them into flying ladders is enough to break the city. There is no need for ladders to rush cars! I will have other heavy-duty attack Weapons for the city, direct reinforcements to the siege troops from the river!"

Qin Liangyu saw how confident he was and how well he explained the plan, so he didn't refute anymore, but shook his head sadly, but still carried out the order.

Qin Liangyu also knew that she was just a military commander in her old age and had no right to resist the governor's order.

At the beginning, Shao Jiechun ordered her blindly to concentrate her forces to defend Fengjie and the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, which caused other dangerous trails into Sichuan to be full of loopholes. Qin Liangyu still had no way of disobeying orders, knowing that there were risks, she could only carry out.

The generals in the late Ming Dynasty were in such an embarrassing situation.

"Sun Tzu's Art of War" said: "The one who can be able but the king does not defend will win", but this sentence was never achieved in the late Ming Dynasty.

……

Qin Liangyu first personally supervised about 1 white-armed soldiers, landed more than ten miles downstream from Wanxian City, and then detoured to the open land in the west of the city, took a posture, and assembled siege equipment.

Zhang Mingzhi, the thief general at the head of the city, saw Qin Liangyu's banner, and he felt like he was facing a big enemy. He mobilized at least two-thirds of the main force of the thousands of veterans in the city, and distributed them to the west wall and towers.

This bandit army lacked muskets and Franc machines, so they could only rely on bows and crossbows to make up the numbers. Most of the crossbows were gathered to the west, and a few were distributed to the north and south sides to prevent the white-armed soldiers from turning around.The rest mainly depended on rolling logs, rocks and strong recruits to be on guard.

Although Qin Liangyu's white-armed soldiers suffered heavy losses in Hebei as early as the seventh year of Chongzhen, and were also damaged twice later, it would be good if half of the veterans survived each time and returned to the team.

Therefore, the combat effectiveness is completely incomparable with the white-armed soldiers in their heyday seven years before Chongzhen.

But no matter what, Qin Liangyu's army was considered a powerful second-tier army in the world with the name of white-armed soldiers there.

Today, among the ministries of the Ming army, the combat power is second only to the Guanning army and the Shanxi army. Compared with Sun Chuanting's Shaanxi army, it should be on par.

Qin Liangyu himself is 68 years old, of course it is impossible to go to the front line in person, he just supervises the battle from behind.

White soldiers usually use white wax spears with hooks and sickles in field battles, but they are obviously not suitable for sieges, so they have replaced spare rattan badges and sabers, as well as certain bows and muskets. This time, Zhu Shuren gave extra Qin Liangyu was assigned to the Musketeers.

The troops advanced one by one under the cover of the rattan cards, and Zhu Shuren's additional reinforcements of the musketeers also took the opportunity to follow the rattan cards and open fire towards the city.

Zhang Mingzhi lacked muskets, and the soldiers under his command were suddenly beaten up by the shotgun.

The newly recruited men were even more frightened by the gunshots and splashing gravel, so they dared not show their heads and throw rolling logs and stones, but dared to hide behind the battlements, using a posture similar to Yingmuhuadao pouring down the toilet to shoot, blindly throwing wooden and stones from the top .

A very few recruits with little strength even leaned against the battlements in a panic and threw stones backwards, but failed to climb the battlements with insufficient strength, and the stones fell down again and crushed themselves to death.

There are all kinds of chaos.

Zhang Mingzhi didn't expect that the young men he had just recruited under his command were so unbearable, so he had to urgently call out bandit veterans from other directions to stop the mouth.

As several ladders and trench cars approached the city wall one after another, Qin Liangyu's troops quickly launched a fierce bloody battle with Zhang Mingzhi's army.

Although the white-armed soldiers were brave, they couldn't hold back. The terrain disadvantage of the attacking side was too obvious, bloody casualties soon appeared, and the rogue army on the opposite side was also uncomfortable. The city wall fell, life and death unknown.

The number of people killed in battle can increase by dozens every time a cup of tea is spent, and the blood is gradually splashed and smeared on the city wall, flowing down continuously.

……

After the diversion and siege in the west of the city lasted for about half a stick of incense, Zhu Shuren observed repeatedly with binoculars on the surface of the Yangtze River.
After confirming that there seemed to be reinforcements in the direction Qin Liangyu was attacking from several other directions, he finally gave the order for the Wang brothers to attack immediately.

Over there, Qin Liangyu resolutely carried out the order without hesitating casualties, but here, brothers Wang Guangchang and Wang Guangxing were muttering in their hearts again, so they had no choice but to bite the bullet and prepare to go.

Fortunately, before they attacked, Zhu Shuren also gave them full encouragement, completely uncovering the mystery, so that they don't have to worry about the problem of "what to do if they don't have heavy siege weapons after temporary landing and go directly to the siege".

"Don't worry, you two guerrillas. Your troops only need to bring wooden flying ladders. As soon as they land on the shore, they will line up directly and then charge to attack the city. As for the city gates and walls, I will directly bombard them for a round with the Hongyi cannon, even if I can't bombard them." Open, at least you can hit several caves, you just select the dead soldiers, and pick the gaps to climb and charge."

Wang Guangchang and Wang Guangxing were stunned: "Can the Hongyi cannon hit so far? The river is at least one mile away from the east wall of the east gate!"

These troops who were born as thieves and recruited by the court have indeed never seen the world. They have only fought in Sichuan and Huguang's Yunyang and Xiangyang.

It's not like Qin Liangyu who went to Beijing to serve the king at any rate back then, and saw the red cannons defending the capital.

It can be said that, except for Qin Liangyu's troops, most of the current Sichuan army has never operated Hongyi cannons. They have only used relatively old-fashioned artillery such as Frangji, and even use the old, lighter tiger squatting cannons. .

They really couldn't imagine such a thing as "the cannon can hit two miles away", even the general Zhang Xianzhong who was on the opposite side couldn't imagine it either.

Who made Zhu Shuren's Hongyi Cannon the best quality and the strongest performance parameter in all of Asia? As early as more than a year ago, Zhu Shuren owned the original Dutch Hongyi Cannon weighing three to four thousand catties, which is corresponding to the Netherlands. The 18-pound and 24-pound naval guns were all obtained by Zheng Chenggong, the eldest brother.

In the past year, Zhu Shuren opened an iron mine in Daye, and built a new type of blast furnace and preheating blast furnace for iron and steel making. The level of metallurgy has reached the level of the late 18th century, at least better than the most advanced level in the same period of history. It has progressed for more than 100 years.

With better steel materials, the quality of the Hongyi cannon cast by Zhu Shuren's military spirit is of course also imperceptibly and steadily improving.

Now Song Yingxing, the heaviest Hongyi cannon that can be cast, has broken through to the two levels of five thousand catties and six thousand catties, which is more than half heavier than the original heaviest one.

Of course, the heavier the cannon, the better. After all, versatility and mobility must also be considered.Zhu Shuren's development of the new Hongyi cannon was divided into two directions. He wanted to make light cannons that could be pulled by carriages and heavy cannons for warships.

These heaviest six-kiloton guns, because the steel quality is more than 100 years ahead of the Dutch in the same period, the actual combat effect can already be close to the end of the 17th century. The heavy iron ball is equivalent to about 3.7 Ming Jin here in the Ming Dynasty.

This heaviest gun is still too heavy to be used as a broadside gun on the Dutch heavy Galen warship, because the recoil can easily cause the hull to become unstable.

Therefore, in the era of sailing battleships, the heaviest broadside artillery of the Dutch was only 32-pound shells.The 42-pound guns are only used as bow guns and stern guns.

Of course, Zhu Shuren would not violate these laws of physics.

Therefore, the 42-pound gun he built was also only used as the bow gun for the top Ming warships above the [-] material level.

There is at most one door on the bow of each large ship, and it can only be fired forward to prevent the recoil from causing the ship to roll and capsize.

If this kind of gun is to be used in land and field battles, it is also very troublesome, because it cannot be moved at all.

In any era, except for the fortress guns, the heaviest army artillery, the caliber and ammunition weight must be lower than the naval main guns of the same period. After all, the transportation capacity of land vehicles must be far inferior to the warships of the same period.

Therefore, Zhu Shuren's move can only be used when attacking a city that is along the big river and can reach the city gate directly from the Yangtze River. In fact, it is considered a very big limitation.

The Wang family brothers each brought a battalion of 2000 people, adding up to 4000 people, and soon landed in the wharf area in the east of Wan County in a big way.

The defenders at the top of the city saw it, but they did not dare to try "taking advantage of the unsteady foothold of the landing troops, going out of the city to counterattack and attack halfway through",
Who let Zhang Mingzhi himself be restrained by Qin Liangyu in the west of the city? The troops here are almost all newly recruited young men, recruits, who would have the courage to open the city gate and rush out to fight in the field.

The 4000 members of the Wang family brothers lined up and carried the ladder smoothly.

At the same time, several of the largest warships on the Yangtze River have already lowered the anchorage and adjusted the direction of the bow, which is equivalent to dropping anchor and firing, which is very stable.

"Boom boom boom—" With several loud noises that even the vast majority of the Ming army had never had a physical examination, three or five large iron balls of 33 Ming Jin each went straight towards the east wall and tower of Wanxian County. The city gate flew away.

"This is the Hongyi cannon? The ten Flang machines are not as loud as this one?" The Wang brothers were dumbfounded, and after the first round of blasting, they were so stunned that they didn't respond for a while.

Fortunately, they are still far away from the city wall, and they will not suffer losses if they don't charge for a while and stay in a daze for a while.

The accuracy of the first round of shells is really not good. It needs to be corrected and adjusted to solve the error caused by the shaking of the hull.Only one shell hit the city wall, and hundreds of stones of rammed earth collapsed, piled up messy slopes inside and outside the wall, and also collapsed the city wall at that place by at least one-third of its height.

After fine-tuning, after about 5 minutes, the heavy artillery started the second round of shooting—no way, the heavy artillery of this era has such a slow firing speed, and Zhu Shuren has just made such a big guy. For a month, the soldiers did not have many opportunities for live ammunition training, and they could only fire one round every 5 minutes.

"Boom boom-"

Following a few more loud bangs, the muzzle of the cannon was generally lowered this time. Although it missed the direct aim, at least there was no empty cannon.

Two of the rounds were shot low, and at any rate, after they hit the ground, they plowed a trench several feet long, and then bounced off the ricochet, hitting the root of the city wall again, causing at least dozens of stones to ram the earth. It was the root of the wall, and after a while the rammed earth on it also collapsed a lot due to its own weight.

The remaining three shots directly hit the wall and the tower, respectively. The tower at the east gate of Wan County was also directly punched with a big hole, and a small half of it collapsed.

"Kill! Lord Guoxing's heavy artillery can directly blow down the city wall! Everyone who rushes into the city will be rewarded with 50 taels!" The brothers of the Wang family were also completely stimulated to fight. I'm sorry for myself.

What they didn't expect was that just as they rushed hundreds of steps and were about to approach within the crossbow range of the city wall, the east gate of Wan County also opened, and there were a lot of rogue guards rushing to kill them. Come out, it seems to be the landing point for the counterattack siege army!

Wang Guangxing and Wang Guangchang were all dumbfounded. They couldn't imagine why there was such a stupid enemy.

But it would be a fool not to take advantage of it!Who wouldn't want to fight hand-to-hand with these recruits!

The two sides quickly started a bloody melee in the city, the swords saw blood and the guns penetrated into the flesh, the officers and soldiers were more equipped, and the cannons fired in a parabola in the distance, attacking the rear army of the rogues and the city, the rogues became more chaotic for a while, In less than a cup of tea, this counterattack attempt was completely defeated.

The Wang brothers brought two or three thousand brothers who were still fighting, and chased the fleeing soldiers into the city. After a bloody strangulation, they finally broke through Wan County.

Zhang Mingzhi couldn't resist it at all. As the fire broke out in the city, Qin Liangyu broke through in one go on the battlefield in the west of the city.

As the bloody battle gradually subsided, Wang Guangxing beheaded several thieves' generals and captured a brigade alive. Only then did he have the opportunity to torture him: "Dog thief, you are so brave, you dare to open the door to counterattack, what do you think?" ?”

The palm brigade trembled, and kowtowed like garlic: "We have never seen such a heavy artillery, we can't let the brothers be bombarded in vain. Seeing that there are not many people ashore, you want to rush over to destroy the artillery, otherwise you will die."

The Wang brothers couldn't help laughing. This group of uninformed guys actually thought that the officers and soldiers unloaded and deployed the heavy artillery to the pier to fire, and they wanted to come over and destroy the artillery!
These heavy artillery were obviously fired directly from the warships docked at the berth, but they were separated by a distance of one or two miles, and the thieves had bad eyesight, so they couldn't see clearly.

It seems that this kind of weapon that can make the enemy only be beaten without fighting back, and that every shot can ensure that the city walls, towers and gates will be severely damaged, is still very effective in forcing the enemies in the city to come out to fight in the field.

It only took half a day for the officers and soldiers to take down Wan County.

(End of this chapter)