A century-old family that runs through the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 337: Keep, sharp firearms

After receiving the notice from Yan Ling, Yan Yinghui actually sent people to various health centers in Nanjing quietly to count the remaining people there.

As expected, there wasn't much left.

The garrison of such an important city is usually divided into five parts for guarding the city and another five parts for farming. As for the guard posts in Nanjing, most of the parts that guard the city are paid by the guards' officers, and the part of the farmland is basically occupied by the landlords.

Nanjing's theoretical army of nearly 300,000 soldiers actually numbered less than 100,000. Their training had been neglected for a long time, and there were many old, weak, sick and disabled who were unable to fight.

When Yan Yinghui saw this, his eyes darkened on the spot and he wanted to run away to Ningbo with the bucket.

Although it seemed that the hundreds of thousands of rogues could not capture the two cities before, in fact they wanted to take advantage of Nanjing's lack of time to make too many pre-war preparations and just attack quickly. If they really wanted to fight, they could do it with half a million people. Pile these cities down.

But since the opponent's target is Nanjing, they will never leave at the first touch like before, and they will definitely attack with all their strength.

When the time comes… it’s really hanging.

However, although he got Zu's reminder, he could only watch all this and could not prepare too much in advance.

The conditions for mobilizing troops in Southern Zhili were extremely stringent, requiring the consent of the Minister of War of Nanjing, the garrison of Nanjing, and the eunuch of the garrison of Nanjing. After that, the Minister of War of Nanjing used the seal, and the garrison could lead the troops to the expedition. If there was any discrepancy, it would be directly considered as treason.

So even if he wanted to arrange it in advance, he had no choice.

He could only prepare as much gold, silver, grain, grass, gunpowder, etc. as possible, and also mobilized hundreds of elite clan soldiers, hoping to stop the rogues from attacking the city as much as possible.

Now, as soon as the news spread, he could finally let go and prepare. However, the bandits had already crossed Luzhou and invaded Hezhou, and were already very close to Yingtian Mansion.

Time was not abundant, especially since there was no obstacle from Lu Xiangsheng in this time and space, their actions were smoother.

Yan Yinghui immediately ordered all the surrounding people to enter Nanjing City or other cities. Although this increased the burden of food, it could provide young men for the defenders and prevent them from being used as cannon fodder by rogue bandits.

Then he ordered all the guardsmen to enter the city, and then ordered the noble gentry to hand over all the servants they had kept in the mansion. A total of more than 5,000 elite soldiers were recruited, and 30,000 young men were selected from the common people to help defend the city.

When all the people entered, all gates in Nanjing were closed, and people were not allowed to go to the streets without orders. Soldiers patrolled the city and killed anyone suspicious.

While doing all this, Gao Yingxiang's sentries could already be seen outside Nanjing City, and they had begun to cross the river.

Three days later, the rogue army arrived in Nanjing. After building some siege equipment, they officially began to attack the city.

Facing the rising sun, Gao Yingxiang stood in front of Nanjing City. Facing this majestic capital, he believed that he would become its next master.

"attack!"

He gave the order, and the deafening drum beat instantly sounded from behind him.

The bandits shouted and rushed out. This was a tentative attack, consisting of 10,000 refugees and 2,000 bandits.

The ones at the front were the thin refugees, who didn't even have a decent weapon in their hands, so they were driven forward. Behind them were the young and strong refugees with swords in their hands. They were responsible for supervising the battle and also responsible for the cannon fodder to consume the Ming army. Siege after ammunition. Gao Yingxiang disdained the use of cannon fodder, but other bandit leaders were accustomed to such tactics.

"Let go!" The Ming army general made up his mind and issued the order.

The artillery at the top of the city began to roar. Since there was no direct contact with the Western Navy, the Ming Dynasty did not get the red cannon at this time. Their main force at this time was still the Franchise and the General Cannon.

But it is enough to fight against the rogue bandits. Cannons and stray bullets poured down like rain, easily crushing the crowd of people below who were moving like ants. The wooden siege equipment ignited a raging fire in the artillery and fell down with a groan.

In an instant, the city was littered with corpses.

The refugees had never seen this battle before. When they saw the people they were laughing with not long ago turned into a blur of flesh and blood, they immediately threw away the sticks and stones in their hands and ran back, howling.

The bandits raised their swords and mercilessly killed the refugees who turned back, forcing them to continue attacking the city.

However, as a large number of refugees were consumed, it was finally their turn. The equipment of these people was much better than that of the refugees. Their weapons were shining, and some even wore leather armor, cotton armor, and tattered cloth armor.

Taking advantage of the gap in the artillery fire, they successfully approached the city wall.

"fall!"

There were shouts from the top of the city, and immediately hot golden juice was poured down, burning the skin and flesh of the gangsters below the city, and the stench filled the sky.

What followed next were numerous rolling logs and boulders.

The bandits also collapsed. They were actually just a little stronger than the refugees. How could they have fought a tough battle? Such losses are simply not something they can bear.

After throwing down their weapons and retreating, they were baptized by a wave of artillery fire from behind. In the final attack of 12,000 people, only more than 4,000 people retreated, and the city was full of moans and calls for help.

Gao Yingxiang couldn't help but frown, and several bandit leaders beside him couldn't help but curse:

"Damn it, Nanjing is so solid."

"If only we had cannons."

"A bunch of rats..."

However, there was no look of pain on their faces. Except for the old battalion, they used up other troops without fear.

You can just capture a few towns and then recover, so why are you afraid of him? Not to mention anything else, since entering South Zhili, they have seen the wealth and dense population here, and they are not afraid of consumption at this time!

King Hundian even said with a sneer:

"I don't believe there are so many reserves in Nanjing. I want to see whether the cannons in the city will be exhausted first, or whether the 500,000-strong army waiting for me will be destroyed first!"

Provoking a roar of approval.

They actually came up with the idea of ​​using human flesh to consume ammunition!

When Gao Yingxiang heard this, he also frowned.

Indeed, there has been no war in Nanjing for a long time. There may be some gunpowder in the city, but it will definitely not be too much. He knows the virtues of those officials very well. With the current intensity of the fighting, they will soon exhaust all their reserves. When faced with their ant possession, how will the Ming army resist?

So they agreed on this.

In troubled times, human life is so frivolous!

However, what surprised the bandit leaders was that they attacked with high intensity for seven days and suffered tens of thousands of casualties, but the artillery on the city was still surging.

However, Yan Yinghui allocated gunpowder in advance and made up for part of the shortfall, so that the artillery is still roaring continuously, causing huge casualties to the rogue bandits.

However, no matter how large the reserve is, it is not infinite. After two days of fierce fighting, the gunpowder is finally running out. Gao Yingxiang was keenly aware of this and commanded the army to pounce!

The rogue army attacked for fourteen days, and the city of Nanjing was finally shaken!

(End of this chapter)