I, the Ming Dynasty, can still save me

Chapter 408: The frustrating battle to defend the city
"Report, General Soldier, the cheers in the city just now were caused by Xu Shifeng leading the rangers to defeat the rebels who came out of the city. He Zhongwei and others were walking on the city wall at the time, and their faces turned green when they saw this scene."

Jiang Lin heard the noise coming from the direction of the city wall in the tent, so she called someone to see what was going on.I didn't expect such good news, so I smiled and said to Huang Degong on the side:
"Haha, he is indeed a man from Licaolanchang, and he is indeed well-deserved. Victory before fighting has greatly increased the prestige of our army, and he should be well rewarded."

Xu Shifeng was a student of Huang Degong when he was in Licaolanchang. When he was incorporated into the Zhenwu Army, he was selected to join the cavalry battalion formed by Jiang Lin because his riding skills were the best.Although the number of this cavalry battalion is different from other battalions, the strength of the top-notch warriors inside cannot be underestimated.

"This is all due to your Majesty's good training and the command of the Commander-in-Chief. But now that the war is approaching, it can greatly boost the morale of our army, which can be considered a great achievement."

Jiang Lin nodded when he heard this, and then asked people to reward Xu Shifeng with a hundred taels of silver, and everyone else would be rewarded with tea.

The confrontation before the battle was just the appetizer before the war. Although Jiang Lin was happy, it went without saying that the person standing behind Huang Degong and others was the emperor.

Most of the current grassroots officers in the Beijing camp came from Licaolanchang, and they played a very important role in the combat effectiveness of the Zhenwu Army. Even Jiang Lin had to rely on Huang Degong and others.

In the next few days, the Zhenwu Army returned to its previous style of "fighting stupidly and forming a stronghold".

According to their plan, they were not in a hurry to attack Guli County, nor were they in a hurry to attack the city.In other words, their siege was very different from the way the rebels thought of "building towers, ladders, and attacking the city with ants."

Therefore, in the next few days, the Zhenwu Army took advantage of He Zhongwei's fear of leaving the city to fight, and began to dig deep trenches and build defensive horses.

At the same time, he asked the civilian men recruited in advance to build a city outside his army camp.

Looking at the taller Tucheng opposite, He Zhongwei became more and more frightened.

How could he not know what the Zhenwu Army was thinking? It was clearly that after the Tucheng was built, the artillery would be pushed up to the Tucheng, and then they would bombard Guli County.

Moreover, this earth city is more than 150 feet away from Guli City. Bows and arrows and his own firearms in the city cannot be hit at this distance. However, he heard that the official Krug artillery can hit more than one mile, so he will have to be beaten passively.

When he saw this, he knew that he could not sit still and wait for death, but had to take action, so he immediately ordered people to lead his elite troops out of the city to invade.

However, Jiang Lin had long been on guard against their move. He ordered Wuyi Camp and Wuwei Camp to take turns guarding the guards every day, and also asked Xu Shifeng to lead his cavalry on guard.

He Zhongwei sent out troops several times but was easily repulsed. He could only watch helplessly as the earthen fortress on the opposite side grew taller day by day. Finally, ten days later, it reached the same height as the city wall, one and a half feet high.

On the [-]th, Jiang Lin led Huang Degong and others over. They watched the Krug artillery of the Shenji Battalion being slowly pushed onto the fortress, and the Zhenwu Army's first siege began.

"My lord, this fortress is a bit too small. We have brought over all our Krupp artillery pieces. In addition to the more than 80 original artillery pieces from the Shenji Battalion, there are more than [-] pieces of artillery. They have to be divided into three batches. It’s too troublesome to take turns transporting and shooting.”

Seeing more than 20 Krupp cannons being slowly pushed onto the base, Li Siwu, the commander of the Yongwei battalion, couldn't help complaining. He was thinking of firing more than 80 volleys before, but now there are only more than 20 cannons. This number is too small. Too little.

"Haha, you think I don't want to shoot together? But the Krupp cannons in each of your battalions are Type C Krupp cannons. This kind of Krupp cannon is fine for field battles, but it's almost useless for siege.

Moreover, the imperial court sent a large number of powerful Type A and Type B Kru cannons to Liaodong. Coupled with the rush we were waiting to leave, even the Shenji Battalion only had more than 20 Type B and Type A guns.That's why this strategy was adopted. As long as they got on the base, the C-type artillery could be fired into the city.

The main force of the rebel army is in the city. I don't believe how long the city can last with three batches of uninterrupted attacks. "

Everyone was immediately convinced when they heard this. This is what is called attacking the city first and attacking the heart first. They knew the power of the Krug artillery. It depends on whether there are more people in the city or they have more shells.

After a while, the first batch of more than [-] artillery pieces was moved onto the base. Geng Dang, the commander of the Shenji Battalion, ran down with excitement and applied to Jiang Lin to fire.

"You don't need to ask me about this kind of thing. Krupao and I are just laymen. It's up to you to decide everything. I only have one request, which is that it must not stop. The rebels must see how powerful we are."

"As ordered!"

Geng Dang immediately obeyed the order when he saw this. This was the first bombing of the Shenji Battalion, so he would not neglect it.

After hearing this, he turned around and shouted to his subordinates on the ring:
"Preparing for the test launch, please cheer me up. Whoever dares to embarrass himself will look good!"

After Jiang Lin finished speaking, everyone stopped staring at the fortress and turned to look at Guli City. The guards on the opposite Guli City Wall also saw what was going on here and thought they were going to bomb the city wall, so they suddenly panicked.

"Test eight rounds!"

A loud voice sounded from the base. This sentence was like a signal, causing the artillerymen operating on the base to move immediately.

Following the orders from the gunners of each artillery, the artillerymen who had been fully prepared immediately started to move. Although they had not experienced actual combat, their artillery training was not lacking at all. Loading shells, plugging gunpowder, inserting leads, calibrating, etc. were described in a streamlined manner. , "Bang" "Bang" "Bang"...

As the fuse was ignited, the rumble of artillery sounded on the fort, and the artillery shells were accompanied by bursts of white smoke. They flew towards Guli County. Five artillery shells passed over the city wall and directly hit the county seat, faintly visible inside. There were bursts of shouts, and only two cannonballs failed to be calibrated successfully and hit the city wall.

"B[-] is raised by five quarters, and A[-] is raised by three quarters."

Seeing that the cannonballs had strayed, the range-finding officer quickly ordered the height of the cannon to be adjusted to prepare for another test firing. After a while, with a few more "boom-boom-boom" sounds, seven artillery shells accurately landed in the city.

"The sound of artillery!"

In the Guli County government office, He Zhongwei had just put on his armor and prepared to go to the city wall to inspect, but unexpectedly he heard several booming cannons in the lobby.

"The Ming army has started shelling. Hurry up and tell the soldiers in the city to take cover."

As soon as He Zhongwei finished speaking, he heard a "whoosh" sound coming from the side. Before he could react, he saw bursts of smoke rising from a shop a hundred meters away. It turned out that the roof was hit by artillery shells from the army outside the city. .

This was just one of them. People were hit in other places in the city. They suddenly wailed and rescued people everywhere, and the city became chaotic.

"Your Majesty, Commander-in-Chief, this is an artillery attack by the officers and soldiers outside the city. The officers and soldiers placed nearly twenty or thirty artillery pieces on the fortress. It seems that they are going to cross the city wall and bombard the inside of the city. Master Cai Cai called the younger ones and told you to stay. In the north of the city, the army's artillery should not be able to shoot."

Just when He Zhongwei was calling everyone to hurry up and rescue people, the person sent by South Gate Guard Cai Cai to report the news finally arrived.

He Zhongwei is really feeling more and more aggrieved now as he thinks about it. He has never fought such a useless battle. When facing the enemy directly, others will not fight with cold weapons. The enemy is defeated before he can get close, and the morale of the army is in chaos.

Let it go. Others will not attack the city, but just use cannons to bombard it from a long distance.But he could only be beaten passively, and he couldn't even fight back. There were only a dozen or so Franco cannons in the city. Compared with the Krupp cannons of the army, they were just large blunderbuss. They had no power. It was really frustrating. died.

"Be careful, Commander-in-Chief."

Just when He Zhongwei was depressed, a shout suddenly came from beside him. Just when he wanted to see what was going on, he saw a guard next to him suddenly pounced on him and pressed him down, and then there was a whooshing sound from the sky. With a loud sound, the house behind him collapsed.

"cough cough..."

While coughing, He Zhongwei pushed away the guard pressing him away, struggled to get up and wanted to check the situation.I saw a mess all around me, and there was a big hole in the wall of the county government office behind me. It looked like it had been hit by a cannonball.

And the blood around him could be described as bloody. There were three or four small craters on the ground. It was astonishing that another shell hit this place, affecting everyone who had just been chatting.

The messenger who had just reported the situation to him had already been mutilated and was no longer human.The soldier who was protecting him was hit by gravel, and his back was stained with blood.

"Come here, come here, the commander-in-chief is injured, come here quickly."

At this moment, several groups of soldiers rushed out from the county government office. Seeing He Zhongwei in a miserable state, with a disgraced face, and the surrounding area was in a mess, they immediately came over to help treat the wounded.

"Ahem, cough, move back quickly. The army won't just bombard us with just a few waves. Since the first few waves can hit here, they must be targeting the county government office."

With the support of his own soldiers, He Zhongwei asked people to quickly treat the wounded, and at the same time asked people to stop staying here, because the artillery fire from the army was expected to come again soon.

He was indeed thinking well. Outside Guli City, Li Siwu was reporting to Jiang Lin with a map.

"My lord, even if He Zhongwei escapes by chance, the other soldiers in the county government will not be able to escape."

"Haha, where are you going? Don't stop shelling."

Jiang Lin, Huang Degong, Qin Yiming and others looked at the constant shouts in the city and felt very happy.

As the saying goes, an inch is longer and an inch is stronger. The range of this Krug gun is several times higher than that of the rebels. The rebels can only be beaten passively, but they themselves do not suffer any casualties. This kind of fighting method has not been seen even since the founding of the country.

However, this tactic is all good, except that it is a waste of ammunition.But Jiang Lin was not worried, because this was not an issue that he was concerned about, but something that the left councilor Hong Chengchou should be worried about.

Jiang Lin quickly put this problem behind her, watched the shelling for a while and then returned to the camp.Only two people, Li Siwu and Huang Degong, were left. One of them commanded the artillery bombardment, and the other led the crowd to defend the left and right sides to prevent sneak attacks in the city.

After the appetizers were over, the Zhenwu Army's bombardment officially began!
(End of this chapter)