The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 178 Do you want to be buried with the Qing Dynasty?

The ship-borne artillery of the Ming Wu Kingdom's Northern Expedition Fleet, as well as the army artillery dropped to the ground, opened fire at a distance of two kilometers and destroyed the artillery position of the Qingguo Castle on Jeju Island.

The Japanese vassal troops of the Ming Dynasty Wu Kingdom then began to directly attack the fortress.

The fortress has a three-layer structure, the innermost of which is a castle surrounded by polygonal walls.

The middle level is the turret extending from the castle, the specially built independent triangular turret, and the moat between the two.

The outer layer was built using the banks of the moat, providing a hidden passage for infantry and an anti-artillery slope outside the passage.

If the infantry rushed directly up the slope, they would face crossfire from at least two artillery batteries, and when they reached the river bank they would also have to face the infantry's muskets.

On such a basis, such a fortress is usually not one.

There are usually two or three small forts around the main fortress to support each other.

When one fortress was attacked, other fortresses would send troops to attack the enemy's rear, further increasing the defensive capabilities of the fortress system.

Before the emergence of the parallel trench siege method, when faced with a castle of this level, the only way to deal with it was to use siege methods, which could take several months or even a year.

With the parallel trench tactics, if the entire offensive process goes smoothly, it will take about a month.

If something unexpected happens in the middle, it may take two months or even longer to break through.

But now, the most important defensive turret had been destroyed by the long-range artillery of the Northern Expedition Corps, and the only defensive force was the infantry hidden under the slope.

Therefore, the Wu vassal soldiers who participated in the direct siege began to jog from the location of their own artillery positions.

When they arrived about 200 meters in front of the Qing army's trench, some infantrymen paused here for a while as ordered, and fired their guns to suppress the Qing soldiers who had emerged from the lower slope.

At long range, they were suppressed by artillery and large-caliber rifles, and at close range, they were suppressed by ordinary rifled musketeers' bursts of fire. The Qing soldiers in the trenches could not even raise their heads.

With their teammates dying as soon as they showed up, the fighting spirit of the surviving Qing soldiers quickly collapsed.

The officer commanding these infantrymen found that his presence had lost its meaning, so he announced a retreat at this time and returned to the castle through the rear passage.

At the same time, most of the Wu vassal division's infantry began to accelerate forward.

When they were thirty meters away from the edge of the slope, some soldiers collectively threw a round of grenades and charged forward with all their might.

The officers of the Wu State made sufficient preparations for the siege.

But when the first group of servants rushed to the edge of the slope and prepared to clear the enemies in the trench, they found that there were no living people inside.

The Qing soldiers responsible for defense had either fallen to the ground or fled.

The Northern Expedition Army captured the fort's artillery positions and trenches, and only an ordinary circle of city walls remained of the Qing army's fort.

The walls of this fortress are lower than regular city walls.

If normal troops of the same level were to attack, it would take at least half a month to reach this point.

Then it would take at least ten more days and thousands or tens of thousands of solid artillery shells to knock down the base of the city wall.

Now the Northern Expedition Corps of the Ming Dynasty Wu Kingdom directly dragged the artillery over and carried out three rounds of continuous bombardment on the base of the wall across the moat, thus directly achieving this goal.

The battle also directly entered the final stage.

With the support of the archers' fire suppression, the servant soldiers climbed up the collapsed city wall and occupied the basically unguarded city wall.

In a normal battle, when the fighting reaches this point, the defending army would usually surrender.

However, the Qing army on Jeju Island was particularly "stubborn".

Because they don't really understand what kind of army they are facing.

Faced with this desperate situation, Addis actually felt that he still had an advantage.

He called together the principal officers and shouted his final orders to them:

“The Southern Ming were only fierce in firearms, but they were thin, short and timid.

"If they fight head-on with swords and guns, they are no match for our Great Qing Baturu.

“Although we have lost the city wall, we have also lost the greatest advantage of the Southern Ming.

"Now they have to fight us head-on!
"Brothers, for the sake of our great emperor and our great Qing dynasty, let's fight the Ming dogs!"

At the beginning, most Qing army officers still felt that what Addis said did make some sense.

As the distance between the two sides shortened, the Ming army's advantage was indeed reduced.

They also passed these words on to encourage their subordinates and soldiers.

When the soldiers of both sides actually came face to face, the Qing officers and soldiers discovered that they had been quite wrong.

The firearms of the Southern Ming Dynasty were not just fierce, but also terrifying like a nightmare.

Unless the Qing army provided special cover and launched a surprise attack from a particularly secluded place, they would be shot to death by the Southern Ming soldiers as long as they stood opposite them.

Even if a sneak attack is successful, it usually kills only one or two people.

As long as you are discovered by other soldiers during the battle, you will be shot to death by them from a distance.

If they were in a relatively open area, they would not be able to get to the Ming soldiers and would be killed directly.

If they reached the houses inside the fortress, the Ming soldiers still had hand-held revolvers, so direct bayonet fights rarely occurred.

What made them most despair was that even when they really fought with bayonets, the Qing soldiers were basically unable to win.

Because the Wu soldiers usually ate well, were well treated, were well trained, received an education, and were full of the spirit of victory.

The Qing army suffered more and more casualties in the castle and soon they could not hold on any longer.

More and more soldiers knelt down and surrendered, and more and more junior officers led their soldiers to surrender.

Two mid-level officers also ran to Addis and asked for surrender:
"Sir, we can't resist anymore. The Ming people's firearms are too powerful. The key is that they can fire continuously. Brothers, if we continue to fight like this, we will die!"

Addis seemed to have gone mad:
"You bastards! What do you mean by that?
"You are unwilling to die for the Qing Dynasty and His Majesty! Do you want to be a traitor?

"Someone, take these two traitors out and behead them!"

The two officers were stunned and immediately began to kowtow and beg for mercy:
"Please spare my life, sir, please spare my life..."

Addis was completely unmoved and continued to call on the guards to take action, insisting on dragging the two officers out and beheading them.

The two officers realized that begging for mercy was of no use, so they jumped up and drew their swords.

One of the officers pointed at Addis' nose and cursed:

"God damn Qing dog! I'll fuck your ancestors for eighteen generations!"

"I'll kill you for the damn Qing Dynasty!"

As the officer spoke, he swung his sword and slashed at Addis.

Attis was furious and immediately drew his sword to meet the enemy, while shouting to the people around him:

"What are you all standing there for? Capture this traitor for me!"

The two officers also shouted to the other officers around them:
"If you continue to follow this idiot's orders and keep fighting the Ming people, you will all die!"

"That damn old dog Qianlong must die too!" "The Southern Ming people have such powerful artillery, this damn Qing Dynasty is not far from being destroyed!"

"Are you going to be buried with Emperor Qianlong and the Qing Dynasty?"

"Brothers who don't want to die, stand together and kill this damn Addis, and use his head to ask for surrender!"

As a result, only a few of Addis' guards did not hesitate and immediately drew their swords and stepped forward to help Addis.

Most of the other officers drew their knives, but none of them immediately joined the battle.

A few of them had long intended to surrender, but were suppressed by Addis and could not move. Now that they saw someone was about to rebel, they also drew their swords and attacked Addis.

The fortress hall immediately fell into chaos.

Among the stunned officers, a few smarter ones immediately ran out to call their own guards, and rushed into the lobby where the fighting was going on with rifles in hand.

After a burst of gunfire, the fight ended.

Addis and several guards were beaten to death on the spot. An officer went over and cut off Addis's head, then took the other officers and soldiers out to surrender.

After these main officers surrendered collectively, the Northern Expedition Army of the Ming Dynasty Wu Kingdom began to take over the fortress and concentrate the remaining Qing army prisoners.

The battle for the main fortress in southern Jeju Island entered its final stages.
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The troop transport ships of the Ming Dynasty Wu Kingdom's Northern Expedition Corps began to transport soldiers to the shore continuously after docking at the pier.

After the number of infantrymen that landed was sufficient to attack the main fortress, more infantrymen that landed later split into two groups and rode bicycles to the two small fortresses on the east and west sides of the main fortress.

If the Qing troops from the two small forts came to support the main fort, their task would be to deploy an infantry line on the road to intercept them.

If the Qing army in the small fortress did not come out, they would besiege and monitor the two small fortresses, wait for the main force to bring artillery over, and then start attacking the two small fortresses.

The chief officers of the Qing army in these two small forts were both deputy generals of the second rank. After seeing the smoke signals that the main fort was attacked, they immediately sent troops to support as agreed.

They asked their deputies to gather the infantry and rush over slowly, while they themselves gathered the cavalry and rushed over first.

Prepare to use cavalry to attack the Ming army's artillery positions first.

This was a typical tactic of the era, with agile cavalry suited to hunting down slow-loading artillery.

However, not long after the two armies left the city, they encountered the main force of cavalry that had sneaked over from the battlefield, and at the same time they encountered cavalry that had come to report news.

The cavalry officers and signalmen of the main fort reported to the deputy generals of the two small forts, explaining the power of the Ming army's artillery.

The cavalry had no way of getting close to the Ming army positions, nor could they get close to the coast near the dock.

But the lieutenants of both fortresses did not believe it:
"That's impossible. How can the Army's artillery have a range of two kilometers? Even if it can fire two kilometers, it won't be accurate at all.

"I've seen shrapnel before, and the artillery used can't fire far. If there's too much explosive in the shrapnel, it will explode immediately.

"Is it because you were afraid of fighting and were beaten back by the Southern Ming army's land division that you deliberately exaggerated the power of the Ming army's artillery?"

The guesses of the two deputy generals were completely reasonable. When generals could not defeat the enemy, they would deliberately exaggerate the enemy's combat effectiveness. This kind of thing was very common in history.

The main reason is that they can't imagine that the power of the enemy's weapons is not exaggerated, but is really that exaggerated.

The commander of the cavalry of the main fortress was a lieutenant general of the third rank, whose rank and power were lower than the chief officers of the two small fortresses, who were deputy generals of the second rank.

Their usual command sequence is under the two deputy generals, and when Addis is not around, the two deputy generals are the commanders-in-chief.

So the deputy generals of the two small forts ordered the main cavalry to follow them and go back to rescue the main fort that was attacked.

The cavalry commander was helpless and could only command his troops back to the battlefield with a bitter face. He originally thought that as long as the deputy general saw the power of the Ming Dynasty's artillery on the spot, he would accept his explanation.

However, when they fled before, the Ming Dynasty's infantry did not have time to intercept them, and the large group of Ming Dynasty's infantry had not yet landed. It is not easy for them to go back now.

Two teams of cyclists from the Ming Dynasty were already waiting for them on their way.

The two sides met less than two kilometers away from the main fortress, and the deputy generals of the two Qing armies ordered an attack without hesitation.

We must immediately organize a cavalry charge while the Ming army is still unstable.

When the bicycle officers of the Ming Dynasty discovered the Qing cavalry, they immediately ordered their troops to abandon their bicycles and straighten their formation.

With the actual combat experience in the North African battlefield, coupled with several months of summary and training, the Wu infantry no longer used the traditional line infantry-style dense formations.

The line infantry teams were so dense that people were packed together in order to increase the density of firepower and pile up the number of hits by concentrating more muskets together.

However, the bolt-action rifle's accuracy, range, and firepower density all far exceed those of traditional flintlock rifles, and using an overly dense formation would be detrimental to leveraging one's own advantages.

Therefore, the infantry of the Ming Dynasty's Wu Kingdom formed a seemingly loose formation.

The distance between the two sides was soon only three hundred meters.

The deputy generals who commanded the two Qing armies and the lieutenant general who commanded the main cavalry of the Qing army all felt that they could win after seeing the Ming army's troops.

The confrontation between cavalry and infantry is a contest of willpower between the two sides.

Infantry usually have to wait and see, and carefully organize the infantry phalanx in advance, in order to withstand the continuous charge of cavalry.

The Ming army's messy makeshift line of troops could not withstand the cavalry charge at all.

It's just a target waiting to be cut down.

However, the firepower density of the infantry is actually an extra weight on the balance of willpower of both sides.

The stronger the firepower of the infantry, the more difficult it is for the cavalry to win.

Cavalry still had a relatively strong deterrent effect on infantry in the era of smoothbore muskets.

But when bolt-action rifles were fully equipped to the troops, the cavalry became like sitting ducks.

Bolt-action rifle infantry does not need to form a very dense formation.

When the two Qing cavalry teams charged to the front of the Ming army two hundred meters with excitement and joy, the Ming soldiers began to pull the triggers.

Several Qing generals were even more surprised when they heard the gunshots:

"These Ming soldiers are such rubbish. They start shooting from just 200 meters away..."

As soon as the mocking thought arose in his mind, the Qing cavalry began to be shot one after another, and the entire team was immediately thrown to the ground.

They were originally packed together in a relatively dense crowd, and this concentrated charge was originally very powerful, but when they encountered concentrated firepower, the casualties were even more severe.

The sound of bullets hitting, blood splattering, people screaming, horses neighing, and the sound of people and horses falling all mixed together.

The Qing cavalry troops soon fell into chaos, with people and horses falling down in large numbers.

After rushing for more than a hundred meters, most of the soldiers were killed or injured.

The lucky few who were still standing encountered the even more stimulating bitter acid grenades.

Amid the violent shock wave and rising dust, the remaining cavalrymen who were still standing completely lost control.

Then there was chaotic trampling and continuous bullet hits, and the Qing cavalry was destroyed.

The battles in the two directions took place a little apart in time, but the results were the same, which was a one-sided harvest.

The deputy generals of the two fortresses and the lieutenant general of the main cavalry were all killed in the chaos.

(End of this chapter)