Southern Ming: A boy soldier at the beginning, supporting the world

Chapter 129 Broken City
It was the fourth watch of the night. Tonight was the first month of the lunar calendar, the moon was hidden, and only a few stars twinkled in the night sky. The night was as dark as ink, and insects were chirping everywhere. It was already autumn, the scorching heat was gone, and the fourth watch was especially cool.

The gates of the Zhaoyong Army's standard camp were wide open, and the cavalry was the first to leave the camp. Only a few people rode horses, and most people dismounted and walked, approaching a hundred steps from the east gate of Wutunso.

The defenders did not set up any secret sentries outside the city, nor did they expect that the Zhaoyong army would attack the city at night.

Seeing that the enemy did not respond, Wu Jie simply ordered the troops to advance another thirty steps to better exert the effect of the night attack. The defenders were good at rockets, but the range of the rockets was not far and they did not pose much threat to the cavalry.

Tonight, the artillery team will attack at night. The three artillery posts will be assigned to the cavalry, musket team, and training team respectively. The first post is assigned to the cavalry. Captain Qiao Song is worried and follows the first post.

"Old Qiao, how is it? Does it work?" Wu Jie was an impatient person. He found Qiao Song first and asked impatiently.

Qiao Songzheng and his men were busy preparing two Weiyuan cannons. He said, "Don't worry, it will be ready soon. With me, Old Qiao, there will be no problem."

Qiao Song was a mixed-race person, his father was Portuguese and his mother was from Macau. Therefore, he could speak two languages, was brave and good at fighting, and was a close confidant of the foreign army leader Ferreira. He was both an interpreter and a gunner, and was recommended as the captain of the artillery team.

"Look, there it is."

Wu Jie took the shell from Qiao Song and said in the dim light, "Isn't this just a lump of iron?"

"This is called a blasting bullet, also known as a hole dragon bullet." Qiao Song said proudly, "Don't be fooled by its iron appearance. It is hollow inside. When it is released, the opening faces outward and it explodes in the wind, with a sound like thunder."

"Oh, if this flies into the city, won't it scare those rebels silly?"

"That's right. I'm almost ready. You can shoot first."

"Okay." Wu Jie happily returned to the cavalry. Seeing that the cavalry had prepared bows and arrows, he ordered: "One and two sentries shoot at the tower, and the rest of you throw arrows into the city."

On the city wall, there was a torch every dozen or so crenels, probably where soldiers were stationed. There were more and brighter torches on the tower, which inadvertently pointed out the target for the cavalry.

The cavalry was the elite of the army, and archery on horseback was their basic skill, and archery on foot was no less skilled. The cavalry lit several torches at each sentry post, and the archers gathered together, using the torches to ignite the oilcloth on the arrows, and then dispersed, either aiming at the tower or shooting into the city.

The tower was made of wood, and the windows were covered with paper. Soon rockets fell on it, and the fire gradually spread. The rebels who were on guard were drowsy, and suddenly saw the fire in the tower, and they quickly struck the golden gong. The defenders woke up and immediately became a mess, not knowing whether to put out the fire or to resist the enemy.

Nguyen Phu Quang woke up from his sleep, jumped up and rushed to the top of the city. Without thinking twice, he ordered the defenders to fire a swarm of rockets. It was dark and they could not tell the direction of the enemy, so they could only fire in the direction of the torches. The rockets had a poor killing effect. But the rockets that flew out at high speed undoubtedly gave the rebels a reassurance. They had defeated the attack of the Zhaoyong army during the day with rockets, and the night was no exception.

The cavalrymen put away their bows and arrows and used rattan shields to defend against the rockets.

The swarm did not last long. In fact, it was just twisting the fuses of dozens of rockets together. When the fuses were lit, dozens of rockets could be ignited at the same time. With the strength of the Wutun garrison, it was obviously impossible to equip too many rockets.

The purpose of tonight's night attack is not only to tire out the enemy, but also to consume the enemy's rockets.

Qiao Song saw that the cavalry had stopped shooting arrows, and without waiting for Wu Jie's order, he ordered the firing of flares. With three muffled "dong dong dong" sounds, the three Weiyuan cannons fired three flares in succession. The flares flew out of the barrels, like evil spirits, and the shrill sound pierced the sky and echoed for miles.

Although Nguyen Phu Quang was a brave warrior, he was also frightened by the rockets. The defenders were even more panicked, and without waiting for Nguyen Phu Quang's orders, they used the blowtorches and fire bricks for close combat. Some people were at a loss and pushed out the curtain carts, but they didn't know where to use them. After waiting for a long time, the Zhaoyong army did not approach the city wall. Nguyen Phu Quang felt something was wrong and ordered to stop firing rockets.

Wu Jie saw this and ordered the drums to be beaten. The cavalry received the order and fired rockets into the city again. The artillery did not carry many explosive shells, so they fired lead bullets instead to create the illusion of an imminent siege.

The rebels were frightened and had no choice but to respond passively by firing rockets in response. This time, they were much calmer and fired rockets in the direction of the cavalry.

After several rounds, the cavalry had used up a lot of arrows, so they simply stopped shooting arrows and only used the sound of gongs, drums and cannons to disturb the enemy. The rebels also saw that the Zhaoyong army was bluffing, so they stopped wasting rockets and concentrated on putting out the fire.

At the beginning of the morning, the captain of the musketeers, Ferreira, arrived and asked Wu Jie, "Old Wu, how are you?"

"Haha," Wu Jie laughed and said, "We have confused the rebels and they are running around. Now the cavalry is running out of arrows and can only use the sound of gongs and drums to disturb the enemy. They are too lazy to pay attention to us. You came at the right time, bring the musketeers forward to stir up trouble."

"Okay, I understand." Ferreira said, "Take your cavalry brothers back to the camp to rest, and then watch me play tricks on them."

Wu Jie and Ferreira had a good personal relationship, so he kindly advised: "Tonight is not a siege, so don't form a line formation. There will be too many people, and there will be heavy casualties. It's better to disperse the musketeers..."

"I know that. Go back and have a rest. We have some important things to do later."

Wu Jie had no choice but to withdraw his troops and return to the camp. He was ordered to harass the enemy tonight. Although he did not engage in close combat with the enemy, it was indeed interesting to think about it. They hid in the dark to harass the rebels, shooting hundreds of arrows and dozens of cannonballs. Although the rebels had the city walls to rely on, they did not dare to engage the enemy. Instead, they panicked and wasted a lot of rockets. If they fight again tomorrow, they will be more confident.

The musketeers took over and Ferreira asked the second and third sentries to rest behind, and took the first sentry to a place about 40 to 50 steps away from the city wall. The cavalry also had to light torches to ignite the oilcloth on the arrows, and the musketeers had already lit the matchlocks behind the formation, so the light was weak and it was less likely to expose themselves.

The first sentry was deployed in a dispersed manner, with each musketeer about four or five steps apart. Their target was the rebels at the battlements of the city wall, or even the torches.

Ferreira fired first, and the thirty musketeers received the signal and fired one after another. "Bang, bang, bang, bang", from time to time, the rebels fell down in response.

Nguyen Phu Quang had just taken a breath when he was awakened by the sound of gunfire. His men were being shot and killed one after another, and the enemy seemed to be about to storm the city. He had no choice but to give the order again to fire rockets to repel the enemy.

It was dark at night, and if the Zhaoyong Army took the opportunity to attack the city, then...

After fighting like this for most of the night, the rebels were exhausted.

At the beginning of the morning, the sky was already slightly bright. The musket team and the artillery team stayed at the east gate to continue harassing the enemy, while the cavalry team, the personal guard team, the training team, the cavalry sentry of the first infantry battalion, and the first and second infantry teams, under the leadership of Danchu, secretly headed towards the north gate.

As expected, the defense of the north gate was not strict. When the defenders found that the Zhaoyong army was attacking in a large scale, the Zhaoyong army's vanguard had already pressed to the foot of the city wall. Dozens of bamboo ladders were lined up in a row, and the soldiers competed for the credit of being the first to climb the city.

Soon, the defenders of the North Gate gave up resistance and fled. The Zhaoyong Army seized the North Gate, opened the city gate, and welcomed the main force into the city.

(End of this chapter)