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

Chapter 387 Conquering Xiangtan
At dawn on the 24th, the Red Army's artillery detachment fired non-stop all night, keeping the Xiangtan defenders awake all night.

The south gate tower had been destroyed, and the attic no longer existed. There was a gap on each side of the gate, the left side was more than ten feet wide, and the right side was seven or eight feet wide. The defenders braved the Red Army's artillery fire and used baskets, sacks, and even coffins to fill the gap with soil overnight, barely filling it up.

At about the beginning of the morning, Yang Fang reached the artillery position and found the artillery commander Ferreira, only to see him sleeping soundly on a pile of dry rice stalks.

This foreign devil! Yang Fang felt amused, but he couldn't help but secretly admire him.

Many generals can fall asleep to the sound of artillery fire, which makes them energetic before the battle. Ferreira was a mercenary before joining the Red Army. He fought in Europe for many years and could fall asleep in a second to the sound of artillery fire.

Yang Fang was only in his twenties, and he was always worried before a war. Even in the quiet night, he could hardly fall asleep. Fortunately, he was young and energetic. Thinking of the upcoming war with the Tartars, he was so excited that he swept away the fatigue caused by insomnia.

The gunfire had now died down considerably, and the guns took turns firing, in order to harass the defenders and keep them awake all night. On average, each gun could only fire four or five shells per hour.

"Old Fei! Get up!"

Ferreira jumped up from the dry rice stalks as if he had been electrocuted. Seeing that it was Yang Fang, he quickly asked, "What time is it?"

The guard looked at the clepsydra and said, "Xie Tai, it's the first quarter of the morning."

"Not bad, not bad." Ferreira was a heavy smoker, and the first thing he did when he got up was to smoke. His subordinates also understood his habit and immediately handed him a pipe.

"Old Fei, I'm going to lead my men to attack the city soon. You have to bombard the wall hard and open a gap for me."

"No hurry, no hurry," Ferreira said nonchalantly, "I've already figured out this city. The city walls are made of bricks on the outside and rammed earth on the inside, so they won't withstand attacks. A breach was already opened last night. Another round of rapid fire in the morning will surely open the breach."

"Can a gap be opened with just one round of rapid fire?" Yang Fang asked, still worried. The death squad broke into the city, relying entirely on the artillery to open a gap in the city wall. Otherwise, they would have to set up bamboo ladders to attack the city, and there would be heavy casualties.

A round of rapid fire, calculated based on six shells per gun, would take two quarters of an hour to complete. The artillery corps had a total of nine 100-piece guns that had been accompanying the army. In addition, there were twenty red-haired cannons that were temporarily requisitioned from Guangxi. In this way, a round of rapid fire could probably deliver more than a hundred shells to the Xiangtan city wall, and there would be no problem in blasting open the old gap.

"Didn't the Lord say that we should not be stingy with the shells? There are still dozens of chisel shells here. I will use the chisel shells first, and then the round shells. I will definitely be able to open a gap more than ten feet wide at the old gap on the left wing of the south gate."

The Red Army had the Lingqu Canal and Xiangjiang River to transport supplies, and the artillery assisted in fighting, making it easier for them to fight without having to worry about running out of ammunition.

Chisel bullets are made of solid iron bullets with steel bars on both sides of the round bullets. During actual sieges, chisel bullets are often used to break the bricks and stones on the outside of the city wall, and then round bullets are used to destroy the rammed earth.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the city walls in various places had mostly fallen into disrepair. Unless it was a strong city like Ganzhou or Nanjing, the wall could generally be blown down by cannons.

"Whether the Royal Guards can capture Xiangtan City depends entirely on Old Fei." Yang Fang warned.

Ferreira was a little impatient and said, "Don't worry, I'll make a gap in the city wall in half an hour. I think the Tartars have no intention of fighting to the death. You will help me to attack the city and seize a lot of spoils. If you can give me twenty big horses afterwards, I will fire forty more shells to make the gap bigger."

"No problem. After the war, I will definitely give you twenty top-quality horses. If we can capture the city today, you can send someone over to select the war horses tomorrow." Yang Fang agreed to his request without thinking twice.

At 3:30 in the morning, the sky was already bright, and the morning sun cast its first rays of light. Xiangtan City was bathed in the orange-red morning light, and its outline was particularly clear. On the top of the city, there were crowds of people, with a variety of flags, including Manchurian soldiers, Shen Yongzhong's old Dongjiang troops, Green Camp soldiers, and local soldiers. On the Red Army artillery position, a long and shrill whistle suddenly sounded, followed by a rapid and continuous short whistle.

Soon, the artillery position became busy. The gunners and ammunition handlers jumped up from their positions, and their movements were as smooth as flowing water: wiping the barrel, installing the powder bag, compacting it, loading the ammunition, and lighting the ignition port...

"Boom!" Thirty high-end cannons and red-haired cannons fired at the same time, like a mountain collapse and the earth splitting, making people's ears ring.

When the smoke cleared, Yang Fang could clearly see that the Xiangtan city wall was covered with dust and countless baskets and sacks flew into the sky. The Qing army used all their manpower to fill the wall with soil and repair the wall, but in an instant, a large gap was created by the Red Army's artillery shells.

He felt the power of the Ten-Thousand-Power Cannon and the Red Cannon at close range, and was full of confidence in breaking the city.

The defenders also had red cannons, but not many, only four, which were transferred from Shen Yongzhong's troops.

The Qing court strictly prohibited the Green Camp soldiers from using the two artillery weapons, the Red Cannon and the Skyrocket, and the Eight Banners of the Manchus and Mongols did not know how to use them. Only the Eight Banners of the Han Army, as well as the Four Kings and One Duke, could use and knew how to use the Red Cannon and the Skyrocket.

It is worth mentioning that the three kings and one duke who came from Dongjiang Town were incorporated into the Han army, along with their important generals, but their soldiers were not. As for Wu Sangui, because he surrendered to the Qing Dynasty relatively late and had the strongest army, even he himself was not incorporated into the Eight Banners of the Han Army.

The Gushan Ezhen of the Eight Banners of the Han Army was in charge of the affairs of one banner. They were all from Liaodong generals. Their families surrendered to the Qing Dynasty early and were trusted by the Qing court, such as Tong Tulai and Li Guohan. However, the Gushan Ezhen of the Han Army was far inferior to the banner masters of the Eight Banners of Manchuria. In fact, they still regarded the Manchu princes as banner masters. For example, the Han Army Zhenghong Banner had Prince Fengli Daishan as the banner master. Although Kong Youde, Shang Kexi and others were crowned as kings and dukes, their influence in the Han Army was not great.

As the war in the south intensified, the Qing government also realized the importance of firearms and strongly encouraged the Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners to learn firearms, and also supported the Han army to expand its firearms equipment. However, the Green Camp soldiers were still not trusted and were not allowed to be equipped with red cannons and sky rockets.

The four red cannons of the Xiangtan defenders were two at the south gate and two at the east gate. Under the powerful bombardment of the Red Army, the Qing artillery was powerless to fight back.

At the beginning of the morning, the Red Army stopped shelling. Yang Fang raised two large flags, one red and one yellow, at the position of the central army's auxiliary flag, which was the signal for the death squad to attack. Three hundred death squad members wearing heavy armor and five hundred auxiliary soldiers had been waiting in the streets near the moat for a long time.

The Qing army used local soldiers to help defend the city, so they were unable to clear the countryside and retain intact neighborhoods outside the city gates, providing excellent cover for the Red Army.

Xiangtan was a small city with a narrow moat. Merchants built houses and the streets stretched to the edge of the moat. The Red Army's auxiliary soldiers worked together to knock down the houses, fill up the moat, and use door panels and other materials to build a few simple bridges.

Three hundred heavily-armored warriors crossed the moat one after another and headed straight for the breach in the city wall. The enemy's arrows and bullets rained down like rain, but the Red Army warriors continued to climb the breach in the city wall and engage in close combat with the defenders.

The heavily armored soldiers were the elite of the elite Red Army, each of them like a god descending from heaven, fighting ten at a time, and still not giving up. Another large group of Red Army crossed the moat, shouting "surrender and no killing", and rushed in like a tide.

The local soldiers had never seen such a battle, and when they saw that the battle was not going well, they immediately fled from the city walls. Once the local soldiers retreated, the Green Camp soldiers also lost their will to fight. Wang Zhigang was only a minor general in Dongjiang Town, and was even less able to deal with such a dangerous situation. He was panicked and at a loss. The Manchu soldiers killed several people in a row, but they could not stop the local soldiers from retreating. They wanted to join the battle, but they were afraid that they had too few troops, which really put them in a dilemma.

The battle lasted less than a quarter of an hour. The Red Army firmly occupied the gap in the city wall and began to divide its forces to attack the south gate. The main force continued to pour into the city.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, the Qing army dared not fight and fled through the north gate. The Liushuling stronghold outside the city was guarded by the Green Camp, who simply raised the white flag and surrendered. The Red Army pursued them for 20 miles to Muyun City, and withdrew only after dark.

In this battle, the personal soldiers beheaded more than 2,000 people and captured more than 3,000 people, which was a great victory.

(End of this chapter)