The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 405: Jiangning City Full of Blood and Fire
Baoshan looked at the incense in front of him, calculating silently in his mind. When a piece of incense lightly fell, he screamed in fear:
"The cannons are coming, the cannons are coming, hide from the cannons!"

Sure enough, just as the words fell, thunderous artillery sounds rang out, and countless huge shells, like meteors, slid down from the sky and slammed heavily into the city.

Although Baoshan calculated the time accurately and shouted to hide from the artillery, there were actually not many places to hide. The only thing he could rely on was the thick walls of the general's mansion and the deputy governor's office.

Because the Jiangning City at that time was the reconstruction of the former Forbidden City in Nanjing of the Ming Dynasty.

Based on the original Nanjing Forbidden City, they expanded the scope to near Taiping Gate and Tongji Gate. All the buildings and objects that encroached upon the Forbidden City were either destroyed or transported to Beijing.

After this massive destruction, the high and thick walls of the original Nanjing Forbidden City basically only existed in the General's Mansion and the Deputy Governor's Office.

Baoshan and his whole family ran desperately towards the general's mansion. Sweating profusely, he looked back and saw a red-hot shell falling from the sky like a fireball and crashing into his house.

In an instant, blue smoke rose into the sky. Nanjing is also known as a furnace. If it does not rain in the seventh month of the lunar calendar, it is quite hot. In addition, most houses at this time are made of wood, so it is also quite easy to catch fire.

"My house!" A short and strong man cried out, turned around and ran towards home.

These are Baoshan’s neighbors, their houses are next to each other.

"Danger!" Baoshan shouted and was about to go over to pull his neighbor, but the neighbor suddenly shook his hand away, continued crying and went back to put out the fire.

Then, Baoshan saw the most shocking scene in his life. A huge shell fell from the sky and hit his neighbor with extraordinary precision.

In an instant, Baoshan only saw some light pink blood mist splashing around, and his neighbor disappeared from this world, as if he had never been there.

Afterwards, the shell that smashed the neighbor into pieces blasted a small hole in the ground, then spun and jumped up, and flew past Baoshan not far to the left with a humming sound.

"Puff!" The spinning shell swept past a donkey tied to a wooden stake again, sending the entire donkey flying. When it landed on the ground, it had already broken into three or four pieces.

At this moment, the shell finally lost its kinetic energy and hit the thick red wall of the general's mansion with a bang.

Baoshan came to his senses at this time, and tears of fear burst out of his eyes like a fountain. He picked up his four-year-old daughter and crawled into the general's mansion.

But things weren't much better after entering, as the place was packed with people. If they had met at other times, they would have started greeting each other with auspicious words, but now, there was nothing but fear, and no one was in the mood to exchange pleasantries.

The shelling did not stop, but became more intense. A shell penetrated the three-story attic of the general's mansion and hit the rockery in the courtyard with a bang, directly cutting off half of the rockery.

Another one flew in from the lobby, close to the ground, and broke through the pond in the courtyard, causing the water to flow everywhere.

I don’t know how long it took, but when even my daughter in my arms fell asleep from crying herself to exhaustion, the shelling finally stopped.

Baoshan had just breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the captain of their infantry battalion rushing in.

"All men, follow me to put out the fire. After the fire is put out, take turns defending the city walls.

Women between the ages of sixteen and thirty-six must gather at the Vice Governor's Office. From today on, all of us will eat and drink together, and the women will take turns cooking."

Baoshan was stunned. He looked at his daughter, who had been awakened by the captain and started crying again, and asked, "Now that everyone has left, what will happen to the child?"

"Leave it all to the old man and take it with him." The captain waved his hand and said nonchalantly.

Baoshan was a little reluctant to let go. His daughter was the closest to him. She would cry and look for her father if he left her for a while. He opened his mouth to say more.

The leader's face darkened, "What are you still standing there for? Hurry up and obey the orders, otherwise if the Han people attack us, who do you think will survive?
All the bannermen in Fuzhou and Hangzhou were killed!"

When leaving the general's mansion, Baoshan walked through the front yard that was smashed by artillery shells. The water from the pond had flowed directly out of the front door. It didn't feel cool when he stepped on it, but rather a little sticky.

Heart-wrenching cries came from behind. A group of bannermen, young and old, burst into tears because of their fear for the future, and Baoshan's daughter was the loudest.

The middle-aged bannerman could no longer hold back and began to sob. As he cried, he suddenly thought of whether the Han people who fought desperately to resist when their ancestors moved south were in the same situation as they are now.

. . . .

"Too many, too many, the Han people have too many cannons!" Cheng De looked at the dense artillery outside the city and muttered to himself.

Of course there were a lot of cannons. Although Mo Zibu's rule over the three provinces of Guangxi and the four provinces of Southeast Asia was not very solid, he did not have the time and energy to recruit a large number of troops.

But thanks to the initial attention, the Xing Tang Army did have a large number of artillery pieces. The number of artillery pieces per thousand soldiers was comparable to that of major powers like Britain, France and Austria even in Europe.

After this round of shelling, two thousand Green Camp soldiers howled, pushed shield carts, held up wooden boards and shields, and took hoes and pickaxes, and ran quickly towards the city wall.

It is not easy to be a surrendered soldier. Even if you are on the winning side, you still have to fight with your life.

Of course, there is a difference between investing first and investing later.

Lan Yuanmei's Green Camp in Susong Town, the first to surrender, was at the back. In front of them was Yu Jinao's governor's flag stationed in Changzhou, and in front of the governor's flag were the Green Camp soldiers from Jiangyin.

The ones rushing forward crying were the Lion Rock Green Camp, which Chen Guangzu did not dare to use when fighting against the Eight Banners soldiers in the city.

Hearing the sound of a charge coming from below, the Eight Banners artillery on the city wall also began to fire. The shells fired from high above would, as long as they hit their targets, a bunch of Green Camp soldiers would fall to the ground screaming.

The Xing Tang Army was waiting for this moment. They had already prepared the 16-pound mortar and the heavy smoothbore rifle with a large lever that required two people to fire, and immediately aimed it at the Qing gunners who were firing.

Bricks and stones flew everywhere on the city wall, and the small stones splashed out were as powerful as arrows. Anyone who was hit would be bruised at best, bleed profusely, or even die at worst.

Suddenly, an immovable 2,000-jin Invincible General Cannon was hit directly by a mortar shell. The huge downward impact force knocked the 2,000-jin cannon directly out of the rammed earth base.

The gunners around let out screams of fear. The two thousand pound thing flying in the air scared everyone who saw it.

But no matter how scared you are, it’s your fate whether you can run away or not.

Amidst the panicked scattering, two unlucky gunners were hit. The one on the left was hit directly on the head by the gun barrel, without even twitching or groaning.

His right thigh was hit, and blood continued to flow down the gun barrel as he screamed miserably. The gun barrel, which had just fired three rounds, was like a branding iron, heating the blood to a boiling point.

"Boom!" Another large stone shell from a mortar hit the enemy tower not far away. This poor protrusion had been targeted and hit three times by the Xingtang artillery.

This time, it finally couldn't hold on anymore, bricks and stones crashed down, and three musketeers who had time to run away fell off the city wall with screams.

All this was happening everywhere, the fighting was extremely brutal, the situation was so tense that no one cared at all when a few people were injured.

Seeing his cannons being fired upon by the Xing Tang army, Cheng De immediately ordered the Weiyuan General Cannon on the city wall to fire indirect fire, continuously bombarding the Xing Tang army's mortar positions. At the same time, the other small-caliber direct-fire cannons also slightly adjusted their direction, and the two sides resumed the artillery exchange.

As for the Green Camp soldiers who were about to rush to the wall, they were dealt with by the musketeers on the city wall.

Reinstein also waved his hand, and the messenger immediately waved the flag, and five hundred hunters armed with rifles began to shoot at the Qing Dynasty musketeers on the city wall.

The Eight Banners' muskets were hit so hard that they could hardly raise their heads, so they had to change their targets and, relying on the cover of the battlements, they started shooting at the Xingtang Army's hunters under the city wall.

"Don't throw too much at once. Keep an eye on them. If they run away, stop throwing them. There's not much left to do with the battering rams and rolling stones, so use them sparingly!"

The infantry lieutenant shouted orders, and Baoshan was sweating profusely with nervousness. Infantrymen like them were on the city wall just for this moment.

"Go on, smash these one-cent men to death!" Someone shouted, and the infantrymen squatting at the back shouted and rushed forward, picking up the wood and stones piled on the top of the city wall and smashing them down.

Baoshan had just picked up a stone when he saw a comrade beside him suddenly shake his head, and then he was sprayed in the face with something warm and sticky.

Baoshan couldn't help but put down the stone and touched his face. He couldn't help but scream. It turned out that his hands were covered with red and white. A foul smell rushed to his heart, and Baoshan vomited with a wow.

Only then did he see that the compatriot who had been holding the stone was hit on the head by a musket. It should have been a large musket, because his head was directly smashed to pieces.

The broken half of the head was like an opened watermelon, with the flesh mixed with blood-red juice constantly flowing out.

Baoshan also knew what was on his face just now, it was this person's brain matter and blood.

Under the pressure of extreme fear and desire to live, Baoshan had an idea. He threw away the stone in his hand, covered his face with his hands, and ran back with a hunched back.

Sure enough, the captain saw that his head and face were covered in blood and thought that he was seriously injured, so he did not try to stop him.

At the foot of the city wall, there were groups of more than twenty Green Camp soldiers, seven or eight of them holding up rattan shields or even door panels, howling in despair, hoping to resist some of the stones and battering rams falling from the sky.

There were also two or three people holding shotguns, looking at the top of the city wall very nervously. Once a human figure appeared, they would open fire immediately.

The remaining dozen or so people were waving pickaxes, iron bars and hoes, digging holes frantically.

"Bang!" A stone crashed down from the city wall, and the soldiers holding the door panel roared and lifted it up with all their strength.

Fortunately, there was a layer of quilt on the door panel, so it was able to withstand the impact.

Then, the musketeer opened fire. After three shots, there was a shrill scream from the top of the city wall, and a figure fell heavily down and hit the door panel. A few people gently deflected it and threw the body down.

"Help, help!" Just as this group of people were rejoicing, another group of people not far away from them suddenly threw away the door panels and ran away.

It turned out that they were hit by a can of kerosene. The intense burning kerosene made them unable to bear it. With burning flames on their bodies, they threw away the door panels and rattan shields and ran around.

Unfortunately, they had only run a few steps when they heard the sound of vibrating bowstrings from the top of the city wall, and the archers of the Eight Banners Army killed them one by one.

Qian Jinduan was so scared that his legs were shaking. He kept praying in his heart, praying that no one would throw a can of kerosene on their heads.

He kept regretting in his heart. He was not a Green Camp soldier, but a volunteer from Huzhou, Zhejiang. Because he was greedy for the reward of five taels of silver, he claimed that he was proficient in using a bird rifle, so he was sent to the front line.

No one told him that this could be so dangerous!

Perhaps Qian Jinduan's prayers were successful, as several digging teams before and after them were hit with kerosene, but they were the only ones not hit.

But their good luck did not last long. Just when they had dug a big hole and were about to complete the task, a small door only half a person's height opened in a hidden corner of the city.

A dozen Eight Banners vanguard captains wearing cotton armor came out from here, holding swords and guns, and rushed towards Qian Jinduan and his men.

Qian Jinduan shouted and quickly lit the fuse of the musket.

With a bang, the vanguard captain who was rushing in the front seemed to have hit an invisible wall. He shook all over and fell backwards during the high-speed sprint.

But before Qian Jinduan could even cheer, the other vanguard captains rushed over as if they didn't see their comrades being killed.

They quickly ran into Qian Jinduan's group, and stabbed and stabbed with the newly arrived spears in their hands, killing five or six people in an instant.

Qian Jinduan was so scared that tears came out of his eyes. His hands were loading the machine quickly, but his legs were shaking like sieves.

He seemed to smell the stench emanating from the Eight Banners soldiers, and there was only one voice shouting in his mind.

"It's over, it's over, I have to explain myself now."

Fortunately, at this time, Reinstein looked at the pocket watch in his hand and immediately ordered someone to blow the retreat bugle.

Even if they are cannon fodder of the Green Camp, you cannot use them to death. You must set a time limit for them, such as quarter of an hour.

Tell them that as long as they can hold on for this long, they can retreat. They will basically not be rotated a second time today, and they will all be credited with a merit. Only then will they work sincerely.

If they are not given this hope, many people will not be able to accomplish much in extreme fear.

Being completely perfunctory or even seeking death due to too much pressure is completely different from attacking with a certain degree of initiative.

The first group of Green Camp soldiers retreated howling, even holding the tools in their hands.

Some of the Eight Banners vanguard captains who were chasing them wisely did not continue to pursue them, but went back through the "dog hole".

Reinstein watched all this with an expressionless face. He knew that a city wall that was twelve or thirteen meters high and five or six meters wide would not be captured so quickly. There was no way to take it unless the enemy's artillery and elite troops were almost completely exhausted.

Fortunately, the Xing Tang army has some time and can fight slowly.

"We'll rest for half an hour. The next group will be from the Jiangyin Green Camp, with support from the righteous citizens of Suzhou and Songjiang.

Order the White Horse Regiment's deputy commander, Lei Biao (Lei Ahu), to lead 800 men to the front to replace the hunting troops of the First Republic Regiment!

After saying this, seeing that the sky was gradually getting dark, Reinstein said to the messenger beside him:
"Go and ask His Majesty for instructions. I request that the Tangshan Town artillery company be sent down for repairs. They will still be responsible for shelling the city tonight."

(End of this chapter)