nanming man

Chapter 224 Shelling Shouzhou
Gao Liu's allied forces entered the city of Shouzhou, adding turmoil and restlessness to the already restless Chongzhen at the end of the 16th year.

Ever since Gao Yihuan fell into Ru Ning and destroyed the Chong Palace, Gao Yihuan's name appeared on Chongzhen's desk again and again.

The first news about him was that Yang Wenyue, who had been reactivated, mentioned a very brief sentence in the memorial, "15 years, in November, there was a local bandit from Henan, Gao Yihuan, who defrauded Runing City, and bandits poured into the city. , Destroy the Chong Palace."

Afterwards, when Jin Yiwei investigated the Shandong war, he also mentioned it once, but since then, this name has disappeared for nearly half a year, so that Chongzhen, who was busy with various affairs, forgot such a person.

Gao Yihuan's name reappeared a month ago when the situation in Huguang deteriorated.

Chongzhen received the memorial from He Tengjiao in Huguang, and one-third of it was about Gao Yihuan forcing Zuo Liangyu away and competing for Xiangyang with the western thieves.

This reminded Chongzhen of such a person again, and what he didn't expect, within a month, he saw Gao Yihuan's name in the memorial again, and his deeds finally took up the entire page.

"Gao thief Yihuan, Chen Liuren's family, has been a thief for 15 years, and now has tens of thousands of people. He invited Liu Shun, the German thief, to invade Nanzhi, trap Bozhou, Guoyang, Yingchuan, and Yingshang, and attack Shouzhou together~ ~~"

This is a special memorial submitted by Ma Shiying, governor of Fengyang. Because the Huguang road is blocked, He Tengjiao's memorial is relatively slow, so the two memorials are only one month apart.

In such a short period of time, Gao Yihuan's name appeared one after another, and they were all major events, which attracted the attention of the Ming court.

"Decree to Ma Shiying, if Fengyang is lost, I will let him come to see him!" Chongzhen closed the memorial and said angrily.

At the beginning of December in the 16th year of Chongzhen, the weather was getting colder and colder. After Gao Liu's coalition army arrived in Shouzhou, they sent sentry cavalry to monitor the movements of the officials and troops in the direction of Hefei and Fengyang, and then began to prepare to attack the city.

This time, Liu Liangzuo nested in the city, determined to wait for someone to rescue him, and then attacked Gao Yihuan from inside and outside.

He shrank in the city, making up his mind to be a coward. In this way, Gao Yihuan couldn't do any tricks, and the only way left was to stick to it.

At this time, there was a golden sound from the city, and the attacking soldiers retreated like a tide.

The soldiers were still running back, when there was a loud noise in front of them, a red cannon, and a cloud of white smoke was ejected from the muzzle. Above, the masonry was smashed.

"Damn it, it's so early!"

The new attached battalion retreating below the city, while shaking the dust splashed on their bodies, ran back, cursing in their hearts.

After Gao Yihuan arrived at the city of Shouzhou, he began to set up artillery to bombard the city. At the same time, he organized nearly 1000 officers and troops of the Liu Department captured in the four counties of Yingchuan, Bozhou, Guoyang, and Yingshang into a new attached army and divided them into three teams. Each team of [-] people launched an attack on Shouzhou during the shelling interval, exhausting the defenders on the city.

At this time, ten Hongyi cannons and more than 20 general cannons were lined up under the city.

After the artillery cooled down for half an hour, it fired again, and the new attached battalion, which feinted to attack and harass, retreated again.

At this time, in front of the artillery line, a general suddenly waved the triangular red flag, and all the artillery burst out with deafening sound.

In an instant, thick white smoke covered the long front line, the gun carriages of each artillery retreated, and the iron bullets rushed out of the muzzles and flew towards the head of the city. Countless gravel rose into the air, and then fell like hail.

Standing behind the artillery formation, Liu Heizi could still feel the shaking of the city wall of Shouzhou from a long distance away, and his heart beat wildly.

The defenders at the top of the city were under the attack of the cannons, and experienced the earth shaking and the mountains shaking. They all squatted on the top of the city, terrified in their hearts, "Is this **** a bandit soldier? The equipment is better than theirs!"

Outside the city, after firing a cannon, the gunners quickly cleaned the barrels, and the wet brushes made the sound of water droplets evaporating in the hot barrels.

The soldiers hurriedly used wooden sticks wrapped in cotton cloth to clean it again, then loaded propellant powder and iron bullets, and then compacted them immediately. The gunner readjusted the gun position, punctured the charge pack, inserted the fuse, and finally ignited.

These cannon-handling skills and success were all learned from the craftsmen in the Cannon-casting Workshop, and these craftsmen from Guanzhong also learned Xiyi's cannon-handling skills.

The artillery below the city roared non-stop, and the rising smoke quickly covered the entire front line. Looking down from the top of the city, the defenders could no longer see the gunners clearly. They could only see orange-red flashes from time to time in the white smoke. cannon flames.

Liu Liangzuo hid at the top of the city, only heard the sound of bricks and stones collapsing from the Shouzhou city wall, and the screams of soldiers on the city.

After the Gao and Liu armies arrived at the city, they began to bombard the city. Shouzhou City had been beaten for more than ten days.

The city wall was in a mess under the bombardment of the artillery, the smoke and dust billowed, the sight was unclear, and there were screams for help everywhere.

Liu Liangzuo wanted the soldiers to go down the city, but as soon as the artillery stopped, someone would attack, and even before the artillery stopped, the attacking team had already reached the city.

The climbing steps on the city wall are only found on both sides of the city gate. If the soldiers are allowed to go down the city, it will be too late to go up the city again after the shelling is over.

Although Liu Liangzuo also knew that this was Gao Yihuan's tactic to exhaust the enemy, and it was basically a feint attack, but he was afraid that he would suddenly play it real.

For more than ten days, the defenders needed to cheer up all the time, and the personnel were already quite exhausted.

Liu Heizi watched the shelling for a while, and saw that the blue bricks on the city wall of Shouzhou had fallen off in large parts, exposing the soil inside, so he couldn't help saying to Gao Yihuan, "Brother Gao, when shall we go?"

Gao Yihuan looked back, and the soldiers in the camp who were still preparing equipment did not answer immediately, but asked Zhao Daxian beside him, "Is there any movement in the direction of Taiping Mansion?"

Zhao Daxian hurriedly said: "Huang Degong sent a troop, and after arriving in Hefei, there was no movement."

"How many people rushed to Hefei?" Gao Yihuan asked.

If Huang Degong went north with his troops, he had to be prepared for a sudden attack by the Ming army, and Shouzhou would not be able to be defeated.

"2000 people, plus the original 1000 people in Hefei, there are a total of 3000 people. It is estimated that they are afraid of us. After taking Shouzhou, they will attack Hefei again, so they increase their defense."

Gao Yihuan nodded. Three thousand soldiers were not aggressive enough to defend the city. Huang Degong had to guard against Zhang Xianzhong, defend Anqing and Taiping mansions, and block the waterway for the western army to enter Nanjing. He probably didn't have the time to go north.

Gao Yihuan then asked again: "Where are Fengyang and Xuzhou?"

"Second brother, nothing happened. Not only did Ma Shiying not send troops, but he withdrew the troops from Mengcheng and Huaiyuan to Fengyang."

After Gao Yihuan heard this, he said to Liu Heizi, "If there are no accidents, I want to prepare for three more days before attacking the city. The more fully we prepare, the easier it will be to take down Shouzhou, and the time to attack the city will be shorter."

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(End of this chapter)