In early July, southwest of Kaifeng City, ten miles away.
Since Sun Kewang was killed by Liu Yan, Li Dingguo and Ai Nengqi learned from the pain. After fighting with Li Zicheng's minions, they prepared to use the power of the bandit army to avenge Liu Yan and the Ming Dynasty court.
Nowadays, the bandit army is so powerful that millions of people have basically captured Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi. Except for a few places such as Kaifeng City, Datong Town, and Tongguan, the land in the three provinces has been captured by the bandit army.
Li Dingguo and Ai Nengqi also took this opportunity to rebuild the firearms camp with the support of Li Zicheng.
The newly rebuilt firearms battalion was stronger, with 8,000 gunmen, led by Li Dingguo. It was also equipped with 200 artillery pieces, and formed 10,000 spearmen and 30,000 infantry.
The spear-armored soldiers were led by Ai Nengqi. Four thousand of the ten thousand horses were equipped with various armors. The armor coverage rate had exceeded that of the elite officers and soldiers.
In addition, the Eight Thousand Fire Gunmen are basically equipped with bird guns. Although almost all are matchlock guns, compared with the previous situation where all kinds of fire guns were piled together, it is now very standardized.
And those two hundred artillery pieces are all high-quality Franco cannons drawn from various places, and twenty of them are red cannons weighing four thousand to five thousand kilograms!
This kind of firepower gave Li Dingguo a lot of confidence. If he encounters the new army led by Liu Yan again, even if he is not sure of victory, he can still give him a heavy blow.
"General!"
In the Chinese army's tent, Ai Nengqi strode over and said: "The artillery team's gunner training is over. These gunners are quite hard-working. Under the training of the dozen official gunners, they are becoming more and more impressive. "
Li Dingguo said with a smile
: "King Chuang Yingming, although the other battalions also carry a large number of artillery, I heard that General Quan of the Zhongying Camp has hundreds of artillery of various types, but it is really hard for a firearms battalion like ours to provide sufficient gunpowder and adequate food and pay. There is no second job. Therefore, daily training must be strict, we must be attentive, and we must achieve results so that other battalions can look up to our firearms battalion."
Ai Nengqi said: "General, don't worry, all the departments are training seriously now. I dare say that the combat power of our firearms battalion is second to none in the entire rebel army!"
"Don't be arrogant!"
Li Dingguo said: "Tomorrow we will cooperate with the front camp to open the blocked city. Because of Liu Yan's presence, we suffered a big loss under Kaifeng City, and our great cause almost fell into ruins here. This time we must avenge our shame. Let Chen Yongfu and Gao Mingheng taste the wrath of our rebel soldiers!"
Ai Nengqi said: "I think our army will win this battle! But King Chuang has an order. After the city is broken, we can no longer rob the people. We can only choose young men to supplement the loss of troops."
"Remember, there is no future for being a bandit. Only by fighting steadily and constantly managing the territory can we compete with the Ming court for the world!"
Early the next morning, Li Dingguo and Ai Nengqi led the firearms battalion to the south of Kaifeng City.
At this time, the 130,000-strong army led by Li Laiheng from the front camp had formed an array outside the city and surrounded the east, west and north sides of Kaifeng City. The army was mobilizing troops and generals in preparation for a full-scale attack.
Li Dingguo looked at the front camp in the west and said to Ai Nengqi: "Send someone to contact General Li Laiheng and ask about the time for the army to attack the city."
"yes."
After a long time, the fast horses that were sent out came back: "General Qi,
The former camp general had an order: Half an hour later, the army began to attack Kaifeng City. "
Li Dingguo nodded, and then ordered the artillery team to deploy in front of the firearms camp. Two hundred artillery pieces were arranged in three rows two miles away from Kaifeng City. After thousands of civilians and mules and horses were busy, the artillery array was finally formed, and then Hundreds of gunners began to reload nervously.
The 8,000 gunners of the firearms battalion have also lined up. Following the formation of the New Army, these 8,000 men formed a large horizontal formation of six rows and were on standby about a hundred paces behind the artillery formation.
Li Dingguo's Chinese army was stationed here, moving with eight thousand gunmen. Ai Nengqi led 10,000 spearmen and armored soldiers to stand by one mile away from the rear, followed by 30,000 infantrymen, ready to charge into the formation at any time.
While the Rogue Firearms Battalion was busy setting up the formation, Chen Yongfu and Gao Mingheng stood on the top of the city, looking at Li Dingguo's battle flag and seeing two hundred artillery being loaded and calibrated. Their faces were very ugly.
At this time, Chen Yongfu glared at Gao Mingheng and said: "I said at the beginning that Liu Yan's new army would be left to continue to encircle and suppress the remnants of Li Zicheng, but you were greedy for merit and disagreed. Now it's okay, you and I will die without a burial place. !”
Gao Mingheng's face turned pale, and he felt regretful in his heart. He said angrily: "Who would have thought that Li Zicheng could make a comeback? With such great achievements ahead of you, don't you look eager to try?"
Chen Yongfu stopped talking. No matter who was right or wrong, it was too late to say anything now.
"what to do?"
Gao Mingheng asked.
Chen Yongfu gritted his teeth and said: "When Liu Yan led his troops to rush for help, didn't you propose to dig up the Yellow River embankment? Now is the time!"
Gao Mingheng smiled bitterly and said: "Whoever breaks out to fight
embankment? "
Chen Yongfu was speechless. At this time, the city's defenders had been maimed by bandits, leaving only more than 4,000 people. The cavalry was almost completely dead and wounded. Even if they wanted to rush out to dig the Yellow River embankment, they could not send any troops.
"You and I will both become the criminals of the imperial court!"
Chen Yongfu roared loudly and punched the arrow stack on the city head angrily.
Gao Mingheng sighed and said: "Fight, maybe today is the day when you and I die, and then we can still travel together on the road."
Chen Yongfu said angrily: "Who the hell wants to be with you!"
"Woo~woo!"
Suddenly, horns sounded from the bandit army outside the city, followed by the soldiers and horses of the bandit firearms battalion in the south shouting in unison. Two hundred artillery pieces on the artillery array began to roar, and shells continued to fall on the city.
Gao Mingheng immediately fell to the ground and was pulled by the bodyguards around him to flee down the city. Chen Yongfu exclaimed: "The bandit gunners are so elite that most of the cannonballs can hit the city defense!"
At this time, the top of the city was in a mess. Many piled-up rolling logs and rocks were hit by cannonballs and immediately flew away, killing the surrounding defenders and young men.
There were also more than a dozen artillery shells that directly hit the artillery deployed on the top of the city. The huge force directly smashed those Folan cannons. Chen Yongfu even saw two artillery pieces being smashed and flying up on the spot, and then heavily It fell on the top of the city and smashed five or six defenders to death!
"fire!"
The reason why Chen Yongfu did not fire the artillery in advance was because he was worried that the army of bandits outside the city would attack in advance. He always thought that if it took a while, reinforcements might arrive in the next moment.
But now it seems that there are no reinforcements, only
The bandits continued their artillery bombardment.
Chen Yongfu lay down behind an arrow shelter and looked outside. He saw constant smoke from the artillery array of the Bandit Firearms Battalion. The bandit gunners were well-trained and methodical. The shells fired were not only very accurate, but also fired very fast. Chen Yongfu was filled with despair.
"How can we fight like this!"
boom!
Finally, the artillery on Kaifeng City began to counterattack, and more than a hundred artillery pieces of various types were deployed on the southern city wall. At this time, the sound of cannon fire was heard one after another on the city wall, but it was still difficult to suppress the thieves' artillery fire.
Chen Yongfu was so angry that he yelled: "Solley, other people's artillery fires are all volleys, you are shooting here and there, it's weird if you can beat them!"
However, at this time, the gunners of the official army had already lost their courage. Being able to complete the procedures of loading and firing was considered an extraordinary performance. In addition, during this period of time, the military pay of the defenders in the city has basically been cut off. The King of Zhou in the city refused to spend any more money to reward the troops, which caused the morale of the defenders to plummet. At this time, there were not many people to fight to the death.
"It's over!"
Chen Yongfu saw it in his eyes. He had been leading troops for many years. He knew what the Qiu Ba gang was thinking. Seeing his soldiers hiding around and being timid, Chen Yongfu already knew that the fall of Kaifeng City was imminent!
"Headquarters, the north wall has been lost!"
While Chen Yongfu was stunned, a general came running to report in panic.
Chen Yongfu was horrified. He hurriedly held up his telescope and looked to the north. He saw that the battle flag of the former camp of the bandits had been planted on the city top. Countless bandit infantry were swarming up the city wall. The Weng city wall and the main city wall in the north had already been seen. The officers and soldiers are nowhere to be seen!
At this time, Chen Yongfu gritted his teeth, his eyes
Red said: "Give me an order: The whole army surrenders immediately! Send people to the governor's Yamen and capture Gao Mingheng!"
Half an hour later, the artillery fire from the Rogue Firearms Battalion stopped, and a large group of Rogue soldiers rushed into Kaifeng City. Li Dingguo and Ai Nengqi also rode into the city.
At this time, the fighting in Kaifeng City was basically over. Because Chen Yongfu led his troops to surrender, there was no street fighting at all in the city. A large number of officers and soldiers and young men who defended the city surrendered directly.
Of course, the bandits did not kill the prisoners. Instead, according to Li Laiheng's order, they detained all the prisoners in the school grounds in the city to await their release.
"General Lee!"
When Li Dingguo saw Li Laiheng in front, he and Ai Nengqi rode up to meet him. After the two sides greeted each other, they asked, "I heard that Chen Yongfu surrendered?"
Li Lai smiled and said, "Yeah, I didn't expect that this stubborn guy would actually surrender before the battle, and even tie up Gao Mingheng!"
"What!"
Li Dingguo said in surprise: "Then where are they?"
Li Laiheng said: "I have sent people to Tongguan. Tongguan has not been captured yet. King Chuang needs these two people even more."
Li Dingguo suddenly realized it and said: "Indeed, if Sun Chuanting learns that Kaifeng has been lost, he will definitely not be willing to fight. Maybe Tongguan can be captured in one go!"
"Haha, the firearms battalion fought well in this battle. I see that the gunners practiced well. It seems that General Li and General Ai have worked hard."
Li Dingguo said a few words of humility and then asked: "Now that Kaifeng City has been taken, I wonder what the next step will be?"
Although Li Dingguo and Li Laiheng are on the same level, he is an orthodox "red third generation", so Li Dingguo naturally wanted to ask Li Laiheng
Next steps.
"Two days ago, King Chuang ordered me to lead his troops to station in Kaifeng and guard Henan. He ordered General Li to lead his troops to Tongguan to assist in the war."
Li Dingguo frowned slightly and said, "Didn't it say that the official reinforcements were blocked in the Pingyang Mansion area, so the firearms battalion does not need to go to support General Yuan of the right battalion?"
"have no idea."
Li Laiheng said: "Maybe King Chuang didn't pay attention to those reinforcements at all. General Li should hurry up. I think we can set off today."
Li Dingguo was immediately stunned. The army had been besieging the city for days, and then attacked the city again today. Didn't they need to take a rest?
However, Li Dingguo looked at Li Laiheng's playful smile and said nothing. He could only accept the order and took Ai Nengqi back to the camp to reorganize the troops.
"General, you are treating us as cannon fodder!"
Li Dingguo sighed and said: "Originally, I thought that King Chuang had changed his mind after the defeat in Kaifeng, but now it seems that I am the one who thinks highly of King Chuang and others!"
"Then let's..."
"Go to Tongguan first and try to save this firearms camp. This is what our brothers rely on to survive in troubled times!"
