Chapter 296 Attacking Zhenjiang
On September 11, the second year of Chongzhen, Chen Cao personally led an army of 120,000 people to Danyang City.
After the army camped four miles away from the city, Tiqi went around to explore the news about Danyang.
"The number of rebels is at least 100,000. This is likely to be Chen Ni's entire fortune."
At the meeting of Xu Chengqing's Chinese army generals, everyone looked a little solemn. Nanjing issued a death order, and Xu Chengqing would die in Zhenjiang even if he died.
Although this is nothing to Xu Chengqing, after all, as a general of the Duke of Wei, he has gradually reached the pinnacle of the military position of general soldier by virtue of his status as Duke of Wei. It is only natural to work for the Xu family, but his one hundred thousand capital There are only 40,000 troops in the battalion that can fight, and 30,000 of them are concentrated in Danyang City. Although these 100,000 troops sound bluffing, if there is a real fight, even he himself cannot guarantee whether those people will suddenly Escape.
After all, the incident of Wu entering the city was fresh in his mind. Although Chen Cao had few soldiers, they were all firearms troops. Their combat effectiveness was naturally much more powerful than that of his soldiers with swords and spears, not to mention the muskets. They are inexperienced soldiers. They only need a few months of training to carry a gun on the battlefield, and they only need to pull the trigger to kill people from a distance.
And like those in the Zhenbing Guards, where a soldier becomes a seasoned veteran, without one or two battlefield experiences and the luck of survival, he will never form a strong fighting force.
"All the firearms shipped from the capital have arrived in Nanjing. The Duke of Guo has replenished most of them for us. I heard that not only the red-haired people bought a lot this time, but also the diplomatic missions of various European and Western countries in Beijing received the purchase. In terms of business, we are the first batch to take over the red barbarian cannons today, and many more are coming one after another."
Xu Chengqing's confidant General Li Shouye frowned: "The Hongyi cannon imitated by Wang Gongchang's gunners is not as accurate as the Hongyifan. I will worry about the chamber exploding after the artillery battle."
Lieutenant General Xu Shiji led 50,000 troops and came from Dantu. After receiving the overall plan of Chen Cao's 100,000 troops and coming directly to Danyang, Xu Chengqing simply gave up the plan of both sides and handed over the defense of Dantu to Caojiang Navy Commander Zhao Tianlin. department.
"Whether it explodes or not depends on luck. After Danyang City is fortified, when there is enough capital to fight Chen Ni, the order is sent and all firearms are mobilized to the east city. In addition, the firearms battalion must be prepared to go out of the city for field battles. The cavalry How are the troops prepared?"
Li Shouye clasped his fists: "The general has mobilized all the cavalry in the army, a total of 8,000 cavalry, and all of them are concentrated at the north gate. As long as the rebels come forward to bombard the city, they can go out to fight with them."
Nanjing studied for a long time, and finally thought that after the opponent launched an artillery bombardment, they would send cavalry to break through the artillery array at all costs, and then achieve the expected combat value.
"No matter how powerful the rebel artillery is, it still requires reloading time. As long as our cavalry is fast enough, after the first round of artillery bombardment, we can catch up with their artillery formation before they reload and destroy their artillery. "
Although Xu Chengqing was very powerful under Chen Cao in the future, he still made a plan to exchange one for one: "As for the newly equipped muskets, if the rebels start to attack the city, the various troops will enter the trench positions outside the city according to the predetermined plan and fight with them. Let’s talk about it for a while.”
"Everyone, the safety of Zhenjiang is entirely in our hands. Your Majesty has said that as long as Chen Ni's army is defeated, and when the King Fu's rebellion is put down in Nanjing, all of you will be granted the title of earl."
Since the Jiajing period, the imperial title has been stingy. From Jiajing to Wanli, except for a few relatives, only Li Chengliang was granted the title of Uncle Ning Yuan, and the rest were granted the title of Jin Yiwei at most.
"You have to pay for it with your life..."
Xu Chengqing finally added.
For Chen Cao, war horses have become a simple means of transportation for generals to travel or carry supplies. Looking at tens of thousands of war horses, mules, mules and other livestock, Chen Cao couldn't help but lament the importance of automobile transportation.
Although he had already proposed this idea in the mechanical engineering class and made simple drawings, the core engine was a big problem. Although Tang Ruowang and others could extract gasoline from crude oil, this simple There are too many impurities in distilled gasoline. Even if it can be burned, it will cause considerable damage to the life of the engine.
'After returning to Nanjing, we must make engine development a key subject. '
Just as he was thinking in his mind, Song Che walked into the big tent: "I'm back. Reliable news. Deputy General Xu Shiji led an army of 50,000 people from Dantu to the south. Dantu's city defense was handed over to Zhao Tianlin. Navy Caojiang built it at Longjiang's shipyard. We have twenty warships equipped with Tessie’s artillery.”
Xin Zhao also walked into the big tent, and then reported: "The spy in Beijing came with the news that the emperor ordered the envoys of various countries in Beijing, especially the French and Dutch, to purchase large quantities of red barbarian cannons and turtle-dove-footed muskets, and Wang Gong, the capital's commander, ordered After the factory resumes operations, its priority will be to imitate Hongyi cannons, and according to reports from Nanjing, Xu Chengqing was among the first people to take over these firearms."
Chen Cao knocked on the desk: "That means Xu Chengqing has a lot of red cannons in his hands." Remembering the last time he was almost hit, Chen Cao shook his head: "The red cannons can hit up to three miles, but I believe they have There are definitely not enough long-range artillery, they should all be around two miles away..."
"The sentries ahead reported that there are many trenches under Danyang City..."
"They want to fight with us in Danyang?"
Chen Cao frowned, then looked at the sand table: "Although the turtle-dove musket is powerful, they don't know that we are already equipped with rifles, and the era of flintlock guns is coming to an end."
Chen Cao's idea of designing the M1 Kangxing rifle was based on the Japanese 38 rifle. Therefore, the standard shooting accuracy of the Kangxing rifle is 460 meters, and the longest range can be 700 meters. However, in order to avoid The embarrassment of later generations that people will not die after penetration. The bullets of the Kangxing rifle are 7.62 mm rifle bullets. Once hit within 460 meters, there is no possibility of survival.
Although there is data in later generations that the 38 rifle hit the target at 1,200 meters, the target was not dead. Even now, the recoil of the Kangxing rifle is only slightly smaller than that of the turtle dove rifle, which particularly tests the shoulder endurance of the soldiers. force.
"Shooting in clusters from seven hundred meters away, the defenders in Danyang City are all living targets."
Song Che also tried the Kangxing rifle, and he loved it so much that he immediately ordered one and tried it himself: "Two hundred paces...the human-shaped target two hundred meters away is a black dot. If you want to hit it, you have to be there." Only sharpshooters can be selected in the army."
Once all flintlock rifles are replaced by Kangxing rifles, the previous death-defeating tactics can be completely abandoned. Under the powerful firepower of cluster shooting, unless the opponent is a desperate attack by cavalry, the effect will not be at all proportional to the effort.
"Currently, Kangxing Rifles are only equipped with garrison divisions. They will be replaced in sequence and will be equipped with the First Division of the Dingwu Army in three months."
The group discussed the current situation for a while, and not long after, a sentry came back again: "Sir, the Dantu reinforcements are still less than thirty miles away from Danyang City."
"Pass the order..."
Chen Cao stood up, and all the generals stood up: "Tang Kainian led the Longwu Army to immediately go to the predetermined location, preparing to encircle the point for reinforcements; in addition, Ning Guoxing's army immediately pushed the Shenwu artillery they carried to the front of the formation, and gave it to Tang Kainian To build momentum and cover the Longwu Army’s actions, let’s bombard Danyang City first.”
.
"Sir, the rebel artillery team has appeared."
Xu Chengqing led a group of generals to the top of Danyang City. Within the telescope, dozens of artillery were being pushed one by one to the front of the formation with sandbags. Xu Chengqing could clearly see the artillerymen opening the powder boxes and moving them toward the muzzles. Loading cannonballs.
"Quick, prepare the Hongyi Cannon. Let's have a shootout with the rebels. Li Shouye, it's time for your cavalry to appear."
Li Shouye obeyed the order and went to the north of the city. He planned to lead eight thousand cavalry to break through Chen Cao's artillery array as planned.
"Zhuyuan loading..."
"ignition..."
'Dong-dong-dong...dong-dong-dong...dong-dong-dong...dong-dong-dong...'
'Dong-dong-dong...dong-dong-dong...dong-dong-dong...dong-dong-dong...'
'Dong-dong-dong...dong-dong-dong...dong-dong-dong...dong-dong-dong...'
Not only the Shenwu artillery position, but also the Northern Army's Hongyi artillery on the city head also fired. The firing range of both sides was within two miles. After the fierce shelling, huge explosions occurred on the Danyang city wall, the city head, and inside the city.
The Shenwu artillery position was also hit by the Hongyi artillery. What surprised Chen Cao was that Xu Chengqing actually used flower bombs from the beginning.
The cost of a firearm craftsman in the Ming Dynasty was only five taels of silver. After Chen Cao's gunpowder reform and industrial reform, the cost of a flower bomb was only three taels of silver. In addition, he is now rich. The oily Songjiang prepared a thousand rounds of explosive shells for this initial bombardment. As long as the accuracy was sufficient, it would be a small problem to blow up Danyang City.
However, the Hongyi artillery at the head of Danyang City also caused a lot of casualties to the Shenwu artillery position. After only five rounds of shelling, as many as ten Shenwu artillery were blown up, and the explosion also caused the explosion next to the artillery. Ammunition boxes, more than two hundred gunners were killed, which made Chen Cao feel heartbroken.
However, Ci is not in charge of the army. Although artillery training is the most troublesome, now in order to capture Zhenjiang, he must be willing to kill and injure ten thousand people.
After the entire exchange of fire for more than ten rounds, a large amount of dust suddenly rose from the north of the city. Chen Cao received the news while riding on his horse. It turned out that thousands of cavalry were coming from the north of the city to attack the Shenwu artillery array.
"The First Division immediately formed a formation in front of the Shenwu Artillery Formation, preparing to attack the cavalry. In order to prevent them from taking advantage of the situation to attack the formation, after this round of fighting, all the artillerymen in the artillery formation were asked to retreat."
Even if it is necessary to exchange one for one, it must be fair. Now that the opponent has sent cavalry, Chen Cao will not be stupid and let all the artillerymen in the artillery array die. What's more, after firing ten rounds of artillery, the Shenwu Artillery must To cool the barrel, it doesn't matter if the Shenwu Cannon is abandoned on the battlefield.
Sure enough, Li Shouye's target was really the artillery array. Thousands of cavalry rushed toward the artillery array. The First Division was one mile away from the artillery array in front and had to move forward. This would be dangerous. A volley fired. After that, although hundreds of cavalry fell from their horses, the First Division was also killed by cavalry's crossbows and spears, and more than 300 people fell to the ground.
