On the afternoon of the 23rd of the first lunar month of the seventh year of Chongzhen, Zhuang Langwei was covered by rising smoke and smoke.
Amidst the creaking of wheels and the neighing of war horses, impassioned military music sounded in the north of the city. Hundreds of small and medium-sized field artillery were lined up in a row outside the city and fired one after another. Amidst the sound of cannons that shook the sky, each artillery shell shrieked towards the city. City head.
Solid iron bullets were firmly embedded in the battlements, and more shells passed over the city head and smashed into the houses in the nine streets and eighteen lanes of the city, smashing the tile roofs and frightening the family members of the Banner Army who lived in the city and fled to the streets.
Seeing this scene, Jing Xiaoliu, who was standing on the horse path inside the north city wall to avoid the shells, his eyes wide open, cursed loudly, grabbed the collar of the soldier beside him, and shouted into his ear: "Come here! Go and assemble." People in the city, drive them all to Nanweng City, those shells will explode! They will be blown up in the street!"
In Jing Xiaoliu's heart, even though he had only occupied the city for half a month, the more than a thousand people in the city were his.
Because most of these military families, who are so poor that their family of three or four only have one ragged cotton-padded jacket, have already been eating the general marshal's food as early as this autumn.
Not to mention that in order to calm people's hearts, Jing Xiaoliu had already told them that the military rations in this city were for them to eat together. If the army invaded, they would not be able to see this food.
It was the first time for the rural soldiers to encounter a battle with heavy artillery fire. They were so frightened that they could no longer speak. As soon as they nodded after hearing this, they heard a short and abrupt scream from the horse road.
Then, as if a ball had been exploded, there was a bang, and a black cannonball flew through the air, sprinkling red on the crowded horse road.
The soldiers were in chaos. The soldiers who were listening to Jing Xiaoliu's order turned around and were about to run down the horse path. Jing Xiaoliu raised his arm to catch him, and slapped his face twice with his hand. Then he emphasized. He said: "Remember, let them go get the rations first. They are not allowed to push carts. They can take as much as they want. It is not the east, west and north gates. We are driving them to the Wengcheng of the south gate."
"Well, South Gate Wengcheng!"
Before the officers and soldiers fired the artillery, Jing Xiaoliu looked at the city wall. There were only about three thousand officers and soldiers, and they were not strong enough to spread out and surround the small city. They would not be able to block the south gate for a while.
"When the people in the South Gate Wengcheng are full, open the city gate and let them all out. Run south as far as you want. When you see the red city in the morning, it will be safe."
In fact, Jing Xiaoliu thought about leaving these women and children to defend the city, but after some consideration, he thought it was not necessary and it was better to let them out of the city.
If 600 more or less well-trained men cannot defend the city, then adding a thousand women and children will not be able to defend it.
There is no point in taking another person's life.
Just as he gave the order, explosive bombs with fuses exploded one after another on the city walls and inside the city. Some were explosive bombs and some were poisonous smoke bombs, filling the city with smoke, choking, and making people cry.
Fortunately, Jing Xiaoliu's troops were hiding on the horse path inside the city wall. The artillery fire from the troops outside the city was mainly focused on attacking the city gate tower and battlements, so they would not be hurt for a while.
Even so, Jing Xiaoliu was frightened. The non-stop artillery fire outside the city made him secretly sigh in his heart, wondering what Xie Erhu did in Songshan, so that the Gansu Army outside the city did not even build a siege position. , pushed the train to the city and launched a fierce attack.
When rogues attack a city, they know how to build equipment first and then dig trenches. How can there be such a strategy of attacking without caring about the situation?
It's not that Ding Shaoyin outside the city didn't know the truth about digging trenches. Zhuang Lang's defense was empty. If the defenders inside the city were not mentally strong enough, they would open the city and surrender... This is something everyone knows.
But Ding Shaoyin knew that he had no time, no time to dig trenches, and no time to build decent siege equipment. All he could rely on were the artillery in his hands and the crude ladders he had made.
Because although Zhuanglang's defense city was empty of defense, the right time and place were not in his favor.
In the middle of this valley is the Zhuanglang River, which is forty paces narrow and sixty paces wide. Zhuanglang Acropolis is to the east of the river, backed by mountains.
There is a spacious mountain road leading to the river valley from both the West Mountain and the East Mountain. The West Mountain Road is in the north, and the soldiers stationed in Xidatong River Fort can attack from behind; the East Mountain Road is in the south, and the cavalry attacking Songshan Castle will enter the valley from the south of the city.
It was this terrain and situation that made Ding Shaoyin dare not send troops to cross the river and go around the south gate to the outer city of the south gate. He could only attack the north wall on the east side of the river, and he had to do it quickly.
Because according to Ding Shaoyin's understanding of the surrounding terrain, from the time the beacon tower of Zhuanglang Acropolis was lit, his battalion of Liangzhou troops had only one day to safely attack the city.
Marching has different speeds, and Ding Shaoyin can only calculate based on the enemy's extremely fast movement.
One day later, the Mongolian cavalry in the Songshan area could rush out from the mountains to reinforce Zhuang Langwei, and two days later, the troops from Xidatongbao could also arrive behind them.
Of course, according to intelligence from the rear, his reinforcements were already on the way, and Gansu Commander-in-Chief Yang Jiamo's Biao Battalion was rapidly advancing south.
The reinforcements are indeed strong reinforcements. Yang Jiamo has the heavy responsibility of Gansu defense and cannot leave. The superintendent of the Gansu General Military Base Camp is named Chai Shihua.
Chai Shihua was from the Xining Guards, but he was very reliable to the court because his family was dead.
His father's name was Chai Guozhu. During the Wanli period, he earned the title of brave champion of the three armies by shooting a horse shoe from his crotch. He was a hereditary centurion. He was re-elected as the commander-in-chief of Gansu and Shaanxi at the age of thirty. He was also the general of Pingqiang and Zhengyi. Yin, Li Zhen Shanhaiguan, Shenyang, in the early years of Tianqi, the governor Zuo died of illness, and he was a highly respected minister.
His uncle's name was Chai Guodong, who led a battalion as a general in the Battle of Sarhu, and was killed in the Eastern Route Army of the Dusong Division; his brother's name was Chai Shixiu, who also held the position of deputy commander-in-chief of the Chinese Army during the Tianqi period. Killed in Liaodong.
The only one left in the family, Chai Shihua, was also an enterprising and brave general. He had served as the garrison of Cai Qi Fort earlier, and when he caught up with the tigers and rabbits banging against the side wall, he rushed to the aid of the Zhenfan Guards three times in a year, and also raised funds to repair the city walls. More than a hundred war horses were added to the fort.
Although his official position is now only that of a staff general, his reputation in the army is extremely high. Even the Turpan people outside Jiayuguan were in awe when they heard the name of General Chai's family.
However, no matter how reliable this army is and no matter how eager it marches, it is still two hundred miles away. The water far away cannot quench the thirst of the people nearby. It will take at least two days to reach the battlefield.
Ding Shaoyin became fierce and ordered his men to capture the city tonight.
The artillery used most by the Liangzhou Army is the northwest captive-killing artillery cart. The cart is a three-wheeled cart with two large wheels in the front and a small wheel in the middle behind. Each cart carries three captive-killing cannons forged from pure iron weighing 95 kilograms. , shoot a pound of shells.
This is a small field gun with a sturdy and durable forged body. It is usually used in field battles to fire at close range of fifty steps to the enemy.
Compared with the various other light cannons in the same battle position, the various parameters of the prisoner-destroying cannon are not very good. The Zhuzhu cannon is lighter than it, the Fran machine is faster than it, and the Weiyuan cannon newly manufactured by the imperial court is not as heavy as The entire group of artillery destroyers is similar, but its power is much greater.
One of its advantages is that it is cheap.
A prisoner-killing cannon only costs five taels of silver, and when attached to a chariot, a gun crew only costs sixteen taels of silver, and it does not require casting, so there is no need to build a large shaft furnace. The hotel is very friendly.
There is no other weapon that can easily unleash the firepower of a hundred and fifty or even two hundred cannons from a border guard station.
The northwest frontier army did not need to attack the city, not to mention that the artillery of this era did not have the ability to penetrate a three-foot-thick brick-covered earth wall in a short time. Even if there were such artillery, before Liu Chengzong appeared, the cities in the northwest belonged to the Ming army themselves. .
What they need to deal with is the strong Mongolian men with soft bows and fast horses who come and go like the wind. The captive-killing cannon is the most suitable weapon for the northwest frontier army.
Even if they now need to attack Zhuanglang Guards City, the enemy cannons can still suppress the city artillery with the goose eggs they shoot out.
Mixed in among the large number of barbarian-killing artillery carriages is the Feiyun cannon, whose full name is Feiyun Thunderbolt Cannon. This was a cannon specially used to open flower bombs during the Jiajing period.
The shape of its cannon body is between the general cannon and the bowl-mouthed cannon. The core technology is on the cannonball. The cannonball has a cylindrical wooden horse and a bullet holder, which fires out parabolas. The hollow shells are placed at the top of the city. In the city.
The ignition mechanism of the artillery shell is that the hollow iron bullet is filled with gunpowder and iron flakes, and is stuffed into a letter tube and ignited. The letter tube is easily knocked off or extinguished when it lands, and the misfire rate is high.
Most of the time, it can only be used as a mortar. A mortar is a cannonball that falls in a parabola and hits people.
But even if two of them can explode one, it will be enough to shock the defenders in the city.
When several explosive bombs exploded at the top of the city, sending out pieces of gunpowder smoke, Ding Shaoyin, who personally stood at the artillery position to supervise the battle, waved forward.
The artillery at the top of the city had been suppressed. Only a few Fran cannons hiding behind the battlements still had gunners beside them. However, their reluctance to fire had already made it clear to Ding Shaoyin.
"The Franco machine in the city is equipped with powder and fires rockets."
The battle flags were fluttering and the enemy-killing cannons were still being fired. The Liangzhou Guard Banner Troops pushing fire chariots in the military formation crossed the artillery position and moved forward. They adjusted the rocket vehicles to a suitable angle at a distance of 200 steps from the city. Hundreds of tigers galloped together, raising large clouds of gunpowder smoke and releasing thousands of rockets towards the city.
Amidst the screams of gunpowder, the scattered rockets rushed towards the city head with streaks of tail flames, drawing irregular trajectories in mid-air. Some of them were stuck on the adobe of the city wall that was in disrepair, and some were hit on the bricks of the city. They fell, and some even crossed the city wall, shooting randomly in all directions.
The smoke immediately covered the launching position and the city head at the same time, and the defenders at the city head were also suppressed and unable to raise their heads.
In fact, the defenders at the top of the city were almost driven crazy with fear.
Jing Xiaoliu's troops were already insufficient, and there were scattered soldiers guarding the north and west walls. There were only 300 defenders on the entire north wall. They were worried that they would be disabled during the shelling stage, so most of the soldiers were ordered to hide on the slopes inside the wall. On the horse road, there were only a few artillerymen left behind the city wall.
Everyone knows that it is a fool's errand to expect these artillerymen to face hundreds of light cannons and use Fran cannons to shoot at them when shells the size of goose eggs are everywhere in the sky.
The rural soldiers of Dongguan Minzhuang have never received artillery training at all. Using a cannon to fire a few shots into an open space on the school field is completely different from being suppressed by hundreds of cannons on the battlefield.
Even if they were facing the Liangzhou Guard's flag army, it was their grandfather and Dayun who defeated three thousand barbarian cavalry at Songshan in 1,200, their fathers and generals were killed in the Sarhu, and their elder brother aided the Liao Dynasty in Luanzhou, Zunhua, with the Tatars from the East. The banner army attacked the big city and faced the big formation.
Gun smoke filled the air everywhere, but the gunfire outside the city continued. Finally, when the gun smoke gradually dissipated, the village artillerymen huddled behind the battlements dared to take a look at the city through the battlements.
With just one glance, the ghosts of the deceased were so scared that they turned back to the horse road and shouted in horror: "General! The ladder is coming up to the city!"
Just as thousands of rockets spread a cloud of gunpowder smoke over the city, obscuring the view, Ding Shaoyin's flag army passed through the artillery position and pushed the simply modified siege vehicles to the edge of the city.
The bases of all the chariots are box trucks from the chariot camp. Some have fixed long ladders, some are connected to the beams and hung with wooden curtains, and there are temporary corridors made of chariots and wooden boards. The long ladders with hooks have been borrowed. Smoke of gunpowder hung over the city, and groups of flag soldiers were climbing up the ladder from all directions on the city wall.
Jing Xiaoliu, who was hiding on the horse path, stared when he heard this, drew his sword and waved his hand behind him, saying: "Fight with them!"
The orders of the generals were sounded one after another, and groups of rural soldiers hiding on the horse road rushed to various parts of the city wall with guns, spears and firearms. They rushed to the ladder crenellations hooked to the city wall, picked up the defense equipment and threw it down the city.
Suddenly, there were shouts of killing all over the city. The Franco machine installed on the horse-facing wall was about to fire a cannon at the side of the siege army, when a hanging wooden curtain was stuck in the face. A cannon was fired and the wooden curtain was shattered. Light penetrates everywhere, but it is difficult to harm the troops under the city.
Before they could reload and fire the second cannon, the fierce fire oil tanks under the city sprayed burning oil onto the three-foot-high horse-faced wall, and several artillerymen were immediately incinerated.
This was not over yet, several loaded muskets were also ignited, and the forged muskets became small sprays on the horse-facing wall, spraying the particles in all directions. Suddenly, the horse-facing wall was plunged into a sea of fire, and could no longer be used. Standing living person.
On the other side, the chained wolf-toothed clapper was thrown into the city by the village soldiers. Several flag soldiers who climbed onto the city with knives were beaten into pieces amidst the screams, and even the wooden ladder was broken in the middle. , the flag army who was lucky enough not to be photographed also fell from the ladder and fell to pieces.
Soon, several green bricks were thrown at the heavy fire oil tank by the defenders under gunfire, smashing the oil tank to pieces. Several burning quilts were thrown down, igniting the fire oil everywhere, and the whole city became a sea of fire.
Long ladders were destroyed one after another. After all, one long ladder was not discovered by the defenders. It was set up on the east wall. Several flag soldiers filed up. They immediately signaled support to the bottom of the city and formed a small formation to attack westward.
When the defenders discovered that the enemy had entered the city, they quickly organized their troops to form formations on the city wall.
At this moment, Ding Shaoyin, who was under the city, received the news that the flag army had successfully ascended the city. With a wave of his hand, behind the rows of sidecars, the Liangzhou Guard flag army opened their soft bows and threw a hail of arrows towards the top of the city. .
Before the hastily assembled rural soldiers had time to respond to the impact, they were shot down by a hail of head-on arrows.
Fortunately, the Fran cannon on another horse-facing wall successfully fired at this time, knocking down half the flag army waiting to attack the city under the ladder. It was also quickly set on fire by the defenders.
The Liangzhou Army's first siege failed.
There was no trace of disappointment on Ding Shaoyin's face at the bottom of the city. He had tested out the approximate strength of the garrison on the city, and ordered: "Divide a thousand banner troops into three gates, rush to make wooden ladders, seize the opportunity to climb the city, and send an order to the north city. General, let the flag army rest for a while and attack again before dark!"
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
Good morning!
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