Although there were setbacks at the beginning of the war, Ouyang Xuan still had full confidence in victory. His confidence came from the crushing advantage of firearms over cold weapons. Although the current firearms are immature, insufficient in power, and expensive and lack mobility, he believes that the first company equipped with artillery and grenades will overcome these shortcomings and reduce the impact on the Wanjiaping bandits. Dimension strikes and achieves a crushing victory.
The first company has a direct-fire artillery squad equipped with two mother-and-child cannons (Flangji), two direct-fire artillery squads equipped with eight tiger crouching cannons, and three spear squads and three giant shield squads. In addition to the respective In addition to being equipped with a steel spear more than 3 meters long and a folding iron shield as high as a person, they are also equipped with grenades and engineer shovels. The engineer's shovel is copied from Ouyang Xuan's folding shovel. Although the quality and lightness are different from Ouyang Xuan's, it is enough for self-defense and digging trenches. After Cao Ergou suffered a setback, Ouyang Xuanlai personally directed the attack on the bandits, not because he did not trust Cao Ergou, but because this was the debut of the Perak Army and the first critical battle of the artillery, and there was no room for any mistakes. In addition to using victory to quell internal debates about the development direction of the Perak Army, he also wants to lead everyone on the path to a gunpowder weapons army.
After nightfall, the bandits in the fortress saw that there was no movement or fire on the road down the mountain, so they sent people down with torches to check what was going on. The bandits who were scouting were extremely vigilant. They walked cautiously in the direction of the Perak Army, firing arrows and throwing stones. When they saw that there was no movement in front of them, they moved forward again. After walking two or three miles without seeing any trace of anyone, he went back and reported that the Perak Army had withdrawn. However, the bandit leader guarding the fortress was alert. In order to prevent the Perak Army from returning with their carbines, he had people light braziers and torches on the surrounding walls. Seeing the bright firelight illuminating dozens of meters around the fortress, he was still worried. In addition to doubling the number of sentry personnel, he also ordered his men to sleep with their clothes on.
In the middle of the night, the moon had disappeared into the clouds. The bandits standing guard on the wall were already tired and drowsy amidst the sound of rushing water coming from the bottom of the valley, but they cheered up when the little leader shouted to stop. At this time, on the mountain road below the fortress, under the cover of darkness, Cao Ergou led dozens of people through the T-junction quietly and sneaked into the open area of the mountain road directly below the fortress. This open area covers more than ten acres and can accommodate hundreds of men and horses. The last time the Mongolian Hundreds attacked Wanjiazhai, they gathered here. This open area is still more than 200 meters away from the fortress, and the lights on the fortress wall cannot illuminate this place. Naturally, the bandits keeping watch at night did not notice the busy crowd below. Thanks to Ouyang Xuan's promotion of drinking pine needles soaked in water, no one in the Perak Army suffers from night blindness anymore. The lights on the wall of the fortress were scattered here, and the light was extremely weak. Although they could not see clearly, the soldiers of the Perak Army were still groping and working. They silently dug out the soil and put it into linen bags, and then tamped it lightly and built it. It forms two walls, front and back.
The occasional slight collision of shovels and stones while digging was drowned out by the sound of the rushing water of the Wenjing River. To the ears of the fortress guards, this was just the sound of stones rolling down the mountain. This was just an ordinary thing in the mountains. As dawn approached, the sounds of falling stones became denser and louder. Occasionally, there was also the crisp sound of iron tools colliding with stones. This made the bandits who were watching at night feel that something was abnormal, so they sounded the alarm gong. The sudden sound of the gong woke up the sleeping bandit leader. While cursing, he whipped the sleeping bandit fiercely. The bandit leader responsible for guarding the fortress is Xia Qihu, who is Xiong Ben's newly promoted second in command. At the same time, he ordered a small leader to lead 20 people, hold torches and go down to the mountain road to check, and then drove all the remaining bandits to the wall to guard. Since this fortress only has more than one acre of land, there are usually only fifty people stationed there. Yesterday, because of the attack by the Perak Army, Xiong Ben sent fifty more people to reinforce the fort, filling the fort to the brim. These one hundred people were the most capable bandits besides Xiong Ben's personal troops, which made Xia Qihu confident in holding the fortress.
The bandits who went down the mountain to explore the road followed the sound to the broad part of the mountain under the weak light of the torch, and were surprised to see the sudden appearance of the parapet. While they were doubting, several spears with gleaming cold light suddenly stretched out from behind the parapet, piercing the two bandits at the front, and several more grenades flew in the darkness. Looking at the grenades falling from the sky, a bandit shouted in fear, "Thunder". Before he finished speaking, a bright fire and violent explosions appeared in the group of torches, blowing up the group of bandits. Eight fell, they were all gone in an instant, leaving only a few wounded bandits wailing and rolling on the ground.
At this time, the first company had built two sacks of earth walls in the open area of the mountain road facing the fortress. The two walls were short in front and high in back. The short wall was as high as the chest, while the high wall was as tall as a person. There are trenches in front of the front and rear walls, and there are passages connecting them to support each other. There are also artillery firing holes on the walls. Before the bandits came down to inspect, the first company was carrying artillery behind the earthen wall. Although they were very careful when moving it, the artillery was too heavy and made a lot of noise when moving. The bandits eventually noticed something strange.
After suffering a heavy loss, the bandits fled back to the fortress, immediately closed the door and fired into the darkness with trebuchets and crossbows. It's just that the trebuchet is used to block the mountain road in the direction of Liuliba, so the angle of the instrument needs to be readjusted. It's just that the tune is accurate in this dark night. After a flurry of fuss, the stones shot were completely misdirected, and most of them passed over the heads of the Pili soldiers and fell into the river at the foot of the mountain road. Most of the arrows fired from the crossbows were not accurate and hit the ground in a wide area. The few arrows that were on target were also blocked by the two walls.
The bandits' bluff and random shooting was simply ignored. The soldiers of the Perak Army were not idle. They were still building positions and transporting supplies in the dark to prepare for the attack after dawn. The bandits stopped after shooting randomly. On the one hand, they were tired from the fuss, and on the other hand, the number of stone projectiles and arrows was not unlimited, so they had to be used sparingly. Ouyang Xuan and Cao Ergou ignored the curses and noises of the bandits on the fortress wall. After arranging two squads of spearmen and giant shield soldiers to be on guard, they and the other soldiers lay undressed and rested behind the wall. Now the gun emplacements have been set up, the trenches dug in place, and the artillery shells placed in place, just waiting for daybreak.
At dawn the next day, the sound of screaming artillery shells announced the attack of the Perak Army against the Bandit Army. The first few shots were just test shots, and most of them landed around the fortress, causing the earth and rocks on the slopes to fly. The bandits responded with a dense rain of arrows. Although the arrows were much more accurate than at night, they were all shot on the ground. The earth wall and the huge shield raised did not hurt any of the Perak soldiers. The bandits rolled down boulders the size of millstones and smashed them against the earth wall, but they all fell into the ditch in front of the earth wall. After two or three rounds of test firings, the accuracy of the Pili Army's artillery became increasingly higher. Two artillery shells landed at the empty dam inside the fortress, knocking down several people immediately and scaring the bandits into running around, but Xia Qihu drove them back to the wall.
At this time, the two trebuchets, which were the most powerful firepower in the fortress, were still being nervously adjusted by several sweaty craftsmen. The craftsmen assured Xia Qihu, who was standing aside with a murderous look on his face, that in a few moments they would be able to adjust the firing range in place, ensuring that the Perak Army's defense in the wide area could be smashed into sieves. It's just that the Pili Army didn't give them any more time to adjust. At this moment, the artillerymen of the first company had adjusted the firing elements such as the charge and elevation of the eight-door Tiger Crouching Cannon in place. With a new round of salvo, the shells of the eight cannons hit the target just enough to cover the trebuchet and the craftsmen who were debugging. Even Xia Qihu, who was standing next to supervise, was knocked to the ground by the blast of air. .
