In fact, the Pili Army has learned that Xiong Ben is imitating grenades and artillery. However, due to the tight defense, the Pili Army spies in Yongkang City cannot get close to the firearms workshop, let alone the performance parameters of the artillery. Currently, the light mother-child cannon carried by Cao Ergou has a range of about three miles, and the light tiger crouching cannon has a range of about one mile. This is only achieved by Ouyang Xuan's very strict quality control of the barrel and gunpowder quality, as well as continuous improvement of the production process. You must know that the current yield of the Pili Army's gun barrels is still only about 30%. Judging from the few shells fired from the city tower, the effective range of the artillery of the Yongkang New Auxiliary Army should be about two miles, which can reach the Perak Army position. Although it is at the limit of the range, the destructive power at the point of impact is still greater than that of the trebuchet. Much bigger. So as soon as the artillery on the Yongkang wall fired, Cao Ergou immediately ordered the artillery to fire back.
This time, the three companies of the Perak Army brought a total of six light mother-child cannons and twelve light tiger squatting guns, but only four mother-child cannons could be fired immediately to attack Yongkang City, because two mother-child cannons had not yet been installed. Well, the Tiger Crouching Cannon cannot be used because its range is too short. Even so, the comparison of the artillery between the two armies was not a simple two to one, but the overwhelming advantage of the Perak Army. The artillery of the Perak Army soon completely silenced the city's artillery. The reason is that the Yongkang New Affiliated Army uses front-loaded artillery, which has a slow rate of fire but good sealing of the gun chamber. In addition, it is located in a condescending position. Although the range is only slightly worse than that of the Pili Army, it is beaten by the Pili Army in terms of rate of fire and accuracy. The army crushed them. In addition to the mother-child cannon having a rate of fire several times faster than that of the artillery of the Yongkang New Affiliated Army, the gunner is skilled in operation and the shooting accuracy is also due to the use of ranging, calculation and windage correction methods. Same thing.
The two sides' artillery fired only three rounds at each other, and one of the cannons at the top of the city was destroyed. The city was also blown up, causing earth and rocks to fly. However, the Pili Army was unscathed. Xiong Ben, who was so anxious that he hid in the tower to supervise the battle, angrily scolded the gunners as a bunch of trash. . Being proficient in artillery, he saw that all his artillery shells were falling in front of the Perak Army's formation, so he thought that there was not enough gunpowder. He was so angry that he ignored the artillery fire of the Thunderbolt Army. He walked to the remaining cannon with his sword and forced the gunner to increase the amount of gunpowder fired. He did not listen to the warning about exploding the barrel. The gunner, who was threatened by the sword, had no choice but to increase the gunpowder charge. After cautiously lighting the lengthened fuse, he crawled to the ground and hid. By this time, Xiong Ben had already run down the tower.
According to Xiong Ben's order, the amount of gunpowder was increased and the power was greatly increased, but this was not a good thing - the artillery exploded directly. Because the quality of the imitation gun barrel was originally poor, significantly increasing the gunpowder charge after firing several shots was simply seeking death. This explosion not only completely destroyed the artillery made by Yongkang's new annexed army, but also directly exploded the upper part of the city wall here.
After the artillery at the top of the city became mute, the Pili Army bombarded the remaining city defense facilities. By the time the remaining two mother-and-child cannons were installed, the ballistas and trebuchets on the city walls and inside the city had been destroyed one by one. However, although the Yongkang city wall was only made of rammed earth, the Pili Army's six mother-and-child cannons alone could destroy it. Collapse is also impossible. Cao Ergou saw that Yongkang City had no long-range counterattack means, so he ordered the formation to be slowly advanced to one mile away from the city wall. This distance was already within the range of the twelve squatting tiger cannons, and the closer the distance, the more powerful the mother-child cannons were. .
The upper part of the city wall where the Yongkang New Affiliated Army's artillery exploded originally collapsed, but now it was bombarded by sixteen pieces of Perak Army artillery. It soon collapsed and opened a huge gap. This gap soon became the focus of the battlefield. Outside the city, the soldiers of the Perak Army were slowly coming towards the gap under the cover of giant shields. However, the defenders in the city were driven away by Xiong Ben's soldiers, but they were timid and refused to go forward, because everyone knew that once they stepped forward, they would be baptized by the direct firepower of the squatting tiger artillery. Because the city wall had been blown down, Cao Ergou had ordered the artillery to use a dozen large shotgun shells instead of solid bullets. Even if one hit the human body, it would still be a big bloody hole.
Under the cover of giant shields, the soldiers of the Perak Army surged toward the city wall along the gap at the base of the city wall, and ran along the city wall toward the four city gates. Cao Ergou's order was very clear, which was to firmly control the four city gates and catch turtles in the jar, rather than enter the city and engage in bloody street fighting. The newly attached troops of the Yongkang Army in the city had already been ravaged by artillery fire and were in chaos. They also saw the soldiers of the Perak Army occupying the top of the city. They had already lost their fighting spirit and fled to the north and east gates. It turned out that in order to prevent the Perak Army from attacking, Xiong Ben had already blocked the east and south gates, leaving only the north and west gates unblocked. After Xiong Ben failed to attack the Perak Army out of the city, he ordered people to block the west gate with swords, carts, and horses. Now only the north gate can escape. One mile out of the north gate of Yongkang, you can follow the Weijiang River and escape into the ravine behind Yongkang City. Although the ravine where the Weijiang River originates is not long and not as wide as the ravine formed by the Wenjing River, the mountains in the ravine are equally steep and difficult to attack. There are also hundreds of families living in the ravine who are fleeing the war. Great place for kings.
Xiong Ben was surrounded by more than ten soldiers, and he followed a group of defeated soldiers to escape to the mountain pass. As long as he crossed the mountain pass, he would be a fish in the sea. But he was really scared of being beaten by the Perak Army. He was afraid of an ambush at the mountain pass, so he deliberately slowed down his pace. The defeated soldiers in front crossed the mountain pass unharmed, which made Xiong Ben feel reassured, and he immediately followed with his own soldiers. Just as he was approaching the mountain pass, Xiong Ben heard a soldier yelling "Grenade" in horror. He followed the sound and turned his head to look, and found that more than ten grenades were falling from the sky. The ones throwing the grenades were a group of people standing in the thatch beside the road. wack. These people were dressed in mottled green and yellow clothes, and they all held a black iron pipe. Just as Xiong Ben was horrified and wondering, he saw flames and white smoke erupting from those black iron pipes. At the same time as he heard the intensive explosions, Xiong Ben felt as if his chest had been hit hard by a sledgehammer, and he fell back. Before he fell to the ground, he saw the soldiers around him covered in blood and falling to the ground one after another.
This group of weirdos was actually a platoon of the reconnaissance company led by Dong Hu. The strange clothes were the camouflage uniforms designed by Ouyang Xuan for special operations, and the black iron pipes were the newly developed muskets. Long before Cao Ergou attacked the city, Xia Hu followed Ouyang Xuan's order and personally led his men to ambush quietly at the mountain pass behind Yongkang City. In the pre-war analysis and deduction, the staff believed that after Xiong Ben lost Yongkang City, the Mongols in Chongqing Prefecture would not take him in because he had lost his use value, and he would not be willing to live under the shelter of others in Qingcheng County. It was basically certain that He would flee from the north gate to the mountains and become a bandit again. In order to prevent Xiong Ben from escaping again, Ouyang Xuan ordered a painter to draw a portrait of Xiong Ben according to the prisoner's description, and then repeatedly asked the captured Wanjiaping Bandit to confirm it. The final portrait was provided to the soldiers of the reconnaissance company who participated in the ambush mission, and Xiong Ben's appearance had long been remembered by them. When Xiong Ben was still hesitating and looking in front of the mountain pass, he was recognized by the ambushed soldiers of the reconnaissance company. In order to kill Xiong Ben with one blow, Dong Hu divided the ambushed soldiers into two rows, and the front and rear rows alternately threw grenades and fired muskets to form a high-density multi-round firepower. Under the close range bombardment of grenades and muskets, Xiong Ben, who was wearing iron armor, was also killed on the spot. His soldiers who only wore leather armor were blown to pieces and no one survived.
