The 12-pound mountain grenade slowly and rhythmically bombarded the deer village. The deer village erected outside the trench was slowly torn and destroyed under the bombardment of the artillery shells. Several large holes soon appeared.
While the artillery bombarded them, the trenches continued to extend toward the front. Song Ming knew that these openings must be a breakthrough point for the bandits, so he immediately ordered the counterattack team to stand by in a nearby trench.
At this time, the Fubo Army's communication trench had advanced to only 70 or 80 meters away from the Bangshan Ming Army position. From such a close distance, Jiang Suo could even hear the sound of shovels and gasps from the soldiers and civilians in the trench digging.
Jiang Suo quietly made some arrangements. Song Ming immediately raised a flag to the sky. The three hundred archers waiting in the trench behind them raised their bows and arrows at the same time, looked up to the sky and fired the first row of arrows down the hillside.
The thrown feather arrows are quite lethal at a distance of less than a hundred meters. Although most of the arrows in the unaimed throws were shot outside the trench, some still fell into the trench. The engineers and civilians who were digging the trench were caught off guard and many of them were hit by arrows. Some arrows hit the heads of the engineers and were bounced off by the helmets. Only a few engineers were injured by the arrows. The civilians did not have helmets and many were hit by arrows. They suddenly panicked and scattered. Some turned around and ran away, while others left them behind. The tools climbed out of the trench and fled, but another round of arrowheads immediately knocked them down beside the trench.
The peasants suddenly became confused. They threw down their tools and huddled together in the ditch. You pushed me and I squeezed hard, trying to escape along the ditch. The engineers and soldiers could not hold back, and they were overwhelmed by the civilian workers. In the chaos, someone was pushed down and screamed while being trampled.
The company commander of the light infantry company covering the front immediately led his soldiers to maintain order. There was no such thing as "fish and water" on the battle line. The light infantrymen flashed their bayonets, and the company commander fired three shots into the sky with his revolver, roaring viciously. Said: "Don't run away! Come back here!"
When the villagers heard this, they immediately panicked and stopped escaping, but they refused to go back to work. I don't know who took the lead in crying, and they burst into tears.
"Please Master Jun, please let us live!"
"We are here to work, not to die! Please let us go, Mr. Australian Army!"
"Master Jun! There are seniors and juniors among us. Master Jun, please let us live!"
"You can work with peace of mind. If you die, my Song Dynasty will help you support your family. If I am crippled, my Song Dynasty will support you in your old age. If I am injured, my Song Dynasty will provide you with pensions." Then a cold word was spat out: "Those who leave the battlefield without authorization , shoot to death without mercy!"
Under the threat of "shoot to death", the peasants turned back and continued to dig soil on the working surface.
"Call the health team to quickly transport the wounded and corpses. The reserve team took off the helmets and sent them to the front for the civilians to wear!" Yang Zeng had already seen the actions of the Ming army, and he was somewhat surprised: they were organized and orderly. That is to say, they did not rush out to fight regardless of life and death, nor did they fire guns indiscriminately. Instead, they used bow and arrow projectiles to disrupt earthworks.
"Prepare some more door panels and send them up to block the arrows!" Yang Zeng continued to order.
The order was carried out quickly, the door panel had been prepared long ago, and the things were sent up quickly after the order was given.
Wave after wave of arrows were shot down, mixed with burning rockets and poisonous smoke arrows. However, due to the shielding of the helmet and door panels, the rain of projectile arrows could not cause many casualties.
Soon, the civilians and engineers had advanced the assault trench to a place only more than fifty meters away from the Ming army's front line. Song Ming ordered: "Prepare ten thousand enemies!"
The soldiers quickly brought out several large wooden frames, containing a large black mud ball.
Jiang Suo asked: "What is this?"
"Ten thousand enemies."
Ten Thousand Enemy is an incendiary firearm, roughly shaped like a large hollow clay ball with small holes around the ball. The interior is filled with gunpowder and various toxic substances. When the enemy attacks the city, they light the fuse and throw it under the city. The flames will spray out in all directions and continue to rotate, burning the enemy. It was a weapon commonly used by the city-defending army at that time.
"cast!"
Following the order, several big mud balls were pushed out from the Ming army's position. The Ming army did not dare to show their heads. Several people worked together to push the big mud balls out of their positions with the door panel. The big mud balls all had ignited fuses, and the fuses quickly ignited the big mud balls. The big mud balls immediately caught fire and started spinning, turning into large fireballs, pouring flames around and rolling down the hillside.
"Ten thousand enemies!" A light infantryman first sounded the alarm. When they attacked Sanliang City, Shi Zhiqi's navy took one shot. This typical case was reported to the entire army. Every Fubo Army soldier knew that ten thousand enemies were very clear. Very powerful, especially in narrow terrain.
The troops are prepared to deal with the enemy's possible use of explosive and incendiary firearms. Although this thing is very powerful, its effect is completely affected by the terrain. On the outside of the trench facing the direction of the Ming army, a higher breast wall was deliberately piled high with soil. This made it difficult for tens of thousands of enemies to roll into the trench as expected and spray fire along the trench to kill the enemy.
Some of the more than 100,000 enemies thrown out were blocked by the parapets, spraying flames and poisonous smoke in vain outside the trenches; some were not strong enough and were directly smashed into several pieces on the parapets.
The main component of poisonous smoke is some toxic Chinese herbal medicine. Although it is poisonous when burned, it cannot reach a lethal concentration. If it is blown by the wind in the open land, it will not even be able to achieve the effect of tear gas.
Only a few tens of thousands of enemies fell into the trenches. The soldiers and civilians received the warning and quickly hid in the trenches on both sides. Only a few people were unable to dodge and were burned by the flames.
Although a series of attacks by the Ming army delayed the soil work, forcing the troops to stop construction and postpone the troops' advance more than once. But by 5 p.m., the trench still extended to more than 30 meters away from Luzhai. At this distance, the Ming army no longer had any substantive attacks except for constantly throwing bows and arrows. The firepower of the light infantry has completely blocked the front line, and basically anyone will die if they show up.
Because there were not many mountain grenades available, Yang Zeng ordered the light infantry to make rifles for calibration shooting. Each soldier dug a small platform of earth that could support the gun, and patted the platform solidly. Repeated test firings followed to ensure coverage of enemy trenches. When waiting to attack, use the maximum rate of fire output of the rifle to suppress the enemy's possible counterattack.
The three 12-pound mountain grenades used to support the breakthrough battle have all raised their guns at this moment. It can originally shoot at a large elevation angle. The artillerymen use the method of building earth platforms to increase the firing angle of the artillery, and it can temporarily serve as a mortar.
"One after another, fix bayonets!" the platoon leaders shouted in a low voice while checking each soldier's equipment and pedals used to climb out of the trench along the trench.
"Send the signal! Attack!" Yang Zeng picked up the telescope and gave the order to attack.
Three red signal rockets suddenly rose, and Jiang Ming whispered: "Here we come!" As he said this, he pulled Song Ming into the shelter next to the trench.
The three mountain grenades opened fire at the same time, and shrapnel shells exploded above the trench one after another. The bullets covered the trench like raindrops. The archers and firearmsmen who gathered in the first trench were caught off guard. Their bodies were torn and pierced by the projectiles, and they were bloody. The fog was spraying, and there were terrible sounds of wailing and screaming everywhere.
Next came the grenades of the grenadiers. Each grenadier was assigned ten grenades. Although they were used for offensive purposes, they were filled with less powerful compressed black powder grenades - nicknamed "shock grenades" in the army. . Although the killing and damaging effect is average, the advantage is that it is easy to use. When thrown together, it can quickly form a powerful firepower, which can often instantly destroy the enemy's battle formation and collapse its will.
Four to five hundred grenades were thrown into the trenches within minutes, and smoke and explosions continued. The defenders, who had not suffered all casualties under the shelling, instantly collapsed under the attack of this rain of grenades. Hundreds of defeated soldiers fled all the way back along the communication trenches.
In the past, Song Ming would have brought his own soldiers and servants forward to stop the defeated soldiers, but Jiang Suo had already told him that there was no need to stop them. Just let them retreat to the back along the traffic trench to reorganize. The space in the trench was narrow, so rushing to stop the defeated troops would cause traffic jams in the trench and cause chaos.
"Tell everyone to prepare matchlocks and fire hats, the Australians are about to rush into the trench!" Jiang Suo said.
Song Ming asked the soldiers around him to blow the conches, and the deep horn sound echoed on Bangshan Mountain.
Almost at the same time, in the trenches of the Fubo Army, the company and platoon leaders blew their trumpets and drew their command knives. The grenadiers, led by their officers, climbed out of the trenches, straightened their bayonets and launched a charge. .
"Extended artillery fire!"
Following the artillery commander's order, the elevation angle of the Sanmen Mountain Tornado was slightly lowered, focusing on covering the main trenches and communication trenches around the breakthrough area to block enemy reinforcements and retreat.
The grenadier's attack speed was extremely fast, and they rushed across an open area of more than 30 meters in an instant. Some soldiers continued to drop bombs into the trench while charging to suppress any remaining firepower in the trench. In the blink of an eye, the first batch of soldiers of the commando team had rushed into the breach and jumped into the trench. A green rocket shot into the sky.
The mountain grenade further lowered its firing angle and covered depth, quickly forming a blockade effect on several communication trenches. The servants who gathered in the communication trenches to prepare for a counterattack suffered heavy casualties. Jiang Suo saw that his carefully trained servants were concentrated by shells in the trenches. , they fell down in groups, and their eyes were all cracked.
Originally, he was not too enthusiastic about fighting for the Ming army, just to get to know Kaixin. However, at this moment, seeing the humble and tragic death of Pao Ze, who had been with him day and night, under the gunfire of the thieves, I couldn't help but think of the time when I and my old team leader were in Sanliang. Under the despotic power of the Australians, we had no way to go to heaven or earth, and in the end we had no choice but to In helplessness and fear, he watched the innocent senior sister being executed by the Australians.
"We will never allow you to be so arrogant!" Jiang Ming picked up the rifle at hand and put on the flash cap.
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Next update: Volume 7 - Guangzhou Governance Chapter 313
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The public account Lingao Qiming——
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The braggart’s message board;
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