Gao Hongtu listened quietly to Shi Kocheng's description of the beautiful scene of the 300,000-strong army encircling Duduo, but there was no change in the expression on his face. It was not until Shi Kocheng's mouth was dry and he had nothing to say that he spoke softly. He sighed and said, "I have just received a report from General Li of Caozhou. The Donglu army captured Yutai County on the eighth day of the fifth lunar month, entered Xuzhou on the ninth day of the lunar month, and defeated Pei County and Pei County on the 10th day of the lunar month." There are two county towns in Feng County!”
Shi Kocheng was startled for a moment and quickly asked: "Did Yutai, Pei County, and Feng County evacuate the people? Did Gao Zongrong and Li Zongrong ever fight with the captives?"
Gao Hongtu said: "Yutai, Peixian and Fengxian are far away from the enemy's territory, so they have not been evacuated. However, the population of these three counties is not large. Together, there are three to four thousand households, and the surrounding villages are not rich either. ...Although it suffered a disaster, the loss was not too great after all.
As for the battle, with the strength of General Li and General Gao, it would be good if they could protect themselves. Do they still dare to block the Tartars' advance? "
"The Tartar army is not unstoppable," Shi Kocheng said. "During the battle of Qufu, didn't we stop it?"
"The strong city of Qufu can naturally block it." Li Dakai, Gao Hongtu's deputy general, interjected, "If the Donglu dare to invade Pizhou City where the heavy troops are stationed, General Gao will definitely be able to repel it."
"But the Tartars did not attack the strong city of Qufu," Shi Kecheng said with a smile. "With just an earthen fortress outside Qufu City, the Tartars were helpless...even the red cannons were not successful!"
Gao Hongtu said in surprise: "What? An earthen fortress blocked the Hongyi cannon?"
"That's right!" Shi Kecheng said, "This earthen fort is made of logs as the inside, soil in the middle, and sacks of soil as the outside. No rammed earth was used, so the amount of work was not large.
After the battle in Qufu, my brother asked the regiment men to conduct experiments outside the city, and found that with 2,000 strong men, equipped with shovels, sacks, and cattail bags, it only took three or two days to build a fortress strong enough to withstand the bombardment of Hongyi artillery. If you spend a little more time, you can build a polygonal bastion like the main city of Qufu. Supplemented by strong bows, fire muskets, and tiger squatting cannons, 2,000 people guarding this fortress should be enough to withstand more than 10,000 Tartar soldiers! "
Li Dakai showed a doubtful look: "If this is true, we can use a step-by-step method to compete with the Tartars... Hong Chengchou used this method to solve the siege of Jinzhou in the past. It's a pity that he didn't know how to build a fortress with earth bags at the time. Otherwise, the state affairs would not be like this."
Seeing that Li Dakai still seemed a little doubtful about his statement, Shi Kecheng smiled and said to Gao Hongtu: "Gao Futai, are there any Hongyi cannons here in Jinan? If so, you can use them to try. Follow the instructions of Qufu Bing If you build a section of earth wall in the village and bombard it with Hongyi cannon, you will know that what the official said is true."
Gao Hongtu shook his head and said, "There are no Hongyi cannons here in Jinan, but there are Hongyi cannons in Dengzhou City. I will send a letter to the Shandong General Army Office and ask them to use the Hongyi cannons to bombard the city walls made of soil bags. Let's see. See if you can withstand it.”
An expectant look suddenly appeared on his face, and he stroked his beard: "If we can really withstand it, we can divide our troops into separate groups and use the method of fortress advancement to encircle the troops of King Dodo of the Golden King of Donglu Mo... Gather them together and annihilate them!"
...
"Boom boom..."
These were two three-pound regimental cannons firing. The fist-sized solid bullets were blasted out and turned into two black spots, flying towards a row of wooden targets three hundred steps away at a high speed that was difficult to see with the naked eye. In an instant, three or two of the wooden targets were smashed into pieces!
"Good! Good! Nikolay, very good!" Prince Zhu saw the effect of the bombardment and was satisfied with the foreign military attaché with a hooked nose, black hair and beard and gave him a thumbs up.
This foreign devil's name was Nicola Ferreira, and he was the artillery regiment commander hired by Macau Governor Paulo for Zhu Cihong. At the end of last year, he arrived in Nanjing from Macau with more than a hundred Portuguese gunners and craftsmen (artillery in this era had to bring its own craftsmen) and joined the model army of the new army to overcome difficulties.
Zhu Cixiang also asked Feng Sizhong to select more than 200 young and agile eldest sons from the Xiaoling Guard New Army, and 300 people from each regiment of the New Army. He also selected some craftsmen from the Nanjing Artillery Manufacturing Bureau, and a team of More than a hundred Portuguese gunners formed the Model Army Artillery Regiment.
This artillery regiment consists of six regimental artillery companies, two heavy artillery companies, an engineering company, and a heavy infantry company. Each of the six regiment artillery companies has three regiment artillery platoons, and one artillery company is equipped with a total of six three-pound regimental cannons-the so-called regimental artillery, of course, should be attached to infantry regiments and cavalry regiments.
So now the model artillery regiment only manages these six regiment artillery companies. After all training is completed, these six regiment artillery companies will be assigned to each model infantry regiment and cavalry regiment in platoon units.
The other two heavy artillery companies are each equipped with only two platoons of 12-pound Hongyi cannons. One heavy artillery company has only four 12-pound Hongyi cannons. The two companies have a total of eight guns, which are used to attack difficult firepower.
What is being tested now is a 3-pound regiment artillery platoon composed entirely of Chinese. This platoon was personally commanded by two senior officials, Feng Sizhong and Xu Ermo. Ferreira selected a Portuguese artilleryman who could speak a little Chinese to teach him step by step. After more than four months of teaching, he was finally able to take it out and have a look.
What can be shown to Zhu Cixiang is not only the subject of artillery, but also the two subjects of rapid transfer and position expansion. Compared with the 12-pound cannon, the real advantage of the 3-pound regiment cannon is that it is light and flexible.
"Your Highness, they have only completed the first phase of training. Next, they should conduct coordinated training with the infantry and cavalry regiments. The coordination is very difficult, but General Shi Ruien will definitely satisfy His Highness... .”
Nicola Ferreira speaks blunt Chinese with a bit of Cantonese accent - he has stayed in Macau for many years and can already speak Cantonese Mandarin, which is a bit difficult to listen to.
This Portuguese artillery regiment commander actually came from the navy. Portugal was not a land power like France, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, or Spain, nor had it participated in the Thirty Years War. Therefore, the army's technology is not very good, and it does not have high-level artillery.
Although Shi Ruien was not an artilleryman, he had actually fought in the Thirty Years' War and the British Civil War and knew how to use regiment-level artillery. He was also watching the artillery drill in the main campus. When he heard Ferreira mentioning him, he knew what was going on. He smiled and said to Zhu Cixiang in the Shanxi accent he had just learned: "Don't worry, Your Highness, I'll take care of Er Laoshi." !”
His "Old Western" accent was learned from one of Han Lin's nephews, Han Liren - Han Liren had studied with the Italian missionary Gao Yizhi for many years and could speak fluent French. French is the common language in the West in this era, and both Shi Ryan and Ferreira can speak it. So Han Liren became the chief general of the foreign generals, and was also responsible for teaching a group of foreign generals to speak Shanxi dialect... Therefore, the foreign generals under Zhu Cixiang either spoke Cantonese Mandarin (all learned in Macau), or He spoke Shanxi Mandarin and some generals who spoke Wu Nong's soft dialect were all found by Grand Duke Luo for Zhu Cihong from Suzhou and Songjiang.
"General Shi," Zhu Cixiang waved to Shi Ruien, called the German who spoke Shanxi dialect to him, and then asked him in French: "If the order to go out is issued tomorrow, how many regiments of the Model Army can reach the European army? level?"
"Nine regiments." Shi Ruien replied firmly, "If you don't consider the artillery factor, nine regiments are ready... Your Highness, is the war about to begin?"
"The war has begun!" Zhu Cixiang said with a bitter smile, "But I don't know how to win yet..."
"Your Highness, what are you worried about?" Shi Ruien asked.
"My enemy has powerful light cavalry and dismounted infantry. They are actually dual-purpose soldiers. They are both light cavalry and dismounted infantry. They are proficient in fighting and archery, and can also use muskets and artillery." Zhu Cixiang frowned, "And they have many excellent generals who are used to conducting mobile warfare in the northern plains... General, do you have any suggestions?"
