There were several loud bang bang bang sounds, and another seven or eight stone bullets weighing nine kilograms roared in, crashing into the defense fortifications piled up with shield trucks, artillery trucks and sand, violently shattering the wood. The shield carriage and gun carriage were made, and then they got into the sand and made no sound.
The training soldiers of the Shandong regiment, who were digging and piling up the soil with their waist bent, breathed a sigh of relief. In this era, no one knew how to dig anti-cannon pits, but they still knew that mounds of earth could be used to withstand artillery shells - this was advanced experience from the Battle of Qufu! Moreover, Gao Hongtu's army was originally "migrant workers" who relied on hard fortifications and dull warfare to conquer the world, so they carried many shovels for digging soil. As soon as the artillery team of the Eight Banners and Han Army came up, they took turns to work, digging and mounding soil desperately, reinforcing and raising the mound to save their lives.
However, occasionally some shells would pass over the mounds that were not too high, or directly penetrate the thin parts of the mounds. Then it will cause certain casualties to the regiment training soldiers hiding behind the mound.
The artillery shells passing by from high altitude will fall close to the river beach, and anyone who hits them will be killed! Fortunately, the soil on the Tuhe River beach was soft, and the shells hit very deep in one go. It was not easy to bounce back, so they couldn't kill many people.
And the cannonballs that penetrated the mound were so powerful that they could effortlessly carve out an alley of flesh and blood in the crowd!
When the Qing army just brought up the Hongyi artillery, because the defenses built by the Shandong regiment trainers were not generous enough, they were often penetrated and caused a lot of casualties.
Fortunately, Gao Hongtu stabilized the situation in time and personally went to the front line to direct his "migrant workers" to dig earth and build walls. Now we have finally built a barrier that is more than one and a half feet wide and about six or seven feet high. With such a thickness, it is not easy to penetrate with a 12-pounder gun.
So starting from today's daytime, the Qing army's Hongyi artillery has been unable to cause any casualties to Gao Hongtu's "migrant workers".
However, Duduo did not let Cao Zhenyan's Hongyi cannons rest for a while, but asked them to continue firing stone projectiles round after round. At the same time, Xu Dingguo, who had lost a son in the previous battle, was escorted onto the battlefield by Duduo's subordinate minions - taking his remaining men to build sandbags on the front line!
That’s right, it’s just sandbags!
The Eight Banners disciples of Duduo are not those unscrupulous descendants who carry cages and smoke cigarettes. They are very good at learning. After fighting in Qufu, I learned how to make sandbags, and even asked Dorgon in Beijing for 100,000 sacks and cattail bags.
Now that some of the sacks and cattail bags have been transported to the front line of Tuhe, Duduo can also start to use the method of "treating him in return" to deal with Gao Hongtu - he will use trenches and sandbags to destroy Gao Hongtu's body. Group training circle.
Then gather around for reinforcements!
When the Hongyi artillery ceased fire and cooled down, Gao Hongtu, who had not slept for three days and three nights, and his subordinates Li Chengdong, Zhang Mingzhen, Ma Degong and others looked around, and also discovered that the Qing army was digging trenches and building fortifications. I want to surround myself.
Li Chengdong and Ma Degong are both experienced veterans, and they knew it was going to be bad when they saw this scene.
Li Chengdong said: "The Tatars are digging trenches and building walls. They are trying to surround us!"
Ma Degong looked at the barrier trench in front of him carefully, "Donglu is also building sandbags! They have learned our skills so quickly, what should we do?"
Gao Hongtu took a telescope from Zhang Mingzhen and began to observe the situation on the battlefield. I happened to see a group of cavalry in white armor trotting past the Qing army's fortress that was being built.
He said to Li Chengdong, Zhang Mingzhen, and Ma Degong: "It seems that the Donglu wanted to use the same method they used to deal with Hong Chengchou in Liaodong to deal with me! Once the barriers and trenches are completed, we might really be trapped. We can only rely on the rations on hand. But it won’t last long, what should I do next? Let’s talk about it.”
There is still a huge flaw in Gao Hongtu's "hard camp" strategy - his opponent is not the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom without any cavalry, but the Eight Banners soldiers who conquer the world with their bows and horses!
Therefore, the Qing army could easily surround Gao Hongtu's hard stronghold and starve the defenders of the stronghold.
Of course, Gao Hongtu also has some ways to deal with it. His method was to build sandbag bastions, and deployed a small number of them, but he had many defenders with tiger crouching artillery, siege artillery, second general artillery and other light earth artillery.
Because the number of defenders is not large, usually two to three thousand people, the rations consumed are also small. A reserve of four to five thousand shi of food would be enough to last for more than a year!
It was unimaginable to the Manchus that a small bastion should be besieged for more than a year - it cost nothing to build such a bastion, it just cost some sacks and the strength of Shandong men, so what's the point of being polite? ? Hundreds or even thousands of people who repaired other countries had to be surrounded and starved of food. Even when the Revolution of 1911 broke out, the Manchurians couldn't conquer Shandong...
Therefore, the method of building a bastion extensively is definitely effective! However, there is a prerequisite for counterattack by relying on the bastion advancement method - there must be a certain number of cavalry who are not weak in strength.
For example, the Russians in history relied on the tactics of bastions and Cossacks to conquer large areas of Central Asia and Siberia.
But Gao Hongtu had no Cossacks under his command, and he didn't even have the infantry's field capabilities, so he could only rely on building fortresses to fight against the Qing troops.
Therefore, during offensive operations, large troops must be dispatched to cover the construction of the bastion, and it is easy to fall into siege...
"We can't let them build the barrier trenches, or we'll be doomed!"
"Yes, we have more than 20,000 people and a lot of livestock. People eat what horses chew, which consumes a lot of money!"
"Yes, if we stay around for a month, we will all die!"
Gao Hongtu listened to the advice of his subordinates and frowned deeply: "How about waiting for help?"
"Who will come to the rescue?" Li Chengdong shook his head, "Supervisor Shi, Zuo Tuanlian, and King Lu's soldiers are just like us. They are all primitive armies that cannot fight in the field...only the prince's new army can overcome difficulties." It will work. But the new army is far away in Jinling and has to deal with the Qing army in the direction of Henan and the bandits in Xiangyang. It is impossible to come to Shandong!"
If Zhu Cixiang comes to Shandong, then the Ming Dynasty is really in danger of falling!
Duduo's soldiers with white flags had already suffered a lot at Dagukou. It was impossible for them to easily engage in a decisive battle. They must have tried every possible means to delay and entangle them. As long as Zhu Cixiang was trapped in Shandong, they would be able to wait for others to raid Zhu Cixiang's lair... ...
"The prince won't come!" Gao Hongtu thought for a while, "We still have to rely on ourselves... to make shield vehicles! How many large vehicles are available?"
"There are still two to three hundred grain trucks available."
"Okay!" Gao Hongtu said, "Divide all the grain...all the grain carts will be changed into shield carts, and the wooden shields will be installed on the right side of the carts. At that time, we will retreat along the Tuhe River. Arrange the shield chariot on the right side of the army, then select some archers and three-eyed musketeers who can shoot, and rely on the shields to shoot arrows and fire blunderbuss."
The shield car evolved into a car castle...
Gao Hongtu looked at the three generals in front of him and seemed to be pursuing their opinions.
The three of them all had expressions of admiration on their faces - Old Man Gao can do it! I can think of such a trick!
"Okay!" Li Chengdong nodded, "I think you can... you can also put the spear on the shield cart!"
"But how do we rush out?" Ma Degong asked, "There are many Donglu soldiers and horses!"
"There must be brave men under heavy rewards!" Zhang Mingzhen said, "As long as we spend money, are we afraid that there will be no dead soldiers?"
Gao Hongtu stroked his beard and thought about it and said: "I'm afraid just giving money is not enough... grant land and reward officials! Anyone who dares to die will be granted 200 acres of land, ordinary soldiers will be rewarded with the rank of a small flag, and officers will be promoted to one class!"
He squinted his eyes again and looked at the three generals in front of him, "Whoever takes the lead will be rewarded with a state south of the Daqing River!"
ah? It can still be like this...
Li Chengdong, Ma Degong and Zhang Mingzhen were all shocked. Gao Hongtu, just a governor of Shandong, actually used the imperial court's prefectures and counties to reward people!
is this real? Is this really possible?
Gao Hongtu stared, "What? You don't dare to get rich anymore? Still don't believe me?"
Li Chengdong gritted his teeth: "I believe it! He is willing to risk everything...I want Tai'an Prefecture!"
"for you!"
