Seeing that his brothers had finished loading, Kong Sixi took a small red flag, waved it vigorously, and shouted: "Bless the artillery master, Grandpa Kong Fuzi! Amen! Light the fire."
Of course he is not a Catholic. He just secretly learned the "Western Curse" from his Portuguese teacher, so he has to recite a sentence before each cannon. It is very effective. Anyway, he has been playing cannon for so many years. Never encountered an explosion.
"Amen!" A gunner also recited a "secret mantra" and bowed to the cannon with his hands clasped before lighting the fuse with a torch. Then he stared nervously at the hissing and sparking leads.
Although the Qing Dynasty currently has strict laws and the coated slaves responsible for casting cannons are also dedicated, technical problems cannot be solved by chopping off heads. Even England after the Industrial Revolution was unable to achieve a near-100% casting yield rate for a long period of time (more than a hundred years after the Industrial Revolution). It was not until the emergence of the hollow casting process in the mid-19th century that the process problems of cannon casting were completely solved.
Therefore, the Hongyi cannon used by the Qing army also has a high probability of exploding!
The fuse sparkled and quickly burned into the fire door. Suddenly, there was a flash of fire from the fire door, followed by a thick smoke from the muzzle, and then there was a loud noise that shook the earth.
A stone bullet was sprayed out of the muzzle, rolled towards the Fengyang city wall more than three miles away, quickly turned into a black spot, and hit a section of the rammed earth city wall with a speed visible to the naked eye.
A hole suddenly appeared on the city wall, and a burst of sand was thrown up. If you look carefully with a telescope, you can still find large and small pieces of mud rolling down.
"It's a hit!" Kong Sixi shouted loudly, "It's a hit, good luck!"
The gunners around him also cheered: "Hit, good luck!"
Kong Youde, who was standing behind a parapet and watching, also put down the telescope in his hand and exhaled heavily: "Okay! A hole was made. Fengyang City is not very strong as expected. We placed 20 Hongyi cannons, one for each cannon." At least 12 rounds of stone bullets can be fired at one hour, 20 gates is 240 rounds, and 12 hours a day is more than 2,800 rounds! Fengyang City Wall can be destroyed in two days at most!"
He is taking advantage of the situation! Fengyang's rammed-earth city wall was damaged once again by Gao Yingxiang. It was hastily repaired later and was not very strong at all. It took more than a day for 20 Hongyi cannons to blast it and it collapsed.
Shang Kexi patted his chest and said to Shuo Zhan: "Meile Zhangjing, as long as Fengyang's shabby city wall collapses, we will personally lead the charge and take Fengyang City within one day!"
King Zhishun Shang Kexi's men had caught "Tongue" before and found out clearly. There were not many troops guarding Fengyang. They were two auxiliary troops belonging to the Zhongdu Remaining Department and a regiment from the left army of the new army to overcome difficulties. Together, there are five to six thousand people. The total number of troops under Kong Youde, Shang Kexi and Bai Guangen is more than 30,000, which is an overwhelming advantage!
"Okay!" Shuo Zhan nodded heavily, "Then I will report to King Su to demolish Fengyang City Wall in two days, and take Fengyang City in one day!"
"Okay, just report it to Prince Su like this!"
In fact, Hauge did not put forward the request to break the city in three days. It was Shuo Zhan who made the decision on his own initiative. Now it seems that it can be completed.
"We captured Fengyang City in three days. It seems that Monk Kong Youde is quite capable!"
Hauge received the military report sent by Shuo Zhan in Yingwu Acropolis, which is twenty or thirty miles east of Donghao River.
"Your Majesty," Ao Bai, who was sweating profusely, immediately came up to him, "Now we are afraid that the Nan bandits from Dingyuan will go north to Fengyang. According to the report from Tan Ma, there are about 40,000 to 50,000 people there. If they go north, Monk Kong Youde will be happy. We can only retreat."
"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid!" Hauge put down the Tang newspaper in his hand and picked up the paper fan on a broken table nearby to fan the wind vigorously. "The Nankou's cavalry is still too small, so we can only gather them together to protect the left and right sides. , it’s not enough to let them go. So they don’t know our specific location at all, and their every move is under our surveillance. The southern bandits are going north to Fengyang, Kong Youde, Shang Kexi, and Bai Guangen have enough We have time to escape, and at worst we can retreat to the Huaihe River bridgehead to deal with the Southern invaders. And we are just going south, drinking horses in the Yangtze River, even if we can't cross the river, we can still plunder on the riverside, wouldn't it be fun?"
"Your Majesty is still wise," Obai showed a flattering smile, "Shall we go south next?"
"Of course!" Hauge said, "Let's bypass Dingyuan, directly cross the pond, and go to Daqianling to station."
"Going to Daqianling?" Obai was stunned, "If you don't go, will you be drinking from the Yangtze River?"
"Haha, you know how to rob people and things. How come you haven't made any progress by reading The Analects of Confucius every day these days?" Hauge said with a smile, "Actually, I also want to grab a handful, but Dingyuan's Nan Most of the time, Kou will not ignore us. Although they are mainly infantry, they can’t run very slowly. It would be very unpleasant if we were chased by them all the way!"
"Oh," Obai nodded, "Does the prince want to have a decisive battle with the Nankou at Daqianling?"
Haug smiled and said nothing.
Oboi thought thoughtfully and said: "But we only have more than 18,000 people on hand. Isn't it a little less? If we want to guarantee victory, we still have to wait for Kong Youde and Shang Kexi to come south."
"Eighteen thousand is certainly a little less, and most of it is still Manchuria, so we can't afford to spend it!" Hauge said with a smile, "But the Nan bandits don't dare not follow them. Let's confront them in the Daqianling area, and wait for Kong Youde , Shang Kexi will mobilize them together after they take Fengyang. By then the two groups will join forces, and there will be 40,000 to 50,000 people, and the initiative of whether to fight or not will be in my hands, so the Nangui can still What are the chances of winning?
Even if they win, our Eight Banners True Manchuria will not suffer much losses. The worst is to retreat to Fengyang Fucheng. In terms of the overall situation, with Fengyang Fucheng in hand, we are still the winners! "
"You are so tall!" Obai was overjoyed when he heard this, "My lord, you are really tall, I admire you!"
The momentum of the dispatch of 18,000 cavalry (coated slaves also have horses) is quite astonishing! Even if the light cavalry sent by Zhu Cixiang were suppressed by the Eight Banners soldiers and unable to get close for reconnaissance, they could still judge from a distance by observing the smoke and dust caused by the march of a large number of cavalry.
The news that the Tartar cavalry brigade crossed the pond and marched towards Chuzhou was quickly sent to Zhu Cixiang who was stationed in Dingyuan.
"What? Bypassing Dingyuan and going south? What do the Tartars want to do?"
Hauge's deployment obviously exceeded Zhu Cixiang's expectations. Although he was cunning and cruel, and there were endless ways to trick people and make money, when it came to fighting, he was actually half an amateur. That is to say, Duolong, the first warrior in Manchuria, was slandered in Dagu. But that was a special situation. It was based on the sudden rise of the Ming army, which had always been useless. It was completely beyond the expectations of Duolong and Geng Zhongming. This was a big victory for nothing.
But his current opponents, Hauge and Obai, have already mastered the situation of the new army in overcoming difficulties, and will not foolishly crash into the preset position set by Zhu Cixiang!
Even if they were to collide, they would not use their precious Eight Banners soldiers to collide! Leave the tens of thousands of traitors under Kong Youde, Shang Kexi, and Bai Guangen unused, and use the Eight Banners soldiers to die? Can you still open the Qing Dynasty with this IQ?
And once the IQ of the Tatars is on the line, it is really not that easy to defeat them!
"Your Highness," Military Advisor Li Yan suggested, "I suggest that we ignore the Tartars going south and concentrate the entire army to go north. First, we should defeat all the Tartars around Fengyang City!"
Wu Sanfu shook his head: "No, no, the Tartars' patrol sentries must be everywhere between Dingyuan and Fengyang. As soon as our soldiers move, the Tartars over Fengyang will know about it soon. When the time comes, they will go to the Huaihe River If we retreat from the side and build a fortification, what should we do? Should we attack by force?
The Tartar cavalry who inserted themselves into Chuzhou would not just wander around and leave! If we don't follow closely, they can cause trouble to Yangzhou Prefecture! "
