On the third day of July, outside the west gate of Fuliji, there was the artillery position of the Huai Army of the Ming Dynasty.
The 12-pound red cannons and the 24-pound soaring cannons have long been pushed or carried into the two newly repaired artillery forts. The cannonballs and gunpowder were all moved and placed at designated positions in the fort. The gunners were all in place, nervously waiting for the order to load and fire.
These two artillery forts were actually rebuilt using the vehicle barriers that caused a bloody collision for Gersté's Eight Banners cavalry. The vehicle barriers were dismantled and moved forward, and the dismantled vehicle straw bags were used to replace them. Two new ring-shaped forts were stacked near the front. Among them, the distance symbol built first is far away from Jiximen, about two miles away. The other one is much closer, only a little over a mile away.
The artillery fort far away from Fu Liji contained twelve-pound red cannons, a total of eighteen, all of which were cast in Nanjing and then laboriously transported to the Huaibei front line.
The forts that are relatively close to Fu Liji are equipped with twenty-four-pound sky cannons, also known as mortars, which are used to fire explosive shells. The number is also eighteen. Although the projectiles fired by the 24-pound mortar are very heavy, they are twice as heavy as the 12-pound red cannon. But the mortar is much lighter because of its short barrel and thin barrel wall. However, it was still inconvenient to transport it. The gun carriage of this thing had no wheels and had to be pulled by a large truck. It also took a lot of effort to transport it from Puzikou.
These thirty-six cannons were originally prepared for strong cities such as Fengyang and Xuzhou, but these two first-class strong cities in the Huaisi area were taken lightly and fraudulently. Now it was the small but solid earthen fence in Fuliji that was being bombarded.
Behind the two artillery forts, 45,000 Huai army officers and soldiers from thirty battalions north and south of the Huai River have formed square formations one after another, and each has prepared long ladders to climb the city. Holding their breaths and concentrating, they are just waiting for the victory of the crucial battle that determines their own lives and the fate of many generations of their descendants.
It is no exaggeration to say that this battle of Li Zhongtang's capture of Huaixi was a battle for their group of Huaixi people to restore some of their past glory.
Once this battle is over, they Huaixi warriors will be shareholders of the Ming Dynasty again!
And this war is also of great significance to Li Zhongshan and Li Zhongtang!
Once this battle is fought, we can successfully regain the source of troops in Huaixi. With this source of troops close to Nanjing, Li Zhongshan could become the man in the Ming Dynasty who held the emperor hostage and commanded the princes!
At the same time, with the Huaixi soldiers, the new Ming Dynasty has become a major force that can keep pace with Western Wu and Beiqing, and divide the world into three parts!
Li Zhongshan confidently walked into a very solid command post built with civil engineering and located between two forts. This command post was less than two miles away from the west gate of Fuliji in a straight line. There was no obstruction in the middle. With the naked eye, It can also take in the entire battlefield outside the west gate of Fuliji.
There are already many officers waiting in the headquarters, all gathered together. When they saw Li Zhongshan coming in, they all stood at attention and saluted. Wang An, Wang Quan, Luo Dawei, Shang Shuying, and several staff officers from the Jiangbei Governor's Mansion were all waiting for the arrival of the total.
The previous days of rain had ended and the weather had cleared up, but the ground was still a little muddy. In the early morning, the battlefield was still filled with mist like a gauze.
Through this layer of gauze-like mist, Li Zhongshan could still see relatively clearly the west gate and earthen wall of Fuliji, which had been surrounded by his Huai army for more than ten days. To be precise, the west gate of Fuliji was gone. There was only one doorway left, and it was blocked with straw bags and sacks. The wall of Fuliji is made of rammed earth, two feet high and two feet thick. Sheep and horse walls and crenels were also built on the wall to deploy troops for defense.
Now there are many colorful flags planted on the walls of Fuliji City, and there are also some vaguely patrolling soldiers, but there are not many people. They should all be squinting in the market town!
Thinking of this, Li Zhongshan asked again: "Gustai still hasn't replied?"
He had people shoot letters of surrender into Fuliji every day for the past two days. Although he knew that it was impossible for Geste to surrender, he still had to do the superficial work.
"No," Wang An said with a smile, "Gestai can probably see Mu Zhan's troops now, how can he be willing to surrender to us?"
It turns out that Mu Zhan was still advancing cautiously and crawling slowly!
This is not because Li Zhongshan was unable to drive away Mu Zhan - Xuzhou had been captured by Zhou Chang, and the family members of Xuzhou Green Camp were also controlled by Zhou Chang. As long as he sent some of them to Mu Zhan's army, the hearts of Mu Zhan's troops would be greatly improved. There will be chaos.
It was just that Li Zhongshan ordered Zhou Chang and Ma Weixing to block the news and prevent Mu Zhan from knowing it, so that he could continue to climb to Fuliji.
There were so many colorful flags on Fuliji. It was probably Geste who wanted Mu Zhan to know that he was not finished yet. He and his men still had horse meat to eat, so he was still full of energy and extremely ferocious, just wait for Mu Zhan. After climbing across the Suishui River, everyone joined forces and had nothing to fear.
Mu Zhan's troops have now climbed to a position where they can see Fuliji, so Gestei, standing a little higher, can see the 23,000 troops slowly creeping towards them.
Thinking of this, Li Zhongshan chuckled: "Since he wants to be a loyal man of the Qing Dynasty, let's make it happen for him!"
"Should we fire now?" Wang An asked.
Li Zhongshan nodded: "Fire. Hit hard!"
"yes!"
Wang An bowed his hands and saluted, then took a red command flag from a soldier beside him, handed it to an artillery staff officer who came from Guangdong, and then ordered: "All the red cannons opened fire immediately and concentrated their firepower to bombard Fu Li." Collect on the right side of the west gate!"
"Got the order!" The staff officer took the red order flag and turned around and left the headquarters.
Li Zhongtang's guess was correct. At this time, Gestai was standing on the north gate tower of Fuliji, looking north at Master Wang!
Master Wang is a little slow in coming!
Twenty thousand or so people formed five large phalanxes, one next to the other, slowly crawling on the plain north of Fuliji. They could not climb more than ten miles in one day.
The reason why Mu Zhan wanted to set up five large square formations was of course because he was afraid of being attacked by groups of Ming army cavalry around him.
Mu Zhan's life is really miserable now. He obviously left the Jiangdong camp with 10,000 elite cavalry, but somehow there are no cavalry available now! Moreover, they were bullied by thousands of uneven Ming army cavalry. They did not dare to form a line formation. They only dared to use a square formation to wrap up the baggage and artillery, and then advanced slowly.
Seeing Mu Zhan's army crawling all the way, Gerstad remembered the time when he followed Dorgon to defeat Hong Chengchou. That's how Hong Chengchou crawled all the way to rescue Zu Dashou in Jinzhou. In the end, someone inadvertently took someone else's route, and Zu Dashou was unable to save him, so he himself became a slave in disguise (don't think that Hong Chengchou had any courtesy, he was just a slave in wrapping clothes)!
Wait, why do you think of such an unlucky thing? Gerstai thought something was wrong. If Mu Zhan was Hong Chengchou, wouldn't I become Zu Dashou? Then wouldn't all these 30,000 Qing soldiers be wiped out?
This is impossible!
"Boom boom boom"
As soon as Geste thought of the impossibility, his feet began to tremble, accompanied by a roar that shook the earth and the mountains!
"Capital, it's the red cannon!"
"Captain, please go down to the city to avoid the artillery fire!"
As soon as several Gesheha from Gestei heard the sound of the cannon, they rushed forward to help their boss to go under the city wall to hide from the cannonball. However, he was pushed away by Geste. The old man stamped his feet and said, "Why are you panicking? The rebels are blasting the west wall, and I am on the north wall. What do you have to be afraid of?"
There is no need to be afraid. At least until the city wall to the west of Fuliji is blown down by the Ming army's red cannon, there is no need to be afraid.
"Quick, go and give orders to the commanders of the 1st, 2nd, 1st and 2nd battalions on the left and the fourth battalion. Let them be ready to send Eight Banners warriors to block the gap at any time!" Gestei is not confused enough to really believe in the city wall against Fuliji. Can withstand the blast of more than a dozen red cannons!
It's just a matter of time before the city wall is blown down!
And once the city wall collapses, the real decisive battle will begin!
There are tens of thousands of Ming troops besieging the city now, which is several times the strength advantage. If the Ming troops rush in, it will be the end!
Geste turned his head again and looked at the reinforcements who were still crawling slowly on the plain, and he felt a little bit resentful in his heart: Mu Zhan, Mu Zhan, can't you hurry up? Reinforcement is like putting out fire! If you don't hurry up, I will be burned to death. For the sake of the Qing Dynasty, hurry up!
The power of the eighteen 12-pound red cannons aimed at one place was quite astonishing. I only saw the side of the west gate of Fuliji being hit by cannonballs. It was said to be a cannonball, but it was actually a solid iron ball. The gunpowder collapsed, and a dozen or so at a time hit the earthen wall of Fuliji at high speed. The city wall of Fuliji is no better than that of Nanjing City. Its base is made of huge stones, which is very hard! Fuliji is just a rammed-earth enclosure, which is just fine for waterproofing. How can it withstand so many cannons aimed at it at close range?
The city couldn't hold it any longer. The clods of earth on the wall fell straight down. The cannonballs hit the wall and produced a lot of dust. In an instant, a large section of the city wall was covered. At first, the city wall could still be seen clearly. There was a waving flag on the sky, and then it gradually became blurred, and soon only smoke and dust remained.
Li Zhongshan stood in his headquarters and just looked coldly at the city wall wrapped in smoke and dust in front of him. After looking at it for a while, he turned to Luo Dawei and said: "General Luo, it seems that Fuliji can't hold on for much longer. You go and take over the battalions in the east of the city. Just arrange two battalions to block the east gate. Everyone else should cross the Sui River and assume a posture of blocking Mu Zhan's troops, and at the same time be prepared to pursue!"
"yes!"
When Luo Dawei saluted, there was already a staff member sitting at a desk nearby who was taking shorthand and finished writing the order according to Li Zhongshan's words. Wang An took it, looked at it, nodded to express satisfaction, and returned the fold with the order to the staff officer, asking him to make a copy for his file. By the time the staff officer finished copying, Wang An had already taken the great seal of the Superintendent and sealed the two identical orders. Finally, he took one of them, plus a token to mobilize troops, and gave it to Luo Dawei, asking him to take it with him to mobilize troops to the east of Fuliji.
Seeing Luo Dawei leaving, Li Zhongshan said to Wang Quan again: "Quan'er, after the artillery bombardment is finished, you will lead the Shanziying infantry in the lead. You must seize the breach. After seizing the breach, let Huai Brothers Xi, fight in."
"yes!"
"Shuying!" Li Zhongshan ordered Shang Shuying again, "Go to Yongziying and Chang Yong to take the family members of Luying captured by Xuzhou to block Mu Zhan. Once the cannon is fired, release the family members and let Mu Zhan know. Xuzhou is gone.”
"yes!"
Li Zhongshan's skill in using troops is really getting better and better. This time he not only used clever tricks such as "lubing the enemy deep", "surrounding the point to bring reinforcements", "stealing the house", "three missing one", etc., but now he also used it for the Qing army. Focus on your heart first!
At the right time and at the right place, give the most appropriate bad news to Mu Zhan and Gestei - Mu Zhan's army will definitely collapse when they learn of the fall of Xuzhou. When the city wall was blown down and the enemy invaded Fuliji, Gestei's army learned that the reinforcements had collapsed. Naturally, they also collapsed.
"Capital, look, the rebels in the east of the city have withdrawn!"
"General Manager Mu's army must be approaching!"
"Thank God."
When Luo Dawei led most of the troops in the east of Fuliji City and began to move to the north bank of Suishui River, every one of Gestei's Gohashes almost cheered as if they saw the hope of victory.
Gerstad also felt hopeful, his old eyes were a little moist, and he kept saying: "There is hope, there is hope. Now there is hope!"
As if to save the front, the Ming army's artillery that had been rumbling before stopped suddenly.
The noisy battlefield suddenly became quiet.
Gestei vaguely felt that something was not good, and hurriedly ran to the observation deck at the northwest corner of the Fuliji City Wall. The view from that place was very good, and he could clearly see the situation on the battlefield in the west of the city. But as soon as he was halfway there, marching drums sounded outside the city.
Then someone heard a heartbreaking roar: "The rebel shotgun soldiers and pikemen are coming!"
Then Geste heard someone in the city shouting: "The wall has collapsed. The wall on the right side of the west gate has collapsed. Seal the hole quickly!"
The city is broken? Gerstad's head buzzed, and he felt even worse.
He stopped running and quickly stopped and looked to the right of the west gate. At this time, a gust of wind blew over and dispersed some of the smoke and dust that shrouded there, revealing a gap that was thirty steps wide due to the collapse of the wall!
At this moment, the blocking troops arranged by Gestei had already rushed up the gentle slope formed by the collapse of the wall at the breach with their rifles.
But just as these people were halfway through the rush, the sky suddenly exploded with a bang!
Why did the sky explode? Geste did not react for a moment, and then several dazzling fireballs suddenly appeared near the breach in the city wall.
"Flower bomb!"
Has anyone who is smarter discovered what happened?
It turned out that the Ming army's bombs fell.
Of course, the accuracy of these years' bombs is poor, and the fuses are not very reliable. They either blow up too early or they blow up at all. There are very few that hit the target just right. However, today there was still a twenty-four kilogram shell that landed squarely among a group of Eight Banners soldiers who were carrying their rifles and exploded with a bang.
Although it was just a black powder explosion, it was a twenty-four-pound explosive bomb after all. One shot could explode an unknown number of fragments. Together with the projectiles in the projectile, they flew all over the sky. The shrapnel and lead bullets formed an airtight web. The big ventilated net beat all the Eight Banners soldiers covered by it to a bloody pulp, leaving them dead and injured!
Now eighteen cannons were firing together, and the shells fell one after another, exploding fireballs one after another. This scene was really scary, and the Eight Banners soldiers who were about to rush forward with their rifles to block the mouth also all Being scared, not only did no one dare to throw themselves into the sea of fire, but they all ran away.
Gerstad was also pushed down by his own soldiers, and one guy even fell on him, as if he was trying to use his body to block the shells for him.
I don’t know how long this round of shelling lasted. Anyway, it was quite a long time for the Eight Banners soldiers who were bombed. When the bombardment stopped, the Eight Banners soldiers who were responsible for blocking the door, who were dizzy from the bombardment, were still very brave. They raised their carbine rifles, sabers, carbine guns and shotguns, and rushed towards the gap together.
But what awaited them was a precise and fierce wave of bullets. Almost all the first batch of Eight Banners soldiers who rushed to the gap were killed and fell down in the fatal gap.
However, the four battalions of Eight Banners soldiers responsible for blocking the gap did not give up. Within the next quarter of an hour, there was still a steady stream of people carrying carbine rifles and various weapons to fill the gap.
What awaits them, without exception, are musket shots that are so accurate that they can be fatal!
When Geste realized that something was wrong, the commanders of the four battalions had already filled the gap in the city wall with two to three hundred men. The corpses of the Eight Banners soldiers almost blocked the gap.
And when this kind of battle of sending people to fill the gap finally could no longer continue, the spearmen of the Shanzi Battalion, wearing breastplates, arm armors, and iron helmets, had already launched a charge with shouts.
But this is not the most terrifying thing that happened on the Suishui-Fuliji battlefield today.
The most terrifying thing happened on Mu Zhan's side. When Mu Zhan had just adjusted his formation and set up five square formations, preparing to resist the Ming army's attack, the Ming army pushed out a group of women, old people and children.
What's going on? Mu Zhan thought that the Ming army had also learned the unique skill of the Qing Dynasty's heavenly soldiers - using the common people as a shield. Shang Shuying had already appeared on horseback among the "common people" and shouted loudly: "Opposite side Qing soldiers, don’t shoot. They are all family members of Xuzhou Green Camp! Xuzhou has been occupied by the Qing soldiers! Now, by the order of General Zhongtang, return them to you!"
Mu Zhan also heard this in the Chinese army formation and was immediately dumbfounded.
The co-author "Home" was stolen!
How can we fight this war if our family is gone?
Those Eight Banners soldiers and the Green Camp soldiers sent by Jiangdong Camp were okay. After all, they had no family members in Xuzhou, but what about those Xuzhou Green Camp soldiers? Their family is gone and their family members are detained by Li Zhongshan. What should they do?
He was worried about the Xuzhou Green Camp soldiers. As expected, a phalanx composed of Xuzhou Green Camp soldiers broke into chaos. Some people shouted: "Don't kill my family members, we are willing to surrender."
(End of chapter)
