"Snapped…"
A bullet hit the parapet at the top of the city. The huge kinetic energy caused the originally soft lead bullet to be instantly crushed, and then shattered in all directions with a strong sound.
At this time, Zhong Shengjia happened to be hiding next to the female wall that blocked the bullet. The scattered bullets splashed onto the helmet with a high iron needle on his head, making a "dong-dong" sound.
"How can we defend this?" Looking at such a scene, Zhong Shengjia couldn't help but roared in his heart.
"What kind of rebel is this? This is clearly bullying people with guns. If you are a true hero, you should do it with real swords and guns, instead of being so shameless."
Obviously, Zhang Rui didn't consider Zhong Shengjia's feelings at all.
Each of the sixteen siege towers is about two feet and a half (nearly nine meters) high, two feet long and two feet wide, similar to a large scaffolding platform.
What the siege tower fears most is the enemy's fire attack. For this reason, Zhang Rui deliberately reinforced the key parts of all siege towers with steel, and also added thin iron plates to the frontal contact areas with the enemy.
In order to prevent the siege towers from being attacked by the enemy's flamethrower fire dragon gun, Zhang Rui required that all siege towers should not come within a hundred feet of the city wall.
The reason why siege towers in ancient times were rarely used was simply to cause trouble and make their use difficult.
Especially in the past, they were all made of wood. If they were close to the city wall during a siege, they would be easily damaged by the enemy's fire attack, but it would be useless if they were not close. Therefore, there were very few troops using siege towers.
When Zhang Rui proposed building a siege tower, people who didn't understand it were opposed to Zhang Rui's idea of building a siege tower because they thought it was not cost-effective.
However, what they could not imagine was that Zhang Rui never thought of using the siege tower to fight close to the city wall. Instead, he used it as a platform equal to the city wall, using the long range of mini bombs to put unequal pressure on the Qing army's wall. .
I can hit you, but you can't do anything to me.
A team of musketeers stood on each siege tower, using a three-stage musket volley. In order to prevent the musket from overheating, except for the first eight volleys, which were fired continuously, segmented firing began after the eighth volley.
In other words, after the eighth volley, there was a misplaced volley of shots. The sound of the formed volley of gunfire continued to come, giving the Qing army the illusion of continuous firing.
At the same time, a bucket of water was prepared on each siege tower. If the barrel is still hot from firing, you can use the damp cloth on it to cool it down.
The Qing army was completely unable to understand all the fighting situations. The previous eight volleys of gunfire had knocked them into consciousness. Now no defenders were willing to stick their heads out of the female wall, because most of the Qing troops who stuck out had been killed.
The moat of Zhaoqing City is not very wide. Under the relatively safe cover of the arrow-blocking vehicle, it only took the many captured Green Camp soldiers less than half an hour to fill in the moat and create a path.
At this moment, the siege tower that was still one hundred and ten feet away moved again to not far from the moat, and the distance had reached one hundred feet away from the city wall.
The closer the distance, the clearer the vision. At this time, the musketeers on the siege tower could clearly see the bodies of the green soldiers at the top of the city.
Since the siege tower is slightly higher than the city wall, the musketeers above can shoot downward through the holes in the siege tower's protective planks. Although each siege tower only extended ten muskets, sixteen of them had 160 muskets shooting at the same time.
The Qing army had no solution in the face of this one-sided massacre. They could only hide in the female corner of the city and did not dare to show their bodies. Those who couldn't hide anymore quickly ran down the city wall to avoid being a target on the city wall.
The green soldiers on the top of Zhaoqing City had been beaten by the musketeers on the siege tower, and they had no intention of fighting back. These people who defend the city have little training in the first place, let alone the existence of sharpshooters who can reflect a few arrows to boost their morale.
Those green camp soldiers who received regular training were "one-stopped" by the bandit-suppressing forces at the school grounds in the west. However, even those green battalion soldiers who received regular training were still beaten by the bandit suppressors without any resistance and could only surrender with sad faces.
"General, if the rebels continue to fight like this, we won't be able to hold on any longer. Why don't we organize some troops to rush out of the city and destroy their things!" At this time, he was already talking to Zhong Shengjia. Li Guangli, who was hiding in the tower together, suggested
"Get out? Don't you see how many rebels are outside waiting for us to open the city gate. It will be difficult to close the city gate once it is opened." Zhong Shengjia immediately rejected Li Guangli's brainless proposal.
"But this is not the solution. The rebels' firearms are so powerful that the soldiers dare not show their faces at all. If this continues, they will soon climb to the top of the city." Li Guangli said angrily.
"I also know that now we can only wait for the rebels to come soon before driving them down. As long as the rebels come soon, their muskets will not dare to be fired. Then will be the real battle, with real swords and guns. .”
Zhong Shengjia clenched his fist and hammered the pillar next to him a few times, gritted his teeth and said fiercely. The battle was so frustrating that his eyes seemed to be bursting with fire.
"Report, General. The rebels have begun to attack and board the city." At this time, a Green Camp sentry observing through the observation port under the female wall was lying on the ground at the top of the wall and climbed into the room in the tower to report.
At this time, the siege ladder of the bandit suppression army was officially launched. Pushed by the soldiers below, he moved through the newly filled moat and leaned against the city wall.
Following these fifteen siege ladders were the Green Camp soldiers who were captured by the bandit suppressing army.
Regarding these prisoners, Zhang Rui has told them that as long as they take Zhaoqing City, they can stay or leave as long as they want. And when the time comes, each of them will be given a reward of ten taels of silver, and they will be rewarded according to their merits after that.
Since a lot of silver was seized in Wuzhou City, Zhang Rui didn't care about the money at this time. He cared more about the lives of his soldiers.
The captured green soldiers took the swords, shields and other iron tools provided by the bandit suppressing army and followed the siege ladder.
They couldn't say much more about the requirements of the bandit suppressing army. After all, they were prisoners, and this was the only chance they could stand up.
Attacking the city was no longer something they could object to.
If they were asked to attack other places or the captured Green Camp soldiers would still be afraid, but they were attacking the defenders of Zhaoqing City who knew the basics. This gave these captive soldiers the confidence.
If the bandit suppression army had asked them to attack the city at the beginning, they might still complain and be unhappy.
However, let’s look at this situation. This is simply a reward for merit. Even if they don't join the bandit-suppressing army, they can be easily defeated.
If you don't seize such an opportunity, why are you waiting?
