January 13th, Zhuxian Town.
Near the Qing army's vehicle defense line surrounding Zhuxian Town, the attacks by the Qing and Wu Zhou sides were in full swing.
Last night, with the cover of night and the support of artillery, Wu Zhou's army followed suit, using shield cars, carts, and sacks and straw bags stuffed with soil, broken bricks, wood blocks, cotton cloth, and other things. , forming a circular defense line that can block bullets and artillery shells.
The distance between the two circular defense lines was very close, only seventy or eighty steps. If you lay behind the two circular defense lines and set up a musket, you could barely reach the other side.
This style of play looks a bit like the trench warfare of World War I!
However, changes in tactics and the development of weapons and equipment complement each other. The burning speed of "sugar powder" is about eight times that of black powder, and the lethality produced by the explosion is far from comparable to that of the latter. And sugar medicine can easily be used to make smoke bombs - just change the ratio of nitrate to sugar. Therefore, when sugar and medicine weapons dominate the battlefield, the tactic of forming and fighting later will naturally be replaced by a fighting style relying on civil fortifications.
Neither Wu Zhou nor Da Qing have enough sugar to squander, so of course they will pay more attention to "sugar prevention on the battlefield" measures.
And quickly building simple civil engineering works on the front line is obviously the most effective way to "prevent sugar". Therefore, whether it is the army of Wu Zhou or the new Eight Banners Army of the Qing Dynasty, they are all "civilian" now.
Therefore, in the Battle of Zhuxian Town, the Qing army used vehicle barriers, trenches, and earthen walls to trap Wu Zhou's army, while Wu Zhou's army used similar methods.
So on the Zhuxian Town battlefield, there were scenes of "trenches" versus "trenches" and "exploding bombs" versus "exploding bombs."
Of course, the blooming bullets on both sides are not "very sweet". They are all mixed with black powder bullets and sugar powder bullets. But Wu Zhou put a little more "sugar" here - after all, Wu Zhou "has sugar at home."
Although the Qing army used less sugar, their black gunpowder was more powerful - it was granular black powder made under the personal supervision of Kangxi's academic master, and it was much more powerful than ordinary black powder.
When the two are offset like this, the firepower possessed by both sides is actually about the same. But Wu Zhou took the initiative, and had the convenience of fighting inside, which made it easier to concentrate artillery. Therefore, on the northern front where Wu and Zhou's army mainly attacked, their firepower had an overwhelming advantage.
Hundreds of small-caliber mortars used to fire super-caliber bullets were placed behind the defense line piled up by Wu and Zhou military shield vehicles, carts, sacks, and straw bags. Next to each small-caliber mortar, there are several gunners busy operating it. The hammer-loaded cast iron cannonballs were thrown towards the Qing army's car barriers like raindrops. Every cast-iron cannonball exploded in the Qing army's vehicle barrier and aroused a burst of cheers on Wu Zhoujun's position. The morale of every Wu Zhou officer and soldier was raised to the extreme.
However, the Qing army did not just suffer bombings but did not fight back.
They were not equipped with small-caliber mortars because Emperor Kangxi disliked their short range, so they were not equipped. Instead, they were equipped with powerful general cannons as weapons for firing explosive shells!
Although this kind of artillery has a very long range, it cannot fire super-caliber projectiles, is relatively heavy, is not very convenient to move, has a low rate of fire, and has a relatively small number of equipment.
Therefore, we are at a clear disadvantage in the artillery battle!
But in terms of long-barreled artillery, the Qing army had obvious advantages. They are equipped with a large number of sub-cannons, also known as Fran cannons, which can easily penetrate the shield vehicles of Wu Zhou Army.
In addition, the Qing army also possesses some large general artillery and a large number of general artillery. These artillery had a long range, so they were placed far behind the civil fortifications and kept firing at Zhuxian Town.
Solid bullets were continuously blasted into Zhuxian Town, falling on the heads of the people in Zhuxian Town, causing considerable panic.
The exclamations, screams, and cries of the people continued to be heard from Zhuxian Town.
Groups of grenadiers from the Wu Zhou Army were on standby behind their civil fortifications, watching their own side's bullets raining down and the battlefield filled with smoke. One by one, they dug out of the fortifications and crawled towards the Qing army's vehicle base.
Under the cover of smoke and shelling, these crawling grenadiers would quietly crawl to a distance of only ten steps from the Qing army's vehicle formation, and then throw out the ignited grenade hammer!
Of course, the Qing army was not to be outdone, and also sent dead soldiers to crawl over with explosives to blast Wu Zhou's army!
You and I go back and forth on both sides, and it’s a blast.
The musketeers on both sides also went to the front line, relying on their respective fortifications, and kept firing at the other side's position with their shotguns and turtle-dove rifles.
The gunfire crackled and became extremely dense.
However, there is always a pause in the intensive sound of gunfire - the guns on both sides need to cool down after firing for a period of time.
At this time, it was the turn of the soldiers on both sides to go into battle and fight!
Amidst bursts of deafening shouts, Wu Zhou's soldiers carried the arrows of the Qing army and launched wave after wave of charges with the cover of grenade hammers and their own archers.
Yue Le, who was in charge of the overall situation of the Qing army, personally went to the northern front to supervise the battle. He constantly used the cavalry on hand as a reserve team to enter the battlefield one by one to support the infantry that was fighting hard.
The two sides are just going to fight each other, it depends on who can't stand it first!
...
Beijing, heavy snow.
While the battle in Zhuxian Town was in full swing, a troop of troops entered the Wengcheng at Chaoyangmen in the snow on the morning of the 13th.
This is an army composed of hundreds of unpleasant Mongolian cavalry - they are the escort of Prince Burni of Chahar, and they followed their prince into the city from the camp north of Shah River.
And the reason why they are disliked is because the Mongols stationed on the north bank of Shahe River these days do not follow any rules, harassing people and robbing property everywhere. Moreover, they did not look at the targets when they looted. They not only robbed Han villages, but also robbed the villages under the jurisdiction of the eight banners' respective yamen, and even robbed the villages of the nobles in the capital.
As a result, Prince Gong Chang Ning, who is in power in Beijing these days, has a big head!
But there was nothing he could do against these Mongols... Chahar's cavalry was invited by his brother Kangxi!
Moreover, the cavalrymen of the Eight Banners on the left and right wings of Chahar and the Zasak Banner of Chahar have no food and salary to pay... They are all "self-Qianqing", how can Chang Ning expect Burni and Luobuzang to restrain them?
Now I just hope that the two of them can take these tens of thousands of Chahar cavalry south as soon as possible, stay away from Beijing, and go to cause harm elsewhere!
Although in my heart I wished Burney would get out of here, I still had to give him face. After all, he is Chang Ning's cousin...Burni's grandmother is Queen Zhezhe!
So when Chang Ning heard that Burney had arrived outside Chaoyang Gate, he quickly left the palace and asked his deputy, Tianjin General Soldier Wang Yuxi, to lead three thousand troops to Chaoyang Gate to set up defenses.
Chaoyang Gate in Beijing is a city gate with a barbican, which is a small fortress that is very strong.
If they are attacked by Burni, they will be in big trouble!
So when Burni arrived, the inside and outside of Chaoyang Gate were already heavily guarded. Even on the gate tower of Wengcheng, there were Tianjin Green Camp soldiers carrying muskets!
If the hundreds of people under Bourni wanted to cause trouble, they would be beaten into "Boolean sieves" on the spot.
After setting up the "ambush", Chang Ning led a team of yellow jackets and royal guards and carefully went to Chaoyang Gate to greet the visiting Burni.
And just when Chang Nian and his cousins from Burney were chatting and laughing in the heavily guarded Chaoyangmen Urn City. Outside the bustling Dongzhimen, thousands of people seemed to be fleeing, carrying large and small bags, leading women and children, and heading towards the open Dongzhimen. These people were talking a lot while walking, all saying that their village had been plundered by the Mongols and suffered heavy losses. He also said that he would go to the city to complain to a certain prince or a certain court official!
They all spoke with the most standard Beijing accent, and they seemed to be farmers somewhere in the suburbs of Beijing.
At this time, the farms in the suburbs of Beijing were either banner land or the property of a certain nobleman... These farmers were obviously tenants of the Eight Banners nobles. If they were robbed, wouldn't it mean that the Eight Banners nobles in Beijing were robbed?
It is only natural to go to the city to complain!
These days, there are not a few tenants from the suburbs of Beijing who come to the city to complain, so the green battalion soldiers of the third patrol battalion guarding Dongzhimen and a limping gatekeeper did not dare to chase them away, and even greeted them with a look of sympathy. Go up and ask...
