The incoming projectiles carried huge kinetic energy and instantly knocked the dozen or so people in the lead to the ground.
Howls, cries, cries for help, and crazy and overwhelmed shouts formed a strange and horrifying sonata.
However, no matter how tragic the scene was, the Xuanfu soldiers who had long been accustomed to this kind of killing were indifferent.
The first group took a step back calmly, while the second group calmly took a step forward and fired again.
At such a close distance, there is no need to aim at all, just mechanically pulling the trigger.
There was another burst of sound like exploding beans, sparks flew everywhere, and another ten or twenty people fell down like gourds rolling to the ground.
Even before the third team came forward to shoot, the entire internal response team of fifty or sixty people completely collapsed.
Except for a few of the remaining 20 people who ran away like crazy and were shot dead, the remaining 10 or so people directly knelt down in a pool of blood and mutilated body parts, begging for their lives.
Hou Shilu looked at this scene expressionlessly, without even frowning. He just waved to Minzhuang to get off the field quickly and clean up the scene.
The prisoners were taken away for later interrogation. The wounded were taken away alive if they could, and left to die if they could not. Needless to say, the dead could just be buried in mass graves outside the city.
The gunfire in the city undoubtedly stimulated the rebels who were swarming outside the city. They also knew that the best way to break through the city wall was to attack at a selected time.
More than 4,000 people rebelled against the army. When they lacked sufficient siege equipment, such a wide-spreading net was easily blocked by the organized people.
In fact, Hou Shilubin has never trusted the organized Qianyu Minzhuang.
Most of these people are soldiers from the Ding family of wealthy families in the city, or are merchant guards. No one can tell whether there are White Lotus cultists among them, but you have to use them.
So he can only ask each other to supervise each other to prevent accidents.
Although this will greatly consume the combat effectiveness, it is better than being suddenly stabbed in the back and causing disaster.
As the number of torches gradually increased, they formed chaotic spots, shouts, roars, hoarse shouts, and calls for friends in various local accents, making people feel like they were in a noisy downtown. .
One hundred fire gunners had already deployed according to the established formation and began to arrange along the line of the city wall.
At this time, it is no longer possible to follow any three-stage shooting procedures. To be able to kill the enemy to the maximum extent and in the shortest time, or even to cause damage to the enemy with the greatest shock, in order to achieve the purpose of demoralizing the enemy, is the most effective way. Good results.
However, for Laishui County, even if the county wall is not long, for hundreds of soldiers and more than a thousand civilians, it is still like a storm and may be breached at any time.
What Hou Shilu has to do now is to give the enemy a head-on blow as early as possible, completely destroying the opponent's morale and making it difficult for him to organize an effective offensive, so as to gain time to deal with it.
At this time, the troops from Zijingguan and Dingxing County were rushing in. As long as they could hold out for two to three hours, there was only one outcome for these four thousand rebel troops, which was either complete defeat or destruction. Kneel down and ask for surrender.
The West Gate was undoubtedly the focus of the attack. When thousands of people swarmed in, it took less than half an hour to fill in five gaps at the West Gate for the rebels to pass through.
And dozens of rough but terrifying ladders were lifted up and struck, which was still quite shocking.
But for Hou Shilu, he is relieved now.
Only five of them filled up the gaps in the moat. At most, forty or fifty ladders could be lifted up at a time. The charge that could be launched was very limited, and this was exactly what he hoped for.
No matter how fierce and fearless these rebels are, there are only fifty or sixty people rushing up at one time. Even if it is a follow-up wave, only these people can get on the city wall.
And to do this, they still need to pay countless waves of bullets and fire.
But how many people can ignore the penetrating damage of this one-shot projectile and rush to the top of the city? Even if they rush to the top of the city, they still have to face the joint slaughter of two hundred of the most elite Northwest Army soldiers.
What Hou Shilu is most worried about and afraid of is that the rebel army will come up to fill up the moat at all costs. They will come up to fill up ten or twenty gaps for you in one go. Moreover, the gap area is still very wide. In this way, two or three people can be pushed up at once. If hundreds of ladders come to attack the city, the problem will be troublesome.
But obviously this very small chance may not happen.
This requires careful deployment and preparation by the rebels, as well as considerable training in the number of ladders, earth bags, digging, transporting, throwing, and covering in order to control casualties to a certain extent, but chaos It is obviously impossible for the army to do this.
The weakness of the rebel army was fully exposed in this battle. They lacked enough archers, or there were just a few decent archers. They basically could not be considered a substantial threat to the officers and soldiers on the city wall. They tried to rely on It is undoubtedly a wishful thinking to pile up heads in exchange for victory.
The gunmen, arranged in a staggered figure of eight, became massacres.
This kind of ultra-close shooting has almost no technical content. It is simply to hold the gun, shoot, then clean the barrel of the gun again, load the ammunition, and then hold the gun and shoot again.
Every ladder was watched closely by two or three gunmen.
They did not shoot the rebel soldiers climbing at the front, but rhythmically shot the rebel soldiers climbing up in the middle, so that the rebel soldiers could never swarm to the top of the city.
So when the one or two soldiers at the front climbed up to the battlements, they were greeted by soldiers with swords and shields several times their size and spears by the people.
This cruel fight with almost no room for maneuver, or massacre, continued until Chou Shi.
When the 800 cavalrymen coming from the direction of Zijingguan took the lead in breaking into the rear of the rebel army, the battle ended without any suspense.
Although Hou Shilu was disgusted by this kind of war, which in his opinion was a massacre, he had to admit that this method of war was the most efficient.
In fact, less than 800 of the more than 4,000 rebel troops were killed, but the psychological damage caused to them was extremely huge.
Especially when watching an opponent so close to him shoot himself and his comrades and relatives on the spot without any expression, but he is powerless, this feeling of frustration and despair is enough to drive people crazy.
So when the eight hundred cavalry appeared behind them, they collapsed and surrendered with almost no reaction.
When the news of the battle in Laishui City reached Feng Ziying, who was still in Qingyuan City, it did not cause much disturbance. Both Feng Ziying and Ma Kongying took it for granted.
If you can't even deal with the three to four thousand rebel troops huddled in the nook of the mountain in Laishui, how can you deal with the main force of one to two hundred thousand rebels?
According to Feng Ziying's expectation, after dealing with the rebel army that may threaten the food supply line on the flanks, he can consider taking action against the main force of the three rebel armies first.
The southern rebel army is definitely unlikely to be the primary target. It is too far away, and the only choice is between the eastern rebel army and the central rebel army.
Both the central and eastern parts have their own advantages and disadvantages. The central part is the most important, but the rebel army is the most powerful and has extensive connections. Once defeated, the eastern rebel army will be a turtle in the urn and cannot make much trouble. However, the difficulty is not small. If you don't pay attention to him fleeing southward, you may join the rebels in Nansan Prefecture, which will be even more difficult.
The rebel army in the east is relatively weak, but its coverage is in a special location. To defeat this rebel army, we will face terrain challenges.
The lake bandits in Baiyangdian and Wuguandian are mixed with the eastern rebels. Their geographical advantages are self-evident. They can launch attacks on the government troops from any direction, making you exhausted. If you want to fight back, you may be trapped in a lot of fog.
Feng Ziying even thought that this might be the earliest prototype of the principle that when the enemy advances, we retreat, when the enemy is stationed, we harass, and when the enemy is tired, we attack, which directly confused You Shiwei.
There were more than 20,000 dignified Ji Zhen troops, but they were toyed with in this area by the rebels.
Although the loss was not huge, it made the Eastern Rebel Army famous and its power expanded. Compared with these two things, it was actually a failure.
"I think it is more appropriate to deal with the rebels in the east. Otherwise, when we fight against the rebels in the central part, we will always have to face these guys who may cause trouble for us behind the scenes. Renqiu, Anzhou, Gaoyang, and Li County to the south, and Li County The county itself is a place where the White Lotus Sect is rampant, and further down it is connected with the central rebel army. Fortunately, Qizhou is still in our hands, so I think it is best to strengthen the Qizhou and Suning lines first. Take control of Li County, no matter what method you think of, separate the bottom of the two cars, and then we can say that we can defeat them one by one."
Ma Kongying and You Shiwei both nodded silently.
Cut off the connection between the two, but not too much, otherwise it will suddenly stir up a hornet's nest, and it will be easy to scare the snake before you are fully prepared.
"Brother Shiwei, Ji Zhen will be the main force in this battle, but I also promised brother Shi Gong that Ji Zhen will not draw too much power, so if Jingying is coming, don't frown. The Jingying now is extraordinary. In fact, they are all the foundation of the Northwest Army. You should know that some of them are also the border troops that I personally recruited. I believe that although their combat effectiveness is not as good as that of the elite border troops, it is not the same as that of the guards..."
You Shiwei raised his eyebrows, as if he didn't believe it, "Sir, are you so confident?"
"You are also from Lao Yulin. Don't you know about the soldiers in the border villages?" Feng Ziying asked back: "How are the soldiers in these border villages, Boluosi Village, Boyan Village, Baitang Village, Datu Falcon Village, and Yuerhe Village, how are you doing? It’s just that you’re not a stranger.”
You Shiwei was surprised: "Sir, have you wiped out all these border villages? Have they all surrendered to the government?"
(End of chapter)
