boom!
Gunshots were heard on the city head.
Xue Mu, who was riding on horseback, was startled when he heard the noise and hurriedly looked to see if he was injured.
It wasn't until no wounds were found on his body that he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Sir, the bandits in the city are obviously stubborn, let's go back first!" The soldiers on the side persuaded Xue Mu to return to his camp.
Everyone knows that most of the weapons of the Tiger Flag are fire guns. Now the bandits on the city have only fired one gun. No one can guarantee whether they will fire the second, third, or even more.
Xue Mu nodded.
The sound of the gun just now had frightened him. Even if no one tried to persuade him, he would not continue to stay under the city wall and persuade the bandits in the city to surrender.
Immediately, he left Xinpingbao City with the guards around him.
Pan Yi was lying in front of the crenel, and when he saw that the person had left, he looked back.
"If we had fired the artillery just now, maybe the people would have stayed." Staff officer Cheng Ping said from the side.
Xue Mu and others were not within the range of the cannon, but they were within the range of the cannon.
Pan Yi waved his hand and said: "As the saying goes, don't kill the envoy when two armies are fighting. He is just here to persuade us to surrender. Killing him will only damage the reputation of our Tiger Flag, and the gain will not be worth the loss."
"Get ready to defend the city. I'm afraid the imperial army will attack the city soon." Cheng Ping said.
If they fail to persuade them to surrender, who knows what will come next is the imperial army attacking the city.
Pan Yi said: "Go and watch over the artillery team. The imperial army outside the city has brought more than a dozen cannons. When they attack the city, they will definitely fire first. When they see the cannons of the official army, they will let the artillery team use their cannons." Blow hard."
Due to the range of cannons in this era, when the two armies went to war, it was difficult to hide the cannons in a certain place to bombard the enemy positions. Cannons in this era were always placed in front of the army formations or on the top of the city to defend the city. .
No matter where they are placed, as long as they want to use cannons against the enemy, these cannons cannot hide from the opponent's eyes.
"I'll be there right away." Cheng Ping nodded and immediately ran to the artillery team.
As soon as Xue Mu returned to his camp, he directly said to Yang Guozhu: "General, the bandits in the city are stubborn and unwilling to surrender. If we want to regain Xinping Fort, we can only use a large army to break through the city and wipe out the bandits in the city. "
Yang Guozhu nodded expressionlessly.
He sent people to persuade the bandits in Xinpingbao to surrender because he did not want to lose too many soldiers and horses when attacking Xinpingbao. If he failed to persuade them to surrender, he did not feel it was a pity. He just wanted to kill more soldiers and horses.
"General Yang, don't waste time. Recover Xinping Fort as soon as possible so that you can go to clear out the bandits in other places in Datong earlier." Wang Bao said.
Lingqiu is the hometown of Tiger Flag in Datong.
If Xinping Fort had not been captured by the Tiger Banner army, the imperial army would not have come to Xinping Fort at all, but would have gone straight to Lingqiu.
"Send the order and ask the firearms battalion to push the cannons to the bottom of Xinpingbao City and bombard the bandits on the walls of Xinpingbao City. The forward battalion is ready to board the city at any time." Yang Guozhu ordered.
In order to deal with the cannons of the Tiger Flag, the general cannons he brought were all the cannons used to defend the city. They were powerful and had a long range, and were stronger than the cannons usually carried in the camp for field battles.
However, this kind of gun also has disadvantages, that is, it is bulky and inconvenient to move.
If these cannons had not been in Datong, otherwise just transporting these cannons would be enough to slow down the march of the army.
Soldiers from the firearms battalion on the official side pushed the cannon towards Xinpingbao.
The lightest of these cannons weighs three to four hundred kilograms. It requires several people to push it, but the speed of pushing it is not much faster.
After all, unlike the Tiger Flag, the army has specialized livestock and artillery carts. In addition, the cannons cast from the Tiger Flag are more advanced and lighter than the cannons made in the Ming Dynasty, so they must be convenient to carry. few.
Unfortunately, the firearms battalion under Yang Guozhu's tent did not have the animals to pull so many cannons, and could only rely on the battalion soldiers to push forward one by one.
The officers and soldiers moved their own cannons, but they couldn't hide it from Cheng Ping's eyes on the top of the city.
Monocular telescopes have basically been popularized by officers at the captain level in Tiger Flag. As the chief of staff of the war camp, Cheng Ping naturally has his own monocular telescope.
Through the monocular, he clearly saw the government and army transporting artillery to the front of the formation.
"Captain Lin, the rest depends on your artillery team." Cheng Ping said to Lin Ping, the artillery team captain beside him.
Lin Ping nodded, raised two command flags, and used them to convey a few flag messages to the gunners of the artillery team.
When he lowered his command flag, he heard a dozen four-pound cannons on the city wall firing at almost the same time.
The target of the attack was the official artillery in front.
boom! boom! boom!
The roar of the cannon resounded throughout the world, and cannonballs flew out one after another.
A dozen cannons fired at the same time, and a dozen cannonballs were fired.
Although these cannons have been measured by the gunner, there is no guarantee that they will hit the target. Therefore, the first round of cannons is basically used to test the cannons, and it is not required to hit the target.
If the cannon hits the target, there is no need to adjust. You only need to continue firing. If the cannon fails to hit the target, the gunner will readjust according to the impact point of the cannon to ensure that the second shot can hit the target.
Even so, in the first round of shelling, two cannonballs still fell on the cannons on the official side.
Seven or eight gunners from the army were killed or injured by cannons on the spot.
Fortunately, the distance between each cannon on the official army's side was relatively far, otherwise there would have been more casualties.
"You lead people to hold down the formation, and order the people in the firearms battalion to continue pushing the cannons to the front of the formation." Yang Guozhu noticed that some soldiers in the firearms battalion in front were frightened by the shelling just now, and there was confusion, so he ordered his own soldiers to hold down the formation. .
A group of soldiers on horseback stood behind the soldiers of the firearms camp.
As a result, the firearms camp, which was on the verge of chaos, slowly stabilized.
However, this is just the beginning.
Soon, the second round of artillery fire fell on the head of Xinpingbao.
The adjusted second round of bombardment was far more threatening than the first round of bombardment.
"The Heavenly Soldiers have arrived. Do you really think that these gangsters in your city can defend Xinping Fort?" Xue Mu shouted, "Liu Heng is in the grassland, but he sent you to Xinping Fort. He is asking you to die, so why bother? For someone who doesn't care about your life, you become an enemy of the imperial court. As long as you are willing to open the city and surrender, my general can take you under his command. Then you will be an official of the imperial court and honor your ancestors. Wouldn't it be better than being a precarious bandit?"
Pan Yi shouted to the people below the city: "Stop talking nonsense. If you have the ability, come and attack the city. You want me to surrender and realize your spring and autumn dream."
Immediately, he said to the gunman on the side: "Give them a gun and drive them away."
In order to guard against the bows and arrows on the city, Xue Mu and others had been staying a hundred steps away from Xinping Fort.
At such a long distance, even if you hit a low target from high, it would take a sharpshooter to hit it.
As for the fire cannon, its effective range is within a hundred steps. Coupled with the problem of accuracy, it is almost impossible to hit an enemy a hundred steps away.
