stubborn thief

On the afternoon of the 23rd day of the first lunar month in the seventh year of Chongzhen, Zhuang Langwei was covered by rising smoke and gunpowder.

While the wheels creaked and the war horses neighed, impassioned military music sounded in the north of the city. Hundreds of small and medium-sized field guns lined up outside the city and fired one after another. city ​​head.

The solid iron bullets were firmly embedded in the battlements, and more shells crossed the city head and smashed into the houses in the nine streets and eighteen lanes in the city, smashing the tile roofs and ridges, and frightened the family members of the Banner Army living in the city to rush to the street.

Seeing this scene, Jing Xiaoliu, who was standing on the horse path inside the north city wall to avoid the shells, was about to burst into tears, cursed, grabbed the collar of the village soldier next to him, and shouted close to his ear: "Come here! You go to gather!" The people in the city, drive them all to Nanurn City, the shells will explode! They will be killed on the street!"

In Jing Xiaoliu's heart, even though he had only occupied the city for half a month, the more than 1000 people in the city belonged to him.

Because most of these military family members who are so poor that only three or four members of a family only need a ragged cotton jacket have already eaten the food of the Generalissimo as early as this autumn.

Not to mention that in order to calm people's hearts, Jing Xiaoliu had told them a long time ago that the military rations in this city were for them to eat together, and when the government troops invaded, they would lose their sight of the rations.

It was the first time for the soldiers to encounter heavy artillery fire, and they were so frightened that they couldn't speak. As soon as they heard this, they nodded, when they heard a short and abrupt cry from the horse path.

Immediately, as if a ball had been exploded, with a bang, a black cannonball flew across the air, and sprinkled a patch of red on the shoulder-to-shoulder road.

The soldiers from the township were in chaos immediately, and the soldier who was listening to Jing Xiaoliu's order turned his head and was about to run down the driveway, but Jing Xiaoliu raised his arms and slapped his face twice. He said: "Remember, let them fetch the rations first, they are not allowed to push the carts, and take as much as they want, not the east, west and north gates, but drive them to the South Gate Urn City."

"Well, the South Gate Urn City!"

Before the officers and soldiers fired their cannons, Jing Xiaoliu looked on the city wall. The officers and soldiers were only around [-], not enough to spread out to surround the small city, and they would not be able to block the south gate for a while.

"When the south gate is full of people, open the city gate and let them all out. Run south, as far as you can, until tomorrow morning, when you see Hongchengzi, you will be safe."

In fact, Jing Xiaoliu thought about leaving these women and children behind to guard the city, but after some consideration, he thought it was unnecessary, and it was better to let them out of the city.

If [-] or so well-trained men cannot hold the city, it will still be impossible to add [-] women and children.

There's no point in killing someone else's life.

At the time when he gave the order, explosive bombs with lead wires exploded one after another on the city wall and inside the city, some were explosive bombs, some were poisonous smoke bombs, and the city was filled with smoke and choked people to tears.

Fortunately, Jing Xiaoliu's army was hiding on the horse path inside the city wall. The artillery fire from the army outside the city was mainly focused on attacking the gate towers and battlements, and they would not be able to hurt them for a while.

Even so, Jing Xiaoliu was terrified. The non-stop artillery outside the city made him smack his tongue inwardly, wondering what Xie Erhu did in Songshan, so that the Gansu army outside the city did not even build a siege position. , Push the train to the city and launch a fierce attack.

Rogue siege knows how to build equipment first and then dig trenches. How can there be such a style of fighting regardless of what comes up?

It's not that Ding Shaoyin outside the city doesn't know the truth about digging trenches. Zhuang Langwei's defenses are empty, and if the defenders in the besieged city are not mentally strong, they will open the city and surrender... This is something everyone knows.

But Ding Shaoyin knew that he had no time, no time to dig trenches, and no time to build decent siege equipment. All he could rely on was the artillery in his hand and the crude ladder made in a hurry.

Because although the defense force of Zhuanglang Weicheng is empty, the right time and place are not in his hands.

In the middle of this river valley is the Zhuanglang River, which is [-] steps in the narrow part and [-] steps in the wide part.

Both Xishan and Dongshan have a wide mountain road leading to the river valley. The Xishan Road is in the north, and the Fan soldiers stationed in the West Datong Hebao can attack from behind;

It was this terrain and situation that made Ding Shaoyin dare not send troops to cross the river and pass Hexi to the outer city of the South Gate.

Because according to Ding Shaoyin's understanding of the surrounding terrain, counting from the igniting of the beacon tower of Zhuanglang Weicheng, his battalion of Liangzhou troops had only one day to safely attack the city.

There are speeds in marching, and Ding Shaoyin can only calculate according to the speed of the enemy's marching.

One day later, the Mongolian cavalry in the Songshan area could rush out of the mountains to reinforce Zhuang Langwei, and two days later, the Fanbing from West Datong Fort could also arrive behind them.

Of course, according to intelligence from the rear, his reinforcements are already on their way, and the standard battalion of Gansu General Yang Jiamo is heading south.

The reinforcements are indeed strong reinforcements. Yang Jiamo is responsible for Gansu's defense and cannot leave. The supervisor of the Gansu General Brigade is called Chai Shihua.

Chai Shihua was a guard from Xining, but he was very reliable to the court because his family members were dead.

His father's name was Chai Guozhu, and he shot the title of brave champion of the three armies with a horseshoe shot in the crotch during the Wanli period. He was born as a hereditary centurion. , Lizhen Shanhaiguan, Shenyang, in the early years of the apocalypse, Zuo Dudu died of illness and was an extremely human minister.

His uncle's name was Chai Guodong, who led a battalion as a general in the Battle of Saerhu, and was killed in the Eastern Route Army of the Juniper Division. Killed in Liaodong.

Chai Shihua is the only one left in the family. He is also an enterprising and brave general. He served as the defense of Cai Qibao earlier. When Hudun Rabbit hit the side wall, he rushed to help the Fanwei of the town three times in a year, and raised funds to repair the city wall. More than 100 war horses were added to the fort.

Although his current official position is only a general, he has a very high reputation in the army. Even the people of Turpan outside Jiayuguan are in awe when they hear his name as General Chai.

But no matter how reliable this army is, no matter how eager it is to march, it is still two hundred miles away. The water in the distance cannot quench the thirst of the near, and it will take at least two days to reach the battlefield.

Ding Shaoyin became ruthless and ordered his subordinates to seize the city tonight.

The artillery used most by the Liangzhou army is the Mielu artillery cart in the northwest. The cart is a three-wheeled cart with two large wheels in the front and a small wheel in the middle behind. A catty of shells.

This is a small field gun with a durable forged gun body, and is usually used in field battles to fire in turns when approaching the enemy fifty paces.

Compared with other kinds of light cannons in the same position, the Mielu Cannon is not very good in terms of parameters. The Yongzhu Cannon is lighter than it, and the Franji Cannon is faster than it. The entire Mielu artillery vehicle group is similar, but its power is much greater.

It has the advantage of being cheap.

An extermination cannon only costs five taels of silver, and even a chariot, a gun group only needs 16 taels of silver, and there is no need for casting, so there is no need to build a large shaft furnace. Very friendly.

There are no more weapons that can easily pull out the firepower of 150 or even [-] cannon salvos from the frontier guard.

The northwest frontier army does not need to attack the city, not to mention that the artillery of this era does not have the ability to smash through the three-foot-thick brick-and-earth wall in a short time. Even with such artillery, before the appearance of Liu Chengzong, the cities in the northwest were all owned by the Ming army. .

What they need to deal with is the strong Mongolian men with soft bows and fast horses who come and go like the wind. The Extermination Cannon is the most suitable weapon in the hands of the Northwest Frontier Army.

Even if they need to attack Zhuanglang Acropolis now, the Mielu Cannon can still suppress the artillery at the top of the city with the swarm of eggs.

Among the large number of extermination artillery vehicles is the Feiyun Cannon, the full name of which is Feiyun Thunderbolt Cannon. This is an artillery specially designed to open flower bombs during the Jiajing period.

The shape of the cannon body is between the general cannon and the bowl-mouth cannon. The core technology is on the cannonball. The cannonball has a cylindrical wooden horse and a bullet seat, which shoots out a parabola, and puts the hollow flower bullet into the city head in the city.

The ignition mechanism of the shell is that the hollow iron bullet is filled with gunpowder and iron pieces, which are stuffed into the fuse and ignited. The fuse is easily knocked off or extinguished when it hits the ground, and the misfire rate is high.

Most of the time, it can only be used as a mortar. A mortar is to shoot out shells, fall in a parabola, and hit people.

But even if two of them can explode, it is enough to deter the defenders in the city.

When several flowering bombs exploded at the top of the city, bursting out pieces of gunpowder smoke, Ding Shaoyin, who personally stood in the artillery position to supervise the battle, waved forward.

The artillery at the top of the city had been suppressed, and there were only a few scattered Fran cannons hiding behind the battlements, and there were gunners beside them, but they were reluctant to fire, and Ding Shaoyin had already figured it out.

"The Franc machine in the city is equipped with Sanzi, and it fires rockets."

The battle flag was unfurled, and the guns for destroying captives were still being fired. The Liangzhou Weiqi army, pushing a fire chariot in the army, crossed the artillery position and stepped forward. Hundreds of tigers rushed together to raise a large cloud of gunpowder smoke, and released thousands of rockets towards the city.

In the screaming sound of gunpowder, the scattered rockets rushed towards the top of the city with trailing flames, and drew irregular ballistic trajectories in mid-air. Falling, and some over the top of the city, shooting indiscriminately in all directions.

The gunpowder smoke immediately covered the launch position and the city head at the same time, and the defenders at the city head were also overwhelmed and unable to lift their heads.

In fact, the defenders at the top of the city were almost frightened crazy.

Jing Xiaoliu's troops were insufficient, and there were scattered soldiers guarding the north and west walls. There were only [-] defenders on the entire north wall. They were worried that they would be disabled during the shelling stage. Most of the soldiers were ordered to hide on the slope inside the city wall. On the horse path, only a few artillerymen stayed behind the city wall.

Everyone knows that it is completely idiotic to expect these artillerymen to face hundreds of light cannons, and to use Frang machine guns to shoot at them when shells the size of goose eggs are flying all over the sky.

The rural soldiers of Dongguan Minzhuang had never received artillery training at all. It is completely different from being suppressed by hundreds of cannons on the battlefield.

Even if they were facing Liangzhou Wei's banner army, it was Grandpa and Dayun who defeated [-] cavalry at Songshan [-], their father and general died in the battle of Saerhu, and elder brother Yuanliao fought with the Eastern Tartars in Luanzhou, Zunhua Attack the big city against the banner army of the big formation.

Gunpowder smoke was everywhere, but the sound of gunfire outside the city continued. Finally, when the gunpowder smoke gradually cleared, the rural soldiers and artillerymen who shrank behind the battlements dared to take a look down the city through the battlements.

With just one glance, the souls of the dead were frightened, and they turned back to the road in horror and shouted: "General! The ladder is going up to the city!"

At the moment when thousands of rockets spread a cloud of gunpowder smoke over the city, Ding Shaoyin's banner troops passed through the artillery position and pushed a simple modified siege vehicle to the edge of the city.

The bases of all the chariots are partial box carts from Cheying. Some have fixed long ladders, some are connected to girders to hang wooden curtains, and there are also temporary corridors made of chariots and wooden boards. The long ladders with hooks have been borrowed. Gunpowder smoke was on the top of the city, and teams of flag troops were climbing up the ladder from all directions on the city wall.

Jing Xiaoliu, who was hiding on the bridleway, stared at the words, pulled out his waist knife and waved his hands behind him, saying, "Fight against them!"

The orders of the generals sounded one after another, and groups of rural soldiers hiding on the horse path rushed to all parts of the city wall with spears and firearms.

All of a sudden, there were shouts and killings in the city, and the Francophone erected on the horse-faced wall was about to fire at the side of the siege army, when it was covered by a hanging wooden curtain, and the wooden curtain was beaten to pieces with one cannon. Light is everywhere, but it is difficult to hurt the army under the city.

Before the second cannon could be reloaded and fired, the burning kerosene tank under the city had already sprayed burning kerosene onto the three-foot-high horse-faced wall, and several artillerymen were immediately burned into burning men.

This is not over yet, several loaded sub-guns were also ignited, and the forged sub-guns became small jets on the horse-faced wall, spraying the scattered guns in all directions, and suddenly a horse-faced wall fell into a sea of ​​flames. standing living.

On the other side, the chained spikes were thrown into the city by the town soldiers, and several flag soldiers who climbed the city with knives were patted into meatloaf amid the exclamation, and even the wooden ladder was shattered from the middle. Fortunately, Banner Army, who was lucky not to be photographed, also fell from the ladder and fell into a mess.

Soon several pieces of blue bricks were smashed by the defenders against the fire oil tank with gunfire, smashing the oil tank to pieces, throwing down several burning quilts, and igniting the fire oil everywhere, turning the city into a sea of ​​flames.

A long ladder was destroyed, and finally one long ladder was not found by the defenders. It was erected on the east wall, and several flag soldiers filed up.

When the defenders found that the enemy had entered the city, they quickly organized their men to form formations on the city wall.

At this moment, Ding Shaoyin under the city received the news that the flag army had successfully boarded the city. With a wave of his hand, behind a row of vans, the Liangzhou Weiqi army pulled away the soft bow and threw a rain of arrows towards the top of the city. .

Before the hastily assembled rural soldiers had time to deal with the impact, they were shot down by a rain of arrows head-on.

Fortunately, at this time, the Fran cannon on the other horse-faced wall was fired successfully, overturning half of the flag army waiting to attack the city under the ladder. It was quickly set ablaze by the defenders.

The Liangzhou army's first siege failed.

Ding Shaoyin at the bottom of the city showed no disappointment on his face. He had already tried out the approximate strength of the defenders on the city, and ordered: "Divide a thousand banner troops into three gates, make wooden ladders, and go to the city when you seize the opportunity, and send an order to Beicheng General, let the flag army rest for a while, and attack again before dark!"