I want to be emperor

Chapter 209 Covering Shelling
Tang Hui hid on the battlements near the gate tower of the north city, frowning as he looked at the gray bandit army outside.

As for the taller city gate tower with a better view, he dared not go, nor could he.

That place was the key bombardment area after the bandit army started shelling. A large number of two-and-a-half-jin small artillery shells from the bandit army smashed the north gate tower to pieces, causing a large number of soldiers and even the commanding officers to watch the battle deployed on the gate tower on the spot. casualties of generals.

Now the city gate tower is dilapidated, even if you want to go up, you can't go up.

To observe the bandit army outside the city, Tang Hui could only hide on the ordinary city wall like ordinary soldiers, and observe the bandit army outside the city through the battlements.

In his line of sight, there were at least tens of thousands of bandit troops outside the city, and the armor rate was very high, especially those bandit soldiers with spears or sword shields, who looked like they were wearing heavy armor.

In addition, there are some bald bandit soldiers still wearing officers and soldiers uniforms, with white cloth strips sewn on their arms, who are carrying a large number of sand, stone and planks to fill the moat.

These bandit soldiers dressed as officers and soldiers, even Tang Hui knew that these people used to be officers and soldiers, but they surrendered themselves or became bandits after being captured.

But whether they are wearing gray military uniforms or uniforms of officers and soldiers, these bandits have one thing in common, that is, they are all bald...

Otherwise, why would some people call the Township Protection Army the Skinhead Army and the Monk Army?

"These traitors who surrendered to the thieves, after the thieves are wiped out in the future, these traitors will definitely make their lives worse than death." Tang Hui couldn't help feeling angry when he saw thousands of officers and soldiers and traitors filling the moat outside.

When fighting bandits before, these traitors ran away before they saw the bandits. It didn't take long after they surrendered to the bandits. They seemed to have changed their roots, and they worked so hard when fighting for the bandits.

While these damn traitors filled the moat, the bandit artillery units outside the city continued to fire, and even musketeers and archers stepped forward to provide continuous fire cover.

The bandit infantry outside the city seemed tough, but they were all within Tang Hui's expectations. Naturally, the bandit protection army that could defeat Lu Xiangsheng's troops would not be sent there.

But the fierceness of the bandit army's guns greatly exceeded Tang Hui's expectations.

This time the rebel army attacked the city, not only with a large number of light short robes, but also the famous two-and-a-half catty long cannon among the rebel army, whose firepower was quite ferocious.

The Beicheng Gate Tower was beaten to pieces, thanks to those two-and-a-half catties artillery.

But if it was just like this, Tang Hui wouldn't look so ugly.

If the rebel army only had these light short robes and long cannons weighing more than two catties, they would not be able to pose much threat to the tall and thick city walls.

In the end, if the rebel army wanted to attack the city, they still had to use infantry to climb the city to attack, and use their lives to pile up.

Putting it away like this, Tang Hui still has some confidence.

After all, the bandit army is small in strength. To be honest, the bandit army outside the city is now as strong as the defenders inside the city.

If the bandit army, which has no superiority in strength, wants to smash Zhongxiang City to death, thousands of people will be killed or injured easily. When the bandit army loses a lot, they will naturally stop attacking or even retreat.

But what Tang Hui didn't expect was that in addition to the traditional guns, the bandit army also had a short-barreled large artillery.

This thing looks inconspicuous, just a short and thick iron bump, but it can shoot out an explosive shell with a curved trajectory, which can directly land on the top of the city.

And this made the soldiers of the Ming army stationed on the city very uncomfortable.

Fortunately, the rate of fire of this kind of artillery of the Bandit Army is relatively slow, and the dud rate is very high. After ten rounds are fired, two or three of them will not explode, and some of the exploding shells will directly set off fireworks in mid-air... ...Only [-]-[-]% exploded after landing or exploded directly over the city.

However, even so, it caused huge casualties to the soldiers of the Ming army defending the city. In the area of ​​the city wall that was bombarded by the mortars of the rebel army, the soldiers had to hide or simply fled down the city wall.

This also allowed the bandit army to send people close to the city wall to fill up the moat.

Seeing the continuous bombardment by the bandits and the continuous filling of the moat by many defectors, Tang Hui felt that it was in danger.

If this continues, it won't take long for the bandit army to fill up the moat, and then they will rush up with a large number of siege equipment.

But Tang Hui clearly knew the threat, but Tang Hui had nothing to do.

"The gunfire of the bandit army is too fierce, Qian Xian, it's impossible to go on like this!" There were also guard generals beside him who were anxious, but they were just anxious.

Under the suppression of the firepower of the bandit army's guns, it was difficult for the officers and soldiers on the top of the city to fight back even with the various short robes deployed on the top of the city.

It's not that the Ming army had never tried to counterattack, using a large number of light and short artillery to kill and injure the bandit soldiers who came forward to fill up the moat, but after a while, not many bandit soldiers were killed or injured, and hundreds of people were killed or injured on their own side.

Tang Hui immediately gritted his teeth and said, "Prepare the heavy armor, and wait for the enemy to climb the wall before going to the top of the city to fight!"

In the current situation, it is impossible to stop the bandits from filling the moat and getting close to the city wall. The only hope is to wait for the bandits to come and fight them close.

Although the artillery of the bandit army is fierce, as long as one's own side hides behind the city wall, casualties can be effectively avoided. Once the bandit army sends troops to climb the city wall and attack the city, the artillery of the bandit army will naturally be unable to continue to suppress the city with firepower.

At that time, the defenders in the city will be able to go up to the top of the city and fight with the bandits in close quarters, keeping the bandits out of the city wall.

Hearing what Tang Hui said, the generals of the guards around him looked at the thieves with an astonishingly high rate of armor outside the city, and at the large area of ​​their own side hiding in the corner trembling to avoid the shelling. There were not many armored soldiers.

Want to rely on close combat to resist the bandit army?

Is this reliable?

However, whether it is reliable or not, they can only pin their hopes on close combat.

You can't do nothing, just wait for the bandits to come into the city, right?

While the defenders inside the city were making preparations, the rural protection army outside the city was also making various preparations step by step.

Siege directly?

I don't have that idea for the time being, at least today it is impossible.

According to the thoughts of the generals of the Rural Protection Army, today's battle is just bombardment and filling of the moat. After filling out a wide enough moat, and waiting for your own bombardment to kill enough enemies and further reduce the morale of the defenders, then it's time. The next day was when the infantry was dispatched to climb the walls.

And with the support of the rural protection army, once the infantry is dispatched to climb the wall, then it will be the final general attack!
So, for a whole day today, the sound of rumbling guns inside and outside Zhongxiang City never stopped. The rural protection army continued to bombard with field guns, light tunics and siege mortars, and adjusted their orientation while firing. , Almost the entire northern city wall was covered and shelled.

They also focused on shelling the gate tower area of ​​the north city, as well as the city wall area on the left and right sides where the Ming army deployed a large number of traditional artillery.

Under the cover of shelling, the Fifth Garrison Brigade also successfully filled a large section of the moat after paying more than 100 casualties.

In the evening, after the artillery shelling of the Baoxiang Army stopped, Zhang Malin, the artillery director in charge of directing today's shelling, also found Luo Zhixue: "Today, we fired a total of nearly 1000 rounds of [-]-jin grenades. One thousand rounds of semi-solid bullets and more than [-] rounds of light shotgun.”

"The intensive bombardment completely suppressed the resistance on the north wall of the enemy army. By the afternoon, few of the enemy troops on the north wall continued to resist on the wall. Most of them hid behind the wall."

"According to our estimates, this shelling killed at least 500 enemy troops, and half of the results were achieved within half an hour of the shelling. The enemy took precautions and the shelling effect weakened. We have also reduced our bombardment accordingly."

"Our early bombardment mainly covered the gate tower and the enemy's two main artillery positions at the head of the city, killing and wounding a large number of enemy archers and gunners."

"I was under the cover of the artillery unit. The fifth garrison brigade did not receive much firepower during the stage of filling the moat. There were only sporadic bows and guns from the enemy's counterattack."

"Through today's shelling, we have completely suppressed it, and even dispelled the enemy's confidence in long-range fire confrontation with us on the top of the city."

After hearing this, Luo Zhixue nodded slightly and said: "The artillery unit, especially the mortar unit, did a very good job today. We will continue to work hard in the future, and do a good job of covering fire without arrogance or rashness!"

Hearing Luo Zhixue's praise, Zhang Malin couldn't help but grinned and said, "Don't worry, General, the artillery unit of our Township Protection Army has been battle-tested for a long time. Today's scene may seem big, but it can still be fought back in Yuzhou. Battles are stressful."

This is indeed true. The artillery unit of Zhongxiang's fortified battle this time seems to be the protagonist, but in fact they have been bombarding steadily all the time. They have not even suffered a single shell from the enemy from the beginning to the end. They have not encountered any danger, and they have suffered one casualty nothing……

It can be said that it was very easy to play.

On the other hand, in the Battle of Yuzhou, the field artillery unit faced the threat of enemy cavalry and fought very nervously. In order to prevent the enemy cavalry from approaching, the artillery at that time did not care whether the artillery would explode or not. It is to maintain a super high rate of fire for shelling.

After the enemy cavalry retreated and was chased by our own cavalry, Zhang Malin and other artillerymen breathed a sigh of relief.

Compared with the tense shelling at that time, today's shelling can be called a 'walk'.

Luo Zhixue said: "Rest well at night, and prepare the ammunition for tomorrow. If there is no accident, we will attack the city. When the time comes, any of your weapons will be heavier. We must expel the enemy from the top of the city in advance. They affect the early advance of your own infantry, and after the infantry attacks the city, your artillery units must also cover the rear and the walls on both sides of the artillery to prevent other enemy reinforcements."

Zhang Malin said: "Tomorrow's battle, our artillery unit will definitely live up to your high expectations, General!"

(End of this chapter)