weaving

Chapter 172

The formation of the Qing army stopped two miles away, and after they regrouped, they slowly advanced forward again. With yesterday's experience, the Qing army was not in a hurry when they were marching.

Today, the shield chariots of the Qing army are actually divided into two layers, inner and outer. The outer shield chariots are driven by the coat-coated Ahas of the banners. Behind the shield chariots are some ragged youths. Pushing, followed by densely packed Qing army archers.

Compared to yesterday, the formation of the Qing army was much quieter. When they entered within a mile distance, there was another roar from three sides of the Xuanda camp, and clouds of smoke rose everywhere.

A nest of fronts, a hundred tigers running together and other big rockets roared away again, forming an overwhelming arrow rain, covering a large area of ​​the Qing army array for about a mile.

Compared with arrows thrown by humans, rockets are faster and more powerful. Rockets fly high and deep, covering a very wide killing area, and rockets are famous for flying randomly. You can't guarantee that it will fly straight, or Turning a corner, or coming from the sky, the direction is unpredictable, and everyone in the Qing army is in danger.

In addition, when the rocket is launched, it roars like a huge thunder, and drags a long tail flame. The horses with poor psychological quality often jump in surprise and refuse to move forward. Even for people, it is a great deterrent.

However, with yesterday's experience, the Qing soldiers who attacked at this time had a sense of defense and did not appear to be particularly flustered. Therefore, in addition to alarming many Qing army horses, the casualties caused by these waves of rockets But not very big.

Shortly after the hundred tigers ran together and waited for the big rocket to launch, there was an even more violent "boom" sound from the Xuanda camp.

Rockets such as flying guns, flying knives, and flying swords were fired one after another on the Xuan Da army's line, and many horses in the Qing army's line were even more violently commotioned.

Against the heavy rain of artillery and rockets, the Qing army finally approached about [-] steps in front of the formation. They stopped again and stopped advancing, and the shield vehicles slowly staggered back and forth from left to right.

They were really smart this time. The shield vehicles only advanced slowly in front of those trenches. There was not a single shield vehicle on the passage reserved by Xuan Dajun. Obviously, they deliberately avoided the artillery bombardment at the end of each passage. .

Seeing from a distance the Qing army shield chariot parked there, not moving for a long time, Sergeant Xuan was puzzled. Zhang Cheng stood on the turret of the south gate of Jiazhuang, staring suspiciously at the man who was more than 200 steps away. Qing army shield chariot.

Liang Song, the head of the infantry army, was also puzzled: "Why, what does this tartar mean, to fight or not to fight?"

Soon there was noise and cries from the Qing army, and a large group of young and strong people in ragged clothes came out from behind the shield chariot, being whipped and driven away.

There are men and women among them, most of them are young and strong, few of them are old and weak, but all of them are in tattered clothes, some are carrying earthen loads, some are carrying earthbags and other objects, their steps are staggering, a little dragged, and there are Qing soldiers behind them. Whip or gun sticks slapped and slapped, many people were knocked to the ground and struggled to get up again.

Seeing those people getting closer and closer, the Xuanda officers and soldiers behind the wall and the earthen wall were all dumbfounded. Liang Song also stared at those people blankly, not knowing what to do.

For a moment, the entire defense line of the Xuanda Army fell silent, and only the cries of the common people could be faintly heard, as well as the anger and curses of the Qing soldiers. Obviously, the same situation was encountered in all defense lines.

Zhang Cheng said to Zhang Yan in a deep voice, "Uncle, you can't just tell them to fill up the trench."

"But those are the people of my Daming!"

Zhang Yan gritted his teeth and said, he punched the crenel on the wall of the village.

"Uncle stays here, I'm going to see the governor,"

After Zhang Cheng finished speaking, he turned around and left, went straight down the wall of the village, and went to the watchtower where Lu Xiangsheng was.

He just rushed to the watchtower, and before he went up, he saw Yang Guozhu and Hu Dawei also galloping towards them. The three of them looked at each other and knew in their hearts that they were all here for the people who filled the trenches.

Zhang Cheng followed the two commanders and went up to the watchtower, but he saw Lu Xiang's face sank like water, his hands tightly pressed against the railing of the watchtower, and he looked at the people walking slowly to the east without saying a word.

Lu Xiangsheng didn't speak, turned around, went down the watchtower, and rushed to the turret on the east gate. Zhang Cheng and other generals followed closely, went up to the turret of the east gate, and watched from afar the ragged clothes of the people before they were whipped. Row.

At this moment, they have walked forward for more than 20 steps, only a few dozen steps away from the first trench. They staggered forward with their shoulders and hands in their hands. Through the back of the people, some Qing soldiers could be seen coming out from behind the shield chariot, dodging among the crowd. The people beat and slapped behind them.

There was constant shouting and cursing, and the leather whip was raised from time to time. Every time the whip went down, there was a rain of blood, and there were continuous beatings with spears and sticks. The cries of the beaten people were even more desolate and mournful.

Seeing this situation, Zhang Cheng, Lu Xiangsheng and others were extremely resentful. Zhang Cheng said in a deep voice next to Lu Xiangsheng: "Minister, you can't ask these people to fill up the trenches, otherwise our army's defense line will be destroyed. The danger of the Qing army breaking through!"

Lu Xiangsheng's face turned pale, he shook his head and said, "The common people are all the subjects of the court, and it is a crime for the governor to fail to protect them, so how could he have the heart to lay hands on them?"

Yang Guozhu and Hu Dawei looked at each other, their expressions were very anxious. If each of them encountered such a situation alone in their army, they would have ordered the firing of guns.

However, Lu Xiangsheng is here at this moment, and he has not obeyed the military order. Who dares to bear the consequences of massacring the people?
Hu Dawei suddenly said: "Minister, look at those people, although their clothes are ragged, but they are all strong and strong. It is very likely that they are pretending to be slaves to break through my camp defense. It is no harm to kill them."

Lu Xiangsheng shook his head slowly, he could tell at a glance whether the people across the street were pretending to be Qing troops.

Unlike the generals around him, Lu Xiangsheng didn't really care about the impeachment of the censors in the court, but he really couldn't bear to attack the people, but he couldn't bear to attack the people. Army attack?
Yang Guozhu was also impatient, and hurried forward and said: "Maybe we can pick archers with good archery skills and shoot the slaves behind the people, or prevent them from approaching, or even disperse the people..."

Speaking of this, he sighed himself. This method can be said to have little effect and will not have any major effect. Lu Xiangsheng also gritted his teeth. He wanted to order to fire several times, but he held back.

Driven by the Qing soldiers, those common people moved forward timidly, and seeing that the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty on the opposite side did not fire their cannons, they felt relieved and walked faster, and soon they would reach the trench.

Zhang Cheng said anxiously: "Minister, I can't just sit and wait like this!
You can raise the muzzles of artillery everywhere to bombard the rear of the Qing army. You can also intimidate the people who fill the trenches. Back to the Qing army. "

(End of this chapter)