Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 634 Creating a Plague

The main town of the second town of the Ming New Army is Huaxia.

Because of Huaxia's poor performance in countering the rebellion in Guangxi, it took three thousand new troops to fight for nearly two years, but it was still unable to quell the rebellion in Guangxi. It was not even as good as Li Xiangjun's performance in eastern Sichuan. More than 5000 female soldiers plus a small number of native soldiers in eastern Sichuan put a lot of pressure on Huaxia.

So this time, Huaxia tried its best to win the battle.

Huaxia even went up to the first stage of the blunderbuss in person, lying behind the parapet and holding up a telescope to observe the enemy's situation.

Huaxia's adjutant is a fresh graduate from the Imperial College. He seemed very nervous at the moment, and persuaded Huaxia: "General Town, it's too dangerous here. Jiannu's tiger squatting guns have never stopped, and Hongyi cannons and Fran cannons are also The cannon could be fired at any time, so let's hurry back to the bunker of the second blunderbuss."

"What are you afraid of?" Huaxia said, "Jiannu has guns, so don't we have guns?"

Of course, the Ming army also had artillery. In addition to a field artillery brigade and a mountain artillery brigade directly under its jurisdiction in the second town, each infantry battalion was equipped with a tiger squatting artillery, a total of 2 tiger squatting artillery.

Therefore, the second town of the new army has a full 2 artillery pieces.

For example, at this moment, the tiger squatting guns of the Ming army also did not stop.

There are at least 10 tiger crouching cannons, which have been bombarding the Jiannu gun platform less than [-] steps ahead.

It's just that this kind of shelling is basically useless, because the infantry and even the artillery on both sides are hiding in the shooting blind spot where the opponent's tiger squatting guns can't reach, so they are basically fighting blindly.

At this time, if you look down from a high altitude, you can see a strange picture.

The southernmost blunderbuss platform built by the Qing army is less than [-] steps away from the nearest Ming army blunderbuss platform.

Since the peasants of both sides dare not work on the surface, because if they show their heads, they will be smeared by the opponent's red cannons or tiger squat cannons, so the fronts of the two gun platforms have not been repaired.

However, the outer trenches of the two gun platforms are wider.

Moreover, the folks on both sides are still continuing to widen the trenches, and they are still digging toward the middle from both north and south directions at the same time, so the "earth wall" in the middle is getting thinner and thinner.

On the north side of the earthen wall, thousands of Lianyong and the Eight Banners Han troops are already holding their breath and waiting for orders.

On the south side of the earth wall, there is no Ming army in the outer trench of the Ming army gun platform.

但在护墙垛堞中间的空隙处，2门4寸野战炮、2门2.5寸山地炮还有6门虎蹲炮已经亮出了黑洞洞的炮口，对准土墙。

Seeing that there was not much earth wall left in the middle, Huaxia immediately ordered the civilian husband to retreat.

Hundreds of North Koreans immediately withdrew, and the outer trenches were immediately emptied.

Soon, the earthen wall in the middle began to drop the earth, which meant that the Jiannu peasants on the opposite side would soon dig through the earthen wall.

Huaxia immediately ordered: "Send me the order, and the artillery will start shelling!"

With one order, 10 guns fired at the same time, and the dense cannonballs poured on the earth wall in front of them like a torrential rain.

The earth wall originally only had a thin layer left, but it collapsed suddenly after being bombarded by thousands of lead, instantly forming a huge gap with a width of more than one hundred steps.

Almost at the same time, there were wailing sounds one after another on the other side of the earth wall.

It was the Jiannu peasants on the opposite side of the earth wall who were affected by the Ming army's shotgun.

Before the smoke and dust dispersed, Jiannu Lianyong, who had been waiting for a long time, rushed over with a shovel.

As soon as these Jiannu Lianyong entered the outer ring ditch of the Ming army gun platform, they dug frantically on the ground with shovels, and soon dug out several mines.

"Mother thief, court death!"

Huaxia immediately ordered the infantry to open fire.

The 270 infantrymen on the gun platform immediately set up a line array to fire their guns in turn.

Intensive gunshots rang out, and Jiannu Lianyong immediately fell down row by row.

However, the good times didn't last long. Thousands of Eight Banners Han troops soon appeared in the gap in the collapsed earth wall, divided into three rows, and fired at the Ming army's blunderbuss platform. The cannon and the red cannon also fired fiercely at the Ming army's blunderbuss platform from a distance of three hundred steps.

But Jiannu fired solid bullets.

Because there are Jiannu infantry in the middle, shooting shotguns is easy to cause accidental injury.

The Ming army's blunderbuss platform wall was instantly blown up with smoke and dust, and more than a dozen soldiers fell to the ground in response.

With such intensive firepower, even if most of the soldiers of the Ming army hid behind the parapet and only their heads were exposed above the parapet, they were still vulnerable to injury.

"Don't worry about Lianyong, let's kill Jiannu's musketeer first!"

Huaxia quickly made an accurate judgment. The soldiers of the Ming army on the gun platform immediately turned their guns and aimed at the Jiannu Musketeers, and the cannon on the gun platform also aimed at the Jiannu Musketeers after reloading the ammunition.

After about 1 minute of firefighting, the artillerymen of the Ming army on the gun platform fired again.

Accompanied by a huge roar, thousands of lead splattered like a hailstone towards the Eight Banners Han troops lined up.

The next moment, the Eight Banners Han army lined up outside the gap in the earth wall fell down like wheat that was cut down.

In addition, many Lian Yong who were digging landmines in front were also affected, and fell down in a pool of blood wailing.

Just this round of shelling, the formation of the Eight Banners Han army lined up at the gap in the earth wall became sparse, especially the Eight Banners Han army in the front row was not much left.

Seeing this, the two rows of Eight Banners Han troops in the back immediately collapsed.

It was unknown who took the lead in the chaos, and it quickly spread to everyone.

In a blink of an eye, the remaining seven or eight hundred Eight Banners Han troops ran away.

As soon as the Eight Banners Han army ran, the firepower of the Ming army immediately turned to Lianyong who was working in the trench.

However, because Lian Yong had already entered the trench and was too close, the field artillery and mountain artillery of the Ming army were limited to the shooting angle and could not be fired, but the tiger squatting artillery could still be fired.

Accompanied by the sound of gunfire and the huge roar of tiger squatting guns,

The slaves who entered the trench and practiced bravery were quickly defeated.

The tough battle in the age of firearms is really a huge challenge.

……

In front of Jiannu gun platform.

Hong Chengchou and Hou Fangyu saw the defeat of the Eight Banners Han army and Lianyong through the lookout holes on the battlements.

Hong Chengchou let out a long sigh when he saw the panicked and defeated Eight Banners Han army and Lianyong.

Hou Fangyu also sighed, and asked sadly: "Hong Butang, why don't you just get on the car?"

"Forget it, it's useless." Hong Chengchou had a bitter expression on his face, "If you don't clear the mines in the outer trenches first, the Ming army will not be able to blow up as many vehicles as you need."

Hou Fangyu was speechless, this was a dead end.

Without clearing the landmines first, the wagons and vans would not be able to enter the trenches of the Ming army.

But if there is no protection of the car or van, Lian Yong has no chance to clear the landmines.

So the only way is to use red cannons and Franco machine guns to smash down the protective wall of the Ming army's gun platform, and then load a hundred bullets to clear the Ming army on the opposite gun platform, and then dispatch the Eight Banners Han army to seize the place where no one is alive. gun platform.

But this way of fighting is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also impossible to cut off the Ming army's food road.

Because the Qing soldiers took a lot of effort to seize a blunderbuss platform, but the Ming army has rushed to repair more blunderbuss platforms on the other side of the grain road. The Ming army will only fight more and more blunderbuss platforms. How to cut off the grain road?

After a while, Hou Fangyu asked unwillingly: "Is there no other way?"

"Yes, there is no other way." Hong Chengchou said helplessly, "At least it is impossible to cut off the Ming army's supply route, and the only way to do it now is to defend."

"Defend to death?" Hou Fangyu said in a deep voice, "Who has more food than the Ming army?"

"It's not just food, there are many factors in the war." Hong Chengchou said solemnly, "There are also the morale of the army, the morale of the people, the geographical advantage and even the weather, especially the weather, which may be the only chance for our Qing soldiers to turn defeat into victory."

"Time?" Hou Fangyu fixed his eyes and said, "Hong Butang said, plague?"

Speaking of this, Hou Fangyu turned his eyes to the sky again, and saw a scorching sun hanging alone in the sky.

In the past few days, Beizhi has been warming rapidly. Not only the North Sea has thawed, but also the night wind has become warm.

In this season of alternating hot and cold, warm and cold, it is indeed easy to be infected with wind and cold, and even outbreaks of plague.

Hong Chengchou nodded, and continued: "Looking through the history books of China, the northerners conquered the south, or the southerners conquered the north. Many times, they were not defeated by the opponent, but by the weather or the plague."

"Since the Ming Dynasty entered the Chongzhen Dynasty, the plague has never stopped."

"The year before last, there was a great epidemic in Shanxi, and hundreds of thousands of people died. Last year, a plague broke out in Shaanxi, killing hundreds of villages. This year, in the spring of this year, there was another epidemic in Shandong, and there were many dead bodies."

"Most of the Ming soldiers are from the south, and they don't like the soil and water in the north."

After a pause, he went on to say: "The Ming army gathered tens of 10 people, mixed with humans and animals, plus wounded soldiers and dead bodies. If you are not careful, a plague may break out. At that time, the Ming army will collapse without fighting. .”

A sinister look flashed across Hou Fangyu's eyes: "Maybe we can add another fire."

Hong Chengchou couldn't help frowning when he heard the words. He naturally understood Hou Fangyu's meaning, that is, to deliberately abandon the corpses of humans and animals in the wild and let them rot, so that the possibility of a plague outbreak would indeed be greatly increased.

However, Hong Chengchou still has a bit of humanity, he is not a beast, so he cannot do such evil things.

Immediately, Hong Chengchou changed the topic: "Waiting for the weather, the biggest problem is the regent."

"Is Hong Butang worried that the regent will be suspicious?" Hou Fangyu said, "Don't worry about this, the regent will not."

Hong Chengchou said in his heart that Dorgon's trust in him is also limited. If it is only a month or two, Dorgon's trust in him will not be easily shaken, but it is hard to say for three or four months.

If they persisted for five months or even half a year, Dorgon would definitely become suspicious.

Seeing that Hong Chengchou was still a little worried, Hou Fangyu said again: "Don't worry, Hong Butang, the next official will write a letter and submit it to the King Regent, and report the details of the battle between the Qing soldiers and the Ming army and the difficulties of Hong Butang to the King Regent." , with the wisdom and wisdom of the Regent, he will definitely give Hong Butang enough trust."

Hong Chengchou bowed and said, "It's so worthwhile to join the army."

"Hong Butang is polite." Hou Fangyu bowed back.

(End of this chapter)