national surname chiming

Chapter 367 Nanyang Artillery Battle
"What? The person in charge of defending the city is actually Zhang Huangyan, a military officer from Sichuan? How dare this savage kill the envoy? Come on, order the whole army to prepare to attack the city tomorrow morning! This king will definitely crush Nanyang, and leave no stone unturned!"

In the evening of the same day, when Azig saw that among the envoys he sent out, only a group of envoys with bloody faces and ears and noses were released, screaming and crying about the tragic situation in Nanyang City, his blood rushed to his head immediately. ——It's been a long time since I heard that the dog official of Nanmanzi dared to be so arrogant and offended him to the death!
This dog official is going to force the whole city to be buried with him!Then he, the Prince of England, of course wants to help the other party!
Those servants cried out in detail, saying that even the deputy envoy had been killed, and that the envoy Gong Dingzi had pretended to be his colleague Gu Rong, who failed and was recognized by Zhang Huangyan. Zhang Huangyan knew that Gong Dingzi, Hou Fangyu and others were with Zhu Shuren had a holiday, so he was tortured and then detained, saying that he would be brought back to Nanjing in the future, and there was another use for it.

Azig is also somewhat politically wise. After sorting out all the information brought back from the people, he basically believed that Zhang Huangyan was in a rage, and most of what he said was true. Zhu Shuren probably really wanted to completely defend Huguang with heavy troops. Especially defending the Nanyang-Xiangyang line.

Zhu Shuren even put his most trusted cousin and right arm in such an isolated city, it is impossible to retreat.

But there is still one thing that Azig can't understand, that is, can Zhu Shuren disregard the safety of Nanjing?

He really dared to keep the main force in Huguang. Is he very self-conscious about Nanjing's Jiang defense line?Do you think that even if Duoduo wins Yangzhou, it is impossible to form a fleet to cross the natural danger of the Yangtze River in a short time?
This problem was like a bone in his throat, which made Azig unable to rest well at night, but he couldn't attack the city at night, and everything had to be prepared for action tomorrow morning, so he had to be exhausted.

In the middle of the night, a new civilian staff member in charge of the artillery unit under his command saw that the main tent of the Chinese army was still lit, so he carefully asked to see him, saying that he wanted to report on the artillery preparations and ammunition plans for the siege tomorrow.

Azige's heart moved, and he remembered that this staff member was quite smart and good at drilling camps, so he invited him to have a chat, and asked the attendant to prepare drinks to refresh himself.

The staff was quickly called in, Azig raised his eyelids, and said sincerely: "Tong Tulai, come forward and sit down to talk, and have a drink with this king."

The person who came, Tong Tulai, was a Han Chinese in his 30s, to be precise, he was a Han Chinese who had become a Manchu and covered with yellow flags.

His uncle Tong Yangxing was the most senior artillery supervisor in the Qing Dynasty. He cast hundreds of red barbarian cannons for Huang Taiji, and once made the Qing artillery surpass the Ming army (excluding Zheng Zhilong)
After Tong Yangxing's death, his elder brother Tong Yangzheng inherited his position, but Tong Yangzheng was old after all, and the specific work was handed over to his son Tong Tulai, and the Tong family has always remained dignified.

Originally, the Tong family did not need to go to the front to command the artillery unit, but when Huang Taiji died last year, a struggle within the Qing court involved the Tong family——

Tong Yangxing's daughter and Tong Tulai's cousin, Tong Jiashi, was originally married to Daishan's second son, Yuetuo, the owner of the red banner.Yue Tuo was killed in the struggle to ascend the throne in Shunzhi, and the status of the Tong family became delicate for a time.

In order to appease people's hearts, Dorgon asked Tong Tulai to follow the two red flags to send troops to show "no doubt about the employment". It seems that the Tong family will not be affected by Yue Tuo's death and the replacement of the red flag owner.

Azige also knew about Dorgon's intentions, so since Li Zicheng's Western Expedition, he has been intentionally or unintentionally giving Tong Tulai a chance to show off, and gradually discovered that this person has some skills, especially the political sensitivity of the power struggle, which can indeed be used .

At this moment, when encountering this kind of doubts inside the Nanming court that he himself could not figure out, Azig naturally thought of asking Tong Tulai as a staff officer.

Tong Tulai quietly listened to the prince's explanation of the doubts in his heart, thought carefully for a long time, and finally got something by chance, and showed off energetically:

"My lord actually wondered whether Zhu Shuren might really put Huguang's interests first and neglected to reinforce Jianghuai's defense? I wonder if Zhu Shuren was too confident in the natural dangers of the Yangtze River, so he didn't need to go back to defend Duoduo, so as to ensure that Nanming lost the least territory?

The subordinates feel that this kind of thing is very reasonable, and there is nothing inconceivable-please think about it, my lord, is it true that everyone in Nanming is united and wants to protect the court in Nanjing?not necessarily!

Zhu Shuren might very much want to keep his father-in-law, the emperor, but he might not want to keep Nanming's entire situation!Whether it is the other Donglin or the eunuch party, they naturally have more interests.

What other vassals Zhu Shuren had concentrated in Nanzhili and around Nanjing but were not allowed to enter Yingtianfu, they had no idea?

For example, I heard that when Prince Yu (Duoduo) conquered Yangzhou last month, Shi Kefa ordered in advance the nine northern and south vassal princes who were placed in Yangzhou to move across the river.But in the end, it seems that there are still several northern Zhu Ming vassals who failed to make it due to various reasons, or were captured by my Qing Dynasty, or surrendered voluntarily to avoid disaster.

It can be seen that there are many contradictions within Zhu Ming now!It seems that Zhu Shuren helped his father-in-law to the high position, but in fact, this kind of governor with hundreds of thousands of soldiers is not willing to hold the emperor for the rest of his life to make the princes!If his father-in-law is alive, he may be willing to wait, but after his father-in-law dies, he will never give up his position to other feudal towns!
Even if the son he will give birth to in the future is adopted by his father-in-law as the grandson and inherit the great position, and he himself is like... Prince Rui, as the 'Emperor's Father Regent', he may not be reconciled!This kind of person must have thought about plotting to kill the entire Zhu Ming royal family, so that his father-in-law has no one to tell, and he can only let his son-in-law do it!

In this way, it is not impossible for him to rely on his own navy to give up Nanjing temporarily, as long as he picks up his father-in-law in advance at the last moment, and the other Zhu Ming vassals who were summoned by him to Nanzhili in advance, all think that the matter is imminent Not as good as a rescue' excuse, throw me Qing kill.Wouldn't it be that he borrowed our knife and did what he wanted to do all his life but didn't dare to do! "

With the conscience of heaven and earth, Zhu Shuren tried every means to lure Azig and Duoduo, making them feel that they would put Huguang as the most important thing, and Zhu Shuren's own lineage territory as the most important thing. This is of course Zhu Shuren's conspiracy and strategic deception to deceive the enemy.

But on the other side there is Tong Tulai, a wretched opponent who has spent his whole life in court battles. He speculates and deconstructs all seemingly unreasonable things in the most sinister and vicious direction. This is really wronging Zhu Shuren!
How could Zhu Shuren be so despicable, he just wanted to take advantage of Yin Duoduo's underestimation of the enemy and rush forward to harm Duoduo.It never occurred to me that I would take advantage of the opportunity to kill with a knife. I would use the butcher's knife of the Qing soldiers to kill other vassals surnamed Zhu around Nanjing!
But Tong Tulai wanted to measure the heart of a gentleman with the heart of a villain in this way, and he convinced Azige. In fact, it helped Zhu Shuren's strategy a lot.

Azige was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and couldn't help gasping: These Han barbarians, are they really so good at fighting inside and outside of fighting?
If Zhu Shuren was so insane that he could temporarily give up maximizing the interests of the country for the sake of maximizing the interests of the small group, then this enemy would not be so difficult to deal with.

What the Qing Dynasty feared most was that Nanming was united as one, united as one, and what it liked most was that there were many factions and constant internal fighting in Nanming.

It’s just that this kind of speculation is too unbelievable, and Azig still has the last trace of doubt in his heart, so he said: “Forget it, what you said, this king was also what the family said at the time, let’s listen first. Anyway, the city will be attacked tomorrow, or See a real chapter first on the battlefield.

Look at the Ming army that Zhu Shuren stayed in Huguang to defend, what is the size of the combat power and whether the supplies are sufficient, and it is also possible to judge whether Zhu Shuren really left all his money in Huguang.No matter how much you think about it, it will be empty if you don't fight the battle. "

As he said that, Azig waved Tong Tulai back, turned off the light and fell asleep with these inspirations.

……

In the early morning of the next day, food and salaries began to be prepared for the fourth watch in the Qing army camp, and all the cannons were deployed. The siege battle officially started as soon as the sky became light.

Azig is fully prepared mentally, of course he will kill him as soon as he comes up.

And Tong Tulai, who got his confession last night, was even more attentive, inspecting all the cannons himself before the battle.

Today's main attack task is supervised by Man Dahai, another nephew of Azig and younger brother of Wadaq who died in the battle.

Man Dahai is the seventh son of Daishan. He is only 23 or [-] years old this year. He is very young.

The death of his brother made him very vigilant, and he also attached great importance to his uncle's warning. He decided not to come within two miles of the front line when attacking the city!Use binoculars to direct from the rear - at that time, Hongyi, that is, the Dutch, had already brought binoculars to China, so the high-level Qing army also had binoculars, but the quality was not as precise as that made by Nanming Zhu Shuren.

The firepower preparation before the general attack was entrusted to Tong Tulai.

Azig's army brought a total of forty red barbarian cannons to the south this time!It accounted for about a quarter of the Qing army's original Hongyi cannons (the original ones did not include the seizures after the capture of Beijing)
However, they fought with Li Zicheng and other troops many times before, and there were many damages and malfunctions. Now they can still be put into battle, with a maximum of [-] doors. The others have to be pulled back to the rear, or repaired slowly after the armistice. The front line cannot be completed. Such intricate work.

Azig can't put all his eggs in one basket, so in today's battle, he let Tong Tulai concentrate [-] heavy artillery pieces to bombard the city, which is already very face-saving.

In terms of attack direction, the Qing army chose the north and west of the city, one for the main attack and one for the feint attack, and they could also switch at any time according to the progress of the battle situation, so as to contain and disperse the Ming army's defenders.

In the south of the city, only some suspicious soldiers were left to shout and shout, and they did not attack.As for the east of the city, which is close to the Baihe River and the Feishui River, of course there is no way to attack.

With the roar of the Qing army's artillery group, the Ming army at the top of the city also fell into panic for a short time.

It's not that they haven't seen cannons before, but the Huguang army has fought against the enemy for five or six years. The opponents they encountered before, whether it was Zhang Xianzhong or Li Zicheng, didn't have so many heavy artillery.As for the little rubbish that was earlier than Zhang Xianzhong, such as Gezuo Fifth Battalion, there was no Hongyi cannon at all, and they could only use the Frang machine.

Previously, only the Huguang Ming army had the role of bombarding the enemy, but now they are going to be bombarded fairly, which has a little impact on the mentality of the soldiers.

Fortunately, Zhang Huangyan worked very hard and asked all the high-level generals to go up to the tower to supervise the battle. Even if they wanted to avoid shelling, they had to stand on the back of the tower at least, but they were absolutely not allowed to hide in the city.

Both Zhang Huangyan and Li Dingguo went around to boost morale, and quickly recovered the soldiers from the shock at the beginning, and then the Ming army's Hongyi cannons also began to fight back.

Considering that the Ming army is on the defensive side and needs to fortify everywhere, although Zhu Shuren has a lot of Hongyi cannons on hand, he needs to keep some at key nodes such as Nanyang, Xiangyang, and Wuchang.Otherwise, it would be very troublesome if the cannons were concentrated in one place but were bypassed by the Qing army.

Therefore, the number of Hongyi cannons in Nanyang City is really not as large as that of the Azig Army.

For the first time, Zhang Huangyan only deployed the forts at the four corners of the city wall, and each fort had two intersecting heavy guns. There were eight guns in total, and eight guns that were lighter in tonnage and easy to move. Heavy artillery.

Azig on the opposite side invested [-] at a time, and there were [-] backups, and he only attacked the walls on both sides, so he was only counterattacked by the Ming army's six heavy artillery at the first time (the fort deployed in the southeast corner of the city was far away from the battlefield, it was useless) Armed Forces), forming a three-fold superiority in firepower density.

After Zhang Huangyan confirmed the enemy's main attack direction, he naturally desperately dispatched the eight relatively light backup guns to the northwest corners.

(End of this chapter)