Paper Maker: This is the end of the Ming Dynasty in Liaozhai

Chapter 231 Chongzhen: The Grave of Old Zhu's Ancestor Has Been Excavated!

Eight days later, more than 120 huge and strange shield vehicles were built. Dozens of sacks filled with sand and gravel were placed on the front, left and right sides, and on the roof of the vehicle, with only one muzzle exposed.

Hong Chengchou and Chen Qiyu nodded in satisfaction as they looked at the Hongyi Cannon surrounded by shield vehicles. As long as there is no problem with the Hongyi Cannon, this battle will still be fought, although the Hongyi Cannon's power is not enough To decide the battle situation, but the tall city walls of Dezhou City are not suppressed by Hongyi cannons. If you want to attack the city, you may not be able to fill it even if you take human lives.

"Pass down the order, the whole army!"

Hong Chengchou waved his hand and said.

Soon the drums sounded, and 10,000+ Ming troops began to line up.

On the building car, Hong Chengchou raised the command flag in his hand, and soon, the drums thundered, and the shield cars equipped with Hongyi cannons were pushed to the front of the formation, and then began to align.

At the same time, a large number of soldiers carrying sacks slowly approached the city wall under the cover of wooden chariots and shields.

Bali!

Six miles!

Five miles!

boom!boom!boom!
As soon as they approached the range of five miles, the Qi army on the city wall fired again, with dozens of loud bangs, more than fifty solid shells smashed into the formation of the Ming army with piercing screams, and more than fifty solid shells The shells plowed through the crowd.

This time the Ming army did not panic anymore, but continued to advance under the driving of the generals.

Four and a half miles!
The artillery sounded again, because the distance was closer and more Ming troops entered the shelling range, and the casualties caused by the shells became greater this time.

Four miles!

The cannon sounded again!

On the tower, Tang Xiangjin and Pan Pingping looked at the approaching giant shield chariot, and everyone frowned. With their strength, they could see clearly that the shield chariot was surrounded by the Hongyi Cannon.

"Captain, this Ming army is too cunning, what should we do?"

Liu Liangsheng frowned and said, their greatest advantage is their high altitude. The Hongyi cannons can easily hit the Ming army, but the opponent cannot hit them. Now the Ming army's Hongyi cannons can completely hit them under the cover of this strange shield vehicle. Pushing it to the bottom of the city, in this way, their artillery advantage is gone, and under the cover of so many sandbags, it is difficult for them to destroy the Hongyi cannon of the Ming army.

"Put sandbags to protect Hongyi Cannon."

Tang Xiangjin said in a deep voice: "We are protected by the city wall, and the advantage is still on our side."

At this time, the Ming army took advantage of the gap between the shelling and advanced several hundred steps. At this time, the Ming army was only three and a half miles away from the city wall. The next moment, the artillery sounded again, and more than [-] solid shells hit the crowd again. .

Soon the Ming army entered the range of three miles, and more than a hundred giant shield vehicles stopped, and the Ming army carrying sandbags behind them piled sandbags in front of the shield vehicles, forming a sandbag wall.

The gunners of the Ming army behind the shield car also aligned the muzzle of the Hongyi cannon one after another, and then lit the matchlock.

boom!boom!boom!
A series of loud bangs, more than 100 solid iron balls weighing [-] jins, under the action of gunpowder, turned into a small black dot with terrifying kinetic energy, quickly crossed the sky, and then flew towards the city wall.

boom!boom!
Some shells hit the wall, directly smashing a big hole, countless rubble splashed in all directions, some fell directly into the city, smashing down the houses, and some hit the city wall, smashing the bricks.

At this moment, the entire city wall seemed to be shaking, and countless gravels splashed in all directions, but all the Qi soldiers who were splashed by the gravels were injured in some cases, and died in severe cases.

"fire!"

Seeing this scene, Tang Xiangjin gritted his teeth and ordered: "Aim at the Hongyi cannon of the Ming army!"

Although they can go out of the city to fight the Ming army, but now they have the advantage of the city wall, if they go out of the city, it is tantamount to playing in the hands of the Ming army.

boom!boom!boom!
Hearing Tang Xiangjin's order, the Qi army on the city wall fired again, with dozens of loud bangs, and more than fifty solid shells smashed into the sandbag city wall of the Ming army with piercing screams.

Under the powerful force of the shells, the sandbags were torn apart one by one, and a large amount of sand and rocks poured out. Some shells fell behind the sandbag wall, killing dozens of Ming troops again.

After a while, the Hongyi cannon of the Ming army was reloaded and fired again, and more than 100 shells hit the city wall.

At this time, the Qi army on the city wall also learned well, lying behind the city wall, avoiding gravel and shells.

In this way, the two sides fell into a round of rounds of shelling by you and me.

...

Time passed, and as the sun set, the Ming army withdrew from the battlefield, leaving only a sandbag wall hundreds of feet long.

.........

Dezhou City, State Government Lobby.

"Captain, four of our Hongyi cannons have exploded."

Liu Liangsheng's expression was serious. The number of times a Hongyi cannon can be fired is limited. Once the number of firings reaches the limit, the barrel will explode. In today's artillery battle with the Ming army, each Hongyi cannon fired at least two hundred shots , Only four doors were blasted, which is already very good.

"Collect the wreckage and let the craftsmen recast it."

Tang Xiangjin said in a deep voice, "How is the situation in the Ming army?"

"The exact situation is unknown, but when the cannon was fired for the last time, nearly [-] Hongyi cannons of the Ming army did not fire, and we don't know if they exploded."

Liu Liangsheng shook his head. The Hongyi cannons of the Ming army were all behind the shield vehicles, and they were protected by a large number of sandbags.

"How many casualties did we have?"

After a pause, Tang Xiangjin asked again.

"There were only more than 600 casualties."

Liu Liangsheng replied: "However, three or four hundred houses in the city were destroyed by the shells of the Ming army."

Although the Ming army fired a lot of artillery, the soldiers were hiding behind the city wall and protected by the city wall. Except for a few unlucky soldiers who were hit, most of them were fine.

...

On the other side, in the Ming army camp at this time, Hong Chengchou and Chen Qiyu's faces were gloomy.

The Hongyi cannon exploded!
A total of 21 Hongyi cannons exploded!

They only had more than 120 Hongyi cannons, and 21 of them were blown up in just one day. How can they fight this? In a few days, their Hongyi cannons will be blown up.

"Fang Dushi, this Hongyi cannon was made by your order, what do you have to say?"

Hong Chengchou looked at Fang Rong who was kneeling on the ground, and said in a low voice.

"Returning to the governor, the Hongyi cannons cast by the lower officials are all allocated materials from the imperial court, and the lower officials will never cut corners."

Fang Rong cupped his hands and replied, but his heart was full of disdain. If it didn't explode, there would be ghosts. A Hongyi cannon weighs about three thousand catties. It uses iron as the core and is covered with copper. The ratio is [-]/[-].

Although iron is cheaper, the iron-cast Hongyi cannon will have air bubbles during casting, and it is easy to explode the chamber. If it is wrapped with copper, the chamber explosion may be much smaller. However, among the materials allocated by the court this time, copper is only two. If it can't be done, everything else is iron, and if the cast cannon blows up, there will be ghosts.

Both Hong Chengchou and Chen Qiyu are veterans in the officialdom. Although Fang Rong didn't say it clearly, they could hear the meaning clearly.

The materials allocated by the imperial court have cut corners!
"You all go down."

Hong Chengchou waved his hands.

"Yes, Governor."

Hearing Hong Chengchou's words, everyone in the commander's tent saluted and retreated.

Soon, only Hong Chengchou and Chen Qiyu were left in the entire tent.

"Brother Chen, I'm afraid these Hongyi cannons won't last long."

Hong Chengchou sighed and said, "Do you want to play the court?"

Without the Hongyi cannon, it would be difficult to attack the city, and if you attack by force, the loss will definitely not be small.

Hearing Hong Chengchou's words, Chen Qiyu fell into deep thought. The meaning of Hong Chengchou's words was very clear. The Hongyi cannons were gone, and it would be very difficult to attack the city. When a problem is found, the responsibility is shifted to the Ministry of Finance who dispatched the casting materials.

"Brother Hong, in this way, we will offend many people."

Chen Qiyu sighed, there must be a lot of officials who reached out to them, and if they played up, they would definitely offend a large number of officials, and if they didn't make meritorious deeds for too long, there would definitely be many people who would fall into trouble.

"Brother Chen, as the saying goes, if you die a fellow Taoist, you don't die a poor one. Those people dare to spend this kind of money, so we can't take the blame for them."

Hong Chengchou said lightly.

Hearing this, Chen Qiyu was silent for a moment, and then said: "Then I will follow what you want, Brother Hong."

.........

Not to mention the war between Daqi and Ming, at this time in Xingyang, Henan, Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang called the leaders of various rebels to hold a meeting in Xingyang.

In a big camp, Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai, He Yilong, He Jin, Xu Bian, Hui Dengxiang, Li Wanqing, Ma Shouying, Ma Jinzhong, Hengtianwang, Jiutiaolong, Shuntianwang and other thirteen largest rebels gathered together .

"Brothers, now that Daming has transferred Hong Chengchou and Chen Qiyu away, it's time for me to rise up."

Gao Yingxiang raised his voice.

"Gao Yingxiang, there's no need to say polite words."

Luo Rucai on the side waved his hand and said, "Now the new governors of the five provinces from Daming are looking for us. If we get blocked, we will all die here."

Over the past few years, they have been turned into dogs by the Ming army, and they have been chased wherever they go. If they didn't have logistics and ran fast enough, the Ming army would have already cut off their heads to receive the reward.

This time Hong Chengchou and Chen Qiyu were transferred away, and the Ming army was temporarily unable to pursue and suppress them, so they had the courage to gather here.

"Since Brother Luo said so, Gao will stop talking."

Although the topic was interrupted by Luo Rucai, Gao Yingxiang was not angry, but smiled and said: "Brothers, we have been wandering around in this area now, and the Ming army has already set up a net, just waiting for us to plunge in. So Gao called all the brothers here because he wanted to find a way to break the situation."

"Brother Gao, what can you do?"

At this time, Li Wanqing asked, and Luo Rucai and others also looked at Gao Yingxiang. Now that the Ming army's siege is getting tighter, they are also feeling very uncomfortable.

"What I mean is to leave here temporarily, and the soldiers will split up and find their own direction."

Gao Yingxiang said: "As long as we leave here, if the Ming army wants to catch up with us, then we can only divide our forces. If the Ming army is small, we will have a chance of winning."

Hearing Gao Yingxiang's words, Luo Rucai, Li Wanqing and others began to think about it. Gao Yingxiang's method was indeed good. As long as the Ming army divided up, they would have a chance to defeat the Ming army.

"Brother Gao, where do you want to go?"

After a moment of silence, Prime Minister Hui Deng asked, it is possible to divide the troops, but how to divide is particular. If you choose the wrong direction, it will be to attract the troops of the Ming army for others.

Gao Yingxiang said, "I want to go east."

"Are you going to seek refuge with Su Hao?"

Hearing Gao Yingxiang's words, Luo Ru frowned. They and Su Hao are not the same. Su Hao is a traitor of Ming Dynasty and an official, but they are people. Although Su Hao's power is much stronger than them, they never thought about it. I want to seek refuge with Su Hao.

Now Gao Yingxiang said that he wants to go east, and going east is Shandong, what else can he do besides seek refuge with Su Hao.

"Brother Luo, I don't want to go to Shandong."

Hearing this, Gao Yingxiang shook his head and said: "Now that Da Ming's troops are all entangled in Shandong by Su Hao, I am going to take this opportunity to go south to see if there is a chance to attack Jiangnan."

Although Su Hao's power is stronger, but they all killed officials and rebelled, how could he be subservient again.

"Since you want to go east, then I'll go north to Shanxi."

Luo Rucai didn't care much about Gao Yingxiang's words. Whether Gao Yingxiang joined Su Hao or not had nothing to do with him. Now that Shanxi has been invaded by the Jurchens several times, most of the troops are in Datong Mansion, and there are very few troops in other places.

If he can take root in Shanxi, he will become the next Su Hao, establish influence in Shanxi, ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor.

...

After discussing for a long time, the Thirteenth Route Army divided into three groups. Gao Yingxiang took Zhang Xianzhong to the east, passing through the Runing Mansion.

Because of the conquest of Daqi, a large number of Henan soldiers and horses were transferred to the capital. Gao Yingxiang and others did not encounter any major resistance, and even conquered dozens of counties, and easily entered the land of Longxing in Daming.

Fengyang!

Before arriving in Fengyang, Zhang Xianzhong dispatched hundreds of cronies and elite soldiers disguised as businessmen, monks, Taoist priests, beggars and other people to sneak into Fengyang, and finally attacked Fengyang, the central capital.

After occupying Fengyang, Zhang Xianzhong distributed all the food in the treasury to the local poor farmers, and called the people of the four townships to cut down hundreds of thousands of pines and cypresses from the imperial mausoleum, and demolished the Longxing Temple where Zhu Yuanzhang became a monk, and then dug They seized the ancestral grave of the Zhu family, and at the same time looted and killed all the wealthy households in Fengyang.

.........

In the middle, Fengyang, the capital, was captured and the news that the imperial mausoleum had been dug spread to the capital. Zhu Youjian vomited blood on the spot, then put on mourning clothes, and ran to the Taimiao to plead guilty.

In the cabinet, Wen Tiren, Wu Zongda, Wang Yingxiong, He Wunu, and Qian Shisheng were all pale and anxious.

The sky is falling!
The royal tomb has been dug!
Su Hao's killing of the vassal king was completely insignificant in the face of this matter, but Zhu Youjian went on a killing spree and killed dozens of officials, big and small. Come back, I don't know how many people will be killed.

"Wen Shoufu, how should His Majesty explain?"

He Wuzhen's voice trembled. Zhu Youjian was not a broad-minded person. This time, the ancestral graves of the old Zhu's family were dug up. Zhu Youjian would be a ghost if he didn't go crazy.

(End of this chapter)