I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 116 The Battle of Hangzhou Begins
As the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty in the past, Hangzhou City was truly large in size. The city had high walls and thick walls, with thirteen city gates alone.

Later, through the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, it gradually evolved into ten schools, and these ten schools were even compiled into ditties.

There are ten gates in Hangzhou: Genshan Gate, Qiantang Gate, Qingbo Gate, Qingtai Gate, Qingchun Gate, Wulin Gate, Yongjin Gate, Wangjiang Gate, Houchao Gate and Fengshan Gate.

The main force of Zhu Yijiong's Chinese army is now stationed at Fengshan Gate, which is the south gate of Hangzhou City. The navy marched from Hangzhou Bay and blocked the Qiantang River and Wangjiang Gate and Houchao Gate on the riverside.

In the past few days, the Ming army continued to move troops and blocked the other six gates of Genshan, Qiantang, Qingbo, Qingtai, Qingchun and Wulin.

Only Yongjinmen is left as the main attack gate. This means that even one of the siege gates is not needed, and there is no chance at all.

As the general of Hangzhou, Tabai saw everything, but he had nothing to do. Originally, the best way to defend the city was to ambush an army outside the city as a response, while guarding the city tightly, and then watch the timing. The right way is to cooperate with the inside and outside.

However, Tu Yi's previous siege tactics failed miserably. Huang Sheng even abandoned the army and fled back alone with only [-] cavalry.

This not only ruined Huang Sheng's elite supervisors and the [-] brave battalion that Hangzhou had previously raised with difficulty, but also defrauded other encircling armies, and even the generals were killed several times.

Now, with Tu Yi's [-] banners and Hangzhou General Tabai's [-] banners, and counting the brave young men in the city who have been cobbled together from here and there, the total strength of the entire Hangzhou city does not exceed [-]. .

Outside the city, the size of the Ming army's regular troops alone has reached 3. In Tabai's eyes, all of them are real thieves in red clothes and armor. As for the remaining fake thieves in red scarves, there are no real thieves. So many, but there are more than [-] people.

Just from the top of the Hangzhou city, Tabai could see thousands of Ming bandit troops outside the city, with banners stretching out, and numerous enemy troops. The garrison strength was seriously insufficient, and Hangzhou did not dare to set up an ambush outside the city in advance. The 20 troops in front were chased and beaten by [-] Ming thieves.

Now the total strength of the garrison is less than [-], and if they have to divide their troops, doesn't that mean they are looking for death?

If it weren't for Tabai being a Manchu, Hangzhou being an important town in the southeast, and Tu Yi and Huang Sheng being determined to hold on while the other failed, Hangzhou would have been unable to withstand the pressure and surrendered long ago.

"General, someone is here to persuade us to surrender!" At this time, Tabai's soldiers suddenly said.

I saw some fake thieves wearing livery uniforms but with red scarves tied on their arms suddenly approaching outside the city. When they saw the defenders at the top of the city sticking their heads out, they shouted: "Hey guys (dialect), come with us quickly." Surrender! Your Majesty, Emperor Ming, is well here. Not only is he well fed, but he is also paid one tael of silver per month. What’s the use of guarding the city for these Niangxipi officials? In the end, they can’t even eat a few mouthfuls of food. , and you have to work hard for them.”

Tabai waved his hand: "Fire the arrow!"

Shhhhhhh~
"Damn it, these idiots will even beat you up!"

A round of arrows rained down, frightening the Hangzhou surrender soldiers who came to persuade them to surrender and ran away, even if the arrows could not actually hit them.

Seeing the people under the city running away quickly, the Qing soldiers who were shooting all burst into laughter.

This was the first time that the Ming army was caught off guard by this method of persuading them to surrender. It did shake the morale of the troops at the top of the city, but only a little. After Tu Yi personally ordered the defenders to eat well, he also killed several soldiers who wanted to surrender. , the military morale immediately stabilized again.

After all, after eating a full meal, a person's mind will become determined and defection in the face of battle, which is very dangerous, and the words are unfounded. Who knows whether what these people say is true.

After all, what you say is unfounded. These days, you can really have a full meal every time, and there are officers and soldiers who can be paid one tael of silver a month. I'm afraid you have to be the emperor's personal soldiers to get such treatment!

After half a moment.

The Ming army headed the main camp, and everyone was not surprised when they received the report.

"I have given orders to attack the city immediately. At dawn tomorrow, I will have breakfast in Hangzhou city!" Zhu Yijiong glanced at the map of Zhejiang Province that was almost full of sun and moon flags on the table and said calmly.

"Yes!"

In the tent, Yang Gong, Zheng Dingrui and other senior generals of the Ming army all accepted the order.

In terms of strength comparison, the Ming army attacking the city had [-] regular soldiers and [-] surrendered troops. The total strength was [-], which was more than four times that of the Qing army defending the city. Even if [-] of them surrendered, they were all to eliminate the old, weak, sick and disabled. The elite who came later.

Regardless of combat strength and morale, it is already stronger than the ordinary Qing Army Green Camp.

What's more, Hangzhou in front of us has already experienced the Pujiang Battle, and it has long been a strong one. With Zhu Yijiong fighting with all his strength, let alone tomorrow morning, I am afraid that it will be difficult to survive even this afternoon.In addition, the Qiantang River was blocked by the Ming Navy, and the way back was cut off.

Hangzhou seems to have become a caged beast, just waiting for the butcher, the Ming army, to come and slaughter it.

"Brother, do we really want to attack Hangzhou City?" In the surrender barracks, a Hangzhou soldier asked the strong man next to him.

The strong man cursed: "This is nonsense, didn't you listen to the orders from above?"

"But Hangzhou is our hometown after all, and there are so many people there..."

"It's none of your business. If we don't fuck, we will die. What, you want to die?"

"……In no mood."

While the two were talking, the surrender troops in the front row, urged by tens of thousands of Ming troops from behind, began to charge towards the tall Hangzhou city wall in front of them.

"Kill it!"

"Boom~Boom~"

The thundering shouts of killing were accompanied by the roar of dozens of red cannons of the Ming army. Countless red scarf soldiers wearing Qing-style leather armor raised their swords high. The ones in the front row were responsible for carrying the cloud chariot, and the back row followed the front row.

Hangzhou City Head.

"Quick, quick, gunner, fight me, don't mess around, stop the thieves!" Tabai led the Eight Banners soldiers under his command, constantly running back and forth, giving orders.

Artillery was not only owned by the Ming army, but also by the Qing army.

As the capital of Zhejiang and an important town on the southeast coast, Hangzhou not only has artillery, but also red cannons.

In addition to Hangzhou, even Fuzhou, the former capital of Fujian, also had many city defense artillery. However, Lu Youlong took away almost all the troops and gunners in Fuzhou, and even took away many of the artillery.

That's why Fuzhou Prefecture had no ability to resist, and even broke through without firing a single shot.

"Boom~Boom~"

Following Tabai's order, all the artillery at the head of Hangzhou City were loaded and fired.

Some of these artillery pieces missed due to nervousness after firing, but the remaining hits brought heavy casualties to the charging Red Turban Ming army.

But that's it. These Qing artillery guns couldn't keep firing for long. Only one round of shelling attracted the attention of all the Ming gunners.

As a result, all areas where smoke and noise were heard at the top of the Hangzhou city became targets for the Ming army's red cannons. Under the concentrated fire of more than a dozen red cannons, even if most of the shells were empty, the result was still There are a few shells that will hit.

The Ming army relied on more artillery on its side and fired from bottom up. The angle was closer to the standard 45-degree angle than at the top of the city.

Moreover, sugar gunpowder was used instead of black gunpowder, which means that for the same red cannon, with the same charge, the Ming army's artillery would only have a longer range and be more powerful.

The artillery battle between the two armies was over almost as soon as it began.

The Qing army's city defense artillery fired only twice, and some didn't even fire once. There was no more cannon fire at the top of the city, and the fire continued to rise along with the smoke brought by the explosion of the artillery and medicine barrels.

A broken gun barrel fell from the top of the city with flames, fell to the ground not far from the city gate, rolled a few times and then stopped moving.

　Several factors of artillery range, angle, shell, gunpowder quality, and barrel length
　　
　
(End of this chapter)