scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 406 Attacking Qingdu

I don't know where the turning point mentioned by Fatty Lu is, let alone when. When the direct legion of the Fatty Army led by Fatty Lu fell into a stalemate on the Chaoyangmen battlefield, the Yangzhou Legion of the Fatty Army led by Gao Dejie also fell into a stalemate on the Dongzhimen battlefield. In the quagmire, the world was turned upside down, but there was no hope of breaking the city.

In all fairness, with Gao Dejie's ability to use troops, if it was a decisive battle in the wild, Gao Dejie's army could strangle the so-called 10,000+ Qing army in Beijing with one hand, without even frowning.However, when encountering a strong and well-fortified city like Beijing, Gao Dejie, like Fatty Lu, inevitably felt that he had nowhere to use his strength.

It’s not that the new surrendered soldiers in the Fat Man Army don’t work hard. In order to make a good impression on the new master, the new surrendered soldiers who helped the Eight Banners crazily massacre their compatriots 30 years ago attacked the compatriots of the banners, and 30 years ago The same black, the two teams of new flag soldiers that had been deployed in the two battlefields of Chaoyangmen and Dongzhimen in advance, both fought to the death with more than half of the casualties. They rushed up the four-foot-high Beijing city wall ten times. Even if the backup was cut off on the city wall, not a single new soldier surrendered to the Qing army. suffered huge casualties.

It’s not that the Fatty Army’s weapons are not advanced. In terms of explosives alone, the Fatty Army is at least 100 years ahead of the Qing Army, and it’s not that the Fatty Army’s siege force is insufficient. The Fatty Army’s army of more than 14 surrounded the east city of Beijing in a semicircle. The flags are like a sea, the swords and guns are like a forest, and the orderly formation can't be seen at a glance even on the Beijing city wall. The frontal formation winds for more than ten miles. The white felt hats of the fat soldiers make it look like a heavy snowfall just outside the east city of Beijing. , There is a vast expanse of whiteness everywhere.Even Fatty Lu was the first to command so many troops on the battlefield at the same time.

The key is that Beijing's city defenses are too strong. The moat is more than ten feet wide, and there are only two bridges less than two feet wide that allow the fat army's siege team to pass through. Although these two bridges are quite strong stone arch bridges, But the soldiers of the Fat Man Army and the siege weapons of the Fat Man Army walked on this straight and narrow bridge, which was equivalent to being a live target for the defenders' bows, guns and artillery, so that the defenders didn't even need to aim, just shoot at the bridge Shooting arrows can basically kill and injure the poor Fatty Army soldiers. The siege battle lasted less than two hours, and the two bridges on the moats of Chaoyangmen and Dongzhimen were already covered with the remains of Fatty Army soldiers. The Fatty Army had no choice but to send their own hands to push the corpse into the river, opening the way for the follow-up siege ladder vehicles, and also exposed the dark red bridge deck covered with the blood of the Fatty Army soldiers.

The city walls of Beijing are even more of a nightmare for the siege soldiers of the fat army. Although the height of the east wall of Beijing's inner city that the fat army attacked only ranks third among the heights of the four walls of Beijing's inner city, it also has an average of 11 meters and four floors. The height of the building, with bows and arrows, bullets, stones, wood and various defensive weapons as dense as hail and raindrops, stepping on wooden ladders to climb up to four floors to kill the enemy and seize the city, the difficulty can be imagined. If it weren't for the fierce artillery cover of the superior artillery, the fat man's army might not even be able to climb the city wall.

Even with superior artillery cover, it was not much better. Amidst the earth-shattering shouts of killing, the clashing of knives and guns, and the roar of artillery, countless fat soldiers fell from the city wall screaming and bloodied. Fat soldiers, stumps, and blood continued to scatter all over the sky. The fat army soldiers who were scalded to death by the hot oil and golden juice were torn apart, and the fat army soldiers who were on fire rolled down from the ladder truck. The smell of blood and the stench of burnt human body, the pink moat was filled with corpses, densely packed, more than half of the soldiers of the fat army who attacked the city in the first wave were killed or killed, but none of the soldiers of the fat army could stand firm on the city wall.

With the determination to swear not to withdraw troops until the Qing Dynasty is broken, the second wave of siege teams embarked on the journey again, stepping on the corpses of their companions and wounded soldiers, charging forward, and rushing through the puddles of blood with arrowhead bullets as dense as migratory locusts. Once again, countless ladders were put on the city wall, and two ladder cars also stepped forward one after another. The fat army soldiers inside and outside the ladder cars pushed and pulled them down, and quickly approached the city wall of Beijing, calling for their companions to remove the dead body obstacles blocking the way The voice is endless.

The artillery of the Fat Army has not been idle either. More than 260 light and heavy artillery have never stopped since the beginning of the battle. Thousands of artillerymen of the Fat Army take turns to load ammunition, clean the barrel, aim and fire, and are responsible for commanding the artillery team Jiexuan, the old traitor who counted shooting heights, changed his usual taciturnity and shuttled back and forth in the artillery team, shouting orders to shoot high until his voice became hoarse. Thanks to the efforts of this old traitor and countless fat army gunners, fat man The artillery of the Qing army effectively suppressed the artillery fire of the Qing army on the city wall, and also caused huge casualties to the soldiers of the Qing army defending the city. It strongly supported the siege of the fat army from the side, and greatly weakened the geographical advantage of the Qing army— — It can even be said that without the efforts of Jiexuan Laoqing and the artillerymen of the Fat Army, it would be difficult for the soldiers of the Fat Army to break through the moat of Beijing.

The sun gradually turned to the west, and the siege battle began at [-]:[-] si, and was still in a stalemate until it was close to Shen time. The first wave of siege teams was forced to withdraw from the battlefield to rest because of the heavy casualties, and personally led the army to launch the second. Duan Yingju, the former Shandong admiral who had attacked the city in a wave, was also carried back to Fatty Lu on a stretcher by his own soldiers. There are less than one-third of the thousand troops left.

Seeing Duan Yingju's miserable state, the former film star Lu Fatty rushed forward with tears in his eyes, personally pulled up Duan Yingju's only blood-stained right hand, and kept asking about Duan Yingju's situation, Duan Yingju forced a smile, and wanted to say something impassioned to please The new master opened his mouth but a mouthful of blood spewed out, his head tilted and he died on the spot.Fatty Lu wept loudly, and promulgated the Jun decree in public: "In this Wang Jun decree, General Duan Yingju conferred the title of First-Class Duke of Courage, bestowed the posthumous posthumous title of Wulie, rewarded General Duan's family with a hundred taels of gold and a thousand taels of silver. The eldest son inherits the first-class Duke of Courage."

Fatty's generals agreed in unison, Duan Yingju's generals and soldiers all burst into tears, thankful that they were able to come back alive, and also thankful that we met a new master who said good things, did good deeds, and had good intentions. Treat us descendants so kindly.Fatty Lu wiped his tears again and choked up his sobs and said: "For the soldiers who attacked the city in the first wave, those who died in battle will receive double the pension, and those who come back alive will each be rewarded with ten taels of silver..., no, each will be rewarded with twenty taels of silver! Miracle doctor Zhu, you We must personally lead the military medical team to treat these brothers and do our best to rescue them!"

"Thank you, my lord!" The remaining more than 1000 new recruits were overjoyed, and knelt down and kowtowed to express their thanks.But Fatty Lu ordered the kitchen to add food and wine to these newly surrendered soldiers, rewarding them generously, and then gritted his teeth and roared: "Beijing Mangou stubbornly resisted and killed countless soldiers of our Great Zhou Dynasty. There is no excuse for breaking the inner city of Beijing!" , no matter men, women, old or young in the inner city, no one is allowed to be left behind by this king!"

When the third wave of the Fatty Army's siege team came forward, there was finally a burst of cheers from the walls of Beijing, which had been shouting and killing. After ten pontoon bridges were built, the infantry of the Fat Man Army finally no longer had to compete with the huge and heavy siege ladder vehicles. They could step on the pontoon bridges and rush directly to the bottom of Beijing, leaving the solid stone arch bridge for the siege vehicle to rush directly Under the city, the defenders of the Qing army were no longer so easy to shoot at the Fatty Army soldiers silted up on the stone bridge, and the speed of the Fatty Army's troops input increased a lot.

Seeing this situation, a group of fierce generals from Fatty's Army inevitably ran to Fatty Lu again to ask for a fight, but Fatty Lu refused again, and just sent messengers to sneak under the city of Beijing to learn about the situation of the siege of the city.After spending a lot of time waiting, the messenger came back to report, "My lord, our engineers are desperately digging into the city, but the city wall of Beijing is too strong, and Mangou has been paying attention to using gunpowder and boulders to prevent our army from digging the city. The fastest ones only go in about a foot deep."

"Very good, if you wait patiently, there will be good news." Although the progress of digging the city was not as smooth as the fat man's generals expected, Fatty Lu nodded with great satisfaction, and praised the engineer a few words.

"My lord, the bottom of the city wall in Beijing is at least five or six feet thick. We have only dug a foot deep so far. You still think it's good?" Yao Qisheng asked doubtfully.

"Mr. Yao, you have never used the tactic of digging a city. You don't know that the most difficult part of digging a city is the first ten feet." Fatty Lu explained smoothly: "At the beginning of the digging, the safety of our army's engineers depended on a thick wooden table. Protection, man dogs only need to use stones, kerosene and thousands of enemies to kill our engineers, so it was the most difficult at that time, and our engineers suffered the most casualties. But as long as they dig in a few feet, our engineers can hide themselves In the hole dug, the dogs on the city wall will have nothing to do with our army engineers, and the speed of our army engineers' digging the city can also be greatly accelerated."

Yao Qisheng suddenly realized, and quickly flattered, but Fatty Lu smiled and said: "Of course, there is a way to solve this situation, that is, the defenders use ropes to put down the warriors, and shoot arrows or throw incendiary bombs at the engineers in the wall holes, but it's okay." Well, even if Xiaoer Jieshu knew the solution, his subordinates might not have the guts to go down to the city and die."

"The prince is well-informed, knowledgeable about heaven and man, and admired by his humble position."

Yao Qisheng quickly flattered him again, but this time Fatty Lu didn't take offense at him. After raising his binoculars to observe for a while, Fatty Lu arranged for another group of archers to replace the archers of the Fatty Army behind the small fortifications who were covering with arrows. Suppression of the defenders of the city wall—drawing the bow and releasing the arrow is very exhausting.

Of course, the fat man's sapper's attack on the city did not hide from Jie Shu, the commander of the Mite Qing garrison who had already suffered a great loss. Jie Shu also arranged for a special person to deal with this tactic with big stones and thousands of enemies. He killed Sha Huo in the melee There were quite a few fat army engineers who quarreled the city, but what made Jieshu hate his silver teeth was that the offensive of the fat army was so fierce that it almost restrained the Qing army defenders that could be placed on the city wall, and the Qing army soldiers with serious inexperience The cooperation was not proficient enough to wipe out all the fat military engineers who were hiding under the tortoise and chiseled the wall. Fish slipped through the net in several places, and they dug open the city bricks and began to advance towards the inside of the city wall.

Judging by the time, it was found that the fat man's military engineer had dug in at least seven or eight feet thick. Jie Shu, who happened to know the solution, immediately had cotton and gunpowder prepared, wrapped the gunpowder in the cotton and sprinkled it on the cotton, ready to be burned Already hiding in the hole in the wall and digging the fat army engineer mouse.But when it came time to recruit brave warriors to go down the city and throw incendiary bombs, something happened that made Lord Kang furious. Lord Kang had already issued a big reward. No one dared to stand up and volunteer to carry out this dangerous task.

It can't be blamed that the soldiers of the Qing army are greedy for life and afraid of death. The danger of this mission is no longer a narrow escape, but ten deaths without a life!The fat man's army's offensive was extremely fierce, and the bow and arrow bullets flew past the city edge all the time. At this time, they used a rope to go down to the city. As soon as the man showed up on the outside of the city wall, he was immediately shot by the fat man's bow and arrow musket. It's strange to be a hedgehog honeycomb!And even if they managed to escape the bows and arrows of the Fatty Army, thousands of Fatty Army soldiers were waiting under the city wall with knives, and the soldiers of the Qing Army went down to the city with ropes. If the hole is there, it will be chopped into dumpling stuffing by random knives!
"Fuck you, a group of incompetent rats who are greedy for life and afraid of death!" Seeing the bears of Qing soldiers one by one, Kang Wang was so angry that he cursed, he could only shout with red eyes: "Go down and burn a Lu dog!" If you come back alive, you will be rewarded with a hundred taels of silver! If you die, I will invite the Qing court to grant him the title of Marquis Yinzi!"

Still no one said a word, and many soldiers of the Qing army whispered in their hearts, "Please ask the court to seal Hou Yinzi? The court has already gone to Shengjing, is it useful to seal an empty Hou Ye? clothes?"

"Dog slaves, do you still count as bannermen?" Kang Wang used his aggressive tactics and roared: "How powerful Lugou's explosives are, you have never seen and heard of them! This king can tell you, As long as it delays for a few more hours, Lugou's infantry only needs to dig through half of the Beijing city wall, bury explosives and ignite it, and the Beijing city wall will collapse immediately no matter how strong it is! Without the Beijing city wall, everyone will die together, not only everyone will die together, this king You and your family and property will die together! If you want to survive, stand up for this king and take a risk!"

Considering that once the city wall of Beijing is broken, it will be ruined, finally a few evil slave bannermen with four surnames stood up and took over the dangerous task with gritted teeth, but during the time when Lord Kang was distracted, another car It was also the sixth fat army ladder vehicle that leaned against the side wall, and a large number of fat army freshmen howled and stepped up the steps, swarming up the city wall.Lord Kang was shocked, so he had to quickly command the army to come forward to make amends, fight hand-to-hand with these fat soldiers who swarmed to the city, and concentrate on destroying the ladder car first.

The sixth siege ladder vehicle of the Fat Man Army that leaned against the city wall of Beijing unexpectedly became a turning point in the whole battle. Although four of the five ladder vehicles before this leaned against the city wall of Beijing, the Qing army's defenders concentrated their rockets and fire They shot with oil, and were quickly burned by the fire when they got close to the city wall. They failed to continuously send the infantry of the Fat Man Army to the city wall.

When it was the turn of the sixth ladder vehicle to cross the bridge, the rockets prepared in advance by the Qing army had been exhausted, so they could only tear the cotton-wrapped arrows dipped in kerosene to ignite and launch. The density of rockets was greatly reduced. In order to cross the river from the pontoon bridge, without hindering the movement speed of his own siege ladder vehicle, this siege ladder vehicle quickly crossed the bridge and reached the other side of the moat. Fortunately, it got close without much damage. Beijing city wall, when Lord Kang, who was distracted by the siege tactics of the fat army engineers, realized the danger, it was too late to mend the situation.

By the way, 31 years ago, Li Zicheng used this huge siege ladder vehicle to attack the strong city of Beijing. At that time, the Ming army defending the city was greatly reduced in combat effectiveness due to the epidemic. Li Zicheng's army also used the ladder vehicle to attack Xizhimen and Fuchengmen. And Deshengmen, the three gates succeeded at the same time.Coincidentally, 31 years later, it was this kind of siege weapon that broke the stalemate on the battlefield in Beijing. In another period of history, the Eight-Power Allied Forces also used ladders to break through the East Gate of Beijing, breaking the deadlock on the battlefield—this shows that, The horoscope of the Beijing city wall is definitely against the ladder.

With the unexpected turn of events, the fat soldiers who had been stuck in Beijing for three or four hours suffered heavy casualties and were unable to make any progress. Of course, their morale was greatly boosted, and they stepped up the city shouting slogans of the Great Zhou Dynasty, rushing to the front. Dozens of warriors also killed the Beijing city wall, and for the first time grabbed a small foothold above the city wall.

Seeing this scene, the defenders of the Qing army were of course out of their wits and demoralized, but the fat man's army was cheering loudly. Fatty Lu was greatly surprised, and jumped up excitedly, applauding loudly, and roaring quickly Said: "Order Jiexuan, Line Fu, the artillery will concentrate on bombarding the city walls on both sides of the ladder car, and try our best to prevent the reinforcements from the dogs!"

"Decree!" The messenger rushed away, and Fatty Lu turned to his nephew An Jiarong next to him, and shouted: "Nephew, it's up to you! Eight hundred soldiers put on their shields and go up! Take the city wall position and give it to me to defend!"

"Follow uncle's order!" An Jiarong, who had been waiting for a long time, said nothing, clasped his fists as soon as he agreed, and immediately rushed down, organizing the fat man's infantry and ace soldiers to attack.

"Li Xiongfei!" Fatty Lu turned to another favorite general, Li Xiongfei, and said loudly, "General Li, when I left you behind in Jiujiang, you suffered countless hardships because of this king. Today, this king will compensate you and bring your Four thousand direct troops and two ladder vehicles attack the city! Tell your brother and the brothers in front, no matter who is the first to attack Beijing, you will be named Marquis!"

"Thank you, my lord! The last general has the courage, this marquis, the last general will grab it!"

Li Xiongfei was so excited that he cupped his fists and agreed loudly under the envious eyes of the fat generals, and rushed down to organize the team to attack. Fatty Lu sat back on the throne, so excited that the fat on his face began to tremble, knowing that as long as the fat man If the army can stand firm on the walls of Beijing, it will be easy to break through Beijing.

"Quick! Quick! Block Lu Gou! Throw torches, pour kerosene, and burn Lu Gou's ladder car! Come on, kill Lu Gou, or the city of Beijing will be in danger!"

Contrary to Fatty Lu, who was extremely excited, at the same time, Lord Kang was so nervous that his heart almost stopped beating, waving his thumbless hands, desperately urging the soldiers of the Qing army to come forward to kill the enemy and make up for it, at all costs The price is to drive the soldiers of the Fat Man Army who have rushed up the city wall down the city wall.However, what made King Kang angry was that although the soldiers of the Qing army who rushed to the front were fighting bloody battles, there were fewer and fewer Beijing soldiers and civilians who went up the city road from behind to help in the battle. I was also surprised to find out that the soldiers and civilians in Beijing under the city wall had already started to flee. Not only ordinary people who came to help the battle voluntarily or not to carry weapons started to flee, but also some regular soldiers of the Qing army who wore Qing army uniforms also started to flee!

"Ma Qi! Ma Qi!" Kang Wang yelled the name of his deputy, Ma Qi, with red eyes, and roared hysterically: "Ma Qi, where did you dog slave go?! Pull the people up again to defend the city Quick! Quickly find Ma Qi, the dog slave!"

"My lord, Ma Shilang is there." A soldier pointed to a corpse on the city wall, and said timidly: "Just now, a stray arrow thrown by a Lugou just hit Mr. Shilang..."

Lord Kang was stunned for a moment, then turned to the soldiers around him and roared: "Go down, all of you, and order all the civil and military officials of the Qing Dynasty under the city wall to immediately pull the soldiers of the people to the city to help the battle, and dare not go to the city to help the battle Yes, behead them all!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Before Lord Kang's soldiers could agree, the shells of the Fat Man's army, as if they had eyes, kept hitting the Beijing city walls on both sides of the ladder car, and exploded into the crowd of the Qing army rushing to reinforce them. The disgusting mite voice of howling ghosts and wolves quickly echoed violently on the city walls of Beijing.At the same time, the morale-boosting fat soldiers rushed up the Beijing city wall one after another, stepping on the ladder steps and the corpses of both the enemy and ourselves, and gradually stopped on the city wall.

"Wuyi soldiers! We must win!"

"Big Zhou! Must win!"

The sound of new neat slogans sounded on the battlefield. The [-] soldiers wrapped in white cloth held their shields to protect their vital points, and brandished bright and sharp Miao knives. Under the leadership of Li Xiongfei, the main fighters followed closely behind with their ladder carts. The two fat army elites, whose combat power was absolutely stronger than the previous siege team, were like the waves of the sea, roaring, roaring, and rushing towards the city gradually. The shaken city walls of Beijing, the famous Chinese city that has been poisoned by mites to this day.

(End of this chapter)