"Prime Minister, with your method, I will definitely be able to capture Shucheng! Please leave the siege to me! Lei Hu said first.

Zhang Yingchen was transferred to the commander of the new division, and the commander of the first division was taken over by Ke Gongyu, he was not as excited as Lei Hu, but said in a natural tone: "Prime Minister, we teach the brigade to shoot the gun most accurately, and ask the Prime Minister to leave the siege to us." ”

Ruan Xihao, the commander of the third division, was also unwilling, "It's better to leave it to us!" ”

Wei Ze said with a smile: "I said this time, whoever is in charge of civil engineering, no matter what the battle looks like, it is all merit!" What do you think, would you still like to be a siege force? ”

At this time, Lei Hu and Ruan Xihao were stunned, Ke Gongyu smiled: "I don't care if it's merit or not, I'm still the same thing, the teaching brigade gun is the most accurate, if you don't give it to us to teach the brigade to attack the city, it will be too wasteful." ”

Ruan Xihao thought for a while, "Then let Lei Shishuai continue to besiege Shucheng, and my department will do civil engineering!" ”

Wei Ze nodded, "Then so be it, Lei Hu has been here for the longest time, and the road is familiar." If the Qing army escapes from the city, it is just right for him to block the Qing army. ”

Although Lei Hu was not very happy, after listening to Wei Ze's plan, he also felt that this arrangement was not abuse. So I just resigned myself to my fate.

On May 4, the siege officially began. As soon as the morning dawned, thousands of Taiping troops carried bamboo rows made of bamboo and attacked the west of Shucheng City. At this time, the drums in the city sounded, and the Qing army immediately prepared. But to the surprise of the Qing army, the Taiping army only stopped at a distance of about 8o steps outside the city. They formed a triangle by leaning each three long bamboo rows together, tied them with hemp rope on the outside, and soon made a series of triangular pillars.

This was just the beginning, and the Taiping army used wooden stakes to support the pillars, and then used a strange tool to hang some bamboo rafts. At this time, the Qing army did not understand at all, those pillars were divided into two sections, the back was propped up on the ground, the front end was connected to the pillar on the ground, and the other end was tied with a rope, and gradually erected in a strange way. One pillar is no more than one zhang long, and two add up to more than three zhang. Although it is slanted, the distance from the top of the pillar to the ground is nearly two feet. And the city wall of Shucheng is just a zhang. The Qing army, which was originally condescending, now needs to look up at those pillars.

Soon, some of the doubts of the Qing army were solved, but they saw that ropes were hanging from the top of the pillar, and some bamboo rafts were hoisted. These bamboo rows are placed horizontally on triangular bamboo pillars, forming a shooting tower that is at least one foot five feet high.

This process may not be clear when you look at it, but once the high shooting tower is successfully built, these Qing troops will understand what happened. The Taiping army is going to occupy a high place and condescendingly attack the Qing army on the city wall with long-range firepower.

Wei Ze watched the troops work in an orderly and fast manner. When he was in Yongxing City, Wei Ze ordered people to build a number of pulley sets, and now these pulley sets are working. The bamboo raft, which used to be heavy and required more than a dozen people to pull, can now be easily pulled by two or three fighters. The advantage of having fewer people is that it is good command and good arrangement. Thirty shooting towers were started at the same time, and the construction began with less than 1,000 troops.

Ruan Xihao, who was in charge of the construction, praised Wei Ze's ingenious design, and Wei Ze smiled bitterly in his heart. Even in rural China, this kind of fixed pulley set has long been phased out. Now small winches are also used to build houses in rural areas, who would use manpower to pull such heavy things. Not to mention the wooden boom, Wei Ze, who has seen a large gantry crane, not only did not feel any sense of achievement, but felt a little ashamed. How backward is this Manchu era!

However, even the application of such a small amount of junior high school knowledge has greatly improved the construction degree of the Taiping Army's engineering troops. In less than an hour, Weese's troops had set up thirty shooting towers. A long ladder was set up on the shooting tower, and 150 soldiers of the Teaching Brigade who were skilled in shooting went up to the shooting tower with new fire cap guns on their backs.

The effective lethal range of the cap gun is up to 15o steps, and the power of firing at a distance of 8o steps (12o meters) is more than enough. Soon, everyone put the rope around their waist on the safety rope on the bamboo row on the platform, half squatted and half knelt, and began to shoot at the city wall under the command of the commander.

At a distance of five feet, this height advantage is very obvious. Based on their own understanding of arquebuses, the Qing army could not imagine that the rifle could effectively kill at a distance of 1oo paces. It would take a lot of luck to do something like this. When the bullets whizzed over and the Qing soldiers were constantly shot, the Qing troops who stood on the city wall and watched began to hide behind the battlements.

After shooting the brother upstairs after laying out the instructions, "Up!" Ruan Xihao shouted, and rushed to the city wall with the siege troops on his shoulder.

In this era, the siege of the city is like this, either the ground ants are attached to the siege, or the underground blasts the city wall. Shucheng is not very suitable for digging tunnels. Moreover, Wei Ze was confident in the firepower of his troops, so he adopted the old method of attacking the city with ants.

Carrying a long ladder close to the city wall, I felt that the one-zhang high city wall was getting higher and higher. Because he couldn't see the movement of the Qing army at the head of the city, Ruan Xihao could only believe that the direction indicated by the brothers on the shooting tower was correct.

"Hurry up!" Ruan Xihao kept urging the fighters behind him, "What do you say later?" ”

The flag officer turned his head and looked at it for a moment, and then replied: "The brother on the shooting tower asked us to take five steps to the left, there are few Qing soldiers there!" ”

"Five steps to the left! Ascend to the city there! Ruan Xihao gave the order without hesitation.

The foot of the ladder of the long ladder first found a stable position under the city wall and stopped, and then seven or eight people shouted, and a long ladder was erected. Seeing the degree to which the pulley group lifted the bamboo row, Ruan Xihao only felt that the efficiency was really low. The only thing that made him feel better was that the gunfire on the stairs was always dense and never stopped. In order to prevent the musket barrel from overheating and affecting the design, each shooter on the floor brought three guns and fired them in turn to ensure that the density of fire was not affected.

A dozen long ladders were erected and entered the city, and the rifle team was aiming at the city with muskets, and once the Qing army poked their heads out, the soldiers would fire a volley of guns.

"Raise your gun! Advance! Ruan Xihao ordered.

The warriors at the front of the siege team did not carry any hand-to-hand weapons such as single-sword shields, but rather small portable rifles in simplified versions. It's a shotgun-like thing with a caliber of nearly an inch. The use of fire caps, gunpowder, and scattered lead have been loaded into the muzzle, for fear of accidentally leaking when climbing. The muzzle was also sealed with wax.

Even if you've trained many times and held this thing in one hand, the climbing won't be much better.

"Grenadier! Bombing! Ruan Xihao ordered.

A dozen able-bodied brothers stood under the city, and they took out some bamboo tubes, which were covered with a layer of porcelain barrels, which were wrapped with fine hemp rope. This is the grenade of the grenadiers. The grenade was filled with gunpowder particles, and the fuse was mercury rayate. The shell is a bamboo tube and a porcelain tube, and some iron sand and gravel are also filled in between the two to increase the lethality.

The grenadiers lit the fuse, and then, following the movements they had practiced hundreds or thousands of times in training, threw the grenade onto the top of the city. A moment later, a series of loud noises rang out over the city. Even if he couldn't see the Qing army, Ruan Xihao could clearly hear the screams of the Qing army being bombed.

"Up!" Ruan Xihao shouted.

The gun-carrying team began to climb along the three long ladders selected, and Ruan Xihao only felt his mouth dry at this time, and his heart was pounding in his chest. No matter how well they prepare, the besieging side is at a disadvantage. Even if Wei Ze's troops were brave and good at fighting, and the preparation for the battle was very sufficient, Ruan Xihao did not have to worry about Shucheng not being able to take it, but Ruan Xihao still did not want any major casualties.

The city is full of the corpses of his brothers who died during the siege, and this idea is Nguyen Hee Ho's biggest nightmare.

The three long ladders trembled, and the warriors used all their strength to climb the long ladders, each hoping to make it to the city. At this time, the troops shooting on the tower turned to other positions for fear of accidentally injuring friendly soldiers. At this time, the Qing army above the three long ladders had no other pressure at all, and they had plenty of time to deal with the Taiping army climbing the long ladder.

Honestly, one zhang tall is not very high. In just a few tens of seconds, the leading warrior had already climbed to the city wall. Ruan Xihao could even hear the sound of them pulling the leaf springs clearly. After three relatively dull gunshots, the screams of the Qing army came from the city. The warrior who took the lead held down the wall and climbed in!

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