Seventy miles east of Lou Fu, Luyukou.

In fact, the terrain of this place is not precipitous, because it is the confluence of the Fen River, Tianchi River and Lion River, and has a large area of fertile river beach arable land, and the combined arable land along the river of the three rivers is more than 2,000 acres.

Originally, there was a village here, which was still the county seat of Luchuan County during the Tang Dynasty, but it was removed from Luchuan County the following year and merged into Jiaocheng County in the south.

And because the surrounding mountains and trees were cut down and the soil was eroded in large quantities, the Lion River and the Tianchi River also became seasonal rivers, and there was only water for three or four months a year, and the population of this place gradually became scarce, and in the late Ming Dynasty, it completely became a village of several hundred people.

Unlike other villages, there are no big households in Luyukou.

Because after Ren Liang, Bashanhu and others set up camp in this area, the original big households in the village were robbed by them every once in a while, and the big households really couldn't survive, so they sold the land, a small part of them were sold to the villagers, and most of them were sold to the Ninghua Palace.

At the moment of successive natural disasters, the yeoman farmers in the village gradually lost their land due to heavy taxes and loans, and fled one after another to become homeless, and nine out of ten of those who stayed behind also became the farmers of the Ninghua Palace.

In the past, Qinchuan did not move the cultivated land here, firstly because it was a little far away from Lou Fu, and secondly, because there was a town thirty miles east of Luyukou, called Gujiao Town, these two places were very close to Taiyuan, and if you occupied here, you had to invest a lot of troops to defend, otherwise it would be vain.

Now the situation is different.

With reinforced concrete, Qinchuan was able to build an impregnable military fort in a short time.

Therefore, he wants both Luyukou and Gujiao Town.

A military fort has been built at the mouth of the furnace, just on the edge of the Fen River, and there is a Tianchi River in front of it.

Like Mafang Fort, the military fort is rectangular, the wall is three feet and five feet high, the circumference is less than one mile, and the widest east and west city walls are only a hundred steps wide.

The Tianchi River, which was originally less than one zhang wide and was no more than shoulder deep during the flood season, has been dug to two zhang wide and about eight feet deep, and has been used as a moat.

Garrisoned at Luyukou Fort were Luo Ba and 500 Fang Battalion, because the enemy faced was twice as many as Mafang Fort, and this place was very close to Taiyuan, so it was equipped with two red general cannons and two big Fran cannons, eight small Fran guns, 16 tiger squat cannons, a total of 28 artillery, and 50 flintlock guns.

The mountain road from Taiyuan to Luyukou is very difficult to walk, and the 6,000 soldiers and horses of Ni Pet and Zhang Dechang have a lot of baggage, and they have walked for nearly three days on a 100-mile road, and they arrived at Luyukou on the evening of the eighth day of the first month of April.

Like Zhang Yingchang, Ni Chong, Yang Jinchao, and Zhang Dechang were all stunned when they saw the strange gray military fort.

Like a boulder, it is as high as more than three zhang, the city wall is hollow, and there are more than 100 gun holes in three layers.

Who came up with such a strange military fort?

"Heh, the surname Qin is not very good, the city wall is hollow, and he can think that this military fort can be bombarded into ruins in a day with cannons." After looking at it for a moment, Ni Pet couldn't help but sneer.

Zhang Dechang on the side said: "Lord Ni, the Qin thief is cunning, we must not underestimate the enemy." ”

Yang Jinchao on the other side said sharply: "Lord Zhang, the 30,000 army of Xuanda is probably already in Ninghua Qianhu at this time, the main force of the Qin thieves must be in Ninghua, and there are Zhang Zongbing of the West Road and the commander of the Xiwei of the North Road Town to contain Lord Xue, and the troops of Luyukou and Lou Fubi are empty, so we don't want to miss the opportunity."

Ni Pet nodded: "What the two of you said is good, we can't take it lightly, and we can't miss the opportunity, we need to take it step by step and adapt to the situation." ”

"Tonight, we will camp here for a whole night, build siege equipment, and early tomorrow morning, attack the city wall with artillery, destroy this military fort, and then choose a day to march into Lou Nu according to the situation."

"What Lord Ni said is extremely true."

"Come, give the order to go down and set up camp."

The 6,000 officers and soldiers soon set up camp on a high ground on the east bank of the Tianchi River, and sent people to cut down trees everywhere and scavenge for timber in Luyukou Village.

Ni Pet's reliance is on firearms, he was born in Beijing, and there is no shortage of firearms under his command, and this time he brought more than 40 large and small artillery, including six large Fran cannons over five feet, and the rest are small cannons such as small Fran machines and tiger squat cannons.

It was enough to have those six big Francophone cannons, and they concentrated on bombarding a certain city wall, and after bombarding it all day, they didn't believe that the city wall would not collapse.

……

In the early morning of the next day, before dawn, 6,000 officers and soldiers slowly advanced towards Luyukou Fort.

When they reached the three hundred paces, the army stopped, and some of them set up defensive positions, while others hammered and beat in the back, continuing to build siege equipment.

The six large Franco-cannon mounted on the gun carriage were pushed out, and after twenty or thirty paces, they lowered their tails and feet and began to aim at the walls of the military fort.

Of the six Furlong cannons, the smallest one had a barrel length of five feet, and the largest one was six feet five inches, and the firing range was more than one mile.

The reason why Ni Chong let the artillery push to about 280 paces before firing the cannon was to increase the power and want to use these six cannons to collapse the wall of the military fort.

He knew that the Qin thieves also had cannons that could hit more than one mile, and the border troops of the two towns of Xuanda had suffered from that kind of artillery in Jingle City last year, but the number was definitely not much, and he was not afraid of confronting the defenders of the military fort at all.

There are indeed not many artillery pieces in the military fort that can hit a distance of one mile, only two red-coated general cannons and two large franc machine guns.

The biggest mistake Ni Pet made was not knowing how strong the walls of this military fort were.

……

Luo Ba is the best at defense, good at observing the situation and judging the trend.

The red-clothed general's cannon could hit a distance of more than two miles, but he didn't fire it for a long time, for the same reason as Ren Liang, just to destroy the opponent's artillery.

When the six Great Franc cannons were rolled out, he still didn't give the order to open fire.

When the officers and men put down their tails and feet, and began to aim, the artillery of the Shifang Battalion in the military fort also began to aim.

"Put!"

Seeing that his artillery had been aimed, Luo Ba shouted loudly.

Two red-coated general cannons and two large Franco-cannon cannon spewed out tongues of fire in unison, and four shells pierced the sky and landed around the artillery array of officers and men.

This was the first round of test guns, and the artillerymen adjusted their angles one after another, and it didn't take long for the four cannons to erupt again with tongues of fire.

In the second round of shelling, one shell hit, tearing several officers and men and gunners apart.

The officers and men's Big Franc machine guns were finally aimed, but one of the guns lacked gunners, only five ignition guns, and the whistling shells drew arcs and smashed against the walls of the fort one after another, making loud noises.

However, the wall remained untouched, leaving only a few marks.

The gunners of the officers and men hurriedly cleared the chambers, loaded the ammunition, and prepared to open fire, when the four cannons in the fort spewed tongues of fire again.

The gunners of the Guandi army have undergone long-term live-fire training, and their accuracy is far superior to that of the officers and men, and in the third round of shelling, two shells were hit, knocking out several gunners of the officers and men, and two of the six Furlong machine guns have been scrapped.

Ni Pet's face was ugly, Zhang Dechang's brows were furrowed tightly, and Yang Jinchao's face was pale, and he couldn't say a word with his mouth open.

They didn't expect that the artillery of the gang of traitors in the military fort would be so accurate.

After only three rounds of shelling, the hits reached 50%.

Before they could fire, two of their six Great Franc cannons were scrapped.

Moreover, the wall was surprisingly strong, and only a few marks were left from the shells of the cannon of the Big Franc.

It seems that the walls of this military fort are very strange.

"Fire, hit me hard!"

Ni Pet had no choice but to shout loudly.

Some of the riotous gunners quickly changed their guns and fired again.

The gunners of the 10 battalions in the fort immediately returned the color and opened fire one after another, and another shell fell in the crowd of officers and soldiers.

The faces of Ni Chong, Yang Jinchao and the others became more and more ugly.

Zhang Dechang frowned and said, "Lord Ni, we can't take advantage of artillery shooting, or we can't collect our troops for the time being, and after building enough siege equipment, it's not too late to attack on a large scale." ”

Ni Pet shook his head: "No, the big shield covers, continue to fight the city wall, I believe that I can't collapse this hollow city wall." ”

Zhang Dechang opened his mouth, and finally sighed secretly.

After about a quarter of an hour, the shelling of officers and soldiers stopped.

Because their gunners were either stoned to death or wounded, there were few gunners who could operate the Grande Franco's cannon.

The gun carriages of two Grande Franc cannons were also hit, and the bombardment was torn apart, and all six Grande Franc cannons were destroyed.

Zhang Dechang said a little anxiously: "Lord Ni, let's collect the troops first, and it's not too late to attack when the equipment is enough." ”

Ni Pet gritted his teeth and thought for a moment, and finally sighed.

"Collect the troops."