Wang Pu and others discussed for a few days, and after the army also built many large siege equipment, they finally launched an attack.

But not a siege, but an artillery bombardment.

The Ming army brought more than 100 artillery pieces, although most of them were small cannons, and even the bead fire guns were counted in it, but there were also more than a dozen Da Forang machine guns that could hit about a mile.

Wang Pu and the others didn't know how many artillery pieces there were in the Ninghua Institute, and they didn't know how powerful those artillery pieces were.

Therefore, it was unanimously decided to shell first, test the firepower inside and then decide on the means of attack.

Therefore, in the early morning of April 16 in the seventh year of Chongzhen, Wang Pu sent 5,000 troops to cover the artillery with shield vehicles and large shields, and slowly advanced towards Ninghua.

Qin Chuan had already appeared on the head of the city of Ninghua.

The 3,000 Guan Imperial Army was in full array, and dozens of artillery pieces were all loaded with ammunition and primers, ready to fire at any time.

Qin Chuan held a telescope in his hand and kept observing the opponent's formation and distance.

Arranged on the third floor and next to the dozens of guns on the roof, there is also a gunner with a telescope to observe carefully.

There are distance signs outside the Ninghua Institute, three miles, two and a half miles, two miles, and so on.

If the distance to the target is accurate, the landing point of the shell will also be very accurate.

"General Tianwei cannon preparation."

Seeing that the enemy in the telescope was about to advance to a distance of three miles, Qin Chuan shouted.

"Yes!"

"Open fire."

Qin Chuan gave an order, and the eight Tianwei General Cannons roared in unison, and eight iron bullets thicker than fists pierced the sky, emitting a sharp and piercing whistling sound in the air.

In the Chinese army formation in the rear of the Ming army, Wang Pu, Lu Jiude, Wang Dehua, Wang Kun and others widened their eyes and stretched their necks.

Those few shells accurately smashed into the formation of the five thousand Ming troops, the iron bullets larger than the fist were extremely powerful, a five-inch thick shield was actually pierced alive, several Ming soldiers hiding behind were killed on the spot, the shells hit a large area of mud and sand after the shells landed, and then continued to bounce back, all the way past the Ming troops who were hit fell to the ground.

In addition, there was also a shield cart and two large shields that were smashed and fell apart on the spot, and the Ming army behind also fell into bad luck.

Despite the cover of shield carts and large shields, the eight shells still caused as many as thirty or forty casualties.

Wang Pu, Lu Jiude and the others' faces suddenly became ugly.

Zeng Caofei deliberately asked people to take a look at the cannonball that was still emitting green smoke, and then his face became even more ugly.

The Qin thief has a Hongyi cannon, which can shoot such a large cannonball three miles away, which is definitely a heavy cannon of more than three thousand catties.

"Keep going!"

Wang Pu, who had come back to his senses, raised his hand and shouted loudly.

This battle still has to be fought, and I definitely don't expect to capture Ninghua Institute today, but I have to try out the details of the surname Qin.

The 5,000 Ming army continued to advance, and the cannons on the walls of the Kening Huasu continued to roar.

When entering the distance of two miles, the Ming army had lost three shield cars, five large shields, and a large Franc machine gun The gun carriage was bombed, and without the gun car, the gunner could not lift the heavy cannon, which was equivalent to being temporarily scrapped.

At this time, the twelve red-clothed general cannons on the head of the city also lit the primer in unison, and roared out of anger.

With the addition of these twelve cannons, the casualties of the Ming army suddenly increased.

But under the encouragement and coercion of those officers behind, the Ming army still advanced slowly.

When they finally reached a distance of one mile, the gunners of the Ming army began to pierce the feet of the Fran cannons, and before they could aim at the head of the city of Ninghua, they were dealt a devastating blow.

At the head of the city, twenty large Buddha cannons also lit the primer in unison, and fired a salvo together with the red-clothed general cannons, and in the roar like the roar of the heavenly tribulation, dozens of shells roared in, penetrating into the Ming army formation like a thunderstorm.

For a time, the shield car and the big shield of the Ming army were torn apart, sawdust flew sideways, and the screams were connected and resounded in the sky.

In just a few breaths, the twenty big Buddha machines at the head of the city erupted into anger again, and the Ming army, which had not yet recovered, fell into chaos again.

After only three shots, the Ming army scattered in a hurry and ran back lifelessly.

Only two or three hundred mutilated corpses were left on the battlefield, and a pile of tattered shields.

The battle loss ratio is not large, but the deterrent power of the opponent's artillery is greater than the deterrent of battle damage.

Wang Pu did not let his own soldiers cut down and rout, but only sent another army to risk death on the battlefield, and at the cost of hundreds of casualties, to pull back the artillery.

Then, with a wave of his hand, Wang Pu led the generals to collect their troops and return to the camp.

……

On the wall of the Ninghua Institute, Qin Chuan put down the binoculars in his hand and rubbed his somewhat sour eyes.

"Big boss, I haven't used this gun yet, why did those sons of bitches retire?" Huang Liuxi, who was on the side, raised the rifled gun in his hand and said with a depressed face.

Qin Chuan smiled: "Let's wait, they will come again tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and then your gun will come in handy." ”

"Will they come tomorrow?"

"Ten will come, and ...... If you look at them with a telescope, the towering wooden towers in their camp are siege towers, and since the artillery has been available, the siege towers have been rarely used, because such big things will become targets for artillery. ”

"The reason why the officers and soldiers are doing that thing is that there is no other way, our city is high and the artillery is stronger than them, they can't attack it, so they can only get that thing."

"But those trebuchets, that is, the return cannons, are quite a threat to us, and when we defend the city tomorrow, our cannons will have to aim at those trebuchets, so as not to let them smash the city walls."

Huang Liuxi nodded thoughtfully, and asked again: "The big boss, what about the siege tower of the officers and soldiers?" What to deal with? ”

Qin Chuan pointed to the trenches crisscrossing the outside of the Ninghua Station, and said: "The reason why so many trenches are dug is to block the opponent's large siege equipment, their siege towers can't move when they reach this area, they have to use thick planks to spread on them, and in some places they even have to fill in the soil, which will inevitably slow down the speed of advancement." ”

"That way, we'll have enough time to pack up the trebuchets first, and then we'll go back and bombard the siege towers after we've got all the trebuchets done."

"But it may also be too late, in this case, it will depend on you, you and other brothers with rifled guns, specifically aim at the officers and soldiers who push the siege tower, and try to slow down their advance."

"Okay."

Huang Liuxi patted the rifled gun in his hand with confidence.

Qin Chuan also patted him on the shoulder, then turned around and saw Li Dingguo standing aside, and he could hear it.

There were also Liu Wenxiu and Ai Nengqi beside him, the former looked thoughtful, and the latter kept staring at the Tianwei General Cannons with huge barrels placed not far away.

"Are you okay with your legs?"

Qin Chuan walked over and asked Liu Wenxiu with a smile.

Liu Wenxiu hugged his fists and replied: "The adult has a heart, the kid's leg is no longer a big problem." ”

"It's okay, look at the power of those cannons, if I have two more cannons, can I win the world?"

Hearing this question, Liu Wenxiu was silent.

Ai Nengqi on the side turned around, raised a finger, and said in an old-fashioned manner: "I heard that Jiannu has three heads and six arms, just two hundred is not enough, you can't beat Jiannu, you have a thousand, if you have a thousand cannons of this kind, you can sweep the Central Plains, bombard Liaodong, this world is yours." ”

"Hahaha."

Qin Chuan raised his head and laughed a few times, then patted Ai Nengqi on the shoulder, and said, "Jiannu will come in a few days, and when the time comes, I will show you if they are three heads and six arms." ”

After saying that, Qin Chuan turned around and walked downstairs, and took the opportunity to ask his subordinates to go out to clean up the battlefield.

……

As Qin Chuan expected, the next day, the officers and soldiers launched another attack.

Moreover, this time it was a large-scale offensive.

There were about 20,000 Ming troops on the battlefield, densely packed, or pushing heavy shield carts, or carrying long ladders, or shouting trumpets and pushing and pulling the four three-zhang high siege towers slowly moved to Ninghua.

In front of those siege towers, there are thigh-thick nailed logs neatly arranged to resist shells, and there is a long inclined ladder behind them, which can not only allow soldiers to quickly climb up the siege towers, but also play a supporting role, and there are also two logs on each side to support to avoid being knocked over by artillery, and there are oblique thick baffles to protect the soldiers behind.

Such siege towers are very heavy, and each tower needs dozens or even hundreds of people to push and pull before it can move slowly.

As soon as they entered the distance of three miles, the eight Tianwei general cannons of the Ninghua Institute opened fire, specifically aiming at the four siege towers.

A thigh-thick log could barely hold off a cannonball, but the soldier in front of him was unlucky, and a single shot could smash a string of people into a bloody blur.

Moreover, the logs on the siege towers were broken by shells from time to time, and the solidity of the entire tower gradually decreased.

Wang Pu and the others were about to make up their minds to attack this time, and most of the officers led their own soldiers to press the formation in the rear, cheering and shouting of killing one after another, although almost every shell came down with casualties, but each time there were only single digit casualties, which seemed insignificant in the vigorous army.

When the army advanced to a distance of two miles, the red-clothed general cannon of Ninghua Station also opened fire.

The casualties of the Ming army were also gradually rising, with each round of shelling causing dozens or even hundreds of casualties.

However, the artillery is to cool down.

After firing five or six rounds, the artillery at the head of the city of Ninghua stopped firing to cool down the barrel, otherwise the barrel would be overheated and easy to explode.

Seeing that the artillery at the head of the city had stopped, the generals of the Ming army took the opportunity to cheer loudly, and the momentum of the officers and soldiers suddenly came up again, and the speed of advance was greatly accelerated.

After paying five or six hundred casualties, the Ming army finally advanced to a distance of one mile.

At this time, the siege towers suddenly moved out of the back of the woods and began to assemble the catapults.

At the head of the city, Qin Chuan hurriedly shouted: "All artillery hits the other party's catapults." ”

The artillery, which had dissipated heat to a certain extent, adjusted the angle and direction of fire, aimed at the dozen or so catapults that were still being assembled, and spewed out tongues of fire in unison.

After a round of shelling, the timber of the two catapults that were still being assembled was smashed to pieces, and the surrounding Ming troops also screamed miserably.

The four siege towers continued to advance, and when they reached a distance of three hundred paces, they encountered a trench that had been dug horizontally.

The Ming army had already prepared for this, and they took out logs from the inside of the siege tower, put them on the trench, and then spread thick wooden planks on them, and then shouted the trumpet to push the siege tower up.

On the third floor of Ninghua City, Huang Liuxi poked the rifled gun in his hand out of the hole, put the butt of the rifle against his shoulder, tilted his head, closed one eye, and aimed at the Ming army who was struggling to pull the rope under a siege tower.

"If you blow up Lao Tzu's face, you have to kill a few more people for Lao Tzu."

Huang Liuxi muttered to himself, then held his breath and pulled the trigger.