The rumbling sound of artillery calmed the whole land, far half a month ago, there were no birds in the area of Texas, the army was stationed, the musket battalion, the cavalry brigade, the artillery battalion, the local militia regiment, the endless baggage team, the grain team filled the large and small roads, the river boats were like shuttles, the heads of people were turbulent, one after another even lined up to Tianjin, the captain and the slender man shouted slogans for their lives, the torches were not extinguished all night, like a huge fire dragon, day and night to transport materials and munitions to Jingxian, and then unload and disembark. The mules and horses roared and dragged forward on the official road, and the heavy wheels re-pressed the desolate ancient road into deep dents, and after the heavy rain, it was filled with sewage and mud, staining the towns and military camps along the road all over the ground orange and yellow. As soon as the war broke out, the state capitals south of Zhili were turned upside down.

The real responsible for the attack is the Third Guards Army of the Han Empire, as well as the two heavy artillery brigades of the Fifth Army, with only more than 16,000 combat soldiers, but because it is an attack on the fortress, the army has to use a large number of artillery and infantry support weapons to support and cover, in order to maintain this terrible and helpless attack, the Lin Han court had to levy more than 50,000 Ding Zhuang to supply, it should be thanks to the convenient water network of Zhili, otherwise, the number of troops for this logistics supply will probably be doubled.

Marked by the wars of the Ming and Qing dynasties in the past, the history of China has officially reached the age of firearms, these decades, the long and tragic war has allowed the people of this land to accumulate rich military experience, since the emergence of large-caliber artillery, the current battle for the city is no longer like the ancestors to concentrate a large number of troops in a fortress, relying on a solid wall for lasting defense, but to try to disperse the army, with the largest and strongest city as the center, to build many satellite fortresses, Communicate with each other, support each other, defend the core fortress together, try to let the invading enemy army fall into a protracted battle that is constantly fought back and forth, let the casualties wear down the morale of the opponent, let time torture the confidence of the enemy generals, and let the weather, plague, and supplies destroy the morale of the enemy army.

Texas, which is in front of Ma Jinliang, is the most typical example. Dezhou is a plain city, running through the water network, convenient transportation, flourishing port and large population, has always been the throat of Shandong, with rich and rich gold in the Central Plains region enjoys a good reputation, she is not precipitous, there is no pass to rely on, there is no natural danger to rely on, if placed in the past, the war together, thousands of iron horsemen can be a horse Pingchuan directly to kill outside the city gate, and then take the city defense in one go.

But now is not the past, now the outer fortresses of Dezhou are everywhere, Shandong general soldier Wang Chengye since the garrison, that is, with Dezhou City as the center, with the canal as the backbone, built large and small beacon towers, pillboxes, watchtowers, forts, earthen ramparts, ditches, etc., there are all kinds of things, there are hundreds of pillboxes stationed in hundreds alone, and there are countless other fortifications, sentry posts, and traps, it is conceivable that such a huge and complicated fortification can not be completed in one or two days, Wang Chengye has taken precautions, and the Shandong army has been planning for a long time.

This kind of hedgehog defense brought countless troubles to Ma Jinliang, although before the start of the war, he had some understanding of the defense situation of Texas, in fact, he was also daunted, according to his instructions, he definitely did not want to touch this nasty hard shell, but out of political needs, the Han army had to crush this seemingly impregnable line of defense.

In the face of such stubborn and tight defenses, any so-called trickery is a ridiculous joke, and both sides can only bite the bullet one fortress after another, gain and lose, lose and regain, and brutally tug and see-saw until the soldiers of one side collapse.

The heavy artillery brigade allocated by Lin Feng to the Third Army played the most crucial role in the battle, in fact, in such a battle, the bravery of the soldiers could not solve the problem at all, in front of one fortress after another, no matter how brave the soldiers were, no matter how strong the morale would be, in the arduous battle, the tenacious and tenacious style could be retained, but the strong morale could only be maintained for twenty-four hours at most, and the belief in supporting the war came from the hope of victory, and the heavy artillery brigade was this hope.

The newly formed Fifth Guards Army is a pure artillery unit, which itself exists to conquer the fortified city, with a full strength of more than 15,000 men and more than 400 large and small artillery pieces, including 40 heavy red-coated cannons in the heavy artillery brigade. With the support of heavy artillery brigades, the mode of combat became monolithic and boring - first the artillery clusters bombarded to destroy the enemy fortifications and clear the obstacles to the charge, and then the infantry launched a charge, rushing in and out to fight for control of the fortress.

This kind of combat was very morale-boosting in the early days of the war, first the deafening sound of artillery, and then the sharp and whistling shells pierced the sky, bombing the enemy's fortress into ruins, the infantry cheered and rejuvenated their courage, and climbed and attacked with all their might, but after half a month, no matter how majestic the artillery was and how dense the shells were, they could no longer arouse anyone's interest, and the bloody and brutal hand-to-hand combat was daunting, Wang Chengye's troops were extremely tenacious in the fortress, and under the superior firepower of the Han army, they often cowered in the fortress and let it bombard, However, when the infantry rushed in, they leaped to their feet and rushed close to launch a fierce counterattack.

Han soldiers armed with flintlock muskets often fired only one shot, and then had to engage in fierce hand-to-hand combat - this style of combat virtually wiped out the Han army's equipment advantage, although the Han army also had a long period of bayonet training, but was not equipped with armor, and could not take advantage of this kind of pure cold weapon combat.

The battle was extremely bloody, half a month, Ma Jinliang had not seen the city wall of Dezhou City, one after another small enclosure blocked the direction of his march, this kind of castle is generally not too tall, originally some villages outside Dezhou City, the Shandong army used them, relying on private houses and earthen walls for reprocessing, to build one small fortress after another, although the area is not large, but the equipment is complete, there are artillery, there are guns, there are lookouts on the top, there are shooting holes on the wall, and even if they kill into the fortress, Passages can also be separated from each other for hand-to-hand street fighting.

For half a decade, Ma Jinliang had been unable to sleep or eat, and the fortification of the Texas fortress was far beyond his expectations - the difficulty of this attack was not only troubled by strong fortifications, but also the tenacious will of the Shandong army that he did not expect, although he knew very early on that Wang Chengye was very popular with the army, but he did not expect it to be so difficult to fight. Now everyone with eyes in the world knows that the Shandong Army is definitely not the opponent of the Han Army, and it is only a matter of time before Texas falls, and he does not understand what the motivation of the enemy army is so desperate.

But this time is obviously not the time to study this kind of problem, Ma Jinliang's time is not very abundant, before receiving the appointment, he has already boasted in front of Lin Feng Haikou, and after sending troops, he lost cruel words to Zhao Yingkui and Wang Zhongxiao in Bucheng, and now more than half a month has passed, but his army has not even touched the other party's city wall, as a soldier, there is no shame in life more than this.

In order to supervise the offensive speed of his troops, he is now stationed in the front line to supervise the battle, and in many cases even automatically demotes himself to the battalion commander, directly commanding some small battles.

"Boom ......", the cannon on the fort jumped violently, spewed out a large white smoke, the cannonballs whistled by, and the opposite fortress was blown out of a big hole, and then the poignant little horn sounded, the officers shouted at the soldiers, and rushed forward in formation, the soldiers with a helpless expression, obliquely holding the musket, half-bowing the waist pole, desperately running forward, just breaking into the gap, the fortress suddenly remembered a gong, the originally silent and uninhabited wall was instantly filled with enemy troops, buckets of boiling water poured down, Under the command of the officers, the musketeers ignored their colleagues who were howling on the ground, and slowly raised their guns in a logical formation, shooting alternately, while rushing towards the interior of the fortress, in the tight and neat queue, people kept falling, and then they were kicked aside by their comrades in the back column, filling the gap and continuing to move forward.

When the Han army rushed to the near place, the gong sounded again, the defenders shouted, stood up together, and counterattacked the Han army, in an instant, the two armies collided suddenly, and the swords and guns were raised at the same time to kill each other, and the musketeers at the head of the row did not even have time to fire a shot, and they were immediately engulfed by the surging crowd, and on the narrow terrain, the Han army could no longer maintain the formation, and it was worth relying on in twos and threes, and the enemy fought with bayonets.

"One more company!" Ma Jinliang put down the binoculars and said coldly to the herald beside him.

The fortress in front of him is a heavy defense line in the innermost perimeter of Dezhou City, and after breaking through this fortress group, Dezhou will no longer be covered, and it will be directly under the threat of the Han army.

"Yes!" The heralds hurried out, and within a few moments, a company of soldiers rushed forward and plunged into hand-to-hand combat ahead.

Seeing the Han army increase troops, a whistle on the fortress, the enemy troops who were fighting hand-to-hand immediately retreated, gradually spreading the battlefield, raising guns on both sides of the wall and roof, covering the hand-to-hand soldiers out of the battle, taking advantage of the Han soldiers to raise their heads, alternately covering the gradual withdrawal of the fortress, leaving this dilapidated fortification to the Han army.

"......Huh" Ma Jinliang spat for a long time, and threw a look of admiration at the enemy on the opposite side, but did not order the pursuit, after this period of fighting, he knew that the pursuit did not have any good results, the other party retreated on the way in addition to ambushes, there are a large number of ditches and traps, the cavalry can't run, the infantry is not easy to walk, if the flaws are exposed, they may be bitten by the enemy.

This style of play has only one meaning, that is, human life for human life. And the Han army has such an advantage, and what they don't like the most is the exchange of human lives for human lives.

"Report to the army! ...... "The officer who led the attack was a lieutenant company commander, who was pale with blood at this time, and although he had conquered the enemy fortress victoriously, he did not seem to be very excited, he saluted Ma Jinliang and said, "Fortunately, the headquarters has taken the enemy fort!" Kill twenty-five and capture six! ”

The officers next to Ma Jinliang were expressionless, Ma Jinliang barely squeezed out a smile, nodded to express relief, and asked casually, "How many casualties?!" ”

"Seventeen brothers died, eleven were seriously injured, and the other were lightly injured......" The officer immediately turned pale, pursed his lips, glanced at Ma Jinliang secretly, and said tremblingly.

"Good! - It's hard work, go down and rest! Ma Jinliang frowned, but he did not reprimand and blame, but comforted him gently. Seeing that his officer was about to leave, he suddenly stopped him again and said, "Bring those prisoners up, I have something to ask." ”

The six captives were all wounded, Ma Jinliang examined them carefully, pointed to the youngest captive on the side and said, "You-yes, it's you, come here, I have something to ask you!" ”

This soldier looked very young, no more than seventeen or eighteen years old, he was stabbed in the shoulder by a bayonet in the battle just now, and immediately fainted in pain, at this time, although he was coarsely applied with some herbs, the blood still kept seeping out, and then saw Ma Jinliang pointing at himself, obviously a little overwhelmed, and the personal soldier next to him immediately kicked him, kicking him to his knees.

"Big ...... My lord...... I ......"

Seeing that the soldiers were about to come up and move again, Ma Jinliang waved his hand and told him to go down, and said softly, "What's your name?!" ”

"Villain...... The villain's name is Mao Si Child...... "The little soldier trembled all over, knelt on the ground and did not dare to raise his head, looking like an overly frightened chick."

"Oh, that hairy fourth child, where are you from?!"

"The little one is from Yangping County!"

"Oh, but Yangping County in Dongchang Prefecture?!"

Mao Siyu glanced at Ma Jinliang in surprise, and immediately lowered his head to respond, "It's Yangping County, Dongchang Prefecture......"

"Well," Ma Jinliang nodded, "How many years have you been eating food?!" ”

"Five years!" Seeing that Ma Jinliang was stunned, Mao Sizi kowtowed again and again, and added, "The villain was originally asking for food outside, and then there was a general master who wanted to find someone to serve, so he asked someone to pull me into the camp for him to be a personal soldier, a few days ago he was killed by you in the camp of Liu Zhimiao, and the little one had no support, so he was sent to fight!" ”

Ma Jinliang smiled dumbly, shook his head and said, "I really can't see it, you're still a veteran!" He restrained his smile and said solemnly, "You honestly tell Lord Ben, what did Wang Chengye tell you, is it not allowed to surrender?" Otherwise kill the whole family?! ”

Mao Sizi was frightened, and hurriedly shook his head and said, "No, no...... Commander-in-Chief...... Oh, no, no, it's Wang Chengye, he, he didn't say that! ”

"Oh? Did he say anything to you?! ”

"The little one doesn't know, the little one is a little soldier in the camp, the official and the veteran don't pay attention to me, and no one talks to me,...... "Mao Sizi secretly raised his head, seeing Ma Jinliang's face full of disappointment, he hurriedly said, "But a few days ago, when the chief master didn't die, the little one vaguely heard that they talked about 'descending or not descending' when he poured wine and served him......"

"What doesn't go down?" Ma Jinliang was stunned and said, "You can be clear." ”

"Yes, yes! ......" the little soldier kowtowed again and again, "The little one actually doesn't know, but I just listened to what they said, and there was an explanation on what they said, we can't surrender this time, we have to fight against it, the harder we fight, the bigger the face of our Shandong people, and the more fierce the fight, the higher the price of what 'fu'......" He secretly glanced at Ma Jinliang and whispered, "...... Otherwise......"

"Why not?! - Say!! Ma Jin couldn't help but raise his anger and shouted.

"Yes, yes! The officials said, otherwise, we will be in a mess, even if we are exiled without asking about the crime, we will definitely be cut and vacant, and we will not be able to get food when the time comes......"

Ma Jinliang stood up, no longer paid attention to the little soldier, turned to his chief of staff and said, "Write this down and send it to ...... Send it back to the Beijing Division," he blushed, turned around and whispered, "At ......the end, remember to make it clear: Our Third Guards Army is united as a bamboo, and Texas can be down overnight, but the art of war is cloudy, and those who make good use of soldiers have no outstanding achievements, so please also ask the lord to decide!" ”