Gao Hongtu quietly listened to Shi Kecheng's beautiful picture of the encirclement and suppression of Duoduo by an army of 300,000, but there was no change in expression on his face, until Shi Kecheng's mouth was dry and he had nothing to say, so he sighed softly and said: "This official has just received a report from General Li of Caozhou, the Dongyu army broke through Yutai County on the eighth day of the fifth month, entered the territory of Xuzhou on the ninth day of the first month, and broke through the two county towns of Pei County and Feng County in one day on the tenth day of the first month!" ”

Shi Kecheng was stunned, and hurriedly asked: "Have the people been evacuated in Yutai, Peixian, and Feng County?" Did Gao Zongrong and Li Zongrong ever fight with the captives? ”

Gao Hongtu said: "Yutai, Peixian, and Fengxian are far away from the enemy's territory, so they have not been evacuated. However, the population of the county seat of these three counties is not large, and there are three or four thousand households together, and the surrounding villages are not rich...... Although it was a disaster, the damage was not too great.

As for the battle, with the strength of General Li and General Gao, it would be good to be able to protect themselves, but would they dare to block the Tartars' troops? ”

"The Tartars' front is not unstoppable," Shi Kecheng said, "In the battle of Qufu, won't we just block it?" ”

"Qufu Jiancheng, naturally it can be blocked." Gao Hongtu's lieutenant Li Dakai interjected, "If the Dongyu dares to attack Pizhou City, which is heavily garrisoned, General Gao will definitely be able to repel it." ”

"But the Tartars didn't storm the fortified city of Qufu," Shi Kecheng said with a smile, "Just a soil fort outside the city of Qufu made the Tartars have nothing to do...... Even if you use the Hongyi cannon, you can't do it! ”

Gao Hongtu was surprised: "What? An earthen fort is holding back the Hongyi cannon? ”

"That's right!" Shi Kecheng said, "This earthen fort is made of logs inside, soil in the center, and sacks filled in the outside. No rammed earth is used, so the amount of work is not large.

After the Battle of Qufu, my brother asked Tuan Ding to test outside the city, and found that with 2,000 strong men, with shovels, sacks, and pouches, it only took three or two days to build a fortress that was enough to withstand the bombardment of Hongyi artillery. If you spend a little more time, you can also build a multi-angular fortress like the main city of Qufu. Supplemented by strong bows, firecrackers, and tiger squat cannons, with 2,000 people to defend this fortress, it should be enough to resist more than 10,000 Tartar soldiers! ”

Li Dakai showed a suspicious look: "If this is really the case, we can use the method of step-by-step to compete with the Tartars...... In the past, Hong Chengchou used this method to relieve the siege of Jinzhou. It's a pity that I didn't know how to pile up the fortress with dirt bags at that time, otherwise the state affairs would not be like this. ”

Seeing that Li Dakai seemed to be a little skeptical of his statement, Shi Kecheng smiled and said to Gao Hongtu: "Gaofutai, is there a Hongyi cannon here in Jinan?" If you have one, you can give it a try. According to the method of Qufu C-shaped branch village, build a section of earthen wall and bombard it with Hongyi cannons, you can know that what the lower official said is true. ”

Gao Hongtu shook his head and said; "There are no Hongyi cannons here in Jinan, but there are Hongyi cannons in Dengzhou City. This official will send a letter to the Yamen of the Shandong General Army, and ask them to bombard the city wall made of earth bags with Hongyi cannons to see if they can withstand it. ”

His face suddenly showed a look of expectation, and he touched his beard: "If you can really withstand it, you can divide the way and use the method of fortress advancement to encircle the eastern captives and touch the headquarters of the Golden King Duoduo...... Gather and annihilate! ”

......

"Boom ......"

It was two three-pounder guns firing, and fist-sized solid bullets were blasted out, turning into two black dots, flying at a high speed that was difficult to see with the naked eye, towards a row of wooden targets three hundred paces away. In an instant, three or two of them were shattered!

"Good! Good! Nikolai, very good! When Prince Zhu saw the effect of the shelling, he was satisfied and gave a thumbs up to a foreign devil military attache with a hooked nose, black hair, and a beard.

This foreign devil's name is Nikolai. Ferreira was the commander of the artillery regiment hired by the Governor of Macau, Paul Shi, for Zhu Cihong. At the end of last year, he arrived in Nanjing from Macao with more than 100 Portuguese gunners and craftsmen (artillerymen in this era had to bring their own craftsmen) and joined the model army of the new army of conquering difficulties.

Zhu Cihong also asked Feng Sizhong to select more than 200 nimble young sons from the Xiaolingwei New Army, and 300 people from various regiments of the New Army, and also selected some craftsmen from the Nanjing Artillery Bureau, and formed a model army artillery regiment with more than 100 Portuguese gunners.

This artillery regiment consisted of six regimental artillery batteries, two heavy artillery batteries, one engineer company, and one baggage company. Each of the six regimental artillery companies had three regimental artillery platoons under its command, and one artillery company was equipped with a total of six three-pounder regimental guns—the so-called regimental guns, which of course should be attached to the infantry regiment and the cavalry regiment.

So now the model artillery regiment is only in charge of these six regimental artillery companies, and when all the training is completed, these six regimental artillery companies will be assigned to each model infantry regiment and cavalry regiment in platoon units.

The other two heavy artillery companies were each equipped with only two 12-pounder Hongyi cannon platoons, and one heavy artillery company had only four 12-pounder Hongyi cannons, and the two companies had a total of 8 guns, which were used for firepower to attack fortified positions.

And now the test firing is a 3-pounder regimental artillery platoon composed entirely of Chinese. This platoon was personally commanded by two high-ranking officials, Feng Sizhong and Xu Ermo, and was taught by Ferreira by Portuguese artillerymen who could speak a little Chinese.

What can be shown to Zhu Cihong is not only the subject of artillery, but also the two subjects of rapid transfer and deployment of positions - compared with the 12-pounder cannon, the real advantage of the 3-pounder regimental gun is that it is light and flexible.

"Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince, they have only completed the first stage of training, and then they should also train in coordination with the infantry regiment and the cavalry regiment. The difficulty of coordination is very great, but General Shi Ruien will definitely satisfy His Highness......"

Nikolai. Ferreira spoke stiff Chinese, with a hint of Cantonese accent — he had been in Macau for many years and already spoke Cantonese Mandarin, which sounded a bit of a struggle.

The Portuguese artillery commander was actually from the navy, and Portugal was not a land power such as France, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, or Spain, and had not participated in the Thirty Years' War. So the technology of the army is not very good, and there is no high-level artillery.

Although Shi Ruien is not an artilleryman, he has really fought in the Thirty Years' War and the British Civil War, and knows how to use regimental artillery. He is also watching the artillery drill in the school field now, and when he heard Ferreira mention himself, he knew what was going on, and said to Zhu Cihong with a smile in the Chinese he had just learned in the Shanxi dialect: "Your Royal Highness the Prince, rest assured, it is wrapped in the old stone!" ”

His "Lao Xi" accent was learned from Han Lin's nephew, Han Liren, who had studied with the Italian missionary Gao Yizhi for many years and was fluent in French. And French was the lingua franca of the West in this era, and both Ryan and Ferreira could speak it. Therefore, Han Liren became the chief general of the foreign generals group, and was also responsible for teaching a group of foreign generals to speak Shanxi dialect...... Therefore, the foreign generals under Zhu Cihong either spoke Cantonese official dialect (all learned in Macao), or spoke Shanxi official dialect, and there were also some general affairs who spoke Wu Nong's soft language, all of which were found by Luo Dagong from Suzhou and Songjiang for Zhu Cihong.

"General Shi," Zhu Cihong beckoned to Shi Ruien, called the Shanxi-speaking German to him, and then asked him in French: "If the order to go out is given tomorrow, how many regiments of the Model Army can reach the level of European armies?" ”

"Nine regiments." Shi Ruien replied in the affirmative, "If you don't take into account the artillery factor, nine regiments are ready...... Your Highness, is the war about to begin? ”

"The war has begun!" Zhu Cihong smiled bitterly, "But I don't know how to win yet......"

"Your Highness, what are you worried about?" Shi Ruien asked.

"My enemies have powerful light cavalry and dismounted infantry, in fact, they are both light cavalry and non-horse infantry, proficient in combat and bows, and can also use firearms and artillery." Zhu Cihong frowned, "And they have many excellent generals, who are accustomed to conducting sports warfare in the Northern Plains...... General, do you have any suggestions? ”