War always punishes when the unexpected happens. Although everyone has long known about the outbreak of this war.

But when the war suddenly started, it still surprised many people, after all, in their opinion, the Ming army is still mobilizing, and even if it does, it should wait until the army is assembled before doing it.

But to their surprise, the Ming army did not wait at all, and the reason why they did not wait for the army to complete the assembly was probably more because of the railway. The advent of railways could guarantee the movement of troops.

From dawn to dusk, Tongguan, a thousand-year-old pass, has been caught in artillery fire since March 16, hundreds of guns have been fired at Tongguan City without stopping, and thousands of shells are whistling in the air and dragging the roar and smashing inside and outside Tongguan City.

Cannonballs rained down on the Tongguan city wall, and it only took one day to smash the Tongguan city wall, but despite this, the city wall still stood there. However, anyone can see that it is only a matter of time before the city is broken, as long as there is constant shelling.

Of course, many cannonballs are not so coincidental that they can fall directly on the city wall, and fall on the houses near the city wall, but even so, the cannonballs weighing hundreds of catties will cause a wave of shaking every time they fall on the city wall, giving people the illusion that the city wall will soon collapse completely.

Sometimes, in addition to solid bullets, there will be explosive bombs, and when the explosion explodes, one pillar of smoke after another, rising from the ground, sandwiching bricks and dirt, into the air.

The artillery bombardment was more fierce than people imagined, and even the Ming army, as the attacker, did not expect the shelling to be so fierce. Sometimes, shells rained down like torrential rain. For a while, not only the walls of Tongguan were trembling, but also the houses and trees inside and outside the city, in short, everything on the earth was trembling and shaking.

Still, even so, the wall still stood there, and although it had collapsed in many places, revealing not only the rammed earth wrapped in the brick walls, but also the rammed earth that had collapsed under the impact of the cannonballs, forming a gentle slope in front of the wall, the troops still did not attack, and still watched from a distance, waiting for orders.

In the fields less than 200 fathoms (meters) away from the Tongguan city wall, several trenches stretched all the way to the Yellow River, and the soldiers relied on the protection of the trenches to face the Qing army in the city. That's how they look at each other, and sometimes they can even see each other's faces.

Su Bingfang, like the brothers in the class, has been stationed in the trench for two and a half days, and in the past two and a half days, they have not released a single gun or a grenade, and everyone's guns have been replenished, a full sixty rounds of bullets, enough for half a month. But even then, it doesn't make any sense, because they don't have a chance to let go at all.

Except for yesterday morning, because the artillery needed to observe the situation of the city wall, and then stopped the shelling, that is, by this effort, when the wind blowing from the Yellow River showed Tongguan in the eyes of the big guys, Wang Youtian in the class felt that he was really panicked, and then he picked up the fire gun and shot at a black scene on the city wall, and the big guys were all the same.

Wang Youtian himself didn't know whether that shot hit or not, anyway, after that shot, the Qing army that originally wanted to use the vacancy to repair the city wall had no movement.

Then the artillery continued to carry out the shelling, and they continued to wait here.

"Lao Tzu has been a soldier for three years, but such a battle? It's the first time I've come! ”

Qin Guofeng, who was reclining in the bunker by the trench, said angrily.

"Come on, you've been a soldier for three years, and you've been fighting there for the past three years?"

The brother next to him immediately debunked his thoughts, while the brother next to him said with a smile.

"The battle was not fought, but we went out to suppress the bandits, didn't we?"

Indeed, if the suppression of bandits is also a war, they have indeed fought a war, after all, they have suppressed bandits in Hunan, and whenever there is a troubled time, there will always be a chaotic army to hide in the mountains as bandits, and for these bandits, as early as the first year of Xingqian, a time limit was set up to go out of the mountains for the people, and those who went out of the mountains within the time limit, as long as they were not guilty of great crimes, they were allowed to go home, but after the time limit, there was no more to appease them, and even the only way to wait for them was often a dead end, and they never relented in dealing with bandits who refused to lay down their arms. Even if they were captives, they would be taken to the county seat for public display, and then all of them would be beheaded.

Such methods are not limited to bandits, but also include the southwestern mountain barbarians. Compared with the Chongzhen Dynasty's uncertain suppression of the Liukou, the attitude of the Xingqian Dynasty is very simple - kill!

The reason why they were killed was not only because they exceeded the time limit, but also to deter the local people and tell them the fate of bandits. In the past few years, the anti-bandit operations in various parts of the southwest have almost never stopped, and in the four years of Xingqian, 70 percent of the Ming army was in the southwest, and the bandits were eliminated in various parts of the southwest, and of course, by the way, the southwest Tusi was also deterred. Although violence is not a panacea, it does a lot of the time.

But that kind of battle was almost overwhelming, and there was no suspense about the outcome at all, and the ending was predestined from the beginning.

"This is artillery warfare!"

Wang Youtian, who was sitting next to him, said casually.

"In the past, when there was a war under the sky. This siege is either filled with human lives or lifted with gunpowder, and now we directly smash it into tens of thousands of shells, and when the city wall collapses, the defenders in the city will not be able to hold it. ”

"When the time comes, we can easily attack the city!"

"No, maybe we can take down this city without firing a single shot."

Patting the infantry gun in his hand, Qin Guofeng said dissatisfiedly.

"What are you doing here? What do we do? Isn't it just a charge, hiding here and waiting for the artillery to fire, they blew up Tongguan City, what are we when the time comes? ”

Obviously, not everyone thinks this is a good thing, and some people even say it indignantly.

"That is, when the time comes, when the merit is rewarded, ouch, the infantry is not on it, it is all our artillery to shoot down, yes, all the military merits are given to the artillery, and we will walk there barefoot! As a result, I didn't even catch a single hair......"

When the indignant words came out of the mouths of the brothers, Su Bingfang just smiled, he knew why the brothers were like this, because everyone wanted to obtain military merits, because military merits mean that they can get more Xuntian when they retire, and military merits are real benefits.

After all, nowadays, military merit is the only way to obtain land, without military merit, many of them can only live on the streets after retiring, because many of them are second sons, according to the law of the Ming Dynasty, the second son has no right to inherit.

For them, being a soldier is undoubtedly the best choice, as long as they become a soldier, they will not have to worry about getting a field in the future. The number or lack of fields, and the location and location, are all related to their military merits, and if there is no military merit, there is not even a choice, and they can only obey the distribution when they retire.

Even if they themselves don't know if they will be assigned to a border where birds don't poop at that time.

But if there is military merit, then they will have a choice, at least they can choose the best place before the others are assigned.

For soldiers, military merit is a tangible benefit. But everyone knows that if you don't fight, you won't have military merit at all.

"Don't rush! Don't worry, there are hundreds of thousands of Jiannu, enough for us to kill, don't worry, I'm afraid you won't kill enough when the time comes......"

With a bayonet in his hand, he sharpened the tip of the triangular bayonet on the stone in order to make it sharper.

"The bullet is a fool, the bayonet is a hero." , in many cases, this knife is even more useful than a bullet. That's why he sharpened his knife like this, Su Bingfang smiled, and then said to the brothers beside him.

"When the time comes, just don't be soft."

Not everyone dares to kill, and in many cases, most people often fail to muster the courage, not because they are timid. It's because they don't want to. I don't want to get blood on my hands.

"If you have soft hands, the turtle king bastard will be soft!"

With his eyes wide open, Wang Gong muttered to the squad leader, then looked into the distance again, and finally sighed again.

"Kill those turtle sons, no matter how much you kill, you won't get rid of your hatred! If you want to kill, kill all of them, leave no one, and kill them all. ”

Feeling that Wang Gong's mood was not good, Su Bingfang put the bayonet in his hand back into the scabbard, and then said to him:

"Don't worry, when you kill, our firearms and bayonets won't be idle and have nothing to do! I guess when we get back to the end, we can all kill the ......."

Whether they can kill a soft hand, no one knows, but for them, waiting for the artillery to blast the city wall open is indeed a bit anxious, even if they are lazy and want to fall asleep, but from time to time a shell weighing hundreds of pounds will hit it, and the violent explosion will not only shock them but also make them dizzy, and even the cracks in the wooden strips on the top of the bunker will fall to the earth.

"Grandma's, I really don't know when it's a head!"

Wang Gong stuffed two balls of cotton into his ears, and then fell asleep, so let's rest first!

When the city is broken, kill again!

The people outside the city are waiting to kill into the city, but the people in the city seem to be having a nightmare, every time, when the cannonballs are whistling down, listening to the whistling sound, the hearts of the people in the city will be pinched together, and then look at the sky in horror, watch the dots get bigger and bigger, and then slam on the city wall, smashing the bricks and earth, but this is not the most frightening, those solid bullets the size of a pig's head, when they smash over, at most the momentum is a little scary, what is really scary is the flowering bomb.

"Boom", a flower bomb exploded on the city wall, although it was far away, you could still feel the city wall trembling, the bricks and soil were blown loosely, the Qing army hiding on the city wall covered their ears, frightened faces, they would be frightened to stick their bodies on the city wall, two hands pressed their ears, and then complained in their hearts.

"Damn, when is it a ......?"

No one knows when it is a head, the whistling of the cannonballs and the occasional explosion are always stimulating the nerves of the defenders, not only the nerves of ordinary soldiers are becoming more and more nervous, but also in the yamen in Tongguan City, when listening to the whistling sound from far and near, Laita, as the guard of Tongguan, his face has become extremely ugly, at least at that moment, he even wants to hide, although he knows that the Ming army has no intention of shelling the city at all. They had always targeted the city walls, and the occasional cannonballs that landed inside the city were nothing more than stray bullets.

"If it goes on like this, the Tongguan city wall will collapse sooner or later!"

Raita muttered as he walked, and in the courtyard, he could see the dust and smoke rising from the walls, how long could the walls last?

Ten days? Five days?

Or two days?

What is certain is that the walls are no longer holding up.

"If the city is broken...... Just fight with the Ming army in Tongguan and break the net! ”

As Emperor Taizong's forward guard, Laita is now one of the few strong generals in the Qing army, the year before last when he went west, he had taken the lead in killing Yarkand, and because of this, he was appointed by the emperor as the guard of Tongguan, originally for holding Tongguan, Laita did not feel any difficulty, but now, these two days and two nights of shelling, completely subverted his thoughts.

At least before that, he never thought that the Ming would have so many cannons, and they could dump cannonballs on the walls of Tongguan day and night. Even the strongest walls can't help them with cannonballs, and in a few days, the walls of this city will be trampled by them, and they will definitely not be able to hold this place by then.

"No, you have to send a letter to your master immediately. It can't be consumed like this anymore, if it continues to be consumed like this, there is really no hope for the Great Qing Kingdom. ”

Thinking that the court had not yet made a decision, Laita muttered to herself.

"What's going on? Could it be that they don't know the lessons of Chongzhen back then? I am still staying in Xi'an City one by one, when will I leave Xi'an? ”

The reason why Rita is so anxious is not only because he is worried about the future of the Qing Kingdom, but also because he is also thinking about his own future, only when the court leaves Xi'an, he can leave Tongguan openly, instead of accompanying his life here.

"Otherwise, take the troops down from the walls first, and then ...... inside the city."

Pacing back and forth, knowing that the most important thing at the moment was Laita, who was guarding Tongguan first, staring at the city wall in the distance, the city wall must not be able to hold it, thinking of the result of stubborn defense, he immediately started to think.

"Instead of waiting for the city to collapse and then withdraw, it is better to withdraw the soldiers first, and then close the door and fight the dogs!"

Slapping his palms hard, Laita said with some excitement.

"Yes, that's it!"