For artillery battles, the East Coast artillery is the best! At this point, Interim Second Lieutenant Bernini, who was the deputy commander of the artillery company, was confident.

As for the strength of the Manchu counterparts, he had already learned once at Yantai Fort: compared with the artillery of European countries, the level was far below the average. Such a level also wants to engage in an artillery battle with the East Coasters? Although they had a certain range advantage in the city, their cannons had a small range and a small caliber, so they were a little powerless when facing the four east coast guns.

The battle lasted until noon, and the two sides finally decided the victory after shooting countless shells. One of the Qing army's artillery pieces was destroyed, and one was blown up due to excessive firing; As for the artillery on the east coast, two of them were also destroyed, but both of them were slightly damaged by the artillery trucks, and the problem was not big, and they could continue to be used if they were repaired.

Two of the four artillery pieces were destroyed, and the artillery fire of the Qing army stopped for a while. However, they stopped, and the artillery on the east bank did not give them time, and the remaining six guns immediately shifted their targets and bombarded the city wall, and the key bombardment site was naturally the section that had been destroyed by the Qing army's red-coated artillery more than a year ago. At the same time, the infantry and cavalry on the east bank were also ready to attack outside the city, ready to intercept the Qing army leaving the city at any time to protect the safety of the artillery. In addition, four squadrons (1ooo men) of the 3rd Brigade of the weaker Advance Force were sent out to collect food and forage in the nearby countryside, and scouts of the security team galloped around the vicinity to ensure that the enemy did not approach and surprise them.

So the battlefield was frozen in such a strange situation. The Qing army in Yangzhou City was similar in number to the East Coast Army outside the city, but they did not dare to go out of the city to fight, which reminded Shi Tingzhu of those Ming troops in Liaodong back then. Once upon a time, they did not dare to go out of the city to fight in the face of the "unparalleled cavalry and archery" pigtail soldiers of the Eight Banners.

At that time, the Eight Banners lacked siege weapons, so they could only besiege the Ming army's city for a long time. But now the yellow thief is different! Their yellow-coated cannons are famous all over the world. Not only is it extremely lightweight, but even the range, power and accuracy are far from the red-coated cannon, this person is really angry compared to people! How can this city be defended?! Now it seems that the plan can only wait for the Qing army in Gaoyouzhou, Taizhou, Xinghua, Baoying and other prefectures and counties to reinforce, in order to flank this group of yellow-clothed thieves on both sides. Defeating them Shi Tingzhu didn't dare to think about it, but it was still possible to force away this bold and reckless thief. But the problem is that the Qing troops in Gaoyouzhou and other places add up to only more than 4,000 people, all of them are some green battalion guest soldiers who came from Henan with poor combat strength, do they dare to come? Come to think of it. Shi Tingzhu didn't dare to confirm it again.

The brutal truth shattered Shi Tingzhu's last illusion. Because until the night of May 12, when the northern city wall of Yangzhou collapsed in a large area, the reinforcements did not appear, and even their messengers failed to enter Yangzhou City, but were intercepted outside the city gate. Although Shi Tingzhu and others organized a large number of people to desperately block the gap at night, and at the same time sent an artillery team to attack the East Coast people out of the city, but after the initial attack was quite smooth and destroyed the two artillery pieces of the East Coast people, the 6th Army on the East Coast, which came to its senses, immediately organized a counterattack, and the dense volley of guns and the black soldiers in iron armor pushed back the elite of the Qing army who came to attack. In the second half of the night, the Qing army launched two more offensives, but neither of them achieved results.

May 13 after dawn. Mo Ming first ordered the beheading of more than 100 Zhai Cong's soldiers who were the first to flee last night. Last night, behind the barbed wire fence and a trench, they were unable to resist the surprise attack of the elite of the Qing army and dispersed. A section of barbed wire was broken and two artillery pieces were destroyed. This fact made Mo Ming extremely angry, although Zhai Congge pleaded in every possible way, he still ordered the more than 100 defeated soldiers to be beheaded in public, and the military law was corrected.

After strictly finishing military discipline, the infantry who had already been clothed in steel armor dispersed into small phalanxes, and then, with the support of the other eight short-barreled howitzers of the artillery company, they stepped on a section of the moat that had been filled up overnight last night, and advanced towards a gap of about ten zhang in the northern city wall of Yangzhou. There were vague Qing troops mending the gap, but it didn't matter, a metal storm of 12 East Coast guns (4 of which had been lost in front and back) would leave no one standing in the gap.

The two infantry battalions of the Black Eight Banners (more than 15oo people) wore steel armor and held brand-new 4.2-meter spears on both sides, and the front in the middle was less than 2,000 people from Zhai Congge, who acted as the vanguard, and they formed four small phalanxes in units of 500 people, and the field howitzers and artillery that continued to advance with the phalanx were in the gap between the squares, and behind the artillery were the 1o4 companies, 1o5 companies and a standing team of musketeers, a total of 73o musketeers, and the above 4ooo soldiers formed a batch of attack troops on Yangzhou City.

After they came out, the 4 squadrons of the 3rd Brigade of the Advance Team (which had returned from the requisition) and the remaining 1 Black Eight Banner Infantry Battalion, a total of about 18oo soldiers remained to guard the camp. Mo Ming took all the relatively elite First Brigade of the Forward Team, the 1O2 Company of the 6th Army and the Cavalry Brigade to form the second echelon, ready to deal with all kinds of sudden incidents at any time. Along with these 5ooo soldiers, there were 25oo men with spears and trembling.

For siege warfare, the people on the eastern coast have long had a set of effective guidelines. That is, as in field warfare, fully wielding artillery firepower, letting artillery play the leading role, destroying enemy strongholds or any attack with firepower, and trying to avoid falling into a situation of close contact with the enemy. Of course, what kind of battle really depends on the soldiers and grassroots officers, if they are all locally well-trained 6th Army, then the Qing army naturally has no chance to get close under the intensive artillery fire and platoon gun attacks. But if it is a soldier from Zhai Congge's gang of bandits, although the training time is not short, it is really difficult to say what kind of fight it will be......

The area of Yangzhou City is very large, there are rivers, theaters, gardens, temples, military camps and other buildings in the city, which are crowded and prosperous. A year and a half ago, because the army on the east coast was on the side, Duoduo, who commanded the troops to break through Yangzhou City, did not dare to carry out a brutal massacre, and the soldiers of the Eight Banners of Manchu and Mongolia under the command of Daozhì were greatly dissatisfied. Although the gentry of Yangzhou were also greatly extorted afterwards, they finally saved their lives, much stronger than in history, and at this moment, Yangzhou City, which had been under the rule of the Qing court for more than a year, soon recovered most of its prosperity because of its geographical location.

At this moment, the East Coast army saw such a scene after entering the city. Although the Qing army blocked the gap resisted quite fiercely, how could the flesh and blood resist the metal projectiles flying out of the muzzle, so after nearly 300 people were killed and wounded. The two battalions of Jiangxi soldiers who plugged the gap no longer paid attention to the officer's orders. Begin to retreat along the main street in the north of the city. Coincidentally, at this time, more than 3,000 Yangzhou regiments rushed to reinforce on Beixiang Street. These people collided with the retreating two battalions of Jiangxi soldiers, and the sound of cursing, shouting, and warning was heard one after another, everyone said yours, I said mine, and no one could understand what anyone said, in short, it was extremely chaotic.

At this time, the East Coast army that had just poured into the city was also a little dizzy. Whether it was the two thousand Qingzhou soldiers of Zhai Cong's army who took the lead, or the seven or eight hundred musketeers on the east coast who came in after them, they were all taken aback by the prosperity of Yangzhou City. Especially those musketeers of the 14th Company of the 6th Army from the "metropolis" Ping'an County, when did they see such a prosperous Tongdu Dayi? Port Vostole, Buenos Aires, Asunción and even Lima, all of which they used to talk about, are scum in front of this magnificent Oriental city. How can a city full of monotonous, heavy stone buildings compare to this amazing city!

"Don't get distracted! Archers quickly seize the commanding heights on both sides of the street! "The infantry battalion of the New Army of the Eight Banners, the musketeers escort the artillery, and clean up the buildings on both sides!" "Don't rush in! Move closer to the brethren around you, clear one place and occupy another, and leave no nails behind! "Attention, there is still a Qing army infantry ahead, watch out for their counter-impact!" "Quickly notify the military team to come up, bring fire extinguishing tools and animal power pumps, and be careful of the enemy's fire attack!"

Before Mao Desheng, who was the commander-in-chief of the former enemy, could say anything, the commands of the middle and low-ranking officers below had already come and gone, and their professional combat qualities and rich combat experience ensured that they could make reasonable decisions at any time. They are one of the greatest assets of this force.

The Qing army really counterattacked, and the retreating Jiangxi soldiers and Yangzhou regimental training continued to attack the gap in the north city. But black soldiers in heavy armor and holding 4.2-meter spears lined up in dense formations to keep these enemies at bay. In between them, more than 700 musketeers calmly struck their muskets, not to mention eight cannons filled with grapeshot and scattered shells, and in short, the rushing Qing army fell like wheat harvesting, killing and wounding hundreds of people in a short time, which broke their morale again.

Yangzhou City is divided into two parts: the old city and the new city, and it is the old city that people on the east bank naturally enter. Zhai Congge received Mao Desheng's instructions and began to lead his sons to clean up the buildings on both sides. The Qingzhou soldiers, who had uniformly changed into khaki military uniforms and large caps on the east bank, violently smashed open the closed doors of the buildings on both sides of the street, and some of the Qing soldiers hiding inside were stabbed to death by spears when they could not resist at all. The Tribute Courtyard, the Huaiyang Hall (Salt Chamber of Commerce), and the Theater fell into the hands of the East Coast Army one after another. By noon, after a not very fierce battle, after paying seventy or eighty casualties, Chang Ping was also overcome. Because the soldiers under his command suffered heavy casualties in the attack on Changping, Zhai Congge angrily beheaded hundreds of Qing soldiers of the Huang Degong Department of the four towns of Jiangbei who surrendered.

In the afternoon, Mo Ming personally led more than 2,000 soldiers and a large number of soldiers into the city, and the 2,500 cavalry brigades remained outside the city to respond. The two or three thousand soldiers who had just entered the city had also been in battle many times, and they would usually practice some battle formation coordination techniques, and at this time, under the command of Captain Zhang Xudong, the commander of the first wing of the forward team, they began to expand in the direction of the new city. Mo Ming allocated two artillery pieces for them, and the fierce artillery fire first dispersed the Qing army guarding the stone bridge (the new city is separated from the old city by the river), and then broke into the new city, and after a decent battle, captured two streets and alleys and a temple, and blocked the two counterattacks of the Qing army with the assistance of the troops directly under the wing headquarters of the first wing (more than 3oo people), the 1o2 company of the 6th army and some artillery.

By the evening of May 13, the army on the east bank had occupied a quarter of the Yangzhou city, and even the government had been conquered by Zhai Congfu after a hard battle, and the Qing and Han armies were wounded and fled, and the four hundred Han troops and more than 1,000 Jiangxi Qing troops were all annihilated inside and outside the yamen of Yangzhou Mansion, which made the Qing army, especially Shi Tingzhu, feel very distressed. You know, these are all Han army flag generals, Han army flags that have been trained since the Huang Taiji era. At that time, there was only one flag, which was led by Shi Tingzhu alone, and then slowly divided into two flags, and finally evolved into today's Han Eight Banners. Each of these people is extremely precious, and now they have lost hundreds of dollars in this Yangzhou City, how do you let Shi Tingzhu live, many of them have been brought out by him for many years, and this is all his capital! Now that he died lightly in Yangzhou City, no one can accept this.

After nightfall, the army on the east bank gave up some areas that were not easy to defend under Mo Ming's orders, and then shrank their forces and waited for dawn to continue a new offensive. Of course, in some of the cities they had occupied, a large number of Korean masters, led by the soldiers, began to collect the booty and at the same time began to transport it to the camp outside the city, which continued throughout the night and continued after dawn. (To be continued......)

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