From Bauhinia Pass to the west, the first line of defense into the territory of Jin Province is called Wuliyi, which is a small rammed-earth castle.

According to the guide recruited by the General Staff, this fort was there when the Great Zhou Dynasty was still there, and the reason why it was called Wuliyi was because this fort was exactly five miles away from the border of Hebei Province.

Next, from here to Guangchang, there are three similar small forts of 35 miles, 60 miles and 90 miles.

Fan Yongdou didn't know how to fight, but he had a lot of people and food in his hands, and he felt that he could take advantage of the terrain of only a narrow road on the side of the river in the depths of the mountains to block the attack layer by layer, delay and consume the Qi army.

What's more, Xu Shiyang has been in Zijing Pass for half a month, and a fool can judge Xu Shiyang's main attack route, so that he doesn't need to divide his troops to guard the long dividing line between the two provinces of Hebei and Jin.

The Eighth Marquis built all the four old post stations east of Guangchang into garrison "fortresses", and then planted deer rocks on the east side of the five "fortresses", dug trenches, and added an additional rammed earth low wall.

Xu Shiyang always felt that this kind of earth-building fortifications was more similar to the kind he had built on the side of the Yellow River/canal a few years ago, maybe they were referring to Xu Shiyang's successful experience?

It's a pity that Xu Shiyang was able to succeed because his enemy did not have mature artillery, and the long-range suppression firepower was too weak, and the artillery of the Qi army was not so easy to deal with.

The siege artillery team set up two 30-pound siege mortars at a distance of one mile outside the five-mile post, and the artillery observers approached directly to within 150 meters and guided the mortars to fire one shot at a time.

After the two mortars involved three and five rounds respectively, they made their first hit.

The thirty-pound iron bullet jumped high with a tooth-aching scream, flew into the air, and then drew an inconspicuous parabola, and smashed into the Wuli Post almost vertically at an angle of 80 degrees with an even more astonishing momentum.

As the shells shook, there was a panicked scream from the small rammed-earth fortress.

The trajectory of the mortar is relatively close to that of the mortar (or the mortar is originally a type of mortar cannon), and the trajectory is extremely high, which can effectively avoid the overly strong wall and directly hit the enemy behind the wall.

Originally, a small rammed earth fort like Wuliyi did not need such a thing as a heavy mortar cannon, but Xu Shiyang had the intention to show off his skills, and he wanted to leave a feeling of invincibility and irresistibility of the Qi army to Shihou and the people who were blinded by Shihou, which was very beneficial to the future march.

After getting the hit, the two mortars began to fire at the Wuliyi station at a rate of ten minutes in a step-by-step manner, and then the attacking troops with two 4-pound guns began to move and advanced towards the Wuliyi under the cover of the mortars.

As the Qi army approached the vicinity of Luyan, some of the defenders of Wuliyi couldn't help but shout and shoot the first feather arrow at the Qi army, which then set off a chain reaction, and all the Shihou soldiers on the city wall and behind the low wall were shooting, arrows raining down, and there were even a few roars of shotguns and wooden cannon fire.

Xu Shiyang laughed when he heard this voice, the edge of Luyan was at least one hundred and fifty steps away from the rammed earth wall, and at least one hundred and twenty steps away from the breast wall, this distance, whether it was a bow or a shotgun, or even a large-caliber flintlock pistol, could not play any role - this hit rate was actually the same as Nagatlin shooting Jupiter.

Such a shot could not even cause a little panic among the experienced Qi troops, and the Qi soldiers began to calmly dismantle Lu Yan, and two follow-up light guns fired solid shells at the breastwork one hundred and twenty paces away to suppress enemy fire.

Those straight rammed earth breastworks are completely unable to withstand the close attack of the 4-pound guns, and any shell hits a large piece of soil on the breastwork, and once the two shells hit the same position, there will collapse on the spot!

It is useless to be beaten in vain but to fight back, and this situation is a huge psychological pressure for that army, not to mention that the Shihou soldiers are not a powerful army with particularly strong psychological qualities.

After the Qi army demolished about half of the Luyan, the breastwork of Wuliyi had been blasted open by the Qi army with five huge openings, and then ......, and then the Shihou soldiers defending the breastwork collapsed .......

After all, the thin breastwork could not give people enough confidence under the test of the cannon, Xu Shiyang stood on the nest car and looked down, and through the telescope, he could clearly see that the soldiers defending the breastwork were rushing backwards like ants doused with boiling water, and let out a deafening scream while running:

"Defeated! Defeated! Run for your life! ”

Fear is contagious, and the collapse of the chest wall defenders directly triggered the overall collapse of the Wuliyi defenders, and the Jiading team that the Eight Great Candidates stayed here to use as the core force did not insist too much, and it can even be said that they fled faster than ordinary militia.

A quarter of an hour later, the Qi army completely cleared Luyan, the rear troops sent to the trench car, directly built three wooden bridges on the trench, the sappers used small explosives to blow open the city gate, and the Qi army entered Wuliyi.

Including the mortar test firing, the battle lasted an hour, but the casualties were surprisingly low - on both sides.

The Qi army found 92 corpses at Wuliyi, most of them were killed by artillery, and a few were too panicked when they fled, and trampled to death.

And no one in the Qi army died, only one soldier accidentally broke his foot, and he was the only wounded in the Qi army.

Due to the panic of the rout, a congestion was formed at the west gate of Wuliyi, and as a result, until the Qi army entered the city, only a small part of the defenders fled.

The Qi army captured more than 5,000 people in one go at Wuliyi, not counting the women and children who were forcibly relocated to the city by the heralds before the war.

Xu Shiyang stood on the rammed earth wall of Wuliyi, looking at the countless panicked captives under his feet, and was speechless for a long time.

"Marshal, what should you do with these captives?" Li Kui, the captain of the guard, stepped forward to ask.

According to the tradition of the Qi army in the past, foreign captives were chosen to kill one out of five after being caught, and Han captives were chosen to kill one out of ten for the leader, and ordinary soldiers would be forgiven unless they had clear evidence of a crime.

However, this time, Xu Shiyang was not going to fight a war of conquest, and he didn't want the people of Jin Province to regard him as a conqueror, so he didn't plan to do any unnecessary killing and deterrence.

"Rest here for an hour, then attack the next target."

Xu Shiyang ordered lightly:

"During this period, send people to screen the captives, and as long as they are sure that they are Han Chinese, they are allowed to lay down their arms and decide freely."

"Huh?" Li Kui asked in surprise, "Do they want to let them go?" ”

"Yes, if you want to go, just leave all the armor." Xu Shiyang smiled faintly: "By the way, give three days of rations to everyone who chooses to leave, and just give fried noodles." ”

"And food? What if they go to the world and fight against us again? ”

"Then let's fight again." Xu Shiyang said: "We didn't have a single casualty in a battle, are we afraid that they will fight with us?" ”

"In today's war, the most important thing is not to deter, but to make the people of Jin Province recognize us, so if you can kill less, you will kill less, and if you can, you will not kill!"