Star Gorge is not a canyon, but a pass. It is a necessary place to enter the Western Regions from the Hexi Corridor. It is known as the "first throat town" at the east gate of the Western Regions. Xingxing Gorge is a dangerous pass on the ancient silk road, with peaks and peaks on all sides, an S-shaped mountain road winding in the meantime, dangerous rocks and cliffs on both sides, there is a tendency of "one husband is a pass, ten thousand people are not open". Because of this, after the Qing army withdrew into the Western Regions, in order to block the attack of the Ming army, a fortress was built in Xingxing Gorge, making it the first pass to block the Ming army's attack on the Western Regions.

The wind whistles, never ending to whirl in the sky. On the peaks on both sides of the pass, there are fortresses built by the Qing army to guard the pass, these fortresses seem to be inconspicuous, but the muzzles and gun holes of the black hole are facing the pass of Xingxing Gorge, and suddenly reveal an aggressive murderous aura.

For the past eleven years, this pass has blocked the Ming army's march into the Western Regions, and although it has been eleven years without the flames of war, and even caravans will pass through here, everyone knows that one day, war is bound to start here.

On the tenth day of the seventh month, that is, in the early morning of four days after Hami was captured by the Ming army, in front of Xingxing Gorge, the figure of the Ming army appeared in front of the Star Gorge, and the "peace" that had lasted for 11 years was broken in this early morning.

"Tom!"

With the dull star sound when the bolt is closed, the chamber of the 14 180-pound siege guns of the first heavy artillery battalion directly under the Western Expeditionary Army is closed, and the cannon with the cannon coat and camouflage net removed will point the short and thick barrel to the sky, this Xingqian 18 siege cannon is the latest technology product of the Ming Dynasty, its gun body is no longer cast by copper and iron, it is forged from steel, the gun body is durable, although its range is only 10 miles, but still exceeds the range of most artillery.

What's more, it is a breech-loading rifled gun, with a high elevation angle of fire, the shell can accurately hit the target, and the sharp fortress destruction projectile can go deep into the fortress before exploding, which is the secret weapon that the Ming arsenal took several years to develop.

The gunners who pulled the arquebus, tied the ropes around their hands, stared nervously ahead, while the gunners' eyes were fixed on the small flag over there, waiting for the order to open the cannon, and behind the guns were the officers pacing back and forth, they opened their pocket watches from time to time, and the air at the last moment was so heavy that it was almost suffocating.

At the same time, on a makeshift railway branch less than fifteen miles from Xingxing Gorge, a huge cannon crossed the railway line, and behind a huge cannon on the train, the gunners were working there.

With the clatter of the chain sling, a shell weighing 600 pounds was hoisted to the tail of the gun, and the gunners immediately pushed the shell and stuffed it into the chamber.

"Boom!"

The 600-pound shell, under the impetus of the soldiers, was loaded into the chamber, and then one after another the cartridge was stuffed into the chamber by the fighters with a push rod, and after the gun was loaded, the officers standing on the charging table kept giving orders to adjust the angle of fire.

The cannon that had completed the reloading, the barrel that looked short and thick, but still had a body more than two feet long, began to slowly rise, and finally pointed straight at the sky at an angle of 45 degrees.

This is a giant cannon that the Ming Arsenal just built last month, and this giant cannon was supposed to be deployed in the naval fortress, but with a paper order to be transferred to the northwest, and then thousands of sappers urgently laid a field railway in order to transport the artillery to the front line.

In the past 11 years, after the efforts of 30,000 engineers and 60,000 migrant workers, the railway was finally repaired from Xi'an to Guazhou, half a year ago, when the steam locomotive roared into Guazhou, everyone knew that the whistle of the steam locomotive was not the whistle of the train, but the horn of the attack on the Western Regions.

And now, the railway, which cost thousands of lives, has sent this "giant cannon" to the front line, and even the strongest fortress is as vulnerable as paper paste in front of it.

At dawn, a sudden burst of thunder swept across the land, and in an instant, thousands of cannonballs fell on the Xingxingxia fortress like raindrops, and smashed on the heads of the Qing troops in the fortress.

It was an unprecedented rain of bullets, and the real threat to the fortress was not mortar or field artillery shells, but siege artillery shells falling at near-vertical angles.

"Buzz ......"

There was a dull whistling sound, and 180 catties of shells flew in the air in a parabola to the Xingxingxia fortress in the distance, and the Qing soldiers in the fortress listened to the sound of breaking the air in the air, and there was no reaction at all.

They had long adapted to the fighting style of the Ming army, and against the mortars used by the Ming army in large quantities, the artillery of the fortress was like a naval gun, erected inside, with a thick roof on top. Enough to withstand vertically falling mortar shells.

Therefore, the Qing troops in the fortress did not feel the slightest fear at all, but shouted and loaded with shells, ready to respond to the shelling of the Ming army!

But unexpectedly, the 14 shells fired by the 14 siege guns were fired at the first time 14 fortress destruction shells, this kind of shells are made of special steel shells, which are specially developed for the destruction of the fortress Broken Shell, the shell hit the fortress at the moment, did not explode immediately, but with its sharp conical warhead, has been penetrating the stone dome of the fortress nearly three feet thick, before falling heavily in the fortress room, and at this time, the delay fuse of the tail of the bullet is still emitting white smoke.

"Cannonball......

The Qing troops inside the fortress immediately shouted in horror when the dome was pierced by shells, and many of them even frantically tried to escape from the fortress, the shells spewing white smoke carried a deadly threat, but it was too late.

"Boom ......"

A violent explosion sounded inside the fortress, and a ball of flames immediately erupted from the perforation that once spewed gunsmoke, and the explosion in the enclosed space maximized the power of the cannonballs, and what was even more deadly was that the gunpowder and shells in the fortress were also detonated in the explosion.

At the moment of the explosion, the once strong fortress twisted and was swallowed up by the smoke cloud of the explosion, and the fortress that once seemed indestructible did not even survive the first round of shelling, and those Qing officers and soldiers who survived the explosion all looked at the collapsed fortress in amazement, and watched the billowing smoke of gunpowder, which was thrown into the air by the blown gun barrel, and then fell down fiercely in front of everyone.

No one thought that the seemingly impregnable fortress would be easily destroyed at this time, but this would be the Qing army could not take care of all this, almost at the moment when the fortress was destroyed several times, like raindrops of shells, it continued to fall into the fortress, the violent explosion shock wave will blow up the houses and buildings in the fortress into ruins, mud and smoke accompanied by steel fragments in the open space inside the fortress raging, steel fragments harvesting the lives of the Qing army, the shock wave tore their clothes, many dead people, Not only were they naked, they couldn't even see their wounds, but they had lost their lives, and the shock wave shattered their internal organs.

The cool air was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder, choking on smoke and gunpowder, and the only survivors who choked there were coughing loudly, frightened, and they had no other thoughts than fear.

"Did Minggou call?"

His mind was drowsy from the violent explosion, and the six shouted loudly, his messy coat had been dyed gray and yellow by dust, and his hair and face were also gray.

He screamed nervously, and although he said that he was a dog, he was terrified inside.

I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm definitely not going to live this time......

The six muttered.

"Oh, my mother, I can't live now, those who are officials know how to make money, what kind of fortress is this, let people be blown away with one shot......"

I don't know who is crying in the smoke. For them, who did not know the existence of siege artillery, they preferred to believe that the fortress was destroyed solely because the officials made money and then cut corners.

"them, they're all a bunch of corrupt officials......"

This reason is very good, and it will not make people doubt, but when they cursed the corrupt officials, more of the Qing soldiers had already been stunned by the fierce shelling in front of them, and many of them huddled in all corners of the fortress with their heads in their hands, trembling, coughing, crying, and roaring with all their strength in the smoke of the explosion.

And as they cried loudly, the earth trembled violently, and suddenly, a dull and unusual whistling sound came, and in the next moment, an unprecedented violent explosion shook the entire fortress, and in the trembling of the earth, the dust and thousands of rubble and limb fragments were blown into the air, and many of the seemingly complete bodies were also blown into the air, and then fell to the ground like rag dolls.

"Ah......h

The frightened scene in front of them made them scream in horror.

In the midst of the heavy shelling, some of them finally collapsed, and as if they were crazy, they escaped from their hiding places and ran around the fortress, but at the moment they ran, their bodies were blown to pieces.

The fragments of those limbs were scattered in the explosion, and for ordinary people, the flesh and blood that fell on their bodies often made their consciousness collapse instantly, and in the face of the fear of death, they couldn't have too many thoughts at all, these Qing troops who were frightened by the shelling faced all this in panic, some people collapsed, and some people were holding on, although they were also extremely frightened, but they still tried to curl up their bodies to keep their bodies close to the ground to avoid the shrapnel flying aroundEven if the occasional gravel or flesh falls on them, they are unmoved.

Some of them were even more nervously staring at the front of the fortress, knowing that the Ming army must have begun to attack......