The artillery battle continued.

At about 10 o'clock in the morning, another piece of artillery of the Qing army exploded, and four gunners, five or six masters, and two overseers fell to the ground on the spot. And before that, a slightly smaller-caliber artillery of the Qing army was also "honored" to be hit by two shells and gloriously scattered. Five of the six guns had been destroyed, and only two hours had passed, and the Qing had finally realized that their opponent was different from the Ming army, different from Li Chuang, and even different from any opponent they had ever faced before.

The yellow-clothed thief army on the east coast, the words "sharp guns" are really not covered, and the yellow-clothed cannons are not in vain! In the more than two hours of artillery battle, the artillery of both sides was six against six, and although the yellow-clothed thieves occupied a favorable position, and the accuracy, range, and power of the artillery were also relatively large, the fact that one side damaged five artillery pieces and none of the other side was damaged is already very telling. The gap between the artillery teams of the two sides is all-round, and if both sides use red-clothed cannons, it is most likely that the yellow-clothed thieves will win the artillery battle.

The shape in front of him is already obvious, and it will be useless to fight any longer. Therefore, with the sound of a trumpet, the Qing army's artillery team, the overseer of the battle, and the busy master all retreated like a tide of amnesty. They had reason to be happy, after all, anyone who stayed in an environment where shells were flying around for more than two hours would collapse, and the mental suffering was not ordinary.

"The 3rd and 4th squadrons of the 1st Brigade of the Advance Brigade were transferred up, of which the 3rd Squadron was stationed in Jiachenglou (the protrusion on the left side of the south city wall), the 4th Squadron was stationed in Yichenglou, and the military brigade transferred 500 people to transport supplies and ammunition and transport the wounded, and the 5th and 6th squadrons were on standby in the barracks, and the 7-10 squadrons on Zhifu Island were also ready for reinforcements at any time; 150 musketeers of the Yantai garrison supplementary company took up the middle section of the city wall. All are heavily armoured; The 104th Company of the Army was fully armed and went to the garrison point under the south city wall to stand by, and the Yantai Artillery Company was on standby in the barracks; The 1st Battalion of the Eight Banners New Army patrolled the streets. No one is allowed to move around at will. The 2nd Battalion of the Eight Banners, stationed at the dockside, was on standby in the barracks. Operational staff officer, just carry out the order. Mo Ming, who had been watching the battle from the city tower so far, suddenly gave an order to the staff officer who was following him.

The combat staff officer stood upright, then repeated Mo Ming's order loudly, and left downstairs to give the order after getting confirmation. As the order came out, the sound of passwords in Yantai Fort was everywhere, followed by rhythmic footsteps, the sound of weapons colliding, and the sound of copper whistles, and all departments acted in accordance with the order.

"The Qing army's artillery battle was fruitless, and I'm afraid that cannon fodder will be sent to attack the city. Anyway. Let's prepare ourselves first. Mo Ming put down the binoculars, his eyes still looking ahead, and said softly.

……

Dong Xueli stood in front of the formation nervously, and behind him were about 3,000 people who had completed the formation. These people are his capital, and they are the capital he relies on to survive and even soar in this troubled era. Unfortunately, before he had a solid pocket, he was about to go to the casino – a casino that didn't seem to have a great chance of winning.

This morning's artillery battle was watched by everyone. To tell the truth, it was not for the officers and men of the "My Great Qing" artillery team to die, but it was really because the hateful yellow-clothed thief army's big guns were too sharp, and it was only an hour and a half before and after. Three of the six cannons on his side were destroyed, and two were desperately increasing the charge under the urging of the upper peak. As a result, it accidentally blew up. got such a tragic situation, Dong Xueli also had a relative. He had only heard people talk about the yellow-clothed thieves on the east coast who were "sharp guns" and "resolute and daring to fight", but he didn't expect that the cannon was so accurate and fierce, and the red-clothed cannon that he regarded as an artifact was actually blown up by the other party as soon as he came and went, which had too much impact on his thoughts.

Seeing that this city is so strong and the artillery is so sharp, I wonder if my Qing soldiers will suffer a big loss here. Dong Xueli was a little worried, but now he has no way back. I heard that the leader of the yellow-clothed thief accepted the appointment of the pseudo-shun and became the defense envoy of Dashun Ninghai in the three prefectures of Denglai Qing with the power of Laoshi, then he and them were inseparable, because there was no possibility of reconciliation between himself and the pseudo-shun now.

Dong Xueli was originally a subordinate general of He Renlong, a native of Shaanxi, and was later transferred to Ningxia Huamachi Deputy Commander-in-Chief. In the sixteenth year of Chongzhen (1643), he was subordinated to Li Zicheng, because Li Zicheng liked to appoint Shaanxi villagers very much, so he was named General Guoyi, and then followed Li Zicheng into Beijing. In the eighth lunar month of last year (1644), the Qing army conquered Huaiqing Mansion, and Dong Xueli, who was guarding Guojiatan, surrendered to the Qing army, and then he also took the initiative to write a letter for the Qing army to recruit Chen Zhilong, the defense envoy of Dashun Ningxia. However, this secret letter was intercepted by Niu Chenghu, the general of Ningxia, who was furious and killed Dong Xueli's younger brother and only son, and then detained his daughter. At this point, Dong Xueli's return to Dashun was completely cut off.

Later in history, Dong Xueli really worked for the Qing court, and followed Duoduo all the way from Henan to Shaanxi, making a lot of meritorious contributions, and was promoted to Fengxiang General Soldier and First-class Jingqi Nihafan by the Qing court. In the eighteenth year of Shunzhi, he was the governor of Huguang, and participated in several meetings of the Manchu Qing Dynasty to suppress Li Laiheng's forces, and finally died of illness in the fifth year of Kangxi, which was considered to be the end of his life. However, history has made some subtle changes in this time and space, Dong Xueli failed to march to Shaanxi with Duoduo, but was kicked to the Shandong battlefield to reinforce the Qing army here. Although Dong Xueli had some regrets before coming to Shandong, he was somewhat fortunate, because if he went to Shaanxi next, although there were many opportunities to make meritorious contributions, it was also very likely that he would be consumed as cannon fodder. And it is much easier to come to Shandong, I heard that there are only thousands of yellow-clothed pirates here, and Prince Su Haoge has tens of thousands of troops on hand, so isn't it a drum? The credit of picking it up for nothing!

However, after learning about what some people from the East Coast were doing in Shandong, he gradually felt that things might not be so simple. Then this morning, when he saw the strong walls of Yantai Fort, the fierce firepower, and the strong fighting will of the yellow-clothed thief, he thought that perhaps this time it would not be a good deal.

Siege warfare has always been a difficult and casualty job before the appearance of the red-coated artillery, but now the artillery team of the Qing Dynasty is obviously completely suppressed, and no one dares to pull up the remaining nine precious artillery. Then, there is only one trick to capture Yantai Fort, and that is the ancient ant-attached siege.

For example, right now.

Dong Xueli felt that he should be happy, but he really couldn't find a reason to be happy. Yes, it was not them who were the first to charge, but the conscripted masters, who were crying and crying and being intimidated and driven by the Eight Banners who had been sent from behind, and then one of them was holding a sandbag of soil, and they were going to fill the trench of the people on the east bank. Behind them, more masters were being organized, digging through the dirt at a rapid pace. They were promised that if they ran to the moat of the people on the east bank and successfully threw a sandbag into it, they would then go to the rear to rest and be provided with adequate rations. These masters were not blind, and of course they did not want to go up to the shells of the people on the east coast, but they had no choice, so they could only pray for God's blessing.

After filling the trenches, it was the turn of the second wave of troops. These troops included the newly attached landlord armies of Dengzhou and Laizhou, the old department of Zhao Yingyuan of Qingzhou, and the Ming and Shun troops such as Dong Xueli. As for Ke Yongsheng's Jiaozhou Town Army, Li Shutai's Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty, and those who were full of Eight Banners and followers, their status was much higher than that of the Ming and Shun Surrender Armies, and it was not their turn to go into battle before the new annexed army died.

Anyway, that's what it is like now, the masters go up to fill in the trench first, fill out a flat path that can walk people, and then they can be lucky enough to retreat. Next up will be the auxiliaries of the second wave of troops, who will be responsible for dismantling some of the obstacles set up by the east bankers in the trenches, and finally have to carry some siege equipment (mainly ladders) that were improvised yesterday to rush to the bottom of the city walls to assist the soldiers to climb the city.

The only thing to worry about is that the city of the people on the east coast is not big enough, and it is difficult to deploy the troops during the battle, and more than 2,000 people at a time are already crowded.

A few trombones sounded, interrupting Dong Xueli's reverie. He suddenly turned his head to the right front, only to see the masters who had been crowded there suddenly shouted, and slowly ran forward under the urging of the Eight Banners. The cannonballs of the people on the east coast fell far away in their crowd, which further intensified their panic, and some of the emaciated masters were squeezed to the ground, and in an instant they were trampled by countless people, and the scene was terrible.

Many people didn't have a good body allocation, and they didn't have the strength to run halfway, and then they were quickly knocked to the ground by the people behind them, and they were naturally trampled on by countless people. Behind them were wheelbarrows, which were also stacked with sandbags, and the sweaty masters pushed them nervously, praying that the cannonballs would not fall on their heads, and pushing them forward with all their might.

The Qing soldiers were originally within the range of two 18-pounder guns, and the further they went, the more intense the fire. As soon as they came within a thousand meters, the 12-pounder cannon also fired deadly projectiles at them. However, there were so many of them, and the number of guns that could reach them was not very large (six), so that although they continued to suffer casualties, on the whole, they managed to advance not far from the moat.

Dong Xueli indifferently watched these masters rush towards the not wide trench one after another, and sighed secretly in his heart. In this troubled world, everyone is a duckweed who can't help themselves, and now it's these masters who fill the trenches, and it won't be long before I'm afraid I'll have to fill it up. (To be continued......)