"Follow-up service is equivalent to the military team in our military establishment. They have no formal uniforms, no salaries, no weapons, no honors, and they live like walking corpses. Gao Shan spat out a puff of smoke rings and continued to explain to his comrades-in-arms: "Most of the people in the vicinity have been relocated to Zhifu Island and Kongtong Island by us, and it is difficult for the Qing army to recruit people nearby. The status of the followers is not even as good as that of the Qing army, and it is likely that after the repair is completed, we will be forced to fill the trenches or consume our ammunition. Don't look at me like that, this often happens on the battlefields of the Ming Dynasty, even Wallenstein and Gustav, didn't they do this kind of thing in Germany? Even the coats and servants have horses or mules to ride, and the mobility of these Qing troops is very strong. ”

Several of them stopped talking, and they all put their heads over the observation hole and looked out. In the distance, more and more people are appearing on the horizon. Most of them rode war horses, and the few others pulled carriages and horses, and gradually poured into the field of vision of the people on the east coast from the west and south.

Many of the ragged clothes and followers began to build camps, dig trenches, and build artillery emplacements with rudimentary tools under the drive of Qing soldiers. Because the walls of nearby Ninghai Prefecture, Fushan County, Wendeng County and even some guards have been demolished by the people on the east coast, and the usable building materials have become the houses of the people on the east coast, and the unusable ones have also been thrown into the port to reclaim the sea to build a wharf trestle bridge, so it is difficult for the Qing army to find a place to garrison troops nearby, and they can only camp in the field.

There are no trees to be found within a hundred miles of Yantai Fort, and the people of the east coast have already organized people to cut them down in the past year. Some of them are used as fuel for dry distillation of charcoal. Some of them became large resettlement wooden houses on Zhifu Island and Kongtong Island, and it became a problem for the Qing army to build camps. Because no one would travel all the way to carry a large amount of timber from the place of departure, which would be too silly. Then, if the Qing army wants to obtain enough timber to build a camp for tens of thousands of people, it can only look for it hundreds of miles away, which will consume a lot of manpower and material resources.

……

March 9, 1645, fine, northwest wind force 5.

"Boom! Rumble! "Two 12-pounder long-barreled cannons in the center of the southern city wall opened fire one after another, and their target was a freshly erected red-coated cannon emplacement. The artillery of the people on the east bank watched from the top of the city, and the Qing gunners worked hard for a long time to set up the gun position, which made everyone watching from the city anxious for them. Finally, the Qing gunners put this artillery in order. The artillerymen of the garrison of Yantai Fortress, who had already taken aim and estimated, immediately fired the first two shells of the day under Li Wenchang's order.

Even if the location of the Qing army's artillery was placed, the people on the east coast had tested it in advance. It has also been measured on the spot, and there are detailed numbers in the firing table, but the shooting accuracy of artillery in this era still cannot be compared with later generations. Both shells missed, and the first fired too far. Fell directly into the crowd behind the artillery of the Qing army. A bloody road has been made all the way. The people who touched and rubbed all poured blood mold; The other shell was a little closer to the Qing army's gun position, but it was also more than ten meters apart, and frightened several followers who were picking up dirt to disperse.

It was greatly affected by the wind. Li Wenchang came to a conclusion in his heart. But he remained silent and waited for the gunners to adjust themselves, adjust the charge, adjust the elevation angle of the barrel. The Qing army has placed six artillery pieces on the front line, four of which seem to be imitation red-coated cannons, which are estimated to weigh one or two thousand catties, and the other two seem to be smaller caliber artillery, but the body tube is quite long, and it seems that the range will not be too bad.

The artillery of the Qing army arrived yesterday, only a little more than three days later than the forward troops. Together with the red-coated artillery team, there were also a large number of infantry cavalry, auxiliary soldiers such as Baoyi and followers, as well as the Ming masters who were requisitioned, and the number was no less than 30,000. These people, together with the thousands of horses that arrived on the first day, almost all the elite main forces of the Qing army have arrived. After all, even if they had an army of sixty or seventy thousand, they wouldn't be able to transfer all of them here. It is impossible for the important cities of Laizhou and Dengzhou not to send troops to stay behind, and it is impossible for the logistics and transportation lines not to send troops to escort them, and this will inevitably greatly dilute the strength of the Qing army on the front line.

When he learned that the Qing army had entered the territory of Laizhou Prefecture earlier this month, Mo Ming immediately loaded Qin Shangxing and his key officers onto two armed transport ships, and then carried them to the sea off the port of Dengzhou. At this time, part of the cavalry of the Qing army had arrived outside the city of Dengzhou, and the people's hearts in the city were fluctuating. After sending people ashore to communicate, only a few more than 2,000 of the 7,000 Ming troops in Dengzhou were willing to follow Qin Shangxing and others to Yantai, and the rest decided to surrender to the Qing Dynasty at the instigation of the gentry in the city. Seeing that the general trend was gone, Yang Wei, who was unwilling to take refuge in the people on the east coast, decided to cut his hair and enter the mountain, and some of his hardcore men also led their troops out of the city and scattered, and the remaining more than 3,000 people in the city (almost all of whom were unbearable) opened the city gates and knelt down to welcome the Qing army into the city.

In the face of a famous city like Dengzhou, it was naturally impossible for the Qing army not to send troops to stay, they dispersed the 3,000 Ming troops who surrendered to Cheng, and then left 2,000 foot soldiers in the city. Later, when they arrived in Fushan County, although the foundations of the city walls here had been destroyed by the people on the east bank, the Qing army still left 2,000 people to garrison because it was located at the grain road transfer node; Later, he sent some people out to chop wood, and then counted the people who escorted grain and grass on the way and stayed in Laizhou, Qingzhou, after a few thin points, there were actually only about 50,000 people who could be used to attack Yantai, including about 20,000 soldiers (including 7,000 Manchurian soldiers). More than half of the more than 30,000 people (including 10,000 masters) who have arrived so far are soldiers, basically the main force is exhausted, and the follow-up more than 40,000 people (including 10,000 masters) are expected to gather in the next two days.

After the arrival of the Qing army, they organized Bao Yi and Master to dig artillery positions and set up cannons in the south of Yantai Fort overnight, showing their urgent mood. Thinking about it, it will soon be the season of green and yellow, and fifty or sixty thousand Qing troops will be under the city of Yantai, which is not ordinarily large. Not to mention the fact that there are also a large number of masters and sons who also need to eat. It is conceivable how much energy Fang Dayou of Jinan had to spend in order to support the rations of nearly 80,000 people (more than 60,000 Qing troops + 20,000 masters) and a large number of war horses and pack beasts. It is certain that the big landlords in Jinan, Dongchang, and Yanzhou will be turned into fate, and the two prefectures of Qingzhou and Laizhou will also scrape the ground, and Dengzhou will have nothing to say, and all the food that can be eaten is estimated to be snatched away by the Qing army. In this way, I don't know how long it can last, so the Qing army is advantageous for a quick decision, which is not conducive to a long-term war.

The people on the east coast saw the Qing army's move to raise fire and build artillery positions last night. Li Renjun, the commander of the 105th Company of the Army, who was on duty that night, made a careful estimate and found that the artillery position of the Qing army was about 500 meters away from the southern city wall of Yantai Fort. This distance should be the best range for the Qing army's red-coated cannons, at this distance, their artillery can send shells to the Yantai city wall without a large elevation angle, and it also has a certain kinetic energy and destructive power.

In this way, their cannons should be much stronger than the batch originally cast by Sun Yuanhua. Sun Yuanhua's batch of guns, according to the firing table given to him by the Westerners, had the largest firing range at an elevation angle of 45 degrees, about 600 meters. More than a hundred years later, in the 18th century, an 18-pounder long-barreled siege gun of the British bombarded the Spanish walls at a distance of 1,000 yards (more than 900 meters), and the shells damaged the walls by a little more than an inch, which was considered ineffective. As for the fact that many books in the late Ming Dynasty wrote that the range of the red-clothed cannon was "ten miles erosive" or something, it was purely exaggerated and nonsense by civilian officials who were not familiar with military affairs.

You must know that the Ming people are just imitations of 12-pounder naval guns, and the materials used are not as good as the iron of the original British artillery, and the range will only be close and not far. The best 12-pounder naval guns on the east coast have a maximum firing range of 1,600 meters, but there are very few such guns, and a large number of low-diameter ratio 12-pounder naval guns will not have a firing range of more than 1,200 meters, and the effective firing range is only about 800 meters. Therefore, the effective range of this batch of red-coated cannons (12 pounds) of the Qing army was as much as 500 meters, which still surprised Li Renjun. They must have greatly increased the thickness and length of the barrel in order to increase the firing range of the artillery, and they did not know how heavy their guns were, and it was estimated that it would be difficult to stop them with a thousand catties.

Last night, the Qing army had a total of six places that raised fire at the same time to build artillery positions, all of which were located outside the southern city wall. As for the western city wall, they had to cross a large swampy area of the floodplain of the Dagu River, and at this time some areas had begun to thaw, and every day when the sun rose in the daytime, it was full of mud, and it was difficult for even people to walk, let alone artillery. As for the east city wall, the Qing army is not stupid to that point, there are still two armed transport ships of the navy parked in the harbor, although they are not professional warships, but the artillery on one side of the two ships adds up to more than a dozen, and all of them are heavy artillery with a long range, the Qing army does not dare to come here to find pleasure. Therefore, the southern city wall became the place of decisive battle between the two sides.

Li Wenchang learned the news when he succeeded Li Renjun early this morning, and immediately went to the city to urge the gunners to knock out the Qing army's artillery, and the two shells at the moment were the prelude to the artillery fire on the east bank. After the two guns were fired, several members of the artillery crew immediately got busy, clearing, resetting, charging bags, loading, adjusting the elevation angle of the barrel, and their movements were extremely skillful. And while they were busy, the artillery on the protrusions on both sides of the city wall also began to fire.

The first to fire were also two 12-pounder cannons, and they were also two guns staring at the Qing army's gun position, trying to knock out one first. The two shells also missed, and one hit the mound below the Qing artillery emplacement, causing little effect; The other shot hit a wagon behind the gun emplacement, knocking it apart, and the two horses were stung by the flying sawdust and neighed. (To be continued......)