Chapter Fifty-Six: Three Dozen Xiurong Zong Min was defeated again

On February 22, the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, after full preparation, Liu Zongmin, Li Guo, and Hao Shaoqi appeared on the front line of Xiurong together.

Although Li Yan was not very satisfied, he was still transferred by Li Zicheng to be in charge of grain and grass. Hao Shaoqi's army replaced Li Yan's army. Last time, Hao Shaoqi was almost killed by a shell from the kiln in Tongguan, but it was his own soldiers who desperately rescued him, and he rested for a long time before he recovered. In this crusade, he always wanted to find an opportunity to take revenge on the Yaogang people, but he still had lingering fears about the cannonballs of the Yaogang people.

He said to Liu Zongmin and Li Guo: "We all crawled out of the pile of dead people, and we are not afraid of death, but when we get to the front line, we must guard against their shells, and it is terrible for that thing to fall." If you can't do anything, you'll be blown up by a cannonball, so you're wronged. ”

Li Guo listened to Hao Shaoqi's words, laughed and said, "What's the matter, Uncle Hao? Haven't you ever heard that you are scared too? ”

Liu Zongmin said: "Guo'er, you should listen to the words of waving the flag." You're not here during this time, and there are a lot of things you don't know. We didn't suffer less in Tongguan. The flag-waving almost took his life. This time I was also wounded by the gun. Don't be careless. ”

Hao Shaoqi said: "Okay, he doesn't believe it when we say this, and when he tries it on the battlefield, he will know that it is powerful." But first you have to have a small life. ”

In this attack, the Dashun army still started on four sides at the same time, Liu Zongmin was in charge of the east, Li Guo was in charge of the west, and Hao Shaoqi was in charge of the south. Liu Zongmin, Li Guo and Hao Shaoqi bet each other to see who would attack Xiurong City first.

According to the custom, the Dashun army used the war meal before dawn, and the team came to the starting position of the attack.

As soon as the morning dawned, the war drums sounded, and the Dashun army began to attack together on all sides of Xiurong City, and the soldiers in the first three rows of this attack were still shield soldiers, the difference was that the shield soldiers were mixed with a lot of soldiers holding firewood and grass, and they were followed by many soldiers carrying firewood and grass.

Zhao Jinli in Xiurong City said to his three battalion commanders and artillery captains: "The thief army has not attacked for several days, and they must be thinking of something." I'm watching them with my eyes wide open today, and be careful of what tricks they do. One of the battalion commanders said: "Regiment commander, don't worry! We won't be careless. But I'm afraid they still don't need it, we haven't made any effort yet, just watching the excitement in the city. When we went south and north, the battles we fought were more enjoyable than this. ”

Now, it turns out that the veterans who followed Zhang Zhimu to the south and north are already officers, and they are willing to mention their qualifications when they follow Zhang Zhimu to the south and north when they have the opportunity. Their men were willing to listen to their stories. Zhao Jinli also relied on these veterans to become officers, and he still felt that Zhang Zhimu had forced them to learn cultural wisdom. Because these veterans can read a few words, those new soldiers and junior officers are very admired. Therefore, the officers who have been promoted by these veterans are not good at all.

Zhao Jinli said: "Li Zicheng and they can mix up until now, which shows that they are definitely not some fools." I dare to say that the Dashun Army will definitely give us something new today, I advise everyone to stare at me wide-eyed, if there is anything wrong because of your carelessness, don't blame me for killing Ma Jian at that time. You must know that the head office is watching us at all times, and I have to communicate with the command center every moment by telegram, so don't embarrass the head office at this time. ”

A battalion commander said: "Regiment commander, you can send a report to the command center and tell Mr. Zhang that with our regiment here, Xiurong doesn't need them to worry." We haven't done it yet. ”

"Okay, let's go back to our posts!" Seeing that the morale of his subordinates was high, Zhao Jinli was very down-to-earth, but he didn't know what tricks the Dashun Army would play today, and he was still a little worried.

Looking at the attack of the Dashun army with a telescope, Zhao Jinli didn't find anything different from the past this time, and there were also several rows of shield soldiers followed by Dongche and soldiers, but their artillery was never found, so Zhao Jinli and their artillery never fired.

However, the strange thing this time is that the soldiers of the Dashun Army, instead of shouting and charging quickly when they were very close to Xiurong City, suddenly stopped. didn't wait for Zhao Jinli to see what was going on. A fire suddenly lit up in the ranks of the Dashun army. And it was a few walls of fire that were lit in a row, and for a time there was thick smoke billowing out.

Zhao Jinli immediately understood that Da Shunjun was trying to play a trick. He shouted, "Tell me to go down and watch out for the thieves' military tricks." They were to cover the artillery coming up, and if necessary, blast open their walls of smoke. ”

However, Zhao Jinli also knew that the Dashun army had long thought that the defenders in the city would use artillery to blast open the smoke wall, and they made several layers of smoke and fire walls this time. So that the defenders can't blast them all out.

Today, it seems that God also wants to help the Dashun army, there is no wind in winter, and the smoke that rises is around Xiurong City, gathering more and more. Not long after, under the cover of smoke, the artillery of the Dashun army opened fire. However, the smoke was covered, and the defenders of the city could not see the artillery of the Dashun army, and they could not see the target clearly. Quite a few shells landed in the city. Not many can fall on the city walls.

At the same time as the artillery of the Dashun army opened fire, the soldiers carried ladders and pushed the cave cart and began to attack.

The firing of artillery under the cover of smoke did not affect the defenders from firing bows and arrows and gravel at the attacking soldiers. The soldiers under the city began to turn into piles of corpses. This made Zhao Jinli a little puzzled, and he felt that something was still wrong. He used his binoculars to carefully observe the situation behind the smoke cover. He noticed that there were a few places where the smoke seemed to be particularly thick, and in the gaps in the smoke, he vaguely saw as if someone was building a shelf. At this time, he suddenly thought that when the Dashun army attacked the first few times, he found someone carrying a big log. Could it be that this time they just built a shelf with a big piece of wood? So what are these shelves for?

Suddenly, Zhao Jinli thought that when the military advisor gave them a lecture, he said that there seemed to be a kind of return cannon, which is to throw stones with a shelf, and that thing can throw a big stone weighing 300 catties at a time. When the Yuan army attacked Xiangyang City, it couldn't go on for a long time, but the Yuan army got back and forth artillery, and only fired a few cannons, and the defenders of Xiangyang opened the city and surrendered. It seems that the Dashun army wants to come and play back this time. However, Zhao Jinli laughed in his heart, "It's still a bit of a joke for you to make this old thing against my mortar this time." Your return cannon is so close to us, I won't let you fire one. ”

Zhao Jinli ordered the herald to pass it down and told the defenders on the four city walls to pay attention to the return cannon of the thief army, and to knock them out as soon as they found the return cannon.

Zhao Jinli came to the heavy mortar position and said to the gunner: "You use heavy artillery to knock out one of the return guns there for me." ”

The gunner looked at it with a telescope and said, "Commander, this time the artillery is so close to us, it's a pity to use our heavy artillery." It's better to use an ordinary mortar, in fact, just use our bed crossbow to launch a mine attack so close, a few explosive mines and a few oil mines, and it's over. ”

Zhao Jinli was right when he heard it, but he said: "You kid is getting more and more crazy, and the general target is still unwilling to fight." Wait for an important target, if you can't hit me, I can't spare you. ”

The bed crossbowmen, as soon as they heard about this good thing, one by one geared up, put the two bed crossbows on the string, put the crossbow mines, and after aiming, pulled the trigger, the two crossbow thunders with a shout, successively rushed to the target in the smoke, the target flashed with fire, "boom" two explosions came, and several pieces of wood flew into the sky with a few arms and legs.

Immediately afterward, two more fire bombs flew past, and a large fire immediately ignited on the target, like two torches.

Zhao Jinli turned around and ordered the heralds to inform the other three city walls to do the same. Zhao Jinli knocked out two return cannons on his side, and several back cannons on the other sides also knocked out a few return cannons. Therefore, the return artillery, which was pinned on by the Dashun army, did not play any role and was defeated. In fact, this time the cannon was very powerful, and that was when there were no other artillery. At that time, it was possible to set up a return cannon very close to the city wall, and the defenders on the city wall could not do anything to see the return cannon. But in the face of the weapons of the *** era, it can only be a useless toy.

Zhao Jinli found that although the return cannon was knocked out, the Dashun army, under the cover of smoke, pushed the tiger squat cannon and bowl mouth gun to a place very close to the city wall, which also posed some threats to the defenders of the city for a while. Zhao Jinli also organized bow and crossbow thundermen to suppress these melee artillery. Although the Dashun army continued to transport firewood and grass to the front, but at noon, the firewood and grass could not be supplied, and the north wind gradually blew up, and the good luck of the Dashun army began to disappear.

Needless to say, today's Dashun army has used a blinding method, in addition to the artillery suppression of the kiln post in the north, today's Dashun army's infantry attack is much more fierce than the previous two, but the soldiers and civilians defending the city have shown confidence, the soldiers are tired in the city, and there is hot water sent by the people of Xiurong to drink. So the attacking soldiers did not make any new progress except for a few more corpses.

The enthusiasm of the people in Xiurong City to support the defenders was very high. In the past few days when the Dashun army stopped attacking the city, the people of Xiurong fell from the city with ropes to the outside of the city, picked up all the bows and crossbows and arrows that were shot, and even the stones that were thrown were hung on the city wall with hanging baskets. What reassures the people of Xiurong is that Yaogang's shop in Xiurong is not closed and is open as usual, especially the stable price of grain. The Xiurong army and civilians became more and more confident in defeating Li Zicheng's Dashun army.

But Liu Zongmin, who organized the attack, went crazy, although he was not afraid of how many soldiers would be killed or injured, but the way the soldiers died still made him break out in a cold sweat. When Ming Ming first attacked, the smoke barrier method had already worked, those tiger squat cannons had been pushed to the city, the red-coated cannons had also begun to shoot at the city, and the return cannons had also begun to be erected. The surroundings of Xiurong City were like boiling for a while. Liu Zongmin felt that he would definitely achieve results today, so he was already thinking about how to deal with the soldiers and civilians defending the city.

However, even if his besieging soldiers attacked the city, they could not take advantage of it, and as time passed, even the ladder was difficult to support. Before the return cannon worked, it was blown away, and those tiger squat cannons and bowl mouth cannons were quickly knocked out. Those red-coated cannons, when they found that there was no smoke cover, quickly retreated, otherwise they didn't have to think about the consequences to know what was going on. By noon, the firewood and grass were almost burned, and the smoke that was winding quickly was gone, and Liu Zongmin didn't dare to look directly behind to help.

But a bad news came, which made Liu Zongmin a little irrational, Li Guo, who was in charge of directing the attack in the west, was injured by a shell, and his legs may not be saved. Liu Zongmin looked up to the sky and shouted: "Oh my God, how can I tell my master!" ”

Liu Zongmin is responsible for the east side of the attack, because the terrain is open and easy to deploy the army, so Liu Zongmin has always regarded this place as the main direction of attack, and he is also responsible for this place. Liu Zongmin, who lost his mind, commanded the team behind him to attack with all his strength and was not allowed to retreat. He shouted: "Today, even if you use people, you have to pile up Xiurong City." ”

This time he didn't care about being attacked by artillery, and rode a horse and brandished a knife to command the army to press in an all-round way.

Zhao Jinli also found something unusual in the attacking team in the city. He ordered all the mortars to open fire to block the attacking team behind, and the mortars hit a barrage on the route of the Dashun army's attack, but the brave soldiers of the Dashun army, like the grass that entered the straw machine, rushed into the barrage, and after a large number of soldiers were killed and wounded, the remaining soldiers who rushed out of the barrage still rushed forward, and no one would stop. The two heavy mortar gunners also knew that the time for a decisive battle had come, so they aimed at the starting point of the Dashun army, and fired wherever there were more people. The soldiers who had just rushed out of the starting position were finally pressed back by this terrible shell.

Liu Zongmin saw that the attacking team behind him couldn't keep up, he also screamed that there was no way, the explosion of those heavy mortar shells was not far from him, and he trembled in his heart, he knew the feeling of being hit by that kind of shell, and the soldiers who were pressed back were definitely not cowardly, because people could not compete with this kind of shells. But the attack could not be stopped, and he continued to direct the troops to attack forward. At this point, he was already determined to fight to the death, and if he didn't succeed, he wasn't going to go back today, and he didn't have the face to go back if the team was killed or wounded, and besides, Li Guo was injured, and if he was defeated and went back, it would be better to die in battle.

The soldiers of the Dashun army braved the bow and arrow**, died one after another, and finally set up the ladder one by one.

Zhao Jinli knew it was time to use his own infantry. At his command, the musketeers, who had been holding back their strength, came up and opened fire. The soldiers of the Dashun Army who climbed the ladder were quickly beaten down. Then the musketeers took out their hands and threw them down the city as soon as they pulled the fire, these wooden handlers**, although they were smaller than the defenders of Xiurong City, but the explosion power was much greater than theirs. After a rain of bullets fell, it blew out an open area under the city. The soldiers and civilians in the city pushed the ladder together. But soon the soldiers of the Dashun Army rushed to the city under the crowding of the soldiers behind, and in this way, when the hands ** and ** were blown up, they used another batch.

Zhao Jinli was also a little confused about this style of play. A mortar artilleryman reminded him to use heavy oil bombs and drop them more to see if they dared to rush into the fire.

Zhao Jinli said: "Good idea! "The order to throw the fire oil bombs of the crossbow thunder directly into the city one by one, and the soldiers of the Dashun army under the city, whether dead or alive, were quickly set on fire, and the living soldiers rolled everywhere and screamed continuously, and the dead were also smoking and smelling of burnt paste everywhere. This time, no matter how brave the soldiers of the Dashun Army were, they would not jump directly into purgatory. The officers in command in the back didn't know what to do.

At this time, the rear of the Dashun army finally remembered the sound of the horn of retreat.

In the face of the tidal wave of retreating soldiers, the defenders did not fire again, nor did they cheer as they did last time.

It turned out that the news of Li Guo's injury quickly spread to Li Zicheng's camp, although Li Zicheng was very sad, but he didn't show his face, after asking about the situation on the front line of Xiurong, he knew that he couldn't fight anymore, and hurriedly said: "Strategist, you go to Xiurong as soon as possible, Zong Min must be crazy now." He must withdraw it, and it will not work for others to go. Hurry! ”

Song Xiance didn't speak, he rushed to the front line with people, he knew that if he arrived at the front line earlier, there would be fewer deaths.

Song Xiance rushed to Liu Zongmin's big tent. Knowing that Liu Zongmin was going to the front, he hit the horse and rushed to the front. Once you get to the front, you can hear the rumbling of artillery and the occasional loud explosion. He knew that the huge explosion was a heavy cannon that almost killed Liu Zongmin. Walking further, you can see a fire burning like hell under Xiurong City from a distance, and the soldiers can't advance or retreat, but Liu Zongmin, who is crazy, is still waving his knife on the horse and ordering the soldiers to rush forward.

Song Xiance came to Liu Zongmin and said, "General Quan, the emperor has an order." Orders you to stop the offensive today. ”

Liu Zongmin stared at his blood-red eyes and shouted: "Why are you, what are the military advisors doing here, it's dangerous here, go back quickly." ”

Song Xiance said again: "General Quan, the emperor has a decree. Orders you to stop the offensive today. I have come to you today to deliver a message. ”

"Nonsense, the emperor will not have such a holy decree. You are talking nonsense! Liu Zongmin shouted. If you dare to disturb the morale of the army, I am not polite to you. ”

Song Xiance said again: "Zong Min, calm down. The emperor was afraid that you would not obey the order, so he asked me to come. You have to listen to orders. ”

"Strategist, if you let me fight for a while, they will soon be unable to withstand it. Let's attack again! Liu Zongmin almost cried and begged.

Song Xiance said: "Your Majesty, there is an order. If you do not obey the Divine Decree, you can immediately remove your command. Listen to your commands! ”

Liu Zongmin shook his horse, spurted out a mouthful of blood and fell, thanks to the support of the soldiers next to him, he didn't fall off the horse.

Song Xiance ordered to blow the trumpet, retreat, and send people to cover.

In this way, the Dashun soldiers retreated.

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Paragliding, rubber model airplanes, piano making, and building an air force. --Progress of "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty".