Wang Renfu also knew about the Tiechang Fort, and asked Ma Cheng, who had just been picked up, "What's the matter?" Where did you leave someone?! ”

He was disgusted by this senseless sacrifice. Just set a fire when you leave, why let the brothers sacrifice their lives in vain?

Ma Cheng knew what Wang Renfu meant and explained: "No. To be humble is to be confused, and you will not take the lives of your brothers seriously. The lowly duty is to have the ammunition, grain and grass poured fire oil on them, and led them to the door. As we went, they put an oil lamp behind the door, and as soon as they pushed the door and knocked it down, the fire was lit. Setting fire to the materials can also destroy the materials when you leave, but there are so many things, it is always necessary to make the Qing army pay some casualties. ”

When Wang Renfu heard this, he laughed happily: "This method is good, it can not only destroy materials and avoid capital enemies, but also eliminate some enemies, and it is not a waste of time." If you sum it up well, the good method should be spread throughout the army. ”

After that, he became serious and ordered: "Now report on the specific situation of the enemy." ”

Ma Chengyu reported: "The enemy got two trebuchets this time, although the assembly is very slow, but the wood used is strong, and the firing range has reached more than 300 paces. Our three-inch cannon hits it, and even if it hits one or two, it can't destroy the enemy's trebuchet. Moreover, the enemy's trebuchet hit quite accurately, and after two test shots, it hit the vicinity of the artillery group. After I gave the order to retreat, two guns were burned and nine artillery pieces were lost. ”

"Can you take 300 steps?" Wang Renfu asked with some concern. They were equipped with stone throwers that could only fight two hundred paces, and even on the city walls, they could reach a maximum of two hundred and fifty paces. And it's quite sturdy, which is really a bit difficult to fight against.

Ma Cheng said: "The trebuchet is much bigger than ours, and it takes more than an hour to assemble it." ”

Wang Renfu nodded and ordered: "Well, is there any other situation?" ”

"The others are nothing new, they seem to have very few cannons."

Seeing that there was nothing new about the situation, Wang Renfu ordered: "Okay, go and rest." Pacify the troops, and when the Qing soldiers come, let you go and defeat them yourself. ”

"General Xie!" Ma Cheng said happily: "The brothers are waiting." This time, if I hadn't ordered a retreat, or if I had to defend it in Tiechang Fort, it would have made the Qing army lose a layer of skin. ”

"I know, none of the brothers are of a bad breed, they are all heroes!" Wang Renfu encouraged loudly.

Early the next morning, Azig led his troops to the outside of Shanhaiguan. They are also constantly learning in the battle with Li Yan, just like yesterday, Wu Sangui led the cavalry to pursue the rout, and after seeing the more than 2,000 cavalry under Li Yan's command, he took the initiative to retreat. He knew that even if he had more troops, he would not be able to take advantage of Li Yan's cavalry.

They stopped three miles away from Li Yan's army arrayed outside the city. They had been prepared for a long time, and dozens of carts were pushed up from behind, on which were placed seven or eight bags of sandbags, and slowly but surely pushed forward. They knew how powerful Li Yan's artillery was, but they also knew that they had to build a bunker within three hundred paces and assemble their trebuchets, otherwise they would have no chance of winning.

After yesterday's battle, Azig and Dorgon are already very optimistic. They have even discussed that after taking the Shanhaiguan, they will go into the customs and take a turn. In the past six months, Li Yan's blockade along the Great Wall was relatively tight, and there was a lot less grain, cloth, copper, gunpowder and other materials outside the customs. I heard that Li Yan did a good job in the guannei, and if he went in and grabbed a handful at this time, he should gain a lot.

Wang Renfu's side still followed the steps and let the artillery fire unhurriedly. The three-inch guns, as well as four four-inch guns, were fired in turn, slowing down the advance of the Qing army. However, the speed of the launch was much slower, and only two earthen carts were overturned during the period, which still allowed the Qing army to pile up a short bunker on the front line.

After the Qing army continued to raise and strengthen the bunker, the Han army slowly transported the parts. Although the return cannon has a long range, it is huge, and the wood used is all giant wood, and it is very heavy. Therefore, it is difficult to move this time, and it takes a lot of effort to adjust the direction every time, let alone let it move with the troops. Therefore, they can only be assembled in a suitable location, radiated in situ.

In this process, Wang Renfu seemed to have nothing to do. The cavalry did not have the advantage, and the artillery seemed to be powerless, so they could only watch the Qing army and slowly assemble the trebuchet more than two feet high.

"Hahaha," Azig laughed happily: "I finally found Li Yan's weakness!" I thought he was a heavenly soldier and a general, and he could always be a step above us. Wait another two quarters of an hour, and Shanhaiguan will become our bag. ”

Gao Di, Tang Tong and others are also a lot more relaxed. Seeing that the trebuchet was about to be assembled, they all waited to see that the soldiers under Li Yan's command were also struggling in the sea of fire, just as they were driven out of Shanhaiguan half a year ago.

But at this time, Wang Renfu gave an order, and the artillery that had been stopped before began to fire again, and the speed of firing was much faster.

Whether it is a three-inch gun or a four-inch gun, it has been carefully aimed for a period of time. The shells fired at this time were not ordinary solid shells, but reddish solid shells that were burned. Although there is a thick layer of soil between the gunpowder and the projectile, the firing range will be reduced, but the destructive power of the projectile at a temperature of hundreds of degrees against wood is increased several times.

In an instant, more than thirty reddish solid shells were fired at two trebuchets, each with more than a dozen shells to take care of. Immediately, two or three shells struck the towering trebuchet, smashing and scalding, making the stout timber much weaker. Solid bullets that did not hit the trebuchet would be smashed or ignited by soldiers, mules, horses, and supplies as they advanced to the rear.

The reddish solid projectile is fired not one round, but one round after another. In order to destroy the trebuchets of the Qing army, Wang Renfu prepared ten red-hot solid shells for each cannon. Hundreds of such projectiles should be enough to achieve the effect.

After the third round of launches, part of the fire oil that the Qing army had placed in the rear was broken and ignited. The sudden fire caught the Qing army off guard, and no one dared to rescue even those fire pots that were not ignited.

In the face of dozens of artillery pieces waiting for battle, whether it was infantry or cavalry, the Qing army did not dare to charge the battle. Their only hope now was that the trebuchets would be ready sooner so that they could destroy the enemy artillery that was causing them a lot of trouble.

But reality soon disappointed them. Before the stones could be placed in the huge weight basket, the two trebuchets began to burn one after the other. Although the surrounding soldiers were ordered to extinguish the fire with all their might, the hot projectiles that kept flying made their efforts basically in vain. In a few moments, a trebuchet was hit, and the pole fell to the ground, breaking into three pieces. The other one wasn't much better, the weight basket was broken, burned, and unusable.

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