On November 5, the sixth year of Chongzhen, the Chinese army tent of the governor of the three sides, Hong Chengchou, was full of generals and generals from all walks of life, Hong Chengchou sat behind the desk, and Deng Xizhao, the superintendent, sat on the left side.

The siege was cool for more than a month, but the siege war was not effective, and now the weather is as cold as a day, and the soldiers are still wearing autumn clothes when they go out, and they can no longer resist the current cold.

The stove in the big tent of the Chinese army was burning red, and the warm current surrounded the whole big tent, but the hearts of the generals were still cold. The salaries were not distributed, and the military rations were even more far away, and the soldiers could only do one meal a day.

Hong Chengchou said with a sad face: "You are all military experts, how to break the current deadlock, I hope you will give advice." ”

He Huchen said: "Judging from the current situation, if you want to make a breakthrough in Pingliang, you must first let the brothers fill their stomachs, get military salaries, and wear winter clothes. Other generals also echoed He Huchen's opinion, and for a while, Hong Chengchou's Chinese army tent was full of resentment.

Hong Chengchou patted the desk: "With Deng Jianjun here, your concerns will be solved soon." I don't want you to come to listen to your complaints, I want you to come up with some strategy! ”

Deng Xizhao, the supervising army, had to speak at this time: "Everyone here, we know that the front line is not easy. The food and salary will definitely arrive in the barracks within five days, please bear with me in the next few days, and I hope you will understand our family's difficulties. ”

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to being in charge of meritorious crimes, auditing rewards and punishments, and cleaning up and other responsibilities, the superintendent army also controlled important military affairs such as transportation and supplies, as well as the correspondence between the army and the imperial court.

Hong Chengchou explained: "This year is another big drought, and our Shaanxi is even more redland for thousands of miles, and there is no harvest in many places, and the three salaries (Liao, Suppression and Training) cannot be collected. We have to transfer our salaries from Henan, so we have delayed the distribution, as you all know. ”

Yang Qi, the chief soldier of Guyuan, complained: "If Cao Wenzhao was not transferred five months ago, I am afraid that now we have spent the winter in Pingliang City." ”

Hong Chengchou disagreed: "There is a problem with Cao Wenzhao's strategic policy, and the emperor has already made up his mind, so don't speculate here." There is only one way to fight the thieves. ”

He Renlong worried: "As far as I know, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong captured Nanyang in Henan, and the strength of the thieves is growing. ”

Deng Xizhao, the prison guard, said with a sharp voice: "Rumors, those who spread rumors have ulterior motives. ”

He Renlong said silently.

Hong Chengchou glanced at everyone: "Show your high opinions!" ”

Yang Jiamo, who cooperated with Cao Wenzhao to attack the city last time, offered a plan: "I'll throw bricks and lead the jade, let's talk about my personal opinion first." First of all, we all underestimate the bandits in front of us, according to common sense, always as soon as the army arrives, the thieves will flee, so we all call the thieves a rogue bandit. The high thief in front of him is not, he is defending Liangcheng, not only defending to the death, but also has strong fortifications, which is a difficult thief to deal with. Our plan to siege the city seems to be unworkable, and we must change our strategy and follow the path of Cao Wenzhao, first fill in the trenches, and then use cavalry to rush and kill, we will definitely be able to break through Gao Kou's defense line. ”

Wang Xingshan retorted: "In this way, our losses will be great. ”

Yang Jiamo disagreed: "The previous time, we were not fully prepared, and there were few siege equipment, so the casualties were very large. Now it's different, we have prepared a large number of siege equipment, as well as twenty Furlong cannons, as long as we concentrate our forces and attack one, we will definitely be able to take Pingliang. ”

Hong Chengchou also agreed with Yang Jiamo's opinion: "Okay, Mr. Yang participated in the siege last time, and he has experience in besieging the city, I think Mr. Yang's method can be tried, do you have anything to add?" ”

He Renlong was dissatisfied: "It's okay to concentrate troops, but it must be relatively concentrated, and you can't be like Cao Wenzhao, who concentrates all the teams in one point and is used as a live target by others." ”

Hong Chengchou nodded: "General He's opinion is also very right. This time, we only concentrated the siege equipment and broke the enemy's will with a dense artillery barrage. ”

The chief soldier Ai Wannian also expressed his thoughts: "Sun Tzu said, the siege of the city must be que. We only surrounded three gates and let go of one. As long as the thieves can't stand it, they will definitely abandon the city and flee. ”

Hong Chengchou nodded again: "That's very good." In this way, we will let go of the west gate and not fight, and concentrate the siege equipment to attack the south gate. ”

"Who's leading the way at the South Gate?" Deng Xizhao asked angrily.

"He Renlong." Hong Chengchou said.

"Good!" Deng Xizhao said to He Renlong, "As long as you can attack the city gate, I will repay you for the first credit." ”

"Then listen to my good news!" He Renlong, who was in charge of attacking the south gate, returned to the camp with confidence and prepared to go.

Late at night on 10 November, He Renlong began the work of bulldozing and filling the trenches, and a few days earlier, he had ordered his soldiers to dig up dozens of truckloads of soil and set it aside for later use.

By the end of the night, 2,000 soldiers wearing heavy armor and holding shovels rushed up to the dirt slope they had built, and under the command of the commanders and generals, they dug and shoveled, and acted in full swing.

Dressed in silver chain mail and with a sword at his waist, He Renlong stood behind a row of Franco's cannons and commanded the battle. The soldiers came to him and reported that five of the soldiers who were shoveling the soil had died from the arrows fired from the opposite side.

He Renlong ordered the stone thrower to throw a large stone at the low wall opposite, and the large stone was sent to the opposite wall, making a rumbling sound and kicking up a puff of dust. This attracted the return of the thief stone thrower on the castle tower, and the raindrops of stones hit the crowd, and the soldiers who could not escape were knocked to the ground.

"Dog's Ball!" He Renlong was furious, "Furlong cannon hit me hard!" He ordered the Fran cannon to fire on the tower and suppress the trebuchet on the high mountain.

The Furlong Cannon was an early reloader smoothbore cannon. It is composed of a mother and a child gun. The female body is slender and has a small caliber, and the body is equipped with a front sight and a light door, which can aim and shoot at long-distance targets. There are gun lugs on both sides of the gun body, which can be placed on the bracket and can be tilted to adjust the firing angle. The rear part of the gun is thicker, and there are long holes and grooves to fill the guns. Similar to small firearms, each mother has five to nine mothers, which can be preloaded with ammunition for later use, and can be loaded into the mother guns in turn to fire during combat, thus increasing the firing speed.

The 20 Fran cannons commanded by He Renlong were copied by the Ming court from Portugal, each weighing 300 catties, the mother gun was three feet long, and it was only equipped with four sub-guns, which was less powerful than the Portuguese Franco cannon.

The Franco cannons lined up in a row had already been aimed at the south city tower, and with the rumbling cannons, the Franco cannons spit out solid iron bullets and smashed into the city towers one after another......

However, the flying iron ball only smashed into the foot of the wall, striking the solid corner stone with sparks and then rolling to the ground.

The results observed from the front were quickly reported to He Renlong, who stomped his feet and shouted: "Immediately move the gun position forward!" ”

The firing of a Franc cannon is in charge of a captain, and the twenty Franc cannons are commanded by a hundred households, and the commander of the Franc cannon heard He Renlong's order, and hurriedly ran forward: "Lord He, it is too dangerous to move the gun position forward, I must ensure the safety of these twenty guns, this is Lord Hong's order." ”

He pulled out his sword and shouted, "If you don't move forward, I want your cannon to be used by a bird!" Move me forward now! ”

This hundred households were so frightened that their legs trembled: "Move forward immediately, move forward immediately." He staggered to his commanding position, and at this moment the stone throwers on the tower of the city were already aimed at their gun position, and launched a wave of blows in this direction, and countless stones fell from the sky, and the falling stones rolled under his feet, and he slipped under his feet, fell to the ground, and got up in a panic and ran back to his post.

A Qian Zong ran back from the front to meet He Renlong, and said breathlessly: "Yu, report to He Ye, the thieves' flying stones are too dense, and there are dead people in front at any time, do you want the brothers to withdraw, withdraw." ”

"No way!" He Renlong brandished his sword, "The trench must be filled for me tonight." After He Renlong finished speaking, he personally led the pro-soldier guards to rush forward.

He rushed to the front and shouted: "Fill the trench and reward each person with ten taels of silver!" The urging did work, and the pace of filling was quickened, but two more people collapsed in pools of blood.

He didn't think the speed of filling was fast enough, so he ordered the soldiers to push all the dirt into the ditch, so that not only the speed was faster, but the casualties of the soldiers were also reduced.

At this time, the Fran cannon was also set up, and although it was hit hard by the stone thrower, there were still fifteen guns that could be used normally.

"Load!" Baihu shouted and waved the red flag.

Each cannon is a battalion, and the captain repeats the order in a loud voice, directing the artillerymen to load the fixed gunpowder and solid iron bullets into the sub-guns.

"Upper Son!" Baihu gave another order.

The Furlong cannon is a reloader because it is divided into two parts, the sub-gun and the mother gun, and is also known as the sub-gun. After the gun is loaded with gunpowder and projectiles, it becomes a complete bullet, and the fire gate becomes the primer of this bullet. The thick belly of the mother gun of the Furlong machine gun is the chamber, and after the ignition is fired, the empty gun is taken out and the second gun is filled. Equipped with four sub-guns, the Furlong cannon allows for rapid fire in a short time.

"Fire the door! Ignition! The red flag waved again.

The gunner, receiving the order to shoot from the commander, lit the primer.

One breath later, fifteen cannons roared almost simultaneously and spewed fireworks, smoke, and iron bullets.

The cannon body was pushed by the huge recoil, rushed up the gentle slope behind the gun, and when it was close to the apex, it paused slightly, and then fell back to the original gun position.

The Rifle pulled open the gun door with a swift blow, hooked the hot gun with an iron hook, and pulled it out. The loader waited for the smoke in the mother's belly to clear, and quickly pushed the second child into the second gun. With the cannon door locked, the observer hand was already aiming again. The gunners were armed with torches and waited for the order to shoot.

In this round of attacks, most of the solid iron bullets were hit into the city tower, and all this did not need to be reported by the soldiers, He Renlong could see it clearly. He shouted loudly: "The artillery brothers will each be rewarded with ten taels of silver!" ”

"Fire the door! Ignition! The red flag waved again.

This round of attacks hit almost all the solid iron bullets on the castle tower, and He Renlong could even hear the howl of the thieves on the castle tower......